Sarto must revamp shameful crusade

Carpentersville village President William Sarto really needs to rein in his efforts to unseat political rival Trustee Paul Humpfer.

There is no question that Humpfer's claim to his board seat merits discussion. Humpfer's recent domestic battery conviction alone might have led many other trustees to resign. Humpfer's 8-month stay in Indiana also leaves his residency status open to valid legal questioning.

Yet instead of leaving these questions to the court of public opinion, Sarto has sidelined that prosecution with his own sideshow of stridency, and shifted the spotlight to himself.

Sarto has tried to go through the village board, demanding trustees remove Humpfer. These efforts were repeatedly rebuffed. Undaunted, and without board support, Sarto spent more than $20,000 in public funds seeking legal backing. Lawyers wound up putting the Humpfer matter back in the board's hands.

So Sarto tried to go around the village board, petitioning the state attorney general and the Kane County state's attorney, asking them to throw Humpfer out of office. Months later, neither has responded with a ruling. While in itself a legitimate avenue to explore, Sarto again took the step without consulting trustees. The result is that consensus became more elusive.

Visibly frustrated, Sarto has lost his cool in public -- bringing shame and ridicule on himself and his town with public outbursts, many of which are YouTube favorites.

Now, however, Sarto has gone completely over the line and has brought his disruptive crusade outside the village boardroom.

His latest target is one of the town's most crucial boards. Sarto went after the finance and audit commission, composed of trustees and residents, and run by Humpfer.

Commission members, now uncomfortably in the crosshairs of Sarto's quest, will not meet, at least temporarily. Why is this important? Because this board only a couple of years ago rescued Carpentersville from a financial morass that boggled the minds of independent auditors -- and it has much work still to do.

While Humpfer's troubles indeed merit discussion, Humpfer himself has focused on board issues and keeps a low profile.

Sarto, on the other hand, has yelled at and over residents during board meetings, castigated trustees in public, and thrown and taken personal attacks of the basest sort.

He has even unwittingly forged an alliance of sorts on the village board, among trustees previously unallied but who now find something in common -- their distaste for Sarto's loud, abrasive and vengeful tactics.

If he must continue his crusade, he must balance it with respect for his office and his town. Carpentersville needs diplomacy, leadership and consensus -- not a bulldozer or a bully.

Besides depriving YouTube fans and Internet news commenters of more outrageous material, he might also find a more effective means to his own end.