01092006 - News Article - Political and proud -- how refreshing - ROBERT CANTRELL

Political and proud -- how refreshing
MARK KIESLING
NWI Times
Jan 9, 2006
nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/mark-kiesling/political-and-proud----how-refreshing/article_a686f0b2-be02-528a-a31f-d15447711f07.html
If she is nothing else, Nancy Fromm is refreshing.

The owner of Addiction & Family Care, a Hammond-based drug and alcohol counseling center, Fromm admits up front how her extensive political connections got her started and keep her going.

I'd much rather hear this than listen to people who are neck-deep in the Lake County political swamp talk about how they are nonpolitical and are not beholden to anyone, blah blah blah.

Fromm cheerfully responded to a bashing from Lake Superior Court Judge Jesse Villalpando in my Dec. 4 column in which the judge accused Fromm of playing politics and charging clients double what other counseling agencies were charging.

Villalpando said he was outraged (insert indignant thump on desk here) that such gouging was taking place and said he stopped sending people to Addiction & Family Care.

Nonsense, said Fromm. "We have never charged double compared to what other agencies charge," she said. "Judge Villalpando took the business away from us for political reasons, period!

"I accepted that. I'm political -- I grew up in a political family. I don't think I'd be involved in politics if I didn't understand it. But I am, and used it to start this business."

And to keep it going, she hired one of Lake County's top political operatives, Bobby Cantrell, as a consultant to get the contracts flowing. And it worked.

Villalpando, a former state rep, had wanted to become a judge but never applied through the county's judicial nominating commission. Instead, as a legislator he created a new courtroom and became the only applicant for the job.

"Judge Villalpando used politics to get himself appointed to the bench," Fromm said. "Now he doesn't like politics when people want to run against him."

Former East Chicago City Councilman Joe De La Cruz brought Cantrell and Villalpando together, and soon Fromm had a contract with the court to provide counseling services.

But then Cantrell and Villalpando had a falling out, and the contract work from Villalpando's courtroom dried up like a Texas arroyo in September.

"It's just political infighting, it's expected," Fromm said. "Say what you want about me politically, but I don't lie about my business practices. Judge Villalpando stopped sending us business because of politics, even though I told (public defenders) Garry Weiss and Peter Katic last spring that I would help the judge with his re-election."

Well, Bobby Cantrell is not helping Villalpando with this election. There's little doubt he's going to throw support to Villalpando opponents Stan Jablonski or Ed Fontanez -- or both.

"Bobby is what he is -- political," said Fromm. "He doesn't claim to be anything else."

And in this era of good government studies and would-be white knights descending from on high to be the saviors of Lake County, sometimes such candor can be a refreshing thing.