When Mayor Annette LaMore said she intended to veto any actions taken at the special meeting held without her Sept. 16, she meant it, and she did just that.
The Sept. 21 Village of Manteno board meeting followed the same rinse-and-repeat format the fractured board has succumbed to, which includes arguing, the two factions voting in opposition, calling for and holding a special meeting, the mayor’s adversarial voting to do the opposite of what was called for at the last meeting, and then, of course, the mayor vetoing to undo what was done at the special meeting at the next regularly scheduled meeting, all with plenty of bickering and gavel banging in between.
Whose actions should be recognized and whose shouldn’t won’t be determined until at least Nov. 12, when the two factions go to court before Judge Lindsay Parkhurst. LaMore sued half the board following the clash over the rightful legal counsel after she replaced longtime attorney Joe Cainkar with the Vasselli Law Firm. The other faction would not recognize Vasselli Law and then voted to reinstate Cainkar. Then the veto, and so forth.
Meanwhile, staffing issues plague the village, with a number of vacant positions and, amid the disagreements, an inability to appoint or hire for the positions. Currently, the village needs a clerk, administrator, office assistant, FOIA officer (although in the past this was done by the clerk, LaMore acknowledged it should be a full-time position due to the influx of FOIA requests), and a code enforcement officer.
LaMore appointed Jim Paicz as building inspector, though at first it was unclear whether the other faction would recognize the appointment and go ahead with hiring B&F Construction Code Services for permit approvals, as they had voted to do at the special meeting; they later seemed to acknowledge his building inspector position.
Former Clerk Alan Pickeral agreed to return and serve as clerk until they find a new one.
In light of the mudslinging, the invocation seemed very apropos at the last meeting.
“Although I do not believe I have to veto items considered at an illegally called meeting of the board, I want to create a clear legal record of the illegal nature of that meeting,” LaMore stated before vetoing all actions conducted at the board meeting Sept. 16.
LaMore cited village code and explained she was vetoing on the basis that there was no clerk, the agenda was not authorized to be posted, and the village attorney never reviewed the B&F contract.
She added that Ashley Peterson of the Chamber of Commerce, who posted the agenda, would be “disciplined accordingly.”
“These trustees are trying to yet again illegally change the village attorney,” LaMore said, noting the meeting minutes are routinely approved and the Boudreau, Crockett, Gesky and Zimbelman faction were changing them to ratify Cainkar as attorney.
“Basically, they would be able to overturn any action of the board of trustees at any time by calling a special meeting,” LaMore said.
Trustee Mike Barry said B&F Construction Code Services would continue to work on commercial and industrial matters, which they had been doing for the last seven to eight years.
Gesky then asked Barry if he had brought up B&F handling their permitting, which Boudreau had alleged at the special meeting, and Barry agreed.
Gesky pushed further to ask Barry if it was accurate that the mayor received a copy of the contract, which she had denied receiving in her veto statement.
“I know I got one. I don’t know if anybody else got one. I can’t answer that,” Barry said.
“I will say that going forward here, they have been very detailed. They’ve helped us out with a couple of other things in town with some questions that we had. So, that’s where I wanted to move forward with that to make sure that it was a sound decision,” Barry added.
At that point, Boudreau took time as planning commission chairman to announce the next meeting, and added his two cents on the veto.
“Just to address some of the things, too. The mayor says we’re hiding stuff. The meeting’s recorded. It’s public knowledge. We do this because, as you will see on the agenda, we don’t have a right to speak anymore,” Boudreau said.
“The only country I know that does that is China. So, it’s kind of funny we did like a 180 now on that when it comes to that kind of stuff,” Boudreau said, which elicited some chuckles.
The special meeting’s agenda was brief and did not include new or old business, nor did it include trustee comments. It only included considerations to designate a special secretary, approve meeting minutes from Aug. 3 and 17, and approve an agreement with B&F.
Boudreau also requested the vetoes appear on the next meeting’s agenda for approval because “it became an issue” the last time it happened.
Then it was Crockett’s turn.
“It appears that the mayor and the truth have a very casual relationship here,” Crockett said.
He then pointed to the special meeting being called by four trustees, not the two required, and there was no clerk in place when the meeting was called, so it couldn’t have been approved by the clerk.
LaMore then jumped in to say, “But you do have a mayor, and it should’ve been approved by me.”
Crockett reiterated they had four trustees sign off on it.
“I’d like to know when you’re finally going to take some responsibilities for the situation here,” Crockett said to the mayor.
Then he wanted to know if she wrote her veto statement or if it was written for her.
LaMore started to say she writes some of them, but not all, with Crockett interjecting to state the same thing over her.
“You blame Chris Loracque, you blame Joel Gesky. But here’s one thing that I want everybody to be aware of …” Crockett said before being interrupted by the gavel bangs and LaMore telling Crockett he was out of order.
As usual, that didn’t stop anything.
“You know what? I’m going to say this. I don’t want conflict,” LaMore said with Crockett talking simultaneously.
“It was my understanding that Crystal Wolfe left because you lied to her about her responsibilities. I think that needs to be made apparent,” Crockett said.
LaMore denied the accusation.
Crockett said Wolfe told him that herself. LaMore started to correct him but opted to halt the conversation.
“I don’t want conflict,” LaMore repeated, banging the gavel, again telling Crockett he was out of order.
“You can bang all you’d like. But as I had said in previous meetings, you will not silence the trustees,” Toad cried out over the gavel bangs, and LaMore again stated she did not want conflict.
“You will not silence the trustees,” he repeated, stating that was all he had.
LaMore then said she didn’t understand how the conflicts serve the village.
“I would like us to follow the law. Then we’d have less problems,” LaMore said.
Crockett realized he still had more in the tank.
“The law applies to you as well, ma’am,” Crockett added, and at that point appeared to be done.
Gesky then gave his report and said he thought the board was going to approve Jim Paicz as the code enforcement officer because the issue with hiring him was due to the budget impact.
However, since building and zoning administrative assistant Yvette Nugent left, it created room in the budget.
Brian Miller, Vasselli Law attorney, jumped in to say he was already appointed to a different position, building inspector, by the mayor, and it wouldn’t be a temporary appointment.
Gesky said it was fine, and his only objection before was due to the budget, but he and Barry talked things over.
“I’m not going to go and rehash what Trustee Crockett said,” Gesky said before rehashing what Crockett said.
“Honestly, I was the one who did post the agenda at all locations because I did not want to involve any of our employees in that. And the only reason why, if there’s an issue of it being legal or illegal, it’s because we didn’t have a clerk, which is who I would normally provide it to,” Gesky said.
“That’s why I drove on Sunday, 48 hours prior to Mike’s house. I met with Peggy. I delivered it to you, mayor, at your house. Everyone had prior notice to it,” he added.
He vied for not punishing Peterson and said she only published the agenda for transparency, as Peterson did for the mayor when LaMore asked her to publish an agenda online previously.
“Again, so we’re going to have a dual set of standards. One for the elected officials,” Gesky said before being cut off, with the mayor stating she didn’t want conflict.
Then, Gesky and LaMore bickered about Pickerel serving as clerk and the authority to appoint him temporarily.
Jim Paicz, the newly appointed building inspector, spoke up to say he was surprised to find the village was a month behind in building inspections and permitting. He said he approved eight permits and conducted 12 inspections.
Then the board came together to appoint Manteno Fire Protection District Chief Rick Petersen to Fire Protection Bureau Chief, which gave him more power.
Barry lauded the working relationship between the two entities and the communication between Petersen and the village.
However, when it came to the agreement between the village and the fire district regarding fire inspection services, Crockett and Gesky wanted more information and more time.
The board tabled the inspection vote until the next meeting, with Gesky motioning and Barry seconding. The tabling passed unanimously.
In election news, Andy Lee, Manteno business owner of Lee’s Rental, took time during public comment to throw his hat in the ring and announce his candidacy for trustee next April.