Silence Broken at Manteno Village Board
By Jeff Vorva
The silence was broken. And in one resident’s mind, it caused some fighting words.
One of the things that has Gotion protesters at Manteno Village Board meetings seeing red is the silence of the board during the public comments section. It’s a standard policy for some governing bodies to choose to let public members have their say but do not respond or engage in debates.
With the Manteno decision makers at odds with residents who do not want the China-based Gotion battery plant in the community, Monday night meetings can resemble the World Wrestling Entertainment’s “Monday Night Raw.”
But the board members remain mum.
On June 17, however, outgoing trustee Sam Martin did speak, and it caused an ugly situation in which a resident threatened bodily harm to the trustee.
Resident Ryan McHeffey, a military veteran, was trying to coax someone from the board to talk.
“Why don’t you answer questions?” McHeffey asked. “You just don’t talk? You don’t say anything? Why can’t you guys say anything? Why can’t you speak to the people? Why can’t you say anything? Any of you?”
Well, that caused Martin to speak.
“Do you live in town?” Martin said.
“I do live in town,” McHeffey said.
“You don’t pay taxes here,” Martin said. “We give it back to you.”
That cause the crowd to get restless, and McHeffey went on a full-blown rant chock full of cussing and threats.
“Pardon my language but I (deleted) earned that!” he yelled. “Say it! How did I earn that? How did I earn that? Let me say it, I’m a 100 percent (deleted) disabled veteran. That’s how I (deleted) earned that.”
Then, he went on another verbal attack after he said Martin was smiling.
“You got something to smile about? We can go out back – I don’t care if the police are here,” McHeffey said. “Keep it up, bud. I just had shoulder surgery, too, why is that? Because of my sacrifice to this nation, something you don’t know about, Smiley.
“I don’t care. I’m not afraid of any of you…I don’t care…you piss us off and do whatever the hell you want. You, mister, you better watch yourself, that’s all I’m going to say. You have a smirk, and I can wipe it off real quick. Remember that. And that’s not a threat, that’s a promise.”
Martin did not address the threat or the promise right away but during the portion of the meeting when the board members had their forum to speak, he had plenty to say about the verbal insults the board faces each meeting by the public.
“I’ll be happy to sit down and have a cup of coffee with anybody who wants to have coffee with me,” Martin said. “But to come in and scream at me like that? That’s just ludicrous.”
Martin also said this is his last term in office after a long career serving on school boards and the village board.
“This is long before this Gotion thing came up, but I won’t be running for the board next March,” he said. “I hope you are all happy.
“I challenge you – any of you – to run, because apparently you think it’s really easy. It’s not. The people on the board put in a lot of time and effort. I want to know who you are going to have run in my vacant spot. I hope it’s somebody better than me.”
Interestingly, at a meeting in December, Martin was the lone “no” vote on a zoning change to allow Gotion to build its factory in town. So his vote aligned with the protesters’ wishes.
Martin said there are statements being said in the public forums that are not true.
“For people to stand up there and yap and make allegations that are unsubtantiated – well that’s easy,” he said. “Anybody can stand up there and say things.
“But I’ve never been in any back-room meetings or ever got my pockets lined by Gotion or anybody else. I appreciate not being lumped into a group of people who you think are scandalous or are cheating.”
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Do you always ask the police if they know something about someone background? What gives you the right to ask that? I see you missed the part when Ryan said” these guy’s (officers) took an oath just like I did.” No wonder no one wants your crappy paper. You are a coward and bow down. Guess you are all for communism.
Absolutely agree!… I’m done reading this paper!… totally biased!
It’s ludicrous for Mr. Martin to state that residents should have no say in how the village spends its funds. Just because residents get the town’s portion back in a rebate. The money being used to do this comes from the sale of our water infrastructure to Aqua. It belongs to us and we should have input. The board has not answered questions & has done questionable things with village money. The current fiscal year budget was approved at a special meeting that was called without much fanfare, although I’m sure it was posted somewhere to be legal. But it was only a week after a regularly scheduled meeting and just days before another regularly scheduled meeting. So of course there wasn’t the normal attendance of residents that there have been since the announcement of the Gotion debacle. But in the video of this special meeting Mayor Nugent looked at an empty audience and asked if there was any public comment. In normal meetings the attendees are never asked for any input before a vote. Mr. Martin also stated the board didn’t have anything to do with selling the land to a CCP backed company even though they changed the zoning in order for the deal to proceed. He also informed us that it was not a big deal for the CCP to own land here as, according to Mr. Martin, the Mormon Church owns a large amount of Illinois land. Not sure CCP and Mormon Church are similar.
yes you are correct that part was left out. If you are gonna put out a report you need to be fair and put out ALL the information. This is what makes a Good Journalist.
No, the silence was not broken but, as you can see, the board members do not represent the people of Manteno in any transparent way. Why not? Why have they never talked directly to us? Why has Sam Martin never stated why he was a dissenting vote for the rezoning? Why did the rest of the board vote to rezone a property so close to residential and business districts of our village violating the village’s zoning codes? Why has there not been an environmental impact study presented to the planning commission and why would the planning commission vote to allow hazardous materials to be used, again, in violation of village zoning codes? You see, their silence was not broken but their arrogance was shown through Mr. Martin’s verbal attack on a local veteran. This veteran ‘s response was a display of the frustration that all of us who oppose a CCP connected corporation from building a fire bomb of a factory next to our homes. Now, tell me again why we should just sit back with our mouths closed and just let them do as they please at our children’s expense! I want to know!
Manteno officials have let us down. Yes, they are elected to make decisions, but the gotion plant decision should have been put to public vote since it will and continues to destroy our small town. The Chinese CCP is dangerous and is on the FBI radar. Question and answer sessions should have been from the start with this project! If you love our town and the people who live here, that is what you do! Look in the mirror and stop lying to yourself village officials! You did wrong!
Lets get the story straight. The comment by Mr. Martin was immediately after Ryan asked why are the taxes going up to which Martin stated you don’t even pay taxes. Don’t know why the conversation was only partially told on here but this is the real story. I encourage anyone to watch the Manteno Board meeting video which is on YouTube. Anyway how or why would Martin know about that information that Ryan does not pay property taxes due to his VA disability. I know why! It’s called finding anything on an individual for a jab especially since Martin immediately started to smile at Ryan when it was said. Martin said it to piss him off. If we are going to report a situation tell the full damn story!
Agree Joshua!!…. Funny how the knowledge of Ryan not paying taxes and telling Ryan, just shot right out of Sam’s mouth!… if he knew he didn’t pay taxes then he also knew the reason why!… jabbing to stir the pot indeed!… we the people of Manteno had no say in the Gotion deal!!… Our village officials absolutely did us wrong!… how come most are moving out of Manteno??
Exactly the type of “journalism” expected from someone who doesn’t even live in Manteno. If you are going to report on something, report the entire story. The Citizens have every right to be angry at the Leadership in this town after what they have done to us behind our backs. Take your leftist propaganda reporting back north.
Why is the Vedette using a Chicago Tribune reporter that was not at the meeting to make a report?Sounds like village board members fed it to the Trib. Pritzker’s propaganda paper?