Island Lake votes on 123 bills, one ... at ... a ... time

When trustees on a village board or other local government vote to pay routine bills, they generally do it with one sweeping motion covering all the invoices.

Not so in Island Lake — at least not this month.

Facing 123 proposed payments to attorneys, heating-repair professionals and other vendors, the board members opted to consider the items individually during its meeting last Thursday.

And so, a process that normally takes, at most, a few minutes took about two hours. Amateur video of the meeting showed the trustees’ frustration with the process as the evening dragged on.

When interviewed Tuesday, several trustees defended the effort, which stemmed from ongoing disagreements between the trustees about the bills. Trustee Donna O’Malley, who proposed the change, stood by her request.

“Each month the approval of paying the bills seems to be such a sore subject,” O’Malley said in an e-mail. “I felt it (would be) an educational experience for our board to sit as a whole and approve or not approve line-item by line-item.”

But the move mystified representatives of various other Lake County governments.

“It would just make for such a long meeting, I can’t imagine anyone choosing to do it,” Stevenson High School District 125 spokesman Jim Conrey said.

In recent years, some Island Lake trustees have complained about not getting enough time before meetings to review the town’s bills before a vote. Trustee Don Saville said he doesn’t see the list until the day meetings are held.

Trustees John Ponio and Laurie Rabattini also have complained. On two occasions, when other board members have been absent, the trio has had enough votes to reject paying the bills on time.

Those objections prompted O’Malley to go over the bills one at a time Thursday.

The invoices covered items including an employee’s hospital charges, boiler repair, legal fees, a furnace repair and many other services or purchases.

Mayor Debbie Herrmann said the village’s attorney that evening, Julie Tappendorf, reported never before seeing a board take the bills one at a time.

Herrmann wasn’t a fan.

“It was a huge waste of time,” Herrmann said in an e-mail. “I hope it does not occur again.”

Of all the bills reviewed Thursday night, only two were rejected, Herrmann said: One was for the purchase of stickers for safe drinking water; the other was to reimburse Herrmann for purchases she made on behalf of a holiday-meal program for needy families.

The sticker-related bill was skipped, Herrmann said, because she didn’t have information about the purchase at the time. She called the rejection of her reimbursement — similar to one approved in November — “pathetic” and “purely political.”

Contrary to the mayor’s displeasure, several trustees appreciated the exercise.

“It was a very tedious process, but in the end I feel it gave all the board members a better understanding of what bills the village incurs,” Trustee Connie Mascillino said.

Saville liked the effort, too.

“I wouldn’t want to see it happen on a steady diet ... but this was the first time anyone had gone through the bills completely,” he said.

O’Malley said the time was well-spent.

“How do you put a time frame on important decisions?” she said. “We were voted in as servants to our community, and we need to take our responsibility seriously. Money is serious.”

No government official would disagree financial matters must be taken seriously, but some in the area criticized Island Lake’s approach.

Cook Memorial Public Library District board President Bonnie Quirke called the votes “profoundly unusual.” Voting on the individual invoices could drive people away from attending meetings because they’re so long, she said.

Mundelein Assistant Village Administrator Michael Flynn declined to comment directly on Island Lake’s procedure, but said the Mundelein board votes on hundreds of bills every two weeks with one motion.

Stevenson High’s Conrey said agreeing to pay bills with one vote requires a board to trust administrators are presenting legitimate invoices that are being paid properly.

O’Malley insisted she trusts village Finance Director John Little, who prepares the bill list for the board. But she also said she’d recommend itemized votes again if she thinks it’s necessary.

Video of the meeting can be viewed at: cbgil.com/meetings.html.