You wrote:

“A conflict of interest is formed when a party either has or has the potential perception of having positioned oneself in a position to influence decisions of their employer (the village of Sugar Grove) for “their” benefit. “Their” benefit certainly need not be constrained to direct benefit, a family relationship to the beneficiary is certainly enough to qualify.”

Since Mr. Michels doesn’t vote on who receives Village contracts, in order for your accusation to then be true, you would need to prove that the Village of Sugar Grove would have used another engineering firm for the work for…oh, yes…Sugar Grove. Why shouldn’t the Village of Sugar Grove, whether Mr. Michels is Village President or not, utilize the services of one its own? That is, a highly reputable and qualified engineering firm? Were you aware that the Village of Sugar Grove used EEI before Sean Michels was President?

I, for one, applaud the Village for supporting its local businesses.