A Crystal Lake Park District board member loudly and rudely moved to strike my speech concerning the Healthbridge acquisition from the July 21 agenda because I was from Huntley and had no expertise in municipal finance.
It’s patently false that where you live renders that your opinions irrelevant. If that were true, then the district should fire every out-of-town firm they engage for advice. This member would rightly oppose that; she only lobs this illogical attack against out-of-towners who disagree with her.
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If the member had bothered to contact me, she would have learned that I lived in the district for 35 years and moved only two years ago when my wife and I could no longer stay in our two-story house for health reasons. Despite months of looking, we couldn’t find a one-story house in the district and moved because we had to.
If she had contacted me, she would have learned I worked in municipal finance for 40+ years and had been active in numerous campaigns against local government initiatives that I thought were ill considered, as any reader of this paper knows. I even served on a financial advisory committee to the district’s Racket Club, at the manager’s request.
My position has always been the same: board members have an obligation to look at projects with ruthless objectivity. They should be watchdogs for the public, not attack dogs for anyone who doesn’t agree with them.
Citizens who speak to any local board deserve courtesy, not rude dismissal.
Steve Willson