A visit to Grafton Township

Tonight I visited the Grafton Township meeting in Huntley. B-o-r-i-n-g. Boring, except for resident comments during the public comment period. The first speaker tore into the Board for exorbitant legal expenses in the month of January.

Legal fees for January were $7,200. One trustee didn't call the Township attorney. Two trustees called twice. The fourth trustee called the Township attorney 22 times and ran up the attorney's meter to the tune of $2,265. The resident stated that he believed the trustees should not be individually calling the attorney; he thought proper protocol would be to inform the Supervisor of an interest or need for a legal opinion, and then the Supervisor would call the attorney.

That would be a good way to handle it, only it will not work in Grafton Township because of the almost-impossible working relationship between the Trustees and the Supervisor.

Tonight's meeting was recorded by a court reporter and her stenotype machine (or whatever they are called these days). They used her only for the open portion of the meeting, not for the Executive Session.

There was a relatively minor procedural error by the Board when it returned from open session. Although they did not take action on any topic of discussion from the Executive Session, they did fail to take a roll call when returning to open session. No one asked the attorney for an opinion, and he didn't offer one.

I did hear a comment tonight that the Board may try to close the Annual Meeting and allow only residents of the Township to attend. Surely, they wouldn't try that. As I drove away tonight, I did not see a sign that read, "Now re-entering the land of law in Illinois."

At 9:00PM they were about halfway through the Agenda, and I'd had enough. Cal Skinner and Pete Gonigam were there. If you'd like to read more about this meeting, go to www.mchenrycountyblog.com and www.firstelectricnewspaper.com