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Tom Roeser, president of Otto Engineering, floated his offer on a local blog site and in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper last week, after trustees rejected Village President Bill Sarto’s attempt to block the sale of 32 firearms to a federally licensed gun dealer.
This appeared as part of a story in today’s Daily Herald.
First, let me say … I am that blog to which the article refers and on which Mr. Roeser’s comments first appeared.
Mr Roeser’s comments can be found here and here. Further, I received a copy of a letter that was sent to President Sarto from a resident of a nearby community, which appears at the end of this article posted previously. That letter provided additional options for the Village to obtain funds while destroying the surplus weapons.
But, now let me get on to the more serious matters we have at hand …
After reading that story today, I sent Mr. Roeser the following email, CC’ing the entire Village Board:
Mr Roeser,
Thank you for your offer to donate $3,000 to the Village to ensure the destruction of surplus weapons that have been designated for resale. While it seems unfortunate that you should have to take further initiative to contact the Board about something which others in and around our community are already aware of and informed on, I hope that you will do so.
I recently came across an old news story that stated: In 1998, 1,100 crimes were committed with former police weapons. As a result the International Association of Police Chiefs adopted a resolution in 2000 which urges police departments not to sell their old weapons or trade them in to the manufacturer for new ones.
It is my sincere hope that the Board will consider your offer seriously and correct their earlier mistake. It is troubling that you should even have to make such an offer for the Board to do the right and prudent thing.
Thank you again for your time and efforts.
Mr Roeser responded by providing the text of a letter sent in reply to the Daily Herald’s story, specifically critical of comments by some of the trustees that they were unaware of his offer. He gave me permission to post it here.
Dear Editor,
The Carpentersville Trustees are obfuscating regarding my offer to pay to destroy rather than sell the used guns that they are planning to sell. The Trustees say they knew nothing of my offer. Or did they know?
I spoke to Village President, Bill Sarto, the day after 5 trustees voted to override his veto and sell the guns. Our conversation was about my offer to donate $3,000.00 in exchange for the Village destroying the guns. He spoke to and emailed my offer to the Village Manager and the Police Chief. The ordinance as passed apparently requires that they be sold to a licensed gun dealer and only a Trustee who voted to sell the guns can bring the issue up again to change that direction.
Some Trustees read about my offer in a Letter to the Editor. None were curious enough to pursue my offer. Some Trustees have said that they will only consider the offer if I explain my reason behind my offer. My offer seems obvious enough, destroy low cost guns rather than put them into circulation. Some trustees have said they will consider my offer only if it is writing. I have made many donations to the Village and no staff member has ever asked me to put it in writing. Maybe the Trustees experience with their own word has taught them to ask for everything in writing. My offer still stands.
Having read Roeser’s original comments and letter to the editor, his reasons should be obvious — maintaining public safety. That was also President Sarto’s reasoning for vetoing the original vote. The veto override appeared to reason that $3,000 was more important than any possible dangers to public safety — not only in the Village of Carpentersville, but any town where these guns may end up.
(The veto override occurred when Trustee Keith Hinz — who ran with Trustees Sigwalt and Humpfer on the “All-American Team” ticket in the April election — backed away from his original vote to not sell the weapons, and instead voted with Sigwalt and Co. Was this politically motivated? It has all appearances of such.)
As Mr Roeser commented previously, “it is time for the residents of Carpentersville to show their outrage.” Contact these trustees who voted to put your safety at greater risk by their vote. Tell them to reverse their decision, with or without Tom Roeser’s $3,000.
These are the addresses of those who voted for the sale of the weapons:
Also, you may wish to CC the other members who voted against the sale to let them know you support their position on this matter:
Carpentersville Action Network 
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