The ePacket agenda containing links to documents to be discussed during this evening’s Village Board meeting has been posted. To access the link, click here.
Tonight’s Village Board meeting ePacket agenda posted
January 26, 2015 by Barrington Hills Observer
Campaign season lurks and the January Board of Trustees meeting foreshadows fun ahead. Our Village Trustees never ceases to surprise. At Monday’s meeting:
1. Trustee Harrington calls to again deny paying Bond Dickson for their work as Village Attorney. Fritz Gohl and others request Pat Bond’s counsel, yet vote not to pay him.
2. Trustee Messer repeals a law denying the Village President the right to appoint special counsel. He approved Bob Abboud spending $600,000 plus to pay James Kelly as special counsel. A Village code on the books for decades receives support and Trustee Messer gets his way without allowing public notice or input. He’s the same Trustee who stated that the Village should “ignore” recommendations of the Attorney General with Village violations of the Open Meetings Act.
3. President McLaughlin vetoes the Commercial Boarding Text Amendment. He explains that making law retroactive 8 years for the benefit of one resident in litigation exposes the Village. Trustee Messer shouts that the veto will be overturned in February.
4. Trustee Gohl bows to pressure from Bob Abboud and tables the recommendation to support outsourcing our 911 system
5. President McLaughlin appoints special counsel to investigate “improprieties” in the Commercial Boarding Text Amendment process.
Fireworks fly. Trustee Harrington reads a prepared 15 minute summary of specific allegations of President McLaughlin’s abuse of office and calls for an investigation. The Trustee majority does not like the threat of poking into the details of the Text Amendment process, so they also want an investigation.
Here’s hoping a video of the meeting appears soon. We would all like to see how the Trustees reacted as they dealt with these allegations.
Alice-you left out the good parts. How about Joe Messer getting in Marty’s face and telling him to ‘Eff off” and that he would “bury” him? Meroni swearing? Desperate times calls for inappropriate behavior and language from these less than intelligent takers. Bring on the video!! Grab the popcorn.
Should we have some State Police attend these meetings ? District Attorneys?
Albert-a BH Officer was at the same table and that didn’t stop Mr. Psycho from erupting, so I doubt anything would. Forgot to add that after Mr Peepers read his marching orders slandering President McLaughlin, he said he would drop it if Marty dropped his investigation. What? I’m not an attorney (and one could make the argument that neither is Messer), but that has to break all kinds of legal statutes. And while I’m at it, why can’t Meroni answer a simple question? She is the queen of time wasters. They all are. These meetings are all about their self aggrandizing and blown up, pompous image of themselves while many of us have other things to do than to listen to Patty Meroni dodge a simple question for 10 minutes. If that isn’t proof of incompetence, I don’t know what is. At least Selman keeps her mouth shut and doesn’t waste precious time. No wonder these meetings go on for 3+ hours. Ridiculous! We have better things to do.
MP, yes, we have better things to do. However, these issues are so large for our community that vigilance by the public is necessary. It appears that Marty is unconcerned with the allegations made by Harrington. On the flip side, the Gang of 5 seems afraid of something. You are right, Harrington has done nothing to bridge the polarized gap in the Village. His repeated request to not pay Bond Dickson and statement that Marty’s appointment is illegal is simply incorrect. Get over it, Marty did not fire Burke Warren. They resigned under pressure to respond to concerns over bad advice ignoring the Attorney General’s counsel on OMA violations and $7.5 million in legal fees paid to them.
There is a propensity in this Village for our officials to make statement of fact that they know is incorrect, but keep hoping we will all give up or believe the lies.
Fascism star Joseph Goebbels stated: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Any resemblance to this practice by members of our government? Let’s go for it – we need outside independent investigation into all these allegations and anyone found to be in violation should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. We first need to purge our community of any corruption before we can return to a respected place to live and raise families and restore our property values.