Winfield trustees quash road funding talk

A majority of Winfield trustees showed their disdain for two proposed road funding alternatives by adjourning Thursday night's meeting before either idea could be discussed.

The four trustees — Tim Allen, James Hughes, Jay Olson and Tony Reyes — decided to end the meeting rather than consider vehicle stickers and a sales tax increase to raise money to maintain the village's nearly 35 miles of roads. Earlier during the meeting, the road funding discussion was moved to the bottom of the agenda.

Allen said he and the three other trustees simply didn't want to talk about the vehicle sticker and sales tax proposals. He said both items were put on the agenda by Village President Deborah Birutis and other board members concerned about the possibility of the village's police department being disbanded to pay for road repairs.

But because a decision hasn't been made about the fate of the Winfield Police Department, Allen said, it would be premature to talk about other ways to raise the millions of dollars needed to fix Winfield's crumbling streets.

Village officials are waiting for a consulting firm to complete its evaluation of the police force. REM Management Services' review will include a variety of budget options, including “consolidation, civilianizing some functions and privatizing specific responsibilities” of the police department.

“We didn't want to talk about it (road funding) because we want to see what's going to happen with this REM study,” Allen said after Thursday night's meeting. “So we rearranged the schedule and did a motion to adjourn.”

The only trustees who wanted to continue the meeting were Erik Spande and Jack Bajor.

Spande said he wasn't surprised the road funding discussion was torpedoed. He accused other trustees being too focused on eliminating the police department to consider other ways to pay for roadwork.

“I think we need to have a wider discussion on what our options are,” Spande said. “Because right now, we're focused on one option — and that is, in effect, what the adjournment says.”

Residents for months have been voicing concerns the possibility of Winfield contracting the DuPage County Sheriff's office to provide police protection. A number of them have put signs in their yards calling for the village to keep its police department.

Reyes stressed that the board won't make any decisions until after REM releases its findings, which could happen as early as next month.

Still, Reyes made it clear this week that the village shouldn't raise taxes or bring back vehicle stickers to pay for roads.

“The village manager and Birutis keep putting the same bad ideas on our agenda for discussion,” he said. “They can't come up with anything else.”