If anyone attending the Brookfield candidates’ forum on March 11 came to see rivals from the VIP and PEP parties exchanging body blows and delivering crushing retorts, they would have been disappointed.
The 90-minute forum, sponsored by the Landmark and moderated by the LaGrange Area League of Women Voters, included all of the candidates for village president and trustee. But the candidates engaged in little back-and-forth over issues, preferring to stay close to campaign talking points.
While the two sides had clear differences on a number of issues, including police scheduling and the state of village finances, they also found some common ground on issues including the Ogden Avenue TIF, environmental initiatives, funding road maintenance and opposition to more high-density residential development.
The most vocal criticism of the last four years of PEP rule under came from VIP presidential candidate Wil Brennan, who blasted a recommendation for staff furlough days and layoffs despite tough economic times.
“I have a commitment to bring Brookfield back to solvency without furloughs and layoffs,” Brennan said. “I feel it’s an insult to the taxpayers of Brookfield to reduce police and fire.”
Brennan blamed the cash crunch in Brookfield on the board wanting to complete “too many projects, too fast with our resources.”
But incumbent Michael Garvey, running for reelection for president on the PEP Party ticket, brushed aside the criticism and said he and his running mates were content to run on their record of the last four years and enumerated improvements under their watch, from roads and water meters to technology upgrades and the Ogden Avenue TIF district.
“I did what I said I was going to do,” Garvey said.
In late February, village officials announced that unexpected expenses had hurt the village’s cash position to the point where Brookfield could not repay a bank line of credit on time. Furloughs for non-union employees, an early retirement incentive and delaying budgeted projects were immediately instituted to help bridge the gap.
Brennan said part of the solution would be finding other ways to economize, suggesting that “we be more efficient in our management.” Exactly what that meant, Brennan didn’t elaborate on, although elsewhere he has been critical of salaries paid to Village Manager Riccardo Ginex and other staff.
Even when asked specifically about the village manager’s position and qualities he would seek in such a person, Brennan declined to attack Ginex, though he criticized Ginex for his cost-cutting solutions announced last month.
“I’m somewhat mystified that in difficult economic times,” Brennan said, “he’s looking at laying people off but gets a $10,000 raise. That was extreme at that time.”
Garvey said he would make sure the board focused on “existing facilities and key services” during the rough economy and stated that during a VIP-led village from 2001-05 “in three of four years expenditures exceeded revenues” in approved village budgets.
Meanwhile, Garvey and his running mates touted the creation of the Ogden Avenue TIF as the cornerstone for future economic development in the village and said that current staff were the right people to manage the TIF in the future.
Brennan, while agreeing the TIF was an important accomplishment, criticized staff for not doing more to reach out to businesses. If he were president, Brennan said, he would assign a staff person to focus almost exclusively on “calling different franchises and trying to market our community.”
“Aggressive marketing needs to be done,” Brennan said.
All of the VIP candidates returned time and again to the issue of police scheduling, an issue that village officials and the police union battled over for a year during their last contract negotiations.
Police wanted to retain 12-hour shifts while village management wanted to return to eight-hour shifts. Unable to agree, the two sides went to arbitration, with the arbiter siding with the village with respect to its right to set the schedule.
VIP candidates backed police officers, saying that the 12-hour shifts would put more police on the streets. But PEP candidates disputed that notion, saying that it would have no impact on the number of officers on the street, but would result in additional overtime.
Trustee candidates for VIP also sounded a more populist note with respect to village finances.
“We’re a blue-collar community, where people come to buy a home and raise a family,” said VIP trustee candidate Richard Kostelnik. “I don’t see Brookfield moving in that direction anymore. You can’t buy filet mignon on a hamburger budget.”
His running mates, Leanne Digan and Timothy Heilenbach, also argued against laying off front-line village workers in public works and public safety and said they would target more highly compensated staff.
“There needs to be more financial and operations transparency and less wasteful spending, salaries included,” Digan said.
But PEP candidates responded by reiterating that the staff in place was professional and were capable of making the tough decisions necessary.
“The last four years have been ones of incredible progress,” said PEP trustee candidate Brian Oberhauser. “It’s been a new era of professionalism.”
That was echoed by PEP’s Michael Towner and Cathy Colgrass Edwards.
“Brookfield needs people who can make tough decisions,” Towner said. “We’ve put the professionals in place. Brookfield does more with less right now.”