Consent Agreement?

I understand that the first meeting with the new (and improved) board lasted almost four hours. The bulk of the meeting was taken up by, once again, talk of reaching a consent agreement with Bisco's. Our supervisor (Dave Rushing) and the Riley Township attorney claimed to be pushing for this settlement for the good of the Township. After much talking, his base argument was that we can’t afford to continue. Now, I may not understand all of the financials of our township, but I do know that the residents have spoken several times and stated loudly and clearly that we do not want a consent agreement that will give away our rural character! We do want representative government and have voted our preference in Linda Belesky for Trustee to help us gain that. We do not want to settle when the court date is only two days away with a man who has not lived up to his obligations under previous agreements. Mr. Birkenshaw has shown that he cannot be trusted to do what he promises, following the ordinances of Riley.

It was interesting that even while our board was in executive session, Mr. Birkenshaw told his lawyer that he wanted to change the consent agreement that was being discussed in private. After hearing this and listening to what the changes were, Dave Rushing and Linda Hazelton still wanted to vote for the agreement, just without the new changes. This is astounding! How could they still believe that they could trust this man? Thankfully we had three on the board with enough wisdom to vote no. Perhaps we need more changes to the board in six months?

TRIAL DAY
I hear that yesterday at the trial, it has been delayed for at least 30 days to give both parties a chance to come to a meeting of the minds. Judge Deegan will be giving his ideas to the attorneys for what he would like to see, if an agreement can be reached. I am betting that at the board meeting in January this topic will be discussed again. Those of you interested, I hope will be there again to voice your opinions and be heard.