Stone, Hartstein spar again on eve of recall
On the eve of her possible recall as Buffalo Grove village trustee, Lisa Stone remained as outspoken and provocative as ever, if not more so.
Stone on Monday continued to assail Village President Elliott Hartstein regarding his investigation of an allegedly “altered” e-mail from former Village Manager William Brimm.
She also insisted on including mention of the Ku Klux Klan in a memo regarding the decision not to videotape next week's Illinois Environmental Protection Agency hearing on the Land and Lakes landfill, and even offered to pony up the nearly $900 it would cost to record the event for future television broadcast.
The tumult that's become commonplace at village meetings didn't take long to begin Monday as Stone proposed amending the previous board session's minutes. Her measure called for the minutes to reflect a memo from Village Manager Dane Bragg saying that allowing outside access to the village's cable channel would make it difficult to turn down groups such as the Ku Klux Klan in the future.
Stone continued to mention the memo throughout the meeting, insisting that the board's own policy on cable access which calls for informing the public about government already supported airing the IEPA hearing.
Trustee Jeffrey Braiman said he had no objection if the IEPA or the state wanted to videotape and broadcast the session, but board members took a pass when Stone offered to foot the bill herself.
Stone reserved her sharpest attacks Monday for Hartstein, again questioning him over a discrepancy concerning a December e-mail about the landfill.
Stone said she wanted minutes to reflect that Hartstein told the village board he spoke to Robert Giddens, the village's information technology director about the e-mail, while Giddens later told Stone he did not speak with the village president.
“It is about you and your truthfulness, President Hartstein. I'm sorry to call you on it, but this is a fact,” she said.
Stone said the minutes should reflect the truth, “not what you want it to.”
“What you're doing is calling somebody a liar,” Village Clerk Janet Sirabian interjected. “I will never put that in the minutes, whether it is about you or anybody else on this board. I will never put in that somebody is calling somebody a liar.”
Stone responded, “But what if it is the truth?”
“Your truth and his truth. Who is the truth?” Sirabian said.
Hartstein declared Stone out of order, but then revisited the issue during his village president's report.
“You have heard time and again certain assertions that I never contacted you relating to purported altered e-mails that related to the Land and Lakes,” he said, addressing Giddens. “Is that a true statement?”
“You contacted me,” Giddens responded. “There was a lot of communication (dealing) with this topic.”
Following another exchange with Stone, Hartstein ultimately shut off her microphone, telling her “Trustee Stone, I don't need to answer any questions to you when you basically impugn my integrity.”
“This is much ado about nothing,” Hartstein later added.