The Village has recently released edited audio recordings from the April 22 Village Board meeting. To access the menu of the meeting’s topical audio recording segments, click here.
Special attention should be paid to the “Administration” segment of the recordings, particularly when it comes to some of President Abboud’s choices for nomination to critical Village boards, commissions and committees during this, his last full Village Board meeting in office.
Appointing his wife and PM as an attempt to retain control over the village he helped to destroy. How sick. Runblings have it that he wanted to appoint himself however the illegality of it was evident. Typical Abboud – too bad we all see it as the last ditch pathetic action of a juvenile tyrant. Good Riddance and here’s to a unified Barrington Hills.
Interesting that for the 1st time in months, Abboud changed public comments to the front of the meeting. Was he hoping residents would leave before the Administration portion of the agenda? Was he trying to unilaterally avoid public comments after the nominations attempting to stack all the committees with pro-Abboud “gestapo”? (including nomination of his wife for the Plan Commission)
Appointments made by Mr. Abboud are NOT a broad representation of the community. The manner is which these were shoved down the throats of the public with two weeks before the change of the administration is a direct disregard for the majority vote and a signal that Abboud intends to try to run the Village through his compliant majority BOT and committee leadership.
Beware, the ZBA has a pro-commercial horse boarding bias with the appointment of Bruce Pfaff, who wrote the white paper supporting commercial horse boarding. One must question if these appointments are legal, they are certainly unethical.The public should be outraged by the heavy handed politics used by Mr. Abboud. Members of the Board and nominees who went along with these nominations in the cloak of night should be ashamed of their unquestioning Abboud support over the best interests of the Village. .
While we want to return to harmony and civility in our Village, it’s tough to do when special interests disregard the total Village’s needs. Abboud continues to promote fear and support an “us versus them” agenda which must stop.
Didn’t the deposed Todd Stroger try to do the same thing? Appointing your wife? Is this South America? Even his own supporters refused to even second the motion!
Thank you Skip for stating the obvious, and Mr. Gohl for also voting NO on these ‘lame duck’ appointments. Lame Ducks shouldn’t do anything more than have their pictures taken. “Paying it forward”? Sounds more like I don’t want to leave my sandbox. Mr. Abboud, to use your words, “the voters wanted a new President…” The best thing you can do for the Village is to stay out of Village Hall activities.
Many people across different segments of the Village read the Observer. Actions taken at the April 22 Village Trustee meeting are serious. Comments with this posting are few and very negative. Any other residents have views to the contrary that some of us may be missing. Otherwise, this may be a serious breech of the public trust by those Trustees who voted for these nominations without proper review and while a transition of government is taking place. Mr. Abboud is out of office in 9 days, but other Trustees (Messer, Selman, Meroni) have some serious explaining to do relative to their unethical actions. Gohl voted against some/most of the nominations., WHY?
Also, can anyone that was in attendance comment? NO dialogue took place on the nominees during the meeting according to the recordings. Since there was no material delivered or meetings before hand to discuss (unless there were violations of the Open Meetings Act); why was there no discussion? Only Skip G voiced outrage according to the tapes that this nominating process was inappropriate.
Please, like to hear the other side of the perspective on this.
JE has made some interesting observations. Can someone tell me how many HOUSEHOLDS in Barrington Hills own/keep horses? What percentage of the people appointed to these committees and commissions own/keep horses? For example, the ZBA? Do you see the obvious hypocrisy in this “equestrian community” that ignores 9 starving horses? Until negative publicity forces their hand?.
The only sane thing I heard during Abboud’s appointment farce was a voice from the audience during the Plan Commission list of names. After he read that he was appointing his wife and Paddy McKevitt, there was snickering and someone said, “IS IT ANY WONDER WHY YOU DIDN’T GET RE-ELECTED?” Abboud’s ardent supporters, Meroni, Messer and Selman, didn’t dare make a motion for approval. Abboud sounded like a buffoon with the failure of getting his appointments on the table for a discussion.
The nine starving horses in the midst of what Abboud has branded an “Equestrian Community” is appalling and embarrassing. I agree with “anonymous” about the effectiveness of having an Equestrian Committee that has only their own agenda.
Abboud LIED!!! He made his appointments to boards and commissions in MAY of 2005 and 2009 respectively – NOT April! It’s right there in the minutes.
He is such a miserable sidewinding sack, and the trustees didn’t lift a finger to stop him except for Skip.
There should be a record of the terms of appointment to each board or commission. If Abboud has made an appointment to a postion before that term for that seat has expired, or is vacant, then Abboud’s actions should be voided. this “sidewinding sack” (thanks, Inescusable) abuse of his power to appoint (with consent of Trustees) was borne out when he did not reappoint two good Plan Commission members, George Gottlieb and Jim O’Donnell. Besides, Abboud “disinvited” them to the Village Christmas party, because they supported his opposition.. Now how small is that! Let’s get back to basics and skip the bi-level Christmas parties and get the flying geese back on the Village vehicle stickers. The “horse” people have had their day; time to give the cyclists, golfers, tennis players, walkers, gardeners and just plain folks a little relief.
We now have record from this audio release of Abboud stating that nominations always occur in April. According to “Inexcusable” above, there is record that this is NOT true. Can Abboud be prosecuted for lying under oath? Are we to believe he attempted to contact McLaughlin as he stated? Also, when did the discussions of the nominations take place? None occurred inside the meeting on 4/22, nor was there evidence of this being done before the meeting.
During public comment at the meeting on 4/22, one resident questioned why any nominations would take place and asked the Trustees to not vote for nominations before the newly elected officials took office on May 6. Gohl appeared to take a more moderate stance and voted against most nominations. However, Selman, Meroni, Messer and Ramesh (outgoing) rubber – stamped most every nomination.
Is there a violation of the Open Meetings Act that Abboud and other Trustees are guilty of conducting?