Letter: Hurtado Books Political Lobbyist for PTPD Meeting

At the March 4th Plainfield Township Park District meeting, Peter Hurtado waved around the equivalent of a piece of toilet paper called a “Transparency Checklist” from a lobbyist organization called The Illinois Policy Institute.  IPI is a group that uses buzz words like “liberty principles” and “free market” to push for less and less accountability and true American patriotism from corporations because being a good citizen in business cuts into profits.  Their current initiative, detailed in an IPI November 2013 report, pushes cutting the number of local government entities in Illinois.  I read this tripe, and the theory is that if we consolidated most local government, or centralized power and services in fewer governmental units, thereby distancing the people from their government, it would cut waste.  Or, is it simply to concentrate the power of local governance into fewer units that are more over-burdened so that public policy and programs would be run in a less focused and dedicated way?  That would allow corporations better control over the average citizen’s life because it would streamline shopping for politicians and legislation plus just make it easier to stifle issues of vital public interest.

Hint:  it’s the second thing.  See, IPI advocates shutting down our individual forest preserve, library, fire protection, park, school, water reclamation, and other districts, and rolling them all up to a county or township level of management!  Once that’s done, unless you then correspondingly increase that county/township layer of government to accommodate the amount of work that still needs doing—which is not in the plan—you would then have so much public policy and service work to be done that you would assure that not much gets done and that there is no one essentially minding the store on any of these topics.  That makes it a whole lot easier to run rough-shod over the people’s needs while you still rake up their tax dollars, doesn’t it?

How dare Hurtado continue to push his own political agenda and ambitions via OUR park district?  Here’s what I believe happened:  Hurtado and/or Booth met these corporate lobbyists—because that’s what the Illinois Policy Institute is—and either want a job there and/or are getting a “finder’s fee” payment to use our board meeting as a platform for the message IPI wants to trot out to us poor, stupid, shabby masses.  Congrats, Fellas—just when we think you can’t sink any lower you step up your efforts and pull a stunt like this.

Brian Costin, who is going to make a “presentation” on that sham “Transparency Checklist” to a captive audience of park district residents, is IPI’s Director of Government Reform.  What does that mean and why would a park board need this sort of presentation, from anyone?  How exactly does this being on a board meeting agenda serve the residents at all?  Why is our park district continually being inappropriately politicized in this way, wasting time and energy, and why isn’t the board majority spending all of its time and energy on the REAL problems and issues right in front of us?

Vicky Polito, Plainfield