I believe that I could successfully refute Mr. Haley’s negative characterizations of me, but if I may focus one more time on a mistake of a past board: the example of Robert Milstein shows that attempting to refute Dan Haley point by point is like picking a fight with a policeman who is made entirely of horse manure. Win or lose, you’ll wish you hadn’t tried. I will only reiterate some ideas for positive action already floated by our slate:
Dissolve the TIF districts to restore transparency to budgeting and prevent
other taxing bodies from having to seek additional funds
Seek additional mechanisms for budgetary oversight, such as a citizen commission
Deal in good faith and in a timely fashion with village hall’s unions instead of going years without contracts
Work on a coherent village-wide plan for Oak Park retail, including dramatic simplification of business licensing
Look for green initiatives with low costs and immediate benefits, hardly a difficult task in a town with as many aging houses as this one
Increasingly, when people from out of town are told that one lives in Oak Park, they respond with an incredulous “why?” You can see their point: We have high property taxes, weakened city services, dying retail, and we’re busily destroying the historic character of our downtown at tremendous expense to ourselves. We can’t stop other towns from thinking poorly of our bad decisions, but we can stop making those bad decisions. Vote for change on April 7.
John Franklin is an It Takes a Village candidate for Oak Park village trustee.