Prevent Your Own Fires

In 1958, the Village established the Bureau of Fire Prevention which enforces the policies of the Fire Prevention Code.  In September of 2017, the Village parted ways with the Fire Inspector Rick Musil.  The village president at the time, Thomas Heller and Mark Masciola agreed to hire a replacement.  Heller wanted to have someone currently on staff to take on that role. The problem was no one on staff held the qualifications.  Even though several members of the fire department were interested in getting trained for the role, Heller and Masciola refused to invest in these individuals.

So to save the village $3, 000, Tom Heller and Mark Masciola let the Village go more than a year without a Certified Fire Inspector.

Now as we all know, Thomas Heller moved himself from that Village President seat to Chief of the Fire Department.  Looks like he fixed that fire inspector problem since he is a fire inspector. But the question is, how good of an inspector is he? Our friends over in Stickney didn’t have many nice things to say about Heller’s abilities and knowledge of Fire Prevention. 

If the hearsay isn’t convincing enough, go see for yourself and ask any firefighter who works for Thomas Heller. No one wants to work for Heller.  It has gotten so bad that the firefighters have recently requested a meeting with the village trustees to discuss Heller’s incompetence and his inability to fill shifts.  That meeting has not taken place yet, but we are very interested to see what the village will do… probably nothing. The village board still hired Heller as a fire chief even though they were well aware of his poor employment history.  Just like they hired Gary Wiseman with his checkered employment past. Who can forget that Public Works guy they hired without a background check?

Powell and Friends continue to flush the community down the toilet.

Theft of Government Funds

When the bank accidentally credits your bank account more than you are entitled to, they take it back.  When a village employee buys more than their share of a uniform allowance or an unapproved expensive watch, the village takes it back.  The village will take every penny of their money back unless you are the deputy chief.  The village ordinance explicitly prohibited the deputy chief from collecting overtime. An ordinance that according to Mark Masciola has since changed, or has it?  Larry Powell and his side kick Mark allowed the deputy chief to continue accruing compensatory time at the overtime rate after being crowned with his new position on Gary’s lap.  The deputy chief logged compensatory time for “overtime” he worked covering department absences. Rodriguez even logged compensatory time at time and a half for Voluntary overtime, Holiday pay and Administrative duties. 

Wait what? Wait a minute here!  We paid him overtime to do the administrative job he is paid a salary to do???  Holiday overtime pay??

It only gets better.  With Rodriguez’ new promotion, he got himself a huge raise. Rodriguez began to cash out his compensatory time at his deputy chief pay rate in what is called a “comp time buy back”. Compensatory time that was mostly earned when he was at the sergeant rank and new compensatory time that he should have never been allowed to accrue.

So what happened? The board defended Rodriguez but then abruptly put a stop to his overtime. Could this be because the ordinance never changed, and Larry lied again?  A step in the right direction but what about the money Rodriguez was paid out that he wasn’t entitled to?  Maybe the village should give back the watch money and forgive the indebtedness of those who went over the uniform allowance.

There should be an audit of Rodriguez’ overtime and payouts since he became the deputy chief.  But with the accidental village president Larry Powell at the wheel, that will never happen. The village moves mountains for Rodriguez and Wiseman.  Makes us wonder why.

Unbelievable.

New Superintendent of Public Works

Larry Powell has apparently appointed himself as the new Superintendent of Public Works.  Powell must have lost confidence in his appointee for the role.  Overstepping his authority, Powell wrote a public works employee a reprimand for an accident during work hours.  Powell’s “letter of formal reprimand” threatens further disciplinary action “up to and including dismissal” for “further violations of basic safety practices”.

Oh Lawrence, lets review the village ordinance on the duties of the Village President:

(A) The President shall preside at all meetings of the Board of Trustees but shall not vote except in case of a tie vote of the members of the Board of Trustees, and except concerning matters which, by statute, require the vote of the corporate authorities.

(B) He shall appoint all officers with the advice and consent of the Board of Trustees with the exception of those taking office by election. He shall have power to remove any officer appointed by him as provided by law.

(C) He may exercise within the Village limits, the powers conferred upon sheriffs to suppress disorder and keep the peace; he may release persons imprisoned for violation of any Village ordinance, reporting such release and the cause therefor at the next Board meeting.

(D) He may annually and from time to time, give the Board information relative to the Village affairs and recommend measures he deems expedient for their consideration.

(E) He shall have the power to suppress riot and other disorderly conduct and to enforce Village ordinances by calling on all inhabitants of the Village eighteen (18) years of age or more for assistance.

(F) He shall have power at all times to examine the books, records and papers of any agent, officer or employee of the Village.

You are basically a powerless meeting coordinator who has access to records in order to give the Board information relative to the village affairs and make recommendations to the board.  Unless you and Mark Masciola changed the ordinance and didn’t tell anyone much like the overtime ordinance for your deputy chief. If your Superintendent refused to write up his subordinate, then you should be replacing your superintendent for not granting his master’s wishes.

This is not Metra where you can do what you want because you said so.

Incompetence at it’s best.