Follow me…. I’ll be right behind you.

Have you ever noticed how someone can be the ‘ring leader’ and get other people on board for some project or cause, and then the next thing you know, the initiator leaves the scene, and in no time, can’t be found, while the rest of followers are left ‘holding the bag’ wondering how this could have happened.

That might be the route the Naperville city council is taking with regard to the Smart meter debacle. The flag carrier and trumpet blower for pushing Smart Meters on the residents of Naperville has been council member Robert Fieseler. Initially all the other eight council members joined Fieseler like lemmings in lockstep supporting the Smart Meter fiasco and forcing residents into compliance.

Some things changed since the inception of this charade including two council members leaving the council; one was booted out during the election, and the other wisely knowing it was time to leave, wisely decided to leave. Two new council members were added; Steve Chirico and Joe McElroy. Neither has done anything to change the decision or question the sanity of the program, however neither bears the responsibility of the initial decision. One council member (Doug Krause) has “seen the light” and the folly of his original thought supporting Smart Meters and has since then come to his senses by reversing his position and now supports the residents of Naperville.

Of the remaining five members of the council, two typically follow the crowd (Judy Brodhead and Paul Hinterlong) and will tag along for a ride anywhere. That leaves three remaining; Mayor Pradel who has stated this will be his last term as Mayor, and Kenn Miller who is not running for re-election, so that takes them out of the picture. That leaves council member Grant Wehrli ‘holding the bag’ for the ill-conceived idea of forced installation of Digital Utility Meters (DUM), not-so smart meters.

That takes us back to the ‘ring leader’ council member Robert Fieseler. How is he trying to take himself off the hook and leave Wehrli holding the ‘bad decision’ bag? Fieseler wrote an article for the trade journal ‘Applied Design’, which implied that those opposing Smart Meters had legitimate concerns. Some of the concerns of the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness group include health, privacy, cost, security, and the hot topic (pun intended) of Smart Meters overheating and causing fires.

It appears that councilman Bob Fieseler is out-smarting councilman Grant Wehrli on Smart Meters. I suppose you could say that Fieseler’s catch phrase for his next election could be, “Follow me….I’ll be right behind you.”