Carpentersville village president still fighting for his town
For the past eight months, Carpentersville’s proposed Illegal Alien Immigration Relief Act has kept the village in headlines. Some village board members are backpedaling on the proposal, which would penalize businesses that hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them. Village President Bill Sarto, however, isn’t willing to let the bill die a quiet death–he’s requesting that the proposal be placed on the agenda for the board’s June 19th meeting.
“I’m going to do this every meeting, until we pass it or decide to get rid of it,” Sarto said. “I’m actually trying to wear down its supporters and the media’s interest in this.”
But at the same time, some trustees say they are looking into whether the village can adopt an ordinance that would allow residents to recall certain elected officials, including the president.
Trustees Paul Humpfer and Judith Sigwalt came up with the ordinance proposal last fall. In November, the board tabled the proposal at Sarto’s request so it could first see the results of a lawsuit against a similar proposal passed in Hazleton, Pa. A federal judge’s ruling on that case is pending, but both the case’s litigants and defendants have vowed to appeal any decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. That could postpone a legal day of reckoning for years.
Sarto had requested that the proposal be put on the agenda for last Tuesday’s meeting, saying he was “tired” of the attention it has drawn to the town.
Trustee Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski made a motion for the proposal to come back before the board for a vote, but none of the other trustees seconded her motion, leaving it in limbo.
Other trustees predicted the same would happen when the proposal comes up again.
“I think it’s a waste of time and taxpayer money,” Sigwalt said. “The board said it will wait until the lawsuits in other communities are decided.
We’re not going to vote it down.”
So as best we can tell, the village board isn’t dead set against the proposal, but several of its members fear a long, costly legal battle if it is enacted. They’re probably right. But when, exactly, did freedom ever come cheaply? Or doing the right thing? If you’re a Carpentersville resident, call your village trustee and tell him or her that you’re willing to fight for your village, whatever it takes!