Village Board - Regular Meeting

sorry good evening everybody and welcome to the mantino village board meeting for august the 17th at 6 p.m i'd like you all to stand for the pledge of allegiance I'd like to introduce Reverend Ken Bushey from the Nazarene Church to do the invocation.

Good evening. I've actually been praying for about the last hour, and I just wrote down some things that I've been praying, so.

Thank you.

Lord, thank you for the grace that is evident all around us, and specifically tonight we just thank you for the village that we get to call home. There's a long list of great people who make Manteno a fun and friendly and safe and very satisfying place to live and we thank you for that. We thank you for these gathered around this table tonight and the others represented in this room who have an investment in this community and just a deep desire to build the very best community for us all to live in. And Lord, we know that While it's unfortunate, it's not surprising that we define what is best a little differently, maybe a lot differently. Nevertheless, we have this group of humans gathered tonight to do their best to make the best decisions, and we call on you to help them in these decisions. From the reporting on old business to any items of new business, we pray that your peace would pervade each person, that pride would not rule, but wisdom would be evident. Give clarity to our thoughts, grace in our speech, and may you be pleased not only with the decisions that are made, but the process in which a decision was made. We're thankful that these have accepted the responsibility to lead, and while it may seem very heavy at times, Lord, may they know your grace, and may they know a measure of grace from us. Whatever agendas might be present tonight, Lord, may it be second to your agenda. Have your way, Lord. May all that is said and done be done with the awareness of your presence tonight. And we ask this in the name of our crucified and risen Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Roll call, please.

Berry. Yes. Boudreaux. Vaughn. Here. Crockett. Geske. Zimbleman. Thank you. You do not have a quorum.

Thank you. We have an unusual situation tonight. There's not a quorum. And our job is to represent the people when we have meetings. And I'm sorry to say that some of our trustees did not show up tonight so i don't know why i think i do know that cj could not be here because he had an open house at the school and he did let me know that but i did not hear from any of the other trustees well todd ticked he emailed me or text me and he said that he had some business that he attended so okay so we did hear from two of them i just heard from joel sent me one said due to all the storms i got tied up in indiana helping clients recover from their losses please let the board know i apologize for the last minute notice Okay, thank you. So we won't be voting on the minutes to approve the minutes. We are gonna have public participation. So the first one on the list tonight is Anne Gates.

Good evening.

Good evening.

At the last meeting, we were encouraged to call Pritzker and to complain about Goshen. The only problem with that is that the former mayor, the Economic Alliance, and the faithful trustees, under a nondisclosure agreement, all agreed and signed on, along with six taxing bodies that I'm very confident were coerced in one way or another. some way to go along to get along. Then the fire department was thrown under the bus for not going along with Goshen's offer of millions to have the fire department on hand for Goshen. The fire chief was wise in turning down the offer to protect his men. If Goshen really wanted to do something honorable, they could purchase ppe scba at roughly twelve thousand dollars per person and training for the 22 law enforcement officers that serve mantino the 30 sworn patrol officers and 117 corrective officers from kankakee county and that could be called upon in the event of a catastrophe over there. At least they would have a minimum amount of protection. This past month, two medical studies came out on the long-term exposure effects of ion-lithium fires from the National Burn Unit out of Ireland, and the other one was from the United States. Besides the carbon monoxide and the other toxic gases, there are metals in the clouds, such as lithium, magnesium, cobalt, aluminum, carbon dioxide. The silent killer, though... is a hydrophoric acid it was hydrogen fluoride when it first burns and then it turns to the hydrophoric acid and it clings to all the surfaces and it binds to more moisture so in the mouth the airways and the lungs and it also binds to the calcium in our bodies and pulls it out The lungs degenerate, which ends up ultimately in death. Because it binds itself to surfaces, it's rarely picked up on the air monitors that are often placed by the EPA. That's why it's a silent killer. By the time they get there and put the monitors out, It's already attached to surfaces. This is also what makes it toxic for firefighters to go into an event and do a forensic audit like they had to do in Morris, which is still not mitigated. It's still a brownfield. It still hasn't been cleaned up.

It's time.

Because of the fact that it is so toxic.

Thank you.

So we need to pay attention to this. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

next speaker is john haberkamp did i pronounce that correctly good evening everyone my name is john haberkamp and while i do not reside in mantino i do support many of the mantino businesses and organizations and have been welcome to address some comments made at a previous board meeting during public comment by an individual who expressed frustration about not being invited back as a vendor. And so all Triple H vendors are provided with specific instructions ahead of time in regards to entering, exiting, and loading. These procedures are in place to maintain proper traffic flow and, most importantly, ensure the safety of our volunteers, vendors, participants, and the community. I was the volunteer who brought to the attention of Ashley Peterson that the aforementioned vendor basically could not follow directions in regards to what was sent. The individual arrived toward the end of the designated vendor loading time through the wrong access point. And when I walked up to the vehicle and explained the proper procedure, the individual became upset and stated that they had been doing events in the community for a long time and will enter how they see fit. They then proceeded without authorization and against my respectful request to enter through the wrong access point. I brought the situation to Ashley's attention as she's the one that volunteers for Heroes Hogs and High Rods in coordinating the vendors. I expressed my recommendation that if a vendor is unwilling to follow the event's established procedures and treats a volunteer in that manner, we should reconsider inviting them back for future events. This was not a personal decision or an attempt to prevent someone from participating in a family-friendly community event. It was a matter of a professionalism, safety, and respect for the volunteers and others who dedicate their time to making this event successful. Organizations and community events like Triple H rely heavily on volunteers who generously donate their time. Those volunteers should never be made to feel that they have to tolerate disrespectful unprofessional behavior while simply supporting a veteran cause by someone who believes that they have the right to defy respectful requests that could put others in danger. I hope that their mentality towards others has changed since that interaction. But that is the reason why that individual was not invited back. So I appreciate your time and allowing me to clarify the previous comments that were made at that board meeting. And I bid you all good evening.

Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Alexander Konopka.

Man, it never gets easier getting up here. Am I good to go? Yes, go ahead. Okay, so, you know, without repeating myself from the last meeting that I spoke at, for the agendas, the lack of communication between trustees, the people. I wanted to bring up something that caught my eye in previous meetings that I listened to. I'm telling you, that YouTube channel, fantastic. Please keep uploading to it. This is going to be my last meeting here because I have to go back to EIU for my senior year. Please uploading so we can still all these details for review and new meetings. What I'd like to say, and I'm not going to thwart down the legality of it, And please, Mr. Attorney, you know, Please pardon my ignorance on the Roberts Rules of Orders and the Open Meetings Act. I'm not doubting the legality, but what I'm saying is that I saw a lot of pushback against the trustees using those two things. And if it's legal, you can absolutely do it. But to me, what it looks like on the space of, it almost kind of looks like a personal attack on some of the trustees, like you're fighting back at them, that there's clashes going on. I'm not saying the conflict is terrible, for these meetings, that's why we're all here, to sort these problems out. I'm just saying that a lot of the hiding behind these rules and the legal standings of them give the picture that We're trying to put down these trustees that have grievances with us. I've heard a lot that say, you know, these four people, these four trustees will fight against us and they'll never agree on anything. Having that attitude and bringing it into every meeting, whether it's on the trustee side or anybody in here, will not solve any problems no matter how many meetings you go to and create. I would just say, you know, if you're going to use Robert's Rules of Order and you're going to use the Open Meeting Act against anybody in here, I would say personally just try and do a dialogue with them first because it seems to me like it's a power play from people in here that are trying to put down trustees, put down, it looks like they're trying to get their way without any actual dialogue. I found that fascinating because it looks a lot like that throughout my research for other nations and it's usually one of the primary causes of a dysfunctional government. is a leading cause of that leading into lack of communication. So I'd say before you pull out any of the legality or any of that, just to solve it like rational beings instead of immediately throwing the law book at someone's face. That's all I had.

Thank you. The lawyer just brought up an interesting fact. I'm going to interject and ask him to read this out loud, because there is something that we could do about this meeting. Because we won't be able to make any progress. We won't be able to do the business or pay the bills if we don't have a quorum. BRIAN, COULD YOU PLEASE READ THAT?

SO UNDER THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF MANTINO, THIS IS SECTION 1-6-5, THE RULES ORDER OF BUSINESS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES. RULE 21 SAYS, IN CASE OF THE WANT OF A QUORUM AT ANY TIME OF THE VILLAGE BOARD, A MAJORITY OF THE TRUSTEES PRESENT MAY DIRECT THE PRESIDENT OR PRESIDING OFFICER TO DIRECT ANY POLICE OFFICER TO GO OUT AND NOTIFY ANY AND ALL ABSENT MEMBERS WHO CAN BE FOUND IN THE VILLAGE AND WHO ARE UNABLE THROUGH SICKNESS TO ATTEND After notice and request by such officer and such member shall refuse to attend, such officer shall, without warrant, arrest such member and bring him in. And this is actually consistent with state law as well. Section 65 ILCS 5-3.1-40-20 quorum. This is the municipal code of the state. A majority of the corporate authorities shall constitute a quorum to do business. ORDINANCE. SO IT'S JUST AN OPTION FOR THE MAYOR OR FOR THE BOARD IF THEY WISH TO EXERCISE.

SO DO THE TRUSTEES WISH TO USE THIS ORDINANCE TO ASK OUR POLICE FORCE TO GO OUT AND TRY TO BRING THE OTHER TRUSTEES IN SO THAT WE COULD ACTUALLY VOTE ON PAYING THE BILLS TONIGHT?

WE HAD TWO PEOPLE HERE THAT THREE PEOPLE SAID THAT DIDN'T WORK.

I'D ALSO LIKE TO NOTE THAT MR. KANKAR IS NOT HERE AS WELL.

But if we had a fourth person, we could pay the bills. So whoever didn't notify us, maybe we should try and find them and bring them in.

What do you think? Because last meeting I got riddled that I had a job that I couldn't come to the meeting. And now all of a sudden, this has been on the plans, and what upsets me the most about it is that...

Trustee, can you speak into the mic too? Yeah.

What upsets me the most about this one is that Mr. Rock is retiring, and we got a lot of things to get figured out here by the end of the month. And it just shows me that if we're going to... And maybe the storms, everything else. I'll take them for the word. but it just, it's very odd to me that there was a lot of things on the agenda about moving the village forward. A lot of pressing concerns about moving the village forward and no one is here and Mr. Kankar is not here.

Well, I think it's very obvious of what is going on.

I'm not going to put words in, I just, if you look at it from the outsider, like that young man just said, that gentleman just said.

Chris, who didn't we hear from? Who is not here that we did not hear from?

The only ones I heard from were C.J. Boudreaux. He sent an email to everybody. I did hear from Geske, like I said, right before the meeting started. I did not hear from Crockett or Zimbelman. Joe Kankar did call me earlier today and said that he had some event with his children going into school, that he had to attend that.

So chief, could we send an officer to the homes of the two trustees who did not respond and see if they're available?

Trustee Crockett did.

If Annette could come to the meeting, we would have four people. I'm sorry. Annette Simpleman did message me and said that she's not feeling well.

What my question is is why why why why why would she not let the mayor know and that's why we have zoom meetings. This is the main reason why we set up and we fought for zoom meetings was so that if there was a work related issue or something like that you could get on zoom.

You get on the could you send somebody to and that's house to see if she's available to see if she's sick. Well I actually come to the meeting so we can do the village business and pay the bills.

Well, she said she's sick. Specifically, what would you like me to do?

That's hearsay. Nobody contacted us.

Well, she just told you she was notified that she was sick. What do you want me to specifically do? Knock on her door and ask her if she can come in?

I can show you the rule as well, Rule 21. So it says, after notice and request by such officer and such member shall refuse to attend, such officer shall, without warrant, arrest such member and bring them in.

So the board is asking me to go arrest our board members, is that correct? If she's not sick. Just so I'm clear.

But she should have let us know. So I need direction.

What would you like me to do?

I just gave you direction.

Arrest her?

Well, bring her in. Bring her to the meeting unless she's sick.

The only way I can bring her in is by arresting her.

Brian?

She's watching it online?

The only way I have to bring her in is to arrest her.

Yeah, that's what the code says, rule 21.

That's the legal advice you're giving me?

Find the code of ordinances of the village in state law.

back in a little while thank you all right we're going to go on with the rest of our speakers and the next one is emily herman okay i'll give you a second

That had to happen right before me coming up, of all people. OK. Give me a second. Whatever. I don't think it's going to work. Here's my art. Hi, community. I'm Emily Herman, founder and president of the nonprofit Cute and Acute. Before I begin tonight with my good news and updates, I would like to say that I am heavily dealing with chemo side effects at the moment. And may I request a few extra seconds so that I am not rushing my speech and mixing up my words.

Just do the best you can.

Thank you. After my updates last week, I raised $310. Our whole Amazon wish list was covered for September, and I was approached by a family who wanted to cover the cost of our professional printer. I didn't ask if they wanted to remain anonymous. One donor requested to remain anonymous. So out of respect for privacy for everyone, I will leave them unnamed for now. But thank you to these amazing community members who believe in my recipients mission and starting a cancer nonprofit at 24 years old. The work really begun at my diagnosis at 22. I knew I wanted something good to come out from my cancer diagnosis. If anyone would like to be added to our newsletter for donors that gives updates as to what donations provide each month, please reach out. I wanted to take time to acknowledge the village as a whole and no other town that I have lived in would this have been as possible as it is here. Sure, they had public village board meetings, but public participation wasn't as much as a priority. The mayors wouldn't go out to local events and meet the residents that I know of. and the towns just felt too big to make a difference in. Everyone had a role and I hadn't found mine yet. We all have an important role in our environment. Public participation has obviously played a huge role In my reach, when I share the live videos on my social media pages, I add about an extra 5K views, mostly of young adults and cancer survivors and our supporters from all across the United States and a few from other countries, Canada, the UK, Australia, and Germany, which is pretty neat too. I was also asked about hosting a tent for Oktoberfest to raise awareness about cancer in my snail mail club. I have my contact information as I would like to start filling out what I need to ASAP. So I'm not behind on paperwork and permits. Please feel free to reach out at any time. I have my card in my pocket. I'm excited for the opportunity to now make my own art to send to recipients instead of mass produced Amazon cards. These were a blessing for the time being, but I am on to bigger and better things. This printer has helped so much from saving the organization and precious funds to inspiring my creativity. As most of you know, I lost the ability to write and paint due to neuropathy and have been retraining my hands since February by writing or drawing every single night. I can't run marathons anymore. but I was able to rediscover this piece of myself that I had lost. And now I get to serve others with my talents, which is the biggest blessing in this lifetime that I could ask for. Never give up when challenges arise, adapt and work around them if you have to. At your own pace, with the help from others, your voice is never too small to advocate for others. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is John Martin. Who was it? John Martin.

Three minutes is three minutes. A red light is a red light. When your time's up, your time's up. I know it's a great cause of what you're doing, not saying it against you, but three minutes is three minutes. I don't play baseball. Home plate is 17 inches. Whether you're 10 years old, you're in the major leagues, it's 17 inches. Three minutes is three minutes. It's got to stop going over.

Thank you. The next speaker is Bill Barnes.

All right, well, to his statement, Mayor, I'd like four minutes, if that's possible.

I don't know if that's going to be possible, Bill.

We have nobody here to have a discussion with, so a few things. First, I know I spoke at the finance meeting about charitable donations. I just wanted, I don't know if that's recorded, I don't watch them, but just also in this meeting, they're different people. The village should not be determining what taxpayer money goes to certain organizations non-for-profits, that should be up to them, to the people. Again, I would offer to volunteer to help and suggest that any and all not-for-profits, so we're not playing favoritism, go onto the Village website under charitable organizations and then let the people decide who they want to donate to. And again, when there's Oktoberfest or something, give them a free table, not-for-profit, what have you, just to support them. So then it's fair. And then also, you know, and then people can have a tax write-out too if they give ample amount of money. So that's that. The AstroTurf at the square parking park, what I noticed several times when I met the well, and I talked to the gentleman today who was putting it in, I noticed that there's no padding under the AstroTurf. And I think it was Mr. Boudreau that said he wants kids to play football there. And I would think as Trustee Berry knows, because he coached football, in any football field or soccer field, whether it's high school, professional, there's usually about two inches of rubber padding below it. So this is like basically playing on concrete. So if a kid falls, it's like falling in the street. So I don't know what the liability insurance is, if that covers that. But I just found that really interesting. There's no padding under it. And then even though they're not here, I've been gone for a month here and there, so I miss the meetings. But the one thing that when I tell people, I go to Frankfurt or wherever a lot and dinner and talking to people, and I tell them where I work, I work in another village or whatever, and then I tell them where I live, and nine times out of 10, they say, wow, what a shit show that is. And they said, it's terrible what goes on there. And so, you know, one of the things, I guess, kind of following up on the football, I wonder if the three that are not here, or four, if they look at the post-game video and look at their behavior and actually think that they're doing good in Manteno, the way that they behave, the way they treat you with disrespect. and they ignore the law. I just find it fascinating that they think they're doing good. They're not. What I see is people are hateful. They're on edge. And so it's not good. So my point is that come April, I think three people will be up for reelection. And I'm excited to be part of that election. Thank you. Yep. Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Jake Smith.

Good evening. You're a local mental health and suicide awareness advocate. I started doing this because it's 10 short years ago. I attempted to end my own life, but God wasn't ready for me yet. I still had a story to write and a story to tell. I have come a really long way in these past 10 years. 2016 was the turning point in my life. I was in a very dark place and just couldn't do it anymore. But 10 short years and 200 miles later, here I am. You couldn't have filled this room if you put everyone in here who believed in me or supported me. It would have been filled with empty seats. But I have more support than I ever imagined, from local elected officials to business owners, local first responders, and everyone else in between. It's time for my generation to step up and help lead the way for the next generation. I want to be a role model figure for the next generation in this community. I want to make this world and this community a better place. I'm no saint. I'm as damaged and bruised and broken as anybody. But there's not a single one of us in this room that is any better than the other, no matter who we vote for or what we believe in. Leviticus 19.18 says, You shall not take vengeance or bear grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. I think that's very important because we're all dealing with things. It costs nothing to be kind to one another. The Lord met us all in his image. He loves us all just as equally, and I think that's something we should all strive to do. While I do advocate that it's okay to not be okay and share my growth and survival journey, I still struggle. I still shed tears and sometimes wonder how much fight I have left in me. But I reflect back on how far I have come and think of all the people I have crossed paths with that told me that I made a difference in their life, and that puts it all into perspective for me. To quote a favorite quote of mine, one day you will tell your story of how you overcame what you went through and it will become someone else's survival guide. I reflect back on all the great memories I've experienced over the years. I started this yearly walk in 2020 and it has come a very long way since. Last year's walk ended with a police escort down Main Street, and that was a special moment for not only myself, but for everyone else walking alongside me. I never would have imagined making it this far just 10 years ago and beyond. Change is possible. I am a living testament. I hope that I am able to make a generational impact. Thank you for giving a lost and lonely boy a whole new outlook on life. Join me on September 6th as I walk 30 miles for mental health and suicide awareness with the people I love, for the people I love, through the town I love, for the town I love.

Thank you, Jake. Our next speaker is George Reichert.

So I come here tonight, and then I see we don't have a quorum. And I hope the taxpayers in this town realize those four trustees do not care about Manteno. All they care about is themselves.

George, I'm going to stop you just for one minute. Some of them did have a reason for not being here. But go ahead.

It's an old saying. I won't say it because I'm not going to swear. But you figure it out when I'm thinking. Plus, they're all hell-bent in having Zoom. They all four wanted Zoom, so if they're not here physically, they could have been here in Zoom, because I'm sure all four of them are watching this board meeting tonight somewhere. I'm not sure where. Maybe they're all at Smitty's house. I'm not sure. but it's ridiculous. I hope all the people who support that party realize they're not here tonight and all the disruption they're causing in this village. And I don't know if people realize it, but Joel gets, he's not the mayor, but I brought him this tonight because he thinks he's the king. He's not here tonight, but I brought this here for him. Maybe he can wear that during the board meetings because the only people he controls It's himself and the other three trustees. That's it.

All right, George. Because this is such an unusual meeting and because we're hoping that at least Annette will come in and help us to pay the bills and a couple other things tonight, I'm going to open it up to anybody else who would like to speak.

Paul?

Go right ahead.

Go right ahead.

All right, good evening. I apologize, I did not sign up to speak. That is against village code. It says all participants must sign up to speak. But I just witnessed something. This young lady right here stood here and told everyone how much courage it took her to begin speaking in public again. That gentleman by the name of John came up here and said three minutes is three minutes. However, he's not familiar with our village code as well. Village code 1-6-9, public participation. Under F, limitations. Line two, speakers shall limit their remarks to no more than three minutes unless additional time is granted by the chairman or by a majority vote of the public body. Sir, you owe this young lady an apology before you leave here this evening. Let me tell you something, okay? No, you're not telling me this is my time? Okay. I am asking you to apologize.

Please, let's have some order. I don't want any argument here.

Three minutes unless granted by the chair or the board. You had no business.

All right, thank you. Thank you for your comments. Anybody else have anything they want to say? Please state your name when you get up there. I know it's Brzecki, right?

Yeah, Karen Brzezinski, not sure I want to follow that at all. Okay, I'm just here to comment on a couple things that happened at the last meeting that I attended. It was the special meeting that was here at 7 o'clock in the morning. There was a couple comments that were made. I ran out of time, so I'm using it now. There were two comments in particular that really bothered me. One was, It's always the way it's been done so we don't have to change or we don't have to do anything different That kind of mindset is a little bit scary just because that's always the way it's been done doesn't mean it's been done correctly I believe the forensic audit brought out multiple things that we've been doing incorrectly, so Maybe when there's a suggestion to look at another village or look at how someone else does things That's something that we should take and interest in versus saying, I don't need to do that. I know what I'm doing. Because apparently not. Second thing was we had two trustees that were unable to make it because of work conflicts. This was the comment that really bothered me. They should have thought about that before they ran for trustee. I'm sorry, that was uncalled for, it was rude, and it had no place at the meeting. Because someone has to work does not say that they should not be able to be on the village board. Tell me one person in the village that's not working and would be able to attend every single meeting, every time, all the time. It's not realistic, it's not something that should be said, or brought up at a board meeting why another trustee couldn't make it because of a conflict with work. Just like Mr. Boudreau had a conflict with work tonight, he couldn't make it either. So both of those gentlemen had work conflicts. It's realistic, it happens.

It does, thank you.

Okay, that's it. All right, anybody else?

In the back, yes. Anne, I think there's a gentleman behind you that wants to speak first. I'm sorry.

My name's Don McNeely.

McNeely?

McNeely. Economic development. There isn't any. And when I'm not talking about the pizza joint, a bar opening, a weight room facility opening, I'm talking major development. And if we don't start getting it in here, our taxes are going to keep going up, keep going up. And the fact is that there's so much bickering with the board, developers, owners, they see this and they're not going to come into this village unless we get our heads out of our rear ends and start working for these people and not ourselves. All right. I mean, we've got four trustees. We got, uh, the attorney, and all that are not here at the same time. Go figure that, huh? I mean, we gotta set our egos at the door here, folks, and start working for us. I've only been here two and a half years, and I'm thinking, this is a shit show. Excuse my language. I worked for your municipality up north for 25 years, 55,000 people, and every, the board meetings, there would be a quarter of the people at these meetings because the things were going how things should have been run. You got, I don't know, three dozen people here. It's telling you something. It is. Things aren't right here. Things are not right. And secondly, this Goshen thing, the horse is out of the barn, all right? One of the things, when I was in inspections, the primary, one of the most important things was fire issues. was the fire issue. Now, they don't have a fire brigade there, and that's one of the most important things, that all the fire issues were taken care of prior to issuing an occupancy. And yeah, you may rescind that occupancy, but you're not gonna get them out of there. You're gonna be real busy if you're gonna think you're gonna do that, and guess what? They can bleed us blind. They got a lot more money than we do here.

That's very true.

They can take this and they got their buddy down there in Springfield backing them up too.

Thank you. I really appreciate your comments.

But if we don't get our heads together, economic development will not happen in this town unless you get a half a billion dollars. Thank you. All right. Anybody else?

Ann? I'm so glad he made those comments because the reason that all these people are here is because we love the community. It's not because we hate any trustees. I don't even live in Manteno and I don't even know them. And I typically don't hate anybody that I don't know. In fact, I don't really hate anybody. But these people truly love this town, and they want the best for the town. And that means moving forward from what has been, that was dysfunctional, into the potential of what Mokena can, Mokena, I'm thinking of my daughter, Mantino can be. And I really hope that everybody can the way he put it, and work together, because it is... I had a friend that just renamed the board meetings, because they watch him, and he said, it reminds me of a soap opera, As the Stomach Turns. He said, because that's exactly what happens to me. He said, I have not ever seen adult people behave like this. and when you come to this platform this podium and you don't speak about personalities and you don't speak about what people are doing or who they're related to or who they're married to but you talk about what that place the potential When you go back and watch the videos, you see the response behind you. I very seldom come here and talk about specific, never by name. But at the last meeting, when I mentioned the Economic Alliance, there was a man sitting behind me who had no ability to turn the microphone off. He had no ability to stop me from speaking. But when I began to speak in that vein of conversation, he leaned around me and looked over on this side of the room and went like this with his hand. I'm sorry, I perceived that as a threat. When you can't cancel the microphone and you can't make me stop talking because this is my right as a U.S. citizen, that's a threat to me. And with the history of being followed from these meetings, and I have it on camera, I have video camera of the times I've been followed, and I have given them to their proper authorities. That I perceive as a threat. And I know of other people that are continuing to have things happen to them. I really hope that the people that are stuck in the past and a loyalty to the previous administration can look forward to what this town truly can be and give some respect to these people that have been putting their money out to pay for a lawsuit to get that danger, not only from Manteno, it's a danger to our county. It's a danger to all these towns around us, let alone three nuclear facilities and the military installations that are close by.

Thank you, Ann.

You know, I mean, do you want any of your grandchildren to be born with birth defects because they've inhaled these fumes and these gases? Do you want your wives to get cancer and have issues because of it? Do you? Is one firefighter's life only worth 30-some million dollars? Thank you, ma'am. I'll tell you that officer right there, she's priceless. We can't put a tag on a human life. We need to respect it, value it, and move forward together, and really make not only Manteno, but Kankakee what it should be.

Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else?

Go ahead. After this, we're going to move on. I have a couple comments.

If Ann got an encore, I'd get an encore, too. So one thing that I heard in the finance meeting that I was surprised at is that businesses don't have a business license, don't have to apply for a business license. Is that right? That's what was said. I mean, first of all, where I work, Jim works, everybody has to have a business license. That triggers an inspection. It does make money, you're not looking for a lot, maybe $100, $250 for a business license, depending on what the type of business it is, but it's a trigger to, do they have annual inspections without a business license? Businesses, or no? Like repeat? No. So, I mean, something could happen to the business, fire safety or whatever. So I would recommend that the next board, because nothing's going to happen with this board, because it's pretty much a lame duck board at this point until April, that they consider that for businesses to apply for licenses and pay for them. The other thing that I, I guess I talked a little bit about it is, Again, not much is happening. This is not a productive board, we know that. The next board that comes in, and hopefully I'm one of them, listens to people and talks to people instead of talking to their cronies, their buddies. That's not the way government should work. If you're a public servant, be a public servant to everybody, not just the chosen few. Thank you. Thanks.

All right. Thank you everybody for all the comments. It was received and appreciated. I'm gonna move on to my report and give my comments. And first of all, I want you to know that we did have court this morning and the defendant's lawyer asked for an extension to get his brief prepared and Judge Lindsey Parkhurst agreed that was a good idea. So even though Jim Vasselli was there, our lawyer that was handling it, he did want to be heard. There were about 20 people that came from Manteno to witness this session, the judge did not want to do that. So it is continued to September the 21st, and it will be held at 9 o'clock in room 204 at the Kankee County Courthouse. All right, tonight my plan was to appoint a new clerk. I had a young woman who came to me. I did not know her. She's lived in Manteno for 27 years, and her name is Crystal Wolfe. She's very accomplished. She has a background that was suited to being a clerk. She has worked at the courthouse in Kankakee. She also has children that have gone to school in Manteno. She told me she knows CJ and that their dogs know each other because they go for dog walks together. And I was very impressed by her. So I'm sorry that I can't appoint her because there's nobody here to vote for that. And that vacancy is going to happen soon with Steven Orth. Steven has agreed to stay on until the end of the month. but he really wants to be gone, right?

That was already an extension.

That was already an extension. So because the trustees are not here tonight, we cannot make that happen yet. And the other person I was willing to appoint tonight and wanted to was Jim Pace, who's sitting here. And Jim, you might wanna stand up and give them a little bit of your background, but I met Jim in town and he told me he was a certified code enforcer and he lives in Manteno, but he's working in a different village. So Jim, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Okay, my name is Jim Pace. I'm 70 years old. Served in the military. Was a diesel mechanic for 45 years. So I've been around quite a bit of grime and chemicals. Became part of emergency management and the old ESDA, total of about 35 years on a part-time basis. I've been a code enforcement officer in the village of Monee for four years now. And when I came to the mayor, I was very appalled about the way our codes were being enforced. In other words, they weren't. How do I know this? I pulled a permit for a furnace and AC unit. A gentleman came out, stood about 20 foot away from the AC unit and said, it's good. Do you want to see the furnace?

No.

They had windows put in. Pulled a permit. Nobody ever came out. Had a ramp built in the middle of January because my wife broke her ankle. Pulled a permit for that. Did somebody come out? Don't know, but I'll tell you this. It was done on an emergency basis. It was not to code. I never heard anything different. Should the village accept me down the road, whenever it happens, I will say this. I'm not here to be anybody's friend. I am here to enforce the code. And under legal aspects of code enforcement, the code and building department is to operate autonomously from village politics. So rest assured, I will be transparent, but I am going to enforce the code if and when it ever happens. Thank you very much.

Also, Crystal Wolf is willing to be our FOIA officer, and I know that's been a big issue. We've talked about it many times. There's so much FOIA happening. It's getting to be a full-time job in some communities. And I know even Mr. Geske has spoken about, if anybody wants this, my wife really doesn't enjoy doing it, and we would love to have somebody else do it. Well, we've got somebody, but unfortunately we cannot appoint her yet because there's not a quorum here present to vote it in. All right, moving on the Knights of Columbus tootsie roll drive is coming up and they asked permission from the mayor and the village board that they have their drive again this year. And so I ask, well, we can't vote on that either, but it's going to be happening soon. Um, I forgot to write the date down, which is probably a good thing. Cause I don't get to approve it anyway. Also on discussion was the Harbor House donation, and we've had a lot of discussion about donations tonight, and I do agree that we can't just pick and choose who to give money to. So there's other ways to help organizations by maybe allowing them to set up a booth at one of our events, or by asking the public to make their individual donations. So that's where we're at with that. I have no other old business or new business, and there's nothing that we can vote on. So without another trustee present.

May I speak to the attorney for a moment?

Yes.

Brian.

Huh? Okay, we're going to take a recess here for about 15 minutes and wait for the chief to come back and find out if we have the ability to vote on anything. So take a break. 15 minutes.

We'll reconvene it.

You wanna say that in the microphone? Everybody? Okay. Chief Swinford's gonna give you a report on what just happened.

Well, nothing much just happened. There was no answer at her door.

You wanna say that in the microphone? I don't know.

What's going to happen now is that tomorrow we'll talk about calling a new meeting so we can pay the bills and so we can deal with some of the important issues that we wanted to vote on tonight. So for tonight, we're going to close our session. It wasn't really a real meeting because we couldn't make decisions. We did not have a quorum. But we appreciate all of you for coming, and we appreciate all your comments. So thank you very much. Have a good night.