Vote 'No' on recall in Buffalo Grove
As we indicated several months ago when the Buffalo Grove village board first proposed a measure to permit the recall of elected officials, we are troubled by the concept. Unlike many European systems, America's democratic republic does not call for votes of confidence, and that, frankly, is a strength of our system. It allows our leaders to sometimes take courageous positions that may be unpopular in the short run without fear that some group will abruptly start passing petitions for their removal.
While we have endorsed a narrow provision to recall Illinois' governors, we did so reluctantly in that case under the historic shadow of two consecutive governors who have been convicted of wanton felonies and with the reassurance that there are safeguards in the state provision that severely limit the likelihood that the measure could be abused. There are no safeguards in the Buffalo Grove measure; elected officials are subject to recall for any reason or for no reason at all.
It is no accident that relatively few local governments have enacted recall provisions: The measure is troubling and potentially dangerous, a weapon that could be manipulated for political purposes to be used against minority voices that challenge either popular opinion or ruling factions.
Our belief is this: Our elections, however flawed, are sacred votes reflecting the will of the people and that will ought to be carried out. That premise is fundamental to democracy.
On Nov. 2, Buffalo Grove will test the ill-considered recall power for the first time when voters decide whether to turn out Trustee Lisa Stone. If she loses, Stone would become the first elected municipal official in the history of Illinois to be removed from office under a recall vote.
Would it be because she is corrupt? Or broke the law? Embezzled funds? Sought to trade political favors for personal gain?
No, it would be because she's impossibly hard to deal with.
In saying that, we don't mean to belittle that as a criticism. It's a significant one. We endorsed Stone's candidacy in 2009, but were she up for election today, her obsessively confrontational approach would leave us hard-pressed to endorse her again.
We believe she's well-intentioned, we believe she genuinely wants to serve the public and we believe she has raised issues worthy of exploration. But without question, her style has been counterproductive. She's needlessly disruptive when she could accomplish so much more with a spirit of collaboration; she wrongly and unfairly assigns ill motives to anyone who disagrees; she fails to follow reasonable rules of decorum; she seems incapable of moving on at the conclusion of any issue; and she turns village board meetings into interminable soap operas.
Should she somehow survive this recall effort, which looks doubtful, we hope this experience will prompt her to correct her approach and examine her assumptions, and we call on her to do so. But surely, whatever her flaws, they don't rise to a level that warrants thwarting the outcome of the 2009 election. Surely, Buffalo Grove can survive two more years of Stone's representation, pleasant or not.
Meanwhile, the question voters will answer is bigger than Lisa Stone. A vote to recall would in reality be an endorsement of recall, and that we cannot do.
We hope thoughtful voters, those who weigh the implications of the recall question, will come to the same conclusion. We recommend a “No” vote on recalling Lisa Stone.