Cruising with the code patrol

Trustees Sigwalt and Teeter, along with resident Pat Schultz, code enforcement officer Craig Martin and Community Development director Cindy McCammack, went cruising around the East side earlier this week.

Their purpose:

“[T]o learn what is and what is not a violation,” Sigwalt says.

It helps to be educated.

Redundant or different?

The trio [Sigwalt, Teeter and Schultz] are initiators of the Carpentersville Improvement Committee.

But, a Beautification and Improvement Committee of Carpentersville — a resident organization run by former trustee Nancy Moore (which is listed under “Community Interest” on the Village’s website links page) — already exists and has done work in the Village already, and appears to be planning more.

One should wonder why trustees did not get more involved with this committee, instead of creating their own. Could it have anything to do with the fact that Moore, not Sigwalt, would get the glory? Moore and Sigwalt sparred quite regularly during their tenure together, and Sigwalt seemed only moderately supportive, and at times critical (remarks begin near the end of page 5), of the work of Moore’s group.

Of course, the purpose of each of these groups appears to be different. The Beautification and Improvement Committee appears to be actually doing work to make Carpentersville a better place to live.

Crack down squad

The [Carpentersville Improvement Committee], consisting of two trustees and three resident members, will serve as an extra set of eyes for the village’s community development department and code enforcement officials, Sigwalt said.

I see. So, its really about getting out there and canvassing the neighborhoods looking for folks to penalize.

While committee members would not issue citations, they would alert code enforcement to certain problems.

During the 90-minute tour, Martin stopped and jotted down more than a dozen addresses and various violations for issues such as cars parked on lawns, an electrical wire too close to a swimming pool and unsightly yards.

Scouring the East side

So, where did this group go to look for violations …

Although the tour was limited to the east side, Martin said code problems also occur on the west side.

“There are issues the further west you go,” Martin said. “But they are zoning things like building without a permit or building decks.”

Nice cover, sort of. It could be interpreted that the East side is once again being targeted…

However, for what its worth, the group says it wants to help people help themselves.

Finding those resources and directing residents who qualify to them is one role trustees say the improvement committee will focus on.

“The assumption is when things are in disarray, people don’t care,” Teeter said. “But that is not always the case. The purpose of the group is not to criticize but to be solution seekers.”

As the committees work progresses, we’ll have to see what solutions they turn up.

Focus on solutions, not problems

It seems like a good idea to get out there, talk to people and roll up your sleeves, work with them and help them find money to fix up their property when they might not have the means to do it. That should be the primary focus. Only when extreme resistance is encountered should the code enforcement department be called in to take action. Anything else will make people skeptical, and generate a label for this new committee effort as just another example of attempting to oppress the residents of Carpentersville.

Sigwalt caused meeting’s end

On Thursday, Elgin’s Courier-News printed the letter of Elgin resident Clyde D. Larsen, under the section heading, “Valley Views”. The letter was given the title, “Sarto caused meeting’s end”, which couldn’t be further from the truth, nor does his opinion represent anything close to a “Valley View”. Of course, the fiction of the title matches the fiction of the letter’s content.

Why is an Elgin resident so interested in Carpentersville Village government proceedings that he has apparently attended meetings regularly enough to testify for Trustee Judy Sigwalt?

The real reason that the Aug. 7 Carpentersville village board meeting was cut short was because Village President Bill Sarto would not stop haranguing the board about the proposed ordinance on illegal immigrants.

Even if this were correct, you can’t blame President Sarto for lecturing the Board. After all, he, along with the rest of the residents of the Village, have had to endure nearly 11 months of such shenanigans. Had they listened to Sarto from the beginning, they wouldn’t have 80-90% of their public comments portion of the meetings (which, during this meeting, lasted nearly 90 minutes) devoted to a topic which they now say they have no interest in discussing. Of course, had they not given residents the impression that they would do something about illegal immigration, they wouldn’t be in office right now.

Sarto should let this rest, though. Trustees who wrongly got behind this thing are searching for an exit and trying to save some face by hoping it will just go away. However, it is not going to just go away (Trustee Ritter), because residents will continue to come to the meetings to speak about the issue and you have every intention of allowing them to do so, despite the rules set forth in section 2.14 of the Carpentersville Municipal Code.

However, Mr. Larsen could not be more mistaken in his assessment. Trustee Sigwalt moved to adjourn the meeting after not being able to answer Sarto’s question “Tell me one positive thing this has done for the Village”.

It was only in desperation at 11:15 p.m. that Trustee Judy Sigwalt made the motion, in what appeared to me to be a painful choice on her part, to end the meeting rather than to be lectured further by Sarto.

Far from making a “painful choice”, she made this motion in an attempt to avoid further public embarrassment. Her “desperation” was that she couldn’t say anything positive that this has done for the Village.

From my observations of board meetings, there is no one who works harder than Sigwalt for the citizens of Carpentersville, and I believe the last thing that she would ever do is delay the lawful business of the village.

I’d certainly like to know what she has actually done for the citizens of Carpentersville. I’ve put that question to her supporters on this forum and elsewhere a number of times, and I’ve yet to get a single answer. Yet, even if something were to be pointed out, I would venture to say that the damage she, and Trustee Paul Humpfer, have done to the town (and which other trustees have allowed) in the last 10-11 months greatly outweighs anything positive she might have possibly done.

[Sarto] complains that it has been used for political gain by Trustees Sigwalt and Paul Humpfer.

It has. They promised voters that they would “definitely talk about [the illegal immigration ordinance] now”, and yet they refuse to do so now that they have been elected on that plank.

However, he seems to have taken it over now for his own political agenda.

Does Larsen mean the “political agenda” that wants to actually do positive things for the people of Carpentersville? Probably not, but that certainly seems to be the agenda that my “personal observations” see.

Mr Larsen goes on to talk about Sarto’s attempts to retain decorum during the meetings — definitely not an easy task for someone who has only a gavel to use to control a room with 100-200+ people, while at the same time being expected to listen to what other members of the Board and staff are reporting and discussing. Police officers in the board room are there to help enforce the order and assist the President and Trustees in being able to maintain order.

Several others were removed for what seemed to me to be odd reasons: one lady for sighing, another for laughing.

The woman who was removed for “sighing” was doing more than that. It was a significantly audible signal of contempt for what President Sarto was saying, and it occurred multiple times before Sarto ordered her to leave the proceedings.

The “section” that was asked to leave had done similar; eliciting several audible comments, groans and laughter. I should know, I was sitting only a short distance from them.

After the sighing incident, the police closed the doors to the meeting room, in violation of the rules, and when a gentleman pointed this out, he was asked to leave through newly opened doors.

The doors to the meeting room were closed less than 10-15 seconds, and it was not clear who closed the door, but the woman asked to leave for “sighing” would have barely had time to get out the door and it might have been that she was responsible for closing the door. In fact, the police officers were in the process of opening the doors to the room when the “gentleman pointed this out”. Sarto responded “Yes, the doors must remain open.” The comment appeared to come from the hallway (which would have been difficult to hear had the doors been closed), and no one was asked to leave at that point, to my recollection.

Fortunately for them and probably for the village, the meeting was adjourned before Sarto had a chance to order the police to remove those persons and perhaps violate their civil rights.

There was no action taken that would be close to violating anyone’s “civil rights”, unless you count Sigwalt’s and Humpfer’s attempt to bring about an illegal immigration ordinance that was declared “unconstitutional” and “unenforceable”, or an ordinance to impound vehicles — with an additional angle to generate revenue — which has similarly generated legal problems for Waukegan.

I appreciate the way the Courier-News, in particular staff writer, Ben Lefebvre, has reported on Village events in the last few months. However, Mr. Larsen’s fiction, unfortunately, is being given more credibility than it deserves by the Courier-News. In fact, I have only given it the attention I have here in order to point out its extreme inaccuracies and creative writing. I invite the Courier-News to contact me via email if they wish to get a more accurate accounting, than that given by Mr. Larsen, of the events that transpired which led to the sudden adjournment of the Aug 7th Board meeting.