Letter: Codes of conduct must not be ignored

To the Editor:

In November 2019, all six of the local taxing bodies that represent the Oswego community signed an intergovernmental agreement. The agreement involved the village of Oswego, Oswego Township, the Oswego Library District, the Oswego Fire Protection District, the Oswegoland Park District and Community Unit School District 308. The agreement does have significant conflicts of interest in it and should be discontinued immediately and rewritten in an objective manner and require independent legal representation by each individual taxing body immediately.

However, in this agreement as copied exactly as it was written states the following in Section 13, under Exhibit A: “Nothing contained in this Agreement, nor any act of any of the respective Governments pursuant to this Agreement, shall be deemed or construed by any of the Parties hereto or by third persons, to create any relationship of third party beneficiary, principal, agent, limited or general partnership, joint venture, or any association or relationship involving any of the Governments. Further, nothing in this Agreement should be interpreted to give any Government control over the other’s employees or imply a power to direct the employees of the other government body, which neither entity may exercise.”

I believe all who represent our local taxing bodies in our community need to read and better understand this section much more clearly. Those who represent each of our taxing bodies should enforce this section publicly against those who may attempt to violate this section of the agreement. It is the taxpayers of this community who will be left to pay for the issues, problems and conflicts of interests created by a lack of transparency and accountability of these agreements. Additionally, codes of conduct must not be ignored by those who represent each taxing body on behalf of us all.

With hundreds of millions of dollars of new development, infrastructure and growth upon us, it is imperative that the community be represented in a fair and equitable manner for then best outcome for everyone. Conflicts of interest should be announced at the start of any board meeting in this community.

David Edelman

Oswego