Two vying for Stone’s Buffalo Grove village board seat
About five months after recalling Buffalo Grove Trustee Lisa Stone from office, village voters head back to the polls April 5 to decide who will fill the remaining two years of her term.
One of those candidates, Andrew Stein, ran in 2009 for one of the seats that Stone ultimately won. His opponent, Denice Bocek, is running for the first time.
Unlike Stone when she won election in 2009, both her potential replacements have several years of experience on village panels. Bocek has served for 11 years on the village plan commission, while Stein has logged six years with the zoning board of appeals. Both also have served on the village’s appearance review team.
That’s not where their differences from Stone end, they say.
While Stone often was confrontational with village staff and fellow elected officials, Stein and Bocek pledged to be independent-minded but work within the system.
“During that period of time, I want to say it brought out some of the worst in Buffalo Grove,” Stein said.
Bocek emphasized her admiration for Buffalo Grove’s volunteer panels, a reference to the fact Stone was often at odds with them.
“(The publicity) hurt the reputation that our volunteers have worked so hard to create in our village,” she said.
“My personal feeling is that (Stone) was trying to do the right thing. I just think the problem was that she didn’t go about it the right way,” Bocek added. “There is a certain respect that is necessary to the government officials and to the staff of the village, and I think that’s where it got lost.”
Stein said he believes volunteers were given short shrift when the topic of the village’s ethics commission was raised during Stone’s tenure.
“It’s sometimes not what you say, it’s how you say it, and unfortunately for Lisa she got off on a wrong foot early,” he said. “I don’t know that she was ever able to recover from it.”
Bocek, who has experience in real estate development and property management, and Stein, a field compliance principal in the financial services industry, said their approach as trustee would be like those they take in their current village posts.
“I would present my side, the facts that I have to support the side,” Stein said. “But when it’s over, it’s over. Whatever side it goes to, that’s it, it’s time to move on.”
“When a project comes before the plan commission, or I am presented with an issue, I do a lot of careful consideration before I come up with my opinion or position on that issue,” Bocek said.