Not so Funnyview Anymore huh?

Connect the dots Jimmy. WS don't want that smoke.....

From Our Email Box

 

Title: Please listen and do not vote for Tom Heller

To the residents of the Village of Forest View,

We write this letter to all of you with the upmost respect and sincerity. We would like to encourage all of you to vote for Nancy Miller and not for Tom Heller.

Tom Heller becoming Village President would in our opinion be disastrous. He is currently the Fire Chief for the Village of Forest View. This is a position that he is extremely unqualified for and should have never been placed in. And let’s not forget how this happened. He was already the Village President and in a shady deal stepped down making Larry Powell, his neighbor and close friend the Village President. In return Larry quickly made Tom Heller the Fire Chief at a high salary. 

In his time as Fire Chief he has done nothing to better the department or make the residents safer. He constantly lets the ambulance be left out of service with insufficient staffing. One would think he would come in as the only full time department member and ensure the safety of the residents. However he does not. He complains his wife will be made at him if he works weekends or holidays.

On those days that he has allowed the ambulance to be taken out of service and not protect the residents, he has responded outside of town to calls in Stickney. Whose residents is he more concerned about? If as chief of the Fire Department he places Stickney residents first, why would you want him to be Village President? He obviously is not concerned about you the residents, your family or homes.

So why has Tom Heller decided to run for Village President again? A position he previously held and chose to step away from? Well, he has been doing a horrible job as Fire Chief. He makes poor decisions, has consistently endangered the safety and lives of the members of the fire department as well as the residents, and the trustees are realizing that he is absolutely the wrong person to lead the department. Tom Heller has openly stated he has heard once his friend Larry Powell is no longer Village President he will be replaced by a qualified candidate. So all Tom can do is run for Village President in order to save his job.

He has no interest in helping the Village or its residents, once again Tom is taking care of the only resident he is and has ever been concerned about.... Himself. All of his decisions are based on what suits him best.

As the Forest View Firefighters Association we are asking you to cast your ballot for Nancy Miller. She actual cares about the Village, it’s residents and the employees of the Village. We know first hand how unqualified Tom Heller is to be Fire Chief. His lack of leadership, decision making and honesty. 

The members of the Forest View Firefighters Association endorse Nancy Miller for Village President. Tom Heller would be a bigger mistake for Village President than he is as Fire Chief.

Please right this wrong and help us get Forest View moving in the right direction.

Respectfully,

The Members of the Forest View Fire Department

Vote to Keep the Boat Afloat

Tom Heller is up to his old games again. Why lie to the residents about how he was appointed fire chief? A first year rookie firefighter has more experience than the tugboat. With his home in foreclosure and the fire department in shambles, Heller wants us to trust him with running the village.  We wouldn't trust him to give us our change back from a food run. Heller is so desperate, he has his followers stealing political signs off of front lawns.

Larry on Defense

Larry claims to be embarrassed about being part of village government in Forest View. How quickly he has forgotten his past like not showing up for meetings and shouting at speakers when they didn't agree with him.  Face it Larry, you are a joke. You could never win an election before and much less now with all the corruption flowing through your veins.  The really sad part of your legacy is that you involved your own kids in your political game.  Some day they will grow up and see the nasty side of your "because I said so" persona. Many in this village are glad you will be gone, especially those who you snitched on with your petty overnight parking fetish.

We feel sorry for Tommy and his financial troubles but this is an important job. Giving Tommy a second chance comes with a risk of not being able to remove him if he tanks our village. It is only a matter of time before the village is sued for a mistake he makes.

Choose wisely folks.

Sinking Tug Boat

If things couldn't get worse for Chief Heller.  A village board meeting was canceled due to the discovery of a letter that was allegedly sent to the Stickney village president. The three kings dropped off a nice stocking stuffer for us:

This isn't the first time we hear that the fire department isn't adequately staffed.  We know that it is mainly because no one, and we mean NO ONE wants to work with an incompetent Chief calling the shots.

The Big Swap 2.0

With the April election just a few months away, the fire chief Tom Heller is set to lose his job if a new village president is elected.  This could be why Heller is collecting signatures to run for office once again. But why would Heller want to run for village president again?  Maybe so history can repeat itself.  The last time Heller was voted in as village president, he pushed the fire chief out, stepped down and had Powell give him a job as a well paid fire chief. That was the original Forest View "Big Swap".  In order for Heller's new plan to work, the board would need to appoint an interim village president favorable to Heller when he steps down a second time.  Who will it be this time?  Who will Heller appoint as police chief? Will he keep the current chief or appoint Sticky Fingers Salvador Rodriguez?  Yes, Sgt Sticky Fingers was allowed to keep his job after stealing from the village.  Rodriguez and Heller have been seen eating lunch together which puts Rodriguez on the list of Heller cronies.

Why would we want more of the same garbage?

Deny Deny Deny!

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.

Virtual Board Meeting

Since the village has a hard time posting meeting information on the website, we will do it here for them.

Virtual board meeting Tonight, Tuesday 5/26/2020 7PM

To join using your computer:

Log onto: https://zoom.us/j/84161742610

To call in and join by telephone call 312-626-6799 and use Meeting ID 841 6174 2610


REMINDER:

You are not required to identify yourself to enter the meeting or once you are in the meeting.  If you are removed from the meeting, you may be able to take legal action against the village for your unlawful removal.

You may be asked to identify yourself if you make a public statement during the public statement segment of the meeting.

Political COVID-19 Cuts

It was an eventful Tuesday in our small village of Forest View.  Fox 32’s Dane Placko paid the police department barber shop a visit to inquire about the $30 Gary Wiseman haircut special.

When this story first broke, the village trustees were assured that the hair cut services were never rendered.  In a phone interview with Fox news, Powell continued to deny that any of this took place.

Through some brilliant investigative reporting, Dane Placko discovered that Gary Wiseman and others did get their hair trimmed by Wiseman’s personal stylist in the police chief’s office.

So who lied? Did Gary lie to Larry, or did Larry lie to his trustees?

During an on-location interview, Powell said the police chief Gary Wiseman apologized to him several times, but no apology was ever sent to the entire department that received his scathing “cowardice” big bully email.

 

Absent from the news report was the manager of the barber shop Gary Wiseman. Sources say he locked himself in his office, cut the lights and never came out. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Political motives Larry?  How about accountability?  You rat out your own residents when they block sidewalks with their cars but you are the biggest offender. Your fire chief has proven to be incompetent not only in his current position but also in his past places of employment. Your deputy chief of police commits FELONY theft of government funds and lies to your face, but you let him continue to do what he pleases. COVID or not, any other town would have had him removed immediately. And now your chief, potentially exposes himself and others to COVID-19 by allowing a stylist to be up close and personal.  What we want to know is who vacuumed the hair off the chief’s carpet?

You are all ego Mr. Larry “Because I said so” Powell.

We are just calling it like it is, the media always wins but the fat lady hasn't started singing just yet.

Feel the Burn

New toys often come with instructions for their use or a quick start setup guide.  You may want to follow those instructions very carefully when they involve hazardous chemicals.  The fire chief Tom Heller who we would imagine is certified in hazardous material awareness, filled a disinfecting fog machine with the wrong ratio of hazardous chemicals.  The fire chief fired up the machine and the village public safety building was filled with noxious fumes.  Firefighters and police officers who were in the building reported a burning sensation in their eyes and respiratory issues most likely caused by the gallon of ammonia Heller dumped into the machine.  

We would bet that the instructions did not call for an entire gallon of ammonia.  This method of disinfecting fire apparatus is known to cause serious and preventable health effects.  It is recommended that if an illness or injury due to exposure to ammonia is suspected, those involved should be immediately referred to a physician.  Instead several fire department members were sent home for the day following the building fumigation.

If you send everyone home, who responds in the event of a fire?

Larry Powell’s picks are the gifts that just keep giving.

Chain of Quarantine Hair Cuts

Village of Forest View police officers were given a stern reminder of who’s boss ‘round here. In an email sent to the entire police department, Chief Gary Wiseman referred to the individual officers who went above him to report his department violations as “cowards”. Wiseman reminded officers that a chain of command exists which still includes the Deputy Chief of Police Salvador Rodriguez even though he is currently under investigation.

Wiseman’s email was triggered by recent events which included an officer reporting that the Chief invited his personal hair stylist to use the Forest View police station as a temporary place of business.  With the current COVID-19 pandemic and an executive order issued by the Governor of Illinois barring salons and barbers from operating, Wiseman was going to allow his personal hair stylist to operate on village property and provide haircuts for him and other officers. We would assume his stylist wasn’t going to be doing this for free.

If this beauty fair would have taken place, we would bet it would be in violation of some department policies; using the village email system to promote or drive clients to a business in his official capacity as Chief of Police?  Allowing unauthorized persons into the police station? Wiseman’s defense will be that he is the boss and can authorize such a person to violate the governor’s stay at home order and come into the station to violate the order some more and turn a profit. So instead of procuring the correct laptops for the patrol vehicles, Wiseman spent his time setting appointments for some quarantine hair cuts.

Wiseman’s Buzz Kutz event was abruptly canceled.

Four Problems

Gary Wiseman’s email tantrum went on to point out that four village trustees have made it difficult to hire additional manpower.  Why would anyone trust anything Wiseman and his side kick bring before the board.  Gary must have experienced some short-term memory loss. Let us refresh his memory:

• Gary’s Deputy Chief fired or pushed all the reliable part-timers out and brought in his own friends
• No formal background checks were conducted on any of the Deputy Chief’s friends when they were hired
• Gary’s Deputy Chief is currently under investigation for theft of government funds

It is a fact that this manpower crisis was caused by mis-management of the part-time officer roster. Firing or pushing out long time loyal part-time police officers to replace them with hand-picked friends came back to bite Gary and his Deputy Chief.  Most of the current handpicked part-time roster hold full-time positions in other jurisdictions. During the May 12th board meeting, Wiseman informed the board that the officers primary departments may have restricted them from working secondary employment due to the COVID situation. That leaves the Fire Chief of Riverside and another officer who retired from Lyons, but they have been MIA since the Rodriguez investigation started.  Overtime has been through the roof which would indicate that none of Salavdor's friends have been available to work.

The board may be reluctant to allow a new hire under the Larry, Gary & Sal administration since it is very likely that the Deputy Chief Salvador Rodriguez may or may have not conducted a formal background investigation on the candidate.  Even if Rodriguez did complete a background check, after being accused of falsifying records and theft, we don’t think his background check reports are very credible at the moment.

One thing we are curious about is how many Village of Forest View police badges and IDs are out there with these part-time officers that can’t or won’t work?

Broken Chains

In a department meeting, Larry Powell informed officers they would be able to contact him if they needed to discuss any department issues.  Gary and Salvador did not like that idea, but Larry insisted.

A police chief is expected to make sound decisions pertaining to his daily operations as well as his picks for second in command. When Gary isn’t doing his job, you go to Larry. Gary says if you go to Larry about Gary, you are a COWARD.  Second in the “chain of command” is Salvador Rodriguez who under Gary Wiseman’s direct supervision managed to land himself in hot water. When Salvador isn’t doing his Job, you go to Gary. When you go to Gary about Salvador, Gary shows you his collection of police badges on the corner of his desk.  Open door policy only works when you are awake to welcome visitors crossing the threshold.

The department is in shambles, but we are not surprised.  As reported here on the “coward” blog, the village trustees who approved Gary Wiseman’s initial appointment were not informed of Wisemans checkered employment history as a Stickney police officer.  Gary was handed the golden ticket to a free paycheck for sleeping in a manager’s chair watching the park from his window while his deputy chief worked on school district business on the Forest View clock.  How much more of this Wiseman and Rodriguez circus will Larry tolerate?

Once again, steer clear and hide those garbage cans.

The Village of Larry View

The COVID-19 crisis has led municipalities to use technology more than ever before.  Our village is no exception, well to a certain extent.  The May 12th, 2020 board meeting was held using video conferencing technology with the information to join being posted at the closed village hall door.  That is right, the village hall is closed due to COVID-19.  This would lead a resident to reasonably believe that access to the meeting information would not be available.

If you attempted to join the meeting right from the start at 7PM, you would have had to wait until the host approved or allowed you to participate in the meeting:

Once you were allowed into the meeting by the host (Joy Conklin), you were asked to identify yourself via private message by one of the trustees and the meeting host:

If you did not respond, you were kicked out of the meeting and again asked to identify yourself:

The fact that meeting host Joy Conklin can cherry pick who is allowed into a public village board meeting or remove attendees when they refuse to identify themselves is a direct violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act.  Ironically, a meeting participant may have alerted her to her blatant violations by using a screen handle of “OpenMeetingsActViolation” when joining the meeting.

Village Communication

A discussion was started revealing how village residents are not being tended to in a timely manner under Mark Masciola.  The trustees heard excuse after excuse from Masciola on how the office is not fully staffed and how Masciola took a day off for the first time ever.  Masciola has demonstrated that he has a hard time picking up a phone to communicate with village residents.  Why do we pay this clown?  Our better half works remotely, answers and makes calls in pajamas without even leaving home.

It was truly refreshing to hear Larry show his true colors and say that passing out notices to resident houses was a “waste of time”.  This folks, this is how the village keeps you in the dark. Meeting notices posted on a door of a building presumed to be closed sure gets a lot of views. Newsletters, yeah no more of those. The website? Still not done.  Call the village? No one is available to take your call.  Need a permit? Here is an ordinance violation fine instead.  The village has the money to give Thomas Heller for a hand me down fire truck but they can’t pay someone a couple hundred dollars to update the website with IMPORTANT RESIDENT INFORMATION?

Why a waste of time Larry? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Tommy Heller drove a bus….

…. right over his men.  A highly respected trustee informed Fire Chief Tom Heller that he witnessed an ambulance go in the wrong direction when responding to a medical emergency.  The trustee requested that Heller makes sure that newly hired firemen are well trained on village streets (geography).  Heller goes on record and rats his own men out saying he himself has witnessed his most senior firemen drive the wrong way for calls.  So the firemen who have been working for the village the longest don’t know the village streets? We would think that in a medical emergency, seconds, hell, milliseconds count.  Looks like someone needs to FOIA those fire call records and analyze the response times (hint hint). Excellent lawsuit material.

Miles of Valor Award

The BP fuel stop on 47th and Central is known as one of the busiest in the state.  A robbery, well not just a robbery, an ARMED ROBBERY was reported at the gas station just as a cop left to fulfil the most important duty of the watch…. RECORD 50 MILES driven with your patrol car to keep your job.

A trustee challenged the Chief of Police Gary Wiseman on the new mileage policy.  Wiseman confirmed that he uses mileage recorded at the end of each watch to evaluate if an officer effectively patrolled the village.  Wiseman first denied he required 50 miles but did say that he was able to drive 24 miles in one hour. Wiseman also said he sent an email to his subordinates telling them they were required to do double that amount.  Which is close to 50 as pointed out by a trustee.

If you drive the ENTIRE village, you can easily log just over 14 miles:

The question is how long would it take you during the day versus night when you have to turn a patrol vehicle around at 9 dead ends (Including end of village limits at 47th/Laramie and 51St/Rutherford), stop at 13 traffic lights and over 30 stop signs? We counted. You also must factor in citizen contacts, business checks, traffic stops or responding to calls and traffic.  If Gary logged 24 miles in an hour during HIS work hours, he must have been using the same method as that one day shift officer by driving in circles around the Dunkin Donuts for that entire hour.

Oh Gary, thirty years of experience and you are still clueless on how police work is done.  You measure effectiveness by looking at your crime statistics and volume of citizen complaints. Armed Robberies in Forest View? At night when you only have three cash handling businesses open? You should just hang it up Gary.  You are useless just like your three stooges on the day shift.

Oh yes.... still no cameras in the police cars and the chief issued bazooka light bars to "fix" the unlit keyboard issue.  Now police officers have a really bright blinding light on their computers. When Wiseman was asked about the grants he passed on for the cameras, he played dumb. No surprise there.

The Untouchable

Still running around doing as he pleases and playing Deputy Chief, Salvador Rodriguez is currently under investigation for possible Official Misconduct and it did happen Theft of Government funds.

Another one of Gary’s awesome picks is still hanging on to hope that COVID-19 delays makes this all go away.  A trustee respectfully requested for the release of notes from an executive session in which Larry Powell has denied.  The trustee was looking to review exactly what the internal investigation was to cover since it has dragged on way too long.  It was said that the investigating party, the village’s municipal attorney is awaiting a response to a Freedom of Information Act request.  Larry Powell then offered to review the document himself and inform the rest if everything is being done as indicated. Okay Larry, you cannot be trusted to do anything right. You allowed this village to self-implode and you want the trustees to trust you with reviewing a document?

Give us a break.

The Chewbacca Defense

The new theft of government funds scandal has grown legs. The village is surprisingly taking action however Sal Rodriguez feels he’s untouchable.  We witnessed the embattled deputy chief driving around town in a regular cop uniform instead of his usual white one.  We inquired about the uniform change and were told that Mr. Rodriguez has done this in protest.  But what exactly is he protesting? It’s like Bernard Madoff walking around naked in protest of getting caught. The village started to realize that Rodriguez is a great storyteller when he dropped that Chewbacca defense for his timecard mishaps.  Rodriguez has lost his credibility with all but two officers. The only two that benefit from Rodriguez’ existence.  We don’t even need to mention who they are, they stick out like a sore thumb.  We still can’t understand how an officer who is under investigation is still riding around enforcing any kind of laws in our village. Especially one being accused of theft and submitting false timecards.  And if you support him, you are part of the problem.  Gary should take notes from our neighbors to the north.  Ask them how to do a proper employee theft of government funds investigation.

From the comments:

To the unposted commenter: You can distance yourself all you want from this “political witch hunt”, but if someone stole money out of your wallet, we are sure you would be calling your “friends” at the FBI.  Retire already, you are just as useless as the dunkin’ donuts cop.

Board Meeting Time

On the agenda for tonight:

- Deputy Chief payroll "discrepancies"
- The hitch on the police chief's school bus and why it has a yellow hitch
- Other items that the village board will just say yes to.

Business as usual.

The Forest View Double Dip

We have been quiet for a while and most thought that we were done.  We were working hard on a tip received to our blog email.  Since 2015, the Deputy Chief Salvador Rodriguez had been working as a Residency Investigations officer for the Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202.  Records from the school were only available for 2018 forward.  What we found was disturbing but not surprising.  Time cards submitted to the school district by Salvador Rodriguez show that Mr. Rodriguez was conducting school district business while on duty as a police officer and as a deputy chief for our village.  In our union world this is called “double-dipping”. But when you double dip with two taxpayer funded employers, it is a crime. Theft of government funds in Illinois is a FELONY when the theft is over $500.  We tallied up all the hours and Mr. Rodriguez was paid an extra $1,900.00 for working on school district business while on duty.  The village of Forest View paid out over $3,000 for the time Rodriguez used to work on district business.

We can see someone making an honest mistake on a submitted time card but this was not just one or two mistakes.  Oh no, in 2018 we found over 29 time submissions where Rodriguez was supposed to be in Forest View patrolling the village.  Could this explain why Salvador had no time to conduct background checks on his friends he hired?

Only two explanations for this are possible.  Rodriguez either submitted falsified time cards to the school district or Rodriguez was working for the district while on the clock in Forest View.

We think it is a little of both.  On February 20th and again on March 9th of 2018, Rodriguez submitted a time card to the school district with completely different information for the same pay period:

 

What we find interesting is that Rodriguez was scheduled to be in Forest View for a double overtime shift (16HRS) on February 13th, 2018. However according to the time sheets submitted by Rodriguez, he was working on school district casework and in the "field" on that day for 7 hours each. So Salvador put in for 14 hours for the same day when he was already on the BIG clock in Forest View. Furthermore, on February 16th, Rodriguez was scheduled to be on “investigations” in Forest View.  We would love to see if he checked out a vehicle that day to conduct his “investigations”.  Maybe someone should check the police blotter log, just don't snap pictures or make copies of them, people get fired for that kind of stuff.

At the time of this theft, Rodriguez was in the process of purchasing a new home on a single income household. The same home where he invited his closest friends, the police chief, Larry and select trustees for a housewarming party at the house they help him buy with his high dollar cash outs of overtime pay he was not entitled to. And of course some extra cash from the school district.

Usually an officer is immediately stripped of his police powers pending an investigation when accused of criminal wrongdoing such as FELONY THEFT.  However, Rodriguez remains on the job and is being protected by Larry Powell, Gary Wiseman and Mark Masciola.  Plenty of time and access to everything at the village police station to falsify more documents.  This is a case that can’t be investigated by the Forest View police since the investigator is the one being investigated. Not to mention, the other investigators are Salvador's friends.

Larry should contact the state’s attorney’s office so they can conduct an official criminal investigation.  No one at that department is qualified to do such a thing and it would also be a conflict of interest…. But we already know Larry and the gang don’t care about that. It will be handled the Forest View way.

We only know about 2018, we don’t doubt for one minute that this was going on since 2015. We are still working on that time period.

Ironic how the very person who wants to hold the rest of his officers accountable for their actions is now in the hot seat for his carefree money grabbing scheme. This is the same guy who gets warrants and locks people up for stealing a 12 pack of beer from the gas station worth $10. But it's okay for him to steal thousands from our village.

Don't worry Mr. Rodriguez, even though you would fire an officer for much less, Larry won't hold you accountable for your crimes. One would hope you do the right thing just like Jeff Tobolski. But we know you won't.

We should ask Larry what Metra does to employees who pad the time clock. This blog is all lies! Right Larry?

Looks like Sal's future records clerk should start filling out job applications, Mariano's needs some stock boys.

Integrity at it's finest. Only in Forest View.

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.

Rest in Peace Officer

Sad news this morning from our neighbors to the north.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the fallen officer.

Prayers

The blog has been quiet but the information is brewing.  Our every year vacation to the household's other half''s motherland was wonderful. Unfortunately as we returned home from there the news has dealt a devastating blow to our vacation ending.  Please keep Puerto Rico in your prayers.

Closed post.

Forest View Debt Assistance

A management position requires experience and a proven track record of some kind.  We already know that our village president appointed a fire chief with no experience. As for his track record?  It looks like he can’t even manage his own finances.  With his home in the beginning stages of foreclosure for defaulting with an $80,000 SBA lien on top, what does the fire chief do?  He goes on a Disney vacation.  He will soon be renting a home in town like our one trustee who lost her home in foreclosure.

Firemen get to sleep in the fire station when they are on duty.  Soon the fire chief will be living in the fire station.

Great pick there Larry! This dude can’t even manage his own finances and you have him managing the fire department.  Maybe that is why he needed the high paying chief job so bad.  Did you know about this Larry?  Was this all part of the plan to get him back on his feet?  I guess it didn’t work out the way you all planned.

Allowing the deputy chief to steal from the village with his specially crafted super secret overtime deal and now this.  Free village money for all! Where do we sign up?