Everybody Wants to be Somebody

With Larry Powell scared out of his wits and putting up the stonewall, we ventured off on our own to find out what these elected officials are afraid of.  It can’t just be the corruption happening with the police department.  This must be deeper.  We didn’t want to blow our cover so we took out our secure satellite phone, climbed on the roof and made a call to the former village president to ask for an interview.  Holy cow he actually answered! We explained who we were but not who we were, and he gladly confirmed our “fabricated” stories:

Powell always wanted to be president:

In 2001 Larry Powell ran against the village president and lost, not by a few votes… HE REALLY LOST!  Powell then became what Gary Wiseman calls “bitter” and didn’t really care to show up and carry out his duties as a trustee.  Heads-up Mark! We may need to send a new FOIA request for attendance records.

Heller always wanted to be a fire chief:

Years ago, the village of Forest View transitioned from having a Director of Public Safety to separate top level management for each public safety division.  Seeing an opportunity, Thomas Heller while already being an elected trustee asked to be appointed to the Fire Chief position, but he was passed over. The village president evaluated the situation and chose the most qualified individual for the job.  Deputy Fire Chief Larry Moran, a Doctor of Education with a Masters in Public Safety Administration and undergraduate degrees in Fire Science was the obvious choice.

After losing his 2015 re-election campaign for trustee, Thomas Heller saw the opportunity to get back in the seat he lost.  A village trustee had stepped down after relocating outside of the village limits leaving an empty seat on the board.  This prompted Heller to request a reappointment to that empty trustee seat but again was denied. The village president refused to put someone on the board that just lost a reelection, a move which would have been unethical.  Heller still wanted to be involved in some way, so the village president was nice enough to appoint Heller to Building Commissioner. Heller allegedly had experience with inspections in Stickney as an $18/hr fire captain.  Ya get what ya pay for….

Why Not?

In 2016, the village president announced that he would not be seeking reelection.  Thomas Heller saw yet another opportunity to move on up the chain.  The retiring village president advised Thomas Heller not to run because it would have possibly caused a conflict of interest with his employment with the Village of Stickney.  Heller ran anyway. Since Heller was unopposed, it was an easy win for him.  And that’s where the nightmare all began. Heller began making moves and brought his friends and their friends to positions within the village.  We learned that when Barb Trainor was removed in mid 2018, she was immediately replaced without a search for a new candidate. The position was filled with a person connected to Heller’s wife and another village trustee.  Next, instead of conducting a search for a viable, educated and experienced police chief candidate, Heller appointed his Stickney buddy Gary Wiseman whom he was already considering even before he was officially elected.  Sounds innocent enough but when you can’t answer if your choice for police chief has a degree, you should stop the babbling and rethink what you are about to do.

As you can see Thomas, your choices created a domino effect. Your bad choice made another bad choice and you and your friends ended up on display for the world to see.