It’s about time that the Naperville city council picks up the energy level a notch when announcing proclamations during city council meetings. And what’s the deal with the Mayor making other city council members state the proclamation rather than investing the time to do it himself.
For the longest of time, Mayor Chirico and his predecessor Mayor Pradel would call upon council woman Judy Brodhead to saunter down to the podium to announce the proclamation. Could it be that she was selected to make it appear that she was finally doing something constructive other than taking up space at the dais. It never seemed fair that Brodhead would be called upon to make the long trek to the podium, and then have to go all the way back to her seat.
Now we have councilman Kevin Coyne making that journey to the podium; he must have lost the coin flip. Watch and listen to Coyne as he gives it his all while announcing that April is National Fair Housing Month:
And what’s the deal with Coyne saying, during the proclamation, that he is Mayor Chirico. Are we looking at a case of identity theft?
Every council member called upon to announce a proclamation, does it as if they really don’t want to be doing it. Where is the pizzazz? Where is the energy and excitement? Why not make it not only interesting, make it memorable. Even a guy taking an order for a hamburger shows more gusto.
And enough of the “whereas”, how about making it “henceforth”. In 62 seconds, Coyne said “whereas” four times, that’s once every 15.5 seconds. And why is it ‘whereas’? Is that to mean that for April only, Naperville will be supporting and encouraging ‘Fair Housing’, and when May 1st comes along, it’s back to business as usual, and screw fair housing? So instead of “whereas” with a deadline of May 1st, change it to “henceforth”. In other words from this point forward, Naperville is supporting fair housing with no deadline. Now that’s a bold proclamation!
Some other missed opportunities by the Naperville city council for proclamations included National Oatmeal Month (January), and National Welding Month (April). Does Naperville have a problem with oatmeal and welding? October will be National Sarcastic Month. Let’s hope the Naperville city council won’t let that one slip away.
My personal favorite opportunity remaining for the city council to make an impassioned proclamation is coming this June, ‘National Fight The Filthy Fly Month’.
Why not make it memorable with pomp and circumstance like the following proclamation:
Can we get a dilly dilly from the city council.