TRAVELGATE SCANDAL CONTINUES AS ATTORNEY GENERAL REVIEWS

by Joseph Wiszowaty
SAUK VILLAGE |  The Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office continues their review the Village's denial of information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) over what has become known as "Travelgate".

In July, 2013, Village Clerk Debbie Williams, Village Trustee Rosie Williams and now Police Pension Board member Patricia Couch attended a Building One America Organization's meeting in Washington D.C. raised money using the Village's taxpayer funded website and posted other material on the Village website as well.  Williams claims that this was a "personal trip", however, some argue that the public does not have access to Village assets, like the village's website, to solicit village vendors and post their personal trip photos and video.

The Village in their response to a 4 part FOIA request stated that they had nothing responsive to the request.  This prompted this reporter to file a 16 page Request for Review to the Attorney General's office which included the original audio of the July 23, 2013 meeting (which of course had to be FOIA requested).

In the response by the Village's attorney to the Request for Review the village admits that it had information which was originally requested but it had not provided but maintains their position that this was a "personal trip"

The repsonse filed with the Attorney General today "I submit that the Village’s response is prima facie evidence that they have violated the Freedom of Information Act 5 ILCS 140 et seq. as they admit that they do have information responsive to the original request, yet failed to provide it." 

The response also contends that the Village's response letter is the clearest indication of their violation of the act in that they admit that they had information and failed to provide it and to date still have not.

The Request for Review seeks finding "that the Village of Sauk Village has violated the Freedom of Information Act 5 ILCS 140 et seq and that an Order be issued by the Illinois Attorney General having the Village of Sauk Village comply with the original request."

 

The Village Attorney provided a spreadsheet showing that they charged the Village $907.50 for an "investigation" of scandal spending 5.5 hours "investigating", however, the information was not provided as part of the original FOIA request.   The Village Attorney said in their letter with respect to the "investigation" they conducted "we briefly discussed this matter with the Village Clerk and she informed us that she received an invitation to attend the Building One America Summit" yet the billing was for 5.5 hours clearly not "brief" and does not explain their investigation (more on that later).

Village Attorney Michael McGrath tried to downplay the matter at last week's meeting saying that these are "form letters" that one of their employees helped the Attorney General's office put together.  People can file a Request for Review to the Attorney General's office as they have a right to do McGrath indicated during the meeting.

Both Debbie Williams and Rosie Williams have remained silent about the matter.

Debbie Williams and Rosie Williams

 

SAUK VILLAGE HOUSING DILEMMA

THIS IS A FIRST IN A SERIES ABOUT SAUK VILLAGE’S HOUSING CRISIS-
SAUK VILLAGE HOUSING HISTORY

By Joseph Wiszowaty
SAUK VILLAGE | Sauk Village has faced many housing hurdles in the past 56 year history. In 1975, Sauk Village faced some tough economic times as area mills closed leaving many young homeowners and their families scrambling to make their mortgage payments.   Many homebuyers purchased their first homes in the late 1950s and 1960s using their Veterans Administration loan guarantee with virtually no money down. 

The late former Mayor Roger Theisen walked along Theisen Avenue in 1975, named in his honor in the Bell Air section, where brand new homes sat vacant for more than two years with no buyers. The Village was also battling the Cook County Forest Preserve District at the time which literally landlocked the Village’s eastward expansion.  That began a stall in housing expansion and by the early 1980s 20% interest rates pretty much killed it.

A longtime resident said “When I moved here in 1982, the house we purchased on was 3 years old. We bought from a young professional couple. Back then prevailing interest rate for mortgages were at 15%, but because we had just sold our first home, we were able to "assume" the couple's home at a low interest rate of 8.75%”.  Rising interest rates, unemployment and an economic downturn essentially stopped new housing in Sauk Village until the 1990s

Fast forward to the 2007, easy lending terms where a homebuyer could fog a mirror and get a mortgage led to a national mortgage meltdown. The Village’s housing expansion reached its pinnacle as Deer Creek homes were selling for the upper $200s and homes in Lincoln Meadows were reaching $300,000 and many in the older parts of the Village were well over $100,000. Home values plummeted and longtime owners began to literally walk away from their homes. Many older homeowners are still underwater owing more than $100,000 on homes valued at $50,000 and many still walk away. Sauk Village has not been exempt from the exodus and housing crisis.

Many long-time residents of the Indiana Hills subdivision wonder what is to become of Sauk Village. “We have lived here for 50 years” a longtime resident said. “We are so far under water on this house, we have no choice but to walk away. We will never get what we owe on it” the homeowners said. “We worked our entire life and when our house needed work we refinanced and put the money back into the home. We weren’t irresponsible, we thought we were investing in a home was a safe move. We were wrong” they said.

From 2008 to 2012, one of the only tools offered through the Village were NACA seminars. NACA stands for Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America is a private organization which set out to help homeowners under water renegotiate their mortgage terms through loan modifications. Since NACA set out many national lenders, through legislation, have been offering Home Affordable Refinance Programs (HARP) and Home Affordable Modification Programs (HAMP).

Lenders have been incentivized and loans guaranteed by the Federal Government for HARPs and HAMPs. In fact many major lenders have even forgiven mortgage loans and offered cash payments to some who lost their homes through a national settlement.

Sauk Village faces similar housing challenges today. Vacant homes, foreclosures and investors have caused property values to plummet to record lows not seen since 1960. While many areas of the nation have seen modest gains in property values and many areas have recovered to pre-2008 values, Sauk Village lags way behind. Some homes still are selling for $10,000 which have been keeping values low.

Sauk Village's "Rainbow" Welcome Sign 1978

 

CHECK BACK FOR OUR SECOND EDITION ON SAUK VILLAGE’S HOUSING CRISIS…

Village Receives Bids for Air Strippers, but still No Money

by Joseph Wiszowaty
SAUK VILLAGE |  Bids were open on Tuesday night for the permanent Air Strippers at all three wells.  Well #3 has been shut down since 2009 since the levels of vinyl chloride continued to rise higher than what the IEPA thought was safe.

The air strippers will remove the vinyl chloride from the water by an aeration process of blowing air into the water and the vinyl chloride is released from the water into a gas form and released.  The process thus far has been successful since the Village was forced to install the temporary air strippers on Wells #1 and #2 on Sauk Trail last summer.

Alan Mack and Sons, Inc. of Orland Park, Illinois was the lowest overall bidder at $4.1 million, Boller Construction out of Waukegan, Illinois was the next highest bidder at $4.40 million and Theineman Construction, an environmental contractor out of Westfield, Indiana was the highest of the three at $4.44 million.

The Village will award the bids following review by the Village's Engineer Jim Czarnik of Robinson Engineering and his recommendation.  The bids will be awarded "subject to the village obtaining the funds from the low interest loan from the IEPA" Czarnik said.

The village has not received the funds for the $5.5 million low interst loan from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency according to Czarnik.  The project was expected to be underway according to the village's plan submitted to the IEPA earlier this year.  Czarnik did not elaborate why the village had not received the funds.

The Village is under a Consent Decree with the Illinois Attorney General to get Well #3 back online as soon as possible and install "permanent air strippers" to provide safe drinking water.  If either Wells #1 or #2 go down the village could be facing a very serious water crisis since there is no emergency water connection planned.

"I would like to know how the village went from nearly 50% water loss in March, 2013 to about 20% water loss today and the village has not spent a dime on infrastructure improvements" former mayoral candidate Bernice Brewer-Houston said following the meeting.  Czarnik informed the Village Board two weeks ago that the Village's water loss is about 20% today.

Brewer-Houston has been a vocal advocate for clean drinking water for a number of years now.  "The water is contaminated and we're going to spend $5.5 million dollars on treating contaminated water from 56 year old wells when we could spend that money on obtaining contaminant free water from another source" Brewer-Houston said.

The Village still does not have a Lake Michigan water allocation nor does it meet the Illinois Department of Natural Resources requirement of less than 8% water loss to qualify for an allocation according to Czarnik.

Typical Air Stripper Tower

ATTORNEY GENERAL REVIEWING ANOTHER FOIA DENIAL

by Joseph Wiszowaty

SAUK VILLAGE |  Another Freedom of Information Act request to Sauk Village has been referred to the office of Illinios Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office.

A request for information pertaining to the financial accounts for the village's Public Relations Committee was made in August of this year by this reporter.  Village Trustee Rosie Williams has chaired the Public Relations Committee for a number of years.  In the request there were several specific items that were requested that the village failed to provide.  Because the Village failed to provide the specific parts of the request the failure is considered a "denial" under 5 ILCS 140/ 1 et seq.  As a result of the village's "denial" of the request an appeal was made to the Illinois Attorney General in order to obtain the information originally requested.

The Attorney General can fine the village for failing to compy with the Act and can issue an order to compel the Village to respond to the FOIA request.  The Attorney General can also go to court to enforce its order as provided under the Act.

This is the second such appeal made in less than 30 days to the Illinois Attorney General for denial of information made under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Attorney General's office issued a correspondence to the Village of Sauk Village today (October 7, 2013 in which they state "We have determined that further inquiry into this matter is necesary to confirm that the Village has complied with its obligation under FOIA...."

The Village now has 7 days in order to respond to the Attorney General and to provide all necessary documentation requested.  The Attorney General will make a determination as to the Village's compliance with the Act.

logo by- Joseph Wiszowaty

Attorney General continues Review as Village responds

SAUK VILLAGE - A recent appeal for review was filed to the Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office because the village denied a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  The Village was asked to respond to the Attorney General as to the reasons why the Village denied the request and what, if anything, the village did to complete the FOIA request.

Village Clerk Debbie Williams, her daughter Village Trustee Rosie Williams and a resident and now member of the Police and Fire Pension Board Patricia Couch took a trip to Washington D.C. to attend a conference July 18-19th hosted by Building One America organization. There are critics of the Building One America organization claiming that they are on an “anti-suburban” crusade and that this organization is trying to abolish the suburbs consolidating them with larger cities.

A website (***click here to view site***) claims the goals of Building One America is “one approach is to force suburban residents into densely packed cities by blocking development on the outskirts of metropolitan areas, and by discouraging driving with a blizzard of taxes, fees, and regulations. Step two is to move the poor out of cities by imposing low-income-housing quotas on development in middle-class suburbs. Step three is to export the controversial “regional tax-base sharing” scheme currently in place in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area to the rest of the country. Under this program, a portion of suburban tax money flows into a common regional pot, which is then effectively redistributed to urban, and a few less well-off“inner-ring” suburban, municipalities.

Hoping to learn more about this“personal trip”, including who the “sponsors” and benefactors were who had helped fund this trip touted by the Williams duo on the Village’s website calling for “donations” and “sponsorship”. Also hoping to learn if the public interest were being served or self interest, this reporter made a request to the Village of Sauk Village citing Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The FOIA law guarantees public access to all public documents, with limited exemptions.

The Village Clerk, through the auspices of the Village Attorney, denied the FOIA request claiming that it had nothing “responsive to your request”. Under Illinois law this is considered a “denial” of the request.

Under Illinois law you have two courses of action. One, to have the Illinois Attorney General review the basis for the Village’s denial and compel the Village to comply with the law under an order or two, file a lawsuit. Better Government Agency President and CEO Andy Shaw said “When government withholds potentially important information that the public is entitled to, and refuses to work toward an amicable solution, going to court is the only option”Shaw said in reference to a denial of a FOIA request.

The Illinois Attorney General’s office has sent the information to the Village’s attorney and is awaiting their official response. The Attorney General will make a determination and based upon that determination, either party may appeal to the courts.

“This clearly shows the lack of transparency in this government. When government is not responsive to the public, one needs to be concerned and ask why” Joseph Wiszowaty said.

Debbie Williams, Village Clerk and Rosie Williams, Village Trustee

Village Administration has nothing on Agenda residents speak up

by Joseph Wiszowaty
SAUK VILLAGE | Apparently all is well in good old Sauk Village, after all the Mayor and Board of Trustees had nothing to discuss and nothing to do. There was nothing on Tuesday night's agenda.

Longtime resident and President of People Looking for Answers Now organization Judy Cast asked questions about the village's finances during questions from the audience. "I have been asking for 4 years now. Where are our audits? If there's something wrong then just tell us, why is it taking this long to get these done" Cast said. The Village's audit report was suppose to have been presented to the Village Board of Trustees last night according Finance Director Mohan Roa last week. David Hanks told the board that the audit report will now be done by October 31st, which now will have taken the Village 1 year to complete their audit report. Hanks said that the 2011-12 audit will get started once the 2010-2011 audit is complete.

The village is paying a $100 per day fine for failing to file timely financial reports according to the Illinois Comptroller and has amassed a fine in excess of $13,000 thus far (***CLICK HERE*** TO VIEW FOIA DOCUMENTS). The Village has filed an appeal for the fine but there has been no resolution on that matter according to the Comptroller's office.

Former Mayoral candidate Bernice Houston was also in attendance at Tuesday night's meeting. She asked several questions during audience participation and walked away from the podium saying "see we get no answers and they wonder why we have to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request things" Houston said. Houston said following the meeting "I have been making FOIA requests from the village since before Hanks became mayor. We share our information with our group (The Sauk Village Citizens for Public Awareness) because we get no answers" Houston said. "He (Hanks) sits there after you ask your questions and just says 'next' without so much as giving a response, as if we don't matter" Houston said.

There were about 32 people at the meeting, with many of the same faces sitting on the left side of the Village Hall and a few new faces sitting on the right side of village hall. Many on the right side were residents of Lincoln Meadows subdivision which is on the village's south side of town near Steger Road and Illinois 394. Marva Campbell-Pruitt began the questions from the audience stating she was there representing the residents of Lincoln Meadows and that her and her neighbors were using the Village Community Center for their Homeowners Association group without being charged. Campbell-Pruitt said that the group is now being asked to pay $50.00 per meeting to the village as a user fee, for which her and her group protest since "we pay some of the highest property taxes in the village, we get the same services, but we're being told now that we have to pay for our Association of homeowners to meet" Campbell-Pruitt said following the meeting.

Several other residents of Lincoln Meadows stood up and began asking the same question, "why do we have to pay for something that should not be charged to our group". "We're not political, we're not fund raising or having parties" Campbell-Pruitt said. Following the meeting Village Trustees John Poskin and Derrick Burgess met with the group briefly and resolved that the Village Hall will be available for the group's meeting until the policies and procedures can be ironed out by the Parks and Recreation Committee. Poskin chairs the Parks and Recreation Committee.

The Village Board adjourned to executive session obviously to discuss some break through with the Police negotiations as Felicia Frazier the labor negotiator with the law firm of Odelson and Sterk was in attendance. The Fraternal Order of Police and the Village have been at a stand still in the negotiations. Police officers have been without a contract since May 1, 2011 and any pay increase will be retroactive to that date. Even a modest pay increase such as 2-3% (about $61,000 to $92,600) will cause a ripple in the Village's already stretched General Fund. Hanks has already added $36,000 for a Lobbyist and $11,000 for a firm to find a permanent Chief of Police among other things.

Photo Courtesy People's Voice Party 2011- David A. Hanks

"Leadership" Soaking Taxpayers for Results

OPINION EDITORIAL
by Joseph Wiszowaty

When David Hanks took office as Mayor of Sauk Village he also became the ambassador for the 10,500 people who call Sauk Village home!  Hanks promised the leadership when he took office on November 8th as acting mayor and when he ran for election in April he promised "Tested Experience, Proven Leadership and Real Results".  What was not told to the public is how much more all his attributes would cost the taxpayers.

First Hanks brought in a paid staff for Economic Development including the village attorney, financial consultants and village engineers all of which cost the village money for their services.  Only one major hurdle, the Village has not filed a TIF report with the Comptrollers Office since 2009.  Oops did someone miss this along the way?

Now Hanks and the "bobble head" village board of Trustees voted 5 to 1 to approve a controversial lobbyist which was not in the Village Budget so they can get those "results" David promised himself of delivering right before the April election.

Alfred G. Ronan, a Springfield lobbyist will earn between $3,000 to $5,000 per month ($36,000 to $60,000), money which was not included in the Village's budget.  I was under the impression by all the rhetoric Hanks was spouting about "reaching out to state and federal officials".  If this is Hanks' way of reaching out, to hire a lobbyist, he should have told people this during the election.  "I will hire a lobbyist, as I do not have the time to speak with our state and federal officials to seek financial assistance", at least that wouldn't have been misleading! 

Now I'm not saying that a lobbyist is fundamentally a "bad" thing,  just bad when an administration has "champagne taste on a beer man's wallet".   Simply put the Village doesn't have the money to waste on such a luxury!  Don't like the alcohol metaphor, well here are some biblical one:  Proverbs 17:18 - A man lacking in judgment strikes hands in pledge and puts up security for his neighbor.  - This means don't give out a loan to those who cannot pay - Those who accept that kind of loan will be more likely to go deeper in debt. A high percentage of Americans are in this kind of debt its called credit cards and irresponsible spending!

Additionally, as the Sauk Village Voice pointed out, Hanks hired REM Management Services and pay them $11,000 originally to find a police chief, now to find a deputy chief of police, again this money was not included in the Village's budget.  A budget held together with chicken wire and so full of holes it's not really worth the paper it was printed.  This administration is crying "poor" but seems to find money to suit their desires, just like Lewis Towers did when he wanted something!

The Sauk Village Police Department have been without a contract for 882 days now, not that I've been counting.  Negotiations are rumored to be going to binding arbitration now and any pay increase would be retroactive to May 1, 2011 which could mean tens and tens of thousands that had not been included in the village's chicken wire budget.

Complicating matters the village is delinquent in its audit reports and financial reporting to the Comptroller of the State of Illinois and is facing thousands in penalties for the delinquent handling of the financial affairs.  "Giving more time" for failure is no longer becoming an option.  This administration needs to move a lot faster than it has to address these problems and stop making "artificial" crisis to appear to be the great white hope on a stallion coming to the rescue.  That's played out already.

Oh wait there is more!  Remember the bonds used to build the Village Hall, you remember those same "alternate revenue bonds" which were suppose to be paid from "impact fees" from the LogistiCenter.  Well since there is no new construction, there is no money to pay those bonds.  This goes on the backs of the residents of Sauk Village who pay property taxes. 

With all the village's positions filled the general fund will become very skinny and it's likely that Hanks will be grabbing whatever funds he can to meet payroll or use for whatever pet project he feels is important.

Outward appearances seem that the village is moving forward, a few streets have been repaired, public works is out mowing grass and replacing fire hydrants which are not working, the village is for the first time leasing police squad cars.  All of which could have been done in the last administration, but they were stuck in a political tug-of-war with the Village Board led by whom?  David Hanks himself!  According to the NWI Times who called Hanks, Lewis Towers "primary critic", who at a meeting stood over Lewis Towers in defiance and is alleged to have made a threat to Towers during a board meeting.  I know what I wanted to do with that gavel that night as did many in the room!  Of course Hanks denied the allegation back then. 

Don't believe everything you hear coming from this administration!  They will only put out what they want you to know, not necessarily all the facts or the truth for that matter.  This administration is about to run out of gas money, their credit cards are maxed out, over $800,000 in vendors' bills are going unpaid for months as sitting in the drawer until money comes in to pay them.   Tread slowly and lightly as these "forward motions" put the village in a tail spin right into insolvency!  Then the fall guy will be Mohan Rao, after all there's always a fall guy right?  Let's not blame the man sitting in the center chair.

Governing is important, read what your critics write about you but a real leaders learns from it and doesn't send out their friends to continue a relentless attack campaign endorsed by the Mayor himself!

The firestorm hasn't even begun!  The FOIA requests will continue as this administration only wants a few people "in the know" so we will continue to seek answers and post our findings so that this illusive administration is held accountable for their "leadership".  Sure we'll give kudos when they are due!  I'm still waiting to see "real progress".  I want Sauk Village to succeed and want this administration to succeed, however, it needs to be done in an open, honest and transparent manner.  This administration is "exclusive" and not "inclusive".  Taking the path it is on is not the way to accomplish this. 

Hanks said during the election "keep an eye on us", I know I will.  I hope the people of Sauk Village have been as well.

"Tested Experience, Proven Leadership and Real Results" thus far "EPIC FAIL" on all three points!

photo provided by People's Voice Party 2011- David Hanks