The Village has released edited audio recordings from the October 31 Special Village Board meeting. To access the menu of the meeting’s topical audio recording segments, click here.
The Observer strongly encourages our readers to listen to the sixteen minute “MAP (Metropolitan Alliance of Police) Settlement Agreement” recording segment to gain a clearer understanding of where matters may have gone wrong with our Village Police force and our Village government in the last few years. A direct link to that recording can be found here.
This relatively brief audio recording speaks volumes concerning some of our Trustees, particularly the one who voted against approving this Agreement.
In the weeks to come, The Observer will attempt to document the negotiating “tactics” and the timeline that led to the apparent waste of many thousands of residents’ tax dollars in this matter which has finally found some measure of closure.
A copy of the October 31, 2013, approved MAP Settlement Agreement Resolution can be downloaded here.
I am relieved that this has been resolved for our village. Stopping the flow of taxpayer money for legal fees in a lose/lose situation is an important step forward.
However, hearing the comments of the BOT is revealing and one stands out. Fritz Gohl added that he will vote yes but stated that he wants to “to keep my power for the next time in 2014.” Isn’t that a bit immature to throw down a gauntlet after resolving this fiasco?
Let us move on in a more positive direction and celebrate that we have a well trained and equipped police force to protect our community.
It’s often said ambition and intelligence skips a generation Mamamia. There also some moronic “discussion points” made by others on the board.
Agreed it’s high time this whole nightmare ended and we move forward. McLaughlin deserves our thanks for stepping up to the challenge and telling the truth which has been absent on the board for too many years.
^ ditto what Kilroy said
I commend Pres. McLaughlin’s leadership and hard work in bringing finality to this most costly and unnecessary dispute. He should also be commended for decreasing the price tag to BH tax payers for failed Board strategy and for removing this matter out from the shadows of secretive Village government into the public’s eyes.
How many of us even knew this dispute existed and if so, what was at issue and what would be the ultimate cost to tax payers if strategy by the Board failed; which it did, miserably?
What now needs to be addressed by the Board is this unfortunate trend by elected officials of engaging in irreconcilable and in my opinion unacceptable conflicts of interest.
Pres. McLaughlin brings to light that the former Village President acted as a delegate in CBA negotiations while a member of the Village Board whose very job it is to approve or disapprove the very contract he negotiated as a delegate. Can this possibly be true, and if so, how could the Board allow the former President to assume these two conflicting roles.
Most recently, Trustee Messer’s law firm represented an applicant before the ZBA and BH Village Board for approval of a “conditional use.” Trustee Messer is also the liaison to the ZBA whose job it is to report to the Board on the activities of the ZBA. While Trustee Messer had the sense to recuse himself from both participation and voting on the matter, this does not remove the appearance of impropriety which comes from an elected official engaging in such an obvious and open conflict.
In my campaign for Village Trustee, I called upon the Village Board to adopt a code of ethics for both elected and appointed BH officials providing guidelines and rules on how officials must deal with conflicts as well as other common ethical considerations.
Many municipalities have adopted an ethics code. The above are just two examples in recent history why BH should adopt one as well.
An ethics code providing guidelines…….without the authority to remove someone from office is useless.
Thank you, Mr. Stieper. Your detractors have portrayed you as “divisive”, but as more and more questionable and perhaps illegal behavior on the part of the ex-President and his willing accomplices still sitting on this Board comes to light, it seems that you are guilty of one thing – and that is speaking the truth. The truth does hurt. It is time for an ethics code.
I believe the real failed strategy was to pay the most in our geographic area in compensation including 100% of health insurance in the misguided hope that a Union was to be avoided. Well that never work out and with out pay or benefits to bargain over you can only talk about work rules and dues withholding and how much more than the cost of living you will now pay.
It’s time for Gohl and Messer to resign their positions. They have cost this village a lot of money and don’t have an over abundance of common sense. I await the next election with baited breath, when the enlightened villagers will do it for them!