Four Plainfield Trustees Working Only For Murphy And Themselves

In April, Plainfield voters chose John Argoudelis as our mayor. Part of his job is to appoint a Village Administrator. Every mayor before Argoudelis has done this without people losing their minds. Trustees Patty Kalkanis, Cally Larson, Tom Ruane, and Brian Wojowski broke the streak.

They sandbagged the public Monday night by insisting on having a "special" meeting this Thursday at noon to do two things, both of them terrible for Plainfield.

First, they want to spend a lot of tax dollars to cover the costs of their effort to sabotage the work of our village government and administration. That shows contempt for every taxpayer and voter, for every village employee, and even for their own elected offices.

Secondly, they are bizarrely desperate to save Brian Murphy's job as Village Administrator (not Village Manager).

But Monday's meeting turned sloppy enough to show that the efforts of Kalkanis, Larson, Ruane, and Wojowski are obviously the product of prior meetings where the four together cooked up a big pot of unethical slop to serve up at Monday's meeting. That's illegal.

It begins at about the 30m40s mark in the meeting and goes for over an hour and a quarter. It's painful to watch. It is shameful and we should never forget any of it or let them forget it. Kudos to Mayor Argoudelis for doing a great job presiding over this playpen of screaming toddlers.

There's more crazy in the board packet for Thursday's meeting, the core of which was read out during the meeting by Wojowski as a motion, but it merits scrutiny because he sped through it fast so that Larson could immediately deliver the 2nd to his motion, which she was cued to deliver, etc. It was clumsily staged.

This part means the four want us to pay to hire lawyers for them ("legislative counsel"--not "Council"--is a dodge):

"Seeking Board consideration of a motion to authorize the execution of a professional services agreement with Odelson, Sterk, Murphey, Frazier, McGrath Ltd. Ltd. as Legislative Counsel for the Plainfield Village Board of Trustees and for said Legislative Council Legal Services."

This part is about forcing the village to rehire Brian Murphy, whose contract expired without being renewed (common in the situation, and never an issue before in Plainfield--hmm, what's different this time?):

"Seeking Board consideration of a motion to direct the Finance Director to stop pay on any checks written and not cashed as of 7:00pm on May 17, 2021 for any and all severance packages, and to cease and deists from drafting any new severance paychecks without the express permission and direction of the of the Plainfield Village Board of Trustees.

Seeking Board consideration of a motion Board consideration of a motion to Direct the IT Department Director to reactivate the email of Administrator Murphy and to remove the “auto reply” feature that is currently in place."

Below, the effort to prohibit our duly elected mayor from working with village staff! It ends with a two year contract for Murphy that leaves open the question of his salary (currently around $180,000 plus benefits, etc.):

"Seeking Board consideration of a motion to direct the Mayor not to interfere with the work of the Plainfield Village Manager, Brian Murphy.

Seeking Board consideration of a motion to extend the contract for Administrator Brian Murphy for a period of two years under the same terms and conditions, salary to be discussed."

Summary: This is a corrupt plan by Kalkanis, Larson, Ruane, and Wojowski to get what they want, not to get what's best for Plainfield. There has been no specific problem identified for which any of this is a solution. But we do have a problem in that these four are acting to harm Plainfield.

They're putting in a fix for Murphy on our tab, and in the broader sense depriving all of Plainfield the quality services owed to us. All because some buddy of theirs lost an election and they didn't like the season finale of their "Game of Crones" show. It's really that simple and petty.

It is obvious that they moved on this so fast in hopes of getting over on us. Larson kept saying, at times in shrill hysterics, during Monday's meeting that the village was in a state of "emergency" and they needed to do this "this week". There is no emergency or urgency, except the one these four feel to hurry up and cheat the people of Plainfield, and the village staff, in more ways than one.

As for Brian Murphy, he should decline this job. It's appalling (and dumb) that he's allowing this to continue in his name and when the dust settles, his reputation will be garbage.

Here are a few things we all deserve to know, for a start:

1. What makes Brian Murphy the guy? Why are these four leaning so hard into protecting him (and, his paycheck)?

2. Why is Murphy on board with Kalkanis, Larson, Ruane, and Wojowski as they seek to damage Plainfield by what looks a lot like stealing from the taxpayers?

3. Why should taxpayers fund this snipe hunt? Does any sane, intelligent person think that Mayor Argoudelis is acting out of bounds in simply picking a new administrator?

If you'd like to tell the trustees how you feel about this, click here to start.