Politics & Government
Wheatland Township Transparency Group Looking for Attorney
Citizens asking questions about a proposed new township hall aren't sure township attorneys are looking out for their best interests, leaders say.
At Wednesday’s , trustees said citizens who spearheaded the move for a special meeting on the new town hall will be meeting Monday with township attorneys to set an agenda.
Not true, Debra Holscher said. The first she'd heard of legal pow-wow was when she read it in Plainfield Patch, she said.
Holscher is the retired Naperville academic administrator who, at , gathered petition signatures and made the motion to force a special meeting to be held. She and Mike Crockett, another Wheatland Township resident, are the point people for the citizen transparency pressure group.
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In reality, the group that's pushing for public disclosure of all the details and decisions made for the proposed new township hall want to hire their own attorney, Holscher said. They don’t trust attorneys with township’s law firm, Ancel Glink, which recently co-sponsored a fundraiser for township Supervisor Todd Morse.
“I’m very upset that my tax money goes to pay their (Ancel Glink’s) salary while they force my hand to hire another attorney,” Holscher said.
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Some say township council Keri-Lynn Krafthefer provided “misinformation” at the town meeting that supported the agenda of officials backing the new building.
Township Clerk Chuck Kern is one of them. He challenged assertions Krafthefer made Tuesday that the public has voted three times to build a new building.
“I don’t know if it was inadvertent or just misinformation, but it was noted by quite a few as inaccurate,” Kern said at Wednesday’s board meeting. “I was very disappointed.”
Holscher said her legal advisors don't agree with Krafthefer’s opinion on the validity of the motion Holscher made at the town meeting.
Beyond that, though, is the fact that Ancel Glink has made donations to the political coffers of some township officials, she said.
Ancel Glink was a big contributor last year to the Wheatland Township Republican Organization, kicking in $3,000 to the group, of which Morse is vice chairman. Earlier this year, the firm contributed $1,000 to Morse’s campaign fund, campaign disclosure records show.
