Heads Or Tails, Naperville Councilman Kevin Coyne Can’t Lose

 11 Responses »
Sep 282019
 

Naperville councilman Kevin Coyne gives no quarter and has had enough of both the Illinois Democratic Party and the DuPage County Republican organization and wants to be the voice for conservative principals by standing tall, and making a difference for change.

Coyne decided to throw his lucky penny into the ring and make a run for the 2020 DuPage County Board election in District 5. After serving on the Planning and Zoning Commission, Coyne was elected to the Naperville city council in in 2015 and re-elected to a four-year term in 2017 with his current term ending in 2021.

Coyne seeks to replace James Healy who has been on the county board since 1996, that’s 23 years, that’s enough. Can anybody think of anything Healy has accomplished other than getting re-elected. Keeping Healy on the board, doesn’t make any ‘cents’.  Coyne, an attorney, wants to put his two-cents worth in and fight for pro-life and government reforms including reducing the size of government, reducing real estate tax levies, and most importantly supporting the Second Amendment and our constitutional right to bear arms.

He is a financial conservative which is exactly what taxpayers need. He’s open-minded to change if the evidence supports it, and he can turn on a dime if necessary. If taxpayers and residents had a dime for every conservative position Coyne has taken, it would amount to a huge mountain-size pile of silver dollars.

Coyne’s quarter-back leadership skills are powerful including demonstrating accountability, maximizing relationships, building trust, thinking critically, driving change and demonstrating courage, all of which were evident last February when he called out state rep Anne Stava-Murray, D-Naperville to resign after she said the City of Naperville has ‘white supremacist policies’. Coyne said her outrageous comment was a new low for ‘ugly rhetoric’

Coyne can’t lose, which means taxpayers and residents can’t lose. He either gets elected to the DuPage County Board saving taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, or he remains on the Naperville city council and won’t nickel and dime residents. Every penny he pinches benefits those he is elected to represent.

Naperville From 1st To 45th

 2 Responses »
Sep 212019
 

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).

Naperville City Council: Residents Get Recreational Marijuana

 1 Response »
Sep 142019
 

The Naperville city council finally had the courage to make a decision on whether or not to allow the sale of recreational marijuana in Naperville and by a decision of 6 to 3, the answer for now is ‘no’; well sort of. Naperville’s 9-member brain trust (city council) is kicking the can down the road by considering whether or not to put the issue up for a non-binding referendum in spring or sometime in the future maybe, possibly, could be, etc.

‘Non-binding’ meaning the 9-member council can override whatever the 147,000 residents want. That gets us back to kicking the can down the road and that road leads to neighboring towns which could approve selling recreational marijuana before Naperville. North Aurora has already approved the opportunity.

No one has ever accused the Naperville city council of being too courageous regarding making timely decisions. In the early 1970’s Naperville city officials finally decided not allow Fox Valley Mall to be built in Naperville at the corner of Aurora Avenue and Rt. 59 because of traffic concerns. It was then built across the street at the same intersection when the City of Aurora approved the development and Aurora has been banking those sales tax dollars for the last 44 years.

All it took for the council to finally take the can-kicking action was 238 people signing-up to speak for 3-minutes each during public forum; that’s almost 12 hours of public forum talking; that’s getting into councilwoman Patty Gustin range. My first thought was they would have four people speak simultaneously with the loudest one getting heard the best. Somehow the council got through the ‘Patty Gustin Marathon’ (non-stop talking).

When the dust settled and ‘no’ to selling recreational marijuana was announced, it cleared the way for Naperville residents to purchase the item elsewhere, just not in Naperville. It was a great moment for North Aurora, and likely other nearby towns.

So while Naperville city officials continue to kick cans down roads, opportunities flow by. I don’t have a horse in the race. Three days a week I’m in favor of selling it in Naperville, three days a week I’m not, the other day of the week I need to give my head a rest.

However when I drive by Fox Valley Mall, I can’t help seeing sales-tax-revenue dollars pouring into Aurora and wondering if Naperville council members from the early 1970’s ever had the same vision.

One thing for sure, if you are a can salesman, the City of Naperville would be an outstanding prospect.

Watchdog And Naperville City Council Share The Same Problem

 No Responses »
Sep 072019
 

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.