Move over Todd Stroger and Rod Blagojevich, River Forest has its candidate for “politician with the most gall,” and his name is John Rigas. Having served as finance chairman of the District 200 Board of Education, he led the effort to raise our taxes unnecessarily in the infamous “backdoor tax referendum.” When the next teacher contract negotiations came up, the teachers demanded and received an exorbitant raise because of the huge projected surplus in the budget. How dumb can a board of education be? Their action also put the elementary districts, which truly needed the funding, in a difficult situation since those boards knew that any additional referendum would be defeated.
Now Mr. Rigas wants to do the same for River Forest and is running for village president. Will he once again raise taxes unnecessarily and grant exorbitant raises to employees?
This is not a letter endorsing Mr. Hoke. I have never met the man or had associations with him. But John Rigas has disqualified himself from holding public office in River Forest.
Charles Vietzen
River Forest
