By: Diane Benjamin
I’ve seen a copy of what David Shestokas filed Friday with the Circuit Court.
I could review the court cases Normal listed to support their position, but that would be tedious on a holiday weekend. Let’s just say Shestokas rips their ruling to shreds.
Can we agree what Koos and company wrote is fiction?
See the closing paragraphs of the filing:
Taking this issue to court was to delay the printing of ballots, but it will be on the November 8th ballot. Chris Koos, Brian Day, Kevin McCarthy, and Angie Hounker don’t want citizens to have a choice.
Money is needed to fight back, I think I heard we have another person willing to match up to $1000:
To donate by check:
Citizens for Districting Normal (name change)
21 Grandview Drive
Normal, IL 61761-4071
Go Fund Me is available on the website https://betternormal-il.com/support-us. Note: Go Fund Me reduces the impact of your donation to cover their service fee, so we prefer you mail a check.
It will be fun to see the Town of Normal not electioneering while attempting to convince citizens they don’t need representation in their neighborhood.
Attorney David Shestokas took the electoral board decision apart line by glorious line. It was epic. Whatever amount the taxpayers are paying Brian Day, it is too much. So embarrassing. I can’t believe he signed his name to that. Truly unbelievable.
He was doing his best to represent his clients, Koos and Dullard. If you know the facts are against you, you try to ‘dazzle them with BS’. That almost always works with the general public since the media just parrots it. But this isn’t the general public, and the media don’t play a significant role (so far).
Exactly correct. And that bunch is incapable of, “dazzling anyone with brilliance,” which only leaves the latter.
So if Normal is not a city then all the signs designated UPTOWN NORMAL ARE A LIE?? Should not they be replaced ? it should be named Upvillage Normal! If population decrees Normal as a village then their federal tax dollars should reflect that status. As a village does Normal deserve to have a town voice in state government ? If Normal chooses to be a village in this instance then they should be treated as a village with less status. As a village they should not require the number of council members they have. As a village Queen Pam should be downgraded as well
“Town of Normal” is essentially an alias, not unlike a Sam Blowhard doing business under the name SOB Cycling; nothing wrong with that. And ‘village’ in this capacity is a legal term describing how the municipal government is set up, not necessarily something to be made fun of. Illinois has a handful of towns, iirc several dozen cities, and everything else is legally a village, no matter what it’s called or how small or big it is.
And Normal Was originally a town. Which from a legal perspective means ‘set up by special legislative permission prior to 1870.’ (Or something like that, I may not have the year exact.)
Facts and the law are being disregarded for a reason. Assuming attorney David Shestokas is not acting pro bono, then Koos and company forcing an appeal to the circuit count has purpose. There are costs to educating the Normal electorate about why voting “YES” for districting is best for the community and it’s future. The more funds that are consumed on attorney fees the less there will be available for the Get Out the Vote campaign. My donation is forthcoming.
Day and Koos have opened a pandora’s box with this one.
If Normal is a town, then voters are entitled to 4 additional elected representative positions in Normal government.
If Normal is a village, then put the districting question on the ballot.
“For the general municipal election to be held in the year 1985 in EVERY INCORPORATED TOWN with a population of 25,000 or more by the last official census, and every 4 years thereafter, the municipal clerk shall certify the names of the candidates to the proper election authority as provided by the general election law. A president, a clerk, an assessor, a collector, and a supervisor SHALL BE ELECTED for a term of 4 years” 65 ILCS 5/3.1-25-95
The last few decades of property taxes were collected at a minimum improperly if not illegally, and should be refunded if Normal if found to be a Town. The various Town Clerks over the years should be prosecuted for impersonating elected officials. And I’m sure there are other less obvious ramifications…
In order for Normal to be an, “Incorporated Town,” would there be, “Articles of Incorporation,” on file? If so, what year were they filed?
And a search of the Illinois Secretary of State’s website indicates there is none.
https://apps.ilsos.gov/corporatellc/CorporateLlcController
Only corporation filing is a non-profit for the Children’s Museum
“Incorporated” literally means ‘to be given a body or substance’. In this case, I don’t think the controlling authority is the Secretary of State like if we wanted to open new fake news outlet. As I understand it, Normal Was legitimately set up as a town in the late 1800s, but somewhere along the line stopped following the requirements to maintain that status, so legally became a village, making it like most municipalities in Illinois, including some that have ‘city’ in their common names.
Brian Day can lie to an Official Election Board and there is no penalty?
Does the IL bar says it is ok for an attorney to write fabrications to influence a political outcome?
No doubt if Day were a Republican people would be demanding his resignation.