Who doesn’t like good Italian food, combined with live music and dancing, wrapped around a great festive time with friends? Well there are at least seven people, and they are all on the Naperville city council. And of the seven, who is the biggest curmudgeon of them all; that would have to be Naperville councilman John Krummen.
It all unfolded during the February 6 Naperville city council meeting when John Barry, owner and CEO of Star Events tried to re-open the door for approving Festa Italiana, at the Naper Settlement proposed for August 3-5. The event had been in the works for over a year, and then an unclear, cumbersome, and flawed process caused the plug to get pulled, time ran out, and the fun event disappeared into the inky shadows of the Municipal Center.
Watch and listen as Barry has his three minutes to resurrect the opportunity, and pay special attention how Krummen builds Barry’s hopes with a few words, only to be trampled within seconds as Krummen hides behind ‘process’.
Now watch and listen as the city clerk tries to clarify the processes, followed by a question from Mayor Chirico, when Krummen, again points out that he is a ‘process-guy’ only to have him conclude that it “sounds like we (the city) need to clean up some of our processes”.
So people, (residents, event planners, etc.) are held accountable to flawed processes. The amazing thing is that not only are the recipients of a fun event denied the opportunity of the event, the city and Naper Settlement also lose positive economic impact because of flawed processes.
Only two members (Mayor Chirico and council member Patty Gustin) of the nine-member council voted to reconsider the event. Gustin pointed out “As a city council, we have said to the Settlement, to do things to make the Settlement relevant, do things to increase the budget, increase revenues, and things like that, so it is not a tax burden on taxpayers, this is exactly what they are doing, and for us to deny it, is kind of like speaking out of both sides of your mouth.”
No less than three times, during the 40-minute council discussion, Krummen mentioned that he is a ‘process guy’; maybe he needs to change and amend his comment by saying he is an ‘effective-process guy’. In essence, Krummen, through the council’s vote, was saying to the fine folks of Naperville, “You get nothing. You lose. Good day sir!”
I love living in Naperville, primarily because of the type of events Mr. Barry is talking about. I feel our city can never have to many of these events. These type of events, however, require city services to support them and the city staff has a limited capacity to support these events (manpower limits, funding limits, budgeting concerns). In order for the city to make the resources needed to support a special event available it must plan (schedule) these resource as well as fund them. That is what all the budget meetings, SECA meetings, special event meetings are all about. That is the purpose of the city process for special events and that is the reason for deadlines.
This gentleman agrees his made a mistake, drop the ball and missed the deadline, but wants the city to change the process just for him. The reality is if the city does it for him they will have to do it for anyone else that asks, simple cause they missed a deadline. This will basically make the budget, SECA and special event meetings pointless, since the city will no longer be using a process for scheduling the resources needed for these events, but instead will resort to a “fly by the seat of your pants” management practice; always the best way to make sure city funds are being used responsibly 😉
The city did not suddenly change it policies, it did not suddenly change the deadline, it did make the requirements and deadlines clear. This gentleman wants the deadline waived. How great would that be if governments would just waive their deadlines.
Me: Hey IRS I forgot about the tax filing deadline I’d like you to waive it
IRS: Hey not problem!
Me: Hey Assessor I forgot about the property assessment appeals deadline I’d like you to waive it
Assessor: Hey no problem.
Me: Hey Judge I forgot about my court date I’d like you to waive it
Judge: Hey no problem.
The reality is we all face deadlines in our live on a regular bases and when we miss them, we do not get a do over, we pay the consequence.
There is a common saying “A failure to plan on your part, does not constitute and emergency on my part”