Term limits needed in Arlington Hts.

Twice Arlington Heights residents have met the legally required number of signatures to place a term limit question on the local ballot. And twice the term limit question was removed from the ballot, prior to the election, by the local Electoral Board consisting of Village President Tom Hayes, Trustee Bert Rosenberg and Village Clerk Becky Hume.

Unfortunately the Electoral Board review process can be fraught with perfectly legal but ethically challenged conflicts of interests. For example: how did the sole objector to this term limit petition, Mr. James L. Constantine, end up being represented by a Rosemont law firm that contributed to President Hayes' 2013 campaign?

Mr. Ken Menzel, general counsel for the Illinois State Board of Elections, said this is why "it is set up to go to the circuit court later" if necessary.

With conflicts of interest aside, it is still very clear that residents want to vote on term limits. If the board wants to, it has the authority to draft an advisory referendum on term limits for the local ballot. But the village board is of the opinion, although no vote has ever been taken, that no term limit question is needed. As a result the will of our residents is again thwarted by the unofficial opinion of our elected representatives.

The two-term incumbent trustee Tom Glasgow, said we do not need term limits because residents can just use the "ballot box" instead. Yet between the five longest serving trustees, at the end of their current terms, the cumulative time on the board will be 78 years; which is once again, why residents want to vote on term limits.

Keith A. Moens

Arlington Heights