Our village faces more challenges today than ever before. And yet at the very moment when we most need our elected officials to come together, Winfield has been drawn to a standstill by special interest and nothing is getting done. Why? Because our village board today serves special interest, and personal ambition, rather than the people they are suppose to represent.
The consequences are devastating. In the last six years we’ve witnessed our community fall further and further behind because the village board is locked into special interest’s narrow-minded ideology. Every year we struggle to find adequate funding for police protection, roads, infrastructure repairs and flooding as personal egos and special interest take center stage. We need to be investing in our community – a moral and economic priority – and we need to make Winfield more attractive for new businesses. But we’ll never make any progress on these or other priorities without decisive change at two levels: our institutions and the individuals we elected to serve us.
Yesterday was just another glaring example of the divide that continues to hold our town hostage. The village board and Village President Birutis refused to even discuss putting the question of ‘Districting’ on the November 2 ballot. In doing so Birutis and her board refused to give the people a choice in November. Why? At the institutional level I’m more convinced than ever that we need to control the flow of money in politics if we’re going to have a village board accountable to the people. Our current village board is beholden to the special interest group Winfield United and ‘Districting’ scares the hell out of them. ‘Districting’ strips them of their power, their control.
Winfield can no longer operate within a system that is a charade: hiding who holds the influence from the people while concentrating power in the hands of special interests. We need to identify the monies given too or on the behalf of candidates. This money far too often translates into unlimited spending to favor or defeat a candidate. If the candidate wins, the message is clear: a debt is owed. Over the last six years of the special interest group Winfield United’s money and control our community has been subjected to their undue influence and heavy-handedness.
We need to send the message to our elected officials that they should serve the people, not special interest and not themselves.
But let me be clear: institutional failures do not excuse Winfield’s gridlock. At the end of the day every elected official has a choice to serve the common good and the people they represent, or to serve the special interests and themselves. Money corrupts when politicians choose to let it determine who has their ear.
We must return politics to the people and there must be compromises. Finding workable solutions by talking with one another and finding alternatives that benefit the entire village. Winfield United’s big donors will not embrace such an approach. Compromise forces elected officials to confront difficult decisions. The votes our village officials cast affect the lives of real people. Hopes and dreams are at stake – ours, our children, our neighbors. Winfield has been ground to a halt because our elected officials have voted for a big donor’s interest instead of listening to the people, the entire community suffers.
Old-school politics has to go. Winfield United has to go. Now is the time for a new generation of leadership. It’s what our village needs and our community deserves.
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