Since June 2026 the mayor and four of the six trustees have fought over who runs the village: the attorney, the agenda, the empty staff jobs, and now a veto of an entire meeting. Every claim here is checked against the documents.
Another quiet night: four trustees, three votes, all unanimous. A FOIA officer pay item on the agenda never came up.
At 5 p.m. the auditor's draft: about $7.3 million in the general fund, no debt, and a county levy error that trims next year's levy by about $380,000.
One line on each, and a link to the full write-up. Green links go to the lawful fix for that problem.
A 25-minute October 19 meeting with Trustees Gesky and Zimbelman absent. Ordinance 26-10 and $191,575.06 in bills passed 4–0, Jim Paicz took his oath, and trick-or-treat is 4 to 8 p.m. Oct. 31. "Compensation for FOIA Officer" was on the agenda and was skipped.
The auditor told the 5 p.m. committee the county levied for bonds Manteno doesn't have, then corrected it the wrong way, so next year's levy will be about $380,000 smaller. And the September 21 minutes, due October 15, still are not posted.
A quiet October 5. The B&F contract the mayor vetoed was approved again as new business, moved by Trustee Barry, and Jim Paicz was confirmed 6–0. The two vetoed sets of minutes were left alone.
The Illinois Labor Relations Board certified the Laborers' union, Local 751, for five Village office employees on March 25, 2026. A contract was negotiated and discussed in closed session on September 21. It has not come to a vote.
The one plate reader purchase the board voted on in those years was a different system, for the I-57 interchange. A resident's 2020 quote of the police chief checks out; one of her cost figures does not.
The law says the veto "shall be reconsidered" at that meeting, but nothing can be voted on unless it was on the agenda posted 48 hours ahead. Here is how it gets posted, and what happens if it isn't.
A trustee candidate proposes raising the override bar to five of six. State law fixes it at two-thirds, four of six, and a higher bar would let the president and any two trustees sustain every veto.
All three Sept. 16 actions, under § 1-5-7. Only the B&F contract was a type of motion a veto can reach. Override vote Oct. 5; it needs four trustees.
The section read from the table covers appointed officers. Manteno's clerk is elected, and the vacancy is filled by the president and the board together (§ 1-8-3).
The finance chair, Sept. 21: with no administrator there is no second check on payroll, and staff have left owed vacation and pay.
Four trustees called it, the mayor read a statement and left, and the board took three 4–0 votes in 25 minutes. It is the meeting the veto is about.
The mayor will fill the empty jobs by appointment rather than posting them, and does not plan to hire an administrator before April's election.
Manteno has used Flock "for years," he said, and there is "potential for abuse." There is still no board vote authorizing it.
The treasurer: "It has not been board approved." Asked how she found Vasselli Law, the mayor said "through friends from another community."
The code enforcement appointment failed 2–3 over a budget question a trustee says he emailed the mayor weeks earlier. No administrator, no code officer.
Manteno police have run license plate readers for years. The board voted in 2021 to buy one fixed system for the I-57 interchange; nobody has produced a vote, an ordinance or a roll call authorizing the leased Flock cameras.
"Because our meetings have been so contentious," the mayor said. Under state law the board sets its own rules of proceeding.
Six Level 1–certified members on shift at 9 p.m. on Sept. 1, and 19 on staff. The Aug. 31 deadline was met.
The appointment vote moved to Sept. 8 instead, a date one trustee had said publicly he could not attend.
Three days after the quorum failure the full board came back, spent 54 of 76 minutes in closed session, and agreed on everything.
Four trustees absent. Under a 1974 village rule the chief was sent to a trustee's house; 38 minutes later: "There was no answer at her door."
On Sept. 21 the judge set the attorney case for a hearing on Nov. 12.
The mayor, citing her attorney's advice. Trustees called it censoring. The board cleared the bills it had deadlocked on, 4–0.
A motion to adjourn failed 2–4; the mayor declared the meeting adjourned anyway and left. Four trustees stayed and overrode her veto.
No complaint had ever been filed, so the court had no jurisdiction. It did not decide who represents the Village.
The mayor announced she was vetoing the vote retaining Cainkar. No written objection followed.
Every edit to this site, including our own corrections, is on the change log.
An Illinois village splits power in two. The elected president (the mayor) nominates officials; the board of trustees must consent. In Manteno that split broke on June 15, 2026, when Mayor Annette LaMore removed longtime village attorney Joseph Cainkar and the board refused to confirm her choice, James Vasselli.
Four trustees voted Cainkar back. The Village, through Vasselli, sued them. A judge dismissed that suit on July 21 without deciding who the village attorney is, and the question is now set for a hearing on November 12.
Since then the fight has spread to who sets the agenda, how vetoes work, and staff jobs that neither side can fill alone. Underneath it sit a $168,000 forensic audit of the prior administration, which charged no fraud and issued no clearance, and the Gotion battery plant fight that split the village's politics in 2023.
Runs the village day-to-day · nominates officers
The Board of Trustees · must "advise & consent"
| Date | Vote | Result |
|---|---|---|
| June 15 | Confirm Vasselli as village attorney | Failed, 4–2 against |
| June 15 | Disapprove the removal and reinstate Cainkar | Passed 4–2 |
| June 25 | Reinstate Cainkar, at a special meeting the mayor calls void | Passed 4–0 |
| July 6 | Retain Cainkar | Passed 4–1–1 |
| Aug. 3 | Override the mayor's veto, after she declared the meeting adjourned | 4–0, disputed |
Roll calls as reported by The Daily Journal / Shaw Local and, for June 15, the Village's own posted minutes. The same four trustees prevailed each time.
Every Illinois village runs on a division of labor written into state law: an elected president (commonly called the mayor) runs the executive side and nominates officials; an elected board of trustees is the legislative side that must "advise and consent" to those appointments. Manteno's crisis is what happens when those two branches stop trusting each other.
The spark was the village attorney. On June 15, 2026, Mayor Annette LaMore removed longtime village attorney Joseph Cainkar and moved to install her own choice, attorney James Vasselli. The board refused to confirm Vasselli. Ten days later, on June 25, four trustees held a special meeting, without the mayor, and voted to bring Cainkar back. The mayor called that meeting illegal and stayed home. Within two weeks, "the Village of Manteno" (through Vasselli) had sued four of its own trustees to undo the vote.
Sitting underneath the personal fight is a forensic audit, a review of the prior (20-year Nugent) administration, approved in August 2025 on a 3–3 board vote broken by Mayor LaMore, which flagged financial-management concerns. The written report neither found fraud nor cleared anyone; a newspaper sentence saying the auditors found "no serious improprieties or fraud" was the reporter's, not the auditors'. Both sides invoke that audit as their reason for acting.
There is also a second, largely unreported layer. Before running for mayor, LaMore was a leading figure in the Concerned Citizens of Manteno (CCOM), the not-for-profit organization that, since December 2023, has been suing the Village of Manteno (along with Gotion Inc. and a property LLC) over the rezoning that allowed a Chinese-owned lithium-ion battery plant to operate at the former Kmart distribution center at 333 S. Spruce St. Shaw Local reported on April 5, 2025, when she was mayor-elect, that LaMore "was the driving force behind the suit for the Concerned Citizens," and quoted her saying she was stepping away from that role: "the village is part of the lawsuit, I have to walk away from that." That CCOM lawsuit, in which a judge has allowed 7 of 10 claims to proceed, is actively in discovery. Joe Cainkar was the Village's defense attorney in that case. When the board voted 4–1–1 to retain Cainkar at the July 6 meeting, Trustee Boudreau had explicitly cited the active CCOM litigation as a reason not to switch attorneys mid-case. And the alignment is not subtle: as of July 17, 2026, the CCOM/No Gotion Illinois website's own "About" page carries a full roster of the village board with party labels: it tags Mayor LaMore, Clerk Rolniak, and Trustees Barry and Vaughn "Freedom Party – No Gotion" and the four other trustees "Choice Party – Pro Gotion." It is a roster with labels, not a list of supporters. The two disputes are legally separate; whether they are factually connected is a question the current court record does not resolve. See Fact Check c29–c36 for what is and is not established, including the Michigan parallel that shows what this fight can cost. Corrected September 22, 2026: an earlier version of this paragraph quoted Shaw Local as saying LaMore "led" the CCOM lawsuit, which the article does not say; described the No Gotion page as a list of supporters; and gave the retention vote as 4–1 on July 7.
Being named here reflects a public role or a public court record, not a finding of wrongdoing.
Elected in 2025. Removed attorney Cainkar and appointed Vasselli. The lawsuit is filed in the Village's name on her side of the dispute.
ExecutiveVillage attorney for roughly 23 years (Law Offices of Louis F. Cainkar, Ltd.), a tenure spanning the Nugent administration the forensic audit examines. Removed June 15; voted back by trustees June 25. His June 30 engagement letter ($250/hour, unsigned, sent to the administrator) is Exhibit B in the lawsuit, which calls it unauthorized.
Reinstated by boardOf Vasselli Law, LLC (Oak Brook), founded 2024; also village attorney for Hampshire, Ill. Appointed by LaMore; his firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of "the Village." Separately, county land records aired by FOX 32 Chicago show his firm prepared deed work for Constellation Energy Generation's 2025 land purchases near Essex, an unrelated Kankakee County matter, noted here for completeness. In 2001 he resigned as a Cook County prosecutor over an anthrax-scare prank he publicly acknowledged at the June 15 meeting.
Mayor's counselMade the June 25 motion to reinstate Cainkar. One of four trustees named as defendants.
Board majoritySeconded the June 25 reinstatement motion. Named defendant.
Board majorityPart of the four-trustee majority; named defendant. Publicly critical of the mayor's transparency.
Board majorityNamed defendant. Publicly argued state law required the mayor to report the removal to the board within 5–10 days. Spouse of the staffer who posted the June 25 agenda.
Board majorityObjected on the record that the June 25 meeting was improperly called and walked out. Submitted a supporting affidavit for the Village.
Aligned with mayorAbsent June 25; voted against retaining Cainkar on July 6. Not a defendant.
Aligned with mayorRecipient of Cainkar's June 30 engagement letter; the lawsuit says the administrator has no authority to retain counsel. Suspended five days without pay in early August. Thanked from the dais on August 20 for fourteen years of service; by September 8 the mayor was telling the board the village had been without a code enforcement officer "since Mr. LaRocque retired." He was paid a $30,000 stipend on top of his administrator salary to carry code enforcement. The Village's staff directory still listed him in the job as of September 9. The administrator's office is vacant and is not posted. Code enforcement now sits with Director of Building and Zoning Jim Paicz, confirmed by the board 6–0 on October 5.
StaffThe Village's filing says she posted the June 25 agenda at a trustee's direction; she is Trustee Joel Gesky's spouse and a focus of its discovery request. FOIA records also show her acting as the board's general clerical / FOIA conduit, forwarding materials from both camps, including the mayor's own attorney.
StaffAppointed Village Clerk on August 20, 2026, the fourth person to hold the office in roughly 15 months, and resigned after about two weeks, per Shaw Local (September 18). On September 21 the mayor named former clerk Allen Pickrel as temporary clerk. The Village's official roster still listed Wolfe as clerk on September 22. The Village Code routes special-meeting "calls" through the Clerk, which is why this office keeps landing in the middle of the dispute. Updated September 22, 2026; an earlier version described her as the sitting clerk.
StaffAppointed clerk June 1, 2026 (after Allen Pickrel's resignation; elected clerk Kerri Rolniak had resigned in late 2025). The Village Code routes special-meeting "calls" through the Clerk, placing the office at the center of the fight over the June 25 meeting's legality. Per the Village's posted June 25 minutes, Orth gave notice on Tuesday, June 23; Trustee Barry's sworn affidavit says the Village "had no sitting Clerk" on June 25. His formal letter is dated July 14, and he served through August, effective August 28 per the August 12 meeting. Crystal Wolfe followed him on August 20. Corrected September 22, 2026: an earlier version said the date of his resignation had not been reported.
StaffManteno's mayor for 20 years. The forensic audit reviews his administration. Not a party to the 2026 lawsuit.
Prior administrationAnnette LaMore is sworn in as Village President, ending Tim Nugent's 20-year tenure. A largely new board of trustees is seated.
Source: The Daily Journal/Shaw Local (Apr. 26, 2025); Affidavit of Pres. LaMore.
Weeks into the new term, the board votes 4–2 against Mayor LaMore's first attempt to replace the village attorney (her nominee was attorney Tiffany Thompson, per the Village's June 16, 2025 minutes), the first of what will become two rejections. A year later, at the June 15, 2026 meeting, LaMore invokes exactly that history: she claims emergency appointment power "because you have turned me down twice." Cainkar, the incumbent since roughly 2003, continues serving as a statutory holdover.
Source: Village of Manteno minutes, June 16, 2025; The Daily Journal/Shaw Local (June 2025); The Vedette (June 23, 2026).
The trustees split 3–3 on hiring Greene Forensic Accounting Solutions of Chicago for a multi-year forensic review of the prior administration's finances, and Mayor LaMore votes yes to break the tie for the $168,000 engagement (Greene was the low bidder). The audit that both camps now invoke was, at its origin, the mayor's initiative as much as the board's.
Source: The Daily Journal/Shaw Local (Aug. 6, 2025); board minutes, Aug. 4, 2025 ("Mayor LaMoore Voted Yes"). Corrected September 22, 2026: an earlier version dated this vote August 5 and called it 4–3; the minutes show a 3–3 trustee vote broken by the mayor on Monday, August 4.
The auditors present their review at a special meeting. The written report raises concerns about bidding transparency, bank-deposit practices, and a land sale; it neither finds fraud nor clears anyone, and it says it does not claim to be complete. The Shaw Local story three days later said the auditors found "no serious improprieties or fraud"; that sentence was the reporter's, not a quote from the auditors. Asked from the floor whether anybody was getting arrested, the auditor answered, "That's not my call." (See the Forensic Audit section.)
Source: The Daily Journal/Shaw Local (May 23, 2026); FOIA 26-106. Corrected September 22, 2026: an earlier version dated the presentation May 23 (the article date, not the meeting date) and attributed the "no serious improprieties or fraud" line to the auditors.
Mayor LaMore signs a written Notice of Removal dated June 12 and emails it to Cainkar the morning of June 15, citing 65 ILCS 5/3.1-35-10 and Village Code § 1-9-2. It states her grounds (a "failure to inform," misalignment on financial oversight and transparency, and "general maladministration"), argues Cainkar was a mere "holdover" never formally reappointed, and pledges to report her reasons to the board "no less than five and no more than ten days" later. At the June 15 regular meeting she moves to appoint James Vasselli; the board votes 4–2 against confirming him, and she declares a 30-day temporary appointment. Later the same night, per the Village's posted minutes, Trustee Gesky moves "to disapprove of the removal and restore and reinstate" Cainkar; it passes 4–2, Barry and Vaughn voting no, and Gesky states that the board "will not recognize Mr. Vasselli." The same minutes record the board overriding the mayor's veto of Ordinance 26-02 by 4–2 that night.
Source: FOIA 26-133 (Notice of Removal & transmittal emails); Affidavit of Pres. LaMore; The Daily Journal/Shaw Local (June 18, 2026); Village of Manteno minutes, June 15, 2026. Added September 22, 2026: the 4–2 reinstatement vote and the Ord. 26-02 override.
A group text thread later released under FOIA, shown as "4 People" in the phone's header (five including the mayor), shows Mayor LaMore, attorney James Vasselli, and Dennis Reboletti scheduling a meeting. Reboletti was later documented in a produced Vasselli Law invoice (#2024072819) billing 6.0 hours for a board meeting plus travel; the text thread's contact card renders his name "Rebelletti." LaMore: "Are you available Wednesday night?"; Rebelletti: "I think that will work. Im flying in from DC that afternoon." Vasselli addresses her as "Mayor" and refers to "Dennis and Julie." Trustee Barry was a member of the thread, which is how he had the same thread. The same day, LaMore texts trustees individually: "Because of a technicality, and because Steven Orth is out of town, we cannot have this meeting on Wednesday. We will try for Thursday if everything works out according to the regulations", pasting the full text of Village Code § 1-6-3 beneath it. Trustee Barry supplied his own screenshots of the same thread in response to a FOIA request on June 23.
Source: FOIA 26-138 responsive records (text messages); FOIA 26-133 (Barry screenshots, June 23).
Records show Mayor LaMore signs a written "Call for Special Meeting" for June 25 (signature hand-dated June 23), listing the audit, Gotion, and "articulation of reason for removal of Cainkar", but no reinstatement vote. The same day, Trustee Joel Gesky emails the administrator at 11:53 a.m. asking that a "motion to disapprove of the removal and to restore/reinstate" Cainkar be added "for a formal vote"; LaRocque replies "Will do" at 12:26 p.m., Trustee Boudreau sends a second written request that evening, and the agenda distributed at 4:31 p.m. carries the item. Released texts also show LaRocque telling Gesky, "She's talking to the attorney to see if she can take your request off the agenda!", and that evening Boudreau texts, "So we will be going onto clerk number 4, this is unbelievable." Per the Village's posted June 25 minutes, Village Clerk Steven Orth, appointed only on June 1, gave notice that Tuesday, June 23. His formal resignation letter is dated July 14, and he served through August 28. Trustee Barry's sworn affidavit says the Village "had no sitting Clerk" on June 25, which bears on the code's requirement that a special-meeting call be presented to the clerk.
Source: FOIA 26-138 (signed call; Gesky, Boudreau & LaRocque emails and texts, June 23, 2026); Village of Manteno minutes, June 25, 2026; FOIA 26-168 (Orth letter, July 14, 2026); Affidavit of Trustee Barry; The Vedette (July 13, 2026). Corrected September 22, 2026: an earlier version said the date of Orth's resignation had not been reported.
At a special meeting held without the mayor, trustees Boudreau, Zimbelman, Crockett and Gesky vote 4–0 to "disapprove the removal" and reinstate Cainkar "effective immediately." Trustee Barry reads an objection that the meeting was not properly called and walks out; Trustee Vaughn is absent. The agenda also listed an item to articulate the reasons for Cainkar's removal.
Source: The Daily Journal/Shaw Local (June 26, 2026); Village TRO motion, Exhibit A (agenda).
Hours after the special meeting she skipped, Mayor LaMore emails the trustees: "I am resending you the email you already received on June 15 with all the reasons why I dismissed Joe Cainkar… You have had this information for over a week." Whether re-sending the removal letter by email satisfies § 3.1-35-10's requirement to report reasons "at a meeting" held 5–10 days after removal is one of the questions a court may have to answer. Earlier that afternoon (4:15 p.m.), Vasselli had emailed a legal memorandum, signed as "Village Attorney," arguing the meeting was not properly called under Village Code § 1-6-3.
Source: FOIA 26-138 (LaMore email, June 25, 9:34 p.m.; Vasselli memo & transmittal email, June 25, 4:15 p.m.).
Cainkar transmits an "Engagement Letter" to Village Administrator LaRocque, purporting to retain his firm at $250/hour through April 30, 2027 for the residents' suit against the Village and Gotion (Concerned Citizens of Manteno v. Village of Manteno, No. 2023 CH 37) and pending LIUNA Local 751 labor matters. The Village says it is unauthorized and unsigned.
Source: Village TRO motion, Exhibit B (engagement letter).
Cainkar appears at the regular meeting and seeks to act as village attorney. According to WFAV 95.1, the mayor asked the police chief to remove Cainkar; the chief and Cainkar declined. The board votes 4–1–1 to retain Cainkar. The village now effectively has two attorneys claiming authority.
Source: WFAV 95.1 (July 7, 2026); The Daily Journal/Shaw Local (July 11, 2026).
"The Village of Manteno," through Vasselli Law, files an Emergency Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order, Declaratory Relief and Expedited Discovery (Case No. 26CH21) against the four trustees, and seeks to bar Cainkar and his firm from acting as village counsel.
Source: Village TRO motion & memorandum (filed July 10, 2026); The Daily Journal/Shaw Local (July 14, 2026).
Per The Vedette, Mayor LaMore has said she will veto the board's July 6 vote retaining Cainkar at an upcoming meeting (whether a mayoral veto even applies to that kind of board action is itself a disputed legal question) and has said "an attorney from Vasselli Law will be the village attorney at the next meeting." The next regular board meeting falls on Monday, July 20 (1st and 3rd Mondays, 6:00 p.m., Leo Hassett Community Center). Meanwhile, the clerk's office sits in flux following Steven Orth's June 23 notice.
Source: The Vedette (July 13, 2026).
At the regular board meeting, Mayor LaMore announced from the chair, at 53:42 of the recording, "under old business tonight, I'm vetoing the Cainkar appointment that was made at the last meeting." No written objection was returned, and the Village later certified in writing that no veto message exists (FOIA 26-168). Whether an oral announcement is a veto at all under 65 ILCS 5/3.1-40-45 is the question the August 3 override turns on. In the same report she said she had also sought a temporary restraining order and expected a judge to "determine the appropriate legal representation for the village" at a hearing the next morning. She also denied, on the record, ever holding a leadership position in CCOM: "I have never had a leadership position with CCOM" (see Fact Check c29).
Source: Manteno Village View recording of the July 20, 2026 meeting (President's Report, 53:42); WFAV 95.1 (July 21, 2026). Corrected September 22, 2026: an earlier version said the mayor did not veto; that rested on a caption capture that cut off at 51:40, before her announcement. The error was ours.
At the expedited hearing, Kankakee County Circuit Judge Lindsay Parkhurst dismissed the Village's suit against the four trustees (26CH21) for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction: the Village had moved for an emergency restraining order without ever filing an underlying complaint; in the judge's words, "no complaint was filed to vest the court with jurisdiction." The judge did not decide who represents the Village, so the Cainkar-versus-Vasselli question remains open. Vasselli Law had moved a day earlier for leave to file a complaint within 72 hours, leaving the door open to a refile. See Fact Check c28.
Source: Shaw Local/The Daily Journal, July 21, 2026 ("Judge dismisses temporary restraining order against Manteno trustees…").
Because the July 21 dismissal was jurisdictional (the suit was tossed for having no complaint on file), the case-management conference that had been set for July 30 was overtaken by the dismissal. The matter came back before Judge Parkhurst on August 17, when the trustees' counsel was given time to prepare a brief and the case was continued to September 21. On September 21 the judge set the attorney case for a hearing at 10 a.m. on Thursday, November 12; the trustees' response was filed that morning, Vasselli has 14 days to reply, and the trustees' attorney, Daniel Bourgault, seven days after that.
Source: Shaw Local/The Daily Journal, July 21 and Sept. 21, 2026; Manteno Village View recording (Aug. 17, 2026, President's Report). Updated September 22, 2026.
Two agendas show up to one meeting: the 4-page version posted on the village website since July 30 carries the veto reconsideration; the mayor's shorter version doesn't. She announces she has suspended Administrator Chris LaRocque five days without pay over the paper copies. The board ratifies the Gotion fire-brigade agreement 6-0, its one unanimous moment, then the bills fail 2-4. A motion to adjourn fails 2-4; the mayor declares "meeting is adjourned" anyway and leaves. Four trustees stay and vote the Cainkar veto override 4-0. Every claim from the night is graded on the August 3 page.
Source: Manteno Village View recording (Aug. 3, 2026); The Daily Journal/Shaw Local (Aug. 4, 2026).
At an 8:00 a.m. special meeting, itself called under § 1-6-3, the two-trustee provision at the heart of the June 25 fight, Mayor LaMore states her position on camera: "I have the right to set the agenda," and, citing her attorney's advice, "it is my meeting and it's up to me what's on the agenda." Trustees describe items not reaching the agenda as being "censored," using the word three times. Clerk Steven Orth's resignation, effective August 28, is also discussed. (Quotes transcribed from the stream's auto-captions.)
Source: Manteno Village View recording (Aug. 12, 2026), at 39:54–51:18; posted notice. Corrected September 22, 2026: the special meeting was at 8:00 a.m., not 7:00; the 7:00 a.m. session that day was the committee meeting.
Four of six trustees don't come to the regular meeting, leaving the board one short of a quorum. The attorney present reads Village Code § 1-6-5, Rule 21 (a 1974 rule allowing a majority of the trustees present to send a police officer after absentees), and the mayor asks whether the trustees wish to use it and then directs Chief Swinford to "send somebody to Annette's house" and "bring her in." Trustee Annette Zimbelman had messaged that she was not feeling well. The word "arrest" on the tape comes from the chief, asking, and the attorney citing Rule 21; the captions carry no speaker labels and we have asked for the audio. The chief asks for confirmation three times, goes, and reports back 38 minutes later: "There was no answer at her door." The rule's text, its five built-in limits, and six graded claims are on the August 17 page.
Source: Manteno Village View recording (Aug. 17, 2026), 27:31–32:29 and 1:10:22; Manteno Code § 1-6-5, Rule 21.
At a special meeting three days after the quorum failure, every trustee answers the roll and every recorded vote is unanimous, including $123,948.81 in bills. The board spends 54 of the meeting's 76 minutes in closed session under 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1), returns, and tables the appointment of a code enforcement officer. A special meeting is called for Tuesday, August 25 at 6:00 p.m. to finish it. Trustee Boudreau thanks Village Administrator Chris LaRocque for fourteen years of service, and announces from the dais that he will also miss the September 8 meeting for a golf match.
Source: Manteno Village View recording (Aug. 20, 2026). The full breakdown.
The Village's meeting index records the August 25 Village Board special meeting as cancelled, along with the Public Works and General Government committee meetings the same day. On September 8 Mayor LaMore explains: a family emergency, and the advice of the village attorney. The appointment vote lands instead on September 8, the one date a trustee had said publicly, nineteen days in advance, that he could not attend.
Source: Village of Manteno meeting index; Manteno Village View recording (Sept. 8, 2026).
With Trustee Boudreau at a golf match, the motion to appoint Jim Paicz as Director of Building and Zoning / Code Enforcement Officer fails 2–3: Vaughn and Barry yes; Crockett, Gesky and Zimbelman no. Crockett says he emailed the mayor weeks earlier asking how the $60,000 position would be funded and never got a reply; she apologizes on camera and then gives the number in open session. The village is left with no administrator, no code officer, and no posted jobs. A resident asks who authorized the license plate cameras appearing on village roads. Trustees Barry and Gesky report that they and Fire Chief Rick Petersen inspected Gotion's fire brigade unannounced at 9 p.m. on September 1 and found six certified members on shift, with 19 on staff. Asked why trustee comments were removed from the agenda, the mayor answers: "Because our meetings have been so contentious… some of it is not necessary."
Source: Manteno Village View recording (Sept. 8, 2026); posted agenda. Twenty claims, graded.
Planning & Zoning and Properties & Recreation meet jointly with the board at 7:00 a.m. Asked whether the administrator, building inspector and front-office jobs will be posted, Mayor LaMore says: "As village president, I will be making appointments… So you don't need to worry about that." A trustee replies that any appointment needs board approval; she answers "Yeah, that's a tough thing to get these days, isn't it?" She adds that she does not plan to hire an administrator before April: "there's going to be an election in seven months." Treasurer Sheila Martin, asked why the Village is not paying the mayor's attorney: "It has not been board approved. It was on the agenda for the special committee meeting and that meeting didn't have a quorum." Asked how she found Vasselli Law, the mayor says "through friends from another community." Trustee Vaughn raises the license plate cameras and the police chief answers on camera: the department has used Flock "for years," there is "potential for abuse," and while the Village does not sell the data, "other people use Flock cameras. Everybody else has access to it, too." He offers a public pros-and-cons session. A member of the public tells the room the Village is "$1.6 million in deficit", unchallenged, and not verified by us. The Plan Commission meeting set for that evening, whose only new business was "Clean Energy Design Group, Inc.: Discussion of Zoning for Battery Energy Storage Systems," is cancelled.
Source: Manteno Village View recording (Sept. 9, 2026); committee agenda; Plan Commission agenda. Twenty claims, graded.
Trustees Boudreau, Crockett, Gesky and Zimbelman call a special meeting under § 1-6-3, the two-trustee provision. Mayor LaMore arrives, reads a prepared statement calling the meeting illegal, names the four as "the Manteno Choice Party," says "I will veto every action taken by the board at the supposed special meeting" before any motion is made, and leaves. Trustee Boudreau is elected mayor pro tem and Trustee Gesky recording secretary, because the village has no clerk. In twenty-five minutes the board amends the August 3 minutes, approves the August 17 minutes (a date correction: the packet said August 7), and approves a professional service agreement with B&F Construction Code Services, each 4 to 0. Gesky on why not wait five days for the regular meeting: "she controls the agenda on Mondays and will not allow us to put on the agenda anything that we wish to discuss."
Source: Manteno Village View recording (Sept. 16, 2026); posted agenda. Fourteen claims, graded.
Two meetings. At 5:00 p.m. the Public Safety and Finance committees meet, and the finance chair tells the room that with no administrator "there's one person that's verifying payroll in the village" and that staff have left owed vacation and pay. Both that meeting and the 6:00 p.m. board meeting were streamed, and neither recording is linked from the Village's own meetings index. At 6:00 p.m. the mayor vetoes all three September 16 actions, citing Village Code § 1-5-7 and quoting it as covering "items considered at a board meeting." The section is titled Approval And Veto Of Ordinances and covers ordinances; none of the three items was an ordinance. Under 65 ILCS 5/3.1-40-45 a motion is vetoable only if it creates a liability, spends money or sells property, so the two minutes motions were beyond the power and only the B&F contract was reachable. Told the special meeting was called by four trustees, she answers "you do have a mayor. It should have been approved by me", the opposite of the ordinance she had read aloud fourteen minutes earlier. She also appoints Jim Paicz herself and a temporary village clerk, on a section of the code that governs appointed officers when Manteno's clerk is elected. The board unanimously confirms Fire Chief Rick Petersen (the Village agenda spells it "Peterson") as chief of the village's fire bureau; the motion as agendized and read said "Fire Protection Bureau," while the office in the code (§ 2-2-2) is the fire prevention bureau. It also tables a fire inspection agreement it received that evening, and approves $118,472.98 in bills.
Earlier the same day, in Kankakee County court, Judge Lindsay Parkhurst set the attorney case for 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 12. The trustees' response to the suit was filed that morning and Vasselli said he was seeing it for the first time; the judge gave him 14 days to respond and the trustees' attorney, Daniel Bourgault, seven days to reply. A ruling is not expected for several days after the hearing.
Source: Manteno Village View recordings of the board meeting and the committee meeting; board agenda; Manteno Village Code; Illinois Compiled Statutes. Forty-seven claims, graded; The Daily Journal, September 21.
A 46-minute regular meeting, Trustee Crockett attending by video. The board approves the B&F Construction Code Services agreement again as new business, 6–0 on Trustee Barry's motion, which makes the override of the September 21 veto moot; nobody moves to reconsider the two vetoed sets of minutes. It confirms Jim Paicz as Director of Building and Zoning, 6–0, approves an inspection agreement with the Manteno Fire Protection District through April 30, 2027, and pays $97,705.25 in bills. In her report the mayor apologizes for confronting a teacher and sixth graders cleaning a village park, and says "the consideration to unionize four or five administrative type village employees will not be voted on" until the board weighs the benefits and risks. The Illinois Labor Relations Board's own records show it certified the Laborers' union, Local 751, for five Village clerical employees on March 25, 2026, and the board had discussed a negotiated contract in closed session on September 21.
Source: Manteno Village View recording (Oct. 5, 2026); posted agenda; ILRB certifications, FY26 (S-RC-26-052). Twenty-five claims, graded.
At 5:00 p.m. the Finance and Public Safety committees hear SKDO's draft audit for the year ended April 30, 2026: a clean opinion except a long-standing qualification on retiree health liabilities, one material weakness on year-end construction payables, a general fund balance of $7.296 million, no debt, and a county levy error (a bond levy for a village with no bonds, then a correction applied backwards) that will reduce next year's levy by about $380,000. At 6:00 p.m., with Trustees Gesky and Zimbelman absent, the board approves the October 5 minutes, Ordinance 26-10 (surplus police equipment) and $191,575.06 in bills, each 4–0, swears in Jim Paicz as building director, sets trick-or-treat for 4 to 8 p.m. on October 31, and goes into closed session on litigation. "Compensation for FOIA Officer," listed on the agenda, is never raised. The September 21 minutes, approved October 5, are still not on the Village's website.
Source: Manteno Village View recordings of the board meeting and the committee meeting; board agenda; committee agenda. Nineteen claims, graded.
The Village has released a great deal: the forensic audit, roughly 150 pages of attorney-dispute communications, the group texts in the library above. This is not wholesale stonewalling. But on the central request about the attorney's removal (FOIA 26-133), the Village withheld an unspecified set of records under attorney-client privilege, and the way it did so is part of the story.
In a July 2, 2026 email, the Village's FOIA officer wrote that she had forwarded the request to Mayor LaMore and that "Mayor LaMore informed me that anything else she has is attorney client privileged." On its face, the official whose own communications were sought, and whose administration then sued four trustees, personally decided what to withhold from her own records. No index of the withheld documents was provided. Illinois law requires a written denial giving the reasons, "a detailed factual basis for the application of any exemption claimed," the specific exemption with supporting legal authority, and the names of those responsible (5 ILCS 140/9(a)-(b)). It does not itself require a document-by-document index; a court may order one.
Two things make the privilege claim contestable. First, the privilege protects communications with an attorney who represents the public body, and the board rejected Vasselli's appointment 4–2 and reinstated Cainkar. The Village has since produced a Vasselli Law engagement letter dated June 4, 2026, signed by the mayor alone at $220 an hour, and an invoice with entries starting June 8 (a June 9 "Phone call with Mayor," a June 12 conference call with Dennis Reboletti, a June 14 entry for a Manteno board meeting), all before the board ever saw his name. So the question is not whether Vasselli had a relationship with the Village before June 15; he had one with the mayor. The question is whether a mayor's unilateral engagement, never consented to by the board, creates a privilege for the Village. The same June 4 letter also sits awkwardly beside two of the Village's written "no documents" certifications (FOIA 26-167 and 26-168). Second, Trustee Barry produced some of the very records the Village withheld, the LaMore–Vasselli scheduling texts, showing they exist and were not treated as privileged by another custodian. Scheduling a meeting is not legal advice. Corrected September 22, 2026: an earlier version said Vasselli had "no relationship to the Village" before June 15; the June 4 engagement letter shows otherwise.
This site favors primary documents (the court filing and FOIA records) and corroborates dates and quotes against local news reporting. Statutes and cases were checked against the Illinois Compiled Statutes and published opinions.
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