How did we get to five candidates for three open Trustee seats? It began with an email circulated the day after the November 18th Town Meeting. After thanking the folks who showed up to defeat the stormwater planks regarding public engagement on the tunnel and voter approval for extraordinary capital expenditures, the email read: "Now, something needs to be done about the two new Trustee Candidates that the caucus council has foisted upon community. Namely, Scott Lewis and Mirela Gabrovska." Within weeks, two additional residents announced their candidacies for Trustee. Then, in what is being called "Madigan-style Shenanigans," a petition challenge was filed against Caucus Candidate, Mirela Gabrovska. During two lengthy meetings on December 16 and 18, the Local Election Board comprised of the Village President, Village Manager and a Village Trustee, held court. The email's author was in the audience. A current Trustee was also there. He was the Caucus-slated candidate that replaced a one-term Trustee who was not re-slated three years ago. As a caucus candidate, he challenged her petitions after she obtained the necessary signatures to place her name on the ballot. I sat on that local election board in 2011. We ultimately allowed the Trustee's name to remain on the ballot with a unanimous vote.
At the recent local election board meetings, the Objector presented three witnesses (one of which is our current Plan Commission Chair) who claimed that the Petition Circulator was not "in their presence" when they signed candidate Gabrovska's petition at the Town Meeting. Odd, to see a challenge by a Town Meeting participant after all candidates received unanimous approval at that meeting. Odd, that a petition willingly signed was suddenly challenged. Odd, that petitions for all three candidates, Gabrovska, Lewis and McCrary, were circulated in the same manner. Had the Objector proved his case, only Caucus candidate Gabrovska would be kicked off the ballot, and an open seat guaranteed for one of the two, new, non-Caucus-vetted candidates. See also: http://winnetka.suntimes.com/news/government/board_votes_down_gabrovska_challenge_trustee_cand-WTK-1...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/winnetka_northfield_glencoe/ct-winnetka-petition-ch...
While 10 witnesses testified to the proper and legal gathering of signatures for candidate Gabrovska, our current Village President was the lone, strident, vocal vote against allowing her name to appear on the ballot. Ironic, as this Caucus-vetted-slated-nominated Village President had his ballot petitions signed and circulated in the very same manner at last year's Town Meeting. Last year's election propaganda in support of our current President, by four former Winnetka Caucus Chairs (including the current Trustee mentioned above, and the Plan Commission Chair who testified against Gabrovska), states in part: "Greable's opponent was interviewed by the Caucus Council and rejected in favor of Greable, but, by running against the Caucus nominee, he shows no respect for the highly regarded, non-partisan nominating process in which he participated." Odd, just last year the Caucus was touted as an exemplary process. Now, because a particular Trustee was not re-slated, the Caucus is characterized by these same individuals as a failure.
This bogus charade has cost all of us in time wasted by staff on the clock and attorney/court reporter fees, along with the unknown cost to our "highly regarded, non-partisan nominating process" recently touted by that same Caucus-nominated Village President as "grassroots democracy at its finest." Indeed, the caucus process has been in place since 1915 despite being characterized as a "dream" one year and the "Titanic" the next by certain individuals. Thank you to the thousands of Caucus Council members through the years for your diligent efforts to keep grassroots democracy alive. Let us all look forward to celebrating the Winnetka Caucus' 100-year anniversary next year, together, as one community!
Jessica Tucker, Village President 2009 - 2013, Village Trustee 2004 - 2008
