December 19 marked the last Naperville city council meeting of the year, which means the council can’t do anything additional this year to intrude in citizens’ lives, and the fine citizens of Naperville can ‘ease up’ on the council until next year. Christmas and the holiday season give each side the opportunity to ‘give it a rest’; the ‘it’ being ‘muscle flexing’.
The interaction between the Naperville city council and the citizens of Naperville are similar to the game “Whack-a-mole” where a little cuddly animal pops up from a hole and then is hammered back down, only to pop up elsewhere. In this case, the little cuddly animal is a citizen of Naperville speaking to the Naperville city council, only to be hammered down, and then another citizen pops up and is hammered down.
In WWI on Christmas day in 1914, the German and British soldiers stopped fighting for the day on the Western front and talked, laughed, and sang Silent Night together. If that can happen, then the council and the citizens can also do the same….sort of for a while. At least until the next meeting on January 17 and then everybody can start ‘mixing it up’ again.
If you were to look at the Naperville city council Christmas wish list, you would see some of the following wants:
- fewer presenters at Public forum
- no citizen-sponsored referendum requests
- no term limits
- no districts
- Smart meters on every home and business
- No budget deficit
- Ultimate transparence where no one can see anything
- Fewer citizens attending council meetings
- A compliant and docile constituency.
- More ordinances to manipulate citizens
- Higher taxes
- Higher penalty fees for smart-meter dissidents.
- Less citizen awareness
However, as the Rolling Stones said (maybe to the council) “You can’t always get what you want…..you get what you need.”
So for Christmas let’s look at what the Naperville city council may need as a group:
- fewer ordinances
- more budget constraint and expense awareness
- more respect and courtesy extended to presenters
- more honest communication with Naperville citizens
- less intrusion in the lives of Naperville citizens
On an individual basis, each council member may need the following:
- Mayor Pradel could use a ‘make over’ to look like someone else and finally get to ‘let loose’ in downtown Naperville. Acting mayoral does have its disadvantages.
- Joe McElroy needs someone else on the council who is also open-minded so he can have someone to relate to.
- Judy Brodhead needs saltshakers.
- Bob Fieseler needs to read a book on how to look sincere.
- Doug Krause needs to have his picture in GQ Magazine
- Kenn Miller needs one more ‘n’
- Grant Wehrli needs a good haircut and shave.
- Paul Hinterlong needs a $100,000+ audio/visual council upgrade
- Steve Chirico needs suit pants three inches longer
Hey, the British and Germans did it for a day on Christmas, so maybe the citizens of Naperville can get what they want and what they need.
