Streamwood official wants more control

A Streamwood village board rookie wants Mayor Billie Roth to loosen what he sees as her virtually complete control over village hall.

But how many others will back him up is the question.

Trustee Jason Speer, elected last spring, said he sees a public benefit to increasing trustees' knowledge of and direct involvement with the village departments.

"We're just trying to move forward for the benefit of the constituency," Speer said. "We all want to work together. We can't work well if we can't work together."

Senior Trustee Jim Cecille, 64, agrees with Speer, 32, that the time is right to open up new channels of communications at village hall.

But the four other trustees say they don't see the point of changing a system that works or interfering with the professionals they've hired who are doing their jobs admirably.

For her part, Roth said the structure of Streamwood's board-manager form of government is spelled out in local ordinances: She, as mayor, is the chief liaison between the board and the village manager, who oversees day-to-day operations.

Past village boards have been satisfied with this model and expressed no interest in changing it, Roth said.

But Roth, who's been mayor since 1989 and was trustee and clerk before that, said she'd be open to talking about a change if that's what trustees want.

Such talks would most likely occur at a goals meeting this month, she said.

Budget concerns

Speer's push for change is coming mainly from frustration he said all trustees felt over last fall's budget process.

Their lack of early involvement, he said, led to clashes over how to fund new police officers and firefighters.

Those issues came to a head during what was meant to be the final stage of budget approval. Speer's complaint is the budget was presented to trustees in its intended final form, giving them little opportunity to offer feedback or seek changes.

As heated as the debate got, it ended -- as with so many issues, Speer said -- with a unanimously approved compromise.

He said pressure to project board harmony is characteristic of Roth's leadership.

"Ours is a very divided board, but divided behind the scenes," Speer said.

He favors moving to a committee system -- similar to Schaumburg and many other suburbs -- in which various committees are led by different trustees, giving them a deeper understanding of the issues at hand.

In Streamwood, committees exist in name only and never meet.

For example, Speer is the board's public safety liaison. But he said his role is largely confined to reading proposed ordinances pertaining to the fire and police departments when they're called up for a vote at board meetings.

He feels he has little authority in his role compared to Roth. That's underscored by the fact that trustees' assignments are shuffled annually, Speer said.

He also wants trustees to have their own e-mail addresses to which concerns about their committees can be sent. Currently, all trustee correspondence goes to one e-mail address that's accessed first by Roth's secretary before being printed out and distributed to the appropriate trustee or trustees.

Speer believes it would benefit the community overall to have its elected officials armed with personal knowledge of the issues for which they're setting policy.

Cecille, in his 21st year on the board, said he's gone along with the way things are for a long time. But he also sees a reason for the changes Speer seeks.

Speer "sees change better than all of us, because he's new, he's young and he's aggressive," Cecille said. "Maybe we need to be on a committee rather than just be a liaison. I think today, in the year 2008, things have to change and open up."

Cecille, who lost to Roth when she was first elected mayor, believes trustees should get at least as much information as Roth about the workings at village hall.

He sees last year's retirement of two longtime Roth supporters, former trustees Dave Stoves and Larry Rybicki, as sparking a new kind of momentum on the board.

Defending system

Still, when Speer, Cecille and newcomer Guy Patterson ran for trustee last year, they stood together in defending the way the village is run against a slate of challengers put together by the Hanover Democratic Township Voters, the official Democratic party in Hanover Township.

Patterson says he, at least, feels the same pride in the village he did then.

"If (the other trustees are) having these conversations, they're not calling to ask me what I think," he said.

Patterson says he's very skeptical of the benefits of a committee system that would have individual trustees working more closely with the village staff. He compares it to a fan coming down from the stands to play quarterback for an undefeated football team.

"I'm unsure why a trustee would want to advocate that, because we're sort of bound by the council-manager form of government," he said.

"Even if we could change, I think that would be bad government," Patterson said. "We hire professionals to do their jobs. I told (village finance director) Dave Richardson that I can sleep at night knowing he's got my back on the budget."

Trustees William Harper, William Carlson and Michael Baumer agreed the current system has served the village well and there's no reason to change it.

The three said that while they don't agree with Roth on everything, they think the village has much improved under her leadership.