Just when you think government consolidation has simmered down a bit with the Naperville Township Road supervisor and the City of Naperville, word has surfaced that an unknown individual has gathered petitions and submitted them for referendums to be placed on the April 4 ballot asking voters if they want the cities of Lisle, Warrenville, and Woodridge to be annexed into the city of Naperville, with each city being a separate referendum.
Let me make it perfectly clear, the unknown individual (UI) is not Watchdog. No need to send me any emails praising or condemning Watchdog. Whomever the UI is, it’s either a good Samaritan, rabble-rouser, or a trouble maker, s/he has stirred things up.
Warrenville Mayor David Brummel said the people of Warrenville “love our culture”, the city of Woodridge basically said, ‘no comment’, while Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico with a memory like a steel trap (nothing gets in and nothing gets out) said he met with someone months ago (doesn’t remember the name), and they had a general discussion about annexation, but that was about it. He’s not in favor of the referendum, however he fully supports government consolidation if it can eliminate redundancy and save money by being more efficient.
Lisle Mayor Joe Broda said the idea of being annexed by Naperville ‘is laughable’. The last time I heard a politician say something is ‘laughable’ is when Trump announced his candidacy for President. Then we all heard over and over again how ‘laughable’ the idea of Trump getting elected was. Hillary even gave her ‘laughable shoulder shake’ during the debates. Is it slightly possible that Broda has over or under-estimated the residents of Lisle.
When I first heard this annexation idea, I thought it was nuts. But after thinking about it for a full three seconds, I said, ‘hey this might work’. Think about the possibilities:
- The combined population for all four cities is about 215,000, about the same as Orlando, Florida’s 213,000 or Scottsdale, Arizona’s 226,000. Both cities are flourishing.
- Governor Rauner and Naperville city officials are ‘flag carriers’ for government consolidation, and this would be a classic example.
- Naperville could finally use the new city flag designed by Neuqua students. Could this annexation be the reason Naperville council members John Krummen and Patty Gustin gave their ‘blessing’ to the students to ‘go forth and create a new city flag’.
- Naperville could incorporate athletes from the annexed cities into their sports programs and win all sorts of state championships.
- We could eliminate the positions of three mayors including Lisle’s Mayor Joe Broda. He might think it’s not so laughable anymore.
Naperville’s Mayor Steve Chirico would remain the mayor of ‘Big Naperville’ because he is paid less and likely accomplishes more than the other three mayors combined. If that’s not reason enough, how about the fact that our mayor can beat-up the other three. In case you forgot, Mayor Chirico was a high school wrestling champion.
This could be just the beginning. If things really work out well in Big Naperville, and if California succeeds in their desire to secede from the Union (now that Trump will be President), Big Naperville could petition to become the 50th state replacing California, thereby allowing the U.S to keep its 50-star flag.
Since local city councils wont be fiscally responsible and cut cost allowing lower taxes the people will eventually get rid of them by elimination and consolidation. Watch what Trump will do at a Federal level to get suggestions and ideas for these basket cases called cities. It’s going to be a great 2017 for tax payers but not yet in IL, DuPage County or Naperville.
I know several of the Watchdog’s comments were “tough in check” but there are few sources of confusion in this discussion. First School Districts in our community are not part of or in any official way associated with city governments in our suburbans (unlike Chicago and the CPS). So consolidation of cities would not result in any consolidation of school districts (our largest property tax liability).
Consolidation of cities does not automatically mean synergistic results. For example it would produce a redundancy in waste management infrastructure that could become quit costly for current Naperville residents. The electrical infrastructure would also present many issues. Of these cities only Naperville has its own power utility and is a member of the IMEA, the others are ComEd customers. Consolidating these infrastructures would be costly no matter which solution you chose to go with.
While this is an interesting mental exercise, it is a very unlikely reality since, even if supported by voters, it would require each city’s elected officials to officially request annexation by Naperville and for Naperville officials to approve each annexation. Because of the complexities involved and no clear benefits or synergies to be gained it simply would not be justifiable to merge these cities.
I will admit part of me like this idea, because of all the elected, appointed, city officials and staff that would be eliminated along with the possibilities of consolidating city road, police and fire services. It would also dramatically increase the tax base for Naperville (large parts of the Cities of Warrenville and Woodridge are commercial properties generating significant retail sales). But the infrastructure issues are a massive hurtle to clear.