Four of five candidates vying for three seats on our Board of Trustees along with at least two-dozen residents attended the recent League of Women Voters (LWV) candidate forum held at the Barrington Area Library. The LWV has released a video of the hour-long forum that can be viewed here.
The LWV has also released a video of Barrington District 220 pitch for the $185 million referendum to be voted on by residents on the April 2 ballot. A recording of that video can be viewed here.
Some observations which I gleaned from the recording of the LWV forum involving candidates for VBH Trustee:
First, no discussion whether any of the candidates would support reinstatement of Anderson II large scale commercial boarding ordinance with its 8 year retroactive provision which is the subject matter of a pending lawsuit. Given Trustee Croll’s and Cecola’s vote to reinstate former Home Occupation Ordinance relating to horse boarding, I would have liked to have heard from candidates Iocavelli and Buettner on this subject matter. Especially candidate Iocavelli who throughout the forum kept referring to Barrington Hills as a corporation (“Barrington Hills, Inc.”) where every land owner is a shareholder.
In fact, Iocavelli made a Freudian slip at one point saying but correcting himself immediately, that “pay to play” is appropriate when dealing with developers and impact fees. It was an obvious gaffe, nonetheless given VBH’s recent history on allegations of “pay to play” relating to secret campaign donations in return for the Schuman Letter it was a notable choice of phrase.
Second, it was surprising none of the candidates stated that continued obligation of taxpayers to fund the police pension is the greatest future challenge to VBH in light of that ill-advised decision many years ago through referendum spearheaded by then Trustee Frits Gohl to remove the police pension from the Illinois State IMRF system to be managed solely by VBH. This well intended blunder will cost VBH taxpayers anywhere between 23 and 34 Million Dollars depending on the rate of return the plan yields.
Third, Iocavelli stated he longs for the former days of transparency when each VBH trustee wrote a section in the Village Newsletter but to my recollection these former VBH Trustees failed to inform residents in their quarterly writings about :
(1) 3 of these Trustees receiving 3 illegal secret campaign donations of $5,000 each totaling $15,000 which may have been given in return for allowing large scale commercial horse boarding activity to the private land owner donor via the now infamous and illegal “Schuman Letter”, never written or signed by VBH building inspector, Don Schuman;
(2) The failure to notify residents of Long Meadow Parkway (“LMP”) and opportunity for VBH residents to object when every affected municipality was granted this right by the LMP commission and took advantage of it except VBH;
(3) Moving funds in the annual budget columns most of which from the road repair fund and financial reserves to cover legal bills approaching annual sums charged to taxpayers by the City of Elgin having ore than a 100,000 residents;
(4) The failure to notify residents of the ongoing Sears litigation costing VBH residents Millions of Dollars in legal fees over many years as well as loss of the Iatorola property through disconnection on what used to be VBH’s southern border which now belongs to Hoffman Estates;
(5) The Cell Tower and Light Ordinance wherein the former Village President and Trustees were “for it” before they were “against it”;
(6) Conflict of interests via former village trustee’s law firm appearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals on behalf of a resident on a special use application.
The above are just a few of the subject matters I never found in my Newsletter written by those former Trustees, but I could be mistaken.
Fourth, both candidate Croll and Iacovelli complained about lack of financial transparency relating to VBH expenditures but during different period of times. Trustee Croll cited what I believe was lack of this transparency during the Abboud administration and Iacovelli complained of lack of financial transparency now under the McLaughlin administration. This took me by surprise and is inaccurate as to both. Every year for as long as I can remember the “annual budgets” and “annual audited financial reports” for VBH have been available in full on the VBH website every year some of these reports going as far back as the 1980’s. Disclosure of budgets and actual collections and expenditures by VBH has never been an issue only how tax monies were wasted by the prior administration.
Fifth, then as always in every election comes the question surrounding the myth of those who want to “dissolve residential 5 acre zoning” in VBH. All of the candidates missed a golden opportunity by not raising the destruction former Anderson II Commercial Horse Boarding Ordinance would have wreaked on residential 5 Acre zoning if allowed to stand. As a credit to President McLaughlin and Trustee Konicek Hannigan ridding VBH of this travesty of a law was their first order of business. The language of Anderson II made residential rights of 5 acre zoned property subservient to big boarding business interests. Surprisingly, none of the candidates seized on this softball question nor did any espouse interest in the need to protect VBH borders through responsible annexation and transitional zoning strategies. There were too many platitudes, clichés and redundancies spoken by the candidates without command of VBH history, information and financial data making the decision in this election more difficult.
Candidate Iacovelli seems like a decent guy with possible promise for the future but unlike all the other candidates never served in VBH municipal government on either the Plan Commission or Zoning Board of Appeals. His obvious lack of understanding of the financials and workings of VBH government were readily apparent. Repeating the Barrington Hills, Inc. montra and the impossible promise of restoring property values without calling attention to the fact that taxation of VBH property is more than 4% of property values the super majority of which attributed to schools is the main culprit behind depressed values. This as well as Illinois State macro-factors which we are all aware of and beyond VBH government control. Instead, Iacovelli seems to want to blame lack of branding by current VBH government and diverse political opinions by residents on blogs such as this for the reason of declining home values. It was disappointing none of the candidates took Iacovelli to task on this remark given that it was the corruption, financial waste and abuse of certain VBH residents by prior VBH administration which awakened many to exercise right of free political speech to the extent of spawning websites like BHO and Preserve Barrington Hills.
In my opinion, the star of this panel of candidates is Trustee Brian Cecola, not because of the words he speaks or promises he makes, but because of the work he does for VBH. Trustee Cecola rolls up his sleeves continuing to do a phenomenal job on VBH road repairs and replacement at less cost than in the past. My only criticism of Trustee Cecola is that he is too modest about his accomplishments. I have also had the privilege of working with candidate Debra Buettner on the Zoning Board of Appeals and find her to be well prepared and engaged on zoning matters bringing independent thought and never afraid to challenge the status quo.
We concur with everything you have stated. We feel that you would have been a great trustee and we wish that someone of your high moral values and understanding would have been elected.
We differ on the forgiveness you show to Fritz as that was an unforgivable mistake of catastrophic magnitude. We, the village, will be paying for his monumental error for years to come.