Trenches of Democracy

Campton Hills

Reporter Josh Stockinger, with the Daily Herald, expands on Judge Colwell’s Campton Hills ruling [read full article here]:

After months of legal wrangling between the village and several landowners, Colwell issued judgments last week characterizing the village’s defense against disconnection attempts as “self-serving” and built on a political promise to avoid local property taxes.

Since the village incorporated after a controversial referendum last spring, trustees have waged fierce legal battles against more than a dozen neighborhoods that want out. While the village’s central argument has been that dismantling the new municipality will cripple its finances, Colwell pointed out in his rulings that officials have the ability to levy property taxes and institute municipal fees to offset any decrease to the revenue stream.

“The court is not persuaded that it may simply disregard such alternate sources of funding simply because the village has not yet attempted to utilize those sources (or, more accurately, because its elected officials fear it may be politically inexpedient to do so),” he wrote in one opinion.

“(T)he village’s position is self-serving. … The village is opposed to the disconnection because it does not want to raise taxes,” Colwell wrote in another. “If the citizens of Campton Hills refuse to pass a referendum to impose a property tax in order to have municipal services provided to them, then they will have to either live with fewer municipal services or dissolve the municipality.”

(5 subdivisions to split from Campton Hills by Josh Stockinger, Daily Herald 3/25/08)

Tags: Campton Hills, Free US from Campton Hills, secede

Here’s a new development in a grassroots struggle for unincorporation. Recent Judicial ruling allows neighborhoods over 500 acres to secede from the newly form municipality.

For background info, click here.

Tags: Campton Hills, Free US

Three More Properties Freed

I’ve just been tipped off that three more properties were released yesterday, after a costly court battle. More details to come…

Tags: Campton Hills, Free US from Campton Hills, secede

Legal Bills Gobble up new Villages Budget: $174,000 and counting…

Yesterday, the newfounded Village of Campton Hills (Pop. 10,000) paid a second legal bill in it’s struggle to hold on to residents. Village board members passed a $124,000 payment to the Chicago legal firm Arnstein & Lehr LLP. This is in addition to $50,000 paid in January (Daily Herald).

Since the villages incorporation during the municipal election last year, by Illinois law, outlying property owners are allowed a one year window for easy disconnection. However disconnection from Campton Hills hasn’t proven easy. Until recently the village opted to challenge all disconnections in court. Late last month two of the thirteen properties in court for disconnection were released.

Disputes over incorporation sparked the grassroots Free US from Campton Hills movement.

Taxes Used to Collect More Taxes

That leaves eleven more disconnection cases pending, and more legal bills to come. Ironically, the state of Illinois is subsidizing this villages efforts to prevent residents from disconnecting (Kane County Chronical). The’re using our taxes to preserve their tax-base.

To learn more about Campton Hills see these older posts:

FREE US - from Campton Hills

Making a Stand

Making a Stand… continued

Two Properties Secede from Campton Hills

Tags: Campton Hills, Property Rights

On Monday, I posted about Robert Young, a citizen who is making a stand against the stubborn municipality of Campton Hills, which has blocked lawsuit after lawsuit from unhappy citizens who wish to un-incorporate from the viillage.

Today, I want to share the stories of two more Campton Hills citizens who are taking action in this situation.

Bill Lundberg has lived in Campton Hills with his two children for 10 years. Susan Secondi has spent three years in Campton Hills, and recalls local family roots. Like Bill and Susan, other local residents appreciated the rural independent atmosphere that the area once had before being incorporated into the village of Campton Hills. The debate now circles around the best type of governing body for preservation-is a municipality a better agent to fend off developers?

Not if you can’t trust them.

Bill and Susan have honest concerns about the direction of the newly-appointed village leaders. There is a substantial lack of transparency, and this taxing and spending in the dark would make any citizen uneasy.

But Bill and Susan haven’t given up yet-rather than get steamrolled by the village, they are taking action, and stepping up to the plate to run as candidates in the election for village trustees.

Robert Young isn’t a professional politician. He’s a business accountant; but that hasn’t stopped him from defending liberty within his own community.

Last year, Young’s neighbors asked for his help against a stubborn new municipality. It’s a rural village of 10,000 residents, now called Campton Hills. Initially, Campton Hills was voted into existence last April via referendum with the understanding that reluctant residents would be allowed to subsequently un-incorporate (assuming that lived along the municipalities edge). Eleven lawsuits later it’s clear the city doesn’t intend to let anyone go (see “FREE US from Campton Hills” ). The newly appointed village leadership has also proved agile at referendum blocking. This is where Mr. Young enters the picture.

Robert Young has been drafted for Village President by the grassroots “Free US from Campton Hills” movement. It’s a municipal struggle for freedom, honesty, and government transparency. Ultimately, it comes down to taxes.

Robert Young is a regular citizen making a difference.

To learn more about this struggle, click here .

Tags: Campton Hills, Free US, Robert Young

(photo by Mary Beth Nolan | Daily Herald Photographer)

Lynda and Chris Jacobs like to be left alone.

That’s why they originally settled in a quiet, rural, unincorporated area west of St. Charles, in Kane County, Illinois. But then last April, during a municipal election, 55 percent of the voters within 20 square miles of the area supported incorporating it into what is now the village of Campton Hills.

The Jacobses don’t like it; nor do a sizeable portion of their neighbors. They don’t want the taxes or the trouble that accompanies additional government oversight. The Daily Herald reports: “Since the village’s incorporation, 11 groups of property owners have filed civil lawsuits seeking to detach from the town and revert to unincorporated turf, including the Cheval de Selle subdivision to the southwest, where the Jacobses live.”

But would a village allow these citizens to quietly secede? No-because that would be a threat to their tax base.

Village President Patsy Smith, appointed last May, argues that by allowing property owners to leave Campton Hills, they “could be disenfranchising and taking action against what the people in those areas wanted.” She also claims village operating funds are so low that “any dollar lost would unduly harm” the village. Is this about the welfare of the citizens, or of the village board?

On the other hand, the newly assembled village board already passed a pay raise.

Nevertheless, citizens of Campton Hills continue fighting to free themselves from another layer of government-government they neither need nor want.

[The Free Us from Campton Hills Committee is organizing candidate debates on 1/23 and 1/30]