Update: Tim Allen has invited you to the Winfield Districting BBQ

5 Reasons to Politically District Winfield

33 Benefits of Districting

Sunday, August 1, 2010 – 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Personal message from Tim:

As you may know there have been many leaders of the community of Winfield that have been walking around this summer with petitions to have Winfield Politically Districted.

Winfield politicians are currently elected at large, which means that they can come from anywhere inside the village, they can even be next door neighbors. Oftentimes the Winfield politicians live within a few block radius of each other, concentrating the political power in one neighborhood and leaving vast stretches of the village without any political voice. Electing Winfield politicians at large may have worked well in the old days when Winfield was smaller, but as time went by and the town grew it set the stage for inequities and constant political in-fighting. It’s time to move Winfield’s politics in a healthy direction, it’s time to district Winfield to provide fair representation to all parts of our town.

The window of opportunity for signing a petition to politically district Winfield is drawing to a close. Tony Reyes has kindly offered his house at 27W024 Jewell Road this Sunday, August 1 from 1:00 to 3:30 as a place to turn in your districting petitions and have them notarized to make them official. If you haven’t collected any signatures yourself there is still time to do it. Just print out the attached PDF and have your neighbors sign it, then drop it off at the BBQ at Tony’s house this Sunday. I hope that everyone can bring 10 signatures but if you would prefer, you can just stop by and sign one of the many petitions that will be available for any registered voter living in Winfield.

While you are there, feel free to share in a brat or hot dog and a frosty beverage. Take a moment to sit down with Tony Reyes and Tim Allen and have a chat about anything that may concern you with regard to the village or just tell us how your summer has been going.

Download Your Winfield Districting Petition Here

We appreciate your time and commitment in advance to making Winfield a better place to live.

Thank you,

Tim Allen & Tony Reyes

630.344.9354 – Call if you get lost.

Video: Winfield Village Board ‘No Plan for Generating Needed Revenues’

Click the link below to go to the story.

Winfield’s Good Old Days Near An End?

WU’s Rockett Owes An Apology

Winfield United Director Rockett owes Tim Allen an apology.

The short backstory [For a longer version, click on: Not an Anonymous Mailing in Winfield - Political Districting Mailer] Last week, Tim Allen sent out an informational mailer explaining the need for ‘Political Districting’ in Winfield. Contained within the flier was a very carefully laid out map showing where Winfield United’s  funding was coming from.  Shockingly, the map showed 98% of Winfield United’s financial support is concentrated in a very small quadrant in the southwest section of town, lending even more credence to Mr. Allen’s argument that Winfield’s residents would greatly benefit from ‘Political Districting.’  Within the mailing, not only was Mr. Allen’s name displayed, the informational flier also included Mr. Allen’s email address and his phone number.  This could hardly be considered an anonymous mailing by any stretch of the imagination.  Also, prior to the flier being mailed Mr. Allen had a series of email exchanges with Winfield United President Steve Romanelli regarding that very same flier.

Yet Winfield United Director Rockett, resorted to gross misrepresentations to try and impugn Mr. Allen’s character.  All the while trying to shield his organization from the problems they have  created in town.  In this case he fails, he doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Rockett was indulging in “distortions and evasions” and his reaction to Mr. Allen is emblematic of somebody whose organization is not holding up under scrutiny.  Mr. Allen is simply a new player in an arena Winfield United believes belongs exclusively to them and their small group of deep pocketed backers.

Given the nature of Winfield politics a certain amount of pandering is to be expected.  But this time Rockett and Winfield United went too far.  Does Rockett really believe what happens in Winfield stays in Winfield?  Rockett owes Tim Allen an apology for saying “blatantly untrue” things about him.  And, for attempting to undermine an effort that would bring better representation for all of Winfield. Furthermore, Rockett owes each and every resident of Winfield an apology also.

Not an Anonymous Mailing In Winfield

On June 1, 2010 The Daily Herald ran this story:

Why an Anonymous Mailing in Winfield?

On June 5, 2010 The Daily Herald ran the rebuttal:

Winfield mailer was hardly ‘anonymous’

The fact is that it wasn’t anonymous and how anyone could make the mistake is beyond me. I, Tim Allen, sent the mailing. I put my name on it. I put my Email Address on it. I put my phone number on it and then as if that weren’t enough, I invited the whole Village of Winfield to come to a meeting on May 26th at John’s Buffet and talk about the pros and cons of Politically Districting Winfield. To go a step further, I invited Steve Romanelli president of Winfield United and Jed Skillman, founding member of Winfield United to debate me at that May 26th meeting and gave them a full month of notice about the time, date and location. I posted the mailer two weeks before it was printed or mailed to a popular local news website named www.winfield411.com and asked for donations to defray the costs. I even got an email from Winfield United President Steve Romanelli that referenced an excerpt from the mailer  before it went to print.

Before the letter to the editor of the Daily Herald was sent I fielded two emails from Winfield United, one by Steve Romanelli himself as to whether I was the publisher of the direct mail piece. I answered in the affirmative.

I honestly don’t know how I could be more up front and honest about what I am doing and what my goals are for the Village of Winfield. My goal is to find sustainable revenues for Winfield that don’t revolve around picking the pocket of the taxpayers every time something breaks. I believe Winfield’s best chances for sustainable revenues are by developing Roosevelt Road as a commercial district. I feel that Winfield United and their excessive support from a two block area with their backyards all being Roosevelt Road represent a political obstacle to this development. I think that the $18 Million Road Referendum (over 20 years)  is essentially a wealth transfer payment from all the citizens that do not live near Roosevelt to all the citizens that do and I believe that this fact is abundantly obvious if you look at the map of where WU gets their monetary support.

I have learned a lesson though, next time I send a mailer about the problems associated with a high percentage of the Village of Winfield not having a political voice, I will ring Rock Rocket’s door bell and hand him the mailer.

-Tim Allen

At the Board Meeting with Mr. Allen

Village Board Meeting News, June 03, – 2010

Not a lot happened at the village board meeting:

1. Klein Creek Golf Club got their noise variance. The only NO vote was Trustee Olson.
2. Jed and Karen Skillman got their variance for a sun room on their house.
3. The village board heard a review of the flag lot ordinance with the only real interesting part being when Cliff Mortenson got up and explained the reason’s why we do the things we do with regard to planning and zoning. His explanation of zoning regulation with regard to fire protection issues was very informative. I believe it is a great asset to have Cliff as Chairman of the Planning Commission.
4. There was more discussion of killing the free leaf vacuuming service in the fall. You should expect to have to bag your leaves, if not this year then next year for certain. I offered some clever and entrepreneurial solutions to the problem and was laughed at by the village manager.
5. Village President Deborah Birutis has been hard at work talking with our neighboring towns about border agreements. I have FOI’d the maps and will get them to you ASAP.

Fun With Steve Romanelli

Romanell Rants Part II

Editors Note: The following is a continuing series of email exchanges between Tim Allen and the President of the political action committee Winfield United, who is now going by the name Steve J Romanelli. The emails were forwarded to us by Mr. Allen with his permission to post them for everyone to read.

Email 5

Tim,

Now now…….there are some nice compliments in what I sent so you can hide some in there as well. Please remember, I have not, nor will I ever run for public office so I am not sure what was self serving for me in Stan’s paper. Say what you want about Stan, but at least he had the balls to print anyone’s comments who were in opposition to him so long as they identified themselves. Simple concept. Unfortunately, so many of those who choose to attack on 411 are cowards and need to hide behind someone else’s skirt. These are YOUR supporters now and you say you need to speak with them on a daily basis. You seriously can’t believe 411 is as good as it gets.

I have no problem offering my opinion and I don’t need to head fake anyone. I do believe there are so many good people in our village who have donated their time and efforts to best serve the village. They need to be supported for doing their best, not blatantly attacked. Winfield411 and its founders have been spewing the same garbage for years. Their sole purpose is to be disruptive and destructive, without consideration for truth or accountability.  Yet, you believe this is your best avenue to talk to the residents of Winfield. Seriously, you believe this.

You really do not know me and you certainly do not know Winfield United. We do not run the village, contrary to some people’s distorted opinion, and while we support a strong Town Center and certainly want the village to be successful, our best support is for keeping good, honest people in office who will do their best to serve the village first and foremost.

You and I will most likely not see eye to eye on many issues, but that does not matter. What matters to me is Winfield. If you honestly share that feeling then maybe there is some common cause that will find us working together. The Riverwalk is where my focus will be for now.

Steve J. Romanelli

Email 6

Steve, you took too long to get back to me before I had already sent this on to 411. I didn’t think you added anything of value with your final reply so I just let it go. I apologize if you feel that I somehow misrepresented our email exchange.

-Tim

Email 7

I do give you credit for standing up for what you believe, even if I don’t always agree with it. I believe that separates you and I from others.

Did you author the mailing? I did not see your signature, though I saw your email promoting the debate club.

Are you interested in any facts or are you set in your ways to distort them?

Steve J. Romanelli

Email 8

Steve,

Thanks for the compliment. I like to think of myself as tenacious. Yes I authored the mailing. I guess I thought that the “author” part was implied by the fact that the email address that was on there to RSVP for the Debate was TimAllen57@Gmail.com. I also put my phone number on there with a message from yours truly for anyone that rang me. You are the second person that thought it was anonymous so I apologize for the confusion. I take credit and blame for everything I do. Including but not limited to my snark of trustee Bajor. I assume that because of your trolling of 411 that you have seen it?

I am very interested in the facts. I would love to do a write up for 411 and god’s honest truth I was going to wait to contact you about it until I had the DVD of the meeting. I was planning to post your public comment to youtube and then send you a link asking you to elaborate. Unfortunately, the DVD has not been forthcoming yet so I have not contacted you yet.

Would you like to wait to see your comments again in video? Then you can fill in any gaps that may have been left unspackled?

I don’t really think I distorted anything. I got your donor list off the State of Illinois website. I plotted the addresses on Google earth. I wrote an editorial which links to a factual Daily Herald article and then issued a call to action. This wasn’t very Zegel-esque. It was factual up to the editorial which is of course my opinion and can only be assailed with another opinion. So to that end, you can send out your own mailer.

Seriously Steve, I like you as a person and I will tell you the same thing that I told Birutis. This isn’t about you. You can lie to me, cheat, steal or be a nice guy, feed the poor and clothe the naked and I will treat you nicely when I meet you and shake your hand at the public meetings. My problem is with your policies and with WU’s policies (and by extension Birutis’ policies). I believe that as a person you are unassailable until you step into the cage match of ideas. At that point, your policies, motivations and actions are all fair game. I am certain I can still work with you, or Birutis for that matter on any one of your charitable or ecological endeavors. I can clearly see the good that WU does for the village through it’s civic arm. But, your policies have coalesced around a zero growth group of people that is starving the town of revenue. Some of the zero growthers are interested in keeping Winfield as Mayberry for nostalgic reasons and some are interested in zero growth because it is in their back yards. As evidenced by your money donors, there is a big contingent of wealthy NIMBY’s. Those people are causing for a wealth transfer payment between the rest of this town and them when they ask for us tax payers to pony up instead of using our resources wisely and developing them into revenue streams for the town. Like you, I can’t stand bullies. How ironic.

I may be totally wrong and you may be totally right. This town might not want to grow or change or develop one stitch of land and if this is the case, I will learn my lesson and keep my mouth shut from that point forward. However, if ever there was a time for change it is right now. I have made my positions open and notorious. I feel badly that anonymous people leave caustic comments on news outlet comment boards but you have to keep in mind that you were the one that stepped into the limelight.

I hope that you can understand that if el zapato en el otro pie that you would be (and will be at some point) doing the same thing to me. My intentions are pure, there is nothing in this for me personally other than good governance, a sound budget and discretionary operating capital.

-Tim

Email 9

You should go check the contributor names for this group. This was the 2005 election. When you list $31,000 or so of WUPC for the last nearly 6 years, this year constituted 60% due to the nature of that election and the amount that was being spent by outside developers and their supporters to fund Winfield candidates. Think this was open and honest government?

They spent nearly $45,000 during the same election year that WUPC spent about $19,000. Of course money cannot “buy” an election when you have bad candidates or a bad message. If you are so concerned about the truth and the facts it would be worth your while. I have all of the names of the contributors but thought you might want to research on your own since you don’t believe things I have to say. (Winfield residents do not appear in the top contributors)

If you care about the truth, there are plenty of other similar reasons why people in the village get involved. If you just care about your own personal ego being satisfied and serving your small group of “advisors”, keep doing the same things you are doing now.

Steve J. Romanelli

Email 10

Steve,

Clearly you are correct. Luckily, I am not them so your point is a little irrelevant.

I trust that because of your attachment I can count on your unwavering support for political districting to stamp out this kind of malignancy upon our democracy. I can see the headline now. Tim Allen and Steve Romanelli work to district Winfield to prevent both Klein Creek on the North and Washington Street / Marion Road on the South from dominating Winfield politics.

If you don’t mind, I will await the changes to your website home page before I take the picture, shaking your hand, for the press.

-Tim

BTW: You hurt my feelings suggesting that I have advisors. What you are seeing here is pure unadulterated political novice going on… I’ll make my own mistakes.

Editors Note:

Contrary to the self-serving rantings of  Steve J Romanelli, President of the political action committee Winfield United, Winfield411/blog is an information blog publication that goes against the grain and tells stories that many in power and especially Romanelli’s organization Winfield United would prefer to be kept secret.

Since our founding, we have generated a truthful counter-narrative to the false narrative that has long dominated Winfield.  We’ve done this by bringing together columnists, editorial writers and residents, who dared tell the unwelcome truths about those in control of our town.

Romanelli Rants

Editors Note: The following is a series of email exchanges between Tim Allen and the President of the political action committee Winfield United, who is now going by the name Steve J Romanelli. The emails were forwarded to us by Mr. Allen with his permission to post them for everyone to read.

Email 1

Hi Tim,

Just wondered how your WU debate went. I am sure I know the outcome. I saw you had quoted me from some conversation we had a year ago (as you stated) about why I started WU. Interesting recollection. Is that all I had to say?

Anyway, I do remember a conversation we had several years ago when we first met at the chamber installation dinner when you were a candidate and you told me that I looked bad wasting my time on 411 swinging at “ghosts”. At least you still have the balls to identify yourself, but why on earth are you wasting your time supporting such a group of gutless wonders?

If people want change, it is hard to do so when you are some fake alias on a dead end blog site.

Good luck with your battles. I like your energy but wish you focused on doing some positive things inside the village with positive people.

Steve J. Romanelli

Email 2

Steve,

The Winfield Debate Club meeting about Districting has not happened yet. I moved it to the Wednesday after the next village hall meeting. The next Referendum meeting at the village hall is May 22. Of course they never advertised it so I am sure the room will be empty. The next debate club is May 26 (Wednesday) 7:00 at John’s Buffet.

Winfield411’s last incarnation was counterproductive. It’s a blog now and the writers are more than happy to put their names up there. You may notice Patti Weber did a nice post that is up there now. The comments are still anonymous but that is no different than any blog anywhere including places like the New York Times.

I don’t think that it is a dead end anymore. I also need a place to communicate with the people on a daily basis. 411 suits that purpose fine. The way I see it there are people that hate the site, people that like the site and people that have never heard of it. I am interested in communicating with the last two.

Considering we don’t have a newspaper and we certainly haven’t had one that was unbiased in awhile I am thinking that 411 is as good as it gets.

The way I see it I AM doing positive things for positive ends. Roosevelt Road is going commercial and I am going to put everything I have behind that charge. Having sustainable revenues is the most positive and important and pressing opportunity to come up in my 7 years in this town. You should help me get it done.

-Tim

Email 3

Hi Tim,

Sorry but that is a sad state if you need a place like 411 to get your message across. You are better than that…..at least I think you are. Any blog that “controls” who is able to post and uses selective editing on comments they choose as beneficial to their site is not a blog by any sense, just a self serving propaganda tool.

I have no problem supporting sustainable revenue and if Roosevelt Rd. is the best option, so be it. If it was a good project that provided a nice look (I don’t believe your concept drawing is realistic, but sure is pretty), then I would be in favor. However, I have always wanted a Town Center with a Riverwalk and my efforts would be focused on at least making this a reality. Why not join me on doing this first?

We have some spots on the committee and could use someone with excessive energy ;)

Steve J. Romanelli

Email 4

Steve,

Excessive energy. Heh. Very funny.

Your indignation is selective. You should have found your voice when Stan Zegel’s propaganda tool was self-serving you.

Work on Town Center first? I learned a few things from knocking around the North Woods in Wisconsin. More hooks in the water catche more fish. Your support for Roosevelt Road is a head-fake. There is no more work involved in changing the town center plan to allow for development on Roosevelt Road than there is in working on Town Center. It’s not like Deb Birutis is digging the foundations to those spectacular buildings in town center herself. The reality is that the documentation (comprehensive plan) is the only “work” involved. There is no good reason to start one project “first” before starting the other. I would like a vibrant town center as well but to borrow another phrase from fishing, you have to fish were the fish are. There are tens of thousands of fish driving down Roosevelt Road every day.

I will believe you are serious about sustainable revenues for Winfield when Winfield United puts that as a goal on your website.

-Tim

Editors Note:

Contrary to the self-serving rantings of  Steve J Romanelli, President of the political action committee Winfield United, Winfield411/blog is an information blog publication that goes against the grain and tells stories that many in power and especially Romanelli’s organization Winfield United would prefer to be kept secret.

Since our founding, we have generated a truthful counter-narrative to the false narrative that has long dominated Winfield.  We’ve done this by bringing together columnists, editorial writers and residents, who dared tell the unwelcome truths about those in control of our town.

At the Board Meeting with Mr. Allen

Village Board Meeting News, May 20, – 2010

The following is a recap of the highlights  from the village board meeting of 5-20. The only real thing of noteworthiness was that the house was PACKED with Klein Creek Residents. I would say 30 or more were in attendance.

The village board thanked all the volunteer organizations in Winfield. All volunteer organizations in attendance spoke a few words. In attendance was WEMA, the Chamber of Commerce, Bikeways Group, Winfield Community Garden, The Riverwalk committee and the Lions Club. Conspicuous absences included The Winfield Juniors, the Boy Scouts, and the Knights of Columbus.

1. We signed up a new Police Officer, Joseph Gaske. He was intended to fill one of the two vacancies on the force.
2. Morgan’s Charhouse received their permit for outdoor seating.
3. The Park District received their approval for an electric sign.
4. The contract to repave Metra Commuter Parking lot E was awarded for $60,000.
5. The Village signed a 3 year Lease with a coffee vendor for the Metra Station.
6. Klein Creek Residents had another opportunity to vent frustrations about the noise associated with the golf course to the village board. Some progress was made between the course owner and the residents when switching from gas powered mowers to electric  mowers was tentatively agreed upon.
7. Wheaton Christian Grammar School was again in front of the board regarding driving a irrigation well.
8. Changing the outdoor seating regulations in the village code was brought up again as well as the progress made by the Planning Commission.

Until next time………………….

Progress at the Plan Commission V1.0

I was going to try to have a little fun with this story but I believe it is best served by writing it straight. It’s some rare good news in the Village of Winfield and with a little bit of luck it will be a trend we can nurture and grow.

I wrote an article called ” A Dear John Letter” for Winfield 411. In the article I talked about the monstrous regulatory overhang of bureaucracy that was involved in John’s Buffet trying to expand their outdoor seating. I also outlined how there was a difference between a “Sidewalk Cafe” and a “Outdoor Patio” and how the difference was $3000 in fees not to mention months of time spent lobbying the planning commission and then lobbying the village board to allow Winfield restaurants to offer dining “al fresco”.

I submitted the article to Winfield 411 and it was about a week before it was published which turned out to be the day after the May 6th village board meeting. In that meeting Trustee Jay Olson was exceptionally animated. I don’t really know how to say this so I will just ramble around to convey the point. Usually at the village board meetings nobody takes a strong position on anything. The trustee’s either spend many excruciating minutes of my life thanking somebody, or congratulating themselves for a job well done. Trustee Jack Bajor is the worst for taking 10 precious minutes of my life that I will never get back to say absolutely nothing of relevance and make me want to pull my eyeballs out the whole time. This time was different, at least where Trustee Jay Olson was concerned. In a very politically correct and executive-esque way he ripped everybody (and nobody) a new orifice. It was a very general (and very specific) call to action in a very forceful (yet very polite) way. He did it twice, and it was so incredibly cool to watch I requested the DVD from the vllage the next day, with the hope that I could cut out the two separate instances I am referring to, so I could upload them here to 411. I really do think you need to see what I saw.

What I saw was Trustee Olson unload to the room about how arcane the village code was and how unworkable it was for outdoor seating at our restaurants. What I believe I heard was Trustee Olson suggesting now was the time the village board should come together to fix our village code to stop inhibiting the businesses in town [John's Buffet, Gianario's Sandwich Shop and Morgan's Charhouse] and start working with them. I may have been reading into what he was saying but I believe it was a forceful call to action to rework Winfield into a business friendly place where outdoor seating is a simple permit process and can be applied for and received in a few days time. From his comments, I believe he is on the hunt for ordinances like our outdoor seating fiasco that needs to be changed permanently to allow an entrepreneur a chance to run his business in peace.

Unfortunately, the DVD the village gave me was bad and I am still working on getting you a video link but I did some more digging and the story gets better.

It involves Winfield Plan Commissioners Dolly Pointer and Cliff Mortenson. It also involves that very rare animal named “leadership” which hasn’t been seen in these parts since old Winfield Scott himself drove the first railroad spike at Hedges Station for the Union Pacific Railroad.

Check back tomorrow around Noon for the conclusion.