C'ville board meeting turns ugly

February 20, 2007
BY BEN LEFEBVRE Staff Writer


CARPENTERSVILLE -- What was meant as a mundane, bureaucratic review of complaints filed against the petitions of four village board candidates turned into a political melee Monday night.

More than 50 people, many of them wearing blue and red "Illegal means illegal" buttons, gathered at village hall to see the village electoral board review the charges made against the candidacies of incumbent trustee Paul Humpfer and Judith Sigwalt and challengers Frank Stoneham and Keith Hinz.

If the board finds objections filed by two Carpentersville residents valid, it would bar the four candidates -- all supporters of the village's proposed Illegal Immigration Relief Act -- from running in April's village board election.

Insults and catcalls from the crowd at times made the proceedings nearly inaudible. Village President Bill Sarto ordered one man to leave the auditorium. Police removed a second man who shouted expletives at the village attorney.

"Can we get a little decorum here?" asked Sarto, who sat on the board with village trustee Kay Teeter and village clerk Terri Wilde.

Decorum may have been lacking, but debate wasn't. The board needed 15 minutes to argue whether Sarto should even be there, after Humpfer questioned his impartiality as a judge.

"First off, you have taken a negative view of myself and Sigwalt," he told the village president. "Secondly, you circulated petitions for our opposition and neither of those petitions have been challenged."

Sarto said that although he had circulated petitions for two other village board candidates, he believed he could be impartial. Teeter disagreed, however, forcing Sarto to undergo an embarrassing 2-1 vote to keep himself on the board.

The board then got to business, reviewing the objections made by two Carpentersville residents, neither of whom attended the hearing.

Janet Brown, a parent who supported widening the dual-language program implemented in District 300 schools, filed objections against Humpfer and Sigwalt, the two co-sponsors of the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, which would specify English as the village's official language, and allow for fines against landlords or business owners who aid or abet illegal immigrants. The village board tabled the proposal two weeks after its introduction.

Real estate agent and former chair of the village's now-defunct Hispanic committee Jesus "Jesse" Berreles filed objections to the candidacies of Stoneham and Hinz. Stoneham stood with the Illinois Minuteman group during an October immigration debate in the village, while Hinz is the construction supervisor for District 300.

The two contested about 30 signatures in Hinz's petition and more than 50 signatures in each of the other three candidates', saying the alleged signature and notarization discrepancies should disqualify the candidates from running.

Neither Brown nor Berreles responded to phone calls seeking comment. A total of eight candidates are vying for three open trustee seats in April.

The candidates in question charged that the objectors merely went down their petition lists and checked off random names in order to keep them from campaigning.

"There are so many objections, this is ridiculous," Stoneham said. "They're making a mockery out of this."

After all the noise, the board decided it needed more time to reach a decision. Village attorney Mike Duggan said he plans to meet Thursday with the four candidates or their representatives at the Kane County Clerk's office to compare the contested signatures with those on file with county records. The electoral board is then scheduled to reconvene Saturday to hear from those whose names appeared on the petitions.

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