Winnetka Village Trustee Caucus Nominees Approved Despite Conflict of Interest Concerns

The Winnetka Caucus Council's ten months of work selecting village, school, park and library board candidates slated for the April 5 election paid off Tuesday night when all 15 candidate and 20 platform planks were approved at the 94th annual town hall meeting held at The Skokie School.

This year, no person not slated by the caucus council took the opportunity under council rules to meet the necessary conditions to be nominated by the floor, Chair Bill Krucks said.

"This year this caucus paid closer attention to the rules of the organization," he said. 

Jessica Tucker, Winnetka's current village president, was slated, uncontested, to serve another term. 

"We are fortunate to have someone like Jessica serving the village," said John Mech, village candidates committee chair.

The council nominated three candidates for the three village trustee openings: incumbent Linda Pedian, 20-year Winnetka resident and electrical engineer Arthur Braun, and 35-year resident and attorney Richard Kates.

Mech said the caucus council interviewed six people for the trustee position and that incumbents were asked an additional question: "What would you do differently?"

While Linda Pedian was spared scrutiny from the caucus, both Braun and Kates were questioned about conflicts of interest relating to their professions and commitment to nonpartisan service on the village board.

Caucus member Louise Holland asked Kates about his representation of a local business tenant, who in June appealed the Winnetka Fire Department's order to install a fire sprinkler and fire alarm systems in her leased office space at 888 Green Bay Rd. 

"As any resident of the village, they're entitled to legal representation," Kates responded. He pointed out that that the matter has been virtually settled, but to diffuse the issue, he said he was withdrawing his representation in the case.

Braun, a member of Winnetka's Business Community Development Commission, was questioned by Susan Halpin about his family real estate business and his ownership of two properties within the village.

"I'm concerned about Mr. Braun's ability to serve on the board with these obvious conflicts of interest," she said.

In particular she mentioned the village's future redevelopment of the Fell and post office properties.

Braun explained that his family owns two properties in Winnetka, one across from the Gap on Green Bay Road and one across the street from Caribou Coffee on Elm and Chestnut streets, which he said has been vacant for 18 months.  He said he has no interest in the Fell project or the post office site.

"My only reason for seeking this position is really to give some of what my family and myself have received in the past 20 years of living in and enjoying Winnetka," Braun said. "Neither my family nor myself have any desire to gain any benefit, financial or otherwise, from participation on the village board."

He said that he met with the village attorney who told him there was no conflict of interest but that he would be willing to recuse himself to any property issues that might present a conflict.

The four Winnetka Public Schools District 36 school board candidates – incumbent Jon Kaplan and Matthew Hulsizer, William Meuer and Thomas Shannon – were selected out of 13 "highly qualified" candidates, Schools Committee Chair Kathy Fink said.

Caucus member Jeffrey Liss said that costs to fund New Trier Township High School make up 66 percent of residents' tax bills and asked the candidates if they would be willing to spend time talking to the community about the effort to keep school costs down.

Meuer, who worked as a teacher and school administrator for 48 years, 32 of those years spent in Winnetka Public Schools, said he would be committed to studying all the financial issues and communicating with the public.

"We moved to Winnetka so our kids could experience Winnetka schools," he said. "I'm willing to give it the time that it takes."

Kaplan, who has 20 years of experience in education and is a director at Discover Financial Services, said he would similarly assess the feeling of the population at large before making decisions.

Hulsizer, a seven-year Winnetka resident who co-founded a Chicago-based financial services business called PEAK6 Investments, was the only candidate to address Liss' question of a potential teacher strike.

"A strike is the last thing we would ever want," Hulsizer said. "But I'm prudent not to say [it would never happen]. Sixty-four cents of your tax dollar goes to schools. I need to make sure your getting what you pay for."

Shannon, a six-year Winnetka resident and director of business consulting firm Bain & Company in Chicago who volunteers with Lydia Home Safe Families, said the school board has tricky issues ahead of it that require extensive study and discussion with the community.

"The balance of consideration ought to be between the effort of cost efficiency and maintaining the quality and competition in teachers salaries," he said.

The caucus quickly approved Winnetka's Keta McCarthy and John Canfield and Northfield's Lois Neustadt (who has contributed photos to Patch) as trustee candidates for the Winnetka-Northfield Library District Board.

Park district board candidates incumbents Richard Pierce and Edward Harney, John Thomas and Ian Larkin were approved without questioning from caucus members.

The 20 caucus platform planks were similarly approved at a quick pace, except for one concerning the village's commitment to pension reform. Caucus member David Birkenstein requested that the plank language "The Village Council should pursue cost containment strategies that avoid the need for increases in fees or tax levies" be amended to read "limit" rather than "avoid," because, as he pointed out, increases caused by inflation cannot be avoided. Caucus members voted on his "informal" motion, 34 in favor, 17 against, and the language was amended.