Is no news good news in Highland Park? Censorship in Highland Park and Deerfield

Is your local news censored? Mine was today. So was an article by Dennis Rodkin in Crain's Chicago Business: "A deal for a Highland Park House fell apart. There's more." Yes, Dennis, and there's so much more.

It was an intriguing article to anyone interested in real estate on the North Shore and, in particular, in Highland Park. Rodkin reported that a lawsuit, filed by Kathy Rifkin, claims that Ricco Garrett is a man whose goal wasn't to buy homes but to "move into the [luxury] properties without payment until he was either evicted or otherwise forcibly removed from the property." Rifkin's home is on more than 2 acres on Hazel Avenue and was, at the time, listed for $4.8 million.

According to Rodkin, plaintiff Rifkin claims there were at least three other homes in Highland Park and Glencoe where Garrett tried the same tactics. The lawsuit is comprised of many allegations, including that there were at least two reports to the Highland Park Police Department, checks that never showed up, and a real estate broker who informed potential sellers and/or their real estate brokers that Garrett could afford the purchase price as he was "famous" and a "family friend." For further context and details, read Dennis Rodkin's article.

To be sure, ordinarily, a post about a real estate broker asking for access to show luxury homes at 11PM on Friday nights would be irrelevant to a Facebook closed group page dedicated to serving as a sounding board for residents about their local school district. Yet, Rodkin's article referred several times to the real estate broker who is alleged to have been representing Garrett in various contacts with other real estate brokers, "Debbie Hymen", formerly of Coldwell Banker, currently of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group. Debra Hymen has been on our District 113 School Board since 2011. The same Debra Hymen referred to in the recent "Cash and Carry" article with regard to the Board's profound lack of governance and transparency.

Rodkin's article should have been relevant to "Highland Park/Deerfield High Schools Sounding Board". After all, it involves an elected official, a member of the School Board. So, I posted the article on the closed group page, with the following introduction:

"An interesting article about a lawsuit related to the sale of a property in HP. Real estate broker Debbie Hymen is District 113 School Board member Debra Hymen."

It was promptly censored and removed from the page by the page's administrator, Walter Hainsfurther, without any notification to me. There one moment, deleted the next, even after a couple of people reacted to it. Later, Hainsfurther informed me on another closed group page, "HP/HWD/FORT Planning for Our Future" why he censored my post.

"As moderator of the 113 Board, I removed the post because it has absolutely nothing to do with her performance as a 113 Board member. As far as I know, Ms. Hymen is not running for re-election next April, and will retire from public service. This is not a recent development, but something she has said for over a year. If she changes her mind and runs again, feel free to repost it then."

It appears that news is only news, if, when and where Hainsfurther determines. That's what a good censor does.

Fortunately, I also posted Dennis Rodkin's article on another closed group community page, HP/HWD/FORT Planning for Our Future Facebook page. Evidently, some think that sharing information about our community is a good thing, and others don't. In posting the article, one might think that, surely, people who are planning for our future might be interested in how to protect their homes from a scam. Further, they might wonder whether the Highland Park Police Department should have alerted residents to the scam – after all, a lot of people are selling their homes – as well as ask why charges hadn't been filed. Also, this particular group had initially been started by discussing local school board matters – as their kids go to District 113 schools, they should be interested in our elected school board officials. The administrator of this page is Lisa Remer Hirsch. Even though encouraged to do so, she did not take my post down. Hirsch said, "I do not censor. I might take down bad language or personal attacks but that's it."

It's very simple. Residents can't make informed decisions if they aren't fully informed. In a stroke of Orwellian proportions, Walter Hainsfurther decided residents concerned about District 113 in Highland Park and Deerfield just don't need to know about Dennis Rodkin's article. Or not until Debra Hymen runs for office again. And, if they are going to find it, it won't be on Hainsfurther's Sounding Board (let's call it what it is now).

Some might say, we get the community we deserve. Do residents in Highland Park prefer to be well informed? Thanks to Lisa Remer Hirsch, Rodkin's article remains on "Planning for Our Future." The comments are mixed. Here is a sampling of some resident comments posted so far (they have been cut and pasted – so spelling, typos and grammar have not been edited; as the page is a closed group, no names are included):

• "I'm not comfortable with this article at all. I feel it implies a certain guilt that may or may not exist"
• "…I add this into the other things I've heard over the years and formulate my opinion. Your may of course vary. But I'd rather have more information than less."
• With all due respect - I am wondering why you felt a need to post this here and on the District 113 page? You clearly have every right to be some type of self appointed "gotcha" reporter on your blog and such.....but it clearly seems like you are looking for anything and everything to complain about and call public officials out about....which again is our right....but your agenda seems pretty clear.....while I do not agree with every decision Ms Hymen has made in her many years as a school board member I respect her wilingness to voluntarily serve our community - and posting an article that has nothing to do with her work on the school board isn't too neighborly and basically not kind....this guy was clearly a con artist...not cool IMO
• Ok[..]...but again the agenda of posting this article while recently and continually blasting voluntary school board members and making unsubstantiated comments about falling real estate values due to closing schools...which may be an opinion that Ms Rade holds but is by no means fact.....seems clear. What is the purpose of community members looking for every reason to hurt members of our community that voluntarily take the time to serve? Being treated like this why would one choose to serve? Anyone who is in the real estate business at the level of Ms Hymen...who has done the number of deals she has done...is bound to have some deals go sideways and even end up in litigation....and as you know there are two sides and this is what a court is for.....posting it to Facebook with an obvious agenda is really lame.... sorry....but it's the truth. (Same person as the previous comment.)
• Debbie Hyman has been an incredible advocate for District schools for years. I knew her before she was THE Debbie Hyman and she worked just as hard for the community then. Funny, how communities, all of them, end up eating their own.
• …Thanks for Ms. Rade for linking to this, it's a good starting point for investigating the details.

In this era where the president of the United States frequently tweets about "fake news," it becomes all the more important to know who is determining the news that is fit to print and what is their agenda. Granted, a closed Facebook page can be a very unreliable source. Where do you source relevant news about your community? For instance, the Highland Park Patch posted my article "Cash and Carry: $1.013 Million in Paper Bills" but you didn't read about the lack of controls over these funds in the Chicago Tribune. Consider that the Trib recently published a recent article that a Zion school district paid $15K to a newly hired principal to resign before he started. Yet, the Trib never reported any of the associated facts concerning the more than $1 million dollars in cash, even though it had been reported to the Trib years before. The Chicago Tribune was made aware of the Lake County State's Attorney's investigation. Still not reported. We also haven't seen an article about the Rifkin litigation, either. Perhaps the Chicago Tribune just doesn't know about it yet. Or, perhaps, there are reasons why a report has been withheld. Censorship, perhaps?

I was censored today when I shared news from a respected, bona fide, news source – a fine journalist who lives in Highland Park. It was relevant to the community and, in particular, District 113 in Highland Park and Deerfield. Are we living in a censorious community, filled with hidden agendas? Has the public's right to access knowledge become subordinate to the private interests in our community? Today I might be censored, tomorrow I might be removed from Hainsfurther's Sounding Board entirely. It's hard to notice the dissenters when there aren't any. Sadly, the problem is that everyone may be under the assumption that they are getting all the news that is relevant to our community.

That's the thing about censorship of news. You just don't know what you just don't know.

Reprinted, slightly revised, from article published in the Highland Patch by this author.