2010 Grafton Township Annual Meeting - Part 7

PART 7
Moderator: The amendment is to strike the verbiage of the Haligus Road Property and split that into two motions. We need to vote on the amendment. Is there any more discussion?
Virginia: Well, I’m a little confused. ….to hear some facts and figures…some pros and cons so that we would know which way to vote but if we vote on this item that pretty much is decided what we’re going to do. And I’d like to know some of the pros and cons either way and what it’s going to cost to rewind all this. (Notice an answer was not offered during this part of the discussion.)
Lucinda: Call to Question
Tim: 2nd
Moderation: Confusion….Those in favor to call to question please stand. (“Green Shirts” hold up cards to direct voting in favor of call to question.) Those opposed please stand. Question is called. Now we will vote on the amendment. The amendment to the original motion is to strike to exercise the buy-back from the Lake in the Hills, Haligus Road real property as stated in the original agreement from the purchase of that property on January 22nd, 2009 which gives Lake in the Hills the right to re-purchase the property from Grafton Township. We will strike that. That’s what we are voting for right now and leave the rest of the motion to be voted on.
Dawn: A request for clarification is made. (Mic was malfunctioning)
Moderator: I think I understood her. To clarity what we are doing right now is we are amending the original motion stated by Mr Kurns and striking the terminology of the Lake in the Hills, Haligus Road real property as stated in the original agreement from the purchase of that property on January 22nd….. If we approve that amendment, the motion will read, To accept the resolution by the GraftonT ownship Road District and his attorney, dated February 26th, 2010 which unwinds the Grafton Township Road District – Grafton Township real property transaction that was unlawfully execute.
Are you ready? We’re going to vote on that amendment. All those is favor of the amendment, please stand. (“Green Shirts” hold up cards to direct voting in favor of the amendment.) All those opposed, please stand. The amendment has been stricken….(corrects himself) the amendment passed.

Moderator: The motion now reads, To accept the resolution by the GraftonT ownship Road District and his attorney, dated February 26th, 2010 which unwinds the Grafton Township Road District – Grafton Township real property transaction that was unlawfully executed.
Someone calls for discussion.
Moderator: We are putting this to a vote. All those in favor……
(The moderator is confused on weather there was a call to question or if the motion can be discussed. The attorneys advise that the motion should be discussed.)
Lily Baily: I want to hear what that gentleman has to say (points to Gerry McMahon)
Moderator: You are out of order. I’ll recognize this gentleman in the yellow shirt.
Gerry McMahon attempts to speak and the moderator calls him out of order and threatens to remove him. (Impartial moderator? I think not.)
Jerry Mason: We’re talking about the unwinding back to the road district as it was prior to all these transactions. I just wanted to know ……are there changes to his resolution that doesn’t absolutely unwind us back to what was in place then?
Pat Cohen: The road district, prior to the transaction in 2008, occupied the road district garage facility. Did not pay any rent to the road district. So from the standpoint of putting everything back to the place it was, prior to the transaction, yes it is the same other than there’s an official 20yr lease with the provision that the road district has to perform certain tasks on behalf of the township which was what the road district did anyway prior to the 2008 transaction.
Jerry Mason: what was the $700K?
Pat Cohen: The $700K was the amount of money that was borrowed by the road district in order to purchase property from the township and in addition they put up a salt shed on the road district property and they did not receive any rent from the township for the 18months that the township occupied the space during that transaction.
Jerry Mason: Is this a new charge?
Pat Cohen: The road district paid $700K to the Harris Bank in order to take out the loan to accomplish the transaction. Grafton Township received the proceeds from the sale of $611K plus free rent for 18months and have now occupied the premises for approximately 21month without paying anything. So what’s happened is the road district has had to pay interest on the $700k and has no rent been received.
Moderator: chair recognizes the gentleman in the purple shirt (ignores Gerry McMahon who has had his hand raised to speak)
Unknown Male: inaudible

Click to view Part 8

2010 Grafton Township Annual Meeting - Part 6

**In Part 6 you will see how some of the “Green Shirts” try to manipulate the motion to include two separate items…..to ‘hurry things along’. I’m not going to transcribe this one verbatim but I will try to give you the meat of what is said. There’s a lot of confusion, due to the moderator’s inexperience with Roberts Rules, and there are a lot of repetitive remarks.



PART 6
Joe Mahan: That was not an amended motion.
Moderator: That was a motion. That was his motion and there was a 2nd on the motion. We are in discussion of that motion as it is. There is no other question. There is a motion on the floor that is being discussed right now. It is to accept that resolution as he modified it.
Marci: I’d like to say a couple things. 1. I don’t think the people who voted on moving #11 to #1 knew that it entailed mushing things together and then voting on a bunch of stuff all in one; and 2. I don’t think the stand up – sit down works in that situation. You have no idea if everybody here is a registered voter or not. So how do we know if more than 50% are registered voters?
Moderator: I understand what you’re saying. (without attempting to address the question, points to a “Green shirt”)
Mr Ziller: There’s two things we’re here to vote on tonight. #1 is a general …of those two questions. We can do this in one question. That’s what this is about. Not sitting here going through many resolutions.
Moderator: or by suggestion if you want to modify that into two to make this clean. There’s a lot of discussion here.
Joe Mahan: I move that we amend that motion into two parts. The original and the second.
Moderator: To get this correctly…..you can’t do it that way. You have to move to strike the Lake in the Hills verbiage off there and to separate the resolution off.
Joe: I move to separate that resolution off.
Gloria Antonelli: I 2nd.
Moderator: Discussion on the amendment. The amendment is to strike the Lake in the Hills, Haligus Road real property as stated in the original agreement from the purchase of that property on January 22nd, 2009 which gives Lake in the Hills the right to re-purchase the property from Grafton Township….to strike that off of there and merely stay with the first part of Mr Kurns motion which is To accept the resolution by the Township by Mr Cohen. To adopt the resolution. That’s what the amendment is.
Dawn: I think it should be split into two votes. They are not entirely the same issue. I don’t know why you would be afraid to let people to make two different decisions and thinking them through and voting them both. It’s the research we did before we came here tonight. There are two separate issues. One is the old building and the sale back or not. The other is the Haligus Rd property.
Moderator: Any further discussion?
Unknown Male: I’m not affiliated with the pros or the means here. I’m just somewhat interest in what going on. It seems to me that Mr Cohens comments sort of muddied the waters. My discussion point is: why don’t we table or strike the comments of Mr Cohen and just go with the first motion and vote yes ot no. Some of them may need more discussion on, perhaps but lets just vote yes or no and move on. And if he wants to make another motion, that’s fine.
Moderator: I’d like to make a clarification here. Mr Cohen merely read the resolution that the motion was made to it….he explained what he (Mr Kurns) was discerning with his motion, He explained that.
Unknown Male: No but I have some contract experience and so what his comments did was modify the interpretation of his (Mr Kurns) motion. So by introducing his (Mr Cohen) comments, doesn’t jive with what is happing in #11.
Mr Kurns: The reason that we put those two together is because #11 deals with the potential action and sale….of township property. So to do that, this question entails everything that’s in the upper 9 questions….is all done in this question with the motion that I just made which turns everything back the way it was before 2007. And we’ve spent enough money on legal ramifications and we need to do this and have it done. I urge everybody to vote yes on this the way it was read.
Wayne Schmidt: I think its easy to clarify this. #11 was explained by (Keri-Lyn Krafthefer ). She got up and said basically what #11 was about…the first six items, I believe it was, and the others were based on the Haligus purchase. ….so really there are two different points here. 1, we have to work on the Vine St thing first to get that back the way it was supposed to be. And secondly, then, to rescind the Haligus purchase……I thinks it’s very clear on this.
Moderator: We are discussing the amendment to the motion to strike.

Click to view Part 7

2010 Grafton Township Annual Meeting - Part 5

PART 5
Mr Cohan: Gives a description of the resolution in layman’s terms: “In order to unwind the transaction, the township would have to buy back the property from the road district and the road district would have to sell back to the township the property. In order to extinguish the bond that the road district took out to buy the property, the transaction price would be $700,000.00 so as to extinguish the debt that the road district is now carrying. Now that the property would be back in the hands of the township, the road district needs to lease the space because their township garage is still located on one of the two lots and therefore this agreement would allow for a 20yr lease, so as to allow the road district to continue the use of property, in return for which they will plow the property, cut the grass, maintain and store the township bus and any other vehicle so that, in essence, the transaction is wound down and everybody is restored to the same position as they were prior to the 2008 transaction”.

Moderator: Any other discussion?
Mr Kurns: Says this will cover Items 1-9 on the agenda
Moderator: It doesn’t cover that, It covers items 1-6
(Some confusion about what items are included in the motion.)
Moderator: Starts…..”His motion did read….” “Read the motion again.” “State your motion.” “He did state Haligu Road.
Mr Kurns Sr: The motion was: To accept the resolution by the GraftonT ownship Road District and his attorney, dated February 26th, 2010 which unwinds the Grafton Township Road District – Grafton Township real property transaction that was unlawfully executed and to exercise the buy-back from the Lake in the Hills, Haligus Road real property as stated in the original agreement from the purchase of that property on January 22nd, 2009 which gives Lake in the Hills the right to re-purchase the property from Grafton Township. Which I believe is #8 (on the agenda).
Moderator: confusion regarding what motion we are adopting. Points to a member of the audience…….”I want you to stand up and I want you to announce yourself to the microphone”.
Jerry McMahan: “I’m one of your trustees and I live in Sun City”….”What you’ve heard today is a classic spin”……Audience member shout point of order…..” I think maybe you’d like to hear what I’ve got to say”….I’d like to give you a little analogy of what you’re voting on”….”Mr, Halat here, in the yellow shirt, sued us”.
Linda supporters cry ”Point of order”……
Moderator: Now you’re out of order.
Many attempt to talk over each other.
Moderator: Sir, Sir…..we will have you removed.
Someone calls for the moderator

(This part was cut out but I have another copy of the meeting that was taped by someone who was contracted by Grafton Township. That copy has NOT been released.)

Marci: request to clarify the motion that Mr Kurns read and weather the motion was amended (I’m paraphrasing)
(More confusion regarding what the motion is)
The Moderator asks the Clerk to read Mr Kurns motion. (Yes, this is the 3rd time we’re hearing this.)
Clerk Ford: To accept the resolution by the GraftonT ownship Road District and his attorney, dated February 26th, 2010 which unwinds the Grafton Township Road District – Grafton Township real property transaction that was unlawfully executed and to exercise the buy-back from the Lake in the Hills, Haligus Road real property as stated in the original agreement from the purchase of that property on January 22nd, 2009 which gives Lake in the Hills the right to re-purchase the property from Grafton Township.

Click to view Part 6

2010 Grafton Township Annual Meeting - Part 4

PART 4
Diane Aires: Continues……
Unknown Male: call to question. (end discussion and vote)
Moderator: re-reads motions to move the item up to #1 on the agenda. Asked for all in favor to please stand. (“Green Shirts” hold up cards to direct voting in favor of moving the agenda item.) Asked for all opposed to please stand….. announces that the motion is carried before all are able to stand.
(Audience members express their frustration. Someone shouts for ROLL CALL. Some confusion about what is being voted on.)
Moderator: Asked for all in favor to please stand. (“Green Shirts” hold up cards to direct voting in favor of moving the agenda item.) Asked for all opposed to please stand….. announces that the motion is carried.
(Someone, again, shouts for ROLL CALL. Moderator says that there were clearly more than 1/2 in favor and there is no need for roll call.)

Keri-Lyn Krafthefer: Gives explanation of agenda items.

Moderator: Move into discussion of potential actions of Item #11 which is now #1.
Mr. Kurns: Reads his motion - To accept the resolution by the GraftonT ownship Road District and his attorney, dated February 26th, 2010 which unwinds the Grafton Township Road District – Grafton Township real property transaction that was unlawfully executed and to exercise the buy-back from the Lake in the Hills, Haligus Road real property as stated in the original agreement from the purchase of that property on January 22nd, 2009 which gives Lake in the Hills the right to re-purchase the property from Grafton Township.
Motion was 1st and 2nd, up for discussion.

Moderator: calls on Mr Cohan to speak about what it means to unwind the purchase of property.
Mr Cohan: Gives legal description of resolution.

**I must point out that Mr Kurns, who is a Linda Moore supporter, is a close relative of the moderator, Jim Kurns. So how can the moderator be impartial???**

*Notice, that the majority of Linda Moore’s supporters are sitting on the right side of the room and that the moderator is partial to them. You’ll see that this is true because he rarely looks in the other direction and rarely recognizes them when they wish to speak.
*You will also notice that there are no standing, numbered, microphones so people can line up to speak. Instead there are “runners” that will go to your location. The problem with this method is that not everyone gets to speak…especially when you have an impartial moderator.
*Voting by standing majority is in-ethical. This method simply cannot work. Remember that anyone can come to these meetings. People in the township, outside of the township; people from another state even; registered and non-registered voters…. Votes can easily be stacked and is unlawful.

Click to view Part 5

2010 Grafton Township Annual Meeting - Part 3

PART 3
Clerk Harriet Ford continues to read the Supervisors statement of financial affairs.

Moderator: Presentation of hiway commissioners – motion made to wave the reading.
Motion was 1st and 2nd. Motion carries. Reading was not done.

(Notice where Linda is seated.)
Tammy Luthe (sp): Make a motion made to amend the sequence of the agenda to move item #11 to item #1.
(a member of the audience yells a requests for a mic on the left side of the room)
Motion was 1st and 2nd.
Moderator: Asked for all in favor to please stand as he looks in the direction of the “green shirts”. (“Green Shirts” hold up cards to direct voting in favor of moving the agenda item.) Asked for all apposed to please stand….announces that the motion is carried before all are able to stand.
(Audience members express their frustration. Jim Kurns ignores this and calls point of order.)

Peter Hoffman: Any vote requires discussion before any vote can be taken according to Roberts Rules.
Moderator agrees to comply.
Tammy Luthe (sp): Explains her motion to move the agenda item.
Diane Aires: Feels that the item should not be moved and that all of the township business should be discussed.

Click to view Part 4

2010 Grafton Township Annual Meeting - part 2

PART 2
Moderator:
Asks for a count of the electors….may be impossible.
Introductions:
Pat Cohen : Attorney for Grafton Township Road District
Ron Bush: attorney for Grafton Township
Keri-Lyn Krafthefer : attorney for Grafton Township

Holds up pink cards that he says will be used for voting.

Makes a motion to adopt Roberts Rules of order be used for conducting the meeting.
Motion was 1st and 2nd.
All those in favor stand to adopt the rules…motion passes.

Requests for a motions to vote for approval of the minutes from 2009 Annual Meeting Minutes.
Don Bond: Move for approval of the minutes.
Moderator: Asks if everyone has a copy of the minutes. The public answers “No”.
Asks if the public wants the minutes read. The public answers “No”.
Motion was 1st and 2nd. Motion carries. Minutes are approved.

Tom Halet: (green shirt) has the mic: Makes motion to censor Grafton Township Trustees: Rob Laporta, Betty Zirk, Barb Murphy, Gerry McMahon.
Attorneys say it cannot be added to the agenda. Motion is stricken.

Clerk Harriet Ford reads the Supervisors statement of financial affairs.

Click to view Part 3

2010 Grafton Township Annual Meeting - Part 1

Over the next few days I will post footage from the 2010 Annual Grafton Township Meeting. It's important that we remind ourselves of the debacle that we found ourselves in last year. To put it not so mildly, we were railroaded and we need to take steps to prevent this from happening again this year and in the future.

Take a look.




Pledge of Allegiance
Harriet Ford:
     Explanation of Procedures
     Floor opened for nominations for moderator
          Dan Ziller Jr (green shirt) Nominated Jim Kurns for moderator
         2nd by (green shirt)
         Rob Laporta nominated Steve Harlfinger for moderator
         Joe 2nd
        Motion made to close nominations….motion carried
Clerk instructed attendees to stand to show their vote.
(Notice that the “Green Shirts” hold up cards to direct voting for moderator.)
Jim Kurns wins (applause)
Jim Kurns swears to impartially discharge the duties of moderator.

Moderator:
-Request to keep the meeting in order…..and wants to give everyone the chance to “do their thing”.

Click to view Part 2

NO MOORE........

Meeting Minutes

2009 Grafton Township Meeting Minutes.

2010 Grafton Township Meeting Minutes.

2011 Grafton Township Meeting Minutes.