Endorsement: For North Barrington trustee, Murphy, Sauer, Weiner
A feisty race has broken out for three seats on the North Barrington village board between an establishment trio calling itself the Focused on North Barrington slate and a duo of challengers running together under the slogan "North Barrington, No Better Place."
The establishment slate is made up of plan commissioner Greg Rogus and trustees Lawre Weiner and Janice Sauer. The challenger slate is made up of contracts manager Jay Murphy and small business consultant Doug Ramsdale.
Murphy and Ramsdale promise to bring fresh energy, increased public safety and better communications to the community.
Rogus, Weiner and Sauer offer up a long list of endorsements by current and former village officials and say North Barrington has benefitted from their years of contributions and will benefit in the future from their experience.
One of the issues the challengers have raised is spotty meeting attendance by the incumbents - a criticism built primarily around a six-month around-the-world trip Weiner took last year.
Weiner, we should note, has been involved in community affairs for decades, as a trustee in North Barrington for 14 years, as a trustee and president of the Barrington Area Library Board for 12 years, as a plan commissioner and as a director of the Buehler YMCA.
That's a lot of commitment. That he missed meetings for the trip of a lifetime may be worthy of debate but it ought to be put in perspective of his years of service.
Frankly, the criticism might carry more weight except that Ramsdale apparently has shown little interest, even as a candidate, in attending meetings himself.
That said, the challengers have a point in calling for better communications from village hall. We think the incumbents are able but have not given transparency the attention it deserves.
No matter who is elected, we encourage them to make communications a bigger priority in the future.
We endorse Murphy, who bubbles with ideas and a new way of looking at things. We endorse Sauer, whose expertise in village affairs is clear. And we endorse Weiner, whose dedication to North Barrington is legendary.