Today’s edition continues with more of the deceits candidates Meroni, Selman, Naumann and their campaign team have spun as follows:
SOS Spin: The Barrington Hills roads under the supervision of Patty Meroni are well maintained and are at or under budget since she was elected 4 years ago.
Reality: Under SOS candidate Patty Meroni’s “supervision” the condition of Village roads have never been worse. Under her watch of four years, the backlog of road resurfacing planned projects has increased to nearly five miles of roadways. Read “So why do our roads ‘suck’?” for expanded information on the state of our roads.
SOS Spin: “…60% of the 102.5 miles of roads in Barrington Hills are controlled and maintained by Cook County or the state or are private roads.”
Reality: As Trustee assigned to Village roads and bridges maintenance, SOS candidate Patty Meroni has made it clear that she is only responsible for Village roads and no others. We believe a responsive Roads and Bridges chair should, and will, concern themselves with the conditions of all roadways except private roads within the borders of Barrington Hills.
Regardless of where they live, residents of Barrington Hills pay taxes to the state, respective counties and to the Village, and every resident uses roads that are maintained by all of these government bodies. If Meroni had adopted a resident-centric, responsible approach to addressing concerns regarding road conditions throughout the Village early on, residents would not be told they need to call a government bureaucracy when they’ve damaged their car due to a pothole on “Brinker, Bateman, Otis and Lake-Cook” roads. Instead, they should be able to call Village Hall staff, and they should take it from there.
SOS Spin: (Karen Selman) “(is) Responsible for performance assessments and improved functioning of village staff and operations.
Reality: Prior to President McLaughlin taking office two years ago, there were no written performance assessments or evaluations of Village staff. None. Clearly since McLaughlin added this to Selman’s plate as it relates to the Village Treasurer, she obviously seeks credit for this. Additionally, we’ve witnessed no significant reports from Selman during Village Board meetings on her “responsibilities” in this area.
SOS Spin: (Mary Naumann and supporters) “…created a website” for their mission to keep bicycle lanes off Haegers Bend and possibly other roads.
Reality: SOS candidate Mary Naumann had some very experienced help in creating a politically spun website (see “Of Bikes and Blame – Part One: The Phantom Menace”) that is littered with deceit. What her website fails to disclose is the off-campus goings on where her running mate, Patty Meroni, met with various agencies related to road reclassifications and offers related to Village roadways as can be viewed here.
SOS Spin: “As ruled by the Illinois State Board of Elections, Meroni and Selman committed a minor paperwork error that was deemed “inadvertent and unintentional.”
Reality: SOS candidates Patty Meroni and Karen Selman (and their running mate at the time, Joe Messer), blamed someone in an administrative capacity for their committee’s misrepresentation of the true source of their reported individual $5,000 financial contributions to their 2011 campaign which actually came from the owner of a large horse boarding operation (see “Errors were made; others were blamed…”).
State Board of Elections hearing officer, Andy Nauman, who wrote the final SBOE report apparently sympathized with their ignorance of campaign finance disclosure, but nonetheless, recommended a fine and suspension of their committee for a period of two years.
Part three in our “Don’t be deceived” series will appear in this weekend’s Barrington Hills Observer.