What was she thinking?

The most recent Village Newsletter was delivered at the peak of the holiday rush, just a day or two before Christmas, in mailboxes crammed with holiday cards and gifts.  As a result, many residents may have missed out on what can only be described as the most self-serving and insulting gaffe any elected official ever published in a Barrington Hills newsletter.  Trustee Selman, in her finance and 2014 budget update, buried on page 5, wrote the following:

“The 2014 Budget is lean, with a reduction in legal expenditures and over contributions to the police pension fund that combined equal a total of over $200,000.  It will work, as long as everyone behaves.”

We assume from her obtuse writing style that the $200,000 referenced represents savings to taxpayers as a result of efforts she personally had little or nothing to do with, but we’ll give her a pass on that.  As for the caveat she used regarding everyone behaving, that’s another matter.

Karen Selman is the last person on the board to preach about behavior to residents based on her own misbehavior in the last three years.  Though it’s a matter of record, we believe some of her acts of misbehavior warrant repeating.

In her 2011 campaign for office, Selman accepted a $5,000 campaign donation check made out to her personally, and then donated the money to her campaign committee under her own name as though she was the contributor.  As a result of her actions and those of her fellow candidates running as “Save 5 Acres” that year, the Illinois State Board of Elections penalized their committee with a two-year probation period that ended just last October.

Upon election to the Village Board in 2011, she was ironically appointed to the position of overseeing and reporting Village finances to the board and residents.  That hasn’t worked out well either.

At numerous Village Board meetings, Selman is routinely incapable of answering some very rudimentary questions regarding bills for approval.  Her utterance of “I’ll have to get back to you on that” has become an all too frequent response.  Clearly, Selman enjoys the position, but does not do her homework before meetings, or at other times when it matters, and that’s clearly poor behavior.

Most recently, besides the newsletter gaffe, in October, Selman stood alone in voting against approving an overdue agreement with our sworn police officers after years of very costly losing litigation.  Had her peers sided with her, our Village would have continued to hemorrhage legal fees and accrue more back pay due to our police force.  More on this can be read in “Oh no she didn’t!”

Based on her history, many may wonder why Selman would even discuss behavior in her newsletter message.  It’s hard to tell, but we think we have the answer.

A handful of residents exercise their lawful right, sometimes frequently, to file FOIA requests seeking answers to what occurs behind the scenes in our Village government.  Fulfillment of some of these requests becomes costly due to what many believe is unnecessary reliance on Village counsel and inefficiencies with Village Hall staff.

Regardless of the costs, Selman chose to advise thousands of residents via the newsletter to behave themselves for the sake of budgets.  This was another ill-advised, obdurate move on her part, and frankly, it was downright dumb.

In his book Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “If your brains were dynamite, there wouldn’t be enough to blow your hat off.”

Based on everything we know now, Selman is clearly safe to wear hats anytime she wants.  The bigger question, however, is if the ignition has already occurred, or when it will occur between now and when her term ends in fifteen months?

In the title of this editorial we asked, what was she thinking? Sadly, the answer seems to be, once again, she wasn’t thinking.

–     The Observer