Text of Speech - 9-20-2008
Hi my name is Denise Rotheimer.
I am 36 years old, and a single parent never been married. My daughter jasmine recently graduated from Barrington High School with honors and attends an out of state university on a two hundred thousand dollar academic scholarship. I moved to Lake County in 1999 and later to Barrington after selling my house in Ingleside. I authored and self-published an inspirational memoir entitled “Sight of the Soul, a Place to Belong”. Over the past five years I have actively worked as a community advocate.
The reason I’m running for your county commissioner is to provide the leadership and fiscal responsibility that is currently lacking. In a recent edition of the county board newsletter, a blow up picture of a dollar bill is on the front cover. The picture illustrates that only seven cents of every tax payer dollar goes to the county, however that seven cents funds one third of the boards budget. How does this affect you? The board has set an agenda to prioritize four strategic priorities—one of those priorities is criminal justice. They want to provide agency programs to keep offenders out of jail. Keep in mind that one of the boards primary functions is to appoint officials to serve in various agencies.
Irene Curran, Sherrif Curran’s wife, is chief of Lake County State’s Attorney’s child support enforcement division. This year her division received seven hundred ninety six thousand dollars from the state and the federal government which matches one third of the state’s funding. In total her agency received one million dollars in funds. The division currently has fifteen thousand case loads of which one hundred thousand dollars was collected on behalf of custodial parents since last October.
I would rather see these numbers flipped. The agency should only receive one hundred thousand dollars in state and federal funding until custodial parents in Lake County receive the 5 million dollars owed to them in back child support.
the board recently renewed the office’s lease for another year. Having gone through the criminal justice system in 2003, I experienced first hand how our system is not set up for our benefit but rather benefits those who run it as your commissioner my first priority is to ensure that our tax payer dollars are being used to serve our interests.
Somehow we end up paying a price that goes beyond the seven cents that the board brings to our attention. Usually it is at a cost each of us is unwilling to sacrifice and that is public safety, yet agencies whether private or government have the final say on our way of life. I oppose this form of bullying. I oppose the wasteful spending of our taxpayer dollars which are meant to preserve our way of life and protect ourselves and our families. Yet our legislators and elected officials do not serve our agendas as their priorities. Instead we’ve seen the board vote themselves a raise even though we face hard economic times, which for many of us will only get worse if the train does go through.
I contend it is time to stop wasteful spending at the local level. I contend it is time we hold our legislators and elected officials accountable. After my experience as a crime victim in the criminal justice system, I authored an amendment to protect victim’s rights by holding elected officials accountable for wrongdoing. I believe that anyone who breaks the law or violates his or her oath in public office should be held accountable for their actions.
Unfortunately the bill that I advocated for died in the house in 2004 and again in 2006. Our legislators have been unwilling to pass a law that would hold public officials accountable for violating our constitutional right to remedy and justice.
Again I ask how does this affect you? Over a month ago a family in Barrington Hills became the victims of a violent crime. Their home had been broken into by armed robbers. The father who lay asleep on the couch, awoke to a gun that was pointed at his head. Afterwards the gun men tied him, his wife and their children to the same bed. Fortunately for this family, the child was able to free her arm from the rope. She escaped and then ran for help. Because of her courageous will to survive this heroic child was able to save the lives of her family members.
Crime does happen. How we respond can make the difference between death and life.
It’s important that you understand how our county board plans to respond on your behalf. The Lake County Board has put in place after-care and re-entry programs that provide treatment and intensive monitoring of offenders. How effective have these programs been? In the “too young for justice” article that ran in the News Sun earlier this year, Cara Smith, the deputy chief of staff for the Illinois Attorney Generals office, said that Lake County’s sex offender probation has some of the most thoroughly organized treatment available for sex offenders. But the fundamental question persists: does it work? No one is sure.
I quote “it is problematic that there is no mandatory treatment in prison,” Smith said. “It is a very good thing when offenders are on probation in Lake County because they get good treatment.” end quote. Professor Curtis, an associate professor of political science at Bradley University points out that even a resource as well regarded as the sex offender registry which in theory tracks convicted offenders and keeps citizens informed, has many flaws. It often mislabels people with common names, for example.
I quote: “large numbers of sex offenders do not register or fail to keep up with it when they move,” Curtis said. “It does some harm and apparently doesn’t do much good, there is very low compliance.” end quote. If the board continues in the direction it has taken, should you become the victim of a violent crime, the offender will serve either a minimum sentence for a first offense or probation, because their agenda is to keep offenders out of jail.
If we do not take preventive measures to eliminate the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars in our government, we could reap the havoc of violence that is yet to come. The governor cut eight hundred thousand dollars from the state budget that supported programs for people recovering from addictions. The impact of these budget cuts will have a devastating impact on Lake County residents. If those clients are kicked out of treatment and put out on the streets, chances are that they will end up in our jail system.
Despite this awareness and i quote, the county boards strategic priority to develop programs aimed at reducing recidivism (because crime is socially and economically damaging to our communities) end quote. The majority of members at this month’s board meeting agreed to fund a one point seven million dollar renovation project to remodel the public defenders office. As your county commissioner, I will continue to make it my priority as I have done these past five years to keep our communities safe and preserve our way of life.
I thank you for your time and ask for your support to vote for me, Denise Rotheimer as your new county commissioner on November 4th.
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