It’s The Lie That Gets You
October 14, 2008 by Guy
Photo by Cal Skinner.
Richard Nixon learned a cold hard truth of politics and paid the price, Bill Clinton nearly did the same. That truth is, no matter how bad the thing is that you’re trying to cover up, it’s the lie that people remember and the lie gets you every time.
Apparently Bill Gentes, Round Lake village president and candidate for Illinois Senate District 26 didn’t get the memo because he decided to outright lie to the Daily Herald editorial board, on his website, and elsewhere. What was the lie? That he was on a leave of absence from his job when he was actually fired six months ago.
Per the Herald article:
When asked Monday about handling all that goes with running for the open Senate District 26 seat, Gentes responded he’s on a leave of absence from his full-time job as operations director at the Realtor Association of NorthWest Chicagoland.
However, association Chief Executive Officer Peggy Kayser refuted Gentes in a statement issued Tuesday.
“On advice of counsel, I cannot give the terms of his separation, but Bill stating he is on a leave of absence is an outright lie,” Kayser said.
In fact, his former employer has endorsed Dan Duffy, his opponent in the upcoming election.
To be honest with you, I had a lot of respect for Bill Gentes at one point and, like many residents, thought he had done a great job for our village. Then before long I started to look deeper into things and had more personal dealings with him and that opinion changed.
In fact, that opinion did a 180 last summer after a tense meeting at the village hall with myself, district administrators and Bill where he demanded RLAS come to an agreement with a developer to lower our impact fees or he would dictate to us what we would get. We had researched our impact fees before adopting them and they were in line with other school districts. But because the developer had been quoted fees from several years ago and had already negotiated impact fees with other entities they were unwilling to give RLAS what we wanted. Here I thought Bill would step in on our behalf, we’re under state oversight after all and we’re talking about critical funds to help provide infrastructure for the additional kids we would take on, and he was telling me our fees were way out of line.
He then accused me of threatening him when I said I would take my case to the village trustees and said, “Do you know who runs the village, Guy?” I hesitated and replied, “the board of trustees.” Bill leaned forward in his chair towards me at that point and said, “No Guy, the mayor does” as he pointed a finger into his chest looking dead at me. In a matter of a few moments my opinion had totally changed and it was clear to me that Bill was not the person I thought he was. So this latest admission on his part comes as no surprise to me.
Things might be a lot easier for me if I kept my experiences to myself, didn’t work to support candidates I believe in and I know some people think I should step back and be impartial. School board is non-partisan but not un-partisan. I shouldn’t have to forfeit my rights as a citizen to say what I believe in just because I serve on the board.
When the future of our state is at hand and a rare opening of a state senate seat is at stake I think people are entitled to know who they’re voting for. I’m not supporting Dan Duffy simply because he’s not someone with a skewed sense of power like Bill Gentes. I’m supporting him because he’s a down to earth man with a beautiful wife and family who built his own business. He knows what it’s like to struggle just like you and I do from day to day and he knows what an impact the General Assembly has on our everyday lives.
I took my time to get to know him asking to sit down one-on-one which he gladly accepted several months ago. I think if you take the time to get to know Dan you’ll find he has the makings of a great state senator. Elections should be about the candidates and who they are, what they stand for, what standards they embody — not the party banner they carry and most definitely not about who’s running for President of the United States.
Bill forgot the second most important lesson of politics — you don’t run anything, the people do and at the end of the day you will be answerable for what you have done and what you have led people to believe. When you lie to the people to try to get their support they remember, and I think they will remember the first Tuesday in November.
Guy, you are right on the mark. Thanks for sharing this. I’ve encountered Gentes several times over the years in Round Lake and found him to be very focused on himself and not concerned about his constituents. The examples are endless: he cut off public recording of meetings at the Village, he stifles debate, and acts as if he’s king of Round Lake. We can only hope that the people of the 26th read these types of examples to fully understand the lack of character of this guy. He doesn’t take integrity seriously and the only reason that he even admitted this lie was because he was called on the carpet. If you read his bio, it’s pretty clear that he’s also lying about the importance of his past jobs and what he really did…and why he left for other employment. This recent situation is not the first time that he has been terminated. Same thing happened to him at URISA years ago. If his series of terminations aren’t a good indicator for his ability to work with people and put the right foot forward, what is?
Bill’s arrogance has gotten the best of him–and it’s about time. We can only hope that the people of the 26th send the same message.
Tim
The real irony of his termination is that he claims to have a side job as a realtor….and he gets fired from the Realtor Association of Northwest Chicagoland. I checked out their website at: http://208.112.120.136/ranwcstaff.cfm
It’s pretty clear that they filled his position–it wasn’t as if the position was cut and he was let go–he was replaced!
What’s really amazing is that he believed that he could get away with not telling the truth–to an editorial board! This not only demonstrates a lack of integrity, but also brings into question the intelligence of this guy. Simply amazing.
Oh come on Tim, if you believe those who write letters for him he’s just a victim of the economy! Of course!! That’s why they got rid of him and got another person in the position, tough economic times!
Plus, if that were truly the case wouldn’t he just say he was laid off and make a big deal of it during his campaign, play himself up as a victim of the economy? No, he didn’t do that because it’s totally not true, wonder when he will actually tell us the truth about it.
I remember back in 2001 when Gentes tried to get a power plant built right in the middle of Round Lake. People in the community stuck it to him–put a referendum on the ballot and something like ~90% of the people voted against it. He still didn’t back down or apologize to his constituents for his bad ideas or lack of professionalism in the approach. I personally talked to the guy about this during that time…and like you indicated…he basically did the same thing to me as well: told me that he was the Mayor (e.g. King) and that his idea would happen. Apparently he didn’t convince 90% of the Round Lake of the idea.
And RLAS isn’t the only local school district who has been stonewalled on developer fees. Take your village hall story and replace W. Guy with another district’s board/admin and it is frighteningly the same. Dare say, a pattern. Dare say, everything for his village and nothing for the schools that his village’s children get their education from.
Absolutely LocalEd. Couple this with him professing the importance of education and you wonder if that is an honestly held belief or more campaign promises. We already know his record on promises and on his word.