LIBRARY CANDIDATE TIRED OF CATERING TO "EXCLUSIVE FEW"

DIANE SAPP, Candidate for Library Trustee - Calls Library Board President and his Leadership:  "INADEQUATE,  OUT OF TOUCH and OUT OF STEP WITH OUR COMMUNITY"

Diane Sapp- Candidate Library Trustee

To the Residents of Sauk Village: 

As a resident of Sauk Village, I take exception to the public and racist post by our Village Library Board President, Mr. Gary Holcomb. 

First, your attempt to ascribe our local government to having a psychological problem is disrespectful to all residents of Sauk Village. And if that were true, Sir, then you would have to say that this community has been suffering from this syndrome for the past 63 years. How this Village has come to the way it is, Sir, started way before now and certainly has had this same problem when you yourself decided to move here 32 years ago. To criticize the residents for living “in their own little world inside their homes” and not being engaged is just wrong. We are not stupid, sir. We see the corruption, the lies and misdirection going on by the very people you support and claim as your friends. To throw aspersions to this administration while ignoring this Village’s ugly history is just plain arrogant and reeks of entitlement. So, while you allude to the incompetence of our current Mayor, Sir, let me give you my opinion about the incompetence I see that exists on the Library Board on which you serve. 

While you point out that the “village government” has changed. What has changed? We have a black mayor now and you disagree and yearn for the time when the “good ole boys” ran the Village? Your assertions are nothing more than pure racism and I am calling it what it is! You are correct when you say that the same people have been running this village for 20-25 years but you forgot to include the Village’s Library as well. It’s funny how The Nancy L. McConathy Public Library District, does not identify itself as being “Sauk Village”. In my short time of living here, I have observed The Village Library is being used as the personal playground and meeting place of a very “select“ few and you and your friends wonder why the children of Sauk Village don’t come there. From what I see and what other residents have told me, the Library has not evolved into an extension learning center for the youth of Sauk Village. It is antiquated, out of touch and out of step with our community. 

Gary Holcomb, you are so concerned about the finances of “the Village” but do not care about the finances of the Village’s Library District where you sit as president? Have you gone through the cost for all the “free food” the Library has paid for? Yet, have you asked yourself why does the Library charge young black kids $1 per hour to use a computer when they cannot even afford a computer? 

Mr. Holcomb, you state there has been an “unwillingness” for residents to get involved. Really? Have you observed the attitudes of your fellow long-term residents toward the people who do not look like you or are not a member of your select group? There are other entities in the Village as well who also cater to your exclusive club of a “select” few; that’s a whole other story. Who in their right mind wants to deal with that mess? I know the Mayor is trying to go at it alone and I assure you, that is about to change! I see what he’s trying to do to save this community from your backward thinking. Now if you believe that the Village Hall is the only “battleground”, you better think again. There is going to be a new movement to “battle“ over your suppression and lack of leadership for Village Library and we’re bringing that battle right to your “exclusive“ hold over it. 

I’ve done my homework, Mr. Holcomb, by talking to the very people that live here, know you and know what’s going on. And I’m going to address your poignant and racist remarks. 

1. When you served on the Village’s Housing Commission which was supposed to address Fair Housing matters, you and your “friends” attempted to run it as if it were a Housing Authority, which was illegal to do. Now you openly criticize the people who rent homes here in Sauk Village, who are predominantly black, but remain silent on the corrupt landlords/investors who rent to them and your “back-in-the-day” friends and neighbors who abandoned their homes “illegally”. 

2. You criticize this “black mayor” but you never once in 4 years criticized David Hanks with all the bubbling buffoonery and corruption that he and his administration did over that time. Not a single time. 

3. “... (Village) Trustees fail to address critical issues because those that due (yes, you spelled it “due” this is verbatim) are labeled racist or their name is dragged through the mud by outside entities on Facebook or other publications...” So you defend your “friends”, those five village trustees who sit on the Village Board giving them a pass for NOT addressing what you call “critical issues” of the Village because they might be criticized? Really? But you openly attack the “black” mayor for all the woes in Sauk Village? How long did it take the Village to get in the condition we find it today? This mayor has been in office 40 months. What about the previous 40 years? In fact you played the “race card” as you and your friends say. 

4. Then you attack the Mayor again for “overpaying” village employees for months. How could he “overpay” employees when your friends have control of the Village Board and brought in their own personal Village Administrator as well? So, let’s ask the same question about our Library, Mr. Holcomb. You, Mr. President of the Library Board, voted to “dumb down“ the qualifications of the Head Librarian; tailoring it to fit the one and only preferred candidate you all picked, added a residency requirement for which the previous Librarian did not have to comply nor anyone else and then wrote a letter of recommendation for her as well. Then you voted to hire your handpicked candidate without so much as properly posting or performing a proper search for a qualified candidate for the position on Reaching Across Illinois Library Systems (R.A.I.L.S.) and the fact that your candidate did not meet the minimum industry standards for a Head Librarian! 

5. I would add that Sauk Village has NOT become a “joke” in 63 years as you say. What you and your friends have been doing has become the “joke” to the residents and surrounding communities. Our residents see this and we are united in our resolve to get rid of this nonsense as the “current” terms end.

So good people of Sauk Village: 

No longer is it acceptable to me as a taxpayer, a resident and an extremely concerned citizen to take this man’s and his so called “progressive” friends’ verbal abuse and open racist rants on Facebook. The fact is it should not be about race, yet this man and his friends keep bringing it up, so I guess it is about race. I am willing to put myself out there to get more for my Library, for our youth and for our community. Arrogance and self-entitlement is not what I want for the tax dollars I pay. When I am seated as a member of the Nancy L. McConathy Public Library Board which serves all the residents of Sauk Village, I will see to it that we, as board members take the lead to plan for our Village Library’s future for which you and your friends have failed to do (or due as you say). 

Diane Sapp 

Candidate for Library Trustee 

Nancy L. McConathy Public Library District 

Sauk Village

EDITOR'S NOTE:  Sauk Village residents have not had a fully contested election for Library Trustees since like 1991.  Generally Sauk Village Library's election (oops I'm sorry the Nancy L. McConathy Public Library District---- what a mouth full) have been "beauty contests" with no competition for years.  2021 may break that cycle as Diane Sapp appears to be leading the Charge for Change.  The Library District Board consist of seven (7) board members elected at-large for 6 year terms.  This year up for grabs are four (4) seats on the board, two are full six year terms, the other two are for two-year unexpired terms.      

For decades Nan Wargo the now former Library Director, retained her position until her retirement in 2019, after 30 plus years, while having moved out of the Village many years before into nearby Dyer, Indiana.  Candidates, generally handpicked by Wargo ran unopposed and quietly the library ran their little Fiefdom controlling Sauk Village library district tax dollars without any transparency.  

The Library has in fact, been run by a Board of Trustees that has been anything but transparent that they fought a Freedom of Information Act request in June of 2019.  Back in 2005, the Library Board decided to build their own building and break a lease and was sued by the landlord.  The library quietly entered into a settlement agreement and shelled out $45,000 for breaching their lease agreement (Bank Financial, et al v Nancy L. McConathy Public Library District- #2006L012033 Cook County Circuit Court).  In fact Roger Strasemeier whose term expires in 2023 and Suzanne Downing, the Board's current Vice President whose term is up this election cycle along with ex-Village Clerk, ex-Library Board Trustee and current Village Trustee Debbie Williams voted to squander and payout the taxpayers money for breaching the lease.    

The $45,000 library scandal never made it to public knowledge, until a Freedom of Information Act request made last year.

Oh there's alot going on at the Library, but we agree with Diane Sapp, their current leadership is lacking, "inadequate, out of touch and out of step with the community" with an unqualified and inexperienced Library Director who was handpicked for a position that the Library Board created just for her.  

DEBBIE WILLIAMS CREATES HOSTILITY- Hurting Sauk Village

Debbie Williams Creates Hostility: Passive Aggressive, Always the Victim

Debbie Williams

Just who is this Trustee Debra “Debbie” Williams that has Sauk Village residents angry and raging mad?   Just who is this power hungry, glory seeking nemesis of Sauk Village?  Her mouth says she just wants “peace” for Sauk Village and that everyone should sing Kumbaya. But her historical actions in Sauk Village clearly indicate all to the contrary.  The acronym she touts is “P.E.A.C.E.” but what we hear from a good number of people is that she "Practices Evil And Chaos Everyday". They tell us that this controversial and political Hot Mess is going about town slandering the Mayor’s name, giving her opinion about his ability to run the Village and telling people why she should be Mayor. 

 

Really, Sauk Village?  What monster have you unleashed on the good people of this village?  Have you given up on yourselves?  Your dismal voter turnout of only 382 votes, a mere 4.6% of the electorate in 2019, surely confirms this.  Even so, a win, no matter how sorry, was good enough in Debbie’s book.  Well, hopefully we can give you some food for thought before you repeat this fatal mistake yet a third time and endanger the survival of our Village.

(This is the third in a series of expose articles that we will publish so stay tuned as the drama and TRUTH unfolds). 

 

Debbie Williams coming off a stinging defeat in 2017 lost her $17,000 per year job as Village Clerk, an income she had come to rely on.  But Debbie Williams, like a feral cat with 9 lives  living on Shirley Avenue dodging loose pitbulls,  ever the resourceful and self-preservationist, landed a politically connected job as deputy clerk.  Her stock really began to rise as did her bank account as she was now earning $52,000 per year, the most she has ever made in life.  Even so, she managed not to keep her job long claiming, “I have resigned under duress due to the hostile work environment”.  It seems everywhere Debbie Williams lands becomes a “hostile work environment”.  The truth is Debbie Williams is no stranger to “hostile work environments”, in fact many Sauk Village former employees in previous administrations of Lewis Towers and David Hanks claimed that Debbie Williams herself made Village Hall a “hostile work environment”.  In fact many employees in Village Hall are under that same "hostility" that she and her coalition bring today.  One former employee even noted that Debbie Williams brought with her and her friends a "hostile work environment" to Village Hall after the 2019 election.  Some former employees have even filed suits and complaints citing this very fact and made claims that Debbie Williams used racial slurs against them. 

 

Come clean Debbie!  Truth is Debbie Williams did not “resign” from her position as Calumet City’s Deputy Clerk; she, in fact, was probably given an ultimatum to resign or be fired on June 21, 2018. Reading between the lines, it appears one could deduce she got into a heated discussion with her boss which precipitated her actions.  In the professional arena, an immediate resignation without a courteous two week prior notification, usually indicates a firing was imminent or in fact already occurred.   Forever, the spin master, Debbie’s resignation letter even stated, “I have enjoyed my time in Calumet City…”  Well, if that were true, then the work environment could not have been “hostile” unless you were the creator of the hostility.  But readers we want you to draw your own conclusion on that,  these are the facts.   

 

So poor Debbie, always and forever the victim, found herself not only voted out as Village Clerk in Sauk Village in 2017, had now been tossed out of the highest paying job she ever landed.   Debbie Williams wanted revenge and she wanted revenge against Sauk Village and those who delivered that defeat.  So Debbie Williams scours the “ole” guard residents to find others who had an axe to grind with their perceived “enemy” to run for Trustees in 2019.  

 

Sherry Jasinski

She found a willing accomplice in Sherry Jasinski who was let go by the Village Board of Trustees at that time after they made a financial decision to consolidate her position in 2018.  Jasinski had 13 months to show she could do her job under Mayor Derrick Burgess and the Trustees at that time (Jaskinski began working for Sauk Village on April 15, 1998 and was given the position as Director in 2006 while her step-father sat on the Village Board of Trustees at that time).  Jasinski, who was the department head for Community Development (which included Code Enforcement and the Building Department) was the primary individual responsible for the decline in the Village’s housing standards from 2008 to 2018.  (If you take a look around town and see homes boarded up, burned out, vacant and abandoned, you can ask “what did Sherry Jasinski do to help the Village when she was in charge of Code Enforcement and the Building Department for a decade of decline? Not a single grant was written in her tenure as department head, and she is rumored to have colluded with slumlords to keep the standards and values low- more on this later)

 

Gary Bell

The final piece to this political puzzle rounding out their non-diverse, all-white slate, Gary Bell, another “scorned” cast off from the Sauk Village Fire Department who allegedly sustained an injury while serving on the department and was being blocked by the former and late Fire Chief from re-joining the Department.  Bell quit his full-time job as a janitor and apparently became “disabled” due to that alleged injury.  After getting his little settlement monies from his injury, Bell took his money bought him a new car and left Sauk Village; only to return a couple years later.  Bell found himself outside looking in pinning for the days of yesteryear.  So the “scorned” slate of candidates was now complete and ready to take their vengeance against "those people" in Sauk Village and to shut down the progress Mayor Burgess had begun to make in Sauk Village.  (More on Gary Bell, his "disability" and racist rants a little later)

 

 

Both Jasinski and Bell had a small handful of "friends" who supported their misguided way of thinking who bought into their scam and con of "making Sauk Village great again" and bringing the Village back to the “good ole boys” days.  Of course Debbie Williams ever the opportunist latched her wagon on to anything and anyone she could, including the very "friends" that could not stand the sight of her just two years earlier.   They needed to work to get black votes to and could not do that with an all-white slate, so she found another willing accomplice they could use and exploit for their own benefit in failed perennial candidate and ex-Trustee Lynda Allen Washington-House. 

 

Lynda Washington-House

Debbie Williams used Washington-House to give the trio of candidates an African American face they could latch onto and put her picture up on their billboard to give them an appearance of a ‘diverse slate’.  Lynda Washington may as well have put on the billboard “Pick THREE just not me” as her entire election effort worked to help them win their election as she came in dead last, again.  No telling Washington-House would want to put her picture up on a billboard with a racist man like Gary Bell who called Sauk Village a “Golden Ghetto” and demeaned black residents for walking at Village Hall. He also uses other colorful racial slurs to define African-Americans when he is around “his own kind”.  Never-the-less, Washington-House tied herself to them.      

 

Stay tuned to our 4th in a series as we continue the history lesson about Debbie Williams and how she is hurting Sauk Village.  

 

VILLAGE TREASURER REVEALS TRUTH AT 'TALK TO THE TREASURER'

Village Treasurer Anthony Finch

TRUSTEES ARE CAUSE OF BUDGET DELAY; ONGOING FBI INVESTIGATION; 67 BROKEN FIRE HYDRANTS; $225,000 LEGAL TAB

Fourth of July fireworks may have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic but fireworks were flying at Village Hall Thursday evening during the first Talk with the Treasurer.  Village Treasurer Anthony Finch fired off salvos during his opening comments for about 35 minutes in response to nonsensical political criticism leveled against him and Village staff, who happen to be black, by five of the six Trustees.  Finch completely rebuked the personal attacks as nonsense and leveled criticism right where it belonged, with the Village Board of Trustees.  “That is why the Board is mad at me because I’m challenging them for being hypocritical. Prove me wrong and tell me where I lied, but show me” Finch said.

 

 

“One thing that we have major concerns about over the last few months is the budget.  This is a touchy issue.  The budget is not done.  The budget was started back in April. I originally had the schedule to complete the budget by the end of July.  This is the first Village where I have worked where we have not gotten the budget passed and approved by the end of July.  Personally, it’s embarrassing because it should be unacceptable by anybody” Finch said.

 

 

“One of the challenges that is holding up the budget is that our Trustees wanted to wait and do job description reviews.  So that to me has nothing to do with the expenses of the budget, but that is the reason why the budget is not done” Finch said.  Trustees have had well over a year to review individual job descriptions but are now holding the Village’s budget hostage and putting the Village in jeopardy and at risk.

 

 

Residents who attended Thursday’s event, which Finch said he will host monthly, called this “the most transparent the village has been ever”. 

 

 

Resident Larry Sapp vocally spoke up “When these new Trustees took over (gaining a majority over Mayor Derrick Burgess) in 2019 they had an axe to grind,” he said.  Debbie Williams, the former Village Clerk lost her bid for re-election in 2017 joined forces with Sherry Jasinski, who was terminated by Mayor Burgess in 2018 and Gary Bell who was terminated from the Village’s Emergency Management Agency all had personal and political axes to grind.  The trio joined forces with their friends who were on the Board Linda Todd and Bernice Brewer.  The only Trustee who continues to support the efforts of Mayor Burgess to move the Village forward is Trustee Rodrick Grant. Williams sat silently in the front row during the meeting taking copious notes during the event. 

 

 

Finch told the crowd that the Village, under Mayor Burgess has amassed a surplus in the Water Fund of $1.2 million and had ended the routine of taking money and using it for unrelated water fund payroll. We ended the raids on the water fund for non-water fund related uses that prior administrations routinely would do. Prior to 2019, we amassed $800,000 from the sale of the property to Gas N Wash which is invested in a Certificate of Deposit and [we also] obtained a $500,000 line of credit avoiding the need to take out Tax Anticipation Warrants which cost the Village about $40,000 each time. The finances of the Village have gotten far better under Mayor Burgess and the team he brought in, which begged the question, why do a forensic audit now? Why wasn’t this done to investigate where the money went when money was embezzled, mismanaged, misspent and absconded by a rogue criminally indicted and now convicted felon Ex-Village Treasurer James Griegel who was appointed and convicted under the Hanks Administration? 

 

 

Residents were shocked to discover that there is an ongoing FBI Investigation stemming from 2014-2015 during the previous administration according to Finch, however, he did not disclose what was being targeted.  He did indicate that at least two [current] Trustees know all about it. 

 

 

With the Village’s water fund being so healthy residents, were dumbfounded as to the reason why there are still 67 nonfunctioning fire hydrants throughout the Village.  Mayor Burgess and Finch wanted this to be outsourced to get them all repaired, however, they have had consistent push back from the Public Works Department and their Union that they would file a grievance if the Village proceeded without them, according to Finch.  Finch also said the same thing about the condition of the roads and dead trees; that this could not be outsourced because of union grievances. “These (fire hydrants) have been broken and unrepaired for years and PWD have given numerous excuses as to why repairs can't be made even though there is money in the budget to repair or replace” Finch said.  The Village Trustees and their hired Village Administrator refuse to get the work done and are enabling the Public Works employees' incompetence over the resident’s needs, according to resident Arnold Coleman. Other residents in attendance also questioned what Trustee Bernice Brewer, who chairs the Public Services Committee since 2017 has done to get the work done.  “What has she done in the three years she sat on the Village Board?  Nothing, she has done nothing to fix a single fire hydrant.  Yet she complains about everything” a long-time resident said. Trustee Bernice Brewer, to date, has yet to conduct a single committee meeting to address the needs of residents, and the deplorable public services conditions throughout the Village.    

 

 

“The problem that I hear and see is that it’s not the Mayor or you (Anthony Finch), it’s the Trustees.  We need to get people in there that care about Sauk Village.  We live here, this is our home a lot of us are retirees and we came here because we like what we saw, but they are not taking care of the business” a resident said passionately.

 

 

Residents also spoke about the racial divide for employees who work for the Village, as it appears black employees are targeted with harassment and being treated differently than white employees by the Village Trustees.  Finch questioned why Union employees are getting a 2.5% pay raises and non-union staff get nothing.  Most union employees are white while non-union employees at Village Hall are black. Tonya McCoy had her pay cut by the Trustees by some $20,000;  the only employee in the Village to have her pay cut with no justification, according to Finch.  Many suspect that it was done because McCoy, who is black, was appointed by Mayor Burgess and the decrease in salary was a personal and political retaliation.  McCoy has since left Sauk Village and now works for the Village of Matteson earning nearly twice as much as she earned in Sauk Village.

 

 

Finch said he has been proud of the accomplishments that he and his staff have been able to accomplish.  He clearly puts the blame upon the Trustees for not allowing the audit to be completed on time because due to a Trustee routinely calling the auditors and making false and unfounded allegations. Finch called the actions of the Trustee “inappropriate” and costly to the Village.  The most recent audit is now delayed until after what Finch calls the “unnecessary” forensic audit is completed. “The Audit Firm is not going to lose their CPA license, just because (a certain Trustee) doesn’t think they’re looking into financial matters they want them to look at” Finch said attributing this to the ongoing delays. 

 

 

Resident and community activist Larry Sapp did not mince his words when he spoke out.  “I commend you for dealing with these idiots.  Racism has no place here. These people are hell bent on putting things back the way they were and I’m hell bent on not letting them.  We need to come together, this is turning into a black and white issue and I’m not going to sugar coat it saying that it’s anything other than that because I see the behavior of some of these Trustees.  That’s insidious to me” he said.

 

 

Lynda Washington one-term former Trustee, who aligned herself with former mayor David Hanks and his trustees, who subsequently and unsuccessfully ran for mayor against Burgess in 2017, applauded Mr. Finch and his financial staff for their transparency. “This is the most transparency that I have seen in years…” she said.

 

 

Mayor Derrick Burgess said following the meeting “we have been transparent about everything we do.  There are no secrets here.  The Village Treasurer is appointed and has a legal responsibility to do his job without regard to politics.  Unfortunately, this board has brought undue complications, pressure, division, chaos and confusion.  This meeting sure did clear up much of that.  Mr. Finch has my complete support and confidence,” he said.