For nearly three years we’ve published a monthly feature titled “Flashbacks” that features news articles and editorials for the month dating back to December of 2009 when this site was first launched. The inaugural issue of Flashbacks published in April of 2012 included a quote from George Santayana who wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
With that in mind, today’s edition of March Flashbacks will focus on the year 2011, when two incumbent Trustees, Patty Meroni and Karen Selman, were running for their first term in office as Save 5 Acres candidates.
Ethics complaint filed against Barrington Hills slate – March 15, 2011
A slate of Barrington Hills village board candidates and a purported financial backer are facing claims they violated recently enacted campaign disclosure laws.
A closed hearing on the complaint against the “Save 5 Acres” candidates — incumbent Joseph Messer, current Village Clerk Karen Selman and Patty Meroni — will be heard before the State Board of Elections in Chicago Friday morning.
Read the Daily Herald story here.
Update: Hearings ordered on campaign complaints – March 18, 2011
The state board of elections agreed this week there was “justifiable grounds” to hold public hearings on two complaints filed against the Save 5 Acres slate of candidates for the Barrington Hills Village Board, a spokesman said.
The latest hearing focused on allegations that the three candidates, Karen Selman, who is village clerk, Trustee Joe Messer, and Patty Meroni each received $5,000 from the same donor and deposited the checks in their own accounts instead of the campaign account. When the money later went into the election account, it appeared to be personal contributions, the complaint said.
The donor was said to be Barry LeCompte, owner of Oakwood Farms of Barrington, L.L.C, 350 Bateman Road, a commercial horse boarding operation and site of polo matches.
The full TribLocal article can be read here.
Save 5 Acres slate defends village governance – March 22, 2011
The trio, Trustee Joe Messer, Village Clerk Karen Selman and Patty Meroni, have the backing of village president Robert Abboud and say their priorities center on maintaining the town’s distinct culture, which stems from the minimum five-acre zoning.
Selman and Meroni declined on Sunday to comment about a complaint that contributions to their campaigns violated a state financial disclosure law that took effect Jan. 1. The state election board is looking at allegations that the three slate members each accepted $5,000 donations from the owner of a horse boarding facility but funneled them through personal checking accounts before depositing them in a campaign account. That gave the appearance that the donations were personal, according to the complaint.
Selman, who’s been village clerk for two years, said the candidates will issue a press release on the matter. [Editorial note: No press release was ever issued that we’ve witnessed]
Read the complete TribLocal article here.
Candidates claim no deception with donations – March 29, 2011
Members of the Save 5 Acres slate of candidates for Barrington Hills Village Board testified Tuesday at a state election board hearing in Chicago that no deception was intended with donations to their campaigns.
The three-hour hearing was adjourned, with no new date set, because the clerk said to be responsible for filing the campaign paperwork was in Florida. No ruling on the complaint that certain donations sidestepped legal limits is likely before the April 5 municipal election.
Read the full article here.
Additional articles related to the Save 5 Acres campaign committee’s State Board of Elections hearings can be viewed in our March, 2011, archives by clicking here.
A copy of the State Board’s final report on Trustees Patty Meroni and Karen Selman’s campaign finance disclosure reporting, issued well after the April 2011 Village elections, can be downloaded here.
– The Observer
I believe 3 out of 4 members of Maroni and Selman’s current campaign committee were named in the campaign donation hearings four years ago. That alone should say something about these characters!
As the lies and deceptions have gotten bolder, the cries of indignation from these same 3 have become shriller. This election is a “must win” to stop the investigation into their cover-ups. Their well funded pac is aptly named SOS…Save Our Skins!
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, ANOTHER SOS PREVARICATION
If the story were only about 3 secret campaign donations made by LeCompte to “Save 5 Acres” candidates Meroni, Selman and Messer I would agree with SOS website that it is not a major story. It would call into attention only Meroni’s, Selman’s and Messer’s “competence” rather than their “mens rea”.
But what makes the 3 illegal campaign donations a major story is what happened 34 days later and in-between. 34 days later came the “Schuman Letter” and in between the secret meeting between LeCompte, Abboud and Lundmark at Village Hall on President’s day 2011; the meeting at Oakwood Farm the day before with Paddy McKevitt; and the e-mail from Lundmark to LeCompte informing LeCompte what Abboud would like to see in LeCompte’s affidavit in order to make Oakwood Farm home occupation compliant. SOS discusses only one head (the 3 illegal campaign donations) of the two headed monster. They refuse to discuss the second head, the Schuman Letter.
Of course Abboud et al knew nothing could make Oakwood Farm home occupation compliant ergo the “fraud” on the public, you and me. Flushed down the drain more than $182,000.00 in taxpayer funds paid to Burke-Warren and subsequent cover-up by Abboud and Abboud disciples on the BOT. These disciples include Meroni and Selmon. Two weeks after issuance of the Schuman Letter, against the advice of village attorney George Lynch, Abboud and BOT refused to recant the Schuman Letter continung the “fraud” on the public, the very public they have a fiduciary obligation to serve.
As you may recall, the Schuman Letter overturned 3 years of successful litigation by VBH and Burke-Warren against Oakwood Farm at both the trial and Appellate Court level. It was LeCompte himself who testified Oakwood Farm could never be home occupation compliant. Messer agreed with LeCompte testifying under oath before the IL Election Board. After winning in court, Abboud and BOT desciples not only abandoned the Oakwood Farm cease and desist order, but threw a bone to LeCompte in the form of the Schuman Letter which LeCompte used in a second appeal to gum up the court results in favor of VBH. In otherwords, VBH sabotaged its own case after expenditure of all this taxpayer money and SOS candidates Meroni and Selman refuse to tell residents why. VBH simply walked away leaving the taxpayers holding the bag.
The cost to you and me as taxpayers, @$200,000.00. SOS talks about the 3 secret-illegal campaign donations as an inadvertent error but SOS refuses to discuss the Schuman Letter, 34 days later and all that happened in between. This is the story Mr. Graham and Daily Herald should be publishing but inexplicably refuse to even investigate. I agree with BHO bloggers, Daily Herald is either incredibly lazy or they are in the tank for Abboud & Co.
I read on the SOS website that LeCompte donated $5,000.00 to my campaign and I stated LeCompte never asked me to do him any favors. I have never made this statement and in fact I have an e-mail whereby LeCompte asked me (as Chair of the Plan Commission) to discuss with Abboud a letter prepared by LeCompte whereby LeCompte wanted Abboud to put on Village letterhead so it would appear to the public Abboud wrote it. It is what I call the “predecessor
to Schuman Letter”. Instead of the LeCompte authored letter, Abboud treated VBH residents to the illegal Abboud-Schuman Letter.
Yes, in Feb. 2011, Abboud abandoned his long held beliefs (Against Commercial Boarding beyond HOO) and oath to residents (Enforce Laws of Village). The mystery remains to this day, why? Was it the $15,000 secret campaign donations from LeCompte to the 3 Save 5 Acres candidates? Threat by equestrian leadership that riding club would no longer support Abboud? Is there something else we do not yet know? Maybe Abboud would like to provide BHO readers with an explanation in the form of a comment.
I bring this to BHO readers’ attention not to suggest LeCompte as having done anything illegal by asking me to talk to Abboud about his letter, but simply to set the record straight and offer yet another expample of the ongoing prevarications by the Abboud led political team formally called “Save 5 Acres” who now out of shame hide behind the moniker “SOS”.
No, I never had the conversation with Abboud, nor did I take any action regarding LeCompte’s ill-conceived letter.
Everyone, read Stieper’s comment above. This is but one of the reasons that several members of the public requested an investigation into the Text Amendment process. But, the same Trustees instead vote to eliminate the President’s authority to investigate with Special Counsel and compensate at $-0-/hour.
None of this is election rhetoric. This is a clear need to investigate wrong doings, rid our Village of any corruption and prosecute any alleged abuses of office to the full extent of the law if proven to be true.
Our attorney, Police Chief and Village President need to follow through with the investigation and not be run over by the COVER UP.