Mayoral candidate volunteers to upgrade Schaumburg Twp. website

Schaumburg mayoral candidate Brian Costin has opted not to become a paid employee of Schaumburg Township, but to instead volunteer his services instead as a website designer for the township's highway department.

Volunteering for the task was Costin's original idea, but he'd been temporarily persuaded to be compensated for his work as a paid part-timer by Highway Commissioner Robert Fecarotta.

"I thought it was proper for him to be paid," Fecarotta said.

Fecarotta said he preferred Costin to do the website upgrade for his department because he said he shares Costin's philosophy about the need for online transparency - even though the township already had paid $12,500 to Elgin-based company NVision to upgrade the website for all township agencies.

Fecarotta has been feuding with township Supervisor Mary Wroblewski over several issues, including the website redesign and his plan to hire Costin.

Wroblewski said all materials for the website upgrade were expected by July 1 for a public launch expected on or before Aug. 1. But she said nothing has yet been received from Costin or Fecarotta.

One of her early concerns about the highway department's site being done separately was how well it would coordinate with the rest of the township's site. She said she's still not received any information to resolve those concerns.

"I don't know because we haven't seen anything from them yet," Wroblewski said.

Both Costin and Fecarotta said they don't know how much longer their work on the website will take, but Fecarotta insisted that he'd submitted enough material that it shouldn't delay the township's plan. Costin said his intention is to work as a volunteer only through the launch and then let the new website be maintained by others.

Fecarotta originally had planned to pay Costin $17 per hour for what was expected to be 10 hours a month. Costin would then have been paid at the same rate for about five hours each month to maintain the website and serve as Fecarotta's budget consultant.

But Costin said he ultimately resisted Fecarotta's wish to make him a paid employee of the township.

"I basically insisted that I wanted to be a volunteer," Costin said.

Costin works for the Illinois Policy Institute, where he spearheaded a survey of government websites within Schaumburg Township to rate public access to financial information and other documents. The township itself did not score highly in the survey.

Costin, who commonly criticizes government for pursuing economic development in ways he believes are best left to the private sector, plans to challenge Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson in the spring 2011 election.