THE DEER PARK NEIGHBORS’ ELECTION ENDORSEMENTS (in the order you will see on your ballot).

What makes DPN qualified to make endorsements?

For four years now, and officially since the February 2006 Board of Trustees meeting, members of Deer Park Neighbors have attended almost every Village Open Meeting, Public Hearing, committee meetings and have recorded videotapes those meetings; an archive is available at the Barrington Area Library. We have studied the Municipal Code in detail. We speak frequently before the board in the only forum available, Public Comments, limited to 5 minutes per person.

During these years, we have reached out to our neighbors, door to door, friend to friend, by email, by phone and in person. We found a village of residents who had either given up on the idea of citizen input or who never knew how to make their voices heard. They know now. They do now. And so can you. If you are not familiar with recent events, please review our Past eBlasts, that contain not only our commentaries on the local government, but link to news stories published by other news organizations. DPN has done the heavy lifting; while you may or may not share our views, you know absolutely that they are based on long experience and detail examinations. The next time someone expresses a strident point of view, simply ask: "When was the last time you attended a Village meeting?" Their answer will be your answer. We do not all have to think alike, but we ALL DESERVE OUR CHANCE TO SPEAK. Speak with your ballot on April 7.

Note: ALL candidates are listed as “Independent.” See YOUR ballot, which you can mark up and carry with you into the polling booth on Tuesday, posted at our election page: http://deerparkneighbors.com/pages/election.html.

For President
H. Scott Gifford—NOT endorsed. Scott has worked tirelessly for many years, and has an enviable history of public service, for which he deserves thanks. But in our observations over the last almost four years attending and or filming almost every public meeting, Scott has lost his connection to the people. Be it leadership style or a sense of insecurity, Scott surrounds himself with “yes men.” Remember “The Emperor’s New Clothes”? Had Scott surrounded himself with people who would tell him the truth, with the best that this village has to offer, he would have avoided so many tragedies: Firing Kari without the advice/consent of the board; failing to negotiate top dollar when selling the last piece of the development puzzle to Red Seal; allowing the failed contractor at the Barn to go on a year after he stopped paying his subs; never vetting the bonding company; permitting his village attorney and two trustees to serve two masters (both the village and the private Vehe Farm Foundation); falling for a slick, DC lobbyist; neglecting the wisdom of putting put the Barn re-work out for bids (not required, but would have gone a long way to remediate his reputation with residents). Why is there no public support of Scott’s candidacy by his very own colleagues who would continue to serve with him if re-elected? (If you have seen such an endorsement, please share it with us.) Scott, when you use village resources like CTY and the newsletter to promote a very partisan point of view, you cross a line. And while you are behaving as a more generous, more inclusive President in these months just before the election, we cannot trust this conversion. It’s too convenient. Scott holds an MBA, but we do not see his leadership to be based in sound business principles; his investments have been focused on special interests and he take input from only from a very narrow pool of advisors.

Robert M. Kellermann—ENDORSED Our endorsement of Bob can be simple and brief, because Bob is precisely who he seems to be: an honest, hard-working, faithful village servant who puts his ideals above his personal comfort. In the interest of being the best Trustee he can be, Bob took it like a gentleman when he was unduly vilified by the Village Attorney and mocked by some of his fellow trustees. Bob is not the most articulate guy around, but he is determined to uncover all the facts about Vehe invoices and payments; where he was continually frustrated as a Trustee, he will use his Presidential power in the best interests of the whole community. He will also put the village infrastructure at the top of his list. What’s more, Bob is not afraid to surround himself with outstanding talent. His self-discipline and intense loyalty no doubt reflect his 28 years of honorable military service. Bob also has experience in working with big government on contracted projects; that’s what we need in Deer Park, inside resources. We don’t have to hire outsiders to speak for up for this village

For Trustee
Keith Olson—STRONGLY ENDORSED As a newer resident, Keith brings a fresh point of view without any baggage, and his special technical abilities in video programming as well as his commitment to the development of earth-friendly technologies make Keith a valuable resource to help energize this village as a 21st century municipality. We envision Keith as a superb Public Safety Chairman and could see him heading up a new Technology Task Force to improve the village web site and provide official video records of village open meetings. Keith is also a CPA and holds an MBA, so his call for sound financial and business practices is based on expertise.

Dale Sales—STRONGLY ENDORSED. As a business professional with almost four decades in the field of engineering and as a resident for 15 years, Dale brings up-to-date “best practices” from the world of big business with a strong concentration on environmental issues. His wife Debra works in District 220, so while their own children are grown, he is well acquainted with the challenges faced by families with school-age children—these are out newest residents who must be embraced. Dale is focused on restoring community trust in Deer Park’s governance. He also has a very strong financial background (he holds an MBA), and calls for a Strategic Plan to be developed for the Barn. We envision Dale as a proactive Chairman of Finance.

John Lahr—STRONGLY ENDORSED. Although John has resigned from active participation in this campaign, he speaks out for “the need for new leadership in the village.” The only way to ensure new leadership is with a new president as well as 3 new trustees whose background and experience as well as their public stance ensures fiscal common sense and complete transparency. John’s election as trustee will ensure a majority block when Bob Kellermann is also elected president. Bob would then appoint one resident to serve John’s 4-year term as well as another resident to serve out Bob’s remaining 2 years as elected trustee. See John’s resignation letter on our Election page.

William P. Michael—NOT endorsed. DPN has met Bill briefly in person and presented him with our contact information so that he could submit his Candidate Profile. He has not done so, nor has he been a regular at board of trustee meetings. However, we do find Bill’s work on the ZBA to be credible if not outstanding. And we do agree with many of his statements at the League Forum. So if he is sincere, we would hope to see Bill at upcoming village meetings and open forums to work toward the very goals he iterated, without the partisan considerations. We will watch him with interest in the upcoming years.

William C. Koutsis—neutral. We have seen Bill in action on the Plan Commission for a number of years, and have come to know him on a personal level in the last few months; in fact, Bill approached Deer Park Neighbors in appreciation for our work. He is the only candidate on the Gifford slate to cooperate with DPN’s desire to educate voters, as well as holding face-to-face meetings. Bill is intelligent, reasonable and balanced. However, we have not seen what we hoped to see—true independence of President Gifford. If you residents had regularly attended village meetings, including the Plan and Zoning meetings, then community leaders like Bill would have ample opportunity to shine in their own light. We sincerely hope that Bill will be retained on the Plan Commission and that he will work there to ensure that the high standards set by that committee for developers are in fact executed in reality and enforceable by village officials and staff. Bill is a degreed engineer as well as holding an MBA.

Joyce Trost Beattie—NOT endorsed. Frankly, we found Joyce to be flippant in attitude at the League Forum and often to be reiterating sound bites rather than speaking from her heart. But when she did speak spontaneously, she communicated a lack of regard for her fellow citizens. We have already quoted her words, “Ethics are too subjective.” When asked about posting all village materials on the web, she qualified her lukewarm agreement with, “We have to be careful that individuals understand how to interpret what is being posted.” She answered a question about the Barn being open to the public more frequently; her answer was, and we quote: “I suspect the question is important to someone in the audience, so I would support it.” Other than the forum, we have never heard Joyce speak at a village meeting, so we have nothing else on which to base our conclusion.

THE UNOFFICIAL RECORD OF BOARD VOTES

HOW TO USE THE SPREADSHEET. We have posted both the Excel and a PDF versions online. PDFs are static, but the Excel can be sorted; all can be zoomed. You will NOT be able to save changes, but you can download to your desktop. If you are not familiar with Excel, you can click on the little double arrow at the top of each column and sort by, for example, date. (You can also do this through the menu.) However—and this is very important—after each sort, you must go under Data>>Filter>>Show All after each sort, in order to go back to square one. If “Show All” is grayed out, then all the records are in view. The documents are set up as ledger (tabloid), 17inch wide by 11inch high, and goes to 16 or 27 pages. For those of you who aren’t regular Excel users, we recommend the Acrobat version.

So, to see the UNOFFICIAL record of votes, please visit:
http://deerparkneighbors.com/pages/election.html

DPN’S ANALYSIS OF POTENTIAL OUTCOMES
IN THE LOCAL ELECTION

***If Bob Kellermann is Prez, three new trustees will serve under him, AND Bob will name a registered voter to serve out Bob’s remaining term as trustee, 2 years.

***If Scott Gifford is re-elected, three new trustees will serve, BUT Bob will remain on the board and complete his own 2 remaining years. (Trustees Maureen Pratscher and Dave Kizior also have two years left to serve.)

That being said and assuming that slate mates ARE are political colleagues—that they would most likely cast the same votes…

FOUR POSSIBLE SCENARIOS FOR THE COMPOSITION OF THE BOARD

Consider what is at stake in this election. In most elections, an administration is nudged in one direction or another; change is slow. But this year, the outcome will clearly be either transformation or status quo.

1***If Scott is Prez, and all three Gifford slate mates are elected, then Bob faces 2 years more as trustee but with zero political colleagues. The votes are most likely to align 5-1, with Bob the lone opposition vote.

2***If Bob is Prez, and all three Gifford slate mates are elected, then Bob names the sixth trustee to fulfill his own term and votes are still likely to be 5-1, now with Bob’s appointee the lone opposition vote.

3***If Scott is Prez, and the Kellermann slate mates are elected as trustees, then Bob continues to serve out his term, and the votes are likely to split 2-4, with Bob and his slate mates making up the MAJORITY.

4***If Bob is Prez, and the Kellermann slate mates are also elected, then Bob names the sixth trustee, and the votes are likely to be 2-4, with Trustees Pratscher and Kizior unable to continue Gifford’s agenda.

With scenarios 1 and 2, the board’s direction continues on its current path.
With scenarios 3 and 4, the board’s direction is completely changed.

This is why we endorse CASTING ALL THREE OF YOUR VOTES IN THE TRUSTEE RACE.

It is NOT our intention to suggest that the two slates for Trustee are completely oppositional on every issue, or that any trustee will always march in lock step with his or her slate. Of course, we certainly hope that each individual would vote his/her conscience on each motion.

But if you analyze the voting record (see following) over the last four years, the pattern is obvious. The pattern has been to follow one’s political colleagues to the logical conclusion and to vote in support of your side’s/slate’s agenda.

That’s why we’ve posted a spreadsheet chronicling the past two years’ votes by our spreadsheet master, Teri Masino, 847-917-8771 or TechTasksByTeri@aol.com. Teri does NOT vote in this village; she votes in unincorporated Ela township. (She’s also available to help you and your business with her amazing organizational skills!)