Don't shoot the messenger

The fact that Nathan Spain is still an active member of the Carpentersville audit and finance commission is not "contrary to an article" I wrote, as Village President Bill Sarto suggested on his blog.

To say "contrary to an article" makes it sound like I went ahead and published a story with fabricated details, factual errors and information without consulting the main players.

But don't shoot the messenger.

The Carpentersville audit and finance commission and village staff erred in determining that commissioner Nathan Spain has skipped three consecutive meetings, thus - it seemed - triggering a new attendance ordinance.

But as we now know, the commission member had actually sent e-mails to Village Manager Craig Anderson and Nanette Burns, an executive assistant. No mention was made of these e-mails until more than a week after the meeting when Spain reminded the village manager that he had indeed given the commission notice of business conflicts that interfered with his attendance.

The e-mails were also uncovered days after I had written a story about the commission's response to Spain's three-straight absences. As far as I was concerned, and as far as anyone in the village was telling me, Spain was eligible for removal by the village board under a recently passed ordinance.

According to the village's new rule, the village president has the right to deem a commission or board seat vacant if an appointed official misses three meetings without just cause.

And since the village board had constructed the ordinance in part because of Spain, it was fit to print a story about his absences.

The whole discussion about introducing an attendance policy was born out of a boycott of the audit and finance commission meetings because of uncertainty about Trustee Paul Humpfer's board seat after he was found guilty of domestic battery.

Spain and resident members Sherry Dobson and Michael Siervertson chose to refrain from attending meetings until the village board made a decision on the legitimacy of Humpfer's board seat. Humpfer chairs the audit and finance commission.

Though the intentional absences came in close proximity to a letter Village President Bill Sarto wrote encouraging others to boycott meetings, resident members say their decision was personal and unrelated to Sarto's request.

With four of the seven members absent for a meeting in May, the commission was forced to postpone village business due to a lack of a quorum.

That's when village board trustee Judy Sigwalt brought forth the attendance policy, to reign in commission members.

I spoke with Spain, Sarto and Anderson on several occasions without a word regarding e-mails explaining Spain's whereabouts. When the village realized it was wrong, it was not contrary to my story - it contradicted what officials had said.