Naperville prides itself for being first on all sorts of lists including best schools, best libraries, best places to live, most sesame seeds on bagels; Winterset , Iowa may dispute the last one.

Money Magazine recently published the best places to live, and Naperville came in 45th place. How did we go from being the best place to live and raise a family to not even being listed among the Top-Ten. How does this happen in such a short period of time.

In 2016, Naperville was ranked 10th among the Top-50 best U.S. Cities, now just three years later we drop 35 slots to 45th. What’s changed? We have the same mayor, the same city manager, but we do have two new council members, Patrick Kelly and Theresa Sullivan. Could they be responsible, it’s doubtful but possible. Or is it that we still have Patty Gustin as a council member. That would seem more likely, but still, dropping 35 slots like a 35-pound bowl of mashed potatoes with gravy onto the passenger seat of your new vehicle is terrible.

Two other Illinois cities made it into the Top-100 list including Bolingbrook at #85 and Vernon Township at #65. Quick, does anyone know where Vernon Township is located. Of course not, but there it is, just 20 slots behind Naperville. If we are dropping an average of 12 slots per year, by the year 2024 Naperville will disappear from the Top-100.

The Top-3 cities on the list include, #1 Clarksville, Tennessee (population 153,000), #2) Round Rock, Texas (population 124,000) and #3 Fishers, Indiana (population 92,000). Money Magazines parameters for its Top 100 cities included cities with populations from 50,000 up to 300,000. It’s possible if Naperville can whittle its population down to less than 50,000, or jack it up to more than 300,000, we could once again make it into the Top-10.

Maybe former council member Becky Anderson was privy to something when she wanted to make Naperville a “Welcomming” city (code for sanctuary city).

I have a problem. I’m obsessive-compulsive. I make to-do lists and I have to get them done. I’ve mellowed a bit as I’ve become older, but it’s still there. It started in kindergarten. The comment on my report cards was that I ‘don’t keep profitably busy’. Well that did it, I became a list-maker over the years; I need to accomplish something every day, including finishing my to-do list.

The Naperville city council appears to have the same problem. Their list is the city council meeting agenda and they have to get it done. It makes no difference how late it is, or how important the agenda topic is, they are obsessive-compulsive about getting it done. Case in point, it happened during the August 20 meeting which lasted until August 21. The meeting went on and on for 7 hours and 27 minutes.

Council chambers were packed with people who wanted to speak about or hear about recreational marijuana and what the council’s position was regarding whether or not to approve its sale in Naperville. What many considered to be the most important topic on the agenda didn’t start getting discussed until 12:20am and finished at 2:27am.

Per council guidelines, city council meetings finish at 11pm unless meeting extensions are approved by a majority of council members which happened numerous times that evening. The council did have the option to continue the meeting on a different date and a more palatable time for discussion, but the city council found itself between a rock and a hard place. If they chose to do that, then the people who attended the meeting and waited, did so without hearing any discussion, or if they continued discussing the topic, then as council member Theresa Sullivan stated “we don’t make our best decisions (that late). I know I don’t. My brain turns off”. She continued with “public meetings are for the public. Is it really accessible to the public if you’re meeting at 1am?”.

So rather than scheduling a special meeting for the following week to discuss the topic, the council decided to ‘soldier on’ and kick it into the obsessive-compulsive gear and keep talking. I also kicked it into the O.C gear by continuing to listen and trying to stay awake. I could have cashed it in and watched the ending the following morning, but that’s not how things work in the O.C. world.