An investigation into claims the Barrington Hills village president interfered with the work of the Zoning Board of Appeals found no wrong doing.
“There was no impropriety or interference,” said attorney James Kelly of Crystal Lake-based Matuszewich, Kelly & McKeever, LLP. Kelly was asked to investigate the matter, and he presented the village board with a report of his findings during a contentious meeting Monday night.
Cover-up?
The price of apathy is allowing government to do whatever it wants. The past Chairman of the ZBA has made serious allegations as to the interference of the current administration effecting certain matters before the ZBA.
While the so called investigation may have passed legal requirements, it certainly did not represent the ethical standards of independent investigation or proper governance in any manner. President Abboud appointed a lawyer who has received in excess of $500,000 from the Village and is continuing to serve the Village in paid roles. He alone acted as the investigator and only interviewed members of government that are part of the administration or those paid by this administration. The investigator actually denied receiving these payments at the Village meeting when in fact the FOIA facts are proven. This in no way constitutes independence.
The ex-ZBA chairman who brought these allegation forward, the dismissed attorney whose reputation is certainly sullied or parties named in the allegations were not interviewed. In fact, the investigation ignored direct requests to provide information in the matter that the Village trustees agreed to pursue and now ignore. Several important facts were left absent from the process. The Village administration steamrolled the investigation and shows complete contempt for the ethics of good governance practice.
If “whistle blowers” in situations such as Enron and WorldCom had been silenced without proper investigation, fraud would have continued. Had the cover-up of Watergate been allowed to take it’s course, government would be less inclined to act properly. These are serious allegations. We do not know if they are true or not because the investigation was not conducted by a party absent from conflicts of interest and by an independent source. Every trustee on this board is guilty of compliance with actions that at best give the aura of suspicion of covering up unethical or potentially illegal actions.
We are fast becoming a community of polarized camps with apathy in the middle. This never before was part of our Village. However, if we continue to allow ourselves to be bulldozed by government that is not accountable to it’s citizens, we only have ourselves to blame. I and many others appeal to all readers and citizens to get involved, learn what has happened and demand that this issue not be swept under the rug and that a real independent investigation takes place. This investigation avoided digging into the real issues. What is this administration hiding?
“A concerned neighbor”