Yes, There Is A History Between Denham And Myself submitted by Mike Macek, Candidate for Trustee - Pontoon Beach Some have recently questioned if there is a history between Denham and myself. The answer is yes.   Fifteen years ago Denham thought he was untouchable, just as he does today.  I was a Trustee for the Village in 1994, Jim Denham at that time was a police officer holding the position of Assistant Police Chief, but was Acting Chief as Chief Ballew was out on sick leave.  Prior to having Police Commissioners, the Village Trustees approved promotions as well as handling disciplinary matters.   Chief Denham did something that he should not have.  He put the Village in a very bad situation, exposing it to possible lawsuits, caused negative publicity area wide and was a major embarrassment to the Village.  He was suspended by the Mayor pending review by the Village Board.  The Village Board met several times in Executive Session as it was a personnel matter.  The end result was that Denham was demoted to the rank of Captain.  This was decided on by the full Village Board, not one person. After he was demoted one of his long time friends came to me and told me that I would never be elected again (in Pontoon Beach) because of what I did to “poor Jim”.  From that time on Denham had a personal vendetta against each and every member of the Village Board.  It’s my personal belief, if he did today what he did back then, there could be Federal Charges and major lawsuits against the Village.   As far as Madison goes I did not ever have anything to do with the Police Department.  Madison was under the Police Commissioner system.  One of the responsibilities given to me was  to create a City Alarm Department which I did and it was very successful and is still being operated today 30 years after it was started.  One of my ideas was a city wide Cable T.V. System. I was given the go ahead to start on it and designed and supervised construction of the system. There were some legal issues that needed to be resolved first so it was decided to sell the system.  It was sold to what is now Charter Cable with the City coming out with a $330,000 profit in 1984.   I was appointed to my positions by the Mayor and confirmed by the Alderman.  I was not an elected official, I just did my job as directed by the Mayor and Alderman.  Prior to me starting to work on development and annexations, Madison was about 1 square mile.  The administration gave me the job of looking at options and implementing them. There were existing businesses and residences as well as farm land in both unincorporated Madison and St. Clair Counties.  A major annexation move was started and Madison started to grow by leaps and bounds. There was a major increase in sales tax revenue.   Gateway Truck Stop was one of those businesses. At one time they were pumping close to a million gallons of diesel fuel a month which produced major sales tax revenue.  There were also 2 auto parts yards which were annexed in, again more sale tax dollars.  The Mayor I worked for retired in 1985 and the newly elected mayor had his own ideas and people.   In 1989, 4 years after being replaced the same mayor asked me to come back.  Because my family settled down in a new home and new school district I was unable to move back to Madison so I accepted the position of Management Consultant. This time my duties were Annexation and Development.  Almost immediately the St. Louis International Raceway, now Gateway International Raceway was annexed.   Shortly after that new owners purchased the track and we worked with them on a major expansion of the facility.  The city formed a TIF District to help them with qualifying costs.  As part of the agreement the city kept 25% of the TIF funds and the Race Track got 75% to cover the eligible costs. (Unlike Mayor Denham’s Gateway Commerce TIF District where the Developers got 100% of the TIF funds and the Village got nothing, not even the reimbursements of operating, start up costs, attorney bills or maintenance costs.)  Madison used their 25% to pay for a new fire station (over $2,000,000 plus some specialized equipment), sanitary sewers for the East Madison, Cloverleaf and Eagle park Road areas as well as some smaller residential and commercial areas, road improvements were made and water lines were run.  TIF funds are also used for the maintenance of streets within the district.  A far cry from the Gateway Commerce TIF, but yes the Village did get a new village Hall out of the deal.  The TIFs and Enterprise Zones I worked with in Madison showed results not just for the businesses/developers (as in Pontoon Beach) but for the residents and taxpayers also.   One thing is for sure Pontoon Beach taxpayers can’t afford any more of the TIFs that Mayor Denham promoted.  One more thing to add to the Gateway Commerce TIF is the fact Edwardsville did not have to go to such extremes to get warehouses built.  After all was said the owners of the Gateway Commerce Center choose to annex everything to Edwardsville.  Out of all the development there Pontoon Beach has only 4 buildings and there has been no new construction in the Village in about 6 years, yet construction continues in Edwardsville and they even get property taxes from most of the buildings in their City not to mention sale tax dollars from some of the businesses there.   Mayor Denham spent a lot of money during the last election saying I left something out of my resume and I did although it was not intentional and it was corrected after our first piece of literature.  When the person that was drafting our literature asked for our information I gave him the Resume I was using for work.  Nothing was mentioned about me being a Trustee in the Village.  Businesses really aren’t interested in politics.  As soon as I realized what I did the omission was corrected but that did not stop the New Beginnings Party now Future Progress Party to send out 3 mailers just about this one thing.   They could not campaign on the real issues. During my first 2 years of being Village Trustee a lot of accomplishments were made then I my health gave out. I was far from being myself and hardly able to work. I had three doctors treating me at the same time, trying everything, nothing seemed to work and none of them could determine what was wrong.  I finally went to a specialist that diagnosed me as having Reflex Sympathic Dystrophy Syndrome.   Treatments and proper medications were started and over a period of about 5 years I was able to go back to work full time.  And yes during that time especially at first I was not myself as I could barely stand the pain and nothing within reason would stop it.  I regret the way I acted and handled things.  All I can say I wasn’t myself and if you did not experience it you would not understand.  I can just move forward, people that really know me knew my accomplishments prior to that time and after my recovery.  It’s no secret that Denham uses these few years against me and really can’t say anything negative before or after the fact . The bottom line is that he and his friends will do anything to keep me from being elected- anything.  (Rumors, lies and deceit).   He knows if I am elected he will have to start following the Village Codes and State Statues, his frivolous spending habits would be scrutinized, his unauthorized borrowing between funds and using tax dollars for purposes other than what they are intended for would stop.   Closed door illegal  meetings would come to a end, people being appointed to positions that are not qualified would be questioned as well as appointing people that live outside of the Village to positions even though there are qualified Village residents that could be appointed.   The Denham administration has lived for 10 years without a system of checks and balances and the taxpayers have paid dearly.  It’s now time for the taxpayers to take control.