Stone defends Stone over 'shut up' comment

Two weeks ago, Buffalo Grove Village Board President Elliott Hartstein lost his temper and told Trustee Lisa Stone to "shut up."

On Monday, Stone's husband Gary took the microphone during the public comment period to criticize Hartstein for his comments. Both husband and wife also criticized the board for a double standard toward the public use of the Rotary Village Green.

"I think your actions were inappropriate," Stone said, adding such language, which he said amounted to "pandering" to his fans, only encourages disrespect from the public. He added that he thinks Hartstein violated the village board's code of conduct.

He then brought up the issue of the Rotary Village Green, saying, "What goes on here is not democracy. It's hypocrisy."

The issue, raised recently, involves a Stevenson High School student who asked permission from the village manager's office to hold a fundraiser for the children of Uganda. However, she was unable to raise money for the insurance required to hold the event.

Gary Stone said that by contrast no permit or insurance was required on May 1 for citizens favoring the recall of his wife to hold a rally at the Rotary Village Green, which is located along Buffalo Grove Road near the Town Center shopping mall and is often used for concerts.

"Did the village just wink and look the other way?" he asked.

Hartstein responded that the permit issue is an administrative matter, not a legislative function and is handled by the village manager's office. He said, however, that part of the discrepancy involved "exclusivity versus non-exclusivity," since the student wanted to use the green for a private use as opposed to something open to the public in general.

Assistant Village Manager Ghida Neukirch said the village is in the process of better defining when a permit is needed.

Stone's fellow trustees said they were unaware that the student had made a request until recently. "We don't micromanage day-to-day operations," Trustee Jeffrey Braiman said, adding, however, that "if the young lady had made us aware, we would have taken care of that."

Lisa Stone expressed outrage that the student, who eventually held the fundraiser at another location, was unable to hold it at the village green, while the recall team was not subject to the same requirements. She added that it was ironic that "this is the group that's recalling me because I don't follow Robert's Rules of Order." She suggested that the recall team should suffer repercussions.

Trustee Jeffrey Berman said the green is a public space and people have every right to gather there as long as they are not seeking exclusive access.

Hartstein added, "We always bend over backward to be fair."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=394009">Buffalo Grove village president tells trustee to 'shut up' <span class="date">[07/14/10]</span></a></li> </ul> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <!-- Start of Brightcove Player --> <div style="display:none"> </div> <!-- By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and C found at https://accounts.brightcove.com/en/terms-and-conditions/. --> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script> <object id="myExperience114822380001" class="BrightcoveExperience"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="width" value="300" /> <param name="height" value="255" /> <param name="playerID" value="18011347001" /> <param name="publisherID" value="1659832549"/> <param name="isVid" value="true" /> <param name="dynamicStreaming" value="true" /> <param name="@videoPlayer" value="114822380001" /> </object> <!-- This script tag will cause the Brightcove Players defined above it to be created as soon as the line is read by the browser. If you wish to have the player instantiated only after the rest of the HTML is processed and the page load is complete, remove the line. --> <script type="text/javascript">brightcove.createExperiences();</script> <!-- End of Brightcove Player --> </ul> </div> </div> </div>