East Dundee trustee candidates disagree on vision for spending

When it comes to money and politics, disagreements seem inevitable. One person's necessity is another's excess.

Wednesday was no different, as East Dundee village board candidates shared their views on the future of the village's finances at a forum hosted by the Elgin Area League of Women Voters Rutland Committee. Four candidates are vying for three spots.

Responding to a question about staffing, candidate Jerald Bartels criticized incumbents Allen Skillicorn and Jeff Lynam for what he sees as wasteful spending - increased full-time staffing and hiring full-time police officers with pensions. Bartels was trustee from 2001 to 2005, and president from 2005 to 2007 and 2009 to 2013.

"The village really needs to take a hard look at how it staffs people in the village," Bartels said. "After I left in 2013, I didn't understand why the village immediately hired two new full-time police officers."

Lynam defended the increases in both staff and police officers, citing increased workloads. Skillicorn said he would be in agreement with Bartels for moving toward a more part-time police force.

Although it makes up a small fraction of the village's funds, the community events budget has become an issue of contention among Bartels, Skillicorn and Lynam. At present it is $350,000, having ballooned from $15,000 in 2013.

"At the end of the day it's a substantial amount of money and I'm concerned what the return of investment is going to be," Bartels said.

Skillicorn and Lynam were both staunch in their defense of community events. Lynam said Bartels' criticism was "disingenuous." In his closing remarks, Skillicorn said it would be "foolhardy" to slash the community events budget. "We have a had a lot of really positive feedback on the money that we've spent," Lynam said. "Unless we're going to be willing to invest in the town, we're going to get what we had. And what we had wasn't cutting it."

"For every dollar we've spent, we've seen eight invested from private sector investors," Skillicorn wrote in his candidate questionnaire, referring to community events.

Candidate Alan Hall, a newcomer, sees himself as an advocate for the elderly and those on fixed incomes.

"So I guess you could call me an 'old newbie,'" said Hall, who said he was not a favor of TIF districts.

The candidates were asked about investment strategies for the village's reserve funds. Lynam has pushed for emergency reserve accounts. He said he wants to increase those from $100,000 to $1 million.

Skillicorn was less positive about a rainy-day fund, saying that having all that money saved up "would escalate costs."

Bartels said he would use reserves to pay off the wastewater treatment facility debt.

Early voting begins March 23 and the election is April 7.