Village Board - Special Meeting

Thank you. Call to order.

I'd like to call to order the special meeting of Board of Trustees for June 25th at 7 p.m. Can we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

and municipal with liberty and justice for all.

Barry?

Present.

Boudreaux?

Here.

Vaughn? Crockett?

Here.

Geske?

Here.

Zimbleman? Here. Seeing as though Mayor Lamoure is not present, can I have a motion to appoint a mayor pro temp?

I'll make the motion to appoint Trustee Guskey as Mayor of Port Town.

I'll second.

Crockett?

Yes.

Zimbleman? Yes. Berry?

Before we start this meeting, I just want to explain a couple of things. is not a correct meeting special meetings may be held at a time on a call of the president or two other trustees more trustees such calls shall be in writing duly signed and shall be presented to the clerk who shall proceed immediately to cause notice to the same to be served upon the president and trustees in person or by registered letter and such notice shall be described in brief nature or the object of the call this is our Ordinance 1-6-3. This is an illegal meeting.

Who called the meeting to order? Did anyone here call the meeting to order? I thought the mayor called the meeting to order, correct? That's correct. That is correct. So I guess, okay, well, we can...

Finish with your roll call. Let the record reflect that Trustee Berry has left.

Okay, Boudreaux?

Yes.

Gasky?

Yes. Okay, tonight we have a special meeting before the village board. This meeting was called by the mayor, Lamore. It was scheduled and agenda was prepared by the council that she was trying to appoint. There were some modifications to the agenda to include a few things on there. The purpose of this meeting this evening was for her to report to the village board in accordance with our ordinance, why she was terminating the village attorney. since she is not here, she's not reporting it, we will make an assumption that the email that she provided us last Monday was the reasonings for her reporting of the termination of our attorney. So as such, That is why we're here this evening. And on the agenda that was posted, clearly in compliance with the Open Meetings Act with 48 hours notice. It was posted on our village website. It was posted on the Leo Hassett here and posted on Village Hall, obviously by the number of people that are in the audience this evening. It was clearly known by not only the elected officials, but also by the general public, and that is the purpose of the Open Meetings Act. so um since the mayor is not here to report um oh sorry okay sorry about that before we move forward we need to to deal with public participation so i would like to note too uh unfortunately our new clerk stephen orth has decided to resign as of tuesday so we no longer have a clerk again so we'll be going on to our fourth clerk So our first public participant is Eric Urbanowski. Eric, the floor is yours.

Good evening, distinguished board members. I am here tonight to speak on the village attorney situation. As a resident and founder of a local business, I am shocked at the actions of the mayor last week regarding the removal of Joe Kankar. The optics of this move are terrible. The village is in litigation with CCOM, the Concerned Citizens of Manteno. That is an organization that was founded by Mayor Annette Lamore. This immediately raised a question with the reasoning of such a move. It certainly has the optics of a situation where the village is being put in a compromised state, removing council mid-litigation, which would favor the CCOM. I will understand that the mayor has the power to make appointments. However, the optics on this and the timing raises many legitimate questions that have not yet been answered. Now let's look at the attorney the mayor has chosen as a replacement, James Vasselli. This attorney resigned from the Cook County Prosecutor's Office in 2001 after pulling a prank on a co-worker shortly after 9-11, claiming it was anthrax, when in fact it was sugar and it was placed in an envelope with a person that the attorney was actively prosecuting's address. He also had previous history of not following the law with regards to FOIA inquiries regarding the village of Antioch. The Illinois Attorney General's office determined that emails between Mr. Vasselli and the village clerk were improperly withheld and that these public records were not disclosed despite a valid FOIA request. Last but certainly not least, Mr. Vasselli was legal counsel for the village of Dalton under Tiffany Hanyard's time in office. During this administration, there were multiple claims of financial mismanagement, governmental conflicts, and legal issues. Obviously, there were many issues in that village, and one would think that the village attorney would be working to prevent these actions, but the whole term was marred by controversy. Is this really who we want representing our village? I am all for second chances, but Mr. Vasselli's flippant response to valid inquiries from our board makes this infeasible. His immature response to inquiries about payment and responding with coffee and banana bread shows that he's not matured to a level where he should be an attorney for any village. Anyone that has seen how this village has been operating over the past 18 months, this attorney is the last thing our village needs to move forward. Our village needs strong leadership to ensure that the village can prosper moving forward. Decisions like these make me seriously question if we have the right people in the right positions. Running the village is about stability, not how many YouTube viewers that we can get to watch the dysfunction. I am asking the board to vote to override the mayor's appointment of James Vasselli based upon his past and current litigation with the CCOM. Thank you. Thank you.

The next participant is Paul Motel. Paul, the floor is yours.

Thank you. The first thing I'd like to note is this is the second time during a meeting that I'm witnessing all three patrolmen on shift here at this meeting. Currently, none of the streets are being patrolled, just like everyone to know that. This is the second time. I'd also like to elaborate a little bit on Village Code 1-6-3, what Trustee Berry just explained. Special meetings may be held at any time on call of the president or two or more trustees. The call shall be in writing, duly signed, and presented to the clerk. So where's our clerk? Was Mr. Orth presented with that documentation? I don't think so.

That's a question for the mayor.

That is? All right. I'll contact Madam Mayor after the meeting. A little bit more. 1-6-5, rules and order of business. Rule number 10, the first one. General Government Committee. This committee shall advise on policy matters pending before the village board related to general management of the village, including legal services. Joel, you repeatedly bring up retaining Joe Cancar. I have not once heard Annette bring up anything about the attorney. So what are we doing here? Because there's a rule in our code that I don't see many of you guys following the code when it comes to heading your committees.

Well, first off, she sprung is this part of my time no your time will be paused okay thank you first off she sprung that on us the night of our meeting that she was firing our attorney okay so we have not had a general government meeting since then yes okay so again it should be annette's responsibility to handle that matter all right

With all that being said, Trustee Berry is claiming that this meeting should not be occurring due to the fact of 1-6-3 was not being followed. And with that being said, this meeting moves forward and you vote on that matter and take action on it. I am referring this entire meeting to the Public Access Counselor's Office. I'm citing all our village code, and I will be FOIA requesting all the documentation to support the claim that this meeting should not occur. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Next speaker is Anne Gates.

Hey, please watch your comments, sir. Sir. Sir, and please don't listen to them.

Oh, believe me, I don't give any credence to that. Good evening. I was just wondering if any of you go back and watch the videos of the meetings. If not, I encourage you to. Typically what happens when a person is challenged or fearful, tries to defend their actions, they will react rather than respond. It's a knee jerk reaction that's done because it's incorrect and you don't know what the correct response should be. So there's reaction. Last week there was a whole lot of reaction going on and not a whole lot of response. there was a lot of reaction as we tried to move toward transparency and giving the town a fresh start it's been said you want the town to be attractive for people that want to come here but if i had been watching what was on display here i would have crossed mantino off my list really quick and i have friends that i haven't seen in six years that showed up for the meeting last week and they were appalled because they were actually thinking of moving here. He grew up here. They are having serious second thoughts about that. The mayor sat and she did not raise her voice. She explained quietly and with authority that she was the mayor and I respect that. I was approached by a gentleman at the store thanked me for speaking up about Goshen, but he was adamant about letting me know the casting of dispersion on Mayor Lamoure's character only spoke to the character of the one that was speaking the lies. Disparaging remarks concerning the golf course issue. He explained he was there. He knew the truth, he knew what happened, And I asked him, then, why don't you come and speak out? And he said, I can't, and I won't. And I was like, well, why not? And he said, because I know too many people, I'm related, I have neighbors, and I have friends, and I don't want anything to happen to me. I get that, because I was followed again after last time's meeting. So either way, whether they know someone personally or are related or they're neighbors or whatever, the fact that they're afraid to come and speak, and it's not just 20 people. People are afraid to come and speak to you because of the antics and the things you guys are doing.

That's your time.

That's important, and you need to rethink that. I strongly encourage you to rethink that. You should be worthy of respect and trust that was given. Evidently, the people had a different choice because Mayor Moore was voted in over you, Mr. Getsky.

Thank you, Ann. Next speaker is Bill Barnes. Bill Barnes. Okay. He's left. Next speaker, Stacy Malone.

I'm just going to start by saying that I might be just a hair past three minutes. I just want to address a couple of FOIA requests that I have already submitted because I believe that facts matter. Transparency matters and public trust matters. The current administration campaigned on transparency and accountability. As residents, it is reasonable for us to expect those same standards when we ask questions and request public records. Over the last year, there has been a lot of discussion, accusations, and speculation in this community. Rather than relying on rumors, opinions, or social media commentary, I choose to review the public records themselves. Here are some of the facts. First, I submitted a FOIA requesting communications between the Village of Manteno and our forensic accounting company. Those records that I have raised some questions because there was an email between Mrs. Gatzke and Mayor Lamoure that references some text messages and includes an offer for her to assist in transferring those text messages from a phone. However, no text messages from the mayor were included in the records that I received. Second, I requested communications between the Village of Manteno and Jim Rowe's office. The records show a meeting was being scheduled, but the email chain ends without confirmation of a final meeting time or a location, specifically when the last email from the state's attorney said, Where would you like to meet? That raises questions for me because public statements have repeatedly indicated there were no findings of wrongdoing, theft or misappropriation of funds. If that's the case, I believe residents deserve an explanation of why the meeting was planned on June 2nd and what was discussed. Third, I requested communications between Village officials and Attorney James Vasselli from July 2025 through present. The only text message produced came from Trustee Mike Berry. That text thread included Mayor Lamore, Trustee Berry, Attorney Jim Vasselli, and a phone number later identified as Dennis Riboletti. In that conversation, there was a discussion about a special meeting and availability to attend. Notably, despite the mayor and Mr. Vasselli being named in the FOIA request, no additional communications were produced by either party. Dennis Rebo Letty is a former Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives, a former Will County assistant state's attorney and a former Addison Township trustee who in September of 2025 was sued by the Addison Township board along with three other former officials for allegedly misappropriating more than $78,000 in funds and using part of it to purchase a pickup truck. What could he possibly have to do with any mantino business? Fourth, I requested detailed invoices from the Village of Bradley regarding work performed by Jim Vasselli Law between July 2025 and June 16th, 2026. That request was submitted on June 16th, 2026. As of today, June 25th, 2026, I have not received the requested records, a denial, or a notice extending the response period. The statutory five business day deadline for responding to a FOIA request has passed.

Please wrap it up.

Yes. Everything I have requested tonight can be supported by FOIA responses, emails, letters, and records that I possess. They are not rumors. They are not social media posts. They are not half-truths. They are public records obtained through the legal process established for the state of Illinois.

Time's up.

Transparency was a campaign promise, and these FOIA requests have left me with questions that remain unanswered.

Thank you, Stacy. Next speaker is Bobby Forsythe.

But you know, the mayor tried to appoint a lawyer before and you guys voted it down. Why don't you want change? I mean, anything that she suggests you guys don't wanna do. It's pretty, you know, we come here, we see it all the time. And with Joe Kankar, I don't know if he works for the Village or he works for Goshen. I've been at all the court hearings, and I don't see him representing the Village of Manteno. And then even everything that happened with Goshen, everything that we've had go on here right now, where's Joe been? I mean, there's a ton of safety issues going on right now, and that should be our main concern, safety for the village of Manteno. How is the fire brigade going? How are the talks going with those guys? Would you guys answer any of those questions?

We would love to talk about that, but the mayor, unfortunately, is not here, and we need to leave.

And CJ, for you? You came in here and you ripped on me before, but you know what, you were in diapers when all this stuff started. You really were, so you don't know. You only know what you've been told. And you can give me that look, and I watch you here and you look across to get your directions from Joel and Todd. I understand that. I understand which way you gotta look to find out if you're supposed to speak. but last week, Joel, you were gonna run out of here again. Second time, you were gonna leave and take your group with you. I mean, it's like being the leader in the sandbox. Do you always take your toys and go home if you don't get your way? Because that's exactly what this is. You don't get your way. And I don't quite understand why you don't want to have another attorney, whether you don't like that guy or not, but why not be open to somebody else? And you're not. Almost every vote is 4-4-2. It's 4-2, 4-2 all the time. We can sit back here. Are you upset you lost and you can't figure out that you did lose yet? I mean, this might be your glory day right now because you're acting as a mayor. But I just don't understand why you guys don't want to work together. I mean, this whole group, everybody here should be working together. And it's a constant battle. We have a big problem in Manteno, and it's Goshen. And you guys helped bring it in because you never asked any questions. We wouldn't have a lawsuit today if you guys would have opened your mouths. But instead, you guys ran out of here with 10-minute meetings every time there was a meeting. 15 minutes was a long time.

That's a long time for a meeting, 15 minutes for you guys before.

And now people ask questions, and you go, and you still won't answer them. I mean, the problem that lies here today is brought on by you, and you're in this little group. Thank you, Bobby.

Next speaker is George Reichert.

So since the mayor's not here tonight and you're acting mayor, I'm asking you, because I got a question for you. So everybody's so quick to throw this new lawyer underneath the bus for something that happened 25 years ago. Does anybody else in here have any skeletons in their closet they would like to have a little transparency with? Is there anybody that's got any skeletons in their closet? Do you? Because maybe you ought to come have some transparency and tell us your history, like you could tell them with this lawyer up here. you know because uh it's not right you know you can you guys are going you know what i saw him two weeks ago he jaywalked in joliet just we might want to document that too because you know you guys are going way way above and beyond with this guy you know you're looking for any little thing but we need to check everybody else's skeletons in their closets too thank you thank you

that concludes public participation under the village president's report there's a Goshen update listed I'm not sure exactly what she wanted to address during that so since we don't have any information we will move on from that next thing is audit update again to my knowledge there's no new updates or anything Other than someone, it was requesting the auditor to continue to do work at the rate of $225 an hour, which I'm unaware of who requested that. But, um, I guess we'll wait for further meetings to address that. Um, The articulation and reason for removal of Cancar, as I explained before public participation, the mayor's not here to give us, to articulate or properly report to us. However, we can assume from carbon copy of the email that she provided us last Monday, that that is her attempt at reporting. So we will move on under old business. We have a motion to disapprove the removal and to reinstate Joseph Kankar and the Law Offices of Louis Kankar, LTD, to the Office of Village Attorney effective immediately. I would entertain a motion.

I'll make that motion.

Motion by Boudreau.

I'll second.

second by zimbelman is there any discussion that needs to be had before before we vote on this i'd like to just state for the record that there's talk about this attorney being the old regime's attorney and there is some truth to that but let me explain what i mean by that joe kankar was not appointed by the former mayor Joe Cancar was not appointed by any of the trustees here. When we took office 20 years ago, Joe Cancar's firm was here from the prior village board. And we kept him for 20 years because he did do such a good job. And we are currently in litigation where the village is being sued. And that lawsuit is brought on by an organization that the mayor was directly part of in filing that lawsuit and organizing it. So when people ask why we would like to not change attorneys in the middle of litigation, I think that's a pretty good explanation for it. That being said, we have a motion by Boudreaux, a second by Zimbelman. Roll call, please.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

zimbalman yes crockett yes yes yes the motion has carried uh any comments there's no other new business cj do you have any comments just really quick uh there are some events this upcoming week as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our great country as a historian some of the teachers are really excited Just run through them really quick. Sunday, June 28th, we got the Slow Roll Bike Ride at Legion Park. Monday, June 29th, the Silhouettes are performing on the Square. They're really good, 7.30 to 9.00. Again, bring your own chair, and I'm pretty sure it's BYOB, too. Tuesday, June 30th, Puppy Party at Legacy Park, 5.30 to 7.00. Games, funs, and treats. The July 1st Market on the Square, I believe our mayor will be handing out flags. I think she said she had over 800 of them. 4 to 8 p.m., Thursday, July 2nd, another Music on the Square, Stevie Swings, 6.30 to 8, and then the fireworks show obviously is the third on the lake, so that'll be awesome. And then just really quick, because I've seen a lot of signs around town, I hope you guys have too, our library seems to be doing amazing jobs. I love seeing those signs of I love the library. I stopped in there today. They have events going on every day. They have a patriotic book club for little kids, which is kind of fun as we celebrate that. So I think it's big, as I've heard from all sides and all people, to remember the positives as much as possible. We need to stay positive. Obviously, people are upset. You have a right to be upset. Of course you do. But out in the public, we need to continue to promote our town.

um because i do think and obviously i think all of you here that's why you're here you love mantino and so do i thank you trustee crackett um just a couple uh quick comments uh i was at the event uh saturday night music on the square there was a great turnout the weather was nice um The pavilion is really shaping up. I think it looks beautiful. That's going to be a nice addition to many of the amenities that our village has to offer. And I think there's a lot of villages and municipalities that would be envious to have the amenities that our village has been able to offer over the course of the last many, many, many years before this. before this board and several other boards had a big hand in making our village look as beautiful as it does and attractive to many people. I know we had a great event today. Unfortunately, I was under the weather earlier today and wasn't able to attend it. Ashley, do you want to go over that a little bit?

So today we had what's called the Senior Shuffle, and that was over at Thies Park. It was a chamber event that was brought on by community members that approached me wanting to do more senior initiatives in our community. And part of my role when I took this job was I wanted to bring more senior events to this community, so I was glad when they approached me. So we had a great turnout. We had a couple of activity or assistant living facilities and an adult senior daycare center that also visited as well and several chamber members and community members. So I thank everybody for coming out. We will host more events. So please stay tuned on the chamber website. I haven't created the flyer officially yet, but we will have another one in July and another one in August. So please stay tuned. Thank you.

Thank you, Ashley. That's all I have for this evening.

Trustee Zimbelman. have nothing a couple things real quick first thank you everyone for coming out there's people in the audience who are in support of our position there are other people that are not in support of our position and thank you all from both sides for coming and showing your passion for mantino we can agree to disagree on items but still handle it cordially so thank you all for for showing up this evening um to address the comment about that mr foresight had said about us not wanting to have um change i think we can go around and look at all of the plan commission members that were all appointed they're new that's changed we voted in favor of it so that is there uh the clerk we've had multiple clerk appointments that we voted for for change um this just happens to be one item that we're not willing to move on um so that means who appointed the clerks the mayor mayor mayor appoints the clerks and and the plan commission members ratified by by us so um to say that we're not allowing change is an unfair statement um so that being said um thank you everyone have a happy fourth of july and motion to adjourn motion by zimbalman second by boudreaux roll call please zimbalman yes yes bracket yes yes thank you for coming if you want