The final candidate forum sponsored by the Non-Partisan Committee of Park Forest began last Sunday with a slap on the wrists of two contenders for office for what were deemed violations of the group’s rules of the nonpartisan road.
Three hours later it ended with a swipe by mayoral candidate JeRome Brown against incumbent Mayor John Ostenburg.
First things first.
A devoted reader of these scribbles might recall an earlier piece in which we discussed Brown’s pot shots at incumbent Trustee Gary Kopycinski and his eNews Park Forest website. Brown at one point criticized what he termed “flat-out lies” printed online and said the publication should not have the name of the village on its masthead.
“Negatives create negativity,” he said, inferring that negativity had come back to Kopycinski outside of the political arena.
Bad form, said the committee in a statement read by Chairman Jack Donohue at the beginning of Sunday’s forum. He noted those comments violated the pledge signed by all the candidates that all words and documents “shall relate only to my candidacy.”
Kopycinski was cited for an online article headlined “Can’t Take the Heat? Get Out of the Election.” Donohue reported that although Kopycinski said it was directed at any person running for office, the committee didn’t think so. This too was bad form, it said.
Meanwhile, trustee candidate Jonathan Vanderbilt was distributing copies of a bill for $300 sent to him by Kopycinski for Vanderbilt’s use in his campaign literature of a two-year-old picture of himself that had been published on eNews. So when it was time for the five candidates for village trustee to state their views, a question by a village resident wondered why Kopycinski did this. Kopycinski said he owns the photo (copyright law and all that) and no one asked for permission to use it.
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Other questions posed by residents dealt with the lack of residency requirements for members of the police and fire departments, the lack of new business in the village, and potential problems with various underground infrastructure.
The one point all three incumbent trustees — Mae Brandon, Georgia O’Neil and Kopycinski — as well as candidates Tiffani Graham and Vanderbilt agreed upon was that village manager Tom Mick was the best thing going for Park Forest. The words “excellent,” “professional” and “on top of everything” were some of the more modest praises sung.
Weighty financial issues of the day were discussed for the last hour with Ostenburg bemoaning Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s drastic state financial plan which would cut $1.32 million of tax revenue from the Park Forest budget and cautioning that if most of the cuts pass, the village would cut services instead of raising taxes.
Brown championed his initiatives of requiring future members of the police and fire departments to live in town; creating some kind of children’s game center next to the Country Squire grocery store, and even proposed the building of an “old western town” on the village-owned golf course to attract people.
In answer to a question, Ostenburg claimed the village was “exonerated” on 19 of 20 counts of a discrimination lawsuit brought against it four years ago by a housing developer and that on the last count, the developer was awarded $2 million on what was pictured as a technicality, with the money being paid by the village’s insurance carrier.
Brown bristled. He said it was arrogant to claim victory in the case. And when the last questioner asked how the village could cut taxes, Brown said, “We have to be responsible” and implied that Ostenburg’s 16 years as Park Forest’s mayor produced little.
The mayor got the final word, mentioning the $59 million in grants to the village during his administration.
“They (the voters) know who I am,” he said.
Don’t forget to vote on April 7.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist and can be emailed at [email protected]