New mayor’s acts hurting Wauconda

As a Wauconda resident, I am appalled by our mayor’s behavior.

I was never a Bart supporter, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt once he was elected. Any good will that I or anyone who supported his opponent may have had for him, however, quickly dried up when he decided to start his term with two exceptionally bold and mismanaged decisions that have the potential to impact our village for years to come.

The first was removing Police Chief Larsen in favor of political backer Pat Yost. That he simply couldn’t wait until Larsen’s contract was up to install his crony as chief tells me that he is petulant and arrogant. Not to mention that he has little regard for the safety of this community.

These are not qualities of a leader, no matter how much military experience he lists on his resume.

His behavior in regards to our water supply, however, is nothing short of dishonorable. There is no one else to blame for Wauconda being booted from the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency. All the stalling, all the delays, all the unreasonable demands have come from Mayor Bart.

He didn’t learn anything from his first mayoral debacle and he blatantly flouted the will of the people, who voted 2-to-1 in favor of moving forward with plans to access Lake Michigan water in partnership with CLCJAWA. In the process, he managed to alienate the entire village board, a large part of our community and his fellow Lake County mayors.

And let’s not forget that he hasn’t even been in office for five months yet.

Mayor Bart, you have dug yourself a hole too deep to crawl out of. Save yourself any more embarrassment and our Village any more potential catastrophes. Step down.

Jill Morino

Wauconda