By comparison, our neighboring communities of Barrington and South Barrington received strong support from their constituents regarding the same question posed by their elected officials. Both communities approved electrical aggregation, with around seventy-five percent of residents approving their referendums. This begs a question: Why did Barrington Hills residents resoundingly reject the opportunity to allow their Village leaders to negotiate electrical rates on their behalf? We have an idea.
Let’s first eliminate some possibilities. Voter awareness and education on the referendum question could not have been a factor. One could read explanations of the electrical aggregation question in any one of hundreds of publications, including The Observer, in the last few months. Indeed, over 300 other Illinois communities voted on the very same question earlier this week. Our Village appears to have put forth at least a moderate effort to inform residents with postcards, a web page, an open house and a lengthy newsletter article (albeit released after voting was over). Ignorance on the part of residents surely wasn’t an issue.
Could it have been simple voter apathy? We have seen this phenomenon in prior elections, with many residents out of town or choosing simply not to vote. But the relatively high voter turnout in Barrington Hills on Tuesday for a primary election suggests that voter apathy was not the cause.
Then why was the referendum rejected? We must conclude that Barrington Hills residents simply do not trust Village officials to act on their behalf, particularly as it relates to financial matters that can affect residents’ pocketbooks very directly. Our current administration’s financial bungling has been well documented in these pages and elsewhere. So at the end of the day, we must conclude that the resounding “No” from residents on the aggregation referendum was a vote of no confidence in our current Village leadership.
If history under our current administration has proven anything, we can look forward to some “spin” on why our residents refused to “permit” our elected officials to help us save money on our electric bills. We look forward to that and on the ability to comment if it occurs.
President Abboud has always encouraged residents to get involved in Village affairs during his (long) seven years in office through newsletters and other mailings. On Tuesday, residents finally heeded that call–although clearly not with the message he wanted.
We hope this is a sign of things to come. The tide may be turning. Now let’s start thinking about the profile of the new leaders and ideas for restoring the peace that Barrington Hills deserves.
– The Observer