As many of you recall we had a underage drinking operation about a month ago, which netted us a variety of first time liquor license offenders. I had quite a bit of feedback from residents wanting me to be more draconian in my punishment to first time violators. One of the reasons I leaned towards lienency with the first time offenders was the fact that one of the first timers was the Four Coynes Tavern and we wanted them open rather then shut.If you read yesterday's post you will know that we had been running a long-term undercover operation in the Four Coynes Tavern, that I and the police did not want to jeopardize. We gave serious consideration to not allowing the underage drinking operation to take place, however we were not going to stop the village's proactive policing business for one undercover operation.
I think that this particular situation illustrates many of the problems in the village that I have been trying to do away with. I had been asking for enforcement on our local liquor license holders for the entirety of my first term. The rumblings about slot machines and underage and after hours service were ones I heard, and others heard, quite a bit about. Despite my repeated questioning of our then existing police command structure I was told that we aggressively patrolled our bars for these exact violations, yet in fours years we had not one violation.
How come in the last 18-20 months we have uncovered and prosecuted violations ranging from illegal gambling to sex abusers with pit-stops at gang enforcement, drug busts and much much more? I find it hard to believe as some defenders of the old policing strategies would say that it just started, because of my changes in the policing structure.
Well to answer that lets put ourselves inside the mind of our gambling den owner. He hears that the old policing command structure is being replaced with a new command structure, so his first thought is hummmm we have a new Police Chief, lets start running poker games and have some slot machines brought in! Because clearly a new Chief is only going to do "nothing", because of course what other way is there for the new Police structure to go? Do we believe this is credible?
Clearly not! This problem with our liquor licenses, and old time ways of doing things has been rooted deeply in this village, its roots have gone deep, and over the last 5 years I have been yanking and picking at the root ball.
Under the new policing structure, we have a proactive policing strategy rather then a reactive strategy. Accountability and results are demanded, encouraged and rewarded on the staff level and we can already see the results.
In nearly six years of being Mayor I have learned one thing, that rooting out the underlying issues that made the old Round Lake, inefficient, takes time and persistence. It also is probably the most important thing I can and will do to make this a better place as your Mayor. If you want to review the promise I made to the village and have kept, read this post from almost 2 years ago.
Lets face facts, Round Lake was a small town, and is now a fast growing community with over 80% of the residents having moved here since 1990. The old model of village government was there to serve some very narrow self interests, those interests now are discovering that openness, transparency and accountability are very uncomfortable things for the old school business model. While 95% of the nonsense that was going on was and is not illegal, it was not ethically correct or appropriate in my opinion. Nepotism, cronyism and the "Mayberryish" management style of some of my former department heads and staff are gone for good, and will never return.
Newcomers have no idea what went on here before, and quite frankly probably don't care. What they do want is accountable, capable government that spends it's tax dollars wisely and with a purpose! Slowly but surely we are moving in that direction.
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