Update On Illegal Secret Meetings Of Lisle Trustees

Remember the Illinois Attorney General's investigation into illegal activities by Joseph Broda and Lisle trustees?  The AG found that Broda and Lisle trustees did violate the law, and has demanded that they turn over minutes and tape recordings of the secret meetings.  Penalties for these violations, as prescribed by law, are $1,500 per offense or 30 days in jail.  There were 5 violations for each trustee and Mayor Broda.  Two additional violations in January were more than 60 days prior to the original complaint, and could not be reviewed by the AG because of the 60 day expiration.  

Lisle trustees will vote on Monday night to release the closed session meetings from Jan-March 2011.  However, they have refused to release audio recordings.  Then they will go into secret session (again) to discuss the "compensation, performance of legal counsel" - watch for them to blame Ancel Glink for the Attorney General's determination that they violated the Open Meetings Act for all those meetings...better to blame the attorney than take the blame themselves.

I certainly am no apologist for Ancel Glink, but the minutes show the attorney wasn't even present at most of the meetings where the violations occurred! 

Now  - why not discuss any issues with the attorney in open session?

  

Why You're Paying More In Taxes

Tax rate increase on your 2010 property tax bill:
Lisle Park District Pension Fund +20.3%
Village of Lisle +11.6% 
College of DuPage +10.6%
Lisle Park District + 8.9%
Lisle Woodridge Fire District +9.2% 
Lisle Township +9.1%
Lisle Township Road +9.4%
Naperville School Dist 203 +7.1%
DuPage County +7.0%
DuPage Forest Preserve +6.7%
Lisle Library District +6.6%


Did you get a 20% raise this year?  How about an 11.6% raise?  If not, maybe you should think about looking for a second job to pay for the tax and spend tactics of the Lisle Village Board and Park District Board.  Based on the results of the last election, they have a mandate from voters to accelerate the spending spree and we can look forward to similar increases next year, the year after that, the year after that, etc etc

Elections Matter

Lisle has more than 13,000 registered voters, but scarcely more than 3,000 of them bother to vote in any given election.  Many of the people who live in Lisle but don't vote are probably unaware that their failure to vote can have a direct impact on their lives and their families.

Recently 3 Lisle trustees were reelected to the Village Board.  Last Monday the Village Board voted to reappoint Charles Rego as chair of the Planning & Zoning Commission, with no discussion.  Setting aside the fact that Rego's previous behavior and his choice to be an "active investor in Lisle real estate" make him unsuitable for a seat on the PZC, new information about Rego has come to light, and it should make every Lisle resident who did not vote in the recent election think long and hard.

Rego rents a property to a registered sex offender at a location just a few houses away from the Lisle Library and St Joan of Arc school.

http://www.isp.state.il.us/sor/offenderdetails.cfm?SORID=E99A1433

http://www.city-data.com/so/so-Lisle-Illinois.html

Donald D Schultz

Address: 649 Front St
Zip code: 60532
Crime: Violate Sex Offender Registration Act ; sex Offender Registering/False Information ; aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse/Victim 13-16
Sex: Male
Date of birth: 1966-09-08
Height: 5'09
Weight: 175
Race: White

http://chicago.blockshopper.com/property/08-11-113-011/649_front
649 Front Street

puchased in 2003.

Lisle's Planning & Zoning Fiefdom

While we're waiting to learn whether the Lisle Village Board will cooperate with the Attorney General's office and turn over recordings of illegal secret meetings held in January, February and March (word is that Lisle's attorney has asked for a time extension), there is a vote scheduled at tomorrow's Board meeting (7 p.m. Monday at Village Hall) to reappoint Charles Rego as chair of the Planning & Zoning Commission.


Rego was first appointed to the PZC by Mayor Broda in 2005.  In 2004 Rego fought against a developer's petition to subdivide 3 large lots in the "McIntosh Subdivision" into smaller lots of 10,000 square feet.  Rego fought the petition in spite of the fact that owners of properties immediately adjacent to the property in question supported the petition.  The property in question was zoned "R-2".  The developer's petition was denied because the proposed lots would be smaller than the original "McIntosh Subdivision" lots.  In 2010 Rego petitioned the PZC to subdivide property he owned in that same "McIntosh Subdivision" into smaller lots of 10,000 square feet.  Rego's property was zoned "R-2".  Twenty five Lisle homeowners who lived near the Rego property signed a petition asking the PZC not to approve the Rego petition.  Rego's petition was approved.  In recusing himself from the vote on his own petition, Rego stated that both he and his wife were "active investors" in Lisle real estate.  Whether you believe Rego used his appointed office for personal gain or not, there is an obvious question: should Lisle have active investors in real estate appointed to the Planning & Zoning Commission?  Are there no citizens in Lisle who are not real estate investors who could serve on the PZC?


Beyond Rego's financial activities, his behavior has raised many serious questions about his suitability for any public office.  His conduct of hearings on the Navistar petition was so biased and incompetent that a judge had to be appointed to replace Rego in the hearings.  Far from being contrite, Rego retaliated by changing the rules of the PZC to deprive homeowners of their right to participate in zoning processes.  An attorney with almost 20 years of experience in zoning matters had this to say about Rego's behavior during the Navistar hearings: " I have come to believe that if people holding appointed positions have such impatience, the answer may not be to have all these rules (that scare developers, look bad politically and impose procedural opportunities and burdens for the rare occurrence that need only be planned fairly for that rare occurrence), but rather to remove the appointed official who cannot seem to steer these. In my zoning experience since 1994, Mr. Rego is the only chair that acted as he did and set the parties in the wrong direction." More on Rego's outrageous rules change: "I am going to offer testimony on similar efforts and bills whenever these make it to the state legislative agenda. I will lay out the complacency and retaliation issues, with an open presentation of the Navistar pre hearing issues that led to the mistrust. I am a bit tired of what I have seen ... where the response to a bungled Navistar hearing is one that maligns me and residents and, at the same time, utterly ignores Charles Rego’s attitude and disregard for what Silverman, Whitaker and I could have done to make that an easy process. All of this sets aside the predetermination issue that unfortunately occurred and Rego’s statements that he would have approved the original LTC without conditions. "

If Rego is reappointed, what image will be projected for Lisle?
What will that say about the Mayor and the Village Board?
Why didn't the Village Board ask for interested persons to submit qualifications for the PZC (other villages in Illinois solicit citizen applications online)?

Apathy Or Intentional Exclusion?

Ever wonder why Lisle Village Board and zoning meetings are so sparsely attended? Think it's because Lisle taxpayers are stupid, or that they just don't care? It could be that they've been conditioned to be cynical by appointed officials like the zoning commissioner who, when taxpayers say things he doesn't agree with, changes the rules to prevent them from speaking.

Here's a view from Canada, where they don't have extremes like zoning bosses changing rules to exclude citizens but they seem to have similar issues:

Illegal Secret Meetings Of Lisle Trustees Under Investigation

For the first time in 2011, the Village Board did not got into secret closed session at Monday night's meeting.

That's because a formal complaint was filed with the Office of the Illinois Attorney General for Open Meetings Act Violations.

 

Will Lisle trustees cooperate with the Attorney General's office?  Or will they hire Ancel Glink, at taxpayer's expense, to cover their tracks?  Perhaps they'll enlist Mike "Ubi est mea" Connelly  to try to change the law again?

More details here

Is Your Vote Owned By The Machine?

If you live in Lisle, you probably received an ad in the mail yesterday from state representative Connelly, paid for by the campaign for Cawiezel, Boyle and Young.  It seemed strange - three trustees running together?  And why would a state representative have such a compelling interest?  So I googled Connelly to learn more about him.  Turns out this guy is a real piece of work -- he even has a special nickname: Mike "Ubi est mea" Connelly.

My initial reaction to the ad for Cawiezel, Boyle and Young was that it was funny and ironic.  Funny because it reminded me of cliques in high school, and ironic because here we have 3 people who are asking us to elect them as community leaders, and they have neither the independent thinking skills nor the backbone to even run their own campaigns.  Then I remembered seeing campaign signs touting Cook and Carballo for the Park District Board, and I recognized the pattern.  It's not that Cawiezel, Young, Boyle, Cook and Carballo can't run their own campaigns (presumably they could if they were allowed to) -- what's behind their combined campaign advertisements is the political machine that they owe their political lives to.  It might not be as large and efficient as the Chicago machine, but it's a machine nonetheless.

So the ad for Cawiezel, Boyle and Young is not funny.  The boys chomping on cigars in the back room downtown are not laughing.  They are telling you how to vote  They are telling you to vote for 4 more years of Cawiezel, Boyle and Young - 4 more years of higher spending and higher taxes.  They are telling you to vote for Cook and Carballo, so the Park District can continue to do less with more.  Will you obey the machine?  Will you do what you've been told?  Is your vote owned by the machine that owns Cook, Carballo, Cawiezel, Boyle and Young?  The machine that uses Mike "Ubi est mea" Connelly as its mouthpiece?  We'll find out tomorrow morning.

p.s. if you don't take the time to vote in this election, your answer to the question posed by this post is "YES"

More than $ 600,000 of wasteful spending endorsed by Cawiezel, Boyle and Young

Wasteful spending by public officials is never a good idea, but it's really a crime when it happens as revenues are plummeting.

Did you know that the Village of Lisle is proposing to pay out $244,000 to (10) employees as incentives to get them them to quit?  Add that $244,000 to the obscene "legal fees" paid to Ancel Glink, and you have more than $600,000 of wasteful spending (not that this is the only waste endorsed by trustees Cawiezel, Boyle and Young -- it's just the most recent).


This kind of waste will continue, and your property taxes will continue being raised every year regardless of the economic environment, as long as trustees Cawiezel, Boyle and Young remain on the Village Board.  Every vote for Cawiezel, Boyle or Young is a vote to continue waste and raise property taxes.

Clarification

The ballot in this election uses the phrase "vote for not more than..."

Just to be clear: you do NOT need to vote for more than two people for Village Board Trustee -- if you vote only for Ledvora and Wilkie, that is a perfectly valid vote.  Same goes for the Park District Board -- if you vote only for Hummel, that is a perfectly valid vote.

Lisle's Future Is In Your Hands

If you read this blog, you know how badly Lisle needs change.  You know about 8 consecutive years of reckless deficit spending.  About 10 years of tax increases.  About pay to play, secret board meetings and the "Glink stink".  About the plan to bring gambling to Lisle.  You know that as long as trustees Cawiezel, Boyle and Young remain in power nothing will change.


There is an election April 5, and early voting for that election is available to you now.  Don't wait until April 5 unless you have to.  Vote at the Village Hall this week - Monday hours are from 7:30 a.m. till 6:30 p.m., and Tuesday thru Friday hours are from 7:30 a.m. till 4:30 p.m.  Make sure all voting age members of your family vote.  Every vote counts.  Joe Broda was reelected mayor in April 2009 by a margin of only 233 votes. Of the 13,761 registered voters in Lisle, only 3,485 voted in that election.


Electing Ledvora and Wilkie to the Board of Trustees will not solve all of Lisle's problems overnight - after all, it took 10 years to get into the mess we find ourselves in.  But electing Ledvora and Wilkie is a necessary first step in the right direction.  If we don't take this first step, we have only ourselves to blame for continuance of Lisle's downward spiral.

What Goes On In Lisle Stays In Lisle?

If you live in Lisle, what's your vision of what Lisle could be in the future?  What would you like to see Lisle become, if you were dreaming about a great place for your kids and grandkids to grow up in?  Something like Wheaton? Naperville? Maybe even Oak Brook or Winnetka?

Think again.  Your mayor and trustees Cawiezel, Boyle and Young have a very different vision -- one that sees a Lisle more like Gary, East St. Louis, and Joliet.  One that relies on gambling as a principal source of revenue.

One of the reasons why they've been paying exorbitant legal fees recently is their interest in bringing gambling to Lisle -- below is from a list of invoices submitted to Lisle by the Ancel Glink law firm in February:

What Ed Young Doesn't Want You To Know: Part 3 -- the Meijer property

Ed Young was a founding member of CRADL, the group that prevented Meijer from opening a "box" store on a 67.5 acre site on Maple avenue.  Perhaps that was the right thing to do at the time, but that was more than 10 years ago.  For more than 10 years, that 67.5 acre site has been vacant.  That site could have been generating $1MM + in sales tax revenue for Lisle every year, year after year (almost enough to offset the cost of the "Taj Mahal").

Year after year for more than 10 years, Ed Young and the Lisle trustees have done nothing to encourage any kind of commercial development of the property.  Instead, year after year Ed Young and Lisle trustees have increased the property tax levy to make up for the "opportunity cost" of the sales tax revenue which could have been generated on the 67.5 acre site.

A 26,867 % "Return On Investment"

How's your 401k doing these days?  Can you match a twenty six thousand, eight hundred sixty seven percent return?  Have you been able to turn $1,500 into $403,000?  If not, perhaps you should consult with Ancel Glink.

You remember Ancel Glink - the law firm that some Illinois towns decided they could no longer afford.  The Lisle Village Board paid Glink $31,000 for the month of February - that's $403,000 annualized.  Nice work if you can get it.

Boyle & Young: Two Peas In A Pod

Readers have pointed out that Ed Young is not the only Lisle trustee who engages in "disingenuous misstatements" ... point well taken.  Consider, for example, Young's colleague Mark Boyle.

Boyle has been a trustee since 2007, and he has acted in lock step with Young for 4 years.
Boyle and Young both claimed that fiscal responsibility is "key issue #1" in their campaigns, and Boyle was right there with Young during the last 4 years of reckless deficit spending.

Boyle and Young both claimed to be interested in open and transparent government (Boyle used that exact phrase in his interview with the Daily Herald).  While Boyle and Young paid lip service to the idea of open and transparent government, these have been their actions:

1. On June 3, 2009 they participated in a secret meeting in violation of the Open Meetings Act
2. Through the remainder of 2009, they engaged in an elaborate scheme to deliberately circumvent legally mandated oversight and approval processes, keeping Lisle citizens in the dark
3. On Dec 20, 2010 they passed a resolution (without discussion) to keep all closed session meeting minutes and the audio recordings of those meetings closed - and not just the recent closed session meetings - but ALL closed session meetings back to 1983.  yes that's 1983 --  27 yrs. of secrets that must remain secret.

Do the actions of Mark Boyle and Ed Young match their words about open and transparent government?  Now that you know the facts, decide for yourself -- then vote accordingly in April.

What Ed Young Doesn't Want You To Know -- part 2: Fiscal Responsibility (NOT)

More on Mr. Young's "disingenuous misstatements"...

PDF

More Glink Stink

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20100817/news/308179847/

http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2010/04/20/ancel-glink-bills-grafton-township-36432-for-march/

http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2010/12/12/grafton-township-court-order-fires-pam-fender-and-ancel-glick-part-2/

The Glink Stink

The stench from the Lisle Village Hall has made its way to Island Lake. Island Lake trustees still take their responsibilities seriously, and have taken action to oust Ancel Glink as their village's law firm.

Remember Ancel Glink?  Yes, they are the firm that knows how to get business from small town politicians like the Lisle mayor.  They are also the firm that drafted those outrageous PZC rules to remove citizens rights, and worked on state legislation (with state representative Connelley and Senger) to silence dissent and take away the right to free speech.

One village has trustees that take action to remove the stench -- the other (Lisle) continues to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to Glink (I guess the Lisle trustees have a lot of Vicks in their nostrils).

Attorney General or "Attorney Specific To Cook County"?

The Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, has seen fit to chastise Oak Park officials for failing to comply with the Open Meetings Act.  Funny that she never commented on the illegal meeting held by Lisle trustees (led by Joe Broda and Ed Young) on June 3, 2009.

Oh, that's right -- Lisle is in DuPage County -- where politicians don't have to comply with the law.

Candidate Forum or More Dirty Tricks?

On March 23, 2011,  The Lisle Chamber of Commerce is planning to hold a "Candidate Forum" for Village of Lisle Trustee candidates.  Yes, this is the same organization (led by Mr Althoff) that sponsored the dirty tricks attack recently.


Will the "forum" agenda and format be determined by Althoff?
Will Culloton be the sergeant-at-arms?


Knowing what we know about Lisle's "Chamber of Deceit", do you think they deserve to retain nonprofit status and tax exemption?

Chamber of Deceit and It's Tangled Web

"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."    ~ Sir Walter Scott

Readers of this blog are aware of the role Tom Althoff (Lisle Chamber of Commerce) played in the deceitful attack on one of the candidates for trustee in the upcoming Lisle election.  But did you know that prior to the release of the attack on March 7, Althoff presented the attack plan to Dan Garvy, Director of Parks and Recreation at the Lisle Park District?  Althoff was seeking Board approval of the plan (yes, this is the same attack that promoted the candidacies of 3 current trustees: Cawiezel, Boyle and Young).  You can decide for yourself what Garvy's response was - all you need to know is that the attack plan went ahead (and we have heard nothing from Garvy or any of the trustees denouncing the lies in the attack).


So far, we have the DuPage County Board, the Lisle Chamber of Commerce, the Lisle Board of Trustees and the Lisle Park District Board all swimming in the same cesspool with Culloton.

More on Culloton

Sometimes when you turn over a rock, all sorts of snakes appear.


It seems that Mr.Culloton (the head "plumber" for the DuPage County Board and political supporter of several Lisle trustees) has had another interesting assignment, in addition to the work he did for George Ryan.  Culloton started his "media spin artist" company in January 2010. His first contract was with METRA, a few months BEFORE the Pagano story broke. Metra subleases office space to Culloton Strategies.  Pagano was set to be fired by the Metra board in early May 2010 - he stepped in front of a train and killed himself.


Isn't it amazing how the same people's names keep turning up whenever there's malfeasance, skulduggery, or criminal behavior going on behind the scenes?

Cawiezel, Boyle & Young Supporters Take The Low Road - In The Gutter With Culloton

Can't beat a candidate on the issues?  Roll out the dirty tricks!

Don't just distort his record, lie over and over.

Make sure you have a set of "plumbers" that would make Haldemann and Ehrlichman proud: Ray Kinney (a Naperville businessman and Chamber of Commerce member) and Tom Althoff (President of the Lisle Chamber of Commerce).  Put them under a third rate publicist (Dennis Culloton) whose qualifications include:

• he lives in Naperville
• he was George Ryan's press secretary
• he has not stopped feeding at the public trough since Ryan went to prison - he is currently employed by the DuPage County Board
• while he takes your tax dollars, he launches malicious, deceptive attack emails (and somebody pays him to do it)

Here are some of the details: http://lisle.patch.com/articles/not-all-endorsements-are-authentic-in-this-years-election

Is it just a coincidence that emails from "electedofficials@villageoflisle.com" started appearing simultaneously with Culloton's lies?  You decide.

Can Lisle and DuPage politics get any scummier?  We'll see -- in the meantime, here are the statements from Cawiezel, Boyle and Young renouncing Culloton's dirty tricks: Young and Boyle have said that Culloton "is not working for them".  I guess that means there is no proof that they hired him, although his attack clearly endorsed them.

 

One thing is clear -- Cawiezel, Boyle and Young are running scared, and you can expect any kind of behavior from a frightened animal.

What Ed Young Doesn't Want You To Know: Part 1 - levees

We located a copy of the Lisle Patch article that Ed Young had pulled. There is so much material here that it requires multiple posts to set the record straight. Let's deal with Young's comment on Lisle's levees first (this was a topic covered in "the real state of the Village" here and here).

Young said the levees have not been repaired for many years, and the Village Board has been trying to address this. "I'm concerned that they haven't been repaired and if they should breech, that would be catastrophic," Young said.

Here are the facts about the levee debacle:

• The levee problem was identified shortly after the turn of the century.
• In 2005 DuPage County paid to have engineering work on levee maintenance completed (Page 350http://www.co.dupage.il.us/finance/budget2010/2010FinancialPlan.pdf )

River - Dumoulin Flood Control Project - Property Reimbursement

Village of Lisle

The River - Dumoulin Flood Control Project is comprised of several different project components. A total of four pump stations will be constructed along the East Branch between Lacey Avenue and Burlington Avenue in Lisle. In addition, several areas of the levee system will be raised to their original design elevation. In order to repair the levee, permanent easements will be needed from property owners along the length of the levee. These easements are needed for access and construction and to make sure that structures or plantings are not placed on the levee in the future that would affect the integrity of the levee.DuPage County has an IGA with Lisle to reimburse property owners up to $1,500.00 for the permanent easements required for the levee repair project.

2005

• From Village Of Lisle "Floodplain Information and Protection": "Funding was available, and the engineering work was completed. Then it was discovered that the easements used to construct the levee were all temporary easements which had long ago expired. Today, the river levees areowned by around 55 private property owners, and there are few easements to allow maintenance or inspection" Ed Young has been a trustee since 1999. The levee problem was identified shortly after the turn of the century, and DuPage County provided funding for the levee engineering work in 2005. 
• Ed Young, Broda, and Lisle trustees ignored the levee problem prior to 2005, resulting in no easements being available when the levee engineering work was completed. Ed Young continued to ignore the need for easements from 2005 through 2010, even though DuPage County offered funding to help acquire the easements!

Now that Ed Young has to run for reelection, he is "concerned" about levee maintenance. Where was he in 2000? in 2001? in 2002? in 2003? in 2004? in 2005? in 2006? in 2007? in 2008? in 2009? in 2010?

We all know that politicians never lie to voters. Let's be kind to Mr Young and call his comments on the levees disingenuous misstatements. You can decide for yourself whether they are deliberately deceptive -- but does it really matter? Is this not a prime example of how incompetent "leadership" got Lisle into one mess after another since 1999?

There are many more "disingenuous misstatements" from Mr Young that will be dealt with in subsequent posts, but not till later this week. The author needs to go on a business trip for a few days, to earn money to pay for the 8.2%+ property tax increase that Ed Young and Lisle trustees intend to ram down the throats of taxpayers in tonight's budget hearing (to finance a 9th consecutive year of deficit spending).

Why Ed Young Does Not Want To Meet You

The Lisle Patch publication has been running a "Meet The Candidate" series on candidates for the Village Board.  One of the candidates, Ed Young, had his profile removed from the "Meet The Candidate" pages.  Why would a candidate not want his profile to be known to the voters?  Well, it turns out that Ed Young has established quite a track record in 12 years as a trustee, and some of that record was coming to light in the comments of Lisle residents responding to his profile.  So Ed decided to return to the shadows, hide his profile, and hope that voters would not have the time to learn the truth about his record.


Here are some of the reasons Ed doesn't want to "meet" you:

1. Young and Joe Broda have presided over 10 years of increases in the property tax levy and 8 consecutive years of deficit spending
2. During 8 years of spending more than they took in, Young and Broda have drastically depleted the Village's reserve fund, putting Lisle in a precarious financial position
3. The current budget proposal calls for yet another deficit ($991,000+) -- Young's comment on the budget is:  "I believe we have made all the cuts we can without cutting services."  He refuses to consider any of the remedies businesses have to use when they face declining revenues (restructuring, staff reductions, outsourcing) -- this in spite of glaring failures and inefficiencies in Lisle Village staff performance.
4. Young supported the outrageous and abusive rules change in the Lisle Planning and Zoning Commission hearings and pushed through an illegal Tax Increment Financing scheme. 
5. On June 3, 2009 a secret meeting of the Lisle Village Board was held to discuss a Tax Increment Financing scheme - the meeting was illegal, in violation of the Open Meetings Act.  Taxpayers were not told of the meeting and were not allowed to participate, but proponents of the TIF were included in the meeting. No minutes were kept (another violation of the law). Ed Young not only actively participated in the illegal meeting, but he led the move to make it clandestine by making the motion to move the meeting to "Executive Session".

When a candidate wants to hide his record from voters, one has to wonder about issues related to personal integrity. More on that part of Ed Young's track record in a subsequent post.

Thank you, sir! May I have another?

Readers of this blog are aware of Lisle's fiscal crisis and one potential solution.

Lisle is at an inflection point - the 2011/12 Lisle budget will determine whether runaway deficit spending will continue and whether Lisle residents will be burdened with the highest property taxes in DuPage County to support the deficit spending.  The Budget Hearing is scheduled for March 7 at 7 pm.  This will be, far and away, the most important meeting for Lisle residents in 2011.  In view of the impact of the 2011/12 budget on Lisle taxpayers, the room should be packed for this meeting, with people standing in the aisles.  Every person attending should stand up and demand that the Village Board give these crucial budget discussions the time and attention they deserve.  Budget discussions are far too important to relegate to a few evening meetings of the Village Board – serious, in depth reviews of assumptions, projections, and alternatives merit day-long meetings on Saturdays, with full participation by taxpayers. 

Those of us who joined college fraternities experienced hazing rituals, including the one where a pledge, after being thwacked with a paddle, is expected to say vigorously: "Thank you, sir! May I have another?".  The Lisle Village Board has engaged in reckless deficit spending for 8 consecutive years -- if you do not attend the March 7 budget hearing, you are sending a loud and clear message to the Village Board: "Thank you, sir! May I have another?"

A Realistic, Fiscally Responsible Budget For Lisle

PDF

PDF

Say It Ain't So, Joe (Lisle's fiscal crisis)

Source: Lisle "Draft Budget #2"

PDF        YouTube

Lisle Park District - Doing Less With More

Source:Lisle Park District

If this is a contest between Broda and his cronies and the Lisle Park District to see who can be more wasteful and inefficient, would someone please pick the "winner" so we can put a tourniquet on the spending???

From 2000 to 2009:

• 17% DECREASE in the number of acres of property owned by LPD from 476 to 397

 

• 15% DECREASE in the number of parks from 42 to 36

 

• 22% DECREASE in the number of baseball fields from 22 to 18

 

• 30% DECREASE in the number of soccer fields from 10 to 7

 

• 50% INCREASE in the number of regular employees

 

• 50% INCREASE in the number of seasonal/part time employees

 

• 52% INCREASE in the property tax levy from $3,327,724 to $5,067,074

 
 

Broda Taking Names

re: http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/news/3892685-418/subdivision-may-look-to-leave-lisle-park-district.html?print=true
Here's what we've learned about this:
As the article states, the group of homeowners in question petitioned to disconnect from the Park District for several reasons, including the fact that their children attend Naperville schools, they live much closer to Wheaton parks than Lisle parks, and they are adjacent to a subdivision that successfully disconnected from the Lisle Library District last year.  Absolutely nothing in the petition mentioned anything about Navistar.  The Village of Lisle and Broda have nothing to do with this petition -- it is strictly between these homeowners and the Lisle Park District.

So let's review:

1. a group of taxpayers sent a petition to the Park District Board, respectfully providing a logical and compelling argument for disconnection
2. Broda and Lisle trustees have no jurisdiction in this matter - by law, it is strictly between the petitioners and the Park District Board
3. Broda reviews the list of petitioner's names
4. Broda tells the newspaper that he and his trustee cronies are "concerned" and that several names on the petition are people who opposed the Navistar industrial diesel engine testing facility

We all know that Broda was embarrassed when the truth came out about the tactics he used to hide his actions on the Navistar TIF from Lisle residents.  Now it's becoming clear that he can't get past it - he's on a vendetta against anyone who disagreed with the Navistar industrial diesel testing and the TIF that Broda wanted to use to enable it.  How sad for Lisle that we have a person like this in a position of responsibility.

A Few Unpleasant Facts About Lisle's Direction

PDF
YouTube

On The Road To Perdition

PDF

Working Hard To Keep You In The Dark, Covered With Dung

You've probably heard of "mushroom management" - keeping staff in the dark, covering them with dung, and when they've grown big enough, canning them. You might have also heard of the Freedom Of Information Act - here's what the Supreme Court said about it:
"The basic purpose of FOIA is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.”
                                             United States Supreme Court in NLRB v. Robbins Tire Co.
                                             437 U.S. 214, 242 (1978)

Did you know that several governmental agencies, including the Village of Lisle and the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, are using your tax dollars to pay lawyers and lobbyists to attempt to change the state's FOIA law so that they can restrict access to public documents?  They claim that complying with the FOIA law is too expensive.  Here are the facts, per FOIA logs and Village records (which we would not have access to if the FOIA is changed):

•  60% of all FOIA requests submitted to Lisle in 2010 were from people outside of Lisle
• 42% of all FOIA requests submitted to Lisle in 2010 were for copies of police reports
• Time spent in 2010 responding to FOIA requests amounted to 0.3% of the total employee time.

So what's the real reason your public officials want to keep you in the dark? In the case of the Forest Preserve District, it could be just to avoid embarrassment.  In the case of Lisle, however, the reasons are much more serious.

If you're outraged by this, go to the meetings of the Village Board and Forest Preserve District Board and tell them so -- then vote accordingly when election time comes.  If you're not outraged by this, you must enjoy being a mushroom.

Lisle's Illegal T.I.F.

Pay To Play In Lisle

Ancel Glink - the law firm providing ongoing legal services to the Village of Lisle - gives a $1500.00 political contribution to "Citizens for Broda" on 4/7/2009 (deposited on same day as the election)

Broda won the election by 233 votes.  

 

Should elected officials accept political contributions from attorneys that seek to benefit with a contract from the public body?

 

From the Village of Lisle's Statement of Policy and Code of Ethics:

 

"Public employees must conduct themselves in such a manner as to foster public confidence in the integrity of the Village of Lisle's procurement practice."

 

"Never discriminate unfairly by the dispensing of special favors or privileges to anyone, whether as payment for services or not; and never accept for himself or herself or for family members, favors or benefits under circumstances which might be construed by reasonable persons as influencing the performance of governmental duties."

 

"Avoid the intent and appearance of unethical or compromising practice in relationships, actions and communications."

 

A Question Of Priorities

February 7, 2011

ATTORNEY GENERAL MADIGAN FILES SUIT TO TERMINATE PENSION OF FORMER CHICAGO POLICE CMDR. JON BURGE

Understanding that the Illinois AG has limited resources, is it really more important to file suit to terminate one man's pension than to file suit to stop an illegal Tax Increment Financing scheme? 

Is it more important to file suit to terminate one pension than to file suit to stop an attempt to take away citizen's rights to free speech?

Spending Beyond Lisle's "Means"

To spend more than you take in for 8 consecutive years, you need to spend even more than what was spent on Lisle's "Taj Mahal" and "Downtown Money Pit" - here are some of the other ways you achieve the dubious distinction of Lisle Trustees' 8 year record:

• The Village paid 941.95 to Vidtech for "2011 State of the Village"  (a presentation that looks like it was prepared by middle school students - apparently none of the 117 full time employees of the Village knows PowerPoint)
• The VIllage paid 274.00 for a subscription to the Daily Herald  (maybe their browsers don't let them get to the free online version)
• 134,277.07 to the Lisle Visitors and Convention Bureau (you just can't make this stuff up)

Springfield's Mubarak?

At a time when people in Egypt are risking their lives to have freedom of speech, two Illinois legislators are working to take the right to free speech away from their constituents! In a thinly disguised attempt to "get back at" opponents of Navistar's planned heavy industrial engine testing facility in Lisle, these two scoundrels are repaying Navistar's contributions to their political campaigns. To call this shameful and disgusting is far too kind
.

Lisle 2011 SOV: Spin & Truth

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The Most Dangerous Playground?

This is a playground called "Dragon Fly Landing" -- it is adjacent to a storm water detention area and within steps of Rt 53, one of the busiest highways in DuPage County.  There is no barrier to prevent trucks travelling at more than 50 MPH from careening into the playground.  What could Lisle officials have possibly been thinking when they endorsed construction of "Dragon Fly Landing"?

Gateway To Downtown Lisle

Lisle public officials spent $9 million of taxpayer money on a "downtown master plan".
This is a picture of the gateway to downtown Lisle - is it any wonder that Lisle has failed to attract shoppers and continues to lose businesses?

Lisle Deserves Better

Lisle residents have a right to expect their elected officials to be:

• honest and transparent in their deliberations and decisions
• realistic in their plans for the Village
• fiscally responsible and efficient
• focused on public safety as their highest priority
• uncompromising models of the highest ethical standards

Unfortunately, the current Mayor and Village Trustees fall short of the mark.

Lisle is a community of hard working people who deserve much better than they're getting from their Mayor and Village Trustees, especially in these difficult economic times: better transparency, better focus on public safety, and much better attention to spending priorities.