Outraged at Winfield secret police talks

I am outraged at discovering that Winfield village trustees have been secretly negotiating with the sheriff’s department for 10 months in an effort to obtain their services and consequently replace our local police force.

In a recent meeting, Trustee Eric Spande was escorted out for leaking this information to the press. According to the May 20 Daily Herald, “Not only was he censured, but the village board in a 4-2 vote called on the police chief to escort him out of the room because of the confidence he had broken with fellow trustees.”

He was escorted out by those same police officers that may soon be unemployed. I find it hypocritical that the trustees feel their confidence was broken by Mr. Spande’s actions, yet do not hesitate to break the voting public’s confidence with their secret meetings. Also according to the Daily Herald, “the village was contemplating a $32,000 consultant’s study to ‘evaluate police services.’”

The trustees want to eliminate our police force in order to save money but are willing to spend $32,000 on a consulting firm to study the issue? Where is the logic in that? Let’s spend money that we supposedly don’t have to save money?

Winfield is a safe community and that is due to our vigilant police force. I hope that the trustees reconsider their secret negations with the sheriff’s department and shelf this issue.

Viana Oliver

Winfield