Hey Taxpayer, Dig This Rubber Stamper?
I always loved watching The Simpson’s when I was a kid. I especially liked the episode where Homer is at the garage sale and starts singing “Hey Big Spender, Dig This Blender!”
If you opened your mailbox recently, you probably found a letter stamped with a giant header reading “CRAIG JOHNSON — ELK GROVE VILLAGE MAYOR”. It was all the talk of Facebook over the weekend.
Got any money for my friends? But you gotta send it to me, first.
At the bottom, there’s a tear-off slip asking you to request a yard sign and write a check to the Committee to Elect Johnson—helpfully noting in all-caps: “DONATIONS MAY NOT EXCEED $7,300 FOR INDIVIDUALS AND $14,600 FOR CORPORATIONS”.
Now, Mayor Johnson isn’t on the ballot next spring. He’s not even sure he’s going to be in office much longer…at least that’s what he told the Daily Herald after being asked about the sneaky September 8 pay raise the Trustees themselves that I already flagged.
But, it got me thinking… why is a sitting Mayor who isn’t otherwise up for reelection until 2029 aggressively fundraising for his personal campaign war chest right now?
The third paragraph of the letter gives the game away:
“To do all this, it takes a strong and responsive board working with me to ensure we can help protect the interests of local residents. That's why I'm asking you to join me in re electing Kathy Jarosch, Tammy Miller , and Steve Schmidt to Village Trustee next April!” [emphasis added]
The letter might as well as said: “Hey Taxpayer, Dig This Rubber Stamper!”
Is The Fox Bankrolling the Guard Dogs?
In local government, as I’ve explained, the Trustees are supposed to be your independent legislative check. Trustees are elected to scrutinize contracts, debate ordinances in public, question tax giveaways, and protect our neighborhoods.
Back in July, when it was announced Trustees Jarosch, Miller, and Schmidt were running again, it was reported by the Journal & Topics that they were "not running together on an official slate." And since that announcement, none of them has said anything of consequence (at least nothing I’ve seen anywhere) about policies or highlights of their terms. Nothing about differentiating their performance. It seems like a very strange campaign strategy when there is data indicating that issues they support are polling -60 points (like building the WGN Nexstar site next to our neighborhoods).
And, then I thought— Why didn’t any of these three incumbents bother to use their own campaign committees to raise money from everyday neighbors like I have? They each have established committees of their own (you can find them here: Jarosch, Miller, Schmidt).
And, then I thought some more— why should anyone who supports any of these Trustees (who otherwise have the capacity to raise and spend money on their own via established campaign funds) need to send money to the Mayor’s campaign committee?
Are the Trustees that incapable of campaigning on their own? Is the thought of knocking on doors, talking to residents, and raising money on their own scary to them?
And, I wonder about the apparent conflict of interest this letter creates: When the Mayor is seemingly raising money to support Trustees he wants, who do you think those Trustees work for when they sit on the dais?
You think they’re going to work for You? Or, do you think they’re going to give him the votes he asks for?
“L’Etat, C’est Moi”— What "Working With Me" Actually Looks Like
For those who are historically inclined, Louis XIV once said “L’Etat, c’est moi” (“The state is me”).
Again, in his letter, the Mayor echoes Louis XIV, saying he needs a "responsive board working with me."
We don’t have to guess what “working with me” means—we just watched it over the years, and with clarity over the last 60 days:
Fewer Meetings, Bigger Paychecks: In August, the Trustees voted to cut the Village Board’s schedule down to just one meeting a month. Then in September, as I initially flagged and the Daily Herald developed, the Trustees quietly used the Consent Agenda (their favorite tool), and without a single word of public debate or even listing the dollar figures in the pre-meeting agenda public packet, to hike the Mayor’s pay by 21% and boost Trustee pay by 37% to 134% (up to $14,028 a year!).
At the same meeting, they also gifted $40,000 to Tom Ricketts for a 90-minute speech and meet-and-greet session that he allegedly was going to give to charity. Which one? No one seems to know its name… maybe they’ll tell us at the upcoming board meeting?
Silence & Compliance: The listed Board members have not cast a single dissenting vote or held a substantive debate in years. Check the minutes and recordings. Please, reader, show me anything I may have overlooked.
"Increased Costs" and "No-Cost" Concerts? Check the Budget.
But, it doesn’t end there. The most tone-deaf line in the fundraising pitch is the purported sympathy for household budgets:
“That said, I know that increased costs are having a real impact on you and your family. Please know that as a village, we are working to do everything we can to ease the burdens that are within our control. We have held the line on taxes while trying to provide you and your family no-cost recreational opportunities and community events like our concert series, tree lighting, picnics and Octoberfest [sic].”
Let’s check the rhetoric against the Village’s actual adopted budgets:
Those concerts aren't "no-cost"—you already paid for them: According to the Village’s most recent Budget, the Board spent over $800,000 on the Summer Concert Series and over $160,000 on Oktoberfest. Now, I’m glad there are no additional fees to attend these things as they are great for the community, but let’s not pretend it’s “no-cost” to the taxpayers. You paid them. You just paid them long before you attended.
And keep in mind— this Board raised taxes just this past December, as I pointed out a few weeks ago. “Holding the line” on taxes doesn’t mean raising them.
Elk Grove Deserves Independent Trustees—Not a Purchased Slate
This fundraising letter proves why this race matters so much. If our Trustees can’t even run their own campaigns, outsourcing their work to the Mayor’s Machine instead, how can we trust they’ll stand up and say no to anything he suggests? Especially when they never have before?
I am not looking for someone else to raise money and do my campaign for me. I don't answer to a machine. I’m running to be your independent voice at Village Hall.
