Saturday, December 27, 2008

Macgillis files to run for Round Lake Mayor

The Waukegan News Sun has this announcement today about a former Mayors of Round Lake's son running for Mayor. The current Mayor is Bill Gentes who lost a nasty state senate race to Dan Duffy last November. Round Lake politics is known for Gentes fighting with the old guard of Round Lake with his firing of the old Police Chief, and throwing some light on the shady dealing of the past.

What is it with family members running for office in this state?

NOTE: I tried to find pictures of anyone in this newly formed group, but was unable to find much that did not include the current Mayor which seemed inappropriate, send a pic here if you read this.

ROUND LAKE -- Dan MacGills, the son of a former mayor, has announced he will seek to unseat incumbent Bill Gentes in the April 7 election.

"People have had enough of the present administration under our current mayor," said MacGillis, who will lead a slate of candidates in the newly formed Community Connection Party.

MacGillis, a 50-year Round Lake resident, is a member of a pioneer Round Lake family and previous owner and director of the MacGillis Funeral Home. His father, Douglas MacGillis, was elected mayor of Round Lake in 1961.

"My father's vision was to see the population of Round Lake grow along with business opportunities," he said. "We now have enough roof tops -- growing Round Lake as an economy is next."

Besides MacGillis, other slate candidates include Nancy Piscitello for village clerk, and trustee hopefuls Don Newby, Laura Frye and Susan Triphahn.

Newby is an incumbent and has a long record of community involvement; Frye is an attorney who resides in the Parkview area; Susan Triphahn is the current president of the Lakewood Grove Homeowners Association; Piscitello is a 10-year resident living in Bright Meadows.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe if Mayor Gentes wasn't funneling city money to his wife and friends through shady, no-bid real estate deals between Round Lake and New Century Real Estate he wouldn't be blocked at every corner. If Mayor Gentes was a more ethical person, perhaps Dan Duffy wouldn't have had the weapons to attack him.

Courtesy: Pioneer Press, 10-22-08
Duffy questions Gentes' honesty over job firing

Anonymous said...

What does this have to do with Dan Macgillis?

Anonymous said...

Explain blocked at every corner.

Funds misappropriation is a serious charge. Can you prove it or are you just suppositioning? The fact is that New Century Real Estate is one of only a handful of independent real estate agencies in the Round Lake area, certainly the largest and the one with history with the village.

Unless you can prove that Mrs. Gentes was the commissioned agent or that they received one dime personally, the village only supported locally owned business.

Anonymous said...

Well isn't that the politically correct way of saying it's all just bullsh*t.

MacGillis is a good man of high integrity and honesty, Gentes has no business in office anymore, he's a lair; and instead of surrounding himself with people who care about the community, he has surrounded himself with a group of bobbleheads - Blum, Perkowitz, Multerer - could they stick their noses to his backside any more! What a joke.

Anonymous said...

So then in absence of proof of the charge, that does then make you a liar as well, does it not?

And if we are going to extrapolate, does it not also stand to reason that if Mr. MacGillis is going to be supported by liars such as your self (or at least rumor mongerors) that his integrity should also be called into question?

Lastly, while honesty and integrity are admirable qualities, they in and of themselves do not make him mayorally qualified. Similarly, one documented lie on a personal issue should not detract from Gentes's achievement. Otherwise, should we look into Mr. MacGillis's past to see if he has lied EVER? Maybe taken money from his grannies wallet? Came back 5 mins late from lunch and still gotten paid?

So then, if he is surrounded by bobbleheads, how is it that he is blocked at every corner? Shouldn't he have a free road to do whatever he wants? Or did you stretch the truth (i.e. lie) about that too?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 12/29/08 1:57pm:

I think the bigger question is who broke the law by telling Dan Duffy about the circumstances of Mr. Gentes unemployment? Do you realize it's illegal to release such personnel (and personal) information? In the article you cite, Mr. Gentes former boss says that on the advice of their legal counsel, she can't say a word, but then goes on to drag him through the mud.

Anonymous said...

I believe it was the DH that dragged him thru the mud, and in a follow up article he was quoted as saying he apologized for lying - here's the quote:

"On Monday morning when I met with the Daily Herald editorial board I told those present that I was on a leave of absence from my last job, when in reality I had been terminated some months ago."

If the guy can't tell the simple truth about employment status, and he can't be ignorant enough to think that a bunch of reporters are not going to check the facts, then he got what he deserves. Because he's chosen to run for public office that means he's put himself out there for criticism.

As far as his crew of bobbleheads, all it takes is to go to a village meeting. Or, gosh! Don't some of the trustees go on vacation together and have jobs together? Thats a beautiful friendship when one hand washes the other.

just sayin'.

Anonymous said...

Once again, it is ILLEGAL for companies to release personnel (and personal) information to reporters or anyone. That's why in the original Daily Herald article, Mayor Gentes former boss says that she can't say anything on the advice of legal counsel. Of course, she then went ahead and confirmed what the Daily Herald wanted to know. That's the problem.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe any of the board work or have jobs together...or are we making things up again?

Do they vaca together? Don't know, don't care. But if they do, its about time we got some cohesiveness on this board instead of the devisiveness of years past, no? Maybe now the village can really start to move forward.

When I look at the minutes, I see that not all of the mayor's initiatives have been approved. This tells me that the board are not bobbleheads. Don't worry about letting the facts get in the way of your imperfect perception.

Anonymous said...

Round Lake's reputation in the past eight years has shifted from negative to positive with our neighboring communities, villages and townships.
As far as the shenanigans that happened during the senate race, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize there was much more to the RANWC story that the DH didn't have the b*lls to publish. Put two and two together. The mayor wins the senate primary and within a week is fired. The following day RANWC endorses his opponent and lines his (the opponent) coffers with $5K. I am willing to bet if you look back at personal reviews and merit raises, you will see a big disconnect that did not warrant being dismissed.

Anonymous said...

No doubt, Round Lake is a much better place to reside today that it was ten years ago!

Anonymous said...

Round Lake might be ground zero for Mayoral races, rumors in the village say there will be candidates, Macgillis, an Unknown and of course Gentes. The old guard believes Duffy wounded Gentes fataly in the Senate race, should be interesting.

Anonymous said...

Gentes started it by lying saying he was on a "leave of absence" from his job, that indicated he was still employed by the association.

At that point the association is fully within their rights to say that's not true, he's no longer employed by us which is EXACTLY what they did and that's all they did. Once they did that Gentes himself said he had been fired.

Keep the story straight about what happened, it's amazing that after a nearly 2 to 1 trouncing people still cover for Gentes.

Anonymous said...

What is interesting about that 2 to 1 trouncing, however, is where the trouncing occured...outside of RL. In RL however, Gentes still carried the vote.