Elburn candidates say better communication needed

At least two of the men running for the Elburn village board - including an incumbent - say the village needs to do a better job informing residents about government matters.

"Basically, I want a shot at helping communicate better. Because Elburn, quite frankly, (stinks) at communication as a town. That is our biggest problem. We don't communicate what is happening inside the town to the people who are paying the bills," and (the people) don't communicate what they want done, candidate Michael Rullman said during an endorsement interview Wednesday.

Trustee David Gualdoni agreed, questioning why more information isn't sent to residents and other parties via the village's Facebook account and Twitter feed, as well as posted on its website.

"They (administrators) rarely use them (Twitter and Facebook)," he said.

Gualdoni said it would be simple to distribute messages electronically.

"There's no reason they can't be copied, pasted and blasted," he said.

Rullman cited as an example a recent utility bill mailing. The utility bills have space for messages. Instead of using that space to notify customers the village board was considering raising the price of water and sewer services, it put in a notice about a fundraising pancake breakfast.

John Krukoff said he has worked for government agencies in the past where they sent out news releases on certain topics that were going to be discussed at a board meeting. "We don't see that here," Krukoff said.

Gualdoni questioned why memos from village board packets are not posted on the website, as the cities of Geneva and St. Charles do. He suggested at minimum, those memos could be made available at village hall, near where meeting agendas are taped up for display. The village does put its agendas on its website.

Trustee Bill Grabarek agreed that blurbs on the utility bills can be used, and that he has written at least one, but that the space limits messages to 372 characters. He suggested building a kiosk downtown where village notices, and information about community events, could be posted.

Gualdoni also said communication goes two ways, and Grabarek said that his phone number is in the phone book. He said people can also read about what is going on in town in local newspapers.

But public attendance at board meetings is low, unless there is a hot topic on the agenda such as the Elburn Station development, Gualdoni said.

"The public has to take a certain amount of responsibility," he said.