Last Tuesday had to be very exciting for Naperville’s two new council members, Patrick Kelly and Theresa Sullivan. It was officially their first council meeting. As always, Mayor Steve Chirico gets meetings started on time. There is no dilly-dallying around on his part. He’s got places to go, people to see, and things to do. No sense keeping people waiting in council chambers.
At 7:00pm sharp, roll call begins and when council member names are called they reciprocate with ‘here or present’. Uh oh, there is one missing. Where is new council member Theresa Sullivan? She is nowhere to be seen. How can that be. Her first official ‘coming out’ opportunity, and she blows it off? Maybe she forgot it was meeting night? Maybe she realized the work load was too much and she resigned. Maybe, just maybe she was at the Cubs game.
Surely she’ll get there before the Pledge of Allegiance? No, she was a no-show for that too. Could it be that council woman Theresa Sullivan is a disciple of Colin Kaepernick and she was ‘taking a knee’ in council chambers?
After the pledge she finally surfaced as she raced to be seated. Fortunately she sits on the end of the dais, and didn’t have to stumble her way towards the middle of the group.
In all fairness to new council member Sullivan, she may have had a compelling reason to be late other than finishing the last bite of a huge burrito, and if that’s the case then Watchdog, truly hopes all is well with the Sullivan household.
One thing is for sure, Sullivan now knows that Mayor Steve Chirico starts meetings on time and he has been doing that since he was elected mayor. There was a time prior to Mayor Chirico when meetings would consistently start five to ten minutes late, and council members would come in sauntering as if they were attending a cocktail party, with little or no regard for people waiting in council chambers. No longer does that happen. If a council member is not ready to get started on time, then it’s on them. Chirico runs the council meetings and the city as though it was a successful business because that’s exactly what it is.
Legendary and successful Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi lived and coached in a disciplined manner and required the same from his players. One of his rules for practice was, “If you are on time, you’re late”. In other words, get there early and be ready. Punctuality is respect for other peoples’ time. Let’s see if Sullivan is ready to do the peoples’ work.