McHenry Co. (ECWd) –

It appears the Algonquin Township Board either has no clue what they are doing, or have given their Attorney free reign to settle cases at figures higher than originally offered and without public board action.

You may recall claims by Township Trustees Lawrence and Victor that they believed the Township was being extorted and intimidated by Andrew Gasser, the Road District Highway Commissioner. Those allegations were a result of a January 9th, 2019 Township meeting of which two Property Tax objection cases were being discussed and settlement offers made.

Both the Township and the Road District were offered a settlement that would result in both paying $125,000.00.

The Road District, with new counsel on this particular matter, Rob Hanlon, negotiated their settlement down to $100,000.00 total, saving the taxpayers $25,000.00.

While the Road District is reducing the obligation to the taxpayers, it turns out the Township Attorney, James Kelly, was negotiating as well, in the wrong direction!

Attorney Kelly, according to court records, has agreed to a settlement of $148,044.30 total for the two cases, which is  $23,044.30 higher than the initial settlement offer in January.

As outlined in the Press Release, it appears Attorney James Kelly has entered this agreement into the courts even though there does not appear to be any public action taken to actually agree to the terms of the order.

These cases were the result of prior elected officials overtaxing the public.

Below are key records in order of their events into what appears to be yet another boondoggle by Township Attorney James Kelly.

• November 2017 Court Transcript
• November 2017 Court Order
• December 2017 Court Transcript
• October 2018 Settlement Demand
• December 2018 email 
• January 2, 2019 Letter
• January 7, 2019 Letter
• May 2019 Court Order TX11
• May 2019 Court Order TX 30

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