Politics & Government

Algonquin Man Announces He's Running for Grafton Township Supervisor

Marty Waitzman running against Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore in February 2013 primary.

UPDATE 3 p.m. Aug. 23: Grafton Town Superviros Linda Moore announced in a press release Thursday she would run for re-election.  

-----------

Marty Waitzman attended this year’s Grafton town hall meeting and what he saw compelled him to take action.

Find out what's happening in Huntleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Waitzman announced his candidacy Wednesday for Grafton Township Supervisor in the February 2013 primary, running against Supervisor Linda Moore.

“The initial thing that peaked my interest is the amount of legal fees being spent,” the Algonquin attorney and CPA said. “Then when I started attending the board meetings, the animosity and lack of cooperation was just too unreasonable for me.”

Find out what's happening in Huntleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Moore announced her intent to run for reelection to the Northwest Herald, the newspaper reported Wednesday evening.

Grafton Township has spent between $500,000 to $600,000 on legal fees between dueling lawsuits. The board recently allocated another couple of hundred of thousands of dollars in teh budget for legal fees, Waitzman said. “You are looking at $600,000, maybe more, who knows.”

“We, the taxpayers, are the people who are suffering,” Waitzman said.

“Since the mid-80s, I represented municipalities and I’ve attended lots and lots of board meetings and I’ve never seen that kind of animosity and open hostility,” he said. “That was indicative of a very dysfunctional organization.”

Waitzman released a statement stating he believes his background as a former policeman, and his current profession as an attorney and a CPA “can greatly benefit the people of Grafton Township.”

He hopes to build a Grafton Township  “government that will work hard, smart, and efficiently for the community,” the release stated. He is a ”fiscal conservative who knows how to do more with less, and how to work collaboratively and respectfully with the community and other elected officials.”

“Everybody needs to learn how to cooperate,” he said in a phone interview Wednesday. “What I’ve learned over the years is reasonable people can disagree, but there has to be a concurrence at some point and litigation should be avoided at all costs.”

“Everybody is looking to point fingers, I am not going to do that,” Waitzman said. “It isn’t an issue of who’s a good guy or bad guy. The issue is there has to be some understanding. You don’t have to like someone to cooperate. The lack of cooperation and that kind of thing becomes a runaway train in a sense.”

“I think the biggest single issue is the impact on taxpayers,” Waitzman said.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here