Naperville Councilwoman Obarski’s Freudian Slip

Naperville’s Municipal Center, home to the mayor and city council, is quite a beautiful building located on some prime property overlooking Naperville’s crown jewel known as the River Walk. The council chambers where the Naperville city council meets on the first and third Tuesdays of each month is not only functional, as it should be, it’s also comfortable and somewhat picturesque. In fact, the mayor of Homer Glen (George Yukich), during a short presentation to the council, mentioned that his town has a Village Hall, not a Taj Mahal inferring that Naperville’s Municipal Center is  little over-the-top.

That takes us to last Tuesday’s Naperville city council meeting when the topic of scheduling a council work shop came up on the agenda. Watch and listen as Naperville councilwoman Rebecca Obarski suggested moving the workshop meeting from council chambers to a meeting room; note how she initially with excitement refers to the workshop as a retreat:

Freudian slip, who knows. An intentional error revealing subconscious feeling, maybe. By definition a retreat is withdrawing from enemy forces, or moving back. It could also be a getaway or vacation.

A workshop implies ‘intensive discussion’, and Obarski apparently isn’t satisfied with Naperville’s Taj Mahal council chambers. Even more interesting is the entire council agreed to using a meeting room; no one questioned the idea. No doubt a meeting room is much more fun, being located next to a lunch room. Think of the possibilities.

Additionally the meeting room is undoubtedly available, since it was just a few months ago the the Naperville city council voted to start charging Naperville residents a fee to use meeting rooms in the Municipal Center. Taxpayer dollars built the Municipal Center, and the council decided to charge those taxpayers a fee to use those meeting rooms in the building they built.

How about each member of the Naperville city council tossing in a few bucks for the use of the meeting room. If residents now have to do that, why not the city officials too. Maybe with that requirement, the council chambers might begin to look more appealing for a workshop. I mean it is seen as a Taj Mahal.