By: Diane Benjamin
Attorney Tom Devore thinks the Town of Normal will be paying at least $50,000 to the lawyers they hired to keep from complying with being an Incorporated Town.
Yesterday Normal has 4 lawyers in court, only 1 was a staff attorney who said nothing the entire time. One of the other hired guns also said nothing, only two of them spoke.
Judge Fellheimer decided to do his own research instead of ruling on the facts in the case. He based his ruling on Home Rule which doesn’t apply and wasn’t even argued by Normal’s lawyers.
The Electoral Board was obviously disbanded so Normal could use tax dollars to fight the petitions. Patrick Dullard and Jeff Fritzens were only stooges to start the process, they would never have paid Madigan’s attorneys. With endless amounts of money Normal knew they could win.
Unfortunately people who filed petitions now owe Tom Devore $8,544.40 more than the $5000.00 they already paid. To appeal Fellheimer’s decision would cost another $10,000.
Devore’s bills:
Nobody expected Devore’s bills to get this high, no discount was given for losing either although the billing did not include yesterday’s hearing.
Thousands of people were following this case. If 80 of you can contribute $100 we can help the three pay this bill. If that is too much any amount will help.
The only way I see to get it paid is to send checks to me made out to DeVore Law Offices of counsel Silver Lake Group. I will forward them to Devore. These three stepped up to take on Koos and company and make local government accountable to citizens. This isn’t over.
Send to:
Diane Benjamin
27248 E 1100 North Rd
Ellsworth Il 61737
I really hope bond ratings agencies are taking note. The only reason one small agency had Normal at AAA is because they were unafraid to tax you to death. That is what Home Rule provides.
You have 3 good candidates running for Trustee: Nord, Tiritilli, and Sila. The leftists know winning elections is the only thing that matters. They aren’t concerned about how they win. Koos has his three candidates picked to rubber stamp his agenda. Trustees were created to represent citizens, if Koos’ people win citizens lose. With Unit 5 putting another referendum on the ballot not voting April 4th isn’t an option.
Time to step up and get real representatives elected.
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Does home rule allow for citizens to place referendums on the ballot? Could you interview Devore for his thoughts on the ruling?
Home Rule does nothing for citizens if those in charge have their own agenda. What I wrote is Devore’s opinion
The issue there is that state law allows for villages to have referenda, and iirc cities can as well, but the citizens of Towns pretty much cannot.
The Devore invoices illustrate exactly why certain governments are so crooked. With no regard to their Oath of Office to uphold the Constitution, Constituional intent or any semblance of representing We The People, they do what they want while intentionally challenging the limited resources of individual or small groups of citizens to court and using taxpayer resources back at them. This is the State of ILL and especially the Koos regime. It’s a great gig if you can get it and you’re a crook. They are traitors, nothing less.
When is your story on Stan Nord skipping another budget session coming out?
Why should anyone vote for him when he fails to fulfill his duties? You are always quick to point out if others miss a meeting, claiming citizens weren’t represented. Well…..what say you about your buddy failing to represent his constituents?
If he did it was because his opinions are ALWAYS ignored.
I would focus on Mr. Nord developing private sector growth and continuing to be a voice for the majority of taxpayers who are tired of the Koos/Reece regime. With the Village manager indication that Village staff should not work with Mr. Nord, there is no reason for him to attend. The other council members have shown that they will exclude Nord from conversations.
It’s like asking a lung doctor to go to a smoke shop and talk about the importance of not smoking.
Perhaps you should look into Nord sending threatening letters to employees
in the Normal Clerk’s office.
“It said Nord may have broken the law by using his trustee’s title and email address to send the email that makes empty threats.
“Nor would the town likely defend Nord if any action is brought based on his use of town resources to interfere with the electoral process. Again, any interference is outside the ambit of his authority,” said the memo”
So Mr. Nord used town resources to interfere with the electoral process. All for a stupid waste of money supported by only a few people.
Is this what you support? Unprofessional, unethical and just plain mean spirited behavior from an idiot? Sending E-mails to everyone in the clerk’s office. What numnut does that? No wonder no one respects him in the council. If threatening clerks in a Town’s office is OK with you, then you’re a damn hypocrite. I will not vote for Mr. Nord this spring.
😂😂😂
Sorry for laughing, people who get news from wglt don’t know the truth. You must have missed my story on theirs: https://blnnews.com/2023/01/06/wglt-does-political-comedy-again/
@McDaniels – I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you’re being sincere. I know I personally also used to consider WGLT to be a good source of local news. Then I noticed the subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle bias – what stories were reported vs ignored, whose quotes were used, which candidates’ links were missing or broken, etc. Any one of these things is easily forgivable or dismissible, but when it happens consistently and Always in one direction, it is Not simple human error, it is human Intent.
Diane is not perfect and I don’t always agree with her, but she both does a better job of true journalism and makes no attempt to hide her biases when they do come into play.
Stan is also not perfect, but he’s the only councilmember consistently seeking to represent the voices of the disenfranchised and oppressed in Normal, and he is frequently bullied and mocked for doing so. The WGLT article you cite was part of that. It took a court case to determine whether Stan’s interaction with the Clerk’s office was in fact appropriate or not. And because Normal government is unique in the state, even 5 lawyers being paid tens of thousands of dollars (mostly Our Tax Dollars) were unable to figure out the answer to that question – the judge had to do that on his own using his own research. Stan acted in good faith based on a clear reading of state law. WGLT acted on bad faith by reporting the issue in a very one-sided manner. Even if one makes the leap that WGLT was able to interpret the law better than a team of expensive lawyers, they were still unethical by reporting in a partisan manner rather than simply educating the public on the spaghetti-legal-code that eventually led to the judge’s decision.
@fake – Patriot76 Since Normal doesn’t have a ward system, all constituents are covered whether one trustee misses a meeting or not. Just ask Koos to verify.
I’ll FOIA the bond agencies unless we know them and send some information to them.
Don’t think they can be FOIA’d