United4Northbrook - Do They Think Northbrook Is “For Sale”!?

This is a paid post contributed by a Patch Community Partner. The views expressed in this post are the author's own, and the information presented has not been verified by Patch.

We write this on behalf of concerned residents of Northbrook, including the community of residents nearby the former Green Acres Country Club. A group of investors, led by David Kahnweiler, the Non-Executive Chairman of Colliers International, which includes partner William Fausone, who sits on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Colliers International, purchased Green Acres with the intent of redeveloping the property. Despite that the property has been zoned Open Space for almost a century, the ownership and development group submitted two high density development proposals for the site, one comprised of 800 housing units and later, a second for almost 600 housing units. Both were rejected by the Northbrook Village Board of Trustees. The rejected proposals would have overcrowded our schools, increased traffic on Dundee Road and the surrounding neighborhood streets, eliminated most of the open space on the site, and stressed our city services, Police Department, Fire Department and any other service the Village of Northbrook provides. To date, a reasonable proposal has not been submitted.

Sadly, many people don’t pay attention to local elections as there is typically minimal impact to them or their communities. We are writing this to impart to each of you that more is at stake in next week’s election that will directly impact the future of the Village of Northbrook as we know it.

We feel the best possible future for Northbrook will be under the continued stewardship of the Northbrook Caucus (Kathryn Ciesla, Muriel Collison, Joy Ebhomielen & Dan Pepoon).

One of the best ways to understand a candidate or candidacy is to "Follow the Money". “Follow the Money” is a catchphrase which suggests that political influence or favorable treatment can be brought to light by examining who the major campaign donors are to the candidates that are running.

So, we decided to “Follow the Money” and see who exactly is donating to Gene Marks & United4Northbrook’s Campaign.

The Illinois State Board of Elections website records show that over 60% ($28,000.00+) of United4Northbrook’s campaign contributions came from donors OUTSIDE the Village of Northbrook. As far as local election campaign contributions go, this amount appears to us to be unusually large in dollar amount and in percentage of total dollars from non-residents that cannot vote in our election.

Question: What possible interest could these donors that are ALL non-Northbrook residents have in our elected officials or our election? Why are they trying to influence our election when they don’t even live here?

Answer: The one thing they ALL appear to have in common is a DIRECT connection to Colliers International, the company with so much to gain financially from developing the Green Acres Country Club. But, it is WHO they are and the fact that many of them appear to be choosing to mask who their real employers are, and that is MOST concerning.

Under Illinois Campaign Finance laws, political contributions of the sizes listed below must be registered and include information as to the donor’s employer, for purposes of transparency, and to ensure that individuals and companies do not violate campaign contribution maximums set by law. However, the contributions below do not appear transparent. In fact, they raise a simple question- why didn’t they list their affiliations with Colliers?

Take this sample of United4Northbrook donors as an example. This information was taken directly from the Illinois State Board of Elections donor website list as well as Colliers own website which we believe to be reliable. We do not guarantee their website’s accuracy:

• Dan Arends, who resides in River Forest, IL, donated $1000 to United4Northbrook. Mr. Arends listed his profession as “Real Estate” and his employer as “Dan Arends”. However, according to the Colliers website, Mr. Arends has worked for Colliers for over 30 years, is a Principal there, as well as Chairman of their National Law Firm Services group, and Chair of their National Tenant Advisory Council.
• JD Devine (aka Jeff Devine), who resides in Glenview, IL, donated $1000 to United4Northbrook. Mr. Devine listed his profession as “Sales” and his employer as “Self Employed”. However, according to the Colliers website, Mr. Devine has worked for Colliers for over 26 years, is their Executive Managing Director for Capital Markets and a Principal owner of the Colliers Chicago office.
• Evan Djikas, who resides in Chicago, IL, donated $1000 to United4Northbrook. Mr. Djikas listed his profession as “Real Estate” and his employer as “Relentless, Inc”. However, according to the Colliers website, Mr. Djikas has worked for Colliers for close to 20 years, is an Executive Vice President there and specializes in the design and implementation of solutions to complex real estate challenges.
• Jack Rosenberg, who resides in Wilmette, IL, donated $1000 to United4Northbrook. Mr. Rosenberg listed his profession as “Real Estate” and his employer as “Jack Rosenberg Real Estate”. However, according to the Colliers website, Mr. Rosenberg has worked for Colliers for over 20 years, is an Executive Vice President and is the National Director of the Colliers Logistics and Transportation Solutions Group Steering Committee.

These four donors who appear to have avoided listing Colliers on their disclosures are just the tip of the iceberg. There were eight more large donors that listed Colliers as their employer and once again, none of them live in Northbrook. We found that the majority of the donors all had a trail which connected them back to Colliers, a company that will clearly benefit greatly from a future approval of a rezoning and high-density development of Green Acres. What is United4Northbrook promising them that would incentivize its employees, clients, and agents to donate close to $30,000.00 to their campaign?

Some additional donor highlights:

• Realtor PAC – A pro-development Political Action Committee that donated $5000 to their campaign that likely stands to gain from the development of Green Acres AND, many of Collier’s employees are trustees for Realtor PAC. Colliers is one of their largest members and donors.
• Draper & Kramer – Over $6,000 donated to their campaign. A Chicago Mortgage Company that is a large client of Colliers and likely stands to gain from the development of the former Green Acres site.

We understand that many readers will have varying opinions about development in Northbrook. However, whether you agree that Green Acres should remain open space, be built into apartments, or somewhere in between, we hope that we can find common ground on the following - pay to play politics cannot be tolerated. We need our elected officials to stand ready to listen to residents and make decisions in the best interest of the Village, without influence from non-residents and companies who are looking for return favors.

If United4Northbrook accepts this much money directly and indirectly from companies and individuals with so much for them to gain financially on the line, how can they really promise their constituents a good faith, fair decision-making process in the future?

As we mentioned in the beginning of this, the best possible future for Northbrook will be under the continued stewardship of the Northbrook Caucus (Kathryn Ciesla, Muriel Collison, Joy Ebhomielen & Dan Pepoon).

Please get out and vote for the Northbrook Caucus slate of candidates on April 6th.

Vote Ciesla, Collison, Ebhomielen & Pepoon

Paid for by Northbrook Neighbors.

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