When Steve Chirico was elected mayor of Naperville in 2015, it was a declaration that doing business in Naperville was about to change; Naperville was now going to be lead by a successful businessman. A little over three years of Chirico’s first term and a number of changes are apparent, including running the City of Naperville as an efficient business. Some of the more noticeable improvements include:
- Demonstrating accountability
- Building trust
- Maximizing relationships
- Managing performance
- Driving change
- Thinking critically
- Managing execution
- Improving communication
The first change occurred at the beginning of the very first city council meeting when Mayor Chirico called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM sharp. No more starting council meetings five or ten minutes late; being punctual was the new order of business. This was a major change from previous mayoral administrations when meetings would start in the vicinity of the start time which was always late. Punctuality (respect for other peoples time) now became a priority. You can’t run a successful business if the sign shows you’re open at 9:00AM and the doors don’t get unlocked until 9:10, or the phone is ringing and no one is there to answer it.
You would think that by now, Naperville council members would know they better be ready to do the ‘peoples business’ when roll call is announced, but unfortunately there’s typically someone stumbling their way to their seat at the dais during roll call. At the last meeting Naperville councilman John Krummen was nowhere to be seen as his name was called during roll call:
There is no doubt that Krummen is a very important person with places to go, people to see, and things to do. Krummen would be the first to agree with that, so being late or a no-show goes with his territory. The good news for Krummen is that he’s not the only person who was a no-show for a roll call
The difference is that Bueller had a really good reason to miss roll call; you can’t beat fun at the old ball park.
Krummen is not the only member of council to show up late or not at all. Have you never been delayed by a meeting that run over, or accident that stop traffic or your train, your car broke down, got in an fender bender, etc. There are a lot of things that can happen in our live that cause us to run late from time to time. This is only an issue if the tardiness is a habit.
There are also a lot of good reasons to not be able to make it to a meeting. Let he who has never missed a day of work due to illness (own or family member), Family emergency, cancelled flight, court appearance (jury duty), etc. cast the first stone. Again this absenteeism is only a problem if it an habitual behavior.
Lets all remember council members are considered part-time employees, they get not medical, not pension, etc. Their only compensation is a annual salary of $15k, and further remember that the national average salary for a Part-Time employee is $24,500 in United States.
The council is out of control –no self discipline, respect , or leadership . They are all elected members and cannot be fired except by not re-electing them . So bear with it citizens and be happy .