Democrats call for Elimination of Wheeling Township Highway Department

Democrats will aggressively pursue positive annexations and give residents the right to vote on future of highway commission

The Democratic candidates for Wheeling Township announced Thursdsay that once elected they will develop plans to reduce layers of government by eliminating the highway commission and transferring responsibility for township roads to the board.

"It's time for a fresh perspective," said Mike MacDonald, Democratic Highway Commissioner candidate. "As Highway Commissioner I will develop sensible plans to transition oversight of township roads to the Board in the event the Highway Commission is eliminated through annexations or voter preference."

"I say this knowing full well that eliminating the Highway Commission also means eliminating the Commissioner's position for which I am running, and I'm fine with that," MacDonald added.

MacDonald is an energy consultant with a mechanical engineering background.

"Once elected we will work toward giving voters the right to decide the future of their Highway Commission with a referendum. We'll also try coordinating with unincorporated residents and local villages to develop positive annexation agreements which would remove roads from the Township's jurisdiction," said Robert Boros, one of four Democratic Trustee candidates. "If either scenario results in elimination of the Highway Commission my fellow Democratic candidates and I have the experience and knowledge it will take to seamlessly dissolve the Highway Commission and move road supervision to the Township Board."

Boros is a recently retired design engineer.

"We also want to ensure that all parts of the township are implementing sound budgeting practices to make Wheeling Township finances more efficient -- trimming costs where possible and cutting things that aren't needed," said Siobhan White, another of the four Democratic Trustee candidates. "It is simply unacceptable to not be putting snow removal and the like out for competitive bids."

White has experience overseeing construction projects from her role as a former Vice President for Facilities and Construction with a national bank, including contract negotiation, codes and regulations, and other construction related issues.

In Northfield Township to the east, the Democratic-majority board placed an advisory referendum on the ballot asking voters whether or not to abolish their local highway commission. In Palatine Township to the west, a group of concerned citizens recently filed a petition with their township board demanding a financial impact study of their township's road district.

Besides Boros and White, the other trustee candidates are Kim Simmons and Nikos Tsonis. Simmons has experience in arbitrating issues and Tsonis holds an MBA and runs his own small business law practice as an advocate for property taxpayers. The Democratic candidate for Supervisor is Fernando "Fred" Arenas, a retired airline pilot and veteran of the Air Force and Air Force Reserve. Arenas also has experience in contract negotiation, regulations compliance and other vital management tasks through his past work with the TWA Airline Pilots Association.

About the Wheeling Township Highway Commission

Wheeling Township currently has only about 5-1/2 miles of unincorporated roads. State law requires townships to dissolve their highway commission once a minimum threshold is reached. Continued annexations of unincorporated areas could result in an automatic elimination of the highway commission.

A new state law also gives township boards the ability to ask voters a referendum question on whether or not to continue the highway commission.

To date, the incumbent Wheeling Township Republicans have had three opportunities to place such a question on the ballot but they have failed to do so (elections in March 2012, November 2012, April 2013) nor does it appear that they have any plans for doing so. In his recent Township Newsletter column, the long-time incumbent Republican highway commissioner instead used the taxpayer-funded newsletter to claim he looked forward to future years at the township.

The incumbent Republicans voted in 2012 to give the Highway Commissioner a taxpayer-funded salary of $18,533 despite the fact the current long-time commissioner's bio says he has a private sector job with Audi Automobiles. He is also given a taxpayer-funded pension.

The Democratic candidates for Wheeling Township are:
- Fred Arenas for Township Supervisor
- Don Bussey for Township Assessor
- Marc Adelman for Township Clerk
- Mike MacDonald for Township Highway Commissioner
- Kim Simmons for Township Trustee
- Siobhan White for Township Trustee
- Nikos Tsonis for Township Trustee
- Bob Boros for Township Trustee

Elements of the Wheeling Township Democratic platform include:
- Reducing property taxes
- Ensuring elected officials' salaries are commensurate with actual work performed -- cutting salaries if those officials do not actually perform work
- Creating a Wheeling Township Economic Council to help taxpayers, local businesses and job-seekers
- Developing a plan to reduce layers of government by transferring responsibility for township roads to the board (eliminating the Highway Commissioner position)
- Protecting vital township services by implementing Budgeting for Results policies including competitive bidding, cutting waste and improving transparency

Wheeling Township encompasses parts or all of Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights, and Wheeling.


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