Another Council Member Wants To Leave Naperville City Council

Are you denying that the Republican party and its members in Naperville had anything to do with these three members of city council getting elected?

Or are you denying that the latest two members have not served even a full year in their current council position before looking to leave?

Or are you claiming these latest members have actually played a significant role in enacting any council policies during this time that was in anyway salient to city governance? If so please provide a list of these significant accomplishments.

The most significant work these last two have done since being sworn in is self promotion. Clearly they only choose to get elected to council to further their political “careers”. And only do what is in the best interest of Naperville residents when it does not conflict with what is in their own best interests.

The only reason I would like to see them complete their terms and not be elected to another office is to keep them for taking this same attitudes to an elected positions were it would have a wider negative impact on the citizens of this state.

Oh and Roger, if you want people to take you seriously and as being sincere, it is best accomplished by putting yourself out there, providing full disclosure of who you are and what you stand for rather then using media outlets in a way that allows you to remain anonymous.

Seriously? Your comparing (equating) a School Board member with a member of Naperville City Council? Why not throw in Naperville Park District Commissioner as well?

The reality is that school boards do not set land use policies. They do not set building codes and other statues (ordinances). They do not govern Naperville Police and Fire Departments or any other public safety organizations. They don’t govern over the two major Enterprise Departments of our City, the Electrical and Water utilities. The don’t set retail sales tax, food and beverage tax, home rule sales tax, real estate transfer tax, etc. They don’t engage in public funding through bond issues, government grants, TIFs, etc. In short, while these other local government organizations do govern a special segment of our community they do not really provide either the exposure, experience or opportunities to improve a community that city government provides.

The fact is members of the various city commissions, committees, boards, etc, while advisory in nature, have greater impact on community development, growth, quality of life, etc then any of these other local government organizations including county government.

Nice attempt at trying to change the discussion, but this thread is about people getting elected to local government for the sole purpose of using these offices as stepping stones to build up their resume’ for their political careers rather then doing what they were elected to do.

As I pointed out none of these new members of city council (that you as a card caring member of the GOP promoted, financed and endorsed for city council) have actually done anything significant as a city council member during the less then a year they have held office. And I am not at all surprised you would take this opportunity to throw shade at the more recently elected members of city council that are focused on doing what they were elected to do and not get elected to some other office, considering you did the same thing to them when they were running for city council (i.e. not surprise you haven’t changed your spots).

As to the Democrats, liberal, lefts, etc not supporting law enforcement that is simply a bunch of political BS and you know (or at least I think you are smart enough to know it considering you are not just another dumb Trumpster since the candidate you support was not Trump in the GOP primary).

Yes, they did a poor job in selecting a political slogan, when they went with “defund the police” but this movement was never about actually defunding law enforcement, it was about shifting funding within law enforcement from hiring more police officer to hiring more trained professionals in de-escalating domestic situations. A rational idea considering that roughly 50% of all the calls local law enforcement handles are domestic in nature. Doing this puts a person on the scene of these domestic disputes that can offer more then simply arresting someone (which is all that a police office can really do). And arresting someone actually does more to escalate these situations then de-escalate them. So there really has not been any political ideology change just a change in GOP rhetoric.

Having a police department with the diversified set of skill professionals and using them in the proper environment or situation (parking enforcement, criminal investigations, public relations, street enforcement and yes domestic disturbance) is what enhances public safety not arresting everyone and letting the courts sort it out. As the old saying going when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.

In fact you yourself, on city council, have voted for and supported the police department hiring more of exactly these kind of skilled professionals. Ironic that you should choose to slam democrats (“the left”) for supporting something you yourself have voted for.

Finally as to county board elections and candidate qualifications, the simply reality is it requires more to get elected to Naperville city government (and most of the surrounding city governments) then it does to get elected to a county board or county government. Just looking at the sheriff offices in county government you can see that. There is not a single elected sheriff in any county that can hold a candle to the Chief of Police in Naperville or any other city with a populations close to that of a county. You get professionally run government by hiring professionals to run government not by electing politicians that are more focused on their “political careers” then on doing the job they were elected to do.

I would challenge the claim that the school board controls the largest part of a citizen’s tax bill. Yes, they control the largest part of the property tax bill but that is only one part of the many taxes citizens pay. The amount the school board gets in funding through property taxes is paled by the amount citizens pay to the city government thru the monthly electrical, water, waste water and trash bills.

As you pointed out, the school board only impacts part of our community, the public education part, which while important, does not impact the quality of life in our community nearly as much as building codes, land use ordinances, public safety, street maintenance, etc. And as you should also not over 60% of Naperville household do not have children (senior, single, empty nester, etc)

Finally your own actions tell your true view of which is more important since you spent a lot of time trying to first get elected to city council and then stay on city council. And now trying to get elected to county government. During this whole time you have never once tried to get elected to any school board and you are one of those 40% of households in Naperville that actually has a child, a child actually in school.

Is this why your pushing Shannon Adcock to the SECA board? She had a failed school board race so now you want to promote her elsewhere? I see you’ve also taken a page from her book by deleting comments on your post of those who don’t agree with you. I’ll be sure to use your words against you.

There are roughly three dozen cities in the Chicago area besides Naperville, none of which have schools even close to as good as those in Naperville and these communities have not seen a mass exodus because of “our poorly run and over taxed state”. This has been the standard political slogan of the Republican party in Illinois for decades but the fact is the situation is about a lot more then just schools, taxes and state government. Again if these all that mattered in making these decision Naperville itself would not have such a large population of senior citizens. They would all simply move to Florida were there are no taxes or Mississippi were the cost of living is the lowest in the US.

If there were going to be a mass exodus the past couple of years would have been the most likely time for this to happen because of all the businesses going to Remote Work which allows employees to live anywhere in the US and still do their jobs. If it were all about the schools these people would have move to communities in other states that have far better schools then Naperville.

The only reason there was an increased interest in school boards this last couple of years was because of mask mandates and remote learning not because of school curriculum.

My prediction is that in a couple of years there will be even less engagement with local school boards then before the Pandemic. The only real reason parents go so involved in school board decision recently is because remote learning meant losing the “daycare” utility that in school learning provided parents and once the risk of that happening again has gone so will the interest by all these parents about what is happening in these schools.

Again you yourself, with a child in these schools, did not consider being involved with what was happening important enough to run for a school board position or even regularly attend school board meetings. And please don’t use that lame “I didn’t run for governor either” line to marginalize the importance of this point.

Yes