Dist. 158 board member seeks censure of another

Mounting tension between members of the Huntley Unit District 158 school board have led one member to take the rare step of trying to censure another.

District 158 board member Jim Carlin has put forth a proposal to formally censure Larry Snow for Snow's recent remarks regarding Huntley elected officials.

"I came up with that basically as a reaction to the accusations that the village leaders were accepting gifts," Carlin said.

"I personally want to make sure that our village officials know that the rest of the board doesn't in any way feel the same way," Carlin said.

The censure is scheduled to come to a vote during tonight's board meeting, although some board members have encouraged Carlin to remove the item from the agenda.

While Carlin and Snow often are at loggerheads on the board, the proposed censure comes in response to remarks Snow made outside the board room -- comments that do not directly concern District 158 business.

In response to a September Northwest Herald article about a development west of Huntley, Snow posted a comment on the newspaper's Web site that some saw as questioning the integrity of Huntley's elected officials.

"A few free lunches, a few free dinners, a thank-you envelope in the Christmas basket sent to the home and a few well-placed political contributions and you have the recipe for overcrowding," Snow wrote.

Snow's comments did not specifically name the Huntley village board or Huntley Mayor Chuck Sass, who formally repudiated Snow's remarks at a later meeting.

But some District 158 board members say Snow's remarks damaged the district's relationship with the village, which controls the speed of development and developer fees the district receives.

"It is directly related to the district because our relationship with the village is a huge deal," board Vice President Tony Quagliano said. "If you're alienating the village … it has a direct effect on the school district."

But Quagliano said the censure is a waste of the school board's time.

"It's not productive for the district, no," Quagliano said. "It's not going to make the situation any better."

Snow said the censure reflects Carlin's personal animus toward Snow and is not necessarily related to the comments Snow made.

"It should come as no surprise that Mr. Carlin and other board members dislike me. They just want to formalize it," Snow said.

Animosity: