Village Board - Regular Meeting

welcome to the mantino village board meeting for monday june the 15th of 2026. i'd like to call the meeting to order would you please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And while you're standing, I'd like to introduce Reverend Dylan Plug from the Community Presbyterian Church in Manteno for the invocation.

Let us pray. Oh God, we thank you for the opportunity for us to gather as a community. We thank you for having appointed leaders among us. And we pray that tonight that there would be peace and unity in this place, that the decisions that are made here would be a blessing for this community, and above all, that your kingdom will come here on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Thank you. Roll call, please.

Barry? Yes. Bujo? Here. Vaughn? Here. Crockett?

Here.

Geske?

Here.

Zimbleman?

Here. Reading of the agenda. Is there anything that needs to be changed on the agenda? I am going to take off the consideration to approve a donation to Harbor house because we're not quite ready for that yet. Is there anything else? Seeing nothing. The reading of the minutes. Are there changes, corrections or emotion for approval? I'll make the motion to approve motion by Boudreau second second by Vaughn.

Ujo? Yes. Vaughn? Yes. Berry? Yes. Crockett? Yes. Geske?

Yes.

Zimbelman?

Yes. Thank you. Public participation. Our first speaker tonight is Anne Gates. And I remind everybody to please try and keep it under three minutes.

I had my hubby time me at home.

Good.

Good evening. With all of the objections and information coming out about data centers and the green old scam, I started looking around our area to see what's taking place with the solar fields and the prospective wind farm that they want to put in. Not surprisingly, the same names surface that are connected to the Economic Alliance and the former mayor. Once again, they, their friends and families stand to gain again much like the deal with Goshen. I watched the board meeting again where the young woman gave an interesting peek at the unspoken part of what the economic alliance really does for the county. The don't ask, don't tell format supposedly brings commerce to our county is ridiculous. Imagine if someone came to your business and said that they want to build, but they're not going to tell you what they're going to build. We want to produce, but we're not going to tell you what we're going to produce. And it's going to be great for the county, but we're not going to tell you how. And before you know it, you end up with something how we ended up with Goshen. After all is said and done, you've helped a business that would only bring ruin, pollution, danger, and generational damage to the area. Saying, oops, I'm sorry, I didn't know, isn't going to work. Why don't the people get a voice in who comes to our area? Why should we trust those that play don't ask, don't tell with the value of our family, our lives, our homes, our businesses, let alone the land that we live on. Where do these folks come from? Who appointed them or voted for them? Shouldn't there be a hold most of the things of our lives in their hands, be in the position of power and influence, put there because we the people voted them in? Shouldn't we regulate what they get paid? what they spend. After all, it's all of our county, not just the county of a few. So maybe the members of the Economic Alliance should be voted on. Maybe the projects they promote should be put as a referendum on the ballot so that we the people have a greater say in our local government. After all, it is supposed to be government for the people by the people, not the self few appointed anointed that represent what we want in our county where we live, where we work, where we pay taxes and I just, we just got our tax bill and mantino you are on my tax bill. So I do pay taxes here too. So thank you very much. Please consider from now on if anything comes up that it's put on a referendum. So there's, true transparency for the people. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Pat Martin.

Thank you, good evening everybody. I wanted to talk about a couple other audit inconsistencies. Lots of discussion on the golf course from the auditor about the sale, yet auditors not ask about the condition of the course, which is the ultimate in market value. Course was in average condition at best per the appraisal. Course equipment disrepair, pump system need repair or replacement, unable to renew cart lease, purchaser unable to track the number of rounds played or receipts, excessive payroll mentioned in the audit. There was no follow-up on the audit discovery on Annette or the management. No follow-up on the $250,000 that she was given, an additional $28,000 paid by the village for delinquent insurance bills. One other local group looked into buying from the same issues and backed out. I bring this up to point out not only questions on management, but also ladies and gentlemen, because this is the same thing that's happening now in the village. Can't make a decision on replacing dead trees on Main Street. Can't make a decision on replacing public works trucks. Can't make a decision on the merry-go-round. No leadership plan or vision for the village, just chaos. Homestar Bank auditor suggested and applied several opinions without numerous details. After audit-reviewed documents given to them by Annette, along with some non-public stockholder information, they were aware that Annette was a stockholder, yet never asked how much she received in dividends, never asked how much Annette received from the sale of Homestar to Midland. Why no concern of conflict while Annette was receiving dividends from Homestar and was a trustee of Manteno? No conflicts were issued by Annette then. Transparency is what Mike, Peggy, and the Mayor ran on. Time for you to be transparent and let us know what happened with the golf course and how the money was spent. What financial benefit you received from the bank. What was the issues, Mike, with the youth football account, concessions, the real estate taxes? Understand your home is for sale. Are you staying? Are you planning on going? Why is it we can't be transparent with new appointments? Is it there a particular skill level you're looking for? any vetting, any background checks. We need leadership to pull this village together and have a vision or game plan so that all of us can move forward. All I see Annette is a vengeance tour and it's costing this village not only financially but reputationally. We're now known as the no growth, non-business friendly village and we have to do better than this. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Sandy Chiz.

hello so i think public works might have too much to do look at eddie reed park i have pictures i brought some look at the weeds on main street even trustee getzky suggested that memorial park needed some work i'm just hoping that public works is stretched too thin and not trying to make mayor lamore look bad yet some of you keep adding more and more to their workload Now they have to add cleaning and other set of bathrooms to their workload on top of maintaining the fishing pond, keeping the pickleball court fixed up, and the regular maintenance of all the parks in Main Street. I say this because I wanted to see about the benches that were needed for the pathway and see the other parks benches to see about justifying $2,500 per bench. First, how many people actually asked for these benches? Have you told them to show up to meetings to discuss it? I ask because dozens of us have asked you to stop spending money on things like $300,000 bathrooms and $500,000 fishing ponds, and it's as if we never said a word. So I was curious as to how many people actually asked for this expensive addition. So anyway, I took pictures of the parks and the benches. I had to avoid taking any of children, so I couldn't get every type of bench, but here's a few. Memorial Park has some very nice benches, but they're not anywhere else that I could see. And Eddie Reed has park benches, but they don't have a cement base. They're just kind of stuck there. Then there's Legacy Park. They have four different kinds of benches. There might be more, but I found four. But they all have cement bases, and they're all very nice. But the suggested $2,500 benches are on Main Street. I wouldn't think that benches, I would think that benches in the park closest to the path would achieve more continuity. But that doesn't seem to be the issue, does it? So my final issue is why? Why spend all this money on parks and facilities that require more and more maintenance when the ones we have don't seem to achieve their goals? Our town is beautiful, but there hasn't been enough to bring new residents here or new businesses. And from what I've heard at these meetings, all of the events that we hold at the parks are great expense to our taxpayers. We don't make any money on the events, which to me is appalling. So I guess my point is that we have attempted to stop you from spending and spending to no avail. We show up at meetings. We speak our mind to no avail. Yet one or two people ask for a bench. They can't even be bothered to show up at a meeting and you spend away. That's proving my point that even though we show up and speak, you don't listen to us.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Bob Forsythe.

There's one thing that I don't understand. Is the dump truck issue? I remember Todd asking Jim if this was incomplete. And Jim answered yes. No bills for Peterbilt or anything else, but yet we have the one bid and it's incomplete and it gets put on the agenda. How does that happen? I mean, if it's incomplete, how do we put it on the agenda to vote on it? mean we've had a lot of reckless spending and this is another one that they never talked about the transmission in the dump truck besides this 15 000 and we throw it out here for another 200 for a truck the pavilion's the same way now we're going to spend more money to put around those pile on those pillars coming down there's even more money again that's like the mean it's an endless pit we keep spending and spending and we don't realize what we're spending it on so i don't know i don't understand how things get put on agendas and they're incomplete thank you our next speaker is bill barnes

Apparently money is on the issue or on the agenda tonight, unwritten. So, Mayor, and maybe a few points of clarification, if you can answer yes or no, or maybe direct it to a trustee. So, I think the village is, what, $800,000 deficit? Is that right? I think you had pointed out at one point in one of the meetings. Mr. Boudreaux, I think you said it. 1.6 million. Oh, sorry, 1.6 million in deficit. So last week, well, last board meeting, when Trustee Berry was asking the question about the $80,000 for the Convention and Visitors Bureau for three years, I assumed that was $80,000 over three years, but then through the Concerned Citizens of Manteno website said, no, it's $80,000 a year for three years. Is that true? Yes. So $240,000 to kind of promote Manteno when we have a director of the Chamber of Commerce, which that's her job, right? So why do we need two? So that, to me, is a waste of money. So that's $240,000 when we're $1.6 million in deficit. The third thing, as Ms. Chiz pointed out, $400,000 for bathrooms when we don't have it. We're not the federal government. We can't print money. So bad idea, bad management, bad financial advice. And then the tax rebates were eliminated to all the residents. So you're spending money, didn't get the, I don't need it, didn't give the residents that need it the tax rebate every year, so that's gone. And then, of course, you took it off the agenda for tonight and put it on, and tabled it. How can you not have money, or a surplus of money, and then even consider, although it's a great organization and needed, Harbor House, giving $36,000, $37,000 of the taxpayers' money when you don't have it? It's just irresponsible to me. I'm not saying you. I'm saying others. The other thing is, too, that this is off the money subject. What I notice every meeting is it's this side, other than Mr. Boudreaux, it could be on that side, against that side. As a school teacher, I don't know what grades you teach, but if kids are kind of nesting together and they're conspiring and being the meanies, usually you do what? You break up the groups. You say, you sit over here, you sit over there, you sit over there. So maybe then we can start talking to each other and get along instead of it being this side versus that side. So perception is not good. Thanks. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Emily Herman.

Hi, I'm Emily Herman, president and founder of the soon-to-be 501c3 Cute and Acute, raising awareness for how cancer affects young adults and funds for resources that help our unique journeys. I have some good news. yay i feel like we could all use positivity at meetings and i'm happy to provide it today saturday june 14th team cute and acute participated at relay for life in bourbonnais our team consisted of mantino community members local friends and family and the young adults we serve across the u.s one teammate came all the way from texas that's a huge honor and great reminder that we are all in this together no matter where we live Our team consisted of over 70 members and around 20 in-person attending members. I kept the team open to patients who didn't know how they would be feeling with chemo around the time that relay fell this year. I am in that spot myself. I think it's important to hold space at any event, job, or get-together for those with cancer, no matter where they are in treatment, no matter how they are feeling, to give them the opportunity to take a mental break from this devastating illness to participate in something that is important to their heart. Our illness doesn't make us who we are, our character does. Together as a team, we raised $3,323. I'd like to thank our Manteno local sponsors, Urban Prairie Community Church, and Liquid Books for their support, the local community members who donated, and those who came up to me on Saturday to support me with hugs, words of encouragement and encouragement to keep raising awareness at village meetings one final thank you to ride for life who got me started with relay in 2024 back when i was very bald they let me volunteer at their merch table i met others like me with the same port scar they deserve a lot of credit for getting me started on volunteering for a cause that means the world to me thank you thank you very much

Reports of village officials. I'm going to start with my own report, and tonight I would like to make an appointment. I'm hiring a new lawyer for the village, and I'm asking for consideration regarding a motion to appoint James Vasselli of Vasselli Law, and they're out of Oak Brook, Illinois, and he is here tonight with two of his associates, and if you would all three stand up. Jim, could you introduce your associates?

Sure, yeah, this is Dennis Rebelletti and Julie Deamer. We all work together at our law firm. Do you want me to step up?

Yes, please do.

So again, sorry, hi, good evening, everyone. Thank you all for coming out. That's Dennis Rebelletti, that's Julie Deamer, and we all work together at Vesely Law, and we have offices in Oak Brook and Elgin, Illinois.

And I met you last year, probably, what, eight or ten months ago?

Yeah, about a year, a little bit shy of a year.

So we've had a lot of communication between us and you have helped me with some of the things I've had to deal with.

Absolutely. So we do represent over 18 different taxing districts throughout the state of Illinois, going all the way down from central Illinois, literally on the border. We represent municipalities that border Wisconsin all the way through, all the way over, as far west as the DeKalb area. and we represent also developers and real estate people looking for incentives from governments. We also practice civil litigation as well.

I would like to ask if any of the trustees have any questions for Mr. Buscelli.

How are your company based on ongoing litigation that we have now?

I mean, we are up to date, obviously, you know, respecting the attorney-client privilege. We wouldn't even make that request up until The time is right, but we are aware of numerous conflicts going on through the village.

Anybody else?

I have a question. You stated that you've been working with the mayor for over a year.

I said I was speaking with the mayor for approximately a year.

Have you been compensated in any way for that?

No. Thank you. She bought me coffee once.

Jim, I don't know you and when this appeared on the agenda, obviously did a quick Google search. Do you serve on the Cook County prosecutors? I used to be a prosecutor, yes. So, Sure, you know what I'm going to ask? Sure, yeah, ask away. So Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times all have a report here that right after 9-11 that prosecutor resigns over anthrax hoax. A Cook County prosecutor has resigned after admitting that he perpetrated an anthrax hoax on a coworker.

was that you i was i obviously know about that i would yeah yes i mean it was me it was 26 years ago i believe right what's the date of that article 2001 2021 20 yeah no 20 no 2001 not 21. i'm sorry 2000 yes yeah november november 2001 right after oh yeah absolutely yeah oh yeah okay Do you have any follow-up questions?

No, I just wanted to know if that was, in fact, you or not. For sure, yeah. Absolutely. To me, it, I guess, brings a question of character. And yes, it was 25 years ago, but that was the time that our nation just underwent its largest terrorist attack. And I guess I kind of struggle. I'll tell you that I'll have a tough time voting in favor of that being... being the case, but I'll let any other trustees that have questions.

I have a question. From the Office of the Attorney General, State of Illinois, were you also involved the Village of Antioch improperly withholding public records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request through the Attorney General's Internal Public Access Council review process?

There is many FOIA requests that we handle. We actually, if you know the FOIA law, we actually employ the former public access counselor for the state of Illinois as one of our partners here. Can you give me more context?

These are involving emails exchanged between the village clerk and the village outside attorney James facility.

Absolutely. So yeah, he tried to FOIA the clerk's records of communications between the two of us. And of course, Madam Trustee, I would protect the attorney client privilege to the best of my ability. Absolutely. I would do it for any client. Your communications to me whether you vote for me tonight or not, trustee gets key will be remain confidential at all times. Any other questions, trustee? No, thank you.

Anybody else? CJ? Peggy?

I'm good.

Well, I have found Mr. Vasselli to be very helpful and answered all my questions that I've had in the past 10 months, and I appreciate everything he did for me. And so I would ask for a motion to accept him as our village attorney.

And Madam Mayor, if I may, thank you for that cup of coffee as well.

You're welcome.

I'll make that motion.

Motion by Barry. Second. Second by Vaughn.

Barry?

Yes.

Vaughn? Yes. Boudreaux?

No.

Crockett?

No.

Geske?

No.

Zimbleman?

No. All right, considering that this is the second time I've tried to make an appointment for a lawyer, I am now allowed to make an emergency appointment for the next 30 days, is that correct?

That's correct, pursuant to both state law, attorney general opinion, and your own code, pursuant to section, I believe, 1-5-5 of the Manteno Village Code.

So I am hereby appointing Vesely Law to represent us for the next 30 days. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you.

Mayor, under the law, you are required to report the removal to us in a meeting to be held not less than five, not more than 10 days after the removal. There was an unsigned letter delivered to Mr. Cankhart today. As of right now, the procedures for removal have not been followed and the process is incomplete. However, just to ensure that there are no missed opportunities, I would like to make a motion to disapprove of the removal and restore, reinstate Joe Kankar and the Law Offices of Louis F. Kankar to the Office of Village Attorney effective immediately.

I don't know how to answer that.

I don't know how to answer it either because this mayor never appointed the Kankar Law Firm. I've made the motion.

I'll second that motion.

Wow. Geske?

Yes.

Bujo? Yes. Berry?

No.

Vaughn? No. Crockett?

Yes.

Zimbleman? Yes.

I don't know what to say.

So in the state of Illinois, there are different forms of government, Madam Mayor. And we operate not under a commission form of government or a managerial form of government, but a type of government in America where the executive appoints the officers. So whatever motions get made or whatever things get done, we still operate under the form of government where the mayor appoints the officers. That's also in your village code. That's also in state statute. I think that's the response, Madam Mayor.

So I have the power to make the appointment. With the consent of the board. I am allowed to make an emergency appointment because you have turned me down twice.

We've got a motion, second, and it was voted. The motion carried.

i think mr vasili just stated the fact that i had the right to make an appointment the day i became mayor and i have waited till now to make this appointment because you've already canceled me out once this was the second time that you have turned me down so i am making an emergency appointment for the next 30 days and that is the legal thing that's going to happen please make sure the record reflects that the motion was made a second and the vote took place and the majority of the board voted in favor of reinstating louis kankar

Yeah, I'd also like to make a very clear comment. So one of the things that we do is we provide trainings under the Open Meetings Act. under the open meetings act if you're going to appoint someone or hire someone you have to have it on the agenda now i'm new here and i haven't been here that much earlier but if i look at the agenda which very nice pamphlets by the way madam mayor i don't see the reappointment of the cane car law firm in any way on the agenda maybe i missed it nor do i see the removal but thank you she's an executive she can make the removal thank you madam mayor i think we got a lot of things on the agenda tonight all right thank you thank you just just saw the record

so the record reflects the board has stated that we do not acknowledge you as our attorney and invoices etc will not be considered by this board but please by all means let's move forward thank you trustee thank you

right under announcements um all i have to announce is that we did have a mayor for the day at the village hall last week and it was a first grader her name was cora bittman she won a contest called the raise craze and it was quite a lot of fun i have nothing else under new business so i'm going to go right to the village administrator's report chris just wanted to announce that there was an inadvertent item left off the agenda for tonight's meeting

So Dr. Sharma's request for rezoning and the special use permit for 411 West Division will be considered at a special board meeting next Monday at six o'clock. That's all I have this evening.

Thank you. Committee reports. Finance, Trustee Berry.

Thank you, Mayor. Old business on the agenda, none. New business on the agenda, payment of bills in the amount of $136,507.82. Bill's authorized and paid between board cycle, $0. The next Finance Committee meeting will be July 20th, 5 p.m. in the Village Boardroom.

Thank you. Planning and Zoning, Trustee Boudreaux.

I got no old or new business. Our next Planning and Zoning Committee meeting will be Wednesday, July 8th at 7 a.m. in the Village Boardroom. Planning Commission did meet in June to talk about, as Mr. LaRock just said, Dr. Sharma's two points. It was a good meeting. This is to rezone the current Iroquois Mental Health from a R3 to a C2 and allow it to be an inpatient. It was unanimously approved by the Planning Commission Board. There were residents here that lived right next to that facility that were asked questions. um and they were all answered i i felt very properly uh by dr sharma uh i think he'll be a great partner again we'll have a special meeting on monday just to do that kind of formal stuff i mean i think you guys were there too with that uh and that next planning commission meeting is tuesday july 14th at 6 p.m and that's all i have thank you public safety and health trustee von thank you um old business on the agenda i have nothing this evening new business

Nothing. Public Safety Committee report is going to be given by Officer Karen Brandt. Thank you. Hello.

Good evening, Mayor and Board members. Tonight, I'd like to provide a brief overview of animal control services in the village of Mantino. Rather than operating our own animal control program, the village contracts with Kankakee County Animal Control to provide these services. This partnership allows Manteno residents to receive professional animal control services while avoiding the cost of staffing, equipment, vehicles, and shelter operations that would be required if the village operated its own program. Under this agreement, Kankakee County Animal Control responds to a variety of animal-related issues within the village, including stray dogs, dogs running at large, animal neglect, animal abuse investigations, nuisance complaints, ordinance violations, and other animal-related concerns. They also respond to emergency animal calls after normal business hours on weekends and holidays. The county is responsible for apprehending and impounding animals, transporting them to the county animal control facility, providing humane care while animals are housed there, and making reasonable efforts to locate owners of lost pets. They are also responsible for picking up deceased animals that do not have an owner. For wildlife-related complaints, Animal Control generally responds only when the animal is sick, injured, or located inside a residence. Other wildlife issues are typically referred to licensed wildlife professionals or the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. This agreement also provides enforcement authority for animal-related ordinances and the state laws helping ensure responsible pet ownership and protecting the safety of both residents and animals. Overall, this partnership provides Manteno residents with professional animal control services while allowing the village to utilize the expertise and resources already available throughout Kankakee County Animal Control. Most residents only think about animal control when there's a problem, but having trained professionals available to handle these situations safely an important service that benefits both our residents and our animals if residents have questions about animal related cases need assistance with animal concerns or would like additional information about the services available they are always encouraged to contact the manteno police department at 815-929-4801 and we will be happy to assist them or connect them with the appropriate resources okay thank you officer brent

Chief, we were talking about a few things. Would you like to bring it up? We had no problems this weekend.

Before this weekend, but just recently we had a few cars get burglarized. Once every year or two, we'll have a series of car burglaries. They don't get typically much in change or some small items. I just want to remind everybody, these car thieves or car burglars, almost never damage the car. They never force our way in. They typically just go driveway to driveway and check door handles. Locking your door pretty much solves that problem. So we have the 9 p.m. routine we advertise to just remind people, get in the habit of just locking your doors if you're going to keep your car outside. You know, the biggest thing is if they take your garage door opener or set of keys out of there. Now you're looking at replacing locks and somebody having access to your house. So typically we don't have a big problem, but just keeping your doors locked solves a lot of problems.

And we've had no problems with the children, with the scooters and stuff?

We're still working on our scooter program, so we'll be announcing that here in the next few weeks. We're gonna have some training for scooters and e-bikes coming up.

Okay, good, thank you. My next Public Safety and Health Committee meeting is July 20th at 5 p.m. and in the Village Boardroom. That is all I have, Mayor.

Thank you. Public Works and Utilities, Trustee Crockett.

I have nothing on the agenda this evening. Uh, we do have a public works committee meeting scheduled for June 23rd at 7 00 AM here in the village boardroom. And I will turn to Jim for some updates. Jim, do you have anything that you'd like to add?

Um, yeah, just a couple of things going around town. Uh, we had, Two and a half inches of rain in a 30 to 40 minute timetable last week. A lot of the storm system got overwhelmed. We had some complaints on a couple streets, but again, that was probably a record rainfall coming down in a very short period of time. We're going to check a couple storm basins that may or may not have issues. Possibly even looking to jetting a line or two, but that was the most excitement we had last week.

So all in all, we were able to keep up with the

the heavy rain and yeah some flooding in localized areas and we had flooding kind of uh second hand from all the storms up north and out east and indiana coming this way so uh yeah we had a lot of water on pavement signs a couple of the country roads a couple of roads in town so that was one of the things uh still working over at the pavilion getting that squared away and then fixed very good thanks for the update jim and that's all i have for this evening thank you

Properties and Recreation, Trustee Geske.

Thank you. A couple of items. First thing is I'm going to ask that Trustee Zimbleman put on your agenda for your next committee meeting. Mr. Tortstrick had reached out to me about the subdivision project over in South Creek that we were under the impression he was pulling out of. He'd like to discuss that with the board. So If you could please ask to have that on your agenda. Next thing, just before we get to voting, I believe it was Ms. Chiz that brought up about the park benches and the cost associated with it, just so people are aware. We did discuss this at a committee meeting. I know that sometimes our committee meetings are not always at the most opportune time for everyone, but they are available on YouTube for people to watch. So if you have that much interest in it, you could watch the committee meetings as well. But for the park benches, the discussion that came up was to help offset some of the cost that we were gonna have sponsors to donate for 50% of the cost for those park benches so um i guess with your your messages being heard without you necessarily even talking about it so that was discussed at a previous committee meeting so keep in mind that ashley has already been uh and i know that we've got one of them that are committed and uh or if it's available that you've got a sponsor for same thing number my third thing to talk about was the trucks again that was another thing that we talked about at committee meeting and Talked about the costs Associated with that so when we come up to the vote I'm sure there'll be a motion a second and maybe some discussion that we could talk about and Jim hopefully you've got the numbers with you as to why we're contemplating purchasing a truck instead of leasing and I was the one who was in favor of leasing in the past. In addition to that, my next committee meeting is scheduled for July 8th at 7 a.m., and that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. General Government, Trustee Zimbelman.

I have no old business. We'll add Mr. Torstrick's subdivision project to my agenda. The next general government meeting is Tuesday the 23rd at 7 a.m. in the Village Boardroom. Ashley, do you have anything to add with upcoming events?

Sure, thank you. I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who participated in our recent community events. So on Saturday, we hosted our Yoga on the Square, and we had an incredible turnout. That was 36 participants who came. It was wonderful to see the residents come together to enjoy the morning and take advantage of a free community wellness opportunity. And yesterday was a great day in downtown Manteno. We had an amazing turnout. I can't thank the community members enough for coming out, the volunteers, the sponsors, the vendors, and the attendees. for their continued support. We had a great time yesterday at heroes and hot rods so thank you. Events like these are successful because of the people who show up and make them special so thank you. We're looking ahead for this busy week tomorrow is going to be our cruise nights in downtown mantino that starts at six and ends at nine and then on Wednesday depending on weather we're keeping an eye on it but right now it's still on track For 4 to 8 p.m. On Wednesday or on Wednesday, excuse me, and then on Fridays our first rocking on the square So I'm excited about that. We will be featuring simple remedy the band takes the stage at 7 o'clock But come at around 6 o'clock get your seats get some food Sammy's will be serving some beverages. So it's gonna be a great night. Thank you Annette. Thank you mayor and trustee Thank you

All right, under old business, we had voted on this a couple meetings ago. A motion to reconsider ordinance number 2602 and ordinance amending title one, administrative chapter six, board of trustees of the Village of Manteno Municipal Code by adding section 10, remote attendance. Now, the census is duplicated here. I know that you are wanting to challenge my veto, I did veto this, and the reason I vetoed it is because this is to be used for emergencies, not for business. If you own your own business or you have a business that you're going to somewhere else in another location and you want to attend our meeting, that's not considered an emergency. I think we all got voted to be elected officials so that we would be present here to have our discussions and that people could ask us questions and we could respond in person, which is so much better than being on the television screen. but tonight you're asking to override my veto.

We also got voted to consider things as a board and not as a dictatorship, so I will make the motion to reconsider. Do I have a second?

I'll second it. I have a discussion. We discussed this a lot, and I was all for this when the situation happened with CJ about what he was going through. We had discussed this at the time, there was a discussion in there about the maximum amount of times this could be used and now this thing is once again like every other ordinance that we have in this town is open-ended that doesn't have any stipulations on how many times you could use this how many times you could do this so right now the way that this ordinance sits is i can go and say that i'm gone for the next year and a half and get on a tv there's not any maximum attendance policy there's nothing on here stating how many times you could use this am for this if it's used correctly but to sit here and say that well we could amend it we could do this there is no more amendments of stuff because the last six months of my life have had to deal with amendments that should have been put onto things or things that should have been discussed and it hasn't been discussed so now here's another example of something we're trying to ramrod through without any ask of questions or any Any thought of my questions about this?

I beg to differ on that, Mike, because there was an email sent out by Chris asking for all of our inputs for change, and Chris... got responses back i know there was a response from peggy there was definitely a response from the mayor and cj and cj um so it's not being ramrodded and there were modifications made i don't know that any one particular board member got exactly what they wanted there was give and take so i don't see any joel i don't see any give and take on there i see all this is on here is that i asked for a stipulation of a maximum amount of meetings missed

Well, do you look at the original proposal versus the one that you have now? Yeah, I look at this one that's trying to get approved tonight, and there's nothing in here for a maximum.

And I want to say something. I use the guidelines that are used in Bradley and the Bradley Mayor happens to be here tonight. Hi Mr Watson, I'm glad you're here. One of them was two to four times a year. Another one was for emergency use only, which includes medical reasons, a death in the family, something like that. Not because you're on a vacation or because you're on a trip.

Me I and I don't see those things in the paperwork that came back from our lawyer I would say let our let our voters decide in two to four years if we feel like the if it gets abused They'll let us know if they want us here or not.

I Don't think sitting in this room is gonna abuse this policy.

Yeah But I gave a lot of reasons a lot of guidelines which you asked for guardrails. I gave a lot of them I don't see them in there

I think some of it was state statute. I think too. You asked for some things that just the state.

I asked for the things that were on the Bradley's remote attendance. I used yours, Mike.

Well, this is not Bradley. This is the man. This is Mantino. Last time I checked, right?

No, but it's meant for emergencies, not for the convenience of the trustees.

I hope we're being run by Mantino and not being run by Bradley. I'm getting a little nervous that Bradley.

I'm kind of wondering.

There's a motion and a second on the floor.

Decorum, please. Decorum. Mayor, there's a motion and a second, so let's just do roll call and vote on it, please.

Crockett?

Yes.

Geske?

Yes.

Berry?

No.

Boudreaux?

Yes.

Vaughn?

No.

Zippelman?

Yes.

Motion passes.

All right.

Do we have to do this again, the next motion too? Yeah.

The first one was to reconsider and the second one was to approve.

Okay, consideration regarding a motion to approve ordinance number 2602, an ordinance amending title one administrative chapter six board of trustees of the village of Manteno municipal code by adding section 10 remote attendance over the veto of the mayor.

I'll make that motion. I'll second.

Motion by Boudreaux, second by Crockett.

Boudreaux?

Yes.

Crockett?

Yes.

Berry?

No.

Vaughn? No. Geske?

Yes.

Zimbelman? Yes.

Motion carries. Moving on. Consideration regarding a motion to reconsider the vote on an estimate from Scenic Landscaping in the amount of $9,350 to replace nine trees on Main Street.

was this was another one that got vetoed i'd like to discuss this just a little bit further before we do vote on this so uh jim i don't know two weeks ago or so uh after one of our committee meetings i had asked you to go and uh or have our arborist village arborist uh tag the trees along main street and anywhere else in the downtown area explain how you went about that process and what the different colors of tagging meant, and your take on the situation with the trees.

Yeah, not being an arborist, looking at the trees, you can see there's definitely, they're in pretty bad shape. The orange tag means 50% or more of the tree has died, and the yellow tags, like the green, are 50%, up to 50% of the tree has died off. So, yeah, we counted them all up. They are in bad shape. These are the same trees we've been treating for 10 years now. It's fire blight. It's a fungus that got into the tree. We've done three rounds of applications every year now for the last 10 years. So yeah, there's a couple other, maybe an oak and two other trees that are not looking too good. A couple arborvitaes that are in bad shape as well. So we did the list. 138 trees total, I think was the number, so.

So there's a pretty extensive list of trees that are either dead dying or will be dead within the next year or two. Correct. Correct. So I mean nine trees out of, you know, 40 potentially. Correct. A hundred is what we're talking about.

Oh yeah. 138. That's that's main street. Uh, I think we checked a couple on first, second, third division and then Oak street as well.

I would like to say something. When this came up, there was no real plan in place on how we were going to do this, and nobody even knew what trees we were ordering. And you all voted, or some of you voted, to go ahead and approve this without even knowing what trees we were going to be purchasing.

Trustee Gaskin, I think, told us what trees we were talking about.

no he didn't know he did not know i i had two of the three i didn't know what the third species oh the third species yes but we knew we were diversifying i think this would be a good kind of test as we said we're worried about maybe digging into it let's do nine see what we're really getting into here before we put in a bunch of money and well and we discussed in the previous committee meeting that Even Mike thought that it was a very good price for what they were doing. The initial intent when we talked about nine trees versus the 100 in some trees is we were trying to balance budget issues and do maintenance but not necessarily a complete overhaul. I still think it's a good price. It's a local contractor. We went out for bid. and it you're right it'd be a good experiment to see if he's able to dig those out and replace them without causing damage so if he does damage something he's going to be held responsible that's the understanding of the contract that we have and that's in the contract okay so realistically we have

three options either replace the nine trees as we're proposing tonight with the vote leave them as is and they'd be dead so we'd have nine dead trees on main street along with potentially a hundred more or just cut them down and just have bare spots so those are the options to consider when voting on this i think is there a motion i make i'll make it now i thought i made it but maybe i'm wrong i'll second

Ujo?

Yes.

Zimbleman? Yes. Berry?

No.

Vaughn? Yes. Crockett?

Yes.

Yeske?

Yes. I want it to be noted that I hope that the contractor truly knows what's underneath that ground. All right.

Let's see what happens.

Moving on, consideration regarding a motion to approve the estimate from Scenic Landscaping in the amount of $9,350 to replace nine trees on Main Street over the veto of the mayor.

I'll make that motion. I'll second.

Motion by Crockett, second by Boudreaux.

Crockett? Yes. Boudreaux? Yes. Berry? No. Vaughn? Yes. Geske?

Yes.

Zimbelman?

Yes.

Motion carries.

Ordinance 2603, an ordinance establishing a tax reimbursement account for the 2025 tax year and authorizing distributions to owners of taxable homestead property within the village of Manteno, Kankakee County, Illinois. Mike, do you want to explain this?

Yes, so what we had talked about at the last board meeting was about being able to give the residents a 50% tax rebate this year. We all ran an election last year talking about the property tax rebate about making sure that it was still going to be there for the residents. With our financial situation that we're in, we're not able to give a full 100% rebate, but I thought that At least 50% of a rebate this year would help out some homeowners that do need it. And then we could always look to the future to see what comes in. But I just think that there's people that do depend on this rebate. It's a nice thing to give. I think our residents in this town have been through a lot the last couple of years with decisions that have been made. And I think that to show them that, hey, we are trying to work for you guys. We are trying to give something back to you despite all the negativity surrounding the board. So I just feel like $650,000 to give 50% of a tax rebate would be the right thing to do this year, and we could reevaluate it for next year.

So we voted on this at the last meeting, and there was some confusion when people were voting. And after the meeting was over, Trustee Guske came to me and asked me to put it on the agenda again for tonight, correct?

I said yes, I would think that we need to vote on it and make sure that everyone's aware of where they're at.

I thought this is what we already talked about last minute. It was voted one to five. And the other thing is outside of this room, I haven't had any residents come banging on my door saying, where the heck is my tax rebate? I think most residents are aware. I said outside of this room. I suppose residents, most residents know that this was not always going to be the case as well. They said last time I'm very confused. We're just, we're talking about replacing a bunch of trees. That could be a $100,000. I think, I think the residents realize they're seeing their money in the town and they know this cannot be continued all the time until we have support. I know the mayor said last time she had faced there was money there, but until I, until i see the money coming in i don't we're already at 1.6 this will make us 2.2 million dollars deficit i don't want to be the town was 2.2 continually there was some confusion on the voting and two of the trustees came to me and asked me to re-vote on this so that's why we're doing it i need a motion please i'll make a motion

second motion by barry second by vaughn and we're we're good we're gonna have the money i mean there's six hundred thousand dollars in a bridge fund we're holding for a bridge we can't we can't use the bridge fund money for this yes we did we transferred six hundred thousand dollars of money to the i-57 then chris were we able to use that money for the i-57 overpass yeah it's just earmarked for that it's earmarked for that the board can move the money wherever they want to all right there's a motion and a second on the floor i thought we ran on financial stability

There's a motion and a second on the floor. Do the roll call, please.

Berry?

Yes.

Vaughn? Yes. Boudreaux?

No.

Crockett?

No.

Geske?

Yes.

Zimbelman? No. Mayor Lamar?

Yes. Motion passes. Moving on, the consideration regarding a motion to approve installation of three park benches along village paths at a cost of $2,500 per bench. Is there a motion? So moved. I'll second. Motion by Geske, second by Zimmerman.

Just to clarify, these are the benches we just talked about that we're going to add the businesses to try to cover half the cost, correct? Correct. So it would be about, we're going to pay at the upfront, but it should cost us only $1,250.

And clarification that that is the cost for the bench and the concrete. Because I had some people come up to me and say that they thought that it was an expensive bench.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

go ahead trustee yes did the mayor ask you to golf and what did you say it was too expensive i don't want to waste taxpayer money on our golfing but i'll use our taxpayer money for our but it's okay to spend 2 500 hours shoot we just spent 650 000 on rebates so i guess we can just find a way i have one thing with bunches if we don't mind asking

I know there's three bunches and we had talked about one at Eagles Landing. Yes. My concern is that Eagles Landing, we all know that there needs a lot of work for that erosion for that pond.

We talked about at the committee meeting that moving it to the south side of that park or south side of the path so this way it wouldn't be up against the water.

I had two people reach out to me for Winfield Estates at the new park that they put in for Winfield on the east side over there, northeast corner, about putting a bunch at the park at Winfield.

uh david some new new homes out there jim i thought we had talked about that at a previous maybe okay we can okay so i'd like to see that bench from eagles landing move though i'm fine with that it's just it's it's about putting benches along the pathway that's it so if we want to move it from from the pond area there that long strip and i think it probably makes a little more sense to actually put it over in winfield todd and i were talking about the park benches and

I came up with something as far as getting some of the citizens that have a loved one. That's what he just said. I know, but okay. It doesn't have to be a business.

Correct. It could be an individual.

It could be anybody who wants to sponsor it.

I mean, during the committee meeting, when when i brought up the idea of the sponsorship was that the seven o'clock meeting it was it was probably seven o'clock me and i think uh when i said it actually actually said well i'm gonna hold you accountable to to sponsorship so i'll sponsor one of them but i don't need to sponsor it if someone else wants it and you've got three people it does not need to be sponsored but i did open my mouth and said that i would be willing to sponsor at least one of them and i know that

other people will say i mean if we want to put him at the walking paths and that we have the citizens come on he is talking the entire time would everyone please be silent thank you so peggy what i what you and yes you and i have talked about this quite a bit in the last week and a half or two weeks

I think this would be like a good pilot with these three benches. Let's see if we can get to sponsorships or like you said, if somebody wants to purchase one for a loved one and then maybe just like with the way finder signs, we'll get more people involved that maybe,

it'll turn into six benches and nine benches and keep in mind that the loved one sponsorship that's why we put memorial park for the stones and the benches and the pergolas that was kind of designed for that so same program but again if someone if someone wants to go out there by the walking path yeah if anyone if anyone wants to sponsor a bench for 50 of it by all means it could be a school it could be the fire department it could be

There's a motion and a second on the floor. Can we do a roll call, please?

Yes, key, yes, Zimpleman, yes, Barry, yes, Lujo, yes, Vaughn, yes, Crockett, yes.

Alright, motion passes under new business. A consideration regarding a motion to approve a PSA with HR Green for 2026 MFT resurfacing program. Is there a motion?

I'll make that motion.

Motion by Boudreaux.

I'll second.

Second by Crackett.

Chris, can you clarify this for everybody? Yeah, well, each year we have a MFT program. We get motor fuel tax from all the gas that's sold within the village limits. That money is earmarked and restricted to be used strictly for road maintenance or improvements. And the village engineer does all of the work for the engineering of it as well as the bid process. the fees that he's paid are designated by the state. So no matter who we hire, they would be paid the same amount of money.

So everything that's in this contract occurs to $8,000 for the UA testing, that's all included in the MFT money?

Yeah, so the state reviews all of his invoices, and then they approve that before we're able to pay him.

There's a motion and a second on the floor.

Boudreaux?

Yes.

Crockett?

Yes.

Berry?

Yes.

Vaughn? Yes. Geske? Yes. Zimbelman? Yes.

Motion passes. Consideration regarding a motion to approve the purchase of a 2027 F750 crew cab dump plow truck from Linco Equipment Sales at a cost of $199,247. Do I have a motion? I'll make a motion. Motion by Geske? I'll second.

Second by Zimbelman. We have discussion? Yes. So with this, we discussed before, and I guess the only thing that... jim we talked about leasing options correct and the leasing the that we had done unbeknownst to us or you you had to sign a six month at a time lease to lease the truck correct correct and that the the cost of that as i recall the dollars and cents we would have by leasing it within for five years at six months at a crack We would have paid what it cost us to purchase this truck, and our normal maintenance schedule on this truck is to hold them for 20 years. Is that accurate? Yep. Currently, that's what we've been doing, yeah. So although I was in favor of what was suggested by Trustee Berry and had been preaching that for a while before, dollars and cents, it just doesn't work out. and this is a piece of required equipment that we need to be able to ensure that our roads are plowed so that this way not only people can get to work but our emergency personnel can get to and from people in storms so um i guess the in this price does include everything that is involved in it except for the lettering is that correct yeah it's through source well so it's a

It's a nationwide bidding for the truck and the equipment.

Okay. And so Linco would not be at Croswell Ford then? Linco would do the build-out. Croswell Ford would be the Ford supplier. So it's at a national bidding, but we would be purchasing locally? Correct.

I got a question. Did we call the Herc Rentals and ask them about differences of months on that contract, on the proposal? To shorten the months? Yes.

No.

would say pretty comfortable november to april so at 49.95 a month if we went six months and we were able to change the the contract terms on there because i did reach out to him is that's twenty nine thousand nine hundred seven dollars a year if we leased it for six months out of the year now with the lease if something goes wrong with that truck we give it back to him to repair it we have no overhead cost besides the lease payment that's 149 850 for five years so my question is is that we're looking at a hundred and ninety nine thousand dollar dump truck and we could lease one for twenty nine thousand nine hundred seventy dollars if something goes wrong with the plow the auger the lights the transmission everything besides if somebody runs over a nail we call up the company and they come and give us one or they repair or fix that one i just don't see how how long do these dump trucks last

our trust so currently we have a 2008 that's what we're looking to replace it has a uh broken transmission that's sitting at ej equipment right now for sixteen thousand dollars to replace it so roughly let's be generous 15 years oh we shoot for 20. yeah yeah this is you know it's a year short of 20. i mean

get this truck towards the end of this year into the you know so even if we locked the lease rate in after 20 years we could have bought two of these things roughly uh three three but you don't not understanding the maintenance of the truck those trucks the wear and tear on the trucks of assault truck is at this truck at the end of the season you give that back to them you don't have a problem down the line with them i mean i have salt trucks that are 30 years old that have 40 000 miles on them I mean, leasing aspect of it is why not try out the lease? What do we have to spend $199,000 for a truck? That's going to be used for the winter time. And last the last five winters, all we've had for winter time was salting events, maybe two or three major plowing events. So I just don't understand why you could put a $16,000 transmission in that other truck and you try out the lease for a year and see how it works. I mean, I think that's way more fiscally responsible than spending $199,000 on a dump truck. Yep.

I guess it matters on how you look at fiscal responsibility. I'm looking long-term. We can get three. Short-term, sure, but long-term, I don't think it's going to be worth the cost. It's not worth the cost long-term. If this thing can last 20 years, it's not. You're thinking it can last 20 years without one problem. Discuss this with me. How many dump trucks have we had that have caused a lot of problems?

This is probably one of the worst of them. That's $15,000?

How many transmissions did we have to put in that truck?

This is the third transmission.

Okay, and that's a 20-year-old truck. That's where my stance is at.

If there's no more comments, there is a motion and a second on the floor.

Gasky?

Yes.

Gimbelman? Yes. Berry?

No.

Bujo?

Yes.

Vaughn?

No.

Crockett?

Yes. Motion passes. Ordinance 26-04, an ordinance of the Village of Mantino, Kankakee County, Illinois, amending and restating the Village of Mantino investment policy. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion by Geske.

discussion um chris larac do you want to explain some of this to the people so after the forensic audit results the village attorney took it upon himself to do what they asked which was to look at the state statutes we had not revised that document since 2017 so he went and reviewed what we had compared to the state statutes and updated it to make it comply with the new state rules that have been put in place since 2017.

Any other comments or questions?

I'll second that. I was looking at the second.

Yes. Key. Yes.

Yes.

Barry.

Yes.

Fine. Yes. Crockett. Yes. Zimbalman. Yes.

Motion passes.

Ordinance 26-06, authorizing the sale of personal property, surplus municipal equipment. Is there a motion?

Chris, you want to explain what that is? Yeah, so this is the turf that we're taking out of the square. the school had realized that we were probably going to be taking that out and still had, I guess some life left in it for what their uses might be. So, uh, because the school agreed to basically pay a hundred percent of the crossing guard expense, uh, for the next school year. And we thought it would be good for us to reciprocate with them and provide them with this turf that we really have no additional use for.

And they're really just looking to use a small piece of it to put a speed track in their weight room. Yeah, whatever, however much they need.

Is there money involved in the sale?

No.

I think we just have to declare it as a surplus so that we can donate it to them.

Any other comments? Did we have a motion on that already? So moved.

I'll second.

Motion by Geske.

Second by Annette.

Second by Crockett.

Geske? Yes. Zimbleman? Yes. Berry? Yes. Pujo? Yes. Vaughn? Yes. Crockett? Yes.

Motion passes. Consideration regarding a motion to approve payment of the bills in the amount of $136,507.82, including TIF number three at zero. I'll make that motion. Motion by Berry. Second. Second by Vaughn.

Barry Vaughn. Yes. Bujo.

Yes.

Crockett.

Yes.

Gaskey.

Yes.

Zimbalman. Yes.

All right. Thank you. Comments. Who would like to start tonight? Todd.

I'm going to ask Mr Vasselli one more time. Mr Vasselli, have you been compensated by any way for any services provided to the mayor, her group or any associates have, have you been compensated by anybody in association with the mayor?

I, do you mean compensated for services for Mantino or I don't even understand your question. Right, but I don't understand the question, Trustee.

Have you been compensated in any way by the mayor, associates, groups, for any services that your firm has provided?

I mean, I guess I was wrong before. She also baked me some banana bread, which was fantastic, by the way, Mayor. So the coffee and the banana bread, no.

I'm asking a serious question.

I'm giving you a serious answer. I've answered it no three times now, Trustee.

Okay. Thank you for your answer. Mayor, I just find it, I just continue to be amazed by your delusional thoughts that you can run this village as a dictatorship.

Do you understand that mayors are allowed to make appointments? I think that mayors are allowed to make appointments. I am making an appointment.

And the board approves those appointments. Some boards do. The board approves those appointments. Irregardless of your appointment, the board approves it. I think you're completely gaslighting this village by your thoughts of transparency. Because tonight, tonight is the first night that I've heard of Mr. Viselli's firm. How is that transparency? Again, you're gaslighting this community over and over and over again, okay? My thoughts are not popular with 15 or 20 people in this room, but I think what you need to be concerned about is the rest of the village.

that's my comment thank you trustee geske thank you i have uh four things that are five things i'd like to talk about first um heroes hogs and hot rods i'd like to congratulate you for putting on just a fabulous deal um wasn't there yesterday but from all reports that I have gotten each year it continues to grow and grow and grow and we ask ourselves is can it get better is it gonna get better and each year you come back and make it better so thank you for doing that for our village second thing I'd like to acknowledge Our school resource officer, Aaron Toback, for his service. There was a retirement party that I unfortunately was out of town handling storm duties for work. I was not able to attend. I don't know, the mayor had asked me if I attended earlier, Unfortunately, I don't know, because I wasn't there, but if he got the representation from the board that maybe he deserved, because we all had things going on, but he was a tremendous asset, going to be missed by the schools, going to be missed by the village for sure. He helped out a tremendous amount, so I want to acknowledge that and thank him for his service. Next item, I'd like to explain the tax rebate. During committee meetings in the past, I have said that I had concerns and reservations about us issuing the tax rebate and surprised probably some people that I voted in favor of it tonight, but I believe that we've got one of two ways that we correct the deficit in the budget. One, we stop spending, or two, we bring in new revenue. I am confident that this board and leadership um realizes that even if we stop spending um completely don't do anything and allow this place to run into nothing we can't we we have to look for other sources of revenue so i am confident that this board is exploring and is working on other projects in order to increase the revenue for the village. So that's why I voted the way I did in favor of it and I want our residents to get their rebate back. The money from that was from the sale of our water system, our sewer system and as elected officials and as one that made the decision when we did it, we said that that was the resident's asset and so we'd like to return it back to the residents But I would challenge all of us board members that we need to find alternate sources of revenue. So those are some of the things. The last thing I have is, Chris, I saw an email today that talked about the forensic audit that was done and that there's additional work being requested outside the scope from our contract. And I guess my question is, what is that additional work that they're wanting to bill as $225 an hour? What is that and who's authorizing that?

I have no idea. I sent the email that I got from the auditor directly to the board. I've never been informed of additional work. I have no idea what it is. He didn't explain it in his email. He was looking for me to authorize it and I told him that I would forward it to the board. I don't have that authority to give him a blank check.

So, so I guess I will say that I don't think that we should be authorized in any additional work or anything outside the scope. We gave him a very reasonable paid, probably way too much money as it is. Um, and it bring me to the next part of this that in, in, we got a little love letter received all the trustees did, but it talks about, um, Where do we stand with getting our accounts switched over? Sheila, during that audit when they did the review, I brought it up in the last meeting that we wanted to get all of our accounts switched over because our banking institutions, they're concerned about the safety of our village assets. Where do we stand with that? Is it all switched over now or where do we stand?

Yes, so after the forensic auditor released all of the Village of Manteno's bank account numbers, we thought it prudent to open up new bank account numbers with all of our financial institutions. So we're in that process. It is quite a lengthy process, and we've had to order new supplies. And we have had to, in the meantime, the mayor has appointed a new clerk, so we've had to do some new signature cards also.

so are accounts all transferred or are we still no we're still in the process okay because i the next question i was going to have was since we've transferred all of our accounts and we're waiting for redacted copies of the transcript that they have not yet provided us As soon as we have our accounts all transferred over, I would like to see us post the forensic audit. I don't care if it's redacted or unredacted, because he already presented it as unredacted. And I would like us to make sure that we keep tabs of our costs associated with transferring of these accounts and deduct whatever cost it is from us from his final bill. That was an unnecessary expense. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you.

Trustee Zimbelman. I was just going to say, don't you have routing numbers and numbers on your checking accounts?

Every account.

I mean, I have them on mine. All right, next.

I'm good. Nothing? No. Trustee Berry, comments?

Peggy, go first.

I have nothing to say. This is ridiculous.

All right. Trustee Boudreau.

Again, just want to shout out the Heroes, Hogs, and Hot Rods event. It was a great success. I happened to be there for about six hours. Shout out to Eric Peterson and the whole company. Again, it's just awesome to see us find ways to honor those who have done so much for us in different ways and have that talent support there. Makes it great. It makes me proud to live in Manteno and have these events that we have for, which is awesome. We got another great one, as Ashley said, Music on the Square, first one's on Friday. I don't think we'll be here before the 4th, so don't forget too, July 3rd is our fireworks. It starts at dusk over the lake. So that should be great for their two. You mentioned Toback. I happened to be there. I think I was the only one on the board that was able to make it. Again, Toback served us for 20 years, eight years in the school. I just hope he recognizes how much support he had. The school showed up in good number. The police department showed up in good number. I wish our village kind of showed up a little bit more in good number for an officer that served us for two decades, but he was amazing. And we are really going to miss him. I know the chief had some very kind words. It was a very cool experience to kind of see the final sign off on that. So we're definitely missing him for that. Finally, just about the temporary appointment. Our current lawyer, well to me he's still our current lawyer, has served us for over 20 years and I had talked to the mayor about a year ago and she asked about replacing and I said my only stipulate, the only reason I voted no of why we were replacing is we are currently in a lawsuit with the concerned citizens and I know that our current mayor had some role in that and I did not want to sway a lawsuit in that kind of way so that is why i wanted to wait until that lawsuit is done sir have you had any contact with anyone from the concerned citizens group i don't know who the concerned citizen group is so i can't answer that question you've never heard of the concerned citizens group that is currently suing our village i know there is a suit against the village but i don't know who the concerned citizens are no contact at all with that group or anyone in that group or any lawyers in that group trustee i i

I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I don't know how else to answer it.

Like, I don't know. I don't know.

There's no appearance. There's no nothing. I don't know. Trustee Boudreau, not to sound cheeky, but you could be one of the concerned citizens. I just don't know.

I am. not so I wouldn't sue my village right but anyway and that is why I think we should pursue this further nothing against you personally at all I just don't want to change our lawyers while we're getting sued by people that are now on the board that were part of that group I rather have that case get finalized and then I'll be open to a new lawyer thank you thank you trustee Barry it's amazing to me that

amount of time and energy and effort that we put into this outside of work during work on weekends and every other thing that we do as trustees and at the end of the day it seems like every time i try to do something it gets vetoed down or pushed down not every time We have been in a lot of good discussions in the last month and a half. And I can't wait to have a meeting here in the next 15 minutes about this. But I think that we all got elected, some of us got appointed, but we all got elected to work for the citizens, right, wrong, or indifferent. At the end of the day, I don't have to agree with you, you don't have to agree with me, but we at least have to have some type of discussion. And the thing that irritates me is that we're all trying to do something correctly. We might not agree with it, but the comments from board members to the mayor I think is unacceptable. If I talk to my mother like that, I talk to my wife like that, I wouldn't be walking around. That's all I have to say.

And I just want to say we all got elected because people in this community put trust in us. It's just a shame that we can't blend and work together a little better than what we are. There seems to be a lot of obstinate feelings. You don't want to let me make appointments and I can't understand that. I just can't. I'm sorry that you are offended by some of the things I've done and you don't think I've been transparent But I've done my best and I'm gonna continue to do my best because that's what I was elected to do. I Love Mantino. I believe in it. I'm gonna work hard to be the best I can be and maybe that's not good enough for some of you But for me, it's what I'm going to do At this time, we are going to go into executives. Motion to adjourn. Yeah, we need a motion to adjourn, and we're going to go into it. Wait a minute. It's a temporary adjournment, right?

Well, we're going to, I imagine that you would make a motion to go into executive session.

We're going to make a motion to go into executive session.

Pursuant to litigation that is threatened or pending against the municipality. Yeah, but we need to, I mean, we're going to recite the number. You always recite the number, correct? All right. So if I may make a suggestion, and I know that I was somewhat of a lightning rod tonight, but so we can go into executive session for litigation to discuss pending or threatening litigation pursuant to five ilcs 120 backslash 2 c 11 that is the exception under the open meetings act to go into executive session for litigation purposes i would ask my colleagues to stay with me but that's how i believe the motion should be made and that's how it's made in all the municipalities that we work on all right is there a motion

I'll make the motion. Motion by Vaughn.

I second it.

Second it by Berry.

Given the fact that we don't have our attorney present or there's a dispute as to who our attorney is, I don't feel comfortable going into executive session, but that's myself.

This is our attorney tonight. Mr. Veselas is our attorney tonight, Joel.

Okay. I beg to differ, but okay. I don't feel comfortable in it, but just go ahead and do the roll call.

Mr. Vitale, do you have to be here for these discussions?

don't have to know i mean the law is on the side that i have a temporary appointment um if the board wishes if the discussion would go on and myself and my colleagues leave we'd be more than happy to the businesses of this village and to promote this village's interest if me walking out of closed session is going to help promote the the business of the village and i will walk out of closed session is that really necessary yes

I think it would be good until we have it fully settled.

I mean, but can I say something? But the law is clear that in the event of a dismissal of an attorney which occurred that was never appointed by the chief executive officer of this village, she can appoint a temporary successor. Trustee, again, I don't want to be argumentative, but I just want to be, it's my job to make sure everybody knows what the law is, right? I do have an oath to uphold, and that's what the law is. There is, I don't know if there was a motion in a second with regards to closed session, but yeah. sorry madam clerk and i'm sorry about all the over talking it's it's important for decorum purposes that we make sure that we all talk so you can keep proper minutes pursuant to the open meetings act is there a motion in a second yes okay come on yes just to clarify that is this without him or with him in our executive session

Do you all oppose having him here?

I think Mike's in favor of him not being here. Joel's obviously in favor of him not being here. We've got to have a discussion tonight.

All right. Yeah, it's fine. It's important. It's my job to serve the village, and the village is headed up by a chief executive officer, right? That's just law. So if I have to leave, I leave. That's fine. I'll stand outside. If there's a procedural question that you don't care about me hearing, just come and tap on me, and I'm happy to answer. I'm going to send my colleagues home, but I'm more than happy to wait. That's fine.

I appreciate that. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Of course, ma'am.

I'll come out and... Oh, yeah. Do you want to call the roll in case it doesn't happen? Yes. Yes.

Roll call.

Vaughn? Yes. Berry?

Yes.

Bujo?

Yes.

Crockett?

Yes.

Geske?

Yes.

Zimbelman? Yes.

All right, thank you to the public. We're going to ask you to leave now. And after our executive session, we're going to come back and adjourn the whole meeting.

And I'll come back. Chris, can you ask them to turn our mics off?