Saturday, March 13, 2021

Q the Eye/03.13.21

Ὥρος Hōros
Dear LakeCountyEye,

You can't fight city hall -- especially not after the bank forecloses on city hall.

How can I raise enough revenue to keep my village afloat and get re-elected all at the same time?

Paint My Town in the Red
Dear Mayor McSqueeze,

The trick to raising taxes is to do it without raising taxes.  Like with red-light cameras or slot machines.  Just don't make the mistake made over in one Lake County burg. During a pandemic when everyone is broke, stuck indoors and binge-spending all their money on the Internet, this municipality wants to raise their brick-n-mortar sales tax:
Learn why Deer Park officials want to increase the town's sales tax rate
So sad.

Now, here's what you need to do:  Go drive around town. And if it looks like everyone owns a boat, you don't tax the golf courses.  No, you do what this Lake County village did:

Village of Third Lake Registration of Boats & Other Watercraft
ORDINANCE NO. 20-02-02
AN ORDINANCE PROVIDING FOR THE REGISTRATION OF BOATS AND OTHER WATERCRAFT AND ESTABLISHING RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR VILLAGE BOAT LAUNCHES, LAKE USAGE AND WATER-LANDING PLACES
And even if Illinois State Law clearly says that you do not have jurisdiction over these watercraft, haha, go ahead and collect your sticker fees anyways.

Who's gonna know?

Send your questions to Q the Eye c/o ... LakeCountyEye@gMail.com

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know why Mayor Butch “Skimma” Buckley (who threatens use of the Lake County Sheriff to enforce his illegal boat sticker ordinance scam), the village attorney Brian Baugh, and their cohorts at Village of Third Lake have not been charged?

Or is Lake County a criminal operation open for scams, and I just missed the memo?

1 / Q said...

Hi Barney,
In your article you published a link to Third Lake’s 2020 ordinance, and it’s outdated. As unlawful as that 2020 ordinance was and is, that 2020 grift was not big enough for the scheisters. Like every lying scumbag posturing as a public official, they in Third Lake have now expanded their grift with their 2021 ordinance, The difference in 2021 is Section 1, G): unincorporated residents. That entire list of newly targeted residents in 1. G) is in unincorporated Lake County. Yes, the thieves are no longer happy picking the pockets of their own constituents so they in 2021 have expanded their steal to unincorporated residents. Buckley is growing his grift, and its by design. 2 wrongs make a right. Buckley has repeatedly said he wants unincorporated residents to pay for his village’s agenda. This new 2021 ordinance (below) does exactly that. And it is unlawful. The village attorney inserted this new language at the direction of Buckley.

https://www.thirdlakevillage.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/thirdlake@comcast.net_20210119_210226.pdf

The only question is, How many county officials are getting a cut of the grift?

Selective Law Enforcement in Lake said...

Red light cameras and slot machines aim to take money from both in town citizens and out-of-town’ers. Zoning extraterritorially and without jurisdiction does the same, bilking money from citizens both inside and outside of town. The major difference is extraterritorial zoning like Third Lake does via this municipal boating ordinance is unambiguously prohibited by Illinois state law. Since this municipality uses the County Sheriff to do its dirty work and patrol Third Lake, the Eye on Lake County should do an article on why law enforcement in Lake County for years refuses to prosecute the law breakers in this municipality, including its lawyer, and in other municipalities throughout Lake County. Villages of Lake Villa and Wauconda are as guilty as Third Lake.

Anonymous said...

“SECTION ONE G)” of the 2021 Ordinance is titled “Communities with residents rights”.

“Rights”? Really? Could this title be any more disingenuous?

This title, crafted by the village’s lying attorney for Mayor PassTheBuck, is followed by the village declaring all unincorporated residential areas are “......subject to all resident rules.....”. “Rules”!!!! The village is declaring rules when it has no authority.

Rights on the other hand have already been declared by the Illinois Supreme Court decades ago in 1988 (Beacham v Lake Zurich POA). If you are an owner (incorporated or unincorporated) of a nonnavigable, non-public lake like Third or Druce, that owner and all of his guests already have the right to recreate over the entire lake.

The village attorney understands the difference between “rights” and “rules” but is preying on people who don’t. Bring the village attorney before the bar. He understands perfectly. He chooses to use conflicting terms to intentionally confuse people from whom he is illegally taking. Malintent is grounds for being disbarred.

Anonymous said...

As they say “It takes a village” to pull this off. I wonder what the Lake County Sheriff’s deputies receive as compensation issuing tickets or otherwise harassing boaters to buy boat stickers.

Anonymous said...

What a cluster f*ck! Quit monetizing the lakes. They’re private. Every time village idiots or the like at the County Forest Preserve buy lakefront and put in a new launch or require boat stickers and a fee just to boat on the lake already owned by private owners or buy lake bottom funded by tax payers who obviously expect a return on their money, it’s monetizing the lakes. It’s trying to make public what is privately owned. Buckley doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing and he lies. If he really cared about the lakes like he wants people to believe, he would champion anti keyhole policies limiting access to the lakes, not expanding access to make money and finance his expenses. Overcrowding and polluting with invasive species is exactly what this dumb *ss is selling. Buckley is the stereotypical public hack placing revenue above everything else at the expense of the lake and its owners. Buckley’s “leadership” begs for a lawsuit. He’ll get it. Shame on the County for breeding this bullshit.

Anonymous said...

I can not believe the crap some are saying. For years incorporated residents are cheated with boat sticker fees. But instead of doing the right thing and holding the cheater responsible, some want unincorporated residents to get ripped off, too. That is some warped logic. You don’t reward a cheat by backing more cheating. You have the cheat, the cheat’s enablers, and the cheat’s accomplices thrown out of office, fired, sued, arrested, or their license revoked. And you put a stop to the cheating.

Wake up, Third & Druce lakers said...

Village hall is the source of growing disinformation and thievery. The best way forward is to carve out the cancer. Repeal 21-01-01. It is unlawful. Return the stolen money. Restart.

Limit lake access with a finite number of keys to be used at the upland launch gates and apply charges for each key. That is legal and a proven method to mitigate legitimate threats to the lakes like overcrowding and invasive weeds. On the actual lakes, apply the existing laws within the Illinois Boat Registration & Safety Act. The existing state laws are comprehensive, sufficient, and relied upon throughout Lake County. Those work. Any lake regulations more stringent than state law are unlawful on Third Lake or Druce Lake.

Any “need” for more laws is further disinformation from village hall. Remove any officials disingenuously campaigning for more.

BOYCOTT 3rd Lake stickers said...

Boycott Third Lake’s illegal boat registration stickers.

Don’t buy the village stickers this year. If the village or the county is stupid enough to give you a ticket, take it to court for a judge to hear. Get a lawyer and counter sue the village or county for fraud and harassment. If you settle out of court like they will want you to do, residents and non residents will continue to be defrauded and harassed with the illegal ordinance.

Be sure to buy the state registration sticker though.

Anonymous said...

Like a drunken sailor, Buckley is buying and desperately annexing more and more of the lake bottom because every annexation of a lake bottom parcel gets him closer to 100%. He annexes because he knows anything less than 100% means his ordinance is illegal, all his regulations are illegal, and all the revenue he has already taken in and continues to take in through the ordinance is illegal. Buckley thinks the lakes are his ATMs. His priority is to keep it that way. April 1 is in 2 weeks. Buck up, suckers. The ATMs need reloading. More annexation is on plan, and involuntary annexation is expensive.