The Daily Herald continues to use Trustee Allen's fictitious "preliminary savings of at least $1 million". He constantly throws this number around purposely excluding  major components that would decimate his "$1 million savings".

Mr. Allen why do you continue to ignore the pension obligations that the village will always be responsible for? Is it because they cut your "$1 million savings" by 50% to 75%? 

Factor  in the money brought in by the police department for tows and fines and the "$1 million savings" might be in the neighborhood of $100,000.

$100,000 to go from 17 Winfield Officers to 8 Deputies (if they are not off, on benefit time or responding to calls in the unincorporated areas outside of Winfield).

We all know factual numbers have never been part of  your "Baby" and you don't consider omission a form of lying, but your "Baby" is looking kind of ugly.

The petition drive is complete and there were over 2500 signatures gathered on the "Shall the Village of Winfield keep it's own police department?" petition.

It has been filed with the County and the Village, so the question will appear on the November ballot (non-binding). Thank you everyone for your help with the petition process.

We have to continue to let the Trustees know how we feel about this issue as they still have the deciding votes and we will ALL have to get out and vote in November.

This was a major step. We (the residents) will be able to show everyone where we stand in November.

In the next couple of weeks the REM study results will be out and there will be a special meeting to discuss the findings. We will be able to ask the Trustees questions at this meeting.

As soon as we get more information we will pass it on.

Dear friends, The Winfield board has been discussing police services during executive session for almost a year under the open meeting act exemption 5ILCF 120-2(c)(1). On April 19, 2012 the issue finally became public when the board considered a contract at its public board meeting for a consultant to assist in this assessment of police services.

During the last few months I have done quite a bit of soul searching. I have been very uncomfortable with how some of the Winfield trustees have approached the evaluation of the Winfield PD since January 2012. The Winfield board has held and continues to hold critical portions of this evaluation in secrecy, and a majority of the board is apparently not interested in being fully open and transparent with the public. This may be legal, but it is not right. The point was driven home when residents demanded to know why the issue was kept secret for almost a year, what the board has been discussing during executive session, and if the board is negotiating with the County to replace the Winfield PD with County Sheriff deputies. These are fair questions, and I would be asking them too if I weren’t a trustee. The residents of Winfield deserve forthright answers. I am also deeply disturbed that one or more Winfield trustees are actively and repeatedly misrepresenting their role in the board’s police evaluation to the public, and then compounding this falsehood by casting blame on others. This is simply not acceptable, especially since the misrepresentation is facilitated by the secrecy of discussions that have been held in executive session. Moreover, if I keep my silence then I am complicit in this deception. This is balanced with my obligation to keep executive session discussions in confidence. This is a moral dilemma, and in my mind there is only one way to resolve it – full disclosure with the public.

Therefore, I have decided to release to the public my notes on the Winfield Board’s police evaluation that has been conducted in executive session. I am fully aware that divulging executive session discussions will be highly controversial but I think this is the right thing to do since my first duty as a trustee is to the residents of the Village. And I have to say this gives me a profound sense of relief. Now I can finally look any Winfield resident and the respected members of the Winfield Police Department in the eye. Everyone will know what I know, and that is as it should be.

Below are my notes that detail the evaluation of police services by the Winfield Board during executive summary during 2011 and 2012. This 15 page summary also includes 41 pages of supporting documentation and hyperlinks related to the board’s police evaluation.

Thank you,
Erik Spande
Winfield Trustee