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Post by macrockett on Jun 15, 2011 20:36:05 GMT -6
They just don't get it, do they. Just stop already. You have been ordered by your electorate to do so. What don't you understand?!? Do you need an "Overspending for Dummies" book or something? I don't care if you are the super-mega-executive-co-regional-director of overspending (it's just a bigger pension to me). Put the nails in the coffin of this one. It is done. Maybe someone needs a memo to realize that. These elected officials, and many others are used to getting their way. And more often than not they do, because voters don't show up at the meetings and they don't vote. I was one of them, but I have made amends. Way too many have not. As for Wheatland Township, the voters did show up and they chewed the aristocracy to pieces. Todd Morse the Supervisor was rebuffed at every turn. Chuck Maher, the district 4 Will County Board rep was basically told to "sit down and shut up." (But you should look at his big plans for a new County center similar to Du Page. I suggest you get on the phone to his office and let him know what you think). Most of us in Wheatland TS have Suzanne Hart as their District 3 Will County Board Rep. She stood in the back and kept quiet at the May 23rd meeting, although she runs the WTRO with Morse and backs his plan for the Town Hall even though there is no due diligence or needs study on record. I would be nice if everyone showed up at WTRO and let them know what you think. |
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Post by casey on Feb 2, 2012 9:53:20 GMT -6
Forwarded to me by a friend..... Those of you in Wheatland Twnshp take a look. The meeting was a classic and I'm glad I was there to witness it. If you think SB meetings get exciting, this one had it all. The video is approx. 5 minutes long but worth the watch. OK everyone...this is our elected Will County Board member, Chuck Maher. Check out the jumping jacks Brenda Morse, Supervisor's wife, is doing to disrupt our meeting - she is clapping! This was our May 23rd meeting (1 of 3) to defeat the township building! Deb www.youtu.be/e_8-5-aULRMor go to Youtube and type in "Chuck Maher"! Check out comments! As the text in video reads, Maher, had not done his homework and in his out-of-touch meltdown, he accuses The People of a lack of transparency and obstruction. In reality, Township officials declined to participate and approved The People's agenda as presented. It wasn't until a few hours before the meeting that they let it be known that they intended to hijack the meeting by invoking pleas of "fairness". |
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Post by macrockett on Feb 3, 2012 7:23:33 GMT -6
Thanks Casey. I am creating a chronology on the Wheatland Township debacle and the part it plays in responsible government. Hopefully people will see that the $$$ in Wheatland Township, while small, when aggregated with just two other government bodies (Naperville and Will County), start to become serious $$$$. Where will that impact at some point? The only place it can.... property taxes. Stay tuned.
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Post by macrockett on Feb 3, 2012 15:04:16 GMT -6
If you want to see the extended version of the Wheatland video go to the MAC link below and find the file name listed below (near the top of the list). Next a window will open. Click browse in that window and pickReal Player to open it then click ok. Thereafter it will download to your computer and open in Real Player (if you don't have real player, download it and start over). winsome.cnchost.com/MAC/0WheatlandTWP5232011YouTube42> (5-23-2011) renamed WTS_WheatlandTWP5232011YouTub> At the beginning your will see Chuck Maher, a Will County Board member call out for some one to sit down. That is me he is referring to. What is sad is Chuck Maher appears to have no understanding of parliamentary rules which govern Township law (of course I didn't either when I stepped into this quagmire on April at the annual meeting, but the difference is, I picked up the rules and learned how Township government works). I will take you through what I discovered in my 4 months of dealing with this. In the end, we stopped the Township from spending about $2 million for a town hall 3+ times the size of the current facility without doing any serious due diligence wrt cost or need. Enjoy the shouting match in the mean time. Soon I will add documents to put this in context. Hopefully, it will open your eyes to what goes on on a routine basis in local government. You have already seen it in District 204, but it does not stop there. |
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Post by macrockett on Feb 17, 2012 14:19:35 GMT -6
At the latest Township meeting, 2/9/2012, Supervisor Todd Morse and Trustees Doug Haddad and Frank King began to play their cards. In what I consider to be the height of arrogance, the three are now talking about unwinding the hard work of the electors last year, in which the later said stop what you are doing, sell the land you intended to build upon, and use those proceeds to rehab the existing building. The audio file is located on the server at: winsome.cnchost.com/MAC/WTS_02_09_2012_SupervisorsReport.wmaIf that doesn't work, go to winsome.cnchost.com/MAC/Once there, I have renamed all the Wheatland Township Files to start with "WTS" so near the bottom find WTS_02_09_2012_SupervisorsRep> . Doubleclick the file to download it. Open it with Windows Media Player. It is about 20 minutes long. It includes some of the finest rationalizing you will find by elected officials essentially telling the voters to "go F yourself. This is OUR money and we will spend it how we see fit." |
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Post by macrockett on Feb 17, 2012 14:43:06 GMT -6
In addition, at another point during the meeting, Supervisor Todd Morse and Trustees Doug Haddad and Frank King also took the Township Clerk, Chuck Kern, to task over the minutes. Basically, they wanted to "scrub" the minutes to take out comments by other Trustees, Hudetz and Karantonis, and the public. Basically dumb the minutes down so anyone reading them, imo, will not get a true flavor of the debate going on. Morse, Haddad and King will be hard pressed to do that however, given the Attorney General has written on the subject: illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/2000/00-004.pdfHere, the AG does not mince words in commenting on the scope of authority of the County Clerk (which would apply to the Township Clerk as well) : the county clerk is mandated by the Counties Code to keep an accurate record of the proceedings of the county board (55 ILCS 5/3-2013); thus, the board cannot alter or interfere with this mandate.Here is the audio file of that portion of the meeting: winsome.cnchost.com/MAC/WTS_02_09_2012_ClerksReport.wma(If that does not work, go here, winsome.cnchost.com/MAC/ to click and download this file: WTS_02_09_2012_ClerksReport.wma ) |
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Post by EagleDad on Feb 20, 2012 6:33:00 GMT -6
Thanks Mac, these audio files really are a ringing endorsement for what really needs to be done - complete elimination of township government in the collar counties.
They are a vestige of the 1800's, a complete waste of resources, government at its absolute worst.
They need to be gone, yesterday, along with regional superintendents.
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Post by macrockett on Feb 21, 2012 9:28:12 GMT -6
Thanks Mac, these audio files really are a ringing endorsement for what really needs to be done - complete elimination of township government in the collar counties. They are a vestige of the 1800's, a complete waste of resources, government at its absolute worst. They need to be gone, yesterday, along with regional superintendents. Couldn't have said it better ED. Wait till you see just how few of your tax $$ goes to something useful. I will be posting part of the FY2011 audited financials for Wheatland Township in a few. Township government does serve a purpose in rural areas where services are not readily available but here, in urban environments like Naperville, they are mostly just a way for Republicans to avail themselves to yet another pot of money so as to supplement their income. |
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Post by macrockett on Feb 21, 2012 11:33:06 GMT -6
Here are the FY2011 Audited Financial Statements for Wheatland Township. winsome.cnchost.com/MAC/WTS_AnnualFinancialReport_FYE03312011.pdfI’ve extracted the most important parts. My observations: Page 3 of the audited financial statements shows that excess funds of $1,535,724 are unrestricted. That is mostly the amount they were going to use to build the new town hall. Right now, that is up to $1.7 million. What a waste. Page 30 shows that the Township over budgeted by over $300k and by default, has done so in FY 2012 and 2013 as well. The Administration part of the General Town Fund (GTF) operated on $458689.00 and the Assessors office operated on $309304.00 for a total actual of $767993.00. Page 31 shows legal fees of over $18k, and that was BEFORE the WTS annual meeting in April 2011. This is way higher than previous years. FY 2012 will be even higher. Pages 31-34 show just where the General Town Fund $$ really go, primarily to salaries, benefits and general admin expenses. In other words, only a very small number of dollars in the General Town Fund go beyond spending for the Township itself. Arguably virtually all of the Administration side of the GTF could be eliminated and no one would notice. On the Highway side, you can see that many of the services provided are contracted out (as they would say on SNL "What up with that?") Multiply the largess at Wheatland Township by about 30 and you would get the total waste in just one county, Will. There are approx 1433 townships in IL. |
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Post by EagleDad on Feb 21, 2012 21:10:24 GMT -6
1.7 million? what are they stockpiling it for?
They should cut a refund check back to each taxpayer - before they turn off the lights and go home. I wonder how much that check would be?
What a waste.
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Post by macrockett on Feb 22, 2012 14:08:17 GMT -6
1.7 million? what are they stockpiling it for? They should cut a refund check back to each taxpayer - before they turn off the lights and go home. I wonder how much that check would be? What a waste. Those funds have been accumulating over about 6 years by padding the levy and budget. The funds were supposed to be used to build a new town hall, as I have probably mentioned. The electors (votes) at a succession of meetings finally said stop, sell the land you bought to build on, and finally use those proceeds to rehab the existing building. In spite of that directive, they continue to accumulate. This year it will be in the area of $200k that is unnecessary to operate Township Government. One of the interesting things is one of the people on the Finance Committee, Leo Hart, who is married to Suzanne Hart, a Will County Board member. In a recent meeting when the Finance Committee met, Leo voted with Supervisor Morse to pad the FY2013 budget with that $200k, and slated $1.760 million for ....Capital Improvements. And just yesterday, as discussed in the Supervisors audio file above, they have posted the Park Commission agenda for tomorrow night where, against the directive of the voters, they plan to discuss turning the land they were directed to sell into a park! It just gets better and better. winsome.cnchost.com/MAC/WTS_ParkCommitteeAgenda_02232012.pdfAd hoc government at its best... As part of this story, I will have a Will County Thread soon, to discuss Ms. Hart and her sidekick, Chuck Maher. In the mean time, digest these 4 pdf of Hart/Maher campaign material: winsome.cnchost.com/MAC/WC_Exhibit1_Letter_12_2011.pdfwinsome.cnchost.com/MAC/WC_Exhibit2_WTRO_12_2011.pdfwinsome.cnchost.com/MAC/WC_Exhibit3_HM_01_2012.pdfwinsome.cnchost.com/MAC/WC_Exhibit4_Mailer_2_2012.pdfNotice how they talk (and talk is the operative word here) about being fiscal conservatives....stay tuned, soon we can review some facts and you can decide whether they are fiscal conservatives. (Full disclosure here, I am the treasurer of and am supporting the Deb Holscher and Joe Hudetz campaign. Both are running against the Hart/Maher slate for Will County Board. Deb led the effort to stop the town hall, which ended favorably, so far. Joe is a Trustee at the Township and has opposed Supervisor Morse and Trustees Haddad and King in seeking to build the new 7300sf Taj Mahal (oops) new town hall.) |
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Post by macrockett on Feb 29, 2012 20:04:56 GMT -6
Here is a file that shows the growth and compounding of Wheatland township pension costs. You can see the cost has compounded at 12.4% per year. This will fluctuate based on how well IMRF does at investing. When the Fed and other central banks are printing money at historic rates as now, investment returns will be high, but eventually they will revert to the mean as consumption is the ultimate driver of growth and consumption is tied to wage growth, which is ...not so much in the last decade (in the private sector). If you watch CNBC from 5-8 AM you will hear this repeatedly. Anyway, here is the file, taken from the audited financial statements from 2003-2011 winsome.cnchost.com/MAC/WTS_Pensions.pdf (depending on the browser you use, this may open directly or it will download the pdf and you will open it there). |
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Post by macrockett on Feb 29, 2012 20:12:58 GMT -6
The three large cost centers of Township government, are the administration (which oversees general assistance), the assessors office, and the hwy dept (which maintains, supposedly, 63 miles of unincorporated roads in WTS). However, much of what the hwy dept does is contracted out...go figure. The thing that sticks out to me in this file is just how little of the money spent at the adm level benefits the community (columns in red). It is mostly salaries, benefits and admin costs of the office: winsome.cnchost.com/MAC/WTS_FinancialSpreadsheet.pdf (depending on the browser you use, this may open directly or it will download the pdf and you will open it there). |
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Post by refbasics on Mar 10, 2012 19:39:01 GMT -6
The three large cost centers of Township government, are the administration (which oversees general assistance), the assessors office, and the hwy dept (which maintains, supposedly, 63 miles of unincorporated roads in WTS). However, much of what the hwy dept does is contracted out...go figure. The thing that sticks out to me in this file is just how little of the money spent at the adm level benefits the community (columns in red). It is mostly salaries, benefits and admin costs of the office: winsome.cnchost.com/MAC/WTS_FinancialSpreadsheet.pdf (depending on the browser you use, this may open directly or it will download the pdf and you will open it there). ------------------- From the plainfield patch last year.. plainfield.patch.com/articles/once-a-year-the-residents-call-the-shots-no-really-they-doOnce a Year Township Residents Call the Shots.
No, Really, They Do!In a process left over from the pioneer days, folks who attend the annual township meeting get to vote on issues and what they say goes. By Robyn Monaghan March 8, 2011 You may not know it, but the second Tuesday of April is one of the most important days of the year for voters.{ILLINOIS} The night of April 12, townships across Illinois will hold their annual town meetings, as set by state statute. During the rest of the year, trustees own the show at township board meetings (AND HOW!)  . They vote on issues, discuss political philosophies and showcase pet projects. There is a period set aside for questions and comments from the public, but no one is doing any voting except for trustees. But that's not the case at the annual town meeting. This is the night voters get the chance to weigh in directly on township issues. They have the ability to fast track local issues - ranging from property purchases to cemetery maintenance to dog pounds - and put them to an immediate public vote. Based on issues submitted by groups of 15 or more registered voters (the cutoff was March 1), the meeting agenda will be released April 2. Then, as local trustees explain it, whatever electors show up that night will have the right to vote “aye” or “nay” – and the deal is done. So it shall be written, so it shall be done, as they say. The township meeting is an aging incarnation of the first local governments the pioneers put in place to create order in fledgling communities.
Once a red-letter day on any political calendar, the annual town meeting in modern times goes largely unnoticed as citizens and the media focus on municipal and county lawmakers. Yet the annual town meeting remains a powerful tool regular citizens can use to have a hand in local decision-making. ----------------------- Do you know what your township is spending your tax $$ on??...it should be roads, property assessments, and general assistance(township people who have really fallen thru the cracks..also some programming for community senior citizens). Pls check out your township annual meeting! ..it could be quite an eye opener as many of us found out at our wheatland twp annual meeting last year. for our upcoming wheatland twp annual meeting on 4.10.12.. is there an agenda item re: the possible new building? According to the 9.7.11 board mtg, the twp lawyer "presented the board with a written opinion and four possible options to pursue. She said the best option would be to sell the land and have the electors ratify that at the next annual meeting." is the building discussion on the agenda, then?? i don't know..does anyone???  www.wheatlandtownship.com/township/town-clerk/meeting-minutes Sept 7, 2011 Board Meeting Minutes ------------ check out our wheatland twp website www.wheatlandtownship.com/..it might look nice but we don't know who is on the committees oftentimes meeting minutes aren't posted on the website where are the minutes from the 8.9.11 special meeting held at plainfield hi school? that meeting is referred to (by the township lawyer) in the 9.7.11 board meeting's minutes which are on the township website. information has been removed from the twp website..such as all the SPACE COMMITTEE info from last year which was supposed to help us understand the possible construction/leasing/or remodeling of our present building! where'd it go?? Our 'Cemetary Committee' has more members(i believe 3) than our building committee (1)----HUH!! and there are more posted minutes for the 'Cemetary Committee' than our 'Finance Committee'(only 3..the latest one from 1.19.2010.. and they have met plenty of times after that!! This is supposed to be 'transparency' i guess. What gives? also if "most of the highway work is contracted" out per macrockett, why do we have highway personnel? if we don't need them, why don't the twp administrative and assessor people move into the new highway building(which appears to be very nice & spacious- i haven't seen the inside). We could hold our annual meeting in the highway bay(huge).. which is where our annual meeting was held last year..but in the old twp highway bay.. so better digs!! and we could square dance (or polka- i can say that, i'm polish) in the in the bay at other times! sounds like a win-win all around!!  |
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Post by macrockett on Mar 12, 2012 7:53:30 GMT -6
The three large cost centers of Township government, are the administration (which oversees general assistance), the assessors office, and the hwy dept (which maintains, supposedly, 63 miles of unincorporated roads in WTS). However, much of what the hwy dept does is contracted out...go figure. The thing that sticks out to me in this file is just how little of the money spent at the adm level benefits the community (columns in red). It is mostly salaries, benefits and admin costs of the office: winsome.cnchost.com/MAC/WTS_FinancialSpreadsheet.pdf (depending on the browser you use, this may open directly or it will download the pdf and you will open it there). ------------------- From the plainfield patch last year.. plainfield.patch.com/articles/once-a-year-the-residents-call-the-shots-no-really-they-doOnce a Year Township Residents Call the Shots.
No, Really, They Do!In a process left over from the pioneer days, folks who attend the annual township meeting get to vote on issues and what they say goes. By Robyn Monaghan March 8, 2011 You may not know it, but the second Tuesday of April is one of the most important days of the year for voters.{ILLINOIS} The night of April 12, townships across Illinois will hold their annual town meetings, as set by state statute. During the rest of the year, trustees own the show at township board meetings (AND HOW!) . They vote on issues, discuss political philosophies and showcase pet projects. There is a period set aside for questions and comments from the public, but no one is doing any voting except for trustees. But that's not the case at the annual town meeting. This is the night voters get the chance to weigh in directly on township issues. They have the ability to fast track local issues - ranging from property purchases to cemetery maintenance to dog pounds - and put them to an immediate public vote. Based on issues submitted by groups of 15 or more registered voters (the cutoff was March 1), the meeting agenda will be released April 2. Then, as local trustees explain it, whatever electors show up that night will have the right to vote “aye” or “nay” – and the deal is done. So it shall be written, so it shall be done, as they say. The township meeting is an aging incarnation of the first local governments the pioneers put in place to create order in fledgling communities.
Once a red-letter day on any political calendar, the annual town meeting in modern times goes largely unnoticed as citizens and the media focus on municipal and county lawmakers. Yet the annual town meeting remains a powerful tool regular citizens can use to have a hand in local decision-making. ----------------------- Do you know what your township is spending your tax $$ on??...it should be roads, property assessments, and general assistance(township people who have really fallen thru the cracks..also some programming for community senior citizens). Pls check out your township annual meeting! ..it could be quite an eye opener as many of us found out at our wheatland twp annual meeting last year. for our upcoming wheatland twp annual meeting on 4.10.12.. is there an agenda item re: the possible new building? According to the 9.7.11 board mtg, the twp lawyer "presented the board with a written opinion and four possible options to pursue. She said the best option would be to sell the land and have the electors ratify that at the next annual meeting." is the building discussion on the agenda, then?? i don't know..does anyone??? www.wheatlandtownship.com/township/town-clerk/meeting-minutes Sept 7, 2011 Board Meeting Minutes ------------ check out our wheatland twp website www.wheatlandtownship.com/..it might look nice but we don't know who is on the committees oftentimes meeting minutes aren't posted on the website where are the minutes from the 8.9.11 special meeting held at plainfield hi school? that meeting is referred to (by the township lawyer) in the 9.7.11 board meeting's minutes which are on the township website. information has been removed from the twp website..such as all the SPACE COMMITTEE info from last year which was supposed to help us understand the possible construction/leasing/or remodeling of our present building! where'd it go?? Our 'Cemetary Committee' has more members(i believe 3) than our building committee (1)----HUH!! and there are more posted minutes for the 'Cemetary Committee' than our 'Finance Committee'(only 3..the latest one from 1.19.2010.. and they have met plenty of times after that!! This is supposed to be 'transparency' i guess. What gives? also if "most of the highway work is contracted" out per macrockett, why do we have highway personnel? if we don't need them, why don't the twp administrative and assessor people move into the new highway building(which appears to be very nice & spacious- i haven't seen the inside). We could hold our annual meeting in the highway bay(huge).. which is where our annual meeting was held last year..but in the old twp highway bay.. so better digs!! and we could square dance (or polka- i can say that, i'm polish) in the in the bay at other times! sounds like a win-win all around!! Refbasic, I will try to update everyone later today. There was a Board meeting on Thursday which pretty much set things. There was also more back and forth and BS. I have the audio which I will post as well, later. Right now I am working on doing my part to gut WTRO (Wheatland Township Republican Organization) of the self-serving precinct committeemen (not all) or the ones that just go along to get along. I will post something on that as well. Those of you that live in Wheatland Township can go a long way just by voting against those that are running as posted on their website: wheatlandrepublican.org/content/view/93/118/Two of those candidates are also running for Will County Board. Hart and Maher. 400% growth in debt and unfunded liabilities in the last 6 reported years, 2004-2010. They say your part of the "direct debt" whatever that is, stands at $3. That figure is a joke. Two requests directly to Hart and Maher, and silence both times. See the Will County thread. One last thing. This annual meeting at the Township is going to be an "event" that you do not want to miss. As time permits, at that meeting, I will share with you what I have found. |
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. They vote on issues, discuss political philosophies and showcase pet projects. There is a period set aside for questions and comments from the public, but no one is doing any voting except for trustees. 
