God's Gym mess provokes questions

Elgin taxpayers should be concerned. The way the city of Elgin handled the God's Gym issue was predictable.

Elgin's elected officials should be required to answer the many questions that arise from this extremely embarrassing criminal event and their business-as-usual mentality.

1) How much money has Elgin thrown into this program in the last 12 years?

2) How much money did Elgin pay Joel Perez and Angel J. Vega in salary and benefits? Quick math tells us millions of dollars.

3) As ex-employees of the city of Elgin, will Perez and Vega be eligible for any future pension or benefits at taxpayer's expense?

4) Now that Perez has been fired from his position, will he be eligible for taxpayer-supported unemployment benefits?

5) How many people who left that city-sanctioned facility with children in their vehicle were driving under the influence?

6) Did anyone pick up drugs for additional street sales, or was it all for personal consumption?

7) Was any of this alleged behavior a contributing factor in the many gang shootings Elgin suffered through last summer?

I feel Elgin was misled into believing this program was designed for gang intervention. In my opinion, this was gang recruitment and the program went unaccounted for by this and past city councils.

Do we have accountings of the ex-gang members and what they are doing now? How much and on what was the money spent?

Instead, the council, parroting what it was were told, told us the program is working. The city cuts another check. Business as usual.

When are we going to wake up and smell the gang activity and criminal behavior growing in our neighborhoods? We can all take comfort in the fact that if our elected officials cannot get a handle on this behavior, the FBI can.

I welcome and support the FBI's effort to bring law and order back to this city. The days of inaction and the unconscionable city practice of sweeping another bad situation under the rug and circling the wagons must end.

Margaret Miller

Elgin