Palatine councilman clears air over Stroger meeting

The Palatine Village Council was expected to take a few minutes Monday night to recap last week's town hall meeting.

Instead, talk of the meeting -- which exasperated the division between Chicago and the northwest suburbs after Cook County Board President Todd Stroger backed out at the eleventh hour -- was limited to 30 seconds worth of comments by Mayor Rita Mullins.

"We were very disappointed that the president of Cook County did not show (and) did not give us the answers we've been asking for," Mullins said.

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The community meeting Stroger pledges to personally attend in the near future has yet to be scheduled. But Mullins reiterated plans are in the works, relaying Stroger's intention to come out to the suburbs within a month.

"We'll all have another chance to ask him questions about our excessive taxes #8230; the highest sales tax in the nation," she said. "We're hoping that will happen."

In the meantime, Palatine residents who didn't make it out to Harper College can watch broadcasts on Channel 6 beginning this afternoon.

Those viewing the 2#189; hour video will hear Palatine Councilman Jack Wagner's account of a meeting between village officials and Stroger's staff that took place two days before the board president's scheduled appearance.

Wagner took heat for his actions as well as partial blame by both Mullins and a Stroger spokesman for why Stroger canceled.

Wagner acknowledges he lost his temper, but only after a Stroger representative lost hers and threatened to call off Wednesday's event.

The heated debate began, Wagner said, when he discussed the agenda and where in the Harper theater both Palatine and Stroger officials might sit.

"It got testy on both sides," Wagner said last week. "One (Stroger representative) said Stroger wouldn't attend if the (Palatine) council was there and that they weren't about to put President Stroger on trial.

"I told them we just want to know where you're spending your money," Wagner recalls saying. "You have an obligation to the citizens who really are stockholders. They said they didn't have an obligation."

Wagner - and a slew of northwest suburban officials - have said they believe Stroger was looking for any excuse not to come. State Rep. Suzie Bassi said Monday she just hoped Stroger canceled before she got in the car to drive up from Springfield.

"They were hoping for a confrontation and this was their perfect out," Wagner said.

Still, Wagner said he assured Stroger's staff he'd do everything he could to keep people from "beating up on him."

Everyone shook hands and the meeting ended cordially, and Stroger's appearance in Palatine was still on as of 48 hours before the town hall meeting, which a county spokeswoman confirmed.