Typically appointees to advisory boards don’t get much attention, discussion, or dissension. It’s about as interesting as choosing between Cheerios or Rice Krispies for breakfast. But now comes mayor Steve Chirico’s choice of Mike Isaac for addition to the Financial Advisory Board of Naperville, and just like that, a perceived issue surfaced. Isaac is the co-owner of the Petland store in Naperville. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, but with the hot topic of puppy mills and pet stores being fought in municipalities throughout the country, including Naperville, the selection of Isaac is at best ill-timed and at worst very controversial.
Here is how the dots can connect. People like puppies. Puppies can be bought from pet stores. Pet stores often purchase puppies from breeders. Some breeders, if not many, if not all, dabble in unscrupulous methods of puppy ‘care’ which are then purchased for re-sale by pet stores. Which gets back to people like puppies, many people don’t like pet stores for selling puppies, which takes us to Mike Isaac.
As unfair as that may be, a good number of folks would prefer that mayor Chirico appoint someone other than a pet store owner to the financial advisory board. Watch and listen Naperville resident Candy Knippenberg shares her concerns:
Now watch and listen as resident Tracey Rees shares her concerns:
I don’t know Mike Isaac, he might be a great guy, he might even be a Cub fan, but out of 143,000 residents in Naperville, one would think that mayor Chirico would choose someone less polarizing, or at least wait until the issue of puppies, pet stores, and breeders has finally been resolved.
Watch as listen as mayor Steve Chirico explains how and why he did what he did:
Chirico has been in office for 83 days. So far, he has exceeded expectations of doubters, and confirmed the expectations of supporters. So the question is, why do something that can be perceived as a negative, when he could wait for better timing, or appoint someone just as competent without controversy. Why not choose a Cheerio rather than a Rice Krispie.
Unelected boards are always stuffed with people who support the current administration and are made to look like experts or authorities on the particular subject in order to dupe the average citizen into believing it is the community’s general consensus to do something. (Modified Delphi technique or method). The end goal is always in mind and it is just a matter of selecting your experts from supporters to recommend to elected officials what they wanted to do in the first place i.e. smart meters.