On June 10th, members of the Riding Club of Barrington Hills met at the Barrington Hills Village Hall. The agenda may have read it was a meeting of the Equestrian Commission, but the audio recordings prove otherwise.
After voting on a temporary chair for the meeting, the public was invited to comment, which is relatively standard. Next, there was confusion as to who actually called the meeting. That determination was never made, but it was agreed the one purpose was to hear what the Village attorney had to report.
With that, Mary Dickson stated:
“At the last meeting of the Equestrian Commission, one primary question arose which is can the Village actually mandate as part of this subdivision process that equestrian trails be dedicated, easements be dedicated, and the Village authorized me to research that and a result of the research that I did, my conclusion is cannot author…, we cannot demand a subdivider provide a trail easement as part of the subdivision process. And this is predicated on a review of both federal law and state law.”
Dickson’s comments continued, but this was the most important to convey to readers. Her comments begin at the 9:45 mark in the recording.
It should be noted that prior to Dickson’s statements, some present were under the impression that when a parcel was subdivided, the Village would somehow require easements be dedicated for the private use of the Riding Club of Barrington Hills only.
Commission members had questions and comments, but then attendees in the audience began chiming in with their own comments. Commission members let this continue for roughly ten (10) minutes before one said audience members would have to wait until public comment at the end of the meeting (that began with public comment).
Midway into the meeting, a commission member asked if they could vote on recommending action be taken on a specific property in the Village. When the answer was not what she wanted to hear, here’s what came next:
Commission member: “Why can’t we talk about this property?”
Village Administrator: “Because that was not the agenda item”
Commission member: “Well, I don’t think you can tell us what we can and can’t discuss.”
To heck with Roberts Rules of Order, apparently.
Then, the Equestrian Commission liaison (and conversational narcissist), Trustee Laura Eckstrom, just had to weigh in on the conversation. This, despite the fact it was not her place to do so (really, Brian, you need to get her to stifle!).
Toward the end of the meeting, Commission voted to reopen public comment (third time), and two people who had previously commented were invited to speak again.
The link to the recording can be found here.
Editorial note: In the last two club/commission meetings, members discussed involving the Barrington Hills Park District in this matter. When the District convened two days later on June 12th, their Zoom remote participation app was turned off, despite the fact it was posted as available for the meeting.
Clearly, this was a private Riding Club meeting and outsiders were not permitted to listed in (pay your taxes, though).
As for the property owner caught in the middle, we suggest they carve out a minimal easement for the use of the Riding Club for a nominal fee of $1,000 per month (in advance, of course).
Related: “Special Plan Commission meeting this evening”
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