The political situation in North Riverside is troubling. Whether intended or not, the actions of VIP leaders Ken Krochmal and Hugh Hermanek have undermined the basic principle of American democracy that people should have full and fair election choices to vote for.
They used their village positions to remove candidates who were running against the VIP’s candidates from the ballot, citing inconsequential violations of old rules that have seldom or never been used to remove candidates from a ballot.
Then Hermanek and Krochmal used their village positions to stage a hearing on paramedics, even using village funds to hire an attorney and court reporter to be there. That was followed by Krochmal sending a letter to all of us, implying that something on a TAP website which hardly anyone ever saw was libel. That was again done using village funds, which seems a misuse of village funds for partisan political purposes.
And then in what amounts to vindictiveness, the VIP leaders seemingly got the paramedic company, which has a contract given them by VIP officeholders, to file a legally harassing libel suit against every one of the TAP candidates. These actions have been way beyond honest campaigning.
I don’t understand why the VIP leaders and candidates have been so frightened of losing to Rocco DeSantis’ TAP candidates in a fair election with all names on the ballot. I don’t know of any reason why the VIPers would resort to such extremist means to eliminate opponents. It’s harmed North Riverside by creating suspicion about our village’s politics and governance.
This has been dirty politics, and I think most of us don’t want this in our town, whether you’ve generally liked how VIP office holders have served us in the past or not. The present situation stinks.
Fred Smith
North Riverside
