Offer to destroy Carpentersville guns still alive

Though the village board did not receive an offer in writing, Carpentersville trustees say they are willing to consider a local business owner's offer to donate $3,000 to the village if trustees vote to destroy surplus police department weapons instead of selling them.

"At the end of the day, many of us are looking at this as a disposition of assets," said Trustee Paul Humpfer, who asked for the ordinance to be included on tonight's agenda. "It doesn't matter where the money comes from, we are still getting $3,000 in the end."

Village officials have said the weapons sales, which includes a cache of handguns, shotguns and a rifle, would net the village about $3,000.

Though he asked for the item's reconsideration, Humpfer said he did not know how he would vote.

"I need to understand more about what he is offering," Humpfer said. "Right now I don't know."

After the village board quashed Village President Bill Sarto's attempt to veto a previous board decision to sell about 30 guns to a federally licensed gun dealer as a source of revenue, Otto Engineering President Tom Roeser floated his offer on a local blog and in letters to the editors of local newspapers.

Trustees initially balked at the proposal because some said they wanted to see the offer in writing.

"From previous experience in working with Mr. Roeser, he has made offers and then cut them back after the fact and it has ended up costing the village," Teeter said last week. "Until you see something in writing you cannot bank on that money."

Roeser said he was disappointed that the trustees requested a written offer.

"A man's word is very important," Roeser said. "If they don't feel my integrity is good, either I have done something wrong or they are knuckleheads. Either is bad."

Sarto, who said selling the guns violates the village's mission statement, called the decision a "no-brainer."

"I can't believe it has taken this long to do something that should have naturally been done in the first place," Sarto said. "The option to sell the guns should never have come up and then there would never have been a discussion about money."