A long read but worth every second.Archived Message
Posted by The Thin Man on October 26, 2017, 1:01 am
Why are the September 25, 2017 Nameoki Township Meeting Minutes missing? When you click on the button within the township site, you are directed to the minutes from September 11, 2017. And then you are offered this huge speech from Randall Presswood titled "Meeting Minutes Attachment September 25, 2017.
There are no meeting minutes from the 25th, but we have this attachment:
"Nameoki Town Trustees Attachment to add additional information to September 25, 2017 Meeting Minutes"
"Supervisor Presswood explained the Letter that Clerk Hawkins brought in.
He said he was not sure if anyone had a chance to read it, but it is very important and that it was addressed to the head of MESD. Supervisor Presswood said he would like to talk a little more about it. I’m not trying to brag about what I’ve done the last 37 years. I’ve been digging these ditches and making these canals. I probably know more about the drainage than anybody. The pump station during the flood that’s what this is all about, we had a pump down since 2015, it’s been sitting there in the Corps hands. I want to give credit to Steve Adler. Steve had contacted the Corps.
Pump 1 was not salvageable. We are getting a brand new pump 1 and will be in place and running by December. There are 5 pumps in that pump station. This station, if all pumps are up and running have the capability of running 37 million 395 gallons an hour. Meantime while pump 1 was down pump 4 also went down. It’s at the shop across the river being repaired. They are using some of the parts off of pump 1. We had been waiting for the Corps to do this. When Steve got here he contacted the Corps and the job is getting done. I give Steve Adler 99% of the credit. It does not matter how much work we do if the river is up. The pump station can’t handle it all. We get water from Cahokia Creek and others, 90% of the water comes from the bluffs, even when it is not raining. We pay the taxes in this area. As we get more development it gets worse. We can't afford for this pump station to fail. I just wanted to elaborate on the letter a little.
In the meantime, Highway Commissioner Luehmann and I have a big project going. His guys and my guys are doing a lot of dredging and ditch work, we are all over. We are working hard and getting a lot of things done. We're working together so that the water will get in and out quickly.
Supervisor Presswood also commented that all employees working at the township are working as a team and they are all team players."
Why is Mr. Presswood changing the minutes? Where are the original approved minutes? They certainly aren't on the website, only Mr. Presswood's addition.
Here is a totally hypothetical theory about what this attachment, and many other of Mr Presswood's actions might have intended.
Steve Adler unsuccessfully ran against Debra Ming Mendoza for the position of Madison County Clerk.
But, Kurt Prenzler beats the snot out of Alan Dunstan and becomes our new Madison County Board Chairman.
Along with this victory comes the opportunity to unseat many of Dunstan's appointees.
Enter stage right, someone who wants to head the MESD, sit in the big boy's chair, call all the shots and get a sizeable increase in salary! Ah, Steve Adler you might presume. No, Mr. Presswood.
After all Mr. Presswood knows exactly what's been happening within the walls of the outhouse known as the Metro East Sanitary District, regardless of any participation by he himself.
Then the heads at MESD began to roll. The supervisor was gone, the Commissioners were gone. Mr. Presswood remained, probably with fingers crossed.
But it wasn't to be. Mr. Adler was given Mr. Shipley's position in spite of all that insider information, in spite of the campaign contribution(s) for Mr. Prenzler. Could the appointment of Mr. Presswood's wife to the Madison County Board have been nothing but a consolation prize? Because that didn't work out either. I wonder if Mr. Presswood blamed this on Helen Hawkins who endorsed another person for that position?
With a new election cycle commencing, petitions are being signed and will be filed in November. Will Mr. Adler once again seek the office of County Clerk against Debra Ming Mendoza?
Who will be stumping publicly for Mr. Adler, who will be stumping indirectly for Mr. Adler. Does the "attachment" to the Nameoki Township Meeting Minutes give us a answer to that question?
If Mr. Adler runs and successfully beats Ming Mendoza who will fill his seat? Are you starting to get the picture? Maybe this explains why as Nameoki Township Supervisor Mr. Presswood has eliminated those minutes from September 25, 2017? Did he forget his "Adler for County Clerk" soliloquy and thought it should be included AFTER the fact? Maybe he wants to insist that Adler single handedly began the purge of ineffective policy and deadwood from MESD? Is he self promoting in hopes of sitting in the big chair if Adler wins? Is he trying to discount Helen Hawkins history in the fight against flooding in this county? Why such disdain towards Hawkins whose township position is to diligently keep complete and accurate records of everything as a matter of public record? This is something that needs to be questioned.
Maybe he has his sight set on a higher paying gig in addition to his supervisor position? [b]The township where EVERYONE is now a team player and getting along famously. Getting along and working as a team for the benefit of the township is commendable, getting along and working as a team because everyone has so much dirt on each other and they don't have a choice, is another.
Has anyone been able to get the full and factual copy of the Nameoki Township forensic audit, the COMPLETE UNALTERED version? The copy distributed threw the public a sliver of bone by ever so slightly pushing Ken Davis near, not under, the bus. It also makes others under suspicion look squeaky clean. It looks like FOIA means nothing to either the township, when requesting the complete forensic audit and substantiating documents or MESD, according to the minutes, regarding the missing "scrap metal money", or basically anytime a certain someone is involved.
The next time you see Mr. Presswood, ask him how his future son in law likes his new job as Nameoki Township Health Inspector? Ask him when did the Highway Department become an extension of the MESD...Roads and Bridges people, Roads and Bridges.
Ask him about his written reprimand at MESD for unauthorized use of MESD equipment? Included in the minutes link above.
Do we have a volunteer to FOIA All of the "scrap metal money" transactions for the last five years from MESD?
And how about those missing MESD vehicle logs, the logs that Attorney Calvo told Presswood to keep for all heavy equipment and MESD vehicles? The ones Mr. Presswood claimed he was keeping? It is all in the minutes linked above. The ones that MESD claim as "logs do not exist" under the FOIA request from A. Greathouse? Logs, no logs? Truth or lie?
And that nasty, nasty Order of Protection thing....what a shame.
on October 26, 2017, 1:01 am