Cortland’s got choices

Add another packed candidate forum to the 2013 consolidated election campaign trail. More than 100 residents attended a candidate forum held at the Cortland Lions Shelter House moderated by 3rd District County Board member Mark Pietrowski. Kori Crooke-Rempfer served as time-keeper.

After a segment for those running for the Town Board, Library and Township offices to introduce themselves the mayoral candidates answered audience submitted questions.

Bob Seyller has served two terms as mayor and is looking for re-election for a third. He built a house in town 21 years ago and still owns the Cortland Barber Shop. He is a past president of the Northern Illinois Mayors Association.

During his eight years at the helm Seyller said Cortland has added a new $15 million sewer plant, a $2.3 million water tower, upgraded technology, two radium removal systems, plus new equipment such as trucks and tractors for public works. He added that the longest term of any debt owed by the Town of Cortland is five years.

Dedicated staff, department heads and consultants makes Seyller’s job as mayor easy and together as a team they offer the best value for the dollar for Cortland residents.

But his opponents, Chuck Lanning and Russell Stokes, believe the Town Administrator was an exorbitant expense at $125,000 compensation and the position as it was employed was creating miscommunications between the mayor, the board and the public. Seyller responded that the administrator contract will not be renewed by vote of the town board so it shouldn’t be talked about moving forward.

Lanning has served 20 years on the town board under three mayors — Ken Hetchler, Ben Suppeland and Bob Seyller. But he says the current board is the most uninformed of all he has served with. He said that with the paid administrator the town board had things jammed down their throats. He thinks the mayor and department heads need to better inform the board so they have all the information they need to make the right decisions.

Stokes served 12 years as the Cortland chief of police and has never ran for political office. He said he retired from the position when the town administrator informed him that he had to cut $100,000 from the police department’s budget instead of reducing staff positions. He said that miscommunications by the administrator and the mayor has led to a lack of trust and said that Seyller was just not doing the job and lacked leadership.

But Seyller countered that in part due to his leadership a vision for Cortland is already in place within the comprehensive plan. That plan was avoiding the mistakes from the growth to the east and providing residents with pedestrian friendly neighborhoods within five minutes walking distance of green space or a park. In the future grow out towards I-88, he said.

Seyller explained that the State of Illinois was not helping much in terms of economic development because they were chasing businesses away. Cortland does have a TIF district that can be used to provide funds to offer incentives in an extremely competitive market among communities seeking commerical and industrial development. As a long standing member of the DCEDC Seyller would do more networking with real estate developers and brokers.

In all the years Lanning has been on the town board he’s never seen the DCEDC do one thing for Cortland. As mayor he would seek input from the staff and the town board for economic development.

Stokes would appoint a town economic planning commission to get a cross section of plans and ideas. He hopes the economy starts getting better and when it does he thinks Cortland will see some light commercial and industiral, maybe some chain restaurants or even a motel service.

When Seyller made note of an investment into computerized technology in the police department squad cars Stokes criticized him because that investment was made two years ago and the equipment is still not operating. Lanning said that the trustees had just found out about the computers in the squad cars not working.

The 2,000-plus tons a day gorilla swinging above Cortland, the landfill expansion, was discussed as an answer to a question I did not ask.

Lanning maintains that the trustees didn’t know that landfill expansion was coming. He said Ken Andersen was their county board district representative and that he served on the committee that negotiated the Host Fee agreement but that Andersen never told the Cortland board until it was too late. Riley Oncken was their other county board representative.

Lanning doesn’t believe Cortland ever stood a chance of stopping the landfill expansion and that there’s nothing they can do now.

“We got took,” said Lanning.

Seyller said he approached the county and voiced his concerns about the expansion but was told they were going to do it anyway. Then he was told that if the applicant (Waste Management) met all nine of the criteria then no one can say no not even the EPA. He said fighting it was going up against a $14 billion company and Cortland couldn’t afford to pay consultants tens of millions of dollars like Waste Management did.

The county had no desire to hear Cortland’s complaints or concerns, Seyller explained. In fact, Waste Management volunteered to give Cortland a small share of the tipping fees in an agreement separate from that with the county because they just didn’t think it was fair that the county left them out. Cortland negotiated better terms than the county did with Waste Management for expanded well protection, property value protection, litter. According to Seyller, Waste Management knew that Cortland couldn’t make the landfill expansion go away so they agreed to pay $1 million if the landfill got approved. Cortland agreed not to fight them so Waste Management would give them the money rather than spend it on a fight that would only prolong the expansion.

Stokes pointed out that the town board puts out a newsletter full of fun stuff information but made no effort of informing the public about the landfill expansion. He said the expansion should have been taken to the public before the town entertains a $1 million offer to look the other way. He thinks the landfill expansion is going to happen and that it will have a huge impact on the quality of life.