Naperville denies residents the opportunity to vote

Did anyone really believe that the City of Naperville would allow citizens to vote on a non-binding referendum regarding the installation of so-called ‘Smart’ Meters. The Naperville city council would prefer that residents not be involved with concerns of the city council.  The most recent classic example occurred when citizens of Naperville voted on referendums to approve council member term limits and district representation. A landslide vote approved both referendums, to the embarrassment of the Naperville city council. Can you imagine the council members’ conversation after those referendums were successful? It probably went something like this, “How could you fools possibly allow this referendum to get on the ballot! What were you all thinking? We can never allow this to happen again. Never again can we let the voters vote on what they want.”

Based on that there was absolutely no way the council would allow citizens to vote even on a non-binding referendum. If by some miraculous intervention the referendum would have made it on the March ballot, the Naperville city council most likely would have had every registered voter in Naperville subpoenaed to appear in the city chambers on election day in order that no voter could get to the voting booth.

If you speak with Naperville electric public utility, they defer to the Naperville city council, which defers to the Naperville Electoral Board, which takes advice from the Naperville city attorney who also advises the Naperville city council, which composes the Naperville electric public utility. It’s mostly all the same people wearing different hats.  It sounds like controlled bureaucratic chaos, which defines the actions of the city council.

Very serious allegations are being made against the city of Naperville with regard to clear violations of right to privacy to the point of asking for an investigatory hearing to look into the scope of serious security breaches. Could it be that a member of the city council admitted to giving petition information to numerous people? Could it also be that a member of the city council hurled a public insult to a petition circulator during a public forum portion of a city council meeting?

This all stems around the central issue of ‘Smart’ meters.  Keep in mind that the Naperville city manager, Doug Krieger, has ‘guaranteed’ that ‘Smart’ meter information is secure. Well that is reassuring. If the city government says it is secure, it must be secure, right? How could anyone distrust what we are hearing from the city council and city manager?

The Naperville city council is similar to a bucking bronco (government out of control), and the good citizens of Naperville, along with the Naperville Smart Meter Awareness group are on the back of that bronco attempting to tame it. With more and more exposure of this abuse of power to the ‘outside’ world, via the internet, and media, it is simply a matter of time before that bronco is either tamed or replaced. Some say that by denying the citizens the right to vote, the law was followed. Maybe so, maybe not, that remains to be seen.  There is a difference between the letter of the law, the spirit of the law, and justice. In O.J’s murder trial the letter of the law was applied, and he was free to go golfing. It was only later that justice prevailed and O.J’s fate was sealed.

In this case, the wish of one objector was granted, with the help of the Naperville Electoral Board, while the wishes of thousands of people were set aside. Alienating thousands of citizens by denying them the simple right to vote in a non-binding referendum appears unwise and unethical. Then again, we are talking about the Naperville city council, or is it the Naperville Electric Utility Board, or is it  the Naperville Electoral Board; it all seems to blend together.