SAUK VILLAGE | Apparently all is well in good old Sauk Village, after all the Mayor and Board of Trustees had nothing to discuss and nothing to do. There was nothing on Tuesday night's agenda.
Longtime resident and President of People Looking for Answers Now organization Judy Cast asked questions about the village's finances during questions from the audience. "I have been asking for 4 years now. Where are our audits? If there's something wrong then just tell us, why is it taking this long to get these done" Cast said. The Village's audit report was suppose to have been presented to the Village Board of Trustees last night according Finance Director Mohan Roa last week. David Hanks told the board that the audit report will now be done by October 31st, which now will have taken the Village 1 year to complete their audit report. Hanks said that the 2011-12 audit will get started once the 2010-2011 audit is complete.
The village is paying a $100 per day fine for failing to file timely financial reports according to the Illinois Comptroller and has amassed a fine in excess of $13,000 thus far (***CLICK HERE*** TO VIEW FOIA DOCUMENTS). The Village has filed an appeal for the fine but there has been no resolution on that matter according to the Comptroller's office.
Former Mayoral candidate Bernice Houston was also in attendance at Tuesday night's meeting. She asked several questions during audience participation and walked away from the podium saying "see we get no answers and they wonder why we have to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request things" Houston said. Houston said following the meeting "I have been making FOIA requests from the village since before Hanks became mayor. We share our information with our group (The Sauk Village Citizens for Public Awareness) because we get no answers" Houston said. "He (Hanks) sits there after you ask your questions and just says 'next' without so much as giving a response, as if we don't matter" Houston said.
There were about 32 people at the meeting, with many of the same faces sitting on the left side of the Village Hall and a few new faces sitting on the right side of village hall. Many on the right side were residents of Lincoln Meadows subdivision which is on the village's south side of town near Steger Road and Illinois 394. Marva Campbell-Pruitt began the questions from the audience stating she was there representing the residents of Lincoln Meadows and that her and her neighbors were using the Village Community Center for their Homeowners Association group without being charged. Campbell-Pruitt said that the group is now being asked to pay $50.00 per meeting to the village as a user fee, for which her and her group protest since "we pay some of the highest property taxes in the village, we get the same services, but we're being told now that we have to pay for our Association of homeowners to meet" Campbell-Pruitt said following the meeting.
Several other residents of Lincoln Meadows stood up and began asking the same question, "why do we have to pay for something that should not be charged to our group". "We're not political, we're not fund raising or having parties" Campbell-Pruitt said. Following the meeting Village Trustees John Poskin and Derrick Burgess met with the group briefly and resolved that the Village Hall will be available for the group's meeting until the policies and procedures can be ironed out by the Parks and Recreation Committee. Poskin chairs the Parks and Recreation Committee.
The Village Board adjourned to executive session obviously to discuss some break through with the Police negotiations as Felicia Frazier the labor negotiator with the law firm of Odelson and Sterk was in attendance. The Fraternal Order of Police and the Village have been at a stand still in the negotiations. Police officers have been without a contract since May 1, 2011 and any pay increase will be retroactive to that date. Even a modest pay increase such as 2-3% (about $61,000 to $92,600) will cause a ripple in the Village's already stretched General Fund. Hanks has already added $36,000 for a Lobbyist and $11,000 for a firm to find a permanent Chief of Police among other things.
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| Photo Courtesy People's Voice Party 2011- David A. Hanks |
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