SAUK VILLAGE | For the second year in a row, the Fanatical
Five Trustees led by Trustee Debbie Williams have once
again failed to approve a budget and appropriations ordinance by the state
deadline date of July 31st due to their obsessed focus
on demeaning Mayor Derrick Burgess and the Village Hall office
workers; putting politics before the people’s needs.
The Village’s fiscal year ended April 30th
with 60 additional days to pass a budget under Illinois law.
Even though Trustee Debbie Williams along with 4 of her closest trustees enjoy a
solid 5 to 1 majority, somehow they can’t seem to get a budget completed and
passed. The Village's Treasurer cannot legally make payroll or
issue any checks for accounts payable, until the Village Board
takes the necessary action to authorize him to do so. The Village
Board will need to institute an emergency stop gap measure to circumvent
the budgeting requirement. It appears these Trustees did not learn from
their mistake last year when the identical event occurred; the first
time in Village history.
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| Bernice Brewer |
But week after week, self-appointed finance
overseer Trustee Bernice Brewer consistently cries "our finances are in a shambles, we need a
forensic audit, but the bills are paid and our water fund is healthy”
asks “what have we done for the
residents"? Better than that, Bernice, people are now asking
her: "What are you doing TO the
residents"? Beginning in 2017, Mayor Derrick Burgess
assigned Trustee Brewer to chair the Village Board's Public Services
Committee. Since that time, however, Brewer has never held a
single meeting. In 2019 she joined alliances with Trustee Linda
Todd and newly elected Trustees Debbie Williams, Sherry Jasinski and
Gary Bell to support their opposition to Mayor Burgess.
All that the Fanatical Five Trustees have
managed to do for the past 15 months is to move the Village from
making consistent and steady forward progress to the Village erasing
all positive gains and reverting to pre-2017 past practices;
a divided and argumentative board, employees not being held
accountable and higher unexplained legal bills. Only Trustee Rodrick Grant
has routinely and intellectually opposed the actions of the coalition of
Trustees against Mayor Burgess; calling their actions politically
motivated and not in the best interest of Village operations.
Many residents have stated, that for the
past 15 months, these Trustees have been fighting our Mayor
(Burgess) on everything. They have refused to work with him for the good
of our Village and we residents of Sauk Village are paying dearly for the
arrogance of these five”. “Mayor Burgess has accomplished more in
his first 100 days after becoming Mayor than these five trustees have
done over the last 14 months”, a long-time resident pointed out.
"These Trustees are a damn joke and need to go" she said.
