This blog was started almost three years ago as a comical storyboard of comical things that really happen within the walls of Forest View village hall. Stories that are submitted are verified through our sources from around the village. When Thomas Heller and friends took over, the village was turned upside down and we wrote about it. Larry Powell can write fancy letters with what he and his friends want you to believe but he can’t hide from the truth. Larry can accuse this blog of “Cyber Bullying” but is it really bullying when we speak the truth? It took Larry several months to address this blog because Larry knows the events that are mentioned are not “half truths” and “false views”. Larry had no idea how to lie to you and make you believe these things did not happen.
Let us explore the world of President Powell:
Deputy Chief No More
The Deputy Chief of Police was recently forced to step down from his position for admittedly working a second job while on duty for a period of two years or more. This theft of time and money was first reported here but we only tell “half-truths”. If our story was a “half truth”, why was the Deputy Chief Salvador Rodriguez asked to step down?
Don’t take our word for it, request a FOIA for the former Deputy Chief’s disciplinary record and you can read all about it there. Or maybe not, Larry made a closed-door deal to keep that information from being in the Deputy Chief’s permanent employment record while allowing him to quietly step down.
Maybe you can go knock on Larry’s door and ask him why there is not a Deputy Chief any longer. Larry will DENY that there was ever any investigation. Larry will hide behind the “this is a personnel matter” forgetting that public officials are open to scrutiny by the public. Any official complaint or investigation against a public official should be public record and disclosed to the public. But Larry doesn’t play by the rules because he "says so”. Ask a few trustees (preferably more than two), you might get an honest one.
If this were any other employer, the Deputy Chief would have been fired for theft and official misconduct. That smells like a cover-up or shall we say corruption, but Larry sees an Employee of the Year. In case you didn’t know Larry, corruption is defined as dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power.
No Background Checks
The former Deputy Chief of Police hired a few officers without conducting a proper background check. The reason given was there was no time to complete the background checks required. We broke that story here but Larry wants you to believe its false. Anyone, and we mean anyone can investigate this as our sources did using FOIA requests. Larry will DENY this also, but we guarantee that the officers will not. Stop them and ask them before Larry orders them gagged.
Inappropriate Conduct
How Larry ended up as our president is borderline inappropriate. Larry was not voted into office in any public election. After losing his job and finding himself in some financial trouble, the president who we did vote in Thomas Heller stepped down leaving a vacant seat. Why would he do that? Heller needed a job so the plan was to take the Fire Chief position but Heller couldn't appoint himself. Enter Larry Powell. Powell always wanted to be president. Larry was voted into the vacant seat by his friends when his other friend Thomas Heller who was voted in by the people stepped down. Then Larry turned around and gave his friend Thomas Heller a full-time job as the Fire Chief that he wasn't qualified for. The fire department fell apart soon after.
Larry wants you to believe that he served us on the village board proudly for 24+ years. But serving requires actually showing up to board meetings. A FOIA requesting the attendance sheets for the past 24 years will show you how much Larry actually served us. When he did show up, Larry would “Bully” those who didn’t give him the answers he wanted.
While we are on the subject of bullying, during the recent flood scare a constituent contacted the village and made a request. That request ended with Larry yelling expletives at the constituent before ending the phone call. Very appropriate Larry.
Larry wants you to believe that it is only one or two trustees that are against all his actions. If that were the case, why is it that Larry can’t get anything passed? Now THAT is a “half-truth” Larry. The “Full-Truth” is the majority of the trustees on the board have voted Larry and his friends down. For the past few months, police chief Garry Wiseman has attempted to "promote" a part-time police officer to full time status. The majority of the board has turned that request down multiple times. Why would they do that? The officer Wiseman wants to promote is a friend of the disgraced former deputy chief Salvador Rodriguez. The police department is still plagued with staffing problems created by the former Deputy Chief. Rodriguez. Rodriguez hired a bunch of his friends who now can't work for the village or refuse to work for the village after finding out Rodriguez was demoted. Don't believe us? Ask for the overtime numbers at the next board meeting. The police chief can provide a list of part time officers and the last date the officers on that list worked a shift in Forest View.
The fires department struggles with staffing for much of the same reasons. No one wants to work for/with an incompetent fire chief. Find a fire department member and ask them what it's like to work in the Forest View department. Your off the record conversation may surprise you.
Larry has lost control and is now throwing everyone around him under the bus for his terrible mismanagement of this village. Many of the accomplishments he is taking credit for were not really his for the taking. But it’s Larry and he can say he was responsible for them because he "says so".
Good luck Larry, we hear you have a difficult opponent in the next election.
