Apparently Naperville council member Judy Brodhead has never heard the Boy Scout motto. If she had, then she would have been more prepared during the last Naperville city council meeting on May 7.
Her job that evening was to read four proclamations signed by Mayor George Pradel. It’s a long walk for the mayor from his position in the middle of the dais to the podium, so he likes to have council members saunter towards the podium and do it for him. Council member Brodhead sits towards the end of the dais, so it’s an easy walk for her, plus she seems to enjoy reading proclamations; the only problem is that she isn’t always prepared.
The third proclamation of the evening was to recognize Naperville Planning and Transportation Team Leader Karyn Robles (Rob’-less), however as you can see and hear from the video clip below, council member Brodhead had to ask the recipient of the proclamation how to pronounce her name.
You would think Brodhead would know how to pronounce Karyn’s name in advance since she is a city staff team member, or at least turn off the mic to confirm the pronunciation.
Then to add an exclamation mark to Brodhead’s unpreparedness, prior to her fourth and final proclamation of the evening, she didn’t have the proclamation (paper) to read and had to retrieve it from another city official.
Suggestion to council member Brodhead….follow the Boy Scout Motto and ‘Be Prepared’
The second proclamation of the evening (recognizing the Chorus of Dupage) was also interesting. As the chorus sings “I’m Proud to be an American”, watch the reaction of council members Chirico who seems uninspired, Wehrli who appears bored and then reading, Pradel, who might be counting the days until retirement, and new council member David Wentz who is the first councilman to give the Chorus of Dupage a standing ovation, which was then sluggishly followed by the rest of the council.
It was good to see new councilman Wentz take the lead by doing the ‘right thing’.
If there is a group in Naperville who could most benefit from the words of “Proud to be an American”, it just might be the Naperville city council. They just need to ‘be prepared’ and pay attention.
