About two months have passed since Barrington Hills village attorney of more than 30 years resigned, but a replacement has still not been named, despite a plan to have that done at Monday night’s board meeting.
Days before the Aug. 26 board meeting, the law firm of Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella resigned at the request of Village President Martin McLaughlin, who cited the Illinois attorney general office’s finding that the village violated the Open Meetings Act in April 2013 under the firm’s watch.
“I’m actually going to do some deliberative review here [McLaughlin said]. At the end of the day I’m looking for municipal expertise at a municipal rate to protect our taxpayers from the village.”
Read more here.
So why did Bond Dickson not make the cut? Please do not tell me that the unholy 5 refused to vote favorably for a law firm that has acted honorably. If the ‘5’ are the holdup sounds to me like they are worried about what was discovered by Bond……………all the more reason to keep Bond Dickson on board.
Please reconsider President McLaughlin.
I applaud VBH Pres. McLaughlin in offering the BOT a new standard for appointment of Village attorney for VBH. Requiring first and foremost that village counsel have municipal law expertise billed at a reasonable rate. How refreshing!
We now have a Village President who believes VBH residents and taxpayers come first. Imagine how foreign these words this must sound to “Save 5 Acre” BOT members, Gohl, Messer, Meroni and Selman who are used to using VBH counsel as a shield protecting themselves from important public questions without any attention to cost.
No doubt there will be strong opposition to McLaughlin’s choice from the “Save 5 Acre” BOT slate who simply do not share McLaughlin’s philosophy of placing the interests of all VBH residents before “Save 5 Acre” special interest groups, political cronies, major campaign donors and themselves.
Trustee Messer is on the record at BOT meetings making the ill-informed statement, more than once, that his duty as VBH trustee is not to VBH residents as a whole but to his constituants, whoever they may be. By making this statement, Messer demonstrates confusion as to the actual legal form of VBH government. This does not stop Messer from continously opining on the rule of law governing appointment of Village counsel.
Save 5 Acre BOT believe the primary function of a Village Attorney is to protect VBH BOT from thier own “malfeasance” and “nonfeasance” irrespective of cost to VBH taxpayers. (OMA violations, Schuman letter, material conflicts of interest, executive session violations, Kelly “Independent” counsel report to name just a few)
While Pres. McLaughlin is correct when he says the ultimate decision of selecting Village counsel rests with him, and him alone; it would be in the interest of all VBH residents who share McLaughlin’s vision for a different tomorrow to appear at the November BOT meeting in support of his selection for new VBH counsel.
If residents are rolling their eyes at each and every BOT meeting they should. Trustee Messer’s recent comment is a classic. He said that “HE” represents our residents which to date now is the biggest falsehood running. When it came time to approve payments for legal counsel, he said he would only allow the bill from the ZBA to be paid, not the general counsel (temporary counsel Bond) to be paid. This April will be residents’ next opportunity to eliminate the obstructionists from office. President McLaughlin shouldn’t be put in such a position to defend his authority to appoint whomever he chooses under the village code. Trustee Messer continues to display his belligerent attitude and his semantic games over the resigning of Burke/Warren. He along with the other members of this BOT need to drop their protectionist stance for the pro equestrian friends and start advocating for everyone.
If not, they will find themselves in early retirement come April.
They are an embarrassment for Barrington HIlls and do not have our best interests in mind.
Will, all talk. If comments on this board are any indication, Messer knows exactly what he’s doing. Nothing but lots of idle chatter. Abboud and Messer taunt the Village and demonstrate that it’s only a few noisy and malcontent residents that disagree with the Messer led majority. We have the votes and there is nothing you can do about it.
Messer and Harrington successfully isolated McLaughlin (Konicek can’t help him) and demonstrate that they are politically savvy and have the resolve to stand up to all this shallow bickering. Selman, Gohl and Meroni know their part to not break ranks and solidarity will win. We have the majority and all the barking has no bite. If there truly was a resident majority against the activity to promote commercial boarding, where are they? Oakwood will be back in operation, Freeman and Anderson will make that happen and have already won over support of groups like the Conservation Trust to make this an equestrian Village. If you don’t like it, MOVE!
Messer knows that all these threats of ARCD complaint filings, useless OMA complaints, etc. will never happen. The toothless real minority only has the ability to run silly mailings, complain and, with no backbone, aren’t capable of waging a real fight with someone as tough as Messer. He has the guts and knows he can do whatever he wants, just like Abboud – and these ridiculous postings demonstrate that fist pounding is your only recourse. Yes, next April will tell the real story. Last election was an aberration and McLaughlin was underestimated – we’ll be ready for a clean sweep come April and you can really watch how things get done. Messer and Meroni and Selman need to run again, their re-election is assured and Messer can be Village President in 2017.
As for an attorney, McLaughlin is boxed in – he has to pick someone the majority will approve. That’s why Messer was so brilliant keeping Bond Dickson from being paid. Any firm who wants to get paid knows they have to work with Messer’s majority or work for nothing. Yeah Marty, try to make that work.
People like Will and Stieper and Pat and something about the whole truth need to quit their whining and arm waving and do something or get out of the way. those with real political resolve are going to keep control of this Village.
We don’t need to waste our time posting threats, we just make things happen – step aside and shut up amateurs.
Political Reality – bwahahahahahaha
Political Reality, I mean Bobby, delusional much? “IF there was a majority, where are they?” I’ll tell you where they are. They are at the gym, the clubs, the schools, the shops and restaurants in town. They are on the telephone expressing disbelief about how broken this village really is. They are at meeting after meeting, ignored by Freeman, Messer et el. Whomever shows up at these meetings, you’re too self indulged to know that there are many more that do not because they actually, unlike you, have a life and can’t babysit the likes of your “Save 5 Acres” puppets. And what is LeCompte giving to Freeman to cause her to lose esteem and respect among the residents? Your ilk is frightening, delusional, and small minded. Your reality is in your 13% head. That’s clearly not a majority. Clearly you, Freeman and Messer can’t add. There’s no “box”. McLaughlin can appoint whatever firm he desires, and 87% of the residents are behind him. You think that you are Al Capone….now go take your meds, go away so that we can get our budget in line and get our property values back to where they should be. And thank you Marty, Colleen and David for actually caring about our town and doing the right thing for ALL RESIDENTS.
Who the H##$% is “Political Reality” ? Is that whole post Sarcasm? Or just a mean-spirited thug? Or a tricky way to see what a farce this BOT really is?
of course it’s little Bobby – that’s why I was laughing.
Try this one on…
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war
Revelations 19:11
Of course it is. Either him or one of his BOT puppets. It will be such a relief to show the Save 5 Acres crowd the door in April, just as we did to him. Maybe he forgets that because he still rules through those idiots. You’ve already “awakened the sleeping giant”, so when you feel that big bite you be sure and let us know how that feels……………
Political Reality has a point that shouldn’t be overlooked. The Abboud, Messer, Freeman and Save 5 Acre group have run this Village for 12 years. While there may be some who are fighting, the vast majority remains apathetic and disengaged.
Few understand Anderson tried to pass new Village code to allow 15 horses on a 5 acre piece of property in order to save Oakwood Farms (according to ex-Riding Club President Matt Yeterian). Few are outraged that Burke Warren received $7 million + in fees and now Messer votes to not pay Bond Dickson. Few stormed the Village when Abboud illegally made 35 committee nominations, stacking the ZBA so these fights could be politically manipulated by Freeman.
The Village had about 30% voter turn-out in 2013 election. Gohl and Harrington defeated Stieper – why can’t Selman or Kelly M win next time despite being Abboud shills! We can’t be so certain about an April sweep. That’s why people need to do more than simply talk. Legal action should be taken against those who have allegedly acted illegally and unethically. Violations of OMA continue. Conflicts of interest are real. Frankly, the Village needs an independent audit of where all the money went – doubling of expenditures under Abboud, legal fees to cronies, unwise litigation … and road budgets not spent with horrible condition of our roads. Have Trustees that are also lawyers (Messer) violated legal code of conduct and should ARDC complaints be filed?
Too few people seem to care and fewer still are doing something about it that has teeth. We should all applaud Drury and group for their willingness to do what’s right at significant cost when the Village abandoned their responsibility and acted illegally. Where are our government watch dog organizations that protect against perceived corruption?
Until these issues are exposed and violators are prosecuted, Political Reality is right This group of thugs has already shown they can behave without regard to ethics or decency and will do whatever to keep themselves in power and will rule for special interests for the equestrian extremes. The shame is that the silent middle road equestrians are afraid to speak out and will let the Village be destroyed for fear of social reprisals.
Look no further than the Village Comprehensive Plan to understand what’s happened. They’ve changed that the last 10 years without any of us realizing because we trusted our government to act in the best interest of the entire community. Deals to allow Longmeadow Parkway to dump onto Algonquin and completely botching the Duda situation proves otherwise.
Sadly, Political Reality makes a point.