Endoresements: Greer, Hogan and Sorgatz for Winfield village board
Talks are stalled between the village of Winfield and Central DuPage Hospital-Northwestern over a medical, commercial and cultural development planned for the village's Town Center. And because this development is in jeopardy, so is Winfield's financial future.
This potential catastrophe is what has driven six candidates to run for three seats on the village board. And while all of them are serious, engaged candidates who - despite their disagreements - are more interested in the future of Winfield than in nitpicking each other, we think the stakes are too high to do anything but keep the current team in place.
Trustee Bob Greer, small-business owner Karri Custardo and Joslyn Almirall, a stay-at-home mom with an engineering background, defend and support the negotiating team of Village President Erik Spande and Village Manager Curt Barrett, including the public relations campaign being waged to embarrass the hospital and bring it to heel.
The remaining candidates, Trustees Dennis Hogan and Carl Sorgatz and high school teacher Emily Jacobs, take issue in varying degrees with the lack of progress, how Spande and Barrett have handled the negotiations, the lack of note-taking that has led to a dispute over what the hospital did or did not agree to, and the demonization of CDH-Northwestern.
Where all six agree, is that CDH-Northwestern needs to pay property taxes, preferably forever. Illinois hospitals are exempt from property taxes as long as they provide at least as much charitable assistance as what they would pay in taxes - a fact reaffirmed by the Illinois Supreme Court in October.
But Winfield, a leafy village with about 10,000 residents, is not like most suburbs with large hospital complexes. The 390-bed CDH already has an oversized footprint here, by taking more than 50 percent of all potential taxable commercial land off the rolls. Moreover, the biggest chunk of the remaining Town Center is owned by the hospital - which, with a lot of tax-exempt medical buildings on it, would leave Winfield with an even greater dearth of taxable land.
We don't know how the negotiations will play out. But we believe Winfield's best chance for the future lies with the people who have prudently not been putting all of Winfield's eggs into the Town Center basket. The current board has brought in a $23 million e-Commerce Center and residential development along County Farm Road, and is actively planning for development along Roosevelt Road and a potential 150-unit apartment complex.
Greer, Hogan and Sorgatz are endorsed.