All nine members of the Naperville city council can’t stop. They know they shouldn’t do it, but they still keep doing it. No matter how many times they hear it, or how many times they tell others not to do it, it continues; they keep touching their faces, all nine of them.
Due to Covid-19, city council meetings are now being broadcast using the video conference platform Zoom, with all council members attending remotely, except for the mayor in council chambers. With Zoom, all council members can be seen simultaneously on a 4 by 5 grid. Additionally city manager Doug Krieger and city attorney, Mike DiSanto can be seen on the grid, with department heads joining via audio only. It’s a little like Hollywood Squares without the humor.
With all nine council members on one screen, it’s easy to see what they are doing including fumbling through papers, drinking water, looking at their phones, and touching their faces over and over and over, again and again. It was happening so often and so quickly, I was focusing on that rather than what they were saying. I record the meetings off TV, so I decided to watch the meeting again from the beginning, and note the number of face-touches and how long it would take all nine of them to accomplish the task; it took only ten minutes.
In order councilman Kevin Coyne was the first, followed by Hinterlong, Gustin, White, Sullivan, Brodhead, Krummen, Chirico and the last to do it was councilman Patrick Kelly. The biggest culprit of the night was councilman Kevin Coyne. I began to think it must be some type of secret code they were communicating with each other. I couldn’t break the code, so I concluded the entire bunch enjoyed face-touching.
With Covid-19 running rampant and Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of Great Britain spending time in the ICU, my mind wondered to what happens if President Trump and Vice-President Pence become incapacitated, the thought of President Nancy Pilosi quickly got my mind back on the council meeting. But then I began to think about what happens if all nine council members become incapacitated, is there a succession plan for back-filling the city council? Then the ice-cold chilling thought of eight of the nine getting side-lined with only one (Patty Gustin) remaining.
There are three words that should be enough motivation to get the other eight members to stop face-touching, and those three words are ‘mayor Patty Gustin’.
I don’t care for councilwoman Gustin and would never support her…. but she should offer a resolution to censure mayor Cherico and his wife and the chamber of commerce for encouraging people to “dine out” in Naperville. He is encouraging people drive-walk downtown or order out from restaurants. He is forcing nonessential workers to go to work and interact with other workers, gas station attendants, and police and fire department who have to respond to incidentsj just to keep the cash cow going.
What part of JUST STAY HOME DOES HE NOT UNDERSTAND?
The Mayor also wants his financial director to look into recovery money available to the city government, JUST STOP THAT STUPID LOGIC! We don’t need the government to bail out a city government that picks favorites and wastes money year after year!
There are plenty of projects that can be cut back i.e. sidewalk, street repair (the city had plans to improve hillside rd over ten years ago and the recession hit) so nothing has been done.
We do not need another sister city for Naperville, particularly a city built with drug monies. Start selling or keeping those ambulances and fire trucks instead of giving them away Cancun because the Mayor’ brother wants a photo op.
And here is a novel idea, tear down the elephant in the town, Moser tower , sell the carillon bells to pay for the demolition and make DuKane Take back the failing precast, Saving over $2.5 million.
The problem with the carillon is it was not built as originally designed. This left elements that were suppose to be protected from the elements by being enclosed exposed to conditions they were not designed to withstand. This we the result of cries to cut expenses in the carillons constructions.
Also the bells were donated to the carillon foundation so the city selling them is a bit of a legal problem. The best they could do legally is pay for someplace to store them forever.
Encouraging residents to order take-out/pickup food from local restaurants is no more a violation of the stay-at-home order then going to the grocery store, liquor store, gas station, etc. The reality is we have people in our community that because of their personal situation need to have access to this type of ready to eat meals, making access to these restaurants every bit as essential for them as the grocery store is to most of us.
Your political bias is showing.
Mike,
Dukane had nothing to do with the Carillon. Do your research. Your comment suggesting “Dukane take back the failing precast” is libelous and should be removed.