So, if Battinus can't run, there may as well not be an election? I do hope he stays in then, so at least the Village is given a choice.

It sounds like candidate Battinus filed the paperwork, but it was a few days late. If this is the case, this seems to be very petty behavior by Trustee Stein. It's not clear to me what harm has been done to the people of Buffalo Grove because this document was filed late.

Where is VBG's 'local activist'??? Why hasn't she 'chimed in' on this obvious flaunting of the law??? Actually, I agree that it shouldn't disallow his running since it was but a few days late; however, these days it seems like everyone wants to use the court system rather than let the voters decide.

If candidate Battinus cannot follow the rules now, what makes you think he will follow the rules if he is elected? Why are there rules put in place, if not to be followed?

guess we finally know who rules racoondom

I agree with Mara. The rules are the rules.

mara sabath, Good point! I'd not thought about that too much. Considering how the VBG board has 'operated' the last few years you make an excellent point. I guess I was just 'leaning' towards ensuring the voters had some 'new blood' to vote for. I'll be interested to see how this all 'falls out'.

sprout, Just watch vintage episodes of The Honeymooners and you'll learn all kinds of interesting facts about The Loyal Order of Racoons.

While I agree the filing is "only a few days" late - every candidate knew the rules / deadlines. If he didn't meet the deadlines he shouldn't be on the ballot per the State of Illinois Election Code.

IF the village is even able to "bend the rules" do they want to set a precedent? For whom / how far do they bend them next time?

casey kline, How true! Becomes ' ... give them an inch ... they'll take a mile! '

Buffalo Grove has recently had a horriffic time with a trustee who couldn't follow the rules. We can't let that happen again. Like Battinus, that candidate was never seen at village board meetings before the election in which she won election. So if Battinus really wants to serve the village to which he recently moved, I welcome him and urge him to start attending board meetings so we can get to know him before we are asked to vote for him if he decides to run in the future.

I understand the "rules are the rules" objections, but no one has answered my question as to what harm is being done to the village by a candidate missing what is, after all, an arbitrary date for filing a document. Very few things are black and white -- there are degrees of bending the rules, and this particular instance does not seem to rise to the level of disqualifying someone. I don't know Trustee Stein, but on the surface he does seem to be motivated by a desire to stifle competition in the upcoming election (the article states that Battinus would still be able to run with late paperwork unless someone objected). Why possible reason would Trustee Stein have to object other than getting Battinus out of the race? I don't know anything at all about Battinus, but it seems to me that this kind of thing simply deters people from getting involved, when we should be encouraging the opposite.

I do not think this is an incident of "not following the rules." This is more like an oversight on Jeff's part, by a first time candidate who has never filled paperwork out for such a thing. The Patch is constantly filled with complaints about the board, and Battinus is the only running against the board. I hope he does stay in, and hopefully he does win.

ed conner / Mark Bushey:
I agree it looks like a simple oversight... and I have nothing against this guy, in fact I agree there needs to be some "competition" for the board - however this was not a "arbitrary" date chosen by the Village of Buffalo Grove - we are talking about compliance with the State of Illinois Election Code - and all candidates were aware of the dates.

Chuck, I don't think the two are analogous at all. One person wouldn't follow the rules. The other corrected his error once notified. Let's have some holiday cheer and practice forgiveness.

I, too, think Stein may have been rather petty, enough so that I will take a closer look at the competition (Battinus) as soon as more information is available.

But, I will say this, IF Battinus is removed from the ballot because of Stein's objection, you can bet I will not vote for Stein.

I don't know anything about Battinus and I guess I feel a bit bad that he missed the deadline, but given the issues we've had with certain trustee candidates (in particular, one who managed to get elected) playing fast and loose with rules, I think we need to be careful about giving Battinus a hall pass. It could set a bad precedent, which we certainly don't need.

Also, based on what I know and have observed of Stein, I doubt this was done out of spite or pettiness. Seems like a very diligent straight laced guy, and he's reasonably done well as a trustee and he's a very active and involved community volunteer. Heck, the guy's a Boy Scout (literally) and not a typical politico, so I don't really think this is him trying to play political hardball. My guess is that he's a stickler for the rules, which ain't such a bad thing, IMHO.

I wholeheartedly agree with everything Ed said. This whole thing smells bad.

Ed
My Dad use to say "you're not guilty of breaking the law unless you got caught". I never knew my Dad to break the law and I never knew if he really believed that statement; but I know that I never did and never will. I also know that "if there had been no objection" Battinus would have still broken the law; even though it was probably not intentional and it "has caused Zero damage".

Jeff B. I don't know you but I think you should be a stand up guy; admit AGAIN that you goofed up; withdraw; use the next 2 years to learn more about the village; and then give me the chance to vote for you. Good luck.

I think Mr.Stein reads this forum, did he notice the issue only after the deadline for filing passed on 12/31 or he knew about it before and chose not to reveal it till after the deadline passed.

I agree that the law is not arbitrary, but the date certainly is. He complied with the law -- he did not ignore it or flaunt it, he was just a few days late. This is his first time filing for candidacy, so it just seems reasonable to me to give him a pass on something this trivial. We give politicians passes all the time for oversights -- any candidate who has ever filed an amended tax return is correcting some kind of oversight or failure to comply with the law (case in point: Mitt Romney). In Battinus' case, he isn't even an elected official spending your tax dollars yet -- and now he won't get the chance to disappoint you further because he will likely be barred from running.

As I have said before, I agree that this appears to be a simple oversight... and I have nothing against Mr Battinus, nor am I a supporter of Mr Stein (or the rest of the BG board for that matter) but what would you propose be done if someone shows up to register to vote a "few days" after voters registration closes? When do the rules get "bent" and when do they not? You see the open/close dates of voter registration are also what you consider "arbitrary" - but are also set forth in the State of Illinois Election Code (along with the filing deadlines)

I don't believe that is a fair analogy. He did not show up 3 days late out of the blue, unannounced, and try to get on the ballot. My understanding is that ONE document (out of many) was a few days late. So, yes, under these circumstances, this is a case where I believe the rules should be "bent". What if he filed all his paperwork on time, but due to a photocopy error, that one document was not in the file? Would you ban him for that technicality? I'm not saying that is what happened, but the hard line you are taking with this amounts to the same thing -- you would ban him from running because of a clerical error, and I would not.

as I said - I agree it was an oversight - I'm just playing devils advocate - but try telling the IRS that you were missing a page of your tax return due to a photocopy error - and see if they waive the interest and penalty.
(end of discussion I promise)

Well, if our standard of fair and reasonable behavior is going to be the IRS, then God help us all.

Why wasn't this pointed out to him when he filed his paperwork? It was obviously noticed by someone. He is a first time candidate. He handed his paperwork to some sort of city employee. Shouldn't they have looked to see if everything was there in time?

Alan
I understand that the petition packets potential candidates are given is specific that the candidates are responsible for making sure everything is complete. The clerk is only responsible for ACCEPTING the paperwork. I would hope that a trustee would never be this careless with village business.

Please visit the Elect Jeff Battinus Facebook page to review the submitted paperwork when Jeff Battinus' candidate petitions were filed on December 17th. This form was completed by and confirmed (signed off) by the Village Clerk's office. This states that the Cook County Statement of Economic Interest was received by the Village. This was submitted 9 days prior to the filing deadline, with ample time to resubmit the candidate packet should an error have been identified and of course, this would have been done.

As far as I am concerned, the whole trustee board blows. We have the cream of the crap sitting as trustees, I like the way Stein decided to call Jeff and tell him to withdraw. If I were Jeff I would say "screw you". I know for a FACT that trustees call potential candidates and urge them to withdraw. I will stop short of calling it a threat, but there is intimidation. I wish Stein were honest and say, "hell yea I want him out of the election race". Instead he says he just wants to hold up the judicial process. That is so fake. Most people would rather run against nobody, just be honest.