From Lakewood Village Trustee Paul Serwatka:

From Lakewood Village Trustee Paul Serwatka:

CONGRATULATIONS LAKEWOOD RESIDENTS!

With all the polarization, and even hostility, out there over yesterday’s Presidential election. Here is a bit of news that we, as Lakewood residents, can come together and celebrate!

After 5 months of walking the village, knocking on doors and sweating under a tent at Turnberry… After circulating hundreds of petitions, distributing hundreds of flyers and spreading the word through email and social media… “PHASE 1” of our initiative toward restoring accountability in our village government and lowering property tax burdens for Lakewood families has proven to be an overwhelming success!

The results of our Lakewood Property Tax Referendum, have been tallied and I believe we as residents have conclusively made the bold and resounding statement I knew we would.

While election results are not yet “official” – 8 of 8 precincts have reported the following final results:

No longer can our Village Board make disingenuous statements of “If residents don’t want taxes raised, they can come to village meetings and tell us so.”

They have hereby been given official notice, once and for all!

“If the village board wants to raise OUR property taxes to spend more of OUR money on THEIR pet-projects and programs – Come Ask Us First!”

As I have explained previously, this is an advisory referendum, which means that the village board could technically disregard this referendum and we, as residents, would have no legal recourse.

That being said, we will be announcing PHASE II of our initiative toward restoring accountable government and lowering property tax burdens, very soon! And I can promise you that once PHASE II is successfully achieved – being disregarded, ignored, silenced, and kept in the dark by our village board, will no longer be an issue for Lakewood residents!

I would like to extend a very sincere Thank You to Lakewood residents, Phil Stephan, John O’Hara, Amy Fues Odom and Cheryl Lockwood… To Matt Cannizzo and the “American’s For Prosperity” Organization for all their help and for entirely funding our robo-call to residents… to The Law office of James F. Bishop and Assoc. for his pro-bono legal work both here and moving forward, and to all the Lakewood residents who helped by:

– Signing the petition
– Circulating petitions
– Distributing flyers
– Offering their complimentary Professional Services
– Sharing our Newsletter and social media posts
– Bringing us snacks and drinks at the tent
– Offering words of encouragement and testimonials

Without all the above named individuals and organizations this referendum would not have been possible!
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Similar referendums won handily in Cary and Fox River Grove.