Yesterday, I alerted readers to probable conflicts with the use of “Carpentersville Cares” as the campaign slogan of Ed Ritter, Kay Teeter, Pat Schultz and Brad McFeggan.  The conflict is due to the phrase being established as a mark of service for official Village activities conducted by the Carpentersville Improvement Committee (CIC).

There has been a lot of interest in this particular issue as evidenced by the large number of hits on that article. So, today, I present more information about the CIC, and try to fill-in some of the missing pieces for fellow residents in the community about problematic issues with the CIC.

The idea for the CIC was hatched in mid-2007. When appointments were made to the committee in October 2007, Trustees Ritter, Teeter and Humpfer all tried to get Trustee Sigwalt appointed — so that the committee would comprise Sigwalt, Teeter, and Schultz, along with the 2 other resident members. Enough to establish the bloc that they needed to accomplish their goals, and which, now, seems to have been part of their plan from the start.

The intent of forming this group appears absolutely clear now — to establish this Committee and use it to achieve the agenda of a political group. Sigwalt, Ritter, Teeter, Humpfer, and Schultz appear to have all been complicit in this scheme.  In fact, in meeting minutes recorded September 2, 2008, Ed Ritter was already referring to the CIC as the “Carpentersville Cares Committee” — a reference to the phrase now used in his campaign.

As was noted in a previous posting, this group has not come up with solutions for any of the problems which they were formed to address. Instead, they have merely used this group as an extension of the Fox Valley Citizens for Legal Immigration group that they established for the last election.

This is evidenced by Judy Sigwalt’s own admission that she was attributing this Committee’s work to the Fox Valley Citizens for Legal Immigration:

Trustee Sigwalt worked on the CIC project cleaning up yards and did wear her Fox Valley Citizens For Legal Immigration shirt. She distributed flyers to area residents who were aware of what the organization stood for. She discussed the positive feedback the volunteers received from the neighbors and the number of people that have asked for assistance from them.

[Source: Village Board Meeting Minutes, October 7, 2008]

In other words, Trustee Sigwalt was campaigning and politicking while she was supposed to be working as a volunteer on behalf of the Village of Carpentersville, under the direction of the CIC.  It is probable that after discovery of Sigwalt and Humpfer having exploited their trustee positions to obtain the use of Village conference rooms for meetings held with the Fox Valley Citizens for Legal Immigration, they suggested the formation of the CIC in an attempt to legitimize any such usage in the future, so they could call it a “volunteer meeting”.

This also explains why greater efforts had not previously been made to involve more members of the community (and why some were even unaware of the existence of the Committee’s “clean-up days”.)

Simply outrageous!!  Yet there is more…

The first signs that the CIC put up at the sites they were working on contained the logo/initials for Fox Valley Citizens (FVCLI).  These signs were apparently paid for by FVCLI.

Why was a political special interest group like FVCLI allowed to pay for signage and other materials that were for an official Village committee?

After the Oct. 7 Village Board meeting that brought to light several legal and ethical problems with recent CIC activity — and potentially fearing that some may be on to their scheme — the CIC established rules that volunteers not wear clothing that advertised or said things that might be offensive to some.  When told that these signs could not be placed on the property, Trustee Humpfer said he gave permission for the signs.  (Paul Humpfer is not a member of the CIC, but is a founding member of FVCLI.  Furthermore, he had no authority to allow this.)

At the Oct. 22 meeting of the CIC they were directed that state law and local zoning ordinance prohibited them from putting up any signs in the future at the sites they were landscaping.

Putting “Carpentersville Cares” signs in yards of abandoned house where the CIC has made improvements – This cannot be done.

(Cindy [McCammack] later checked and these or similar signs cannot be placed in any residentially zoned area with or without the consent of the property owner. To do so is a violation of the Zoning Ordinance)

And to think that the CIC was actually violating the very Codes that they were supposed to be raising awareness of!

Also at that meeting,  “Carpentersville Cares” t-shirts were unveiled.  According to published meeting minutes from previous meetings, nothing with this language had been discussed.

Shirts will have “Carpentersville Cares” on the front.
Shirts were white with red lettering.
“Improvement Committee” will be printed on the back

The “white with red lettering” matches the “Carpentersville Cares” campaign signage of Ritter, Teeter, Schultz and McFeggan.  However, other members of the group requested the shirts have “Carpentersville Improvement Committee” and the Village logo on it, in neon with black lettering.

Why was the Chairperson of the Committee attempting to get shirts that would advertise a campaign slogan for her and other members of the slate she was to be a part of?

The CIC, like the Fox Valley Citizen for Legal Immigration before them, was created as a political group to try to get campaign support for this election.

Considering this information, and that Trustees Sigwalt, Humpfer, Ritter and Teeter — plus Schultz and members of the FVCLI — appear to be running this Committee, members of this group should be removed from the Carpentersville Improvement Committee immediately and should be required to pay back the taxpayers any materials and related costs.  It should be paid back from donations to their political campaigns because, for all intents and purposes, this should be classified as campaign activity.

In fact, I would encourage other residents to contact the Kane County Clerk, Jack Cunningham, ( Email: elections@co.kane.il.us Address: 719 SOUTH BATAVIA AVENUE, P. O. BOX 70 GENEVA, IL 60134, Phone: 630/232-5990, Fax: 630/232-5870 ) and the Illinois State Board of Elections to investigate these matters as possible campaign violations by members of this group who engaged in election activity while working on behalf of the Village.

Or, you can do the next best thing and not vote for any of those involved.  Say “no” to Ed Ritter, Kay Teeter, Pat Schultz and Brad McFeggan.