On February 23rd at 6:00 pm I was in attendance at the Village of Winfield’s Budget work shop. This budget workshop was attended by Village President Birutis, every village trustee, Village Manager Curt Barrett, Police Chief Bellisario, and several members of the village staff. The idea of the workshop was to analyze the budget line-by-line and scrape whatever fat might still be sticking to the budget’s desiccated corpse. In my honest opinion, and this coming from a frequent critic of the village politicians, there is no more fat to remove. To their credit and considering the financial needs of the village are required to be met by law, the talk turned to tax increases and service reductions.
On the tax increase side of the equation, village residents can expect water rate increases over and above the required amount set by an audit to repair and maintain our infrastructure. We are also facing sewage processing increases, an additional garbage rate increase and the installation of red light cameras. On the service reduction side of the equation, we are looking at outsourcing the police department to the DuPage County Sheriff’s department. Plus eliminating the no-charge leaf vacuuming and yard waste pickup, which Trustee Jay Olson has stated as, “taking way the only perk that we have in this village.”
Without question the situation is dire. At the end of the meeting, Village President Birutis asked all in attendance that she was interested in hearing any ideas that could make or save money at the next budget workshop which was to be held on March 2nd, at 6:00 pm.
Now, hold that thought for a second…
On Tuesday morning of March 2nd a package had been placed in my door. It contained two documents; a copy of “Sustainable Revenues for Winfield: A Compromise Plan for Roosevelt Road” written by former Winfield Village Trustees, Chris Levan and Dale Bianco and a copy of a report written by current Village President Deborah Birutis and Village Trustee Jack Bajor entitled, “Sustainable Revenues for Winfield, No Compromises Needed.”
The first paragraph of the document written by Birutis and Bajor reads; “On October 13th 2005 Chris Levan presented his “Compromise Plan” for the commercial development of Roosevelt Road. Authored by Chris Levan and Dale Bianco the plan argues that Winfield is faced with “declining revenues” and that “the commercial development of Roosevelt Road is needed to narrow our existing revenue gap in the general fund.” President Birutis goes on to claim, “This is simply not true.”
Four and a half years after writing “No Compromises Needed” Birutis is contemplating raising the village’s portion of the resident’s property taxes, by some estimates up to 200%. If this isn’t the ghost of village boards past haunting the village board’s present, then I don’t know what is.
So the question remains, who among the current village board members will have the courage to announce, at a village meeting, that they have indeed contemplated an answer to Village President Birutis’ final question?
My assumption is when Ms. Birutis asked for any ideas for solutions to close the budget gap, if someone should suggest commercial development on our most promising traffic corridor you would find what she really meant was, “Anything But That.”
1. Aviva says:
March 6, 2010 at 9:11 am (Edit)
Tim a very informative and interesting article. Although I am at issue with your statement, “To their credit and considering the financial needs of the village are required to be met by law, the talk turned to tax increases and service reductions.”
Shouldn’t that statement read to OUR DETRIMENT instead of credit. Each one of these board members and especially Birurtis, Bajor, Kunesh, and VadeBobCoeur pledged to reduce taxes, reduce water rates and maintain our streets with Birutis, Bajor, and Kunesh campaigning on those issues NOT ONCE BUT TWICE!
2. Taxed Out says:
March 6, 2010 at 2:06 pm (Edit)
I’m outraged at what this board is proposing. Just last year we heard what a “great job” they all have done. Now it’s one increase after another, talk of service and police reductions and all of sudden we need millions of dollars for road repairs. Heads absolutely should roll for this and furthermore, I do not like being lied too.
3. Andrew J Jones says:
March 6, 2010 at 2:18 pm (Edit)
Can someone answer how Birutis and Bajor could be so far out of touch with our finances? Are they that brain dead? That statement in “No Compromises Need” reflects a complete lack of understanding of village finances and future needs.
How did the voters not see this? Not one good thing has come out of this board in years. How much longer is everyone going to wait to make a change? Or should I say at what point are the residents going to be fed up paying for incompetence.
4. Realities says:
March 8, 2010 at 11:50 am (Edit)
A 200% tax increase! Can only be explained by complete mismanagement by this board. Throw in reduction in services and higher fees for everything else and you have what maybe the most totally incompetent board in Winfield’s history. Which is a neat trick given just how bad Czech was as village president.
5. TMG says:
March 11, 2010 at 8:40 am (Edit)
“No Compromises Needed” is about two things. At a technical level it concerns Winfield United along with Birutis and Bajor’s unsound belief the towncenter would support 500 thousand square feet in retail business. The conclusion is unsupported by any data. The first being there is not 500 thousand square feet of land fronting streets in the entire towncenter. I wonder what “matrix” Trustees Birutis and Bajor used to arrive at their number? Maybe they were counting on multi-storied retail being a success? Even though study’s have proven multi-storied retail is challenged even in under optimum circumstances in cities like Chicago and New York.
The report reads as a manifesto to exclude Roosevelt Road from any development opportunities. Both Birutis and Bajor and especially Birutis are on record as adamantly opposing the rezoning of Roosevelt Road. Even though, the Roosevelt Road thoroughfare represents one of the highest and best revenue and development opportunities for our community. I wonder if the fact Ms. Birutis lives off Roosevelt Road has anything to do with her position? The reality is, all the western suburbs are moving forward while Winfield regresses. If we do not secure our southern border we will surely lose it to a very aggressive West Chicago.
Second, “No Compromises Needed” reveals Winfield United allowed a deeply flawed study to dominate the future direction of the village which suggests the possibility of bias in the report writing process. Ask yourself this question, in the past 5 years of Winfield United control why hasn’t there been even 5% of new retail square footage in towncenter of the 500 thousand sq/ft identified in their report? For that matter, why hasn’t there been even a measly 1% of “new” retail space created in our towncenter? The fact is, there has been a reduction in retail square footage with the closing of numerous businesses since the report was issued.
Honesty is required for credible economics, but when a tremendous personal agenda is at stake, honesty would make for bad politics, that is, if you are Winfield United, Birutis and Bajor. Accordingly, the report is flawed in both factual and economic assessments. Notably, Birutis and Bajor offered less a review than repetition of Winfield United ideology flatly stating as truths matters about which Birutis and Bajor have no particular understanding.
6. DePaul says:
March 12, 2010 at 10:49 am (Edit)
The Birutis/Bajor report No Compromises Needed is something like a goat: all sort of things go in the front end, but the same stuff will always come out the back end.