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8 Comments
Anonymous says:
I do not make it a practice to reply to anonymous internet blog postings, however, the posting of the picture of my business office door under the caption of closed goes beyond the bounds of common decency. As a former public official I am certainly aware that I am open to comments both negative and occasionally positive. To imply that my business is closed is grossly incorrect . If the individual
who posted this under the initials RS has any guts they would at the very least confront me face to face like a man. Its very sad that this individual does not have enough integrity to voice his or her opinion without the cloak of secrecy provided by the internet.
Tom Sandor
Posted April 24th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
RS says:
Hello Mr. Sandor,
I didn’t mean to imply your business is closed. I apologize if this is how it was interpreted. I certainly didn’t mean anything personal by it. I selected the picture as what I thought was a fitting image to symbolize your departure from the council.
Originally I was going to select a different headline, but I thought it was too complicated, and opted for the shorter one, “Closed,” which I now understand was overly ambiguous.
I hope this will clarify for everybody that you are open for business, and if anybody needs your accounting services I happily direct them to your second floor office in the Professional Building!
Posted April 28th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
rm says:
Well, he’s back. Evidently Thomas Sandor has been bitten by the Noland bug and will keep trying for a seat at the public trough. This time, however, he wants to bestow his questionable talents not merely on the citizens of Elgin (who finally sent him packing) but on all of Kane county in the role of county auditor. Therefore, he has reinvented himself from his former “Mr. Yearman” schtick to a new role as Mrs. Noland, Mike’s partner and just another good ol’ Jewish boy from Chicago eager to bring ghettos, graft and the Blago Machine to the Fox Valley. Whatever his disguise, Mr. Sandor has already made his mark as a public servant. Remember his remarkable ignorance of the American economic system in that Wal-Mart Supercenter fiasco? Evidently it came as a great shock to Mr. Sandor that “upscale” retailers do not find irresistably attractive markets in the narco-gangster, illegal alien slums he represented. And it should not go unnoticed that the Pee-Wee shootout of a couple weeks ago represents just the sort of East Elgin cultural expression that has flourished under the residency and city council membership of Mr. Sandor. Kane County residents, including those families who saved their children from the Pee-Wee gunfire and have wisely decided never to return to the violent ghetto of East Elgin, should be very alert that the agents of East Elgin’s toxic culture not be able to poison all of the county.
Posted September 22nd, 2007 at 7:26 pm
TDM says:
rm, I found your response to be quite offensive. There is no justification for calling someone a “Jewish Boy”; it makes you sound like a member of the KKK.
I fail to see how Mr. Sandor is responsible for the “Pee Wee” shootings, since he wasn’t in office when they occurred nor did he oversee any grand re-alignment of police resources away from that neighborhood.
I also fail to see how he has encouraged Ghettos in Elgin. On the contrary, I think Mr. Sandor worked to gentrify Elgin with new developments and decrease the rental stock with the deconversion grants.
I did not vote for Tom Sandor, seeing other candidates to be more environmentally friendly. But, race-baiting and ridiculous allegations won’t convince many people to agree with you.
Posted September 24th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
RS says:
Well said, Todd.
Posted September 25th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
21JP says:
Tom Sandor was a miserable failure of a council member- He never won over the Marie Yearman fans he claimed to represent. Marie Yearman was a woman of her word - No mayor -no Union - no donor could sway her ethics. Sandors ethics changed by the hour. He was a
Posted July 17th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
rm says:
I have just noticed the purported offense taken by TDM to my reference to Mr. Sandor as a “Jewish boy from Chicago.” In response, it is my understanding that Mr. Sandor promoted and publicized this exact characterization himself to describe why he was switching political allegiances and now inflicting himself on us as a Democrat rather than a Republican. His implication, of course, is that Chicago Jews cannot be Republicans. His deeper implication is that the historically ethnically-divided and racially-driven political environment of Chicago is now ready for export into Elgin and Kane County. Given the local enthusiasm for “diversity” and classifying and treating individuals on the basis of their skin color or ethnic affiliations, he may not be wrong. To the extent such attitudes or activities represent “race-baiting” or “KKK” membership, TDM must find - and not unreasonably - much of modern America’s political and social environment “quite offensive.” Certainly I do.
Whatever the relationship may be in Chicago between Jews and the Republican party, it is important to recall that that relationship did not apply in Elgin before people like Sandor began importing their Chicago attitudes into our community. Abe Strickman, the son of an immigrant Jewish junk dealer, was an outstanding Republican leader here for many years. And only a few months ago the community lost one of its finest members when Ben Rifken, Republican, veteran, leader of the bar, leader of his synagogue and of the entire Elgin community died at age 91. God, how this town misses people like Ben.
If I am incorrect in my understanding about Mr. Sandor’s self-characterization as a “Jewish boy,” then I deeply and sincerely apologize to this blog and its readers for raising it. However, I entirely stand by my other characterizations of his leadership. Mr. Sandor was part of a leadership that tried to substitute glitzy and expensive, subsidized schemes to dress up Elgin while failing to speak out and act against the root causes of the poverty and crime spreading across the city. The contrast between the “Chicago-style” leadership of Mr. Sandor and the outstanding contributions of people like Abe Strickman and Ben Rifken are at the root of this community’s decline and the anger of those of us who knew Elgin’s better days.
Posted July 18th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
rm says:
In the Courier News of September 21, 2007, Tom Sandor explained his new devotion to Michael Noland and the Democratic party with the observation that “You don’t grow up as a Jewish kid in Chicago and become a Republican.” So there, TDM, I cannot claim blame, credit or responsibility for injecting Mr. Sandor’s ethnicity into the public eye.
Frankly, I was entirely unaware of Mr. Sandor’s claims to Jewishness before he emphasized the point. I echoed his statement only to illustrate Mr. Sandor’s chameleon-like character, transforming himself from the “Mr. Yearman” Republican friend of Elgin’s evaporating middle class to the ethnic Chicago machine pol so appealing to slum Elgin’s growing Nolandite and Blagobama constituencies.
As for TDM and RS, if you gentlemen wish to remain firmly in the saddles of your high moral horses and want to accuse those people who inject ethnicity into political discussion as “race baiters” and “KKK” members, well you’ll find Mr. Sandor’s address is in the phone book. I encourage you to take advantage of it. Moreover, I will look forward in this blog to your consistent application of such high-toned principles as the election season heats up. If on the other hand, you wish to defend Tom Sandor’s leadership and his campaign to extend his values, Nolandism and other elements of the Chicago machine from the gang-ridden ghettos of East Elgin to all of Kane County, good luck.
I do not make it a practice to reply to anonymous internet blog postings, however, the posting of the picture of my business office door under the caption of closed goes beyond the bounds of common decency. As a former public official I am certainly aware that I am open to comments both negative and occasionally positive. To imply that my business is closed is grossly incorrect . If the individual
who posted this under the initials RS has any guts they would at the very least confront me face to face like a man. Its very sad that this individual does not have enough integrity to voice his or her opinion without the cloak of secrecy provided by the internet.
Tom Sandor
Posted April 24th, 2007 at 6:19 pmHello Mr. Sandor,
I didn’t mean to imply your business is closed. I apologize if this is how it was interpreted. I certainly didn’t mean anything personal by it. I selected the picture as what I thought was a fitting image to symbolize your departure from the council.
Originally I was going to select a different headline, but I thought it was too complicated, and opted for the shorter one, “Closed,” which I now understand was overly ambiguous.
I hope this will clarify for everybody that you are open for business, and if anybody needs your accounting services I happily direct them to your second floor office in the Professional Building!
Posted April 28th, 2007 at 5:18 pmWell, he’s back. Evidently Thomas Sandor has been bitten by the Noland bug and will keep trying for a seat at the public trough. This time, however, he wants to bestow his questionable talents not merely on the citizens of Elgin (who finally sent him packing) but on all of Kane county in the role of county auditor. Therefore, he has reinvented himself from his former “Mr. Yearman” schtick to a new role as Mrs. Noland, Mike’s partner and just another good ol’ Jewish boy from Chicago eager to bring ghettos, graft and the Blago Machine to the Fox Valley. Whatever his disguise, Mr. Sandor has already made his mark as a public servant. Remember his remarkable ignorance of the American economic system in that Wal-Mart Supercenter fiasco? Evidently it came as a great shock to Mr. Sandor that “upscale” retailers do not find irresistably attractive markets in the narco-gangster, illegal alien slums he represented. And it should not go unnoticed that the Pee-Wee shootout of a couple weeks ago represents just the sort of East Elgin cultural expression that has flourished under the residency and city council membership of Mr. Sandor. Kane County residents, including those families who saved their children from the Pee-Wee gunfire and have wisely decided never to return to the violent ghetto of East Elgin, should be very alert that the agents of East Elgin’s toxic culture not be able to poison all of the county.
Posted September 22nd, 2007 at 7:26 pmrm, I found your response to be quite offensive. There is no justification for calling someone a “Jewish Boy”; it makes you sound like a member of the KKK.
Posted September 24th, 2007 at 4:27 pmI fail to see how Mr. Sandor is responsible for the “Pee Wee” shootings, since he wasn’t in office when they occurred nor did he oversee any grand re-alignment of police resources away from that neighborhood.
I also fail to see how he has encouraged Ghettos in Elgin. On the contrary, I think Mr. Sandor worked to gentrify Elgin with new developments and decrease the rental stock with the deconversion grants.
I did not vote for Tom Sandor, seeing other candidates to be more environmentally friendly. But, race-baiting and ridiculous allegations won’t convince many people to agree with you.
Well said, Todd.
Posted September 25th, 2007 at 10:19 pmTom Sandor was a miserable failure of a council member- He never won over the Marie Yearman fans he claimed to represent. Marie Yearman was a woman of her word - No mayor -no Union - no donor could sway her ethics. Sandors ethics changed by the hour. He was a
Posted July 17th, 2008 at 11:51 pmI have just noticed the purported offense taken by TDM to my reference to Mr. Sandor as a “Jewish boy from Chicago.” In response, it is my understanding that Mr. Sandor promoted and publicized this exact characterization himself to describe why he was switching political allegiances and now inflicting himself on us as a Democrat rather than a Republican. His implication, of course, is that Chicago Jews cannot be Republicans. His deeper implication is that the historically ethnically-divided and racially-driven political environment of Chicago is now ready for export into Elgin and Kane County. Given the local enthusiasm for “diversity” and classifying and treating individuals on the basis of their skin color or ethnic affiliations, he may not be wrong. To the extent such attitudes or activities represent “race-baiting” or “KKK” membership, TDM must find - and not unreasonably - much of modern America’s political and social environment “quite offensive.” Certainly I do.
Whatever the relationship may be in Chicago between Jews and the Republican party, it is important to recall that that relationship did not apply in Elgin before people like Sandor began importing their Chicago attitudes into our community. Abe Strickman, the son of an immigrant Jewish junk dealer, was an outstanding Republican leader here for many years. And only a few months ago the community lost one of its finest members when Ben Rifken, Republican, veteran, leader of the bar, leader of his synagogue and of the entire Elgin community died at age 91. God, how this town misses people like Ben.
If I am incorrect in my understanding about Mr. Sandor’s self-characterization as a “Jewish boy,” then I deeply and sincerely apologize to this blog and its readers for raising it. However, I entirely stand by my other characterizations of his leadership. Mr. Sandor was part of a leadership that tried to substitute glitzy and expensive, subsidized schemes to dress up Elgin while failing to speak out and act against the root causes of the poverty and crime spreading across the city. The contrast between the “Chicago-style” leadership of Mr. Sandor and the outstanding contributions of people like Abe Strickman and Ben Rifken are at the root of this community’s decline and the anger of those of us who knew Elgin’s better days.
Posted July 18th, 2008 at 1:37 pmIn the Courier News of September 21, 2007, Tom Sandor explained his new devotion to Michael Noland and the Democratic party with the observation that “You don’t grow up as a Jewish kid in Chicago and become a Republican.” So there, TDM, I cannot claim blame, credit or responsibility for injecting Mr. Sandor’s ethnicity into the public eye.
Frankly, I was entirely unaware of Mr. Sandor’s claims to Jewishness before he emphasized the point. I echoed his statement only to illustrate Mr. Sandor’s chameleon-like character, transforming himself from the “Mr. Yearman” Republican friend of Elgin’s evaporating middle class to the ethnic Chicago machine pol so appealing to slum Elgin’s growing Nolandite and Blagobama constituencies.
As for TDM and RS, if you gentlemen wish to remain firmly in the saddles of your high moral horses and want to accuse those people who inject ethnicity into political discussion as “race baiters” and “KKK” members, well you’ll find Mr. Sandor’s address is in the phone book. I encourage you to take advantage of it. Moreover, I will look forward in this blog to your consistent application of such high-toned principles as the election season heats up. If on the other hand, you wish to defend Tom Sandor’s leadership and his campaign to extend his values, Nolandism and other elements of the Chicago machine from the gang-ridden ghettos of East Elgin to all of Kane County, good luck.
Posted July 19th, 2008 at 5:57 pm