'Dysfunctional' Township Split Over Road District Budget

A showdown between Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore and the board of trustees is brewing over the township roads budget.

Grafton Township trustees approved Road Commissioner Jack Freund’s budget a while back, but Moore has not signed the spending plan. Freund must file the budget with the McHenry County Clerk’s office by July 28, and it requires the supervisor’s signature.

Freund told trustees at the township’s July 14 meeting that he repeatedly has asked Moore to sign the document, however, she has not.

Late last week, Moore said via an email that “the budget is not due to be filed until the end of the month and I am in the process of reviewing it.”

“The road commissioner has tucked away $300,000 of surplus funds in his budget line items, while he refuses to repay his outstanding debt certificates of $300,000 at an interest rate of about 5 percent,” Moore said.

“We cannot afford to continue wasting the township's money on this unnecessary loan and all of the fees associated with the loan,” she said.

However, trustees voted to approve the budget and do not agree with Moore’s assessment of the situation, reiterating Thursday night that the board approved the road district’s budget. The vote was 4-1 with Trustees Gerry McMahon, Barb Murphy, Rob LaPorta and Betty Zirk approving it and Moore voting against it.

Freund’s attorney, Patrick Coen, said he’s never had a supervisor refuse to sign a budget in his 30 years of working within township government.

He is not certain a supervisor can refuse do perform an administrative function, like signing the budget, he said. “I’m not sure the supervisor has veto power,” Coen said. “There is no veto power in township government.”

Freund will file the paperwork with the McHenry County Clerk, but Coen is not certain whether the documents will be accepted without Moore’s signature.

If the clerk won’t accept the budget documents, Coen said “we will be forced to take action” to require Moore to sign the budget.

Thursday’s meeting reinforced the underlying tensions between Moore and the township board that have been building since her election a year and a half ago.

At Thursday’s meeting, Trustee Gerry McMahon, frustrated over a discussion, said the township is “dysfunctional” and said the township cannot do what it needs to do because of the tensions.