A Letter to the Editor by Chris Hanusiak, a Village of Niles trustee.
The following Letter to the Editor represents the view of the author alone. Patch merely serves as a platform to allow individuals to express their opinions.
Thanks to Niles Patch for posting that bizarre leaflet which Trustee Andrew Przybylo and his army of one circulated in some apartment buildings and condominiums. While it calls attention to the April 9, 2013 election, it might more properly be dated April 1st. It was drafted under the names of two announced candidates for that election, and included such important information as to which restaurants these apartment dwellers can find them. No real problem there, but after reading the reverse side which promises to list “possible future goals and our mission” we are left sadly disappointed with a list of strange “goals” and nothing indicating a mission. Please note…these are not promises, only possible future goals. Go figure.
We are supposedly to be impressed by such “goals” as bolstering neighborhood identity, reinvigorating animal control services, making better use of the Free Bus, enacting new zoning rules which enhance transparency, creating a position of Vice Mayor to cut ribbons (Andrew actually suggested that!), evaluating employee managerial jobs by standards and last-but not least-celebrating our ethnic diversity by partnering with the library and Sister Cities. It is amazing that an individual who last week spoke about “gifted incumbents” has a difficult time distinguishing the trivial from the important! Yet it seems that he would like to dictate duties and responsibilities for everyone else.
Andrew has been a trustee since 1989, twenty-three years! His close ties to the previous and current mayors have not in any way shown him to have suggested any award winning ideas and improved Niles. Suddenly Andrew has taxed his talent and energies to amass a curious mumble-jumble of generalities over which an ambitious state legislator would drool. Andrew has had immediate and easy access to our town’s mayors for a generation and yet only now has he been inspired to hunt raccoons, skunks and coyotes. The hunt is supposed to be done by a “public private partnership” whatever that means! Only now he has muttered something about the Free Bus and “proactive” services with groups in the community. Only now he is concerned about evaluating village managerial employees after passively letting the former mayor dispense hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash “bonuses,” selling a car for ten dollars (purchased by our tax dollars the previous year for $22,897), and giving out village property to specially selected retiring employees...all without legal authority from the Board of Trustees.
Only now does Andrew want condo residents on the village board. Were these condo residents invisible to him for twenty-three years? Did he ask residents of the high density condos built on his restaurant’s original property? Andrew claims in his leaflet that the things he sees as goals “can only be accomplished with leadership that is acceptable…” Acceptable! Acceptable to whom? Andrew and his cadre of “gifted incumbents?” His recruitment brainstorm means that he is desperate for citizens willing to commit to his fantastic goals and secret mission, something never practiced by his “gifted incumbents” since 1961.
Such leadership claims by Andrew show that he has not scrutinized his own twenty-three year record in office. He goes out on a limb to propose that the library and other organizations commit themselves to HIS possible goals. And most amazing, have a Vice Mayor to cut ribbons when Andrew can’t be present (probably because he is at his restaurant or at his high-paying job with the county). What a busy man!
Where will he find time to tend to village problems? We all know the answer.
Chris Hanusiak is a Village of Niles Trustee.
