Village of Barrington Hills board members (l-r) JC Clarke, Laura AB Ekstrom, Brian Cecola, Marsha McClary, David Riff and Jessica Hoffmann. Not pictured: Thomas Strauss.
Our Village Board of Trustees met Monday evening. This marked the third meeting since their December 2025 meeting when residents were blindsided to learn, “110 Acre AI data center campus pitched to Village Board.”
The first speaker Monday night expressed their continued dissatisfaction with the Board as follows:
“All right. Good evening. My name is Aaron Becker. By now you probably know who I am.
I’m speaking tonight in regards to the Village attorney’s letter in response to my questions from January 27th,and I’ve got a couple other comments as well.
I really appreciate the Village responding in righting to my quick response. However, I ask respectfully and directly why several of my explicit questions and requests were not answered at all. They were just omitted, so… .
The response explains why it believes its past actions were lawful, but it does not confirm whether any of the safeguards I requested would be implemented. My question tonight is simple: was the omission intentional?
In the Village Summer 2021 newsletter, residents were told by Trustee Ekstrom, she’s not here today, and I’m going to quote her, ‘Most residents know that they can attend the Village Board meetings, many may not realize that committee and commission meetings are also open to the public. Our Village is a community above all else and having input from our residents reflected in our decision making is not only welcome but encouraged.’
I’ll say this much, I genuinely appreciate that perspective and I believe her. With that in mind, here’s some feedback:
Please confirm that all off-record communications with Brennan Development Group will stop.
Please stop project specific merit discussions absent of formal filings.
Please confirm that unsupported tax claims will not be repeated by the Village without substantiation.
Please confirm that records will be preserved.
Please do everything in your power to maintain true independence of the Plan Commission.
I’d also like the Board to reflect on some of the statements Board of Trustees members have made in the past. In the same Summer 2021 newsletter, residents were told by Trustee Strauss that quote, ‘We live in a special community, and the Board is committed to maintaining our heritage.’
And Trustee Riff said, ‘I would like to make certain that we remain focused on the budget, protect our residential zoning rights (or rather zoning laws), and ensure that our community remains safe and secure for all residents.’
So those are strong words. And they matter. So I’ll ask each of you as Trustee members, do you believe that based on all of the emails we have now seen and read that you have honored those commitments? That you are protecting our residential zoning rights. And that you are maintaining our heritage as a Village.
I’ll be honest, I don’t. I read all the emails. I don’t believe it.
You have to go to bed at night. You have to look yourself in the mirror and say that you believe you’ve protected the residential zoning rights with your actions and your words.
My wife spoke last month about actions and words and holding people accountable when their actions and words don’t align. And that’s what we’re here doing asking of our leaders for continuity between their actions and their words.
That’s all I’m asking. When you say you’re going to do something, follow through and do it. Please.
So, to summarize, respond to the five requests I had in the letter either acknowledging you made a mistake and how you’re going to fix it, or that you made no mistake.
Either way we deserve clarity we deserve responses to those.
That’s my comment. Thank you very much.”
The audio recordings from the March 30, 2026, Board of Trustees meeting can be found here.
Related: “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Follow-up),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 3),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 2),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 1),” “110 Acre AI data center campus pitched to Village Board”
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