Imagine how much we could learn about Naperville city officials, if we could hear them talk during closed session or in the inky shadows of city hall, considering what we do hear and see during city council meetings. Councilman Doug Krause has never been one to shy away from opposing the majority opinion of the city council, and councilman Paul Hinterlong doesn’t often filter his thoughts before expressing them during council meetings. In a way, it’s refreshing to hear both speak. Depending upon your point of view, they either have the courage to speak their mind, or they have the foolishness to have it recorded for all to hear.
Take for example the recent Naperville city council meeting, when the issue being discussed revolved around whether or not to amend an ordinance allowing the city manager to settle claims from the current $25,000 limit up to the decided-upon limit of $50,000.
Apparently councilman Hinterlong has little faith that new city council members will have an acceptable learning curve to make proper decisions, or in other words, are as smart and wise as he is in knowing what to do. Watch and listen as Hinterlong impugns new council members ability to think critically and make sound decisions:
Councilman and mayoral candidate, Doug Krause, chimes in a minute later and puts an exclamation mark on Hinterlong’s comment:
Somehow both Hinterlong and Krause think they have cornered the market on wisdom, and new council members will be slow learners. Hence if anything needs to be decided, it needs to be now, before the low and slow learners get seated after the April election.
It’s ironic that both would question a new council member’s intelligence, when during the same meeting a new council member, Tom Miers was sworn in to fill a temporary vacancy. Tom Miers is no slouch, in fact, he is the president of Naperville Bank and Trust. Anybody walking into the council meeting, and not knowing who’s who, and listening for a while, would most likely consider new councilman Tom Miers to be an established veteran and a voice of reason and common sense.
There are 19 candidates running for city council election, and at least half would be a good addition to the council, and more than half of those will likely get elected.
With Krause running second-best, at best for the office of mayor, chances are good he will be taking a ‘runner-up’ lap around the dais before he departs the council. That leaves Hinterlong as a likely member of the new council surrounded by new council members.
The question then becomes, how long will it take Hinterlong to ‘get up to speed’ with the new, fresh thinking, and open-minded council members.
Although Kraus is a lack luster orator and somewhat of a milk toast type of guy he is basically honest and will do much less damage overall then Chirico a politically connected troll whose ethics leaves a lot to be desired and doesn’t believe in micromanaging his own business accountant so she embezzled 700k from his holdings.
He is the selected hair apparent by the Chamber of Commerce and recovered some of his micromanaged faux pas by getting the state to pay for his new electrical roof generator (solar panels) at tax payer expense. What a guy and if this is what you want to represent the good citizens of Naperville good luck I’ll take Kraus any day.
Imaging what Chirico will do with city finances especially with his buddies the city’s business manager Krieger who he just voted to increase his limits of authority from 25k to 50k and non-police chief, police chief Marshall. Nothing to be concerned about here folks just move along.
Isn’t Hjnterlong really campaigning “for experience” from the dais? It doesn’t take 6 months for qualified new council members to “get up to speed” to understand that allowing up to $50,000.00 unsupervised settlements is a ticket to concealment and cover-ups. A $50,000.00 spiff to employee exit packages can be a tempting incentive to silence disclosure of internal problems.
What has “experience” given taxpayers? Over $280M in debt and unfunded pensions, a $6M deficit for this year, and an Electric Utiltiy that may heading for bankruptcy. The debt these old timers have run up is 2.4% of our personal income or $1,147.00 per capita, ($4,588.00 per family of 4) .and that does not include the undunded pensions, the school and park district debt.
The tax, spend and debt trilogy is a formula for disaster. Mature, fresh, fiscally responsible leadership is required to return Naperville to a sound financial base.