Richton Park Herald

Hopefully this issue has already been addressed for the 2010 IML Conference, but just in case it hasn't... Well its that time of year for village officials across the state to start thinking about going to the IML Conference that's held in downtown Chicago every year around September. The first year I went to this conference as a Richton Park Village Trustee, I drove downtown with my own car, parked the car in a garage, spent a couple nights at The Hilton, took cabs to restaurants and bought some meals. There were some free meals involved, but when I added up all my expenses including mileage, parking, cab fare, hotel and a couple meals, the expense report came up to around $1,000. Now a lot has happened since those heady days of 2007. We found out the village was just about out of cash to the tune of 6 million dollars with spending a million dollars over budget for the prior 6 years. Then comes the economy and housng crashes of 2008 and 2009. The last IML Conference I attended in 2009, I downsized. I think my expense account was less then $100. I didn't stay overnight at a hotel. I took the train downtown, went to my classes for the day. went to one free dinner offered by our engineering firm, then drove home with my wife.

So, that was a big reduction in expenses. I did that because I knew the village was having money problems. I tried to get other board members to follow suit, but those that went did the stay downtown thing again just like we (the Village of Richton Park) had money coming out of our ears. The Village of Olympia Fields doesn't allow village personnel or officials to stay overnight for any downtown Chicago conferences. They're expected to drive back and forth. Its only 35 miles away and driving home at night after rush hour is over only takes 30 minutes. I know because I've doen it. The problem in some instances is alcohol. At most of the after-the-work-day parties there's open bars. People tend to have a few more drinks then they normally do when they're not paying for them. So staying overnight in downtown Chicago at $275 a night becomes a safety issue. But the Village of Richton Park, heck the PEOPLE of Richton Park, shouldn't be picking up the hotel tab. And that's goes for whether or not you're drinking.

The policy should be "the village will not pay for overnight hotel stays for any conference or seminar held within a 60 mile radius of Richton Park." If village personnel and officials want to stay overnight for convienience or for whatever reason, they can do so, but they do so at their own expense. And that sholld be the policy even when the economy comes back, tax revenues are up and the village coffers are full of surplus dollars! Remember, its not your money your spending, its the taxpayers of Richton Park!