Resident Scores TKO Over Naperville City Council

It’s always interesting when a citizen can take-on a government body and make them look like a panel of fools. That’s exactly what Naperville resident Sandy Glass did to the Naperville city council during the public forum portion of the most recent Naperville city council meeting on October 16.

The Naperville city council has a propensity for making it easy for residents to showcase the council’s buffoonery. The council does this in a number of ways including making city council meetings public, recording those meetings for public viewing, and including a public forum portion of the meeting. The council does these things only because they are required to do so. If the Naperville city council had a choice, they would undoubtedly do-away with all that exposure showcasing their inability to lead, make sense, or be honest with the residents of Naperville.

I have attended or viewed city council meetings for a few years, and I always get the feeling that the Naperville city council can’t wait until the public forum portion of the meeting is concluded. It’s almost as if they feel a sense of relief as one would feel when leaving a dentist’s office after a root canal. There is a reason why a public forum speaker allowed three minutes for a presentation; it’s the same amount of time for one round of a heavy-weight championship fight. If the council can make it through three minutes, the time keeper can save them from being knocked out.

Getting back to citizen Sandy Glass, she did score a convincing and resounding TKO (Technical Knock Out) over the city council, and she did so by pummeling council members Fieseler, Wehrli, and Chirico along with city manager Doug Krieger. One would presume that the other council members would have been subjected to the same ending, if Sandy would have not run out of time. She was on a roll and seemed to rather enjoy the spotlight. It was easy for Sandy Glass because her position on the issues is on the right side of right and wrong, whereas the Naperville city council finds itself typically trying to defend the indefensible.

Watch and listen as the bell rings and Sandy Glass takes-on the council. Also note the following:

• Regarding council member Fieseler, she points out his inconsistency and double-talk regarding his private life and public life view of the Smart Grid. Fieseler had no comment and appeared to be looking for a way to crawl under his seat.
• Regarding council member Grant Wehrli, she called him ‘out’ and challenged him to look into the availability of outside utilities to provide residents with electricity, thereby giving residents a choice and getting rid of the current monopoly that Naperville mandates. She even tosses the “Plug into Choice” motto that Naperville uses, and Wehrli fumbles it. As Wehrli states, “I’m willing to do anything, but this is not an option”. For this, Wehrli earned the ‘Buffoonery comment of the night’ award.
• Sandy Glass then takes-on the entire council with the challenge, “is any council member here willing to help with free enterprise and choice?” The council responds with deafening silence. Not one council person had the courage to speak up. Naperville is a world-class city without leadership; it’s been accomplished by the residents of Naperville and not helped by the current regime.
• She then pulls council member Steve Chirico into the ring and quickly takes him down by noting that he had a choice of using Com-Ed or Naperville electric for his Naperville based business and he chose Com-Ed. Sandy states, “If a council member’s business can have a choice, why can’t Naperville residents?” Again, after some silence, Chirico responds by saying, “I could have (chosen Naperville) but the cost of equipment and hook-up was cost prohibitive.” That’s fine Steve and it makes sense, but the fact is that you had a choice which is something that Naperville residents don’t have.
• Sandy Glass then finishes off the round by taking-on the ‘Wizard of Oz’ (city council manager Doug Krieger) when she challenges his business and accounting skills regarding cash flow problems with the city’s electric utility and the $2 million shortfall between what’s coming in and what’s going out. Krieger’s comment is classic political non-sense when he states it’s “due to government accounting standards as opposed to normal financial accounting standards” Krieger basically knocked himself out of ring and could not have sounded more foolish.

Just prior to Sandy Glass leaving the podium, she challenged council member Fieseler to see if he would support ‘clean alternative sources’ of energy, and challenged Doug Krieger to ‘get some vendors in for choice’. Again the sound of deafening silence from Fieseler and Krieger. Could it be that Fieseler found it difficult to respond from under his seat, and that Krieger was Googling ‘normal financial accounting standards’.