Who is actually the village attorney for the Village of Manteno? It depends on who you ask.
At the June 15 board meeting, Mayor Annette LaMore made an emergency appointment to hire the Vasselli Law Firm as the village’s attorney after sending longtime Manteno attorney Joe Cainkar a goodbye letter dismissing him.
As usual, the June 15 meeting was filled with disagreements, and a special meeting was called for June 25. LaMore and ally Trustee Peggy Vaughn didn’t show. Trustee Mike Barry attended, but only for a brief minute to state it wasn’t a “correct” meeting. He declared it illegal and then walked out. With a quorum present, the meeting went on.
Trustee Joel Gesky ran the meeting, with Trustees C.J. Boudreau, Todd Crockett, and Annette Zimbleman.
It was revealed at the meeting that the newly appointed clerk, Steven Orth, recently resigned, with Boudreau noting the village is on its fourth clerk.
The special meeting went on after public comments, with a unanimous vote to disapprove the removal of Joseph Cainkar and to restore his firm as the village attorney, effective immediately.
The village board didn’t waste any time continuing the grudge match at its July 6 meeting, with bickering and arguing over who the attorney was before the meeting was even called to order.
Mayor LaMore asked Cainkar to sit in the audience because she said he wasn’t the village’s attorney, ignoring the actions of a special meeting she declared “imaginary.”
Cainkar said he was the village’s attorney and refused to move.
Mere minutes into the meeting, LaMore asked Chief of Police Alan Swinford to remove Cainkar. He refused, stating he felt he didn’t have the legal authority to do so, much to LaMore’s dismay.
Trustee Todd Crockett attempted to say that Cainkar was the village’s attorney, but LaMore called his comments out of order and said the reinstatement was illegal.
LaMore repeatedly requested that Cainkar be escorted away from the table, but each time, Swinford rebuffed her.
Cainkar said if the board asked him to move, he would. Board members attempted to vote, but LaMore said she wasn’t going to entertain a vote.
The stalemate continued for a few minutes before LaMore vowed to “deal with Swinford later,” noting she “wasn’t happy,” that Cainkar wasn’t removed.
LaMore then kick-started comments from the village officials by stating why she didn’t attend the special meeting held on June 25.
“Even if every notice requirement had been followed perfectly, it would still not change the outcome here. Trustees do not possess the legal authority to overthrow the office of the mayor through an attempted political coup by simply making things up as they go along,” LaMore said
Gesky said the board wouldn’t be recognizing Vasselli as the village’s attorney — and that the board wouldn’t agree to pay any of its bills. He added, for the record, that he felt that LaMore threatened Swinford.
“I would just like to say there were some comments on respect. Respect goes both ways,” Zimbleman said.
All of this transpired before the board reached the agenda item to reinstate Cainkar as the village’s attorney.
LaMore attempted unsuccessfully to maintain control of the meeting. Any time Cainkar attempted to speak, LaMore banged the gavel to note he was out of order. The Vasselli law firm’s representative, attorney Brian Miller, declared Cainkar was out of order.
“The village attorney shall be appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the board of trustees,” Miller said, reading the ordinance giving LaMore authority over attorney appointments.
Cainkar then spoke up, ignoring LaMore and Miller. “There is an appeal. Is there a second?”
Gesky added he wanted it appealed. “There’s a second,”Cainkar said.
Miller disagreed. “He’s not the chair of this meeting. Completely out of order.”
“It’s your decision, not his,” Miller said supporting LaMore, while Cainkar continued calling for an appeal.
LaMore continued to rap the gavel on the table, repeatedly calling Cainkar out of order.
“You can vote on it!” Cainkar said.
“There will be no vote on it,” LaMore declared.
Boudreau began reading the ordinance while LaMore continued to bang the gavel.
“The chair rules that this motion is out of order as it doesn’t comply with the village of Manteno ordinances and Illinois state law,” LaMore said.
“Now you can vote,” Cainkar called out. The clerk began the roll call, with Trustee Mike Barry abstaining, Trustee Peggy Vaughn voting against, and the rest voting for it.
“I am vetoing this just —” LaMore said before being interrupted by Cainkar.
“You can veto it at the next meeting, Mayor,” Cainkar replied.
“All right, the next one,” LaMore said.
The back-and-forth continued despite protests and gavel bangs, motions and votes, the mayor declaring it out-of-order, rulings appealed by board members, at each agenda item following the attempted or potentially successful reinstatement of Cainkar’s law firm.
Somehow, the meeting continued with the agenda items, with bickering on most of them.
At the end of the meeting, the brouhaha boiled over again.
“I find it funny that when our mayor says she has ultimate authority, if you look at our bylaws, it is with consent and approval of the village body. If she disagrees with that, then she must disagree with our constitution, which also allows the House of Representatives and the Senate to override the president,” Boudreau said.
“If you feel, and if the town feels, that we are overzealous, if we are coup-like, there’s an election every two years. You can vote us out whenever you want,” he added.
The board then continued to argue about the legality of the special meeting, who called it, for what purpose, and what was in the bylaws.
“We’ve had so many people that stopped me and so many people that talk, ‘Oh my god, the town’s going downhill,” Boudreau said.
“It is,” he continued.
“We have to act like neighbors. And I’m willing to have a fresh start. But we need a reset because our town is crumbling,” Boudreau said.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of divide, but I think at the end of the day, I don’t really give a —. My main concern is that I ran for this board to be transparent and for the safety of our residents,” Trustee Barry said.
“We can’t stop progress, and that’s what’s happening here. We’re stopping the progress because of these petty battles that we go through every week,” Crockett added.
Crockett then said he liked the mayor, but felt she wasn’t a good leader. That devolved into another argument between him and Vaughn.
Gesky came back to rehash why he felt the dismissal of Cainkar didn’t count. Then LaMore said it did.
“Joe, welcome back,” Gesky added.
“Joe’s not back,” LaMore retorted.