A new low for Buffalo Grove
Once again, the Buffalo Grove Village Board has hit a new low.
At the most recent board meeting, Trustee Braiman came prepared for high drama, having prepared a four or five-page tirade directed at Trustee Lisa Stone that he proceeded to read. Apparently, the only one on the board who was not in on the ambush was Trustee Stone herself. As Braiman began, several of the other trustees sat back and began to smirk. Trustee Braiman and Village Manager Brimm even appeared to have invited friends and family to witness the lynching. In a Board who has lately brought unprofessional behavior to a fine art, this was a new summit.
Most of the focus of this attack was based upon the Board's decision to allow OTB betting in the Village despite overwhelming resident opposition and the fiasco surrounding the surrender, under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, of Village e-mails concerning this issue.
As is now well known, the Village initially surrendered hundreds of pages of communications but 213 pages of potentially the most sensitive communications were not included. Trustee Stone discovered the omission and was instrumental in having the remaining 213 documents provided.
Trustee Stone has, in the past, proposed formation of an ethics commission to act as independent third party oversight and, at this meeting, suggested that an independent third party handle future FOIA requests. Other members of the Board bristled at the mere suggestion of an ethics commission and thus far have been wildly successful in delaying the appearance of any action whatsoever on the suggestion.
It seems that the Board believes that the simple mention of an ethics commission or third party oversight is an accusation of wrongdoing (which to any of us having young children causes raised eyebrows (potential guilty conscience at work here). Trustee Stone has been very clear and quite adamant that indeed the intent is just the opposite. The intent is to remove any perception or appearance of impropriety.
The recent FOIA debacle is just such an example. No one is suggesting that having Village Manager Brimm be responsible for providing the FOIA documents is putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. Rather, the suggestion would remove Mr. Brimm from a potentially very uncomfortable position and, at the same time, remove any appearance or perception of impropriety. Consider that Mr. Brimm, under the present scheme is responsible for producing documents that are potentially damaging or incriminating to the very people that he reports to! Not only does this make no common sense but couple it with the 213 potentially most sensitive documents being "overlooked" from the initial batch of documents submitted, wouldn't he and the entire board welcome having this task be handled by a third party committee in the future?
If there is no wrongdoing, this is a completely logical suggestion and no one should be alarmed or offended by it. Instead, it has been one of the hot buttons that now culminated in the highly unprofessional attack on Lisa Stone. If this attack, as it appeared, was intended to provoke an angry or emotional response from Trustee Stone, it failed miserably.
Indeed, Lisa Stone responded in a very calm, professional and logical fashion despite being so publicly and unprofessionally, well, ambushed is the only word for it.
Come on, Buffalo Grove trustees. We expect much more from you. Lisa Stone represents us and we're tired of the "old boys club." When you attack her, you're really attacking us and our need for proper representation and transparency in government.
Frank Ladonne
Buffalo Grove