McHenry County Blog

Barrington Hills Village President Robert Abboud, not up for election this year, took exception to parts of the article run earlier. What follows is his email:

Cal:

I read your blog entailed “Hot Village Board Race in Barrington Hills “. There are several items that concern me about the accuracy of your reporting. I am somewhat surprised you did not do a better job of fact checking before posting your blog.

Barrington Hills Village Board President makes presentation to the McHenry County Democratic Party Central Committee about his 2008 congressional campaign against Republican Don Manzullo

First, the Save5acres group is not running as a party but rather as a loosely connected slate of independents. They are as independent as Mr. (David) Stieper. They are listed as INDEPENDENT on the ballot. This race is decidedly about whether developers will unwind the unique zoning in our community.

It is the so-called ‘Common Sense Party’ that is not independent and heavily financed by developers and outside interests. (See SBOE filings). Note that CSP has not registered any candidates per a loop hole for new Tea Parties but intended by the campaign finance law.

Second, Mr. Stieper’s literature falsely suggests that the Village approves budgets and spends money without the majority pre-approval of the Board of Trustees. The Village manages money strictly according to state statute. Please see the attached mailing I sent him on 2/22/2011 when I discovered he was fostering this non-sense. I have since noticed him a second time asking him to be ethical and accurate. To date he has refused to do so. I hope you will call him out on this.

Third, your anonymous commenter at the end of your article accuses my previous campaign, and by proxy the current Save5Acre campaign, as being “vicious”. I would challenge you to demonstrate any “vicious” activity or messaging by my campaign or that of Save5Acres in either of these elections. It is Ms. Wamberg and her party, fueled by developers, that has fostered the negative rant, false information, and disruption in our community.

The Lighting Ordinance issue was resolved some time ago with the Village Board approving an INCREASE in allowable lighting. Principally the allowance of lighting for play areas such as tennis courts, pools, and the like. Only the HALO / CSP people voted against this. One might ask, why would the HALO / CSP group vote against expanding the allowances of property owners – the very thing they polluted our Village with horse urine colored signs for. I suggest that their efforts had nothing to do with the ordinance and were entirely political. I see you failed to report on these aspects in your mention of the Ordinance.

Finally, I have included a bit of background information from a couple of years ago to address a number of frequently asked questions that may be helpful to you.

I enjoy reading your blog. But I am at the least troubled by your reporting of events in Barrington Hills. I expect you to report accurately and with attribution of your sources who make such wild claims. While you expect transparency from government, we in Barrington Hills expect the same transparency from you.

Please let me know if you have any further questions about our very unique Village. Please feel free to print my letter in your blog.

Best Regards.
Bob A.