Mike Russo's Letter to the Editor April 24, 2013

At last Tuesday’s meeting (April 17, 2013), the village board foolishly and recklessly decided to reduce the mayor’s salary from $36,000 down to part-time at $22,500. The difference between having a full-time mayor and a part-time mayor is huge – it is essential that the village have at least one person who can devote their full working time in an oversight capacity to the village finances, operations, needs, and vision. The difference in cost is trivial: it amounts to less than $5 per $100,000 assessed value. Without that full-time perspective, the village can easy lose many times that amount of money simply by missing a grant opportunity or having less focus during a contract negotiation. 

The village board action has all the appearances of the subtext of punishing Mayor West because of his opposition and criticism of the process by which consolidation has been advanced, a process to which all four village board members have been dedicated. But in fact, the mayor has been on point in his criticism – he and Town Councilman Logan were the first to question the report of the consolidation finance committee, which has now been proven to contain wildly exaggerated claims of savings. Trustee Rhoads served on that finance committee, and was chiefly responsible for pushing perhaps the most egregious claim, that of the false $300,000 police line in consolidation savings. Trustee Rhoads also propagated the financial committee’s false and inflated numbers to the public as early as November 2012, months before their actual report was released and could be vetted by other board members and the public.

The mayor was elected to serve on behalf of the village and he has tirelessly done so. The four trustees on the other hand, have made as their primary focus, the promotion of an approach to consolidation that has been aggressive, divisive and untrustworthy. This most recent action of cutting the salary of village’s top elected office is the latest example of their poor judgment, and what certainly appears to be a coordinated vindictive maneuver.

It is exactly this flavor of recklessness and aggressiveness that has made me increasingly wary of the consolidation process, as has been handled by the current village and town board advocates. And this is why I ask all village voters to support Rebecca Rotzler and Don Kerr for village board trustees, to change the tone of the consolidation discussion and return decent, coherent government to the village. Remember that you will need to write-in the names of both Rebecca Rotzler and Don Kerr, as they were knocked off the ballot by a petition challenge.