While more and more Naperville citizens are awakening to local government mis-management, most members of the Naperville city council, along with the city manager continue to doze. Tax dollars are being wasted, the city continues to spend and burden the citizens with additional debt, and an entitlement mentality of local government is leading the city in the wrong direction.
We see it happening at a quickening rate with accumulated outstanding debt, unfunded pension obligations, rising property taxes, while city services are being eliminated or reduced. Within the last year, the city of Naperville lost almost $150,000 in Federal Funds for Loaves and Fishes due to incomplete paper work, leaving the citizens of Naperville with the most need, in a bind.
The city of Naperville has a manager who is charged with the responsibility of making sure these things do not happen. The city council is charged with the responsibility of making sure the city manager manages the city properly; it’s not working. If the city of Naperville were a corporation, it would be bankrupt.
Imagine the Naperville City Corporation. It would have a president (the city manager) and it would have a board of directors (the city council). The stockholders (the citizens) would oversee the Board of Directors, who would oversee the president of the corporation. With the corporation (city) heading in the wrong direction, the stockholders (citizens) would demand a change of leadership, with both the Board of Directors (city council) and the president (city manager). Change would happen and the corporation’s direction would be corrected. That is how it works. It is a simple as that. However, the city is not a corporation and accountability is not part of the equation; hence, mis-management is allowed to continue.
The local government of Naperville continues to govern as though the citizens of Naperville were snoozing, uncaring, and uninformed. The alarm clock is ringing and citizens are awakening, while the Naperville city council along with the city manager continues to nap.
