Doolin: Bremen Township power play leaves bad taste

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Joseph Bertrand Jr., former president and elected trustee of the Bremen Township School Board, speaks during the group's meeting at Tinley Park High School on Jan. 9. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 20, 2012 8:18AM

Funny how you can think you’re on one side of an argument and then very quickly find yourself on the other side. The question is, how did you get there?

Take, for example, the controversy over the Bremen Township School Board’s spending and membership and the school treasurer’s office that works with the little-known board. The board oversees the treasurer’s office, which invests tax revenue for seven school districts — Bremen High School District 228, Forest Ridge 142, Midlothian 143, Posen-Robbins 143 1/2, Prairie-Hills 144, Arbor Park 145 and Country Club Hills 160.

You should care what’s happening with the township school board if you’re a taxpayer in those districts, if you’re an educator, an elected official or just someone who believes in following the law. Better yet, if you have ever voted, you should care.

In December, a new law, sponsored by state Sen. Maggie Crotty (D-Oak Forest), took effect to expand the Bremen Township School Board from three elected members to 10 members, with the other seven being appointed, one from each of the school districts. Under the law, there will be no more elections for township school board in the township, with the board gradually becoming a seven-member appointed body as the terms of the elected members expire.

Officials of the districts pushed for the law because they were justifiably unhappy with the amount of money the board was spending on legal fees — money that the districts could otherwise be using to teach children. They wanted to be able to control the board and its spending.

Board President Joseph Bertrand Jr. had incurred about $220,000 in attorney fees fighting a previous board’s attempt to deny him his elected seat, and the school districts later sued when the current board agreed to pay Bertrand’s legal expenses.

Faced with having the school district representatives take over the township school board, Bertrand and board member Julienne Mallory considered a lawsuit, challenging the new law that enlarged the board. But the newly appointed members prevented that and voted at a Jan. 9 meeting to remove Bertrand as president in favor of Deborah Stearns, who’s also president of the District 228 school board.

The result? No lawsuit challenging the law. Township school Treasurer Joseph McDonnell still on the job. Mission accomplished.

But what’s next? Don’t like your village board or park district board? Well, contact your state senator or rep and have them propose special legislation so several other members can be appointed to take over the board.

The law aimed at the Bremen Township School Board took away the authority of the three elected members and gave it to seven nonelected members. I’m not comfortable with that, and you shouldn’t be either.

Don’t get me wrong, Bertrand has his faults, and the legal bills seemed excessive. And there’s a question as to whether township school boards, a remnant of the region’s rural history, should exist at all these days.

But the Bremen Township School Board was elected by the voters, with Mallory re-elected last April in a landslide. Now, because certain folks don’t like the board members or their decisions, we pass a law to drastically change the makeup of the board? Why didn’t Crotty’s bill target township school boards throughout Illinois? Why only the Bremen Township board?

Because this specialized legislation was aimed not so much at preventing what some saw as wasteful spending. It was about clashing personalities and egos among board members and school district officials and saving the township school treasurer’s job.

Why expand the school board rather than abolish it? Some argue that all township government is outdated and no longer needed, but there’s a stronger argument for eliminating the obscure township school boards. Every school district they represent has a business manager who could perform the duties of the township school treasurer.

This three-member board was duly elected and should have remained in place. Local school district officials should’ve run their candidates in upcoming elections if they wanted to get rid of the current board members. Or they should’ve lobbied to abolish the board as unnecessary.

Instead the board has been expanded and taken from the hands of voters, the school treasurer remains employed and the three elected members linger until their staggered terms run out. Where are the League of Women Voters or Burt Odelson, the Southland’s election law expert, or anyone else in challenging Crotty’s specialized legislation? Shouldn’t the law governing township school boards apply equally to all in Illinois?

The Bremen Township squabble reminds me of youth sports. My kid didn’t make the team, so we start a new one. We don’t like the league or park district rules, so we move the team to another town. I don’t like the coach, who didn’t play my kid enough, so we transfer my kid to another school.

I hope a lawsuit is filed against Crotty’s misguided law, and I hope it’s successful, even though it will cost my local school district and, ultimately, my kids. As U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in announcing that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was accused of trying to sell Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat, “Lincoln would roll over in his grave.” Here he rolls again.

John Doolin is an Oak Forest resident and South Division advertising director for Sun-Times Media.