Gilberts officials, challengers differ on long-term plan

Just about every suburban community has a strategic plan, a vision of where or what it wants to be in the future.

Gilberts recently completed its plan, but some hopefuls in the April 7 election are skeptical of the document and if trustees have a clue how to achieve its goals.

"It's a wish list any one of us could have done in a few hours," mayoral candidate Rick Zirk said of the plan, adopted in October. "A plan needs to be a plan. A plan can't be a Christmas list."

Zirk is challenging Village President Tom Wajda, who is seeking another term.

Wajda said village leaders collected a variety of input from the community, and the plan, while not set in stone, is to guide future decisions from now through 2014.

"We got a lot of input," he said. "That is going to be our focus. Everything we do from here on is 'Does this address one or more of these goals or objectives in the strategic plan?' If it does, then we move forward. If it not, then we go 'Why are we doing this?'

Wajda said the plan can be updated if someone presents a good

idea in the future.

Three 4-year trustee seats also are up for election and voters will tab at least one new person for the board because Trustee Rob Mengarelli is not seeking another term.

Incumbents Gordon Mueller and Guy Zambetti are seeking re-election; former trustee and village president Everett Clark hopes to get back on the board along with newcomer Nancy Farrell.

The plan sets goals in a host of areas, such as recreation, environmentalism, roads, and commerce. It says a master plan for parks should be created, but doesn't spell out when that should be done or how to pay for new amenities.

Farrell said she doesn't like the plan as it is; it has too many aspects for village to "investigate" or simply "look into."

"It's almost as if it wasn't put down to actual reality of what we can achieve.," she said. "It is kind of a wish list. That's OK. We all have our wish lists, but what's the reality of it? It's just not concrete."

Mueller and Zambetti said trustees gathered views from a good cross section of the community.

"We reached out," Zambetti said. "We wanted to get as much input as we could from the community."

Mueller said the plan is guide, not a step-by-step recipe.

"Is this the exact way were going to move ahead? I would say no. Is it a goal for the people, yes."

Clark said all strategic plans are by nature a collection of wish lists. He said trustees should see it as a guideline, not gospel.

"It's not a problem having a wish list, but trying to govern via a wish list doesn't make sense," he said. "It's a direction, not a path. The problem is without a defined path, you can say it's useless."