Trustee candidates battle for Schaumburg's future

For nearly two years, Schaumburg mayoral candidates Al Larson and Brian Costin have made clear the differences in their vision for the village's future.

But they can't do it alone. The rest of the village board will decide which vision will actually be implemented.

Costin favors cutting back village expenses to core services, while Larson believes in investing in a local economy that attracts business and out-of-town shoppers.

With three incumbent trustees being challenged by three newcomers in April, the mindset of the majority of the board will be entirely in the hands of voters.

Seeking re-election are trustees George Dunham, Hank Curcio and Mark Madej. Running against them but, they say, not as a slate are Peter Dombrowski, Robert Garrett and Ralph Roller.

Though the challengers are far from being of one mind on the best direction for Schaumburg's future, they're united in their criticism of the current board's approval of a village property tax in fall 2009.

Garrett previously spoke out with Costin on the village's controversial use of red-light cameras. He also agrees with Costin that privatizing the convention center, Alexian Field and Schaumburg Regional Airport is in taxpayers' best financial interest.

But Garrett said his main inspiration for running is what he regards as the current board's disregard for residents during their vote for the property tax last year.

He said that in a choice between acting on the exclusive insider knowledge trustees claimed to have and doing the will of the people, the people must always prevail.

“What we have are guys who've never been challenged and take their (elected) jobs for granted,” Garrett said. “The current village board is acting like a freshman in college with their parents' credit card.”

Garrett said he's done logistics for an international import and export business for more than six years and understands spending must be reduced when revenues decline.

Dombrowski, meanwhile, said he has specific ideas about how spending can be reduced to do away with the property tax, including some outsourcing of IT services.

He also favors a 0.25-percentage-point reduction in Schaumburg's portion of the sales tax. Though intended to capture the dollars of visitors, it's also inevitably making residents' purchases more expensive, he said.

“Whole Foods is a great boon until you see the sales tax,” Dombrowski said.

He said the village board is wrong to now justify its property tax by comparing itself to other communities while apparently ignoring the tax generator that is Woodfield which the other communities don't have.

Roller stands apart the most from his fellow challengers by saying he's not made up his mind that privatizing the baseball stadium, airport and convention center is the best step to take.

“I think it was a huge mistake to build the (convention center) hotel, but I'm not already on the train to sell it,” Roller said. “The baseball stadium is almost paid off. Just to ditch things in this economy ... I don't want to sell things if it's going to put the village in a worse position.”

He shares in the criticism over the property tax, as he received only a smattering of responses from trustees when he asked them to explain their votes.

He praised Curcio, however, for meeting with him in person to discuss the issue.

Roller said he is a common sense voice without any business or political interests to protect.

“I don't want to run just on the basis of being a voice for change,” Roller said. “I'm not making promises just to win an election. I would rather tell the truth and lose.”

Though an incumbent, Madej doesn't consider himself a politician either, outside of campaign seasons. He regularly attended village board meetings to educate himself on issues before his original appointment to the board, giving himself an educated opinion he finds lacking in the challengers.

“I've always looked at our village as being successful because of its motto, ‘Progress through thoughtful planning.'” Madej said. “I don't look at what's going to save us $1 today, I look at what's going to save us $2 or $3 tomorrow.”

Madej said such big-picture thinking as a tax increment finance district to help pay for a Meacham Road access ramp from I-90 is what attracts business investment and makes Schaumburg services what Costin has said he found enviable growing up in nearby Elk Grove Village.

Dunham, the senior trustee on the board, questioned Garrett's criticism that the current board wasn't doing the will of the people in its vote on the property tax to fund services.

“The will of which people?” Dunham asked. “The will of the people who came to the meeting, or the will of the people sitting at home expecting the police and fire departments to come when they're called?”

Dunham said his fellow incumbents are no different from the challengers in wanting the property tax to be eliminated as soon as possible.

“Economic times aren't what they were,” Dunham said. “I believe that I and my colleagues on the board are the best equipped to face these challenges that we did not expect to face. I plan to take an extremely hard look at future expenditures because I want to build our reserves up again.”

Curcio said he felt the challengers were a little misguided in their goals for the village and the level of time and understanding needed to run a community like Schaumburg.

But though the property tax vote last year attracted a roomful of critics, Curcio said he believes the overall electorate of nearly 80,000 residents is intelligent enough to know whether the community is being run well or not.

“That's why stores and businesses are coming,” he said.

Curcio said he's lived in Schaumburg since 1968 and believes it's continuing to distinguish itself as it did then as a village where both residents and businesses know their interests are being addressed.