Letter to the Editor: Inaccuracy in Winnetka

The following Letter to the Editor was submitted by Michael Edwards of Winnetka. 

On December 8, 2008, at Winnetka’s Village Hall, Zoning Board of Appeals Commissioner Hal Francke suggested to his peers that a variance under consideration might be “adversely affecting the character of the locality,” yet in the minutes of that meeting, Mr. Francke is quoted as having suggested that the variation might be “affecting the adverse character” of the locality [italics mine].”  Although the two phrases differ by exactly one word, the semantic content of each could not be more distinct.  In the first case, Mr. Francke is providing a caution while in the second the implication is that the locality in question (including our family’s landmark home) is so aesthetically compromised that no new construction could harm it!

In our experience before the ZBA, which was then and remains under the leadership of appointee Joe Adams, a current candidate for Winnetka Village Trustee, serious errors such as the one above were commonplace, and my wife, Melissa Mizel, wrote to Mr. Adams about more than 20 of them that could be found in the minutes of two meetings alone.

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Among these was a supposed quote from Winnetka realtor Blanche Romey characterizing offers that we’d made for our neighbor’s neglected property as “land grabs” when in fact, Ms. Romey had stated expressly that she would not characterize our offers in that way.  So in this respect, as in many others, the minutes of the meeting Mr. Adams conducted were a work of fiction.

As I mentioned above, my wife wrote promptly to the ZBA concerning both sets of erroneous minutes, even providing word-for-word transcripts of some of the most important passages in question, yet Mr. Adams, invoking a legal memo that he refused to make public, urged his commissioners to deny the request to amend them and also communicated to my wife that, as a mere member of the public, it was not her place to seek alterations to the official record. 

When she raised the issue once more at last November’s Caucus meeting, Mr. Adams again belittled her, dismissing her as someone “involved in litigation” and righteously declaring that special favors could not be granted to anyone when it came to the minutes.

What’s wrong with this picture?  Pretty much… everything!  Starting with the fact that producing accurate minutes of public meetings is an obligation and not a favor.  Next, the seven-year litigation in which our neighbor has embroiled us does not deprive us or Commissioner Francke or any citizen who takes the time to appear at Village Hall of the right to be quoted accurately and without distortion of the plain meaning of their statements.

More important than an injury to any individual, however, is the injury done to the community at large by records that do not hew particularly closely to the reality of what occurred.  When defenders of neighborhood character are depicted as attacking it, when defenders of neighbors’ personal motives are depicted as attacking them, when not even the number of those voting for and against is documented correctly, then the very purpose of holding open meetings—permitting the public to know the information on which officials have based their conclusions, what arguments officials have employed to persuade their colleagues and who voted for what—is subverted.

ZBA minutes aren’t the personal memory aids or in any other sense the private property of the commissioners; they’re the record on which Winnetka’s citizenry relies, the record on which the Village Council relies and the record on which historians will rely when none of us are left to tell the true story.  Any person seeking to hold office in Winnetka (or beyond) should understand that misleading minutes that substitute a false record for a trustworthy one undermine the workings of democracy and citizen confidence in local government altogether.  We know now that Mr. Adams does not understand this.  What about the other candidates—do they?