The Village board will be holding a special meeting on Monday evening at 6:30 PM. The primary purpose of the meeting is to make appointments to various boards and commissions.
The reason that appointments were not made at the May 27th Board meeting was due to improper staggering of terms on various bodies for many years now as required by state law. In fact, this situation dates back to when Joseph von Meier of Burke Warren was the attorney assigned to the Zoning Board. Years ago, he advised the terms be properly staggered, but no changes were made.
According to the recordings from the May 27th meeting, Village Hall records indicated three different term lengths for a particular member of the Zoning Board. As a result, our current Village Counsel has recommended that the Board take appropriate measures now to comply with the law by establishing properly set terms.
The recording of that discussion can be heard here. A copy of Monday night’s agenda can be viewed here.
Tomorrow, hopefully will be a day that this village has been begging for! Reform is finally on the horizon with the infusion of new appointments and nominations to our village boards and committees. There will be new fresh faces coming with fresh visions and goals. The issue of the improper staggering has also been highlighted. So much time was spent on the improper firing of Burke/Warren by President McLaughlin and now we find out that a member of their staff was not performing their duties!. Is this a surprise to Trustee Harrington or the public? All the months spent criticizing the temporary counsel of Mr. Bond, and the incessant attacks from Trustee Harrington and the ohers attacking him about the “illegal” firing of this law firm. Shameful!!
It’s seems that this firm didn’t do right by our village! I ask, what other issues weren’t properly handled by this law firm, that we don’t know about!!
The one things they did very well was spend our village dollars without blinking!!! We are in great shape with a stellar firm like Bond/Dickson, and I look forward to seeing government working for all of us!
At the March 28, 2011 Village Board of Trustees Meeting, then ZBA Chairman Jonathan Knight filed a complaint concerning interference of the ZBA by then Village President Robert Abboud.
A section of the complaint referenced appointments to the ZBA:
“In the matter of ZBA appointments, the Village President allowed terms to lapse for as much as two years, and when asked about this, Mr. Kosin stated that the Village President was attempting to have appointments conform to a new fiscal year. This was done in violation of express provisions of The Village Code, which requires staggered terms of ZBA members so that appointments would not be made on the basis of political favoritism. Long-lapsed terms would allow circumvention of this requirement in the Code. More recently, Byron Johnson’s term was not extended, although he volunteered to remain on the ZBA through the Commercial Boarding hearings. Trustee Knoop, at a public Board of Trustees Meeting, criticized Mr. Johnson for not voting for the ZBA’s recommended text amendment for Lighting and said that he could not support Mr. Johnson’s continued service on the ZBA for his (Mr. Johnson’s) position on the issue. Should our objectivity be compromised by the whim and fancy of Board Members?”
At the April 25, 2011 BOT meeting, “President Abboud announced that as a result of Chairman Knight’s letter presented at the March Board Meeting, he has asked attorney Jim Kelly and the Police Chief to complete a thorough investigation of Chairman Knight’s allegations by July.” This was President Abboud’s version of an “Independent” Investigation. Attorney Jim Kelly was President Abboud’s “Special Counsel”!
Attorney James Kelly’s letter of September 23, 2011 to the BOT stated, in part:
“5. Appointment of ZBA Members
The appointment of ZBA members is made pursuant to the Villages Code.5 The Code provides for the appointment of 7 members to the ZBA and that terms of the members be staggered. The Code specifically provides that “The members of the board shall serve, respectively, for the following terms, or until their respective successors are appointed. ” Village of Barrington Hills Code Title 2, Chapter 4, Section 1. It is undisputed that terms of some ZBA
members expired and they were not replaced. This is clearly provided for in the Villages Code and is not improper. The decision of the Village President and the Village Board to not replace a ZBA member upon the expiration of his/her term is a public policy decision of a legislative body well within the scope of the Board’s authority. It was the intent of the Village President make appointments coinciding with the fiscal year, and that terms would be staggered pursuant to the Village Code. There was no improper action by the Village President or the Village Board.”
Historian you are spot on with your historicle account and legal analysis. The issue of former VBH President allowing terms of ZBA and Plan Commission appointments to expire without renewing terms was a routine practice and a major bone of contention with some of us on the Plan Commission and ZBA remaining unstaggered hold-over appointments for years.
The ordinance was terribly abused resulting in 34 [illegal] appointments in the final hours of former VBH President’s term with stamp of approval by former Village Counsel and Current Village Administrator who said nothing while the rule of law was ignored.
With election of M. McLaughlin and 5 newest members of this BOT coupled with appointment of Bond Dickson “backroom deals” and “political games of this nature will no longer be tolerated in our village government.
Trustees Gohl and Harrington in the face of all this evidence continue to choose the old way of doing village business exemplified by their recommendation of attorney Jim Kelly over Patrick Bond. Two VBH BOT who have yet to realize that village business of the past, is exactly that, business of the past.