"There are other people who should have the opportunity like I have (had)," Carter said. She had no further comment.Carter has been President and has presided over the FPD like a fiefdom since 2002. Why is she unexpectedly stepping down? Some think Carter's ineptly handled attempt in 2008 to unilaterally hand over the Lakewood Forest Preserve to the US Olympics Committee was her undoing. She made more enemies than friends as a result of that fiasco. (And probably contributed to Chicago's losing the 2016 Olympics bid.)
Carter won't return as Lake Co. forest board president
The NewsSun, in a seemingly unrelated story, gives a clue ...
A dispute that has simmered for years between a former County Board member and the Lake County Forest Preserve District over the location of a half-acre septic system has been resolved in a settlement. Allegations of political maneuvering still surround the case. The conflict involved the 1993 installation of a septic system — which serves former County Board member Randy Whitmore's service station at the northeast corner of Delany and York House roads in Waukegan — on Waukegan Savanna property.
Waukegan Savanna septic settlement OK’d
It may be her friends, and not her enemies, who are responsible for ending Carter's eight-year reign of error. That friend being Randy Whitmore, who sat on the Forest Preserve District Board during Carter's tenure as President.Not mentioned in the NewsSun, Whitmore's service station also offers automatic car-wash services. Carter, who knew where the car-wash was discharging its runoff waste, must've also known that it is illegal to maintain a septic field for private/commercial use on Forest Preserve property. Also, this septic field is located within the Des Plaines River Watershed. One would have expected Carter to have intervened in some way, especially when Whitmore was a colleague sitting next to her on the Board from 2002 to 2008. It's not like Whitmore could have been ducking subpoenas, or even sharply-worded notes.
Carter announced her decision not to run for President following the Nov 16 Forest Preserve District Board of Commissioners meeting where the settlement with Whitmore was finalized. We surmise a deal had been brokered. Whitmore was retroactively assessed $1000 per year for use of FPD property. And Bonnie Thomson Carter agreed not to run for FPD President in 2010. In exchange, civil/criminal investigations would not be pursued.
The big winner in this deal is Whitmore, who gets 18 years of what amounts to nearly free commercial-waste disposal. The big losers are the environment and the Lake County taxpayer. And in Waukegan there is a septic field that's gotten stopped up. Could it be from Bonnie Thomson Carter's scalp?
