Hanover Park pans diversity panel

Potluck dinners aren't a path to progress.

At least Hanover Park Trustee Toni Carter doesn't think so.

That's why the outspoken official wants to revamp the village's inactive human relations committee, which she said specialized in casseroles, and establish a new cultural diversity committee.

But getting the village board to allocate $2,500 to the committee will prove difficult.

Specifically, the group would aim to host quarterly seminars focused on issues such as career building, resume writing, corporate strategies and domestic violence.

Carter says the need is great in Hanover Park, where the minority population totals more than 30 percent, according to 2000 U.S. census figures.

The former member of the human relations committee made the request Thursday night to her fellow trustees while they discussed an early draft of the upcoming fiscal year 2009 budget. The preliminary budget would have certainly gotten an informal go-ahead from trustees but was instead voted down 3-2 in response to Carter's proposal.

"It was sending a message," said Trustee Robert Packham. "It's a total waste of money."

Packham said the human relations committee "screamed of diversity," yet died from an "enthusiastic lack of interest." He said seminars such as the ones Carter hopes to put on are better suited to Hanover Township's suite of services. And they don't fit in with the scope of the village's goals, Packham said.

"We're running into hard financial times and have to put a wrench on spending as it is," he said.

Based on current spending levels, the village is projected to be $2,500 over budget in its fiscal year 2008, which ends April 30. And the 2009 budget request is about 9 percent higher, somewhere in the $45 million range.

But the village should help if it can, Carter says.

She works for an international corporation and says she already has speakers lined up for free. The $2,500 would fund literature and marketing.

Plus, she asks, what's a township?

"If you ask a resident who they look to for leadership, who they look to when they need answers to questions, half of them don't know anything about a township," Carter says. "I never even knew a township existed or what its function was until I was elected to this post. The residents have a need and we need to fill that need."

The village board has several weeks to finalize a budget.