Schaumburg’s newly retired senior trustee speaks of the civic duties all residents share

Fresh from his 33 years of public service, Schaumburg’s recent senior village trustee George Dunham is reflecting on the level of civic responsibility he still has, which is shared by every other suburban resident running for office or not.

Despite no longer expecting detailed briefings since he retired on New Year’s Eve, Dunham said he and anyone else who would voice an opinion on the direction of their community has a duty to keep that opinion informed.

“It’s a hard lesson for some people to learn, but if you’re not going to take the time to understand, you really don’t have the right to complain,” he said. “It’s your responsibility to ask questions. You have to do it. You have to want to do it. If you don’t, you have no one to blame but yourself.”

Among the ways he intends to stay knowledgeable is to seek out reliable sources of information and make it a priority to find out how candidates for local elected offices stand on issues of community concern.

Among his suggestions are reading newspapers, attending public forums, and subscribing to such e-newletters as his own village’s Schaumburg Progress Report.

Schaumburg is in the process of rebuilding its 52-year-old village hall, with plans to relocate and replace the similarly aged police station after that.

But the decision to move forward that followed the village’s research into both questions was met by some residents’ argument that neither was necessary.

These opinions were absent the specific details about both buildings’ conditions that are driving the projects, Dunham said.

“Who are you to say the building is not obsolete?” he asked. “What do you base your knowledge on? You have a right to an opinion, but tell me how you got there. Prove it to me.”

Another argument he’s heard more than once over the past third of a century is that a piece of property should remain vacant for the convenience of its neighbors. In recent years, this has been applied to the land where Experior Transport is building its new headquarters in the southwest corner of the village and where the Summit Grove subdivision is being built on a site long reserved by Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 for a sixth campus.

Such requests can’t be a form of spectator sport, Dunham said.

“Someone has to buy it and keep it vacant,” he added. “Don’t tell someone what to do with an asset they own.”

So how can someone move beyond being a social media commentator and become a real influence in their community?

“Look at your tax bill,” Dunham suggested. “You have to decide what’s important. You have to decide how much of your time you want to spend on it. Those in power aren’t going to spoon-feed you what you need to know. Don’t criticize those taking the time to do what you’re not.”

Outside of having unusually enlightened parents, most people have to teach themselves how to involve themselves with societal decisions, Dunham said.

“I don’t look at what we do as politics,” he added. “I look at it as governance. By electing me, you hired me to make those decisions for you.”

While Dunham said he grew tired of fighting the same battles over baseless opinions over and over, he hopes more people will understand the work required to effectively lead a community and its local governments and carve out the time needed from their own busy lives to do so.