State of the Village Address

Carpentersville Village President Bill Sarto will give a State of the Village Address on Tuesday, August, 28th, 2007 at 7:00pm from the Village Board room at Carpentersville’s Village Hall, 1200 L.W. Besinger Drive, Carpentersville, IL 60110

The event is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend.

The address is expected to focus on the numerous things have have been accomplished in the Village within the past few years, and what the plans for the future will include.

Carpentersville Action Network is the only blog regularly delivering news, information and commentary exclusively on the Village of Carpentersville, so make it a part of your daily reading, and be sure to check back for additional information, as well as coverage and analysis of the address.

Roastin’ up the immigrants

Immigration [was the] order of [the] day at backyard roast”. But, it seemed like was more or less a non-event.

Several politicians attended the pig roast, including Carpentersville trustees Paul Humpfer and Judy Sigwalt…

Obviously they’d be there, since Trustee Sigwalt took time in her trustee report at the Aug 7th Board meeting to advertise the event.

State Sen. Chris Lauzen and dairy magnate Jim Oberweis, both candidates for Denny Hastert’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, also were scheduled to appear.

Apparently they didn’t appear.

Impoundment of Motor Vehicles

On Tuesday night, the Village Board will again try to discuss Impoundment of Motor Vehicles. It is listed under “Old Business” because it was on the agenda at the Aug 7th meeting before Trustee Sigwalt decided to call for the end of the meeting.

Illinois Vehicle Code already allows for impounding vehicles where safety is a consideration. Driving without insurance or without a valid license are certainly safety concerns.

In 2006, a federal judge struck down a Waukegan law that does not provide adequate protection to individuals, under the 4th Amendment, against unlawful seizures. In the case before that court, a vehicle was seized when the owner’s son, to whom the vehicle was lent, was stopped and it was found that his license had expired 90-days earlier. The owner, who was called to the scene, was not allowed to drive the vehicle home, even though her papers were all in order.

The case is presently being appealed, and in February of this year a federal judge allowed Waukegan to continue to enforcement of the mandatory towing ordinance, after Waukegan changed the law to make towing mandatory if a license has been expired for more than 6 months.

These are the types of situations that police will encounter. However, I would agree that it is important to protect the public from potentially unsafe drivers. This must be balanced with consideration of the proper civil protections afforded to all individuals under the Constitution — which could also include compliance with due process.

Yet, given the fact that the Illinois Vehicle Code already provides cases for seizure of vehicles, and there is currently amendments which have passed the State House and are currently under review in the State Senate, particularly relating to impoundment of vehicles when the driver is found without insurance, it seems that efforts directed to this would be premature and perhaps unnecessary — especially when efforts could be better spent working on issues of greater need in the Village.

And, besides, this has also been touted as “a revenue stream”; using law enforcement as a scheme to generate revenue is never a good idea.