A couple of weeks ago (February 22) Watchdog posted “First Two Naperville Council Members ‘Lose Their Seats And Stand’ ” The gist of the posting was about foolish statements made by two city council members, Patty Gustin and Patrick Kelly. It ran its course with a slightly higher than normal number of hits.

Then all of a sudden, over the last few days, emails and comments to the posting poured in, and folks were not too-happy with Watchdog. The reasons were two-fold, 1) Watchdog was perceived as a fan of puppy mills, and 2) Watchdog was mean towards city councilwoman Patty Gustin. Surprisingly, every negative comment was from the female gender.

Some of the comments included:

• I don’t follow this mean spirited, out of touch, out-of-context site.
• This article is a joke.
• You are absolutely twisting her words.
• You think you are funny but you are not.
• You are what’s wrong with journalism.
• You ‘doctored’ Gustin’s comments.
• Shame on you.
• You sound like a paid lackey for the mayor.
• Are you nuts?
• Your understanding is very twisted.
• Try to be honest the next time you create a sentence, please.
• Why pick on Gustin?

And my personal favorite was “You are a mean person!” Wow, that one was brutal. I’ve never seen myself as a mean person. I see myself as a simple guy, sitting at a keyboard, commenting on what I hear and see during city council meetings. It’s so simple. Include a video clip or two, and bingo hit the post button, and let it roll out.

For years I typically would not reply to comments in lieu of having readers respond to each other, choosing to be the swizzle-stick rather than getting involved in a snowball fight or chair-throwing incident. However this time, I did respond to each comment which seemed to further enrage readers to the point I was looking out my window waiting for a mob of torch-wielding people carrying pitchforks and high-stepping towards my home. I was hoping that if need-be, my two poodles could help defend me.

It appears things have simmered down. however things could intensify again with two scheduled upcoming postings involving Gustin. One is about Gustin offending two council members (Brodhead and White) with a foolish remark, and the other showing Gustin having no respect for her own well-being regarding the Corona-virus.

Those two postings with video embeds are just too good to pass-up, unless another council member can do or say something even more entertaining or outrageous in the next few weeks. Gustin provides too much material. That’s what happens when someone talks too much.

If you keep kicking the can down the road, you finally reach a dead end. That’s where Naperville city officials find themselves with regard to the lack of affordable housing in Naperville. This comes as no surprise, the city council has been talking about this for years. That’s the problem, they’ve been talking without taking necessary action for years.

Twice a State of Illinois agency has cited Naperville for inadequate affordable housing, Naperville is the only city in Illinois with a population of more than 50,000 residents cited for the shortage. More than 25% of Naperville households are paying higher housing costs than federal government guidelines define as affordable which is less than 30% of household income is spent on rent or mortgage, and utilities.

This means that Naperville needs to add no less than 3,000 lower cost homes for buyers with incomes of less than $50,000, and more than 2,000 low-cost rental units for renters with incomes below $35,000, and as time goes on, it will only get worse. By the middle of the century almost 14,000 new housing units need to be added to reach a balanced housing mix of both affordable and market-rate units.

Naperville city councilman Patrick Kelly, also a member of Naperville’s Housing Advisory Commission, was flabbergasted with the thought. Astonishingly he said, “It was like, holy cow! That’ a lot of units! Where would we even put them!”

That is not what you want to hear from a sitting member of the city council, especially one sitting on the Housing Advisory Commission! Where has councilman Kelly been while this issue has been marinating and boiling over. Simply stated, it’s either a foolish statement, or Kelly is in ‘over his head’ which is a nicer way of saying he is incompetent.

Kelly’s comment would be comparable to the principal of a grade school, looking out the window of his office, on the first day of school and saying, “Holy cow, look at all those kids! Where can we put them!”

There is a way that councilman Patrick Kelly can try to redeem himself and solve two major Naperville issues at the same time; the issues of affordable housing and the Fifth Avenue Development. Simply suggest building a 20-story low-income housing project on the property and bingo, both issues solved. Now all he has to do is get four other council members to buy-in to the idea, and push it through without public input.

Even without knowing what year or month it is, it’s easy to know when re-election time is near; it’s when politicians surface from the inky shadows. Such is the case with former Naperville city councilman, and current District 41 State Rep Grant Wehrli.

Wehrli ‘served’ on the Naperville city council from 2005 – 2014. To say he ‘served’ is a misnomer, it’s more like he was served. Wehrli has seldom been accused of helping the average person on the street, unless there is something in it for him. You could say that’s the typical prototype of a politician, however Wehrli has taken it to a new level. It’s difficult for the average voter to come up with something that Wehrli has initiated and accomplished that has helped his constituency.

Wehrli’s lack of accomplishment as a State rep makes him ripe for defeat in the November general election which is why Democrats feel confident in Wehrli getting his walking papers out of Springfield. Wehrli specializes in winning elections without an opponent, but such is not the case in Wehrli’s next campaign.

Wehrli is the assistant minority leader in the House which is something akin to being the assistant manager in a hardware store, the difference being the guy in the hardware store has an upward career path with opportunity.

In 2018 Wehrli’s opponent was Democratic challenger Val Montgomery. It was determined that Montgomery would not be eligible to serve if she won the election because she didn’t live in the district, which prompted a jovial celebration by Wehrli before the election. In essence Wehrli had no opponent, however even considering that, he barely squeeked out a victory by a 52 to 48 percent vote tally, a mere margin of victory of 1,908 votes in a Statewide election. That’s less than Naperville city councilman Paul Hinterlong’s margin of victory over nine of ten city council candidates in his last election.

Wehrli’s profession is listed as ‘city councilman’ so he specializes in living off the taxpayer. With his annual rep salary of $67,836 and a per diem of $111 per day, tax payers have little if anything to show for Wehrli’s time in Springfield. His campaign contributions show a high percentage from liquor commissioners, a liquor distributor and a sizeable contribution from a Naperville pet store; less for puppies and more for Wehrli.

The only good thing about Wehrli in Springfield, means less time for him in Naperville. Based on that theory, if he were to run for election in the Pitcairn Islands (South Pacific), I would gladly throw in a dollar for his campaign. Watchdog has readers in the Pitcairn Islands so it’s likely he wouldn’t win that election either, but it’s worth the dollar.