Things were going along just fine during last Tuesday night’s Naperville city council meeting until councilwoman Becky Anderson turned her little red light on signaling she would like to make a comment, and that’s when things began to go bad.
It’s not uncommon for politicians to lose it:
The agenda item being discussed involved the Fifth Avenue Development’s task force (committee’s) recommendation. Deputy City Manager Marcie Schatz did an outstanding job of explaining the process used, and the people involved in making the recommendation of a developer for the project near the train station on 5th avenue.
Individuals for the task force, selected by the mayor, included community stakeholders from:
- School District 203
- North Central College
- Naperville Development Partnership
- DuPage Children’s Museum
- Naperville Park District
- Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce
Additionally four city staff members and four property owners near the project were included, along with city council liaison Judy Brodhead.
After Marcie Schatz’s presentation and a short statement by the mayor, Anderson lit the fuse:
This was immediately followed with Chirico’s rebuttal:
This ‘infuriated’ Anderson
Interestingly this comes one month after Anderson announced she is running in the Democrat primary for the U.S. Representative in the 6th District with the goal of unseating Republican Peter Roskam. What a great opportunity for her to grandstand and pander in front of a large audience during the city council meeting which is always televised. Anderson was willing to throw Mayor Chirico under the bus, along with city staff, and respectable members of the task force, in order to come across as a victim by whining about not being informed. Shame on councilwoman Becky Anderson for her disrespectful and despicable tactic of trying to elevate herself at the expense of so many others including the electorate.
If Anderson truly did not know what was going on (it was a ‘huge’ surprise to her’), then she made no effort to listen and learn. Councilwoman Judy Brodhead asked to be the liaison on the task force. Anderson didn’t care enough to ask before Brodhead did. If Anderson was truly infuriated, why didn’t she take her concern to the mayor before the meeting. Why couldn’t she have done it ‘off stage’. The answer is that she can’t grandstand and pander off stage.
You don’t throw a teammate under the bus. It says a lot about her character, or lack thereof. Another person who recently threw a teammate under the bus was Cub catcher Miguel Montero, when he publically berated Cub pitcher Jake Arrieta. Within a few weeks Monterro found himself wearing a Toronto Blue Jay uniform.
Councilwoman Anderson likes to hide among the trees when throwing stones, which is why she referred to ‘we’ rather than ‘I’ while whining about ‘not being in the know’. She said ‘we (the council) were not involved with the process. That’s because the ‘process’ was designed to work without political influence, and that part of the process worked.
Watch and listen to Naperville resident Tom Higgins as he expresses how the process could have been improved by ‘asking residents near the 5th Avenue project, what they want’
That’s a good point by Mr. Higgins, however residents either individually or as a group always have the opportunity to express what they want, they just have to do it.
Councilman John Krummen chimed in after Anderson’s ‘infuriation’, either because he also felt like a mushroom (being left in the dark to eat fertilizer) or because if Anderson was going to figuretivly-speaking take a swing at the mayor or city manger, he didn’t want to be the recipient of the hay-maker.
I’m glad Becky had the guts to speak up and that is coming from someone who can’t stand Becky. How do you ask a Council to vote on something so important to our City with NO background information? This wasn’t Becky playing dumb – supposedly as of the Friday before the meeting the collective Council members literally had NO information.
Shame on the Mayor and Doug Kreiger for cancelling the workshop, where all the relivent information would have been shared prior to a vote. At least they had the common sense to reschedule it – after a black eye.
The Mayor and Staff changed the rules of the “game” without telling council members. Anderson was not the only one upset by this, Krummen and Hinterlong were equally upset and I did not see any of the remaining council members come to the Mayor or Staffs defense. This item was placed on the agenda by the Mayor without council input. The originally agreed upon plan was for this task force to provide a list of recommended developers that would be discussed at the workshop. The choice of developer was to be made during this workshop giving everyone time to review this list (investigate the developers on it) and a chance to provide input. Instead all of these agreed upon procedures were unilaterally scrapped.
Targeting Councilwomen Anderson for speaking out is outrageous. But then again outrageous behavior has become the new norm with Trump in the Whitehouse. It is now OK to attack people because of there ethnicity, or because they are not white, and most importantly because they are a women. How dare any women challenge the actions of a man!!!
The council is in disarray and reflects poor leadership. The mayor does he pleases and has the power to do so . He controls the people on every committee . This will not have a good ending .
Becky was practicing her political SPEAK.
Her attack was quite unprofessional.
You’re good with how the Mayor called out a resident for passing out flyers?
Everything every member of city council says could be classified “political SPEAK”, this is an ambiguous term that is typically used to politically attack someone running for office by a person that opposes them. It is at best a petty political attack at worst political bullying (straight out the the Trump playbook). What you call unprofessional most would agree was Anderson doing her job insuring government transparency and keeping residents informed. You seem to have missed the point were both Hinterlong and Krummen made comments demonstrating similar anger over what had happen in support of Anderson’s objection to the agenda item in question.
The “5th Avenue” project will easily rival if not exceed the Water Street Project and could easily cost Naperville residents millions more in property and other taxes then Water Street has and continues to do. It is very important that it is done right the first time. I would rather elected officials take it slow and be overly cautious then get in a hurry, rush this project, and create a nightmare that resident have to live with and pay for, for years to come (as has happened in the past).
Jim H., EVERYTHING is Trump’s fault, right. Becky “Anderson” has used different names in different situations to suit her politically, who’s playbook is that out of? She has sat like a lump on the dias most of her tenure, and voted along with the mayor and the rest, until now, when she wants to run for higher office. Who’s playbook is that out of? She started virtue signaling with the “welcoming city” spiel, who’s playbook is that out of? Everything is NOT racist, sexist, bullying, etc. Sometimes it’s just the truth.
Nothing in my post blamed Trump for anything. I did mention the Trump playbook, the practice of bullying, intimidating and berating, to get what he wants. He learned this from his father and has practiced it his entire life, first as a “businessman” and know as a “statesman”. This behavior is undeniable and well documented. And it has become the “Holy grail” of behavior for those that support him, be they billionaires of bigots. Like you say “sometimes it just the truth”.
As to Anderson’s involvement in council discussion it has not been significantly different from that of Coyne, Obarski, or Hinterlong and definitely more engaged then others. Your comment about how she has just gone along with the Mayor in one sentence followed by a sentence questioning her support for a welcoming city ordinance (something Mayor Chiro is totally against) speak volumes about how very little of the situation you truly comprehended.