Bartlett trustee key to aggregation defeat

Only a few of the hundreds of Illinois communities voting on electric aggregation Tuesday rejected it. Bartlett was one of them, and the main reason may have been a Bartlett trustee.

Frank Napolitano, who has been vocal in his disapproval of allowing village officials to negotiate with companies besides ComEd for the municipality’s electricity supply, said Thursday he wasn’t surprised the issue failed to win approval in a referendum this week.

“The people of Bartlett have spoken pretty loud and clear,” he said. “I think it turned out for the best because it gives everyone their freedom to make their decision based on whatever their priorities are with electricity.”

Napolitano did, however, express surprise at the margin that the measure lost by on Tuesday, with 61 percent of residents voting against it. He also said he was surprised at how many neighboring villages approved aggregation in similar referendums.

Bartlett and Barrington Hills were the only two villages in the Northwest suburbs that voted down the issue. It passed in Arlington Heights, Barrington, Buffalo Grove, Deer Park, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, Mount Prospect, Palatine, Park Ridge, Rolling Meadows, South Barrington and Wheeling.

Residents and businesses already have the right to switch to other electric suppliers to save money; aggregation allows the municipality to negotiate on behalf of all residents and small businesses, with those who don’t want to participate required to opt out.

When asked about online comments that the issue was voted down because of a lack of trust by residents for the current village board, Napolitano said it could be a factor, but that he felt it was more likely residents didn’t want the government — in this case the village board — choosing an electric provider for them.

Napolitano said he worked hard to urge people to vote “no” on the referendum and to get them to encourage their friends to do the same. He said he spoke at two local Tea Party meetings and a township Republican meeting. He said The Examiner, a local paper in Bartlett, recommended a “no” vote and he posted a letter to the editor that ran in the Daily Herald on his blog and Facebook page.

“I don’t want to take all the credit by any means,” he said, explaining that he truly felt people took time to think about the issue. “When you boil it down to that, I think people want to make their own decision.”

He added that he thought some residents may have found the wording of the referendum question confusing, and that might have deterred people from voting “yes.”