After another cancelled board meeting, we do at least have the board packet on Friday prior to the meeting this coming Tuesday. If you can, I do hope that you will make time to join us in person for the board meeting. I think it is absolutely imperative that the board sees the number of concerned residents that are no longer willing to accept on face value the way our village is run. As I've said both, the majority of this board has lost trust with the residents and as such, every single thing they do in this official capacity must be reviewed and called into question.
Please note the 6:30pm start for the board meeting and the location is again at Turnberry Country Club. There is again NO Zoom option for those who at risk to be able to participate in our local government.
Presentation of the Report on the Actions of the Police Chief
The chief was in Village Hall for 3 hours on Tuesday the 18th. This hearing was recorded and was supposed to be transcribed. I can not confirm if any board member was present during the hearing; but the CAO (who is who the Chief reports to) was and presumably would be writing up her report.
Do not be shocked if there is a report of the chief having an angry exchange with another staff member. While no one would condone this (including the chief himself), it does not reflect the full story of what he's been going through at the hands of this administration. Please understand that I will never believe that someone can poke you verbally, financially, and otherwise and then claim innocence when you finally have enough and yell.
That said, to my knowledge at least two board members do not have a transcription of the hearing nor anything to help them prepare for a report, an executive session, or a decision. It is my opinion that given the number of pieces of misinformation and half information that this administration has shown, that this lack of transparency is yet another indication that this process is likely more retaliatory than fair and accurate.
Consent Agenda --
Minutes - There are no minutes to approve. I'm guessing that this is because they would like to waste our Village Clerk's time with verbatim or near verbatim minutes in lieu of an under $10 app that would save her hours of typing. (This app was citizen found because to my knowledge no Trustee or Officer of the Village has addressed this issue beyond telling our Clerk she isn't doing a good enough job with the minutes.) Do not forget that this board cut our Clerk's hours, is demanding near verbatim minutes during a time that FOIA requests are growing (mostly due to the fact that the Village Officers are preventing a Trustee access to information without a FOIA -- which is wrong on so many levels -- and then complaining about her job performance. Interesting tactic of case building.)
Invoices -- I feel it important to point out two line items, there are street light repairs booked against the Public Works GL budget, but these happen to be within Brighton Oaks, which ought to be covered by SSA#2. I mention this because since CAO Smith has been hired, our Finance Director (CAO Smith) has not consistently applied the expense to SSA#2 as that should cover the Street Lights and Electricity for those street light in that neighborhood. Please note that in nearly 3 years, SSA#2 hasn't paid for the electricity for their lights as per the SSA Agreement. Anyone care to guess who is footing that bill? No, it's not a lot of money -- but is yet another case of sloppy work on the part of our Finance Director. I would also mention that as oversight, our Treasurer has also failed to catch this repeated error.
Motion to approve financing on the Vactor Truck.
Can we all celebrate that there are at least an acknowledgement of 3 quotes for financing?
That said, the one from HomeState Bank is not an apples to apples comparison to the other two. In the email in the packet, it asks for more Information in order to provide the tax exempt rate and also appears (though admittedly, I can't confirm) that this was for a loan, not a lease to own.
Also, I know the truck was delivered (and celebrated with a pizza party) shortly after the last board meeting. So, (and again, I'm guessing here) that this agreement is already signed and done, so these quotes and questions are more after the fact than true approvals. I believe that was part of the original request was that the agreement could be entered in with legal approval, so, maybe this is ok --- but I find the difference in the quote from the bank we do business with all the time to be a bit noteworthy.
Request to approve the Impact Fees until Novemeber 30, 2020
Last board meeting, ICON builders requested 5 years, extension to the Ordinance 2019-17 that was approved in May of 2019. It appears to apply to existing subdivisions platted prior to May 14, 2019 and suspends the fees. In reviewing the original version, the background statement from CAO Smith mentions that she spoke to the Fire Service and the Schools for their support -- do we need permission to suspend fees that they benefit from?
Executive Session
Discussion & Possible Action on the Employment and Appointment of the Police Chief
Note -- while I personally think there are many people whose minds are made up; this item is here because *IF* in executive session they discuss terminating (or even reprimand) the chief it needs it to be an agenda item to be able to vote on it -- otherwise, it will be merely another straw poll.
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