Who’s watching the City Council watch us?

Who’s watching the City Council watch us?

We are seeing watchful eyes at both the Federal and State levels of government; however at the local levels of government the misuse or abuse of government is running unbridled. There are over 230 million personal computers in our country of over 300 million people. No newspaper has ever attained that kind of circulation. www.CityCouncilWatchdog.com allows that type of watchful eye.

For far too long we have allowed the local policy makers to determine how we live and what we do, and how we do it in the guise that they know what’s best for us. Enough is enough. It’s time to tell the City Council to ‘get their hands out of our pockets’. It’s time to limit their insatiable fiscal appetite for government. We’ve seen it happen on the national level with the emergence of the Tea Party, and we’re seeing it at the State level. Now it’s time to see it on the local level. It’s time the local government manage the city as a business rather than a part-time hobby. It’s time they listen to their constituency.

When ordinances are passed that can’t be enforced, then what’s the purpose. When dollars are spent, that don’t need to be spent, then what’s the purpose. When a referendum is passed for term limits and local representation on a geographic basis and we hear that the City Council didn’t have enough time to prepare for the change how does that show accountability on their part. Time and time again the wishes and needs of the citizens are shelved, bypassed or overlooked. Enough is enough.

How did it get to this point? Well the answer is incrementally; little by little like erosion. If the City Council thinks no one is watching, then basically they have free reign to do as they please. And that’s exactly what they have done for the most part without accountability. Citizen tax payers are so busy either trying to make a living, making ends meet, or trying to have a life that little time is available to watch City Council decisions, actions, or in most cases their inaction.

So what sources are available to learn about local government action or inaction? Well, we have the local newspaper but newspapers are dying. The Naperville Sun announced today that the paper will reduce publishing from six days down to three.  We can watch the local TV station and read the scroll, but that’s boring and monotonous. We can watch the Council meeting on TV, but so much is missed by not being at the meeting live; like a Councilman dozing off, or another Councilman looking bored, or the fact that they can’t even start the meetings on time. So attending meetings is great, in fact in many ways it’s almost like entertainment. The only downside is that they can take two hours of actual meeting content and turn it into four hours of circular conversation by repeating themselves over and over without adding anything constructive. You can also see the meetings on line, but it’s not easy to navigate the website to locate and view meetings.

Now don’t get me wrong, all of these sources for information are better than nothing, so we encourage you to learn as much as you can from as many sources as possible in order to get a real feel for what’s happening locally. The more we learn about local government in the form of the City Council’s actions and decisions, the more amazed we are that anything gets accomplished.

A quote attributed to the late Speaker of the House Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. in 2003, that “all politics is local”. If this is true, and we believe it is, then what happens locally is of utmost importance to us, and it’s vital that we keep a watchful eye on those who make decisions that affect our daily lives locally. That is our primary purpose and we intend to do exactly that. An informed citizenry is a necessity for good government. With 230 million computers and over 300 million people, much can accomplished not only on a State or National level, but also on a local basis. This is neither a conservative nor a liberal idea; it is an American idea and one that is needed and welcomed by millions of Americans of all political persuasions.