Earlier today we published the agenda (seen here) for tonight’s Board of Trustees meeting. We included links to both the approved 2021 Appropriations, and the proposed 2022 Appropriations, and a longtime subscriber shared the following:
“Of the total decrease in Legal Expense ($948,937), decrease in Litigation, Planning/Zoning and FOIA expense ($446,000) represents 56.3 % of the total decrease.
Unless one examines the budget items in detail, one might conclude that the current administration is doing a pretty good job of managing the finances of the Village. That would be an incorrect assumption. It hides other areas of the budget (such as Permit Administration) where improper management may be concluded.
It should also be noted that much of the huge legal expense incurred in recent years revolves around the desires of one resident to impose a huge commercial horse boarding operation on residents, in effect having residents subsidizing equestrian amenities and lifestyle to non-residents by giving access to the Equestrian Trail System.”
Related: “Village Board of Trustees meets tonight“
Once again, the Observer distorts the facts regarding the Village administration’s legal battles around horse boarding. The expenses were incurred because the administration in support of one disgruntled resident’s animus toward a neighbor attacked the entire equestrian community and dozens of small to large horse boarding facilities in the village. Under the malign leadership of then president Marty McLaughlin the village paid lawyers huge amounts and to no avail. Boarding facilities in Barrington Hills including the one targeted by McLaughlin and his wealthy backer, Jim Drury, continue to operate – to the benefit of the village and its residents – and help the village retain its equestrian heritage that McLaughlin and crew did their worst to destroy.
Ok whoever wrote this has no understanding of what an appropriation is. It is not an expense or an expectation of such. It’s a place holder in case expense above a budget amount needs to be spent in a fiscal year. No one ever spends the appropriation amounts in their entirety.
Actual legal fees went from averaging 1.2 million per year under “Honest” John Rosene’s buddy to around 300k under McLaughlin . McLaughlin’s administration never once cited or threatened any equestrian operation in the village during his tenure. On the contrary, “Himself” did in that case is still pending 14 years later.
Nice try John. Once again, a swing and a miss.