Residents Protest Exclusion from Town Meeting Agenda

A group of Palatine Township residents protested the refusal of the Township Board to allow consideration of their request at the annual township meeting Tuesday. The group had filed a petition seeking to have voters at the annual meeting consider requesting that the Board study the benefits to taxpayers of abolishing the Palatine Township Road District.

Citizens are allowed to express their opinions about operation of the township at the annual meeting. Illinois law allows any 15 citizens to cause an item to be considered at the annual meeting. 30 residents signed the petition, but the Board refused to include the item in the agenda.  In a March 19th email, Township Clerk Lisa Moran stated that the petition was denied based on advice from the Board's attorney.  

“Even if the Board believed it was not obligated to include this item in the agenda, there is nothing in the law that prohibited the Board from including it," said Flamm. "The Board could have respected the right of its citizens to be heard, but instead made a choice to keep this item off the agenda. Why would the Board not want to consider the benefits of following a procedure that the General Assembly recently made possible? What are they afraid of?" Flamm concluded, "I can understand why the Highway Commissioner would not want to see such a study done. I don’t understand why the Township Board wouldn't welcome it."

For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, the Palatine Township Road District had revenues of nealry $1.75 million including more than $1.5 million in real estate taxes. It spent less than $1.2 million of that amount, leaving more than $580,000 unspent. It had nearly $3.9 million in the bank at the end of the year.

The agenda for the annual meeting did not include any opportunity for residents to express their opinions. Charles Myers, who signed the petition, asked, “Did the Township Board vote on the issue of whether or not to allow the petition to be brought up at the Township Meeting, or was this the arbitrary decision of a few people? The Annual Township Meeting is not a forum for the citizens if they are not allowed to participate in proposing agenda items. Exclusion of citizens' proposals from the agenda is something you would expect in a dictatorship, not a Township. The Board seems to think that the annual meeting is a chance for the Board to tell voters what it thinks, when it should be the other way around.”

Joe Gump, who ran for Highway Commissioner in 2009 and who signed the petition, said, “In the interest of transparency, we need to have an open debate regarding the continued viability of the Palatine Township Road District.  The Road District has a multimillion dollar budget to maintain fewer than 18 miles of road. This job could be handled more cheaply and efficiently by the municipalities.  This is a debate we, the taxpayers, should have, and the annual meeting is where that debate should begin."