SAUK VILLAGE HOUSING MESS - Where did it all begin

 SAUK VILLAGE’S HOUSING MESS - WHERE DID THIS ALL BEGIN?

Election Night 2019:  Sherry Jasinski (far right

with beer in hand) and her running mates.

by Joachim Mahomes

Was keeping housing standards and housing prices extremely low done by design?  

RENTERS:   Have renters in Sauk Village wondered why the home you live in was ever allowed to pass inspection with mold, failing plumbing systems, improperly wired electrical systems and heating and air conditioning that did not work?  Do you like paying your landlord "top dollar" when you are getting substandard conditions?

HOMEOWNERS:  Homeowners have you wondered why you had been forced to live next door to slums where grass was growing 8 feet tall, cars were parked in back yards and homes deteriorated while tenants lived in these homes?  Why vacant and abandoned homes have been permitted to fester for 10 plus years?  After all this did not happen in the last 3 years right?  

Well we wondered also, so we needed to take a look at just when this started.

Jasinski showing how much she really cares!

QUESTIONABLE HIRING:  With all the pontificating that Trustees Sherry Jasinski, Debbie Williams and Gary Bell did when they were candidates for Trustee about the so-called “questionable” hires by this mayor, we need to take a look back.  Let’s rewind the clock back to January 10, 2006 when now Trustee Sherry Jasinski was very quietly and non-ceremonially promoted to “Acting” Director of Community Development and her step-father former Trustee James Schultz sat on the Village Board of Trustees and actually seconded the motion for her appointment and then voted for her while she lived under his roof (and still does).  Yeah we're sure there was no conflict of interest (even thought she lives in your home) but most certainly was nepotism just like what is going on in the Village's library, we digress.  The position was never posted in 2006 so anyone else could apply and they hired Jasinski, who held a job in the Village’s Building Department and had no International Code Council certifications as a Code Enforcement or building inspector, yet she was doing the job (or at least was getting paid for it).  Begs the question, how did she get her job in the first place?  Maybe it was because her step-dad was on the Village Board at that time along with another Williams who is Debbie Williams' daughter!  Maybe it was just all about taking care of your friends and their families?  This appointment stank to HIGH HEAVEN but nobody said anything at that time.  You can draw your own conclusion.   

NO HOUSING STANDARDS: From January, 2006 to the Great Recession of 2008, Sauk Village’s Housing stock and prices were at their peak.  Homes were selling for well into the $100,000 to $150,000 range.  New home construction in the Carolina, Deer Creek, Lincoln Meadows and Plum Creek and subdivisions saw buyers paying as much as $350,000 for a new home.  Mostly African-American buyers were moving into Sauk Village while many white families began the “white flight” to Indiana and other suburbs getting top dollar for their homes building wealth and kicking the dust off their heels of Sauk Village.   Those who stayed had mortgaged their homes stripping the equity completely with loose mortgage terms and when the great recession hit they were “stuck” or they simply walked away leaving abandoned homes throughout the Village. 

Jasinski hugging an investor "friend"following a meeting

COLLUSION WITH SLUMLORDS:  

As the Great Recession struck the nation and the South Suburbs, including Sauk Village, home values declined from 2008 to 2010 decimating the housing market with massive oversupply.  As homeowners struggles to sell these homes, banks were slow in offering modifications and many simply walked away from their homes.  Sauk Village had over 700 vacant and abandoned homes according to the village's ex housing guru.  Sauk Village’s Community Development Department did nothing and I mean nothing under Sherry Jasinski from 2008 to 2010 as the collapse unfolded under her watch.  The Village eliminated inspections on homes as two Code Enforcement personnel were put on layoff status on August 24, 2010.  With massive inventories built up, the market was ripe for investors to pick up bargains and gobble them up they did!  For virtually pennies on the dollar, investors bought up homes that once sold for $150,000 for as little as $5,000.  

ILLEGAL CERTIFICATION PROGRAM:  With virtually no housing standards, no inspection several unscrupulous people colluded to offer “certification” as an alternative to “inspections”.  The Village being a non-home rule community, the Village cannot have a “certification” process.  These same individuals who are complaining now about inspections today are the very ones who agreed to this process.   Imagine having your buddies in the HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical business performing your inspections for you or better yet doing your own “certifications” and giving the Village a worthless piece of paper saying “it’s all good”.  That was what was going on and allowed in the Village under Sherry Jasinski from 2010 until 2018.  Recently it was stated by one of these individuals that they colluded with Jasinski and agreed to accept the certification program even though they knew it was not legal for the Village to do.  Yet they went along with it.  

DOUBLE DIPPING   Trustee Bernice Brewer, a big mouth on the Village Board who coined the phrase “double dipping” as it applies to Sauk Village.  Brewer sat on the Village Board and said nothing as Sherry Jasinski was getting paid $70,000 per year and collecting a check for a no-bid contract for cleaning Village Hall and the Police Station for years.   So working for her mom, who was the front person and owner of Mop Heads, Sherry Jasinski was getting paid for that along with another Village employee and friend often seen on work hours cleaning Village Hall.  That friend-to-the-end deal came to a screeching halt under Mayor Derrick Burgess and the contract was put out for bid.  Mop Heads decided they had cleaned up enough.

COLLUSION AMONG THE TRUSTEES  Seems that the new coalition of the “Fanatical Five” Trustees Sherry Jasinski, Debbie Williams, Bernice Brewer, Linda Todd and Gary Bell have been colluding against Mayor Derrick Burgess and the residents of Sauk Village.  They have formed an unholy alliance with slumlords and investors to undermine, divide and keep property standards and values down in the Village.  Why you ask?  Investors and slumlords love low prices because they can gobble up crap-hole properties bubble gum and band aid them up and rent them out Section 8 for top dollar!  If Sauk Village actually enforced higher standards, they could not buy up homes for cheap and make big money.  So the new coalition of Trustees who have become buddies with the investors and slumlords have done all they can to lower the standards and keep home prices low.

CONCLUSION:   Sauk Village you are getting exactly what you didn't vote for!  When only 4.5% of the people voted for this nonsense which has become the Village Board and 91% of the people eligible to vote did not even bother to vote.  Do not be surprised when stuff like this goes on.