Whether
she meant to or not, Village Board President Beverly Sussman tossed a subtle
barb to many of the nine candidates running for the three trustee spots in the
April election.
Sussman, who routinely follows her script for running
a meeting, broke the mold at the Jan. 7 Committee of Whole (COW)
meeting when she welcomed people who were at the meeting “for the first time” and
offered them an explanation as to how a COW meeting works.
Interesting timing.
Interesting because in attendance at the
meeting were candidates Adam Moodhe, Carolyn Pinta, Gregory Pike Jr. and Soojae
Lee. And while none voiced a comment about items on the agenda, let alone take
notes, their presence marked, one would think, an interest in what the Village
Board is doing.
Which begs a question – what took them so long?
Outside of Moodhe, who has attended Village
Board meetings with some degree of regularity for the past decade, few of the
trustee candidates have. Even Village President candidate Mike Terson has not
had a strong presence since leaving the board in 2015.
It is a bit ironic that village staff wants to
hire a community engagement manager when many of the people running for the
Board are not actively engaged in the village. Outside of the incumbents, Eric
Smith and Dave Weidenfeld, only trustee candidates, Larry Steingold and Adam
Moodhe have held village posts. Steingold served on the Zoning Board of Appeals,
while Moodhe has been active in the community in a variety of ways including
serving on the 15 years on Buffalo Grove days, 13 years on emergency management
agency and four years on the Planning and Zoning Commission.
To be fair, this doesn’t mean that Moodhe or
Steingold are preferred candidates, nor does it mean candidates who have
attended meetings will be effective trustees. It does, however, show an
interest in being engaged in the village in some way.
Candidates running for a village post are
hopefully running because they have a genuine interest in the village and not
because they’re upset with a previous Board decision. Hopefully, candidates are
not running for the Board because of a special interest or personal notoriety.
While serving their interest is admirable, the
reality is the village is not a student council. The village is a business with
an $78 million budget. Popularity may get some folks elected, but it doesn’t mean
they are well versed in Village operations.
Some folks may say that you don’t need to
attend Village Board meetings to know what’s going on as you can always watch
them on the community access channel. However, the Committee of the Whole
meetings are not broadcast, which means discussions and presentations by staff,
consultants and vendors cannot be viewed from the comfort of home.
Cynics, some of whom may say the village spends
too much frivolous money may want COW meetings broadcast. That would be one
solution. However, if someone is content to just watch Village Board meetings
on TV, they’re missing an opportunity to interact with residents who may attend
meetings to air a grievance about an issue in the village.
Meeting and talking with constituents are
paramount to being an effective public servant. If interactions limited to a
single neighborhood, supporters of an event, a candidate falls short when it
comes to being open minded and representing the entire community.
If a resident is interested in being appointed
to a village commission or running for an elected post, it seems as though the
best thing to do is witness village operations first hand and get involved.
Civic engagement is a good idea -- it’s an even
better practice.
