(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
The Salem Lakes Village Board appointed 51-year-old business owner Pete Poli to sit alongside them on the board. The vacancy was created by Kathryn “Kelly” Sweating as she resigned for health reasons. The board voted 5 to 1 to appoint Poli to the board.
Poli was challenged by resident Doug Randolph. Both men were given the opportunity to answer several questions in writing before tonight’s meeting. They also gave opening statements and were asked questions by the entire board.
(Bottom Row) Trustees Jared Young, Bill Hopkins and Ron Gandt
(Photos by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
(Photos by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
(Photos by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
The trustees had many questions for the duo competing for the role, including questions about development, making the Village better, dealing with people, and more. Nearly all members said that both candidates would make a great trustee.
Ultimately, the board voted 5-1 in Poli’s favor. Trustee Gandt voted for Randolph.
(Photos by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
After interim Village Clerk Shannon Hahn swore in Poli, he took his spot on the board and was officially installed. He had a long first meeting.
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
State Representative Amanda Nedweski was at tonight’s Village Board meeting and congratulated Poi during a short recess.
Poli’s term ends in April of 2025 when he can chose to run for reelection.
35 Responses
For anyone keeping track this “new” guy Poli just beat Cassandra on how much money he saved the village !!
These 7 people here for the most part make virtually every decision thinking about not just saving money but more importantly, not wasting money. And there is a difference.
Look for not just good things in the years to come but great things !
As Dennis Faber said most eloquently, there is no list posted of all the hundreds if not more than a thousand of people that have served this community in this capacity over its 160 years existence to be remembered.
But odds are that this board will be long remembered as one that put us on a path of fair, equitable governance after picking up the pieces of the one before.
A mid term congratulations to this board !!
You’ve shown us what you can fix, now show us how it’s supposed be when it works correctly !
Thanks Rita and all the rest !
Good job tonight !
Cassandra hasn’t saved the village any money since the day she was hired (with her above-our-budget salary). Welcome back and hello Mr. Poli.
You clearly aren’t paying attention. You sound like one who likes to complain, but never shows up.
I’ve been to many-a-meeting. You?
Cassandra has “saved” hundreds of thousands that are not just one time savings but year after year !
So will our taxes “not go up” ?
At least for a while ?
Probably not. Though maybe not as much.
With inflation everything is up.
But we are now getting more for our money.
If you still have questions about Cassandra just look up her bio when she applied.
And it’s not just her work history but her passion to fix things. Very motivating.
Year after year? She’s been there 5 months.
She has found and changed long term obligations and contracts that are now less cost than before.
That means that those less dollar contracts continue for years to come.
If you go to the meetings or watch on YouTube a handful of meetings back she explained to the board about one contract that has been ongoing for many years that was over priced. For no reason other than lack of oversight and periodic checking.
That savings alone was over a hundred grand a year.
Either watch and listen or give her a call. She can rattle off most everything in just a few minutes.
Just ask
Her bio from Lake County Gov which is horrible. I’m sure she’ll drag that mentality here.
She’s Smart. Articulate. Observant and Principled.
Also very knowledgeable in all aspects of her position.
And to top it all off she requires all employees to be above board in all that they do. A great working environment.
Hi Cassandra
She has already saved over 400k with a goal of 1 Million this year. And has said this many times… GREAT JOB CASSANDRA
Really, how? Also, does that include subtracting out her over budget salary?
Taxpayer, you’re just another blow hard that probably can’t figure out where your driveway is on your return trips to your castle. Why cast stones ? Is winning something you can’t stand? Either go crawl under your rock or get informed and come to meetings. Get educated!
When you compare Murdock”s salary to what he did vs. Cassandra, night and day isn’t enough of an difference. Murdock couldn’t even comprehend what Cassandra does.
If salary was based on achievements, Cassandra 145k a year vs Murdock achievement he wouldn’t even be making minimum wage. Stop the insanity. One more time, get educated!
lol someone has a hard on for Cassandra, maybe that’s where her extra salary is going…
For anyone that is “paying attention”!!
Cassandra is taking personal pride in being given the opportunity to take all of her years in varied levels of government work and applying all that experience and knowledge in cleaning up a very messed up situation.
The people here touting her praises are recognizing those efforts.
Being given the challenge to fix things is very motivating.
When she wins we all win.
Start paying attention !
She is still under paid.
“Equitable”? That term has been ruined by the left. Sure hope you’re not a Dem.
Equitable.
Yup. You’re right. That is a democratic buzz word.
What I meant is that no matter if you’re a business or resident, you will be listened to with the same amount of attention.
The garage debacle from last night not withstanding.
I don’t know what kind of time you have but why not try to compile that list ?
If anyone can do it, it’s you !
Maybe even write a book. I’ve seen other local communities historians write a history of their villages. It probably won’t make you a lot of money but it will put your name on a book that will be for sale forever on the counter in village hall.
Just think about that !
You might want to change the voice to text to typo near the beginning of the article where you say police was appointed to the board 😉
Keep up the great work kevin, too bad we don’t have a half dozen of you in the county/city.
Pete Poli was the clear choice at this juncture. Mr. Randolph was also a top quality pick and his addition to the board in the future would be a big win. What I find striking , the quality of the people that are willing to serve, tells me this board is making positive change. Both candidates said they wanted to build off the success that was moving the Village right now, both had very positive approaches. I also think it was telling that Pete Poli was seated last night and immediately got to work. Very impressive.
The board acted extremely professional in their process. They really showed the public how it should be done. Thumbs up
Doug Randolph was a member of the last Silver Lake Village Board that created what we now know as The Village of Salem Lakes. Thank you Doug !!
He has and continues to serve the people, currently as President of our Parks Commission.
If you don’t know about how this “Village” came to be you can see many past news stories on its formation by searching on Westofthei Just type in most any word combination in the search box and all the information you want to see will pop up from the stored archives. Including Doug Randolph.
Darren Hillock deserves recognition for maintaining an easily reviewable archive of more than 10 years of the going ons of our past governments out here in western Kenosha County.
As mentioned in a comment above we have nice situation of quality people running.
So if there’s one take away from last night it’s this.
Every board member needs to be at the top of their game to remain on. With these quality people running for seats, when voting, it’s not who you want on, it’s who’s the weakest link that will be voted out.
Not bad problem to have.
Great to see another positive change to the village. Next in line to replace is John Carrier. So many village ordinance issues impacting residents are ignored by John. Residents should not have to file a complaint when village ordinances need to be enforced, is that not his job? When a complaint is filed it does not get addressed or a bogus response is given and the issue continues.
John can not win – His job is not to police the village but to respond when the public requests or complains. The complaints are always addressed and if an ordinance is violated it is handled. If he was policing – you would complain about that too. Like I said, he can’t win. John is a great man doing the job he has been hired to do.
The complaint is not about policing, it is about enforcing village ordinances. If there is a blatant disregard for a village ordinance that has a negative impact on a resident/s it should be enforced. What is the point of having ordinances if one person gets to pick and choose what they enforce. You may have had a postive experience but there are residents who are dealing with consequences of ordinances being ignored. Not saying he is not a nice guy, always pleasant but his job is to enforce ordinances. His discretion is too lenient in some situations.
Code enforcement, especially building codes are not at the discretion of the enforcer. The enforcer is bound by the letter of the code.
Side yard set backs. Easement rules.
Definitions of residential and commercial vehicles and equipment.
Size and number of distinct buildings.
All these things are in black and white.
In the instance of the garage “violation” from last nights meeting, the administration or board should have directed a stop work order on any new work on the property until each complaint is resolved.
While a stop work order or RED TAG is not always needed to resolve a dispute, in this case it’s the correct thing to do. Now !
And we can’t be afraid to require things to be undone. Even if that means ordering a tearing down or dismantling of a building already in place.
He works for sumbody.
And there are 5 sitting on the board whose job it is to oversee.
Complaining here doesn’t count.
All 7 are responsible for over seeing.
Board members have the “power”, responsibility and mandate to inspect and review any employee and their job performance at anytime.
Some do, some don’t, and some don’t know how.
Though I believe all care
The only employees the Board has jurisdiction over are the Administrator, Clerk and Treasurer.
All other employees report to and are the responsibility of the Administrator. The Board cannot dictate day to day operations but can make changes to procedures.
Then by your words, kmiec tesar campion and culat did nothing wrong. You are clueless. Every board member has power over anyone working for the village at any level. It is how they use it to effect change that we taxpayers measure. Those I noted didn’t use theirs appropriately. And you should not ever run for office.
John’s a complete idiot and has no idea about enforcing anything when it comes to cunstruction. You need to know what you’re endorsing and why he’s an epic failure at that from my dealing with him even on simple answers. He should stick to be a full time fire fighter and leave the part time enforcer to some one who knows the custruction of things.
Petey Poli presented Priscilla Prost a pretty petunia perhaps
It seems Salem Lakes is kind of a shithole based on all the drama the last year…..new board members or not.
Actually even that’s wrong.
Salem is a great place to live ! Never a s……e.
I won’t say fantastic but maybe some day.
And it’s not the village. Just some people who abused their authority. Criminally? Maybe.
Luckily we go to ballot every year on two year terms. While some would like the terms to be longer I think because they are staggered, every two years works just fine.
everywhere is
Poli oooo yeah gods gift to plumbing at least so he thinks lmao. Hey doesn’t anyone know he’s good friends with e one pumps for injection systems? ( kick back maybe ) lmao!!! No wonder he pushes away from gravity sewers that ENGINEERS said could happen not plumbers. Just another tool for the belt there. Putting the maintenance cost of any grinders moving forward on the residents? Yet one hack plumber with interest shows up and says no to gravity sewers that engineers already said was possible and the board folds I mean come on those poor residents.