A special 7 a.m. meeting in Manteno on Sept. 16 revealed the village was again without a clerk — and drew ire from Mayor Annette LaMore, who left the meeting she called illegal after delivering a lengthy statement.
LaMore began her statement by lambasting Trustee Joel Gesky, and the trustee members of the Manteno Choice Party, C.J. Boudreau, Todd Crockett, and Annette Zimbleman.
“Since losing to me in the race for the mayor of Manteno, Gesky has repeatedly tried to rubber stamp his agenda by calling board meetings in violation of the law,” LaMore said during her five-minute statement.
LaMore read aloud the section of Manteno Code, Section 1-6-3, which requires the village clerk to be involved in the posting of the agenda and provide notice. LaMore said the clerk was not consulted.
She vowed to veto every action taken at the meeting.
LaMore then drew attention to what Gesky had added to the agenda, including an amendment to the previously approved meeting minutes from Aug. 3.
“At the August 3rd meeting, Gesky tried to ram through the reappointment of his attorney, Joe Cainkar, after the meeting had already been adjourned. Gesky is literally trying to rewrite the history of what happened at the board meeting because he couldn’t get his way at the meeting,” LaMore said.
She also said Gesky wanted the board to approve a contract with B&F Construction Code Services for code enforcement, a topic that has been hotly debated since LaMore tried to appoint resident Jim Paicz as building director, who would also serve as the village’s code enforcement officer.
“Gesky is trying to remove my authority as the duly elected mayor of Manteno and the executive by blocking me from appointing vital employees of the village needs,” LaMore said.
“Gesky’s actions violate the separation of powers in Manteno and creates nothing but chaos and confusion. He is violating the law, violating his role as trustee, and violating the trust of the citizens of Manteno,” LaMore said while wrapping up her statement.
She then left the meeting. Trustees Mike Barry and Peggy Vaughn were absent.
Gesky then moved to make Boudreau Mayor Pro Tem, which Zimbelman seconded. Boudreau moved to the mayor’s chair and called the roll.
Then, since there was no clerk, Boudreau moved to appoint a recording secretary, and Gesky said he would keep the minutes.
The board members held a moment of silence for former village trustee Wendell Phillips, who served the village from 2011 to 2025. Phillips, 84, died Sept. 14.
At that point, the remaining board members moved to amend the Aug. 3 meeting minutes, with the reconsideration of LaMore’s veto of Cainkar as the village attorney.
“Just to clarify for those that aren’t there, we are reflecting in these minutes the mayor at that meeting tried to adjourn the meeting. However, she did not have the majority to adjourn the meeting, only two voted in favor, four voted against. So, therefore, the meeting continued,” Boudreau said.
Trustees approved another set of minutes with a date recording error and then moved to approve B&F Code Services.
Boudreau said Barry was in favor but couldn’t attend the meeting.
“Barry and myself’s conversation, along with Chief Peterson, was that we need to continue that and we need to have people who are qualified to do those inspections. So, that’s why both myself and Trustee Barry were in favor of having BNF Technical do it,” Boudreau said.
He added that the contracts were emailed a week ago, so there was enough time for everyone to review and that their rates were competitive.
Then, they moved on to public comment.
“There’s no agenda at the door for the public. So, it makes me feel like we’re not wanted here. And there was no sign-up sheet for participation for the public here. Joel got me a sign-up sheet, but I didn’t realize that’s the way we conduct things here,” resident George Reichert said.
“So, just the way this whole meeting is going down, it doesn’t look good for the village. You know, I just can’t believe what you guys are doing; it is destroying this village,” Reichert added.
A couple of more residents spoke and made similar comments.
At the end of the meeting, Gesky took time to address the mayor’s claim that the meeting was illegal. He said four trustees requested the meeting and each was served the agenda, which fulfilled the requirements.
Then, he acknowledged that the most recently appointed clerk, Crystal Wolfe, had resigned.
“No, it was not delivered to the clerk because, quite honestly, who is our clerk? We don’t have one. We’ve gone through four, five clerks in the last year,” Gesky said.
Wolfe was appointed to the role at the Aug. 20 special meeting, and although she was listed as clerk on the website and the Sept. 8 agenda, she did not appear at that meeting.
Whoever fills the vacancy left by Wolfe will be the village’s fifth clerk this year. Wolfe was appointed after Steven Orth resigned, who followed Alan Pickerel, who was appointed after elected clerk Kerri Rolniak resigned Nov. 30 because she moved out of state.
Gesky said they held the special meeting because the mayor wouldn’t let them add what they wanted to the agenda.
Reichert began yelling in the audience, and Boudreau asked him to leave for being disruptive after he was asked to stop yelling out of turn.
Following Reichert’s ejection, the special meeting was adjourned.