New leadership needed in Fox Lake

As trustee, I have been given the privilege to represent you on the Fox Lake village board for 16 years, and I am honored. I write this to influence your vote in the upcoming election for the positions of mayor and fellow trustees.

I have seen my share of good administrations and not-so-good administrations with a wide scope of intentions and motivations. The Bender administration that I am currently sitting with had all the potential but has squandered it away at the expense of the taxpayers. The positive balance in our checkbook is a combination of red-light camera fines, telecommunication taxes (cellphone) and utility taxes.

He has a circle of friends who are consulted more than your elected officials, and what the circle decides should be the direction for the village is what happens. I, as an elected official, am notified of the decision or direction, and then we have to determine do I go along to get along or make a stink over every prearranged decision the village board sees. You, as residents, are pawns in his game of tax-and-spend economics with complete disregard to the future needs of the village such as our need for Lake Michigan water and your lakefront park.

As a resident, you should be looking for the best opportunity to have a collaborative village board that doesn’t have to agree on every issue; however the divisive preplanned voting has got to stop. I am convinced that a Vote for Donny Schmit as mayor and the Common Sense Party will go a long way to move the village of Fox Lake in a direction that I and we have envisioned our community to be.

Greg Murrey

Fox Lake