April 11, 2005
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
We wish to thank the many conscientious citizens who supported
our effort to bring meaningful reform to District 99, and we offer
a special thanks to those who made additional contributions
of time and financial support to that effort.
Since only about 10% of registered District 99 voters chose to vote
in the April 5th election, and only a couple hundred votes
separated the final candidates elected to the Board from the two of
us advocating serious change in District policies, we do not believe
the election results are even close to a community
endorsement for "more of the same." If anything, it seems our
community has been largely alienated from a number of
local governing bodies.
Perhaps the low turnout should serve as a message to District 99's
new Board, as well as to other governing bodies, that
a greater effort must be made to serve the entire community
with courtesy, creativity, efficiency, fairness and common
sense.
We continue to believe change must come to District 99, including
to such problem areas as salary/benefits structure, facility and
technology needs analysis and implementation, land usage, and
employee/community relations, just to name a few.
We also wish to point out that individuals, who chose not to
disclose their identity, misrepresented a number of our
positions at the end of the campaign.
As indicated above, and as anyone who has talked to us or attended
a Board Candidates Forum knows, we are not "one issue
candidates." Furthermore, we are not front-men for the mayor of
Woodridge or anyone else rightfully expressing interest in
purchasing the District's vacant 44 acres of land/marsh in the heart
of Woodridge.
We simply agree with the overwhelming majority of citizens
(District's own survey), who believe District 99 can no longer
afford the luxury of neither wisely using this land, nor selling
it.
Finally, we hope that, in the future, when the Reporter newspaper
takes our money to insert a political ad, it won't bury it
inside the classified auto section.
We wish the new District 99 Board well in the many challenges
they face, and we plan to remain active in our advocacy of quality
education, fiscal responsibility and better District relations with
staff and community.
We hope others who share those concerns will make their voices
heard also.
Richard Rooney
Gary Tagtmeier
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