COMMENTARY--Round Lake Lake Plans (Part 1 of 3)

Last week I reported to the village board on my attendance at the Round Lake Area Lake Management Commission's annual report to the villages. Trustee Don Newby also attended with me.

They have done an exceptional job of creating a viable workable framework and a road map forward for protecting the lake.

The commission is a 9 person board with each community that has its borders on the lake appointing via the Mayor three people to the commission, our three appointees are Doug Vehlow, Niel Flamm and John Gutknecht (serving as Chairman).

Some of the projects that the commission undertake are as follows:

• Annual Lake Clean up
• Fishing Derby
• Veneitian Night
• Detailed mapping of the lake bottom (no train engine was found)
  
• Participating in a Illinois State study on lake use by residents.

As I sat listening to the various lake issues I started to think about how we could do better as a muncipality with our lake namesake and in parts 2 and 3 of this commentary I will address them.

COMMENTARY--National Do Not Call Registry

As many of you know I am am running for state senator, and as such I have a campaign headquarters. The headquarters has a phone which we did not immediately place on the National Do Not Call List. I also misplaced the pin number for the voice mail and it took a few days for me to access the voice mail. So what do these two things have in common?

Well when I finally located the pin number and logged on I had in the space of less then 10 days we had 74 voice mail messages, which of course got me excited until after listening to them for 35 minutes and discovering that 62 of them were junk calls! Unbelievable!

I get no junk phone at the house and have been on the on the do not call list since it came out. Clearly one government program that works!

Is it just me? Or is this inappropriate?

In my Chicago Tribune there is a magazine insert called Parade magazine which on Today's cover had a picture of Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated on the 27th of December. The article focused on her return to power in the upcoming elections in Pakistan. In fact the article was clearly written over a month ago. What was the thinking process here?

One can only guess that since they print Parade all over the US in 100's of papers well in advance they decided rather then reprint and lose money, they would slip a fast one over on the American public, because of course who will notice, because we pay no attention to other countries?

I am curious how many other people noticed this? I am just shaking my head.

The website link has a disclaimer by the way!

Lets Not Forget

COMMENTARY-- Four Coynes Decision from the Illinois Liquor Commision

What happens if you run a gambling den for years, serve underage minors in your bar, and have illegal slot machines in your bar and get caught!

Here's how you handle it, appeal appeal appeal, the Illinois Liquor Commission (ILC) will let you off the shut-down hook and keep you open. According to other Mayors I talked to in the last few days, it's the way they do it! They all told me there horror stories. So now we are in the club!

Of course the owner has to pay a fine, because of course the municipality does it right, the owner admits to everything at the liquor hearing. Even then you get to remain open! Here is the decision in PDF format for you to enjoy.

Excellent!

The ILC did not overturn my decision they just called it overly harsh! The penalty was changed to a $10,000 fine, which is one of the largest levied in a long time by the ILC.

Other then a few old timers, the vast majority of residents here were supportive of my aggressive stance on this issue. So despite the fact that this train wreck of a bar is open, we are still going to continue aggressive action with our liquor licenses throughout the village.

We are not going to tolerate underage drinking of any kind, nor are we going to tolerate illegal gambling either in our fine bars and restaurants.

If you want to read the back story to this story go here.

Be Neighborly

COMMENTARY-- Gangs Part 2

The Round Lake Area had traditionally benefited from many multi-jurisdictional efforts such as the Lakes Management Commission, Chamber of Commerce, the Round Lake Area Park District, parades and events. It is a little know fact among many area residents that the Round Lake Area police departments have worked closely for a number of years. Recently, the Round Lake Area Chiefs of Police meet and agreed to increase the level of multi-jurisdictional law enforcement efforts.

The Chiefs recognized that their departments are routinely dealing with the same offenders throughout the Round Lake area. For example, a delinquent juvenile who attends the Round Lake High School might live in Round Lake Park and probably hangs out in Round Lake Beach (this is only an example and not meant to indicate that delinquent juveniles live in Round Lake Park). That delinquent juvenile could possibly come into contact with three different police departments. Why should three separate police departments build three separate cases against the same delinquent juvenile? Why not join forces and maximize resources? That is exactly what the Round Lake Area police departments are doing.

Starting this spring, the Round Lake Area police departments will be increasing their cooperative enforcement efforts in the areas of gangs, general investigations, DUI enforcement, commercial vehicle enforcement, boat patrol and areas of CALEA accreditation that the departments share such as dispatch. I applaud these efforts and hope that they will have a positive impact on the limited crime that we have in the Round Lake Area.

COMMENTARY-- Gangs Part 1

This is the first of a multiple part discussion of gangs. There will be another part that discuss some of the steps that our police are taking in conjunction with the other police departments in the area to combat gangs in the area. Much of the information gathered here is from the following two sources (here and here) in addition Police Chief Cliff Metaxa helped quite a bit.

The existence of gangs in the Round Lake Area is not a new or recent phenomenon. The following is a brief discussion of the history of gangs and specifically Chicago based street gangs.

Gangs in the United States have been traced back to the post Revolutionary War days and originally formed as a means of self-protection and as social clubs. In the early nineteenth century, Irish immigrants formed the first street gangs in New York City. By the 1920's, the city of Chicago is reported to have had over 1300 gangs in the city

In the 1960's a "youth group" called the Black P-Stone Rangers developed into a criminal organization. The group's leader, Jeff Fort, united the leaders of some 50 area street gangs into a single organization, the “Black P-Stone Nation”. The group was controlled by a 21-man commission, self-titled the "Main 21". The leaders projected the group as a socially conscious, self-help organization that would help uplift themselves and their community. As a result of this premise, the group sought and obtained $1.4 million in federal anti-poverty funds. These funds were then used to support the group's illegal activities. A federal grand jury uncovered the funds mismanagement and Jeff Fort was sent to federal prison.

The perceived success of Fort's Black P-Stone Nation resulted in the formation of many other street gangs, which claimed to be politically and socially motivated. Of the groups that surfaced, many dropped to a level of disorganization, while others developed into sophisticated, highly organized groups involved in prostitution, robbery, burglary, extortion, and drug sales.

Two very influential gangs, the Black Disciples, led by David Barksdale, and the Gangster Disciples, led by Larry Hoover, followed Fort's example and unified their gangs to form the Black Gangster Disciple Nation. Throughout the 1970's, the Black P-Stone Nation and Black Gangster Disciple Nation controlled the Chicago drug trade and became bitter rivals expressing their anger by creating the bloodiest gang war in Chicago's history.

During the 1980's, within the prison walls, gangs began separating into alliances. The two alliance names that emerged were the “People Nation” and “Folk Nation”. All gangs that were originally aligned with the Black P-Stone Nation aligned with People Nation. Those that were originally aligned with the Black Gangster Disciple Nation aligned with the Folk Nation.
Many gangs or "sets", as they are called, are aligned with one of the two Chicago alliances. The more prevalent groups are shown below by alliance.

People Nation Sets

• Black P-Stone
• Latin Kings
• Vicelords
• Spanish Lords
• El Rukns
• Bishops
• Gaylords
• Latin Counts
• Kents

Folk Nation Sets

• Black Gangster Disciples
• Black Disciples
• Gangster Disciples
• La Raza
• Cobras
• Eagles
• Latin Disciples
• Maniac Latin Disciples
• Simon City Royals
• Spanish Gangsters
• Two Sixers

It is very common for Chicago-based gangs to maintain charters, constitutions, recruiting documents, and other written materials. These documents are almost always in cryptic code or subliminally hidden in artwork. Rules and codes of conduct must be strictly followed. Those members who choose not to participate in a gang activity are subject to disciplinary action or "violations".

Graffiti is used by gangs to communicate with fellow members and rivals. Disrespect to a rival gang or their members is accomplished by displaying rival symbols in a disrespectful manner. The disrespect of symbols communicates hatred toward the rival group. This type of graffiti encourages retaliation. The most effective method of preventing this activity is to quickly remove the graffiti in order to reduce the amount of recognition gained by the act. Notify local authorities and request the removal of graffiti.

In the Round Lake Area, you can contact CenCom at the non-emergency telephone number (847-270-9111) to report graffiti. In the Village of Round Lake, the village code 9.16.080 states:

It shall be the duty of the owner of the structure or wall upon which any inscription or representation prohibited in subsection A of this section is made, to block or remove such inscription or representation or to otherwise repair or restore the structure or wall to its prior condition within twenty-four (24) hours from receipt of notice of such occurrence.

If you have any questions about gangs you can contact your local police department. If you live in the Village of Round Lake you can contact the Round Lake Police Department at (847) 546-8112.

Spring Cleaning, Donations, and Pruning my Wardrobe

Last weekend I went into my closet, in a pair of boxers and a T-shirt and made 100's of critical fashion choices. Each factor was weighed on a scale of 1-10 and given the appropriate weighting on a geometric scale creating a wearability co-efficient.

Alright who am I kidding I tossed anything I was not likely to wear again and or could not fit into into a giant pile, carried it downstairs put in bags where it awaits pick up.

I left it outside for the Salvation Army who drive through the neighborhoods once a month or so, and look on your front porches for the stuff, and then check closely for the yellow card. In my case they drove by the house (I saw them) and never stopped! So this morning I am going to drive down to Goodwill and drop the clothes off on my way to a Lake County Womens breakfast.

COMMENTARY-- Four Coynes Liquor Hearing

What follows below is a copy of the decision that I took after the Liquor hearing on the Four Coynes matter last week. Mr Coynes stipulated (ie agreed with them) to the charges at the hearing, and basically asked me be lenient because of numerous family issues. I wrestled briefly with some form of mitigation but ultimately I did not feel that Mr. Coynes had been open and candid with me. Mr. Coynes was notified by fax and in writing as to my decision on Monday.

The level of professionalism by agencies involved in this, was and is impressive, Lake County MEG, all the Round Lake Area Police Departments, McHenry Police, the Lake County States Attorney, and the Round Lake Police Department were all involved and had buy in. The undercover work, two simultaneous raids, booking officers, evidence technicians, and of course the officers involved in raid exhibited a high level of sophistication and professionalism that we can all be proud of.

Here's the commentary portion of this post: We are serious about enforcing the liquor ordinances in Round Lake, if you have a license, obey the law! I have heard that one non gambling machine has been removed from a local bar already so the climate is improving. I take my job as Liquor commissioner seriously, not every decision is going to be popular, but we do need decisions to be made, and sometimes they are hard and affect peoples lives.

What follows below is the actual text of the order I wrote and had made into a legal document and then signed earlier this week.

This matter having come on to be heard upon a Citation and Notice of Hearing directing Licensee, FOUR COYNES, INC., to appear before the Local Liquor Control Commission of the Village of Round Lake, Lake County, Illinois, on an allegation of conducting illegal gambling activities upon the licensed premises at 302 Nippersink Road, Round Lake, Illinois on January 24, 2007 and upon hearing the Liquor Commissioner finding by offer of proof by the prosecution and stipulation of the Licensee that the Licensee by and through its officer and agent, SCOTT E. COYNE, did conduct illegal gambling activities as alleged and pursuant to that offer of proof and stipulation, the Liquor Commissioner further finds:

• That Licensee intentionally and knowingly disregarded the liquor ordinances in the Village of Round Lake and the State of Illinois for one and a half years with regard to the active promotion and conduct of poker games and four to five years in the matter of the slot machines, culminating in the gambling activities of the same nature on January 24, 2007.
  

That as to matters presented in mitigation, the Liquor Commissioner finds that such contentions are rendered not fully credible and off-set by the following:

• Roughly six weeks ago there was an underage drinking violation at the licensed premises, which Licensee at that liquor hearing three weeks ago, promised the Liquor Commissioner would never be repeated again, but at the time of the arrest, on January 24, 2007, there was a minor female drinking and gambling at the licensed establishment.
  
• The police report on January 3, 2007 has Licensee telling the undercover officers that if “someone walked in” no money was to be visible on the table and that the cover story was the game was for a $100 prize to be given away to the weekly poker winner and that there was no actual gambling taking place”. Licensee also added that he “had 2 run in’s with police in the last few days and the state police had performed a alcohol compliance check and that Licensee received a $150 fine and what amounted to a written warning for serving the decoy”.
  
• After the liquor hearing on January 3 2007 in front of this very same Commission for the first offense, Licensee learned nothing from the warning reprimand issued by the Liquor Commissioner other than to attempt hiding illegal activities more deeply.
  
• The explanation offered for $16,000 of the approximately $34,000 cash that was hidden as “holding it” from Licensee’s parents divorce is found to be ludicrous and does not make sense.
  
• Licensee was not sober when arrested.
  
• The drug paraphernalia and unregistered guns found in the raid on Licensee’s house, does not jibe with Licensee’s being the earnest family man portrayed at the hearing on February 7, 2007.
  

The Liquor Commissioner further finds that the foregoing together with the following specific factors compel the revocation of the subject Liquor License in this case:

• The long term nature of the violations (over four to five years for the slot machines and over one year for the card gambling); and
  
• The fact that 22 days after being warned quite severely by this Liquor Commissioner for minors drinking in the bar, Licensee had a minor female in the bar served alcohol and allowed to gamble.

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED THAT SUCH LIQUOR LICENSE BE AND IS HEREBY REVOKED EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.
William Gentes, Local Liquor Control Commissioner Village of Round Lake, Lake County, Illinois

COMMENTARY-- Gambling, Liquor Licences and Change

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.

GUEST COMMENTARY-- Trustee Thoughts on Dawn Marie

NOTE: In my magnaimous nature, and of course becuase he asked, Trustee Michael Blum is being allowed to adress the blogging public on his concerns and issues with Dawn Marie. He is also not my first guest blogger either! John Gutknecht was the first.

I would like to take a minute to address my recent vote on the Dawn Marie Sewer Reimbursement program. At the December 4th board meeting I voted "No" as I did not believe paying for the sewer hook-up was in the best interest of the village. I felt that the village should not be in the business of paying inconvenience fees to residents caused by village expansion. I said in the 12/4 meeting and reiterated in the 12/18 board meeting that Dawn Marie is a village street and the village has every right to run sewer down it. That does not entitle the home owners to free hook-up.

In the time between the 12/4 and the 12/18 meetings, I became aware of a letter sent out to the home owners on Dawn Marie by the prior Village Administrator (Bam Peterson) letting them know they would be connected to the sewer at no-cost and felt that this was a promise made to those homeowners. It may not have been approved by the board or been an appropriate letter to send, but it was a promise. At the time the letter was sent and the deal was made I was not a trustee. If I were, I would not have voted in favor of paying the difference in the connection cost nor would I have agreed with paying to extend the sewer in the loop. At the 12/18 meeting, I subsequently reversed my vote because of the "promise" that was made to the homeowners. It is unfair to penalize them for the the actions of our prior administrator. Again, I would like to reiterate that the village should not be paying for inconveniences and that the village needs to learn from this. I truly believe that with the new additions to the village staff (all village department heads have been changed in the last year and half) we will be more on the ball when it come to issues such as these.

COMMENTARY-- Dawn Marie Sewer and Water

Over the last few years its been a strategic goal of the village to get sewer and water down to our SW quadrant, to do many things, mainly to push economic development in the area. We are just now starting to see results. I think its crucial to the future of the village that we dictate what happens on the vacant land there rather then Volo. If we allow Volo to move in that area, we will have homes everywhere. I prefer a different scenario.

However one of the things that we had to do is actually run the sewer and the water to the area. To get to that area we had to disrupt the street of Dawn Marie. Its home to 19 residents, 15 of them directly affected by the construction. We forced Ryland homes to pony up $100,000 to a fund allowing the 15 residents to connect to our sewer and water at no charge. In fact this was my idea and I repeatedly insisted on it. We also as a village board reiterated it to them many times in public.

At one point in the discussion the 4 residents on the loop (not directly affected by the construction) challenged the board to bring sewer and water to them under the same program as well, even though they were not directly affected, the board agreed, the cost of that was approximately $100,000 to do the loop, money was to come from our sewer and water fund.
As we have worked through the process of hooking residents up we were repeatedly challenged and questioned as to our competence by two residents who live on the street. They were the only two residents against the proposal the village developed to connect the residents. We try to do the right thing so we paused and evaluated their concerns, ultimately deciding to move ahead with our proposed program. In the interim these two residents decided to be critical of our Public Works director, our Village Administrator and our Village Engineer, along with the village board.

If we had voted the issue four months ago (in my opinion), the program would have passed more then likely 4-2. However when I moved it for a vote on December 4th the motion failed with 5 No's (Newby, Shaw, Del Prato, Blum, Brubaker) 1 Yes (Perkowitz). I was extremely disappointed in the board's action. My opinion was that the two residents got the trustees irritated with them hence the vote.

By refusing the program we are making each resident on Dawn Marie pay a couple of thousand dollars because we could not agree on the program. The original estimates were low and and I would guess that this issue would cost the village or the residents if we don't reconsider about $42,000.

My immediate intention was to veto it, however I am unable to veto inaction, (I can only veto action). I decided to have the issue on the agenda at the next board meeting, and ask the board to reconsider the action.

ACT Two
On Monday night the village board was confronted by an angry group of Dawn Marie residents who were holding letters we sent them describing the program. Some even quoted my blog post of a few years ago to me. After public comment was over, we worked through the agenda until we reached the Dawn Marie reconsideration. Since the prior motion had been defeated it had to be motioned and seconded by two of the majority (i.e the No votes at the last meeting Newby, Shaw, Del Prato, Blum, or Brubaker). I asked the trustees to reconsider the motion based on three major issues.

1. It was and is the right thing to do, we told them we would do and we need to do it.


2. I asked them to set aside the feeling they had for the two gentlemen who while well-intentioned, had caused the program to bog down until it reached the negative vote at the last board meeting


3. Any funds dispersed by the village would eventually be returned to the village in the form of recapture from the users downstream of Dawn Marie in the SW Quadrant.

There was a lively discussion after that, with Trustee Brubaker advocating getting Ryland to pony up more money based on his reading of the annexation agreement, while I thought that was an excellent idea, I still felt that we should take care of the residents now, and go after Ryland ourselves afterwards. His contention was that by not passing the connection program, we give up some leverage on Ryland. He may be right.

After quite a bit of discussion the roll was called and all 5 trustees present (Newby, Shaw, Blum, Brubaker and Perkowitz) voted yes!