Few hitches during meeting

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Due to previous commitments I was unable to attend last night’s Village Board meeting. I was, however, able to obtain some information to pass on to readers of Carpentersville Action Network.

Apparently, the discussion over the TIF district study was a lot tougher than one would have thought it would be, especially with there being two other TIF districts in the Village. Finally, Village Attorney Jim Rhodes had to explain the way TIFs work. (Perhaps with the way the Board has conducted business in the last year, there was some confusion over whether this was a study in “tiff’s” rather than to authorize a study for TIF districts.)

The discussion stretched further as Trustees Paul Humpfer and Judith Sigwalt disagreed with other board members about what a TIF actually was, prompting Village Attorney James Rhodes to compare the village to slices of pie and to lead trustees through ad hoc tutorial on how TIFs work.

Also, it sounds like President Sarto heeded some of the advice posted previously regarding public comments, as two were gaveled and shown to their seat for showing disrespect and/or aiming to attack a member of the Board.

I also appreciated hearing that Trustee Hinz seemingly broke ranks and voted against the impoundment of motor vehicles ordinance. However, it was a non-issue because Sigwalt, Humpfer, Ritter and Teeter voted for it. Keep watching how Hinz votes in the future, particularly on issues that may be controversial, to determine if there is anything to this.

All in all, it sounds like the meeting was more or less uneventful. In other words, Village business got done.

That’s nice to hear for a change.

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‘Gutsy’ not necessarily good

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The Courier-News published the following “Speak Out” :

Sigwalt, Humpfer gutsy

I take my hat off to (Carpentersville) Trustees Judy Sigwalt and Paul Humpfer for doing what they are doing. At least they have the guts. You know what? We need more people like that. They just want the laws to be right, they aren’t picking on anybody, so get over yourselves. So do it right. Keep going, Judy.

It’s comments like this that perpetuate the problems in Carpentersville.

There’s not much more to say to respond to this, because of the overwhelming amount of information that is on this blog to rebut what the caller says.

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Illinois Minutemen cancel Crystal Lake event

Illinois Minutemen Director Rosanna Pulido said Wednesday that the cancellation was due to concerns raised by a lawyer [for host, Holiday Inn] and a request from Crystal Lake police to pay for extra police protection.

Counter-demonstrations and a vigil near the hotel by the McHenry County Peace Group raised a flag that additional police presence may be necessary to maintain order.

[Read the NW Herald brief]

Guest bloggers wanted

Carpentersville Action Network is seeking individuals who would be interested in authoring content to be published on the site. Submissions to be considered for publication may be emailed to Carpentersville Action Network, should be of publication quality (namely, proper grammar, spelling and punctuation), and should contain the following information:

1. Email address for verification (email address will not be published)
2. Your name (or pseudonym) and whether or not you would like your name published, or simply listed “CAN Guest Blogger”.
3. Content should be original, appropriate to the intent and spirit of Carpentersville Action Network, and of similar quality or better.

Submissions should be sent directly in the body of the email. Attachments, such as Microsoft Word documents or ZIP files, will not be opened or accepted. Photos, ideally in JPG format, may be accepted. If multiple images are submitted, they should be submitted individually, and not exceed a total of 1MB. Photos will be cropped or resized appropriately for publication.

Ideal submissions would include reports on community events, and news in, or relevant to, Carpentersville, including and especially, but not limited to, Village Board meetings. Photos or video from around town would also be appropriate.

Author remains the copyright holder for all submissions, however, content received via email by Carpentersville Action Network will be considered to have implicit publication rights attached.

Stipulations of guest posts are solely the responsibility and opinion of the guest author and may not represent the views of Carpentersville Action Network. All submissions will be reviewed for relevance and quality, and all attempts will be made to mitigate any possible legal issues.

If it is decided that a submission will not be published, you will be notified, and may either revise the submission or provide adequate explanation of why the submission should be published.

Broadcast Board meetings in Spanish

Because she feels this is an important benefit to the Spanish speaking residents, Trustee Sigwalt requested that Spanish translation be included as an additional service and questioned Mr. [Grant] Crowell on the length of time it would take to translate the meeting into a Spanish-speaking format.

The above was taken from the Board meeting minutes of August 2, 2005, related to a discussion involving the videotaping and broadcast of Village Board meeting.

Now, even the new waste management information shouldn’t be in Spanish. What happened?