Hinsdale Leader Accused Of Breaking Promise

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale trustees on Tuesday approved a plan that they said would resolve a dispute over trees.

But a couple of residents said Village President Tom Cauley failed to keep his word. He barred them from showing a video of his promise.

The dispute involves landscaping on the south property line of a $4 million project for a two-story chiropractor's office.

In 2021, the contractor removed trees that screened Fuller Road residents Jared and Kelly Staver from the commercial property at 110 E. Ogden Ave.

That was despite the fact that the owner, Dr. Cara VanWormer-Hartman, told the Village Board in 2020 that she would not remove any of the screening.

A couple of weeks ago, Cauley accused the project's contractor of lying to a village official and the police that workers were not planting trees on the property line. Cauley said they were supposed to wait until the Stavers and VanWormer-Hartman reached an agreement.

But at Monday's meeting, Cauley said VanWormer-Hartman presented a reasonable plan.

Hinsdale Village President Tom Cauley declined to let a couple present a video that they said showed he broke his word. (David Giuliani/Patch)

The plan is to plant 21 arborvitae tightly packed along the property line, three times the original plan. They would be 15 feet tall.

The Stavers agreed with the plan for arborvitae. But they said the contractor should include another row of eight to 10 maple trees.

Maples would be taller and screen off the two-story building from their house, the Stavers said. The trees would also block a light in the parking lot, the couple said.

"This would give us some semblance of what we had," Jared Staver said.

Jared Staver said VanWormer-Hartman should go "bigger and better" after violating her promise to keep the trees.

He said the village rushed through a plan over the weekend, saying he did not see a full packet on the proposal until he walked into the meeting.

"There is no emergency here whatsoever," he said.

The chiropractor's office for Cara VanWormer-Hartman is set to move to a two-story building under construction at 110 E. Ogden Ave. (David Giuliani/Patch)

Cauley, however, said the planting season ends around Nov. 1, so a decision needed to be made soon.

In a June meeting, Cauley revealed the village's plan in the dispute.

"This is the promise I'm making to you," Cauley told Jared Staver at the time. "They will not move in there unless there is screening you are happy with. That's between you and them. The only way we'll step in is if somebody is being unreasonable and you want something that will cost $100,000 (for) screening. Anything that is reasonable, we will default to the residents."

The Stavers wanted to play a video of Cauley's promise.

But Cauley would not allow it.

"Why not?" Jared Staver asked.

"Because I don't want to waste the time of the Village Board," Cauley said. "You can send it to the press, but I don't want to waste the board's time."

He added, "We were at the meeting. We know what we said."

Earlier, Cauley acknowledged he said the village would not grant the occupancy permit until the issue was resolved. But he did not repeat the part of the promise about the Stavers' satisfaction.

"After speaking with staff, we concluded that because of the bad blood between the parties, getting the parties together could be unproductive, even if they agreed to get together," he said.

He also read from emails from August that he said showed the Stavers indicated support for a solution such as arborvitae.

After Cauley said he supported VanWormer-Hartman's proposal, the other trustees voted for it.

"In my opinion, this is more than reasonable," Trustee Luke Stifflear said.

The following is the video that the Stavers wanted to show at the Village Board meeting: