Fox Lake candidates shy away from cash

The three candidates vying for Fox Lake mayor said they would not accept large developer donations to their campaigns for the April election.

However, two of the three candidates vying for the village's top elected position pointed out that candidate Alberta Meyer has accepted donations in the past from developers that were at the time doing business with the village.

Meyer admitted to accepting a $3,000 donation from the Four Oaks Development Corp. in 1996 for her trustee re-election campaign, one week before voting in favor of a townhouse project Four Oaks was pitching to the village board.

But she said she always was in favor of the project and the money was not given to her as a way to sway her vote.

"Everyone on the board was in favor of that project except for one person, and he was against the amount of units being built," she said. "This whole issue was checked out by investigators and I was cleared of any potential charges. To me, it's all in the past."

Meyer, a former trustee who lost a bid for mayor in 1997, is facing off against incumbent Mayor Cindy Irwin and challenger Ed Bender for the four-year seat.

She is running on the ballot as an independent while Bender, who at 10 years is the longest sitting trustee on the board, is the head of the Focused Party.

Irwin, who served as trustee for six years before being elected mayor four years ago, is the head of the Fox Lake United Party.

Irwin said she is against campaign donations from anyone conducting business with the village.

"I will not take a dime from any developer or business that currently does work or is looking to build in Fox Lake," she said. "It's the perception of the donation. It makes it look like you are being paid off."

Bender said he would not take a donation of that size from a developer with an issue in front of the board.

"I don't know Alberta well enough to say if she did something wrong here, but it definitely made me wonder what was going on," he said. "To me, it depends on the size of the donation and the circumstances which the donation is given."

Meyer said she will not be taking campaign donations for this mayor's race and is, instead, paying for it out of her own pocket.

"I am not throwing a fundraiser or asking for a dime from anyone," she said. "I can't ask people to give me money for this when people need to put food on the table."