Since taking office as President in 2005, Bob Abboud has presided over eighty-four regular Village Board meetings. In seven years, twelve of these meetings have gone beyond midnight. Of those, three have occurred in just the last seven months, after public comment was moved to the end of Village Board meetings by President Abboud.
Why have our recent Village Board meetings become so protracted? Our Board is not battling land disconnection(s) or freight trains through some neighborhoods, as they once did. Nor are they presently debating controversial, discussion intensive topics, such as cell towers or lighting ordinances. When they were, only about one in ten meetings lasted beyond midnight. Lately, however, the odds of a marathon Board meeting are approaching one in two.
The only change since 2005 is the composition of Board members and the postponement and limitation of public comment. So why are so many Board meetings dragging on into the next day in recent months? The data indicate that Board members would prefer to listen to themselves, rather than their constituents. But we’ll leave that to our readers to decide.
– The Observer
I don’t think the Board members wish to hear their voices as much as the person always interjecting, interrupting, as well as enforcing his opinion – none other that Mr. Naststiness Himself, the Defender of Home Rule and all things democratic and constitutional – our dictator, little bobby abboud.
Thank you Nick and Nora for so clearly describing the typical Village Board meeting. Most governmental bodies adopt a “consent agenda” in which many of the topics on the agenda that have been approved in committee (e.g. committee reports) and have no further action needed but Board “approval”, are grouped together and approved in one motion. If, for any reason, there is a subject within the consent agenda that a board member wants to separate out and discuss further, this can be done by a simple motion by the Trustees. In doing so, the meetings would be reduced to half the time. To continue, Abboud’s order to put public comment at the end is obvious. Abboud can’t seem to get it through his head that conducting a meeting under Robert’s Rules refers to General Henry M. Robert who developed the manual based on parliamentary procedure; NOT Robert (Abboud’s) rules. Come on, Trustees, step up, speak out
The people of the Hills now know what is going on. He won’t have a chance at reelection! We need some “honest new blood” to replace him!
I did some checking of surrounding towns and South Barrington didn’t have a Board meeting last beyond 10:00 in all of 2011, and none so far this year. They have banks, restaurants, retail and offices included in their village which you would assume would require a lot of discussion in their meets, so why can they accomplish their business in half the time our Board takes each month?
The reason our President of the Village talks so much is because in his mind, no one can match his brilliance, intelligence and knowledge of the world. He actually is quite boring to listen to as he drones on about nonsense that has nothing to so with the topic at hand. Do you think that it could be early onset dementia?
To Occam’s Razor:
The answer is simple – because none of the surrounding towns have a simpleton Village President who, when in front of a captive few, spends hours pontificating and bloviating to prove how smart he is (but isn’t) – and board bembers too clueless to call him out on his inept leadership.
Additionally, fawning commission chairmen, such as P. Denise Israel, are allowed to speak endlessly of mindless pap, while residents who wish to address the board are forced to sit through the little man’s power trip until midnight.
This board shows zero respect and nothing but disdain for its residents. These elected officials of The Village of Barrington Hills have become the laughing stock among their peer group – something that only their closest friends will tell them, but given that they may not have any friends, their pathologically inappropriate and illegal behavior will continue unabated – at least until the elections of 2013. Might be a few surprises in store for them, however, before then!
The good residents of Barrington Hills elected Mr. Abboud and the current slate of Trustees and placed their confidence in his leadership. Village meetings are not well attended, apparently because residents have confidence in their leadership to do the right thing. Mr. Abboud is not a “simpleton” as posted by a recent comment on this board, but a bright and well educated individual.
Our collective apathy deserves what we get from our elected officials. However, Mr. Abboud and his hand picked board do show complete contempt for any point of view outside of the narrow voting block that elected him and they are the constituency that he serves at the expense of others.
Attend meetings if you care. Don’t go if you are satisfied. If you do attend, you will witness first hand that Mr. Abboud cares not for the opinions of the Village unless you support him. That’s why he has 5 1/2 hour meetings with no public commentary allowed until after midnight and limits comments to less than 3 minutes.
Bullies prevail and get their way until someone stands up to them. It appears that our residents fear “retribution” as a resident stated more than they are willing to fight. Most bullies end up getting their way … Mr. Abboud is getting his way. Until the entire Village begins to speak out, we get what we deserve.
@ Silence Dogood
We in this household did not vote for Abboud or his slate – your conclusion that meetings are not well attended because the residents have confidence in their leadership could not be farther from the truth. Yes – residents are very much afraid of retaliation. If you attend meetings and challenge the board you immediately become an ‘enemy of the state’ which means you are harrassed and the use/misuse of village entities are ready to make your existence a living nightmare – even to point where you no longer have police protection. That’s the sad truth of living in Barrington Hills. But I have faith that a few good men will prevail – Mr. Abbouds time is limited – I know this for a fact. And when he goes so will the trustees that enforced his illegal acts and the gutless employees that did his bidding. By the way I agree with your statement that Abboud is not a ‘simpleton’ – he is just another corrupt politician – and that does not take intelligence, merely a lack of morality.
Nick and Nora, hooray! Happy to hear that you did not vote for Mr. Abboud in your household. But, most voters fell for the false “Save 5 Acres” propaganda and missed the real issues. Mr. Abboud is brilliant with his messages and the slate’s scare tactics and misinformation. They duped an uninformed public that wishes to remain apathetic. The best government is that which governs least, but makes decisions that are in the best interest of the community, not just for the friends of those who sit on the throne. We have a bully in charge that sees this sleepy 1,500 household Village as a personal place to proffer his agenda for cronies and secure his voting block.
Yet, to reinforce, we get what we deserve. Yes, if more would be involved they would see what is happening. The policy of not allowing public comment and suppressing input makes one believe that there is something to hide. Allegations were made against Mr. Abboud and Trustee Messer last summer about tampering with the ZBA process. Instead of properly following good governance, Mr. Abboud hired an investigation led by Attorney Kelly who has been paid over $500,000 in legal fees by the Village. There is speculation that Mr. Kelly has personal ties to Mr. Abboud. Not surprisingly, this “investigation” turned up no wrong doing and yet none of the harmed parties were interviewed.
Regardless of the accuracy of the allegations, truly bad governance was at play and a cover-up ensued. The best of Enron and WorldCom would commend Mr. Abboud for suppressing good governance. The Trustees should be ashamed by their lack of governance and independence as the bully runs unchecked.
Simon