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After consulting with attorneys from the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, Village President Bill Sarto has declared the trustee seat held by Paul Humpfer to be vacant. This also creates a vacancy on the Audit & Finance Commission.
Illinois statutes express “events on which an elective office becomes vacant”. ILCS 5/25-2, Chapter 10 states, in part:
Every elective office shall become vacant on the happenings of any of the following events before the expiration of the term of such office:
(4) His or her ceasing to be an inhabitant of the State; or if the office is local, his or her ceasing to be an inhabitant of the district, county, town, or precinct for which he or she was elected; provided, that the provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to township offices whose township boundaries are changed in accordance with Section 10-20 of the Township Code, [FN1] to a township officer after disconnection as set forth in Section 15-17 of the Township Code, nor to township or multi-township assessors elected under Section 2-5 through 2-15 of the Property Tax Code. [FN2]
(5) His or her conviction of an infamous crime, or of any offense involving a violation of official oath.
(6) His or her removal from office.
For purposes of this Section, a conviction for an offense that disqualifies the holder of an elective office from holding that office shall occur on the date of the return of a guilty verdict or, in the case of a trial by the court, the entry of a finding of guilt.
Paul Humpfer’s conviction yesterday on four counts of domestic battery is the basis for the removal. It is also rumored that he has not been living in the Village of Carpentersville, and may possibly be living outside the State of Illinois. At Tuesday’s Village Board meeting, Humpfer refused to answer questions about his residency status.
Sarto requested that Village Manager Craig Anderson post both the open trustee position and the open position on the Audit & Finance Commission as soon as possible to “continue to move ahead with Village business.”
This vacancy, particularly on the Audit & Finance Commission, comes at a critical time of year for the Village as they work to complete the budget for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. Sarto, a former auditor for the State of Illinois for 35 years, says he will assume the chairman position on the committee until such a time that a replacement can be found to fill the position.
In the past several months, we’ve read a number of stories about identity theft — some Carpentersville residents having been victims.
Well, there is a guy who has posted his social security number on the internet. And, he even had his name and social security number put on a mobile billboard that was driven around the streets of New York.
So who is this fool? His name is Todd Davis. He is the CEO of a company called “LifeLock”. For a monthly fee of $10, LifeLock offers to protect your identity. They even back it with a $1 million guarantee. If at least one member of your family is an annual member, they will also protect your children for $25/year each.
Doesn’t seem like a bad deal, does it?
But, should this service be necessary? How careful are you with your social security number and other information that could be used to obtain credit cards, jobs, mortgages and other loans?
Do you have your social security number on your drivers license? Take it off!
Do you carry your social security card with you in your purse or wallet? Take it out and leave it at home.
Do you give your social security number to any business that requests it? Think before you do so? Why do they need it? Are they offering you credit? Do they need to run a credit check? Are they offering you a job? If not, then there may likely not be a good reason for them to have it.
Here is some additional information on how to protect your social security number.
In terms of your credit report, you should check it at least once a year at AnnualCreditReport.com (as opposed to “freecreditreport.com” which is a pay service from one of the credit agencies). At AnnualCreditReport.com, you will be able to get a copy of your credit report once per year for free from each of the 3 credit reporting companies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.
A credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, provides you with all of the information in your credit file maintained by a consumer reporting company that could be provided by the consumer reporting company in a consumer report about you to a third party, such as a lender. A credit file disclosure also includes a record of everyone who has received a consumer report about you from the consumer reporting company within a certain period of time (“inquiries”). The credit file disclosure includes certain information that is not included in a consumer report about you to a third party, such as the inquiries of companies for pre-approved offers of credit or insurance and account reviews, and any medical account information which is suppressed for third party users of consumer reports.
Protecting yourself and your social security number/credit information can go a long way to saving you time, money and frustration, so that you will be less likely to be a victim of identity theft.
The agenda for next Tuesday’s meeting of the Village Board has been posted to the Village website. (It can also be accessed from the link in the sidebar under “Highlights and Dates”.)
Under “Old Business” are two proposed versions of the amendment to the municipal code regarding Water and Sewer rates. One proposal will call for the rate increase to appear on residents bills beginning in January. The other proposal will call for the rate increase to appear on residents bills beginning in April.
My initial desire would be for the rates to be put off as long as possible, but that is primarily based on my own desire to keep my money in my pocket. Yet, since the Village’s need for these funds has already been established during the previous vote, and residents have been notified of the impending increase via the Fall newsletter, it seems to make sense to apply the increases to the bills starting in January.
Finance Director Lisa Happ responded to my inquiry [Thank you, Lisa!] about the impact of waiting until April 2008 to apply the changes:
[T]he unrealized revenues from delaying the increase until April is estimated at $118,000 plus credits totaling $43,000 that will be issued to residents billed in October. The unrealized revenues from delaying the increase until the January bills is estimated at $42,000 plus the credits mentioned above. At this time there are no projects that will be delayed.
A recent Daily Herald article reported:
While residents will benefit from the delay in applying the rate increases, Happ said holding off will hurt the village’s bottom line.
“These are revenues that we won’t realize,” Happ said.
Certainly seems like getting these funds will at least allow the Village to have some breathing room. Not implementing these changes until the April billing will mean that some residents won’t see the increase until June, by my calculations — about 9 months after the original approved increase. Putting it off any longer than January would seem to be just delaying the obvious.
Residents, mostly on the Village’s west side, who received bills reflecting a retroactive water rate increase should see a credit on their next billing.
The village audit and finance committee voted unanimously Thursday to recommend the government offer about $43,000 in credits to homeowners and businesses affected by the retroactive increase.
Because the Village bills in 3 cycles, with a third of residents in each cycle, some residents may not have received their bills yet, and the commission is recommending that the Board make the rates effective Jan 1st billing, in order to give residents adequate notice of the increase approved September 19th.
It will be up to the Village Board to approve the credits at the next meeting of the Board on Oct 16th.
However, a $3 fee for garbage collection will remain on the bills, although it was supposed to be removed.
“The reasons for the fee still exist,” Village Manger Craig Anderson said. “Fuel costs are at the same level, and the collection companies still have to pay for environmental permits.”
Trustee Paul Humpfer, who is also the chairman of the Audit and Finance Commission, said they will look at removing the fee in the future and replacing it with an increase in resident’s property taxes.
Carpentersville Action Network 
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