Posted in 2015 Elections, Cook, Kane, Lake, McHenry, One Barrington Hills, Politics, SOS Party, Village Board on May 6, 2015| 3 Comments »
The official certified vote counts from the April 7th consolidated election have been posted to the Village website. A copy of the results can be seen below:
Also, David Orr, Cook County Clerk, has certified the vote counts by township and precinct. A copy of his report can be viewed here.
Posted in Legal Expenses, OMA, Politics, Save 5 Acres, SOS Party, Village Attorney, Village Board on April 28, 2015| 11 Comments »
For perhaps the last time, the Barrington Hills board on Monday voted against paying the village attorney, which the board has refused to do for eight months now because of a dispute with Village President Martin McLaughlin.
Last August, McLaughlin appointed the law firm of Bond Dickson and Associates to serve as temporary village attorney after he asked its predecessor, the law offices of Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, to resign.
McLaughlin cited the Illinois attorney general office’s finding that the village violated the Open Meetings Act in April 2013 under the firm’s watch as one reason he asked for the resignation.
Read more here.
Posted in 2015 Elections, Legal Expenses, One Barrington Hills, OP/Ed, Politics, SOS Party, Village Board on April 17, 2015| 5 Comments »
The “One Barrington Hills” (One BH) and “Save Open Space” (SOS) campaign committees filed their first quarter financial reports with the Illinois State Board of Elections on Wednesday, April 15th.
According to those filings, One BH reported total campaign contributions of $19,502.88 for the quarter compared to the SOS campaign’s receipts of $60,825.99. For the same period, One BH spent $16,267.26 for their campaign versus the $50,901.35 spent by SOS, but the respective categories of expenditures by each campaign differed dramatically according to details contained in their reports.
One BH candidates spent a little over half of their funds on direct mailings to residents. On the other hand, SOS candidates spent about forty percent of their donations to pay two campaign committee members for consulting fees.
SOS committee member Dan Lundmark was paid $12,500 for his consulting services, and Steve Knoop’s firm, First Chicago Advisors, Inc., was also paid $12,500 for consulting in the campaign. It’s unclear from the reporting what the hourly consulting fees were for these committee members, but it is worth noting they were both compensated at an equal level.
In addition to consulting fees, the SOS committee spent $7,642.50 of their quarterly donations for legal services provided to their campaign from the Law Office of John Fogarty, Jr., a firm specializing in political and election laws. Those fees equate to about 12.6% of SOS’s total financial intake for the quarter.
While first quarter campaign financial reports do provide a preliminary glimpse at campaign spending, we must remind readers they are by no means the final story regarding the overall campaign spending for the 2015 Barrington Hills Trustee election. Those figures will likely be revealed in three months when the second quarter financials are reported to the Board of Elections.
In the meantime, a copy of the One Barrington Hills campaign committee’s 2015 Q-1 report filing can be downloaded here, and a copy of the Save Open Space committee’s Q-1 report can be downloaded here.
– The Observer
Posted in 2015 Elections, Cook, Kane, Lake, McHenry, One Barrington Hills, Politics, SOS Party, Village Board on April 10, 2015| 1 Comment »
If there was only one word we could use to describe Tuesday’s election results, it would be “turnout.”
Though official reporting sites for Lake and McHenry county voting have not yet reported how many registered Barrington Hills voters headed to the polls, Cook and Kane counties have, and the results can be seen below:
Click on image to enlarge
These results are not yet certified due to uncounted late “vote by mail” arrivals, but those will only add to what will likely be among the highest turnout percentages for any suburban Chicago election this year.
Next week we’ll be sharing our observations on the respective 2015 Barrington Hills Trustee campaigns and the election results.
Posted in 2015 Elections, One Barrington Hills, Politics, SOS Party on April 7, 2015| 4 Comments »
In a Barrington Hills trustee race that could be seen as a midterm assessment of Village President Martin McLaughlin, the results were decidedly in his favor.
The slate of Brian Cecola, Bryan Croll and Michelle Maison which McLaughlin supported was clearly leading the slate of incumbents Karen Selman, Patti Meroni and their running mate Mary Naumann.
Read more from the Daily Herald here.
Posted in 2015 Elections, Cook, Kane, Lake, McHenry, One Barrington Hills, SOS Party, Village Board on April 7, 2015| 14 Comments »
One Barrington Hills candidates Bryan Croll, Michelle Nagy Maison and Brian Cecola have won the election for three seats on the Barrington Hills Village Board defeating incumbents Patty Meroni, Karen Selman and newcomer Mary Naumann.
Cook, Lake and Kane county residents strongly supported the “One” slate with their votes while McHenry County votes appear to have been split based on reported returns so far.
We’ll be publishing more news on the 2015 Barrington Hills election as it becomes available.
Posted in 2015 Elections, BACT, Commercial Horse Boarding, Conflict of interest, Deception, Ethics, Horse Boarding, LeCompte/Anderson Commercial Horse boarding amendment, Longmeadow Parkway, One Barrington Hills, OP/Ed, Pension Funding, Politics, Real Estate, Road construction, SOS Party, Taxes, Village Board, Village Code on April 6, 2015| 1 Comment »
Tomorrow, Barrington Hills residents who have not already voted will head to their polling places to decide which three candidates from a field of six will be elected to serve a four-year term on our Village Board of Trustees.
The three candidates running as the SOS Party have advised, “Don’t be deceived” in their aggressive, well-financed campaign in order to retain a majority of partisan votes on our Board.
Yet we’ve found little truth in their campaign that has been strewn with documented deception, and we believe most residents recognize their desperate politicking as their only way to attempt to win, since they cannot run on their records.
In sharp contrast, three candidates running as One Barrington Hills have taken a more pragmatic approach in their campaign, rising above the fray in addressing relevant issues that residents recognize as important for the future of our Village. Areas such as correcting a significant road resurfacing backlog, heightened fiscal responsibility and continued protection of the Barrington Hills heritage are at the forefront of their plans for our future.
After contrasting the style and genuineness of these two campaigns and the qualifications of the candidates, The Observer endorses the following candidates:
Bryan Croll: Croll is a native of Barrington Hills with a degree in Environmental Science, including a concentration in hydrology, and an MBA in finance from Georgetown. Bryan’s practical business experience in land use and the environment makes him an ideal Trustee candidate to work with our Zoning Board of Appeals.
Michelle Nagy Maison: Maison also grew up in the Village, and has a business degree as well as a JD from DePaul University. Her experience from working for Arthur Andersen in their legal tax practice as well as managing two small businesses in her career will serve our Village well as the Trustee managing our finances.
Brian Cecola: Cecola is a lifelong resident of the Barrington area who served our community for 14 years as a firefighter with the BCFPD after studying Criminal Justice at SIU. He then launched a small road maintenance business that quickly grew, and he has the critical knowledge necessary to fix the issues that plague our Village roads as Trustee overseeing Roads & Bridges from his business experience.
We’re confident these three highly accomplished candidates can move our Village from the political mire we find ourselves in, and return it to the reputation that Barrington Hills was once known for – fair, equal, and uncompromised representation. We also believe these three will return civility to our Board and to our community, which is what we all want for the wellbeing of our Village.
Polls are open from 6:00 AM to 7:00 PM tomorrow. Please vote!
Posted in 2015 Elections, Deception, Ethics, One Barrington Hills, Politics, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, SOS Party on April 4, 2015| 12 Comments »
We’ve heard many accounts of some deceptive tactics being used on uninformed residents by the SOS party — the candidates who caution residents “Don’t be deceived” in these final days before the election. They range from telephone and door-to-door campaigns filled with falsehoods and scare tactics regarding their opponents, to their latest mass email containing distortions of the truth regarding One Barrington Hills (OBH) candidate, Brian Cecola.
While we choose not to republish the nonsense SOS is spinning, we are publishing the response by the One Barrington Hills campaign to what will go down as some of the lowest mudslinging Barrington Hills residents have ever been exposed to:
“Another spin has been circulating from SOS regarding One BH candidate, Brian Cecola, who proudly and honorably served for 14 years as a fireman for the Village of Barrington. In 2007 a lawsuit was filed by three Barrington Fire Department (BFD) employees against, among others, the BFD Chief, Deputy Chief, the Village of Barrington and the Barrington Fire Department, Inc. Notably absent as a defendant in the complaint is Brian Cecola.
A screen shot of the Lake County Court’s docket [pictured below] readily evidences that fact. More importantly, those attacking Brian, are using ‘allegations’ from a complaint in a disputed case, rather than ‘proven’ facts. Once again it’s more important to SOS to mount a baseless attack rather than seek the truth. All four of the individually named defendants were dismissed from the case by summary judgment, the court finding no wrong doing on their part. Rather than proceed with the case at trial, the insurers for the Village of Barrington and the BFD, Inc. determined to settle with the plaintiffs. BFD, Inc. volunteer/paid on call employees like Brian received $12.00 a call to respond to life threatening emergencies where they put their lives on the line for the protection of the residents in their district.
Click on image to enlarge
It is sad that SOS continues to perpetuate patently false, and horrible personal attacks on OBH candidates and their families. This has been their modus operandi in prior elections and just proves why we need to get rid of these trouble-making name callers who seem to thrive on personal attacks, disunity, controversy, and community strife.
BFD, Inc was dissolved not by the Village of Barrington, but because of increasing costs of insuring a volunteer/paid on call fire department.
You deserve the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Our Village deserves representatives that understand this. SOS candidates do not.”
Source: One Barrington Hills Facebook page
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