Two members of the current Naperville city council (Councilman Boyajian and Councilman Furstenau) will not be part of the new Naperville, Illinois city council which will be seated May 3, 2011. Furstenau was trounced in his re-election bid by coming in 6th place, and Boyajian chose not to run for re-election. Councilman Boyajian exercised wise judgment knowing that if he did run, his chances for re-election were about as good as Charlie Sheen being selected role-model of the year. The difference between Charlie Sheen and soon-to-be ex-councilman Boyajian is that Charlie welcomes a fair fight. Whereas Boyajian enjoys being the council bully and inflicting ‘verbal beat downs’ on Naperville Citizens who dare approach the podium during ‘Public Forum’ time; a time in which a citizen can voice his or her comments for a three minute time period, ironically the same time in a round of boxing.
Soon-to-be ex-Councilman Boyajian displays an ongoing aura of disdain and contempt wrapped in arrogance towards Naperville citizens who dare question the actions and decisions of the Naperville city council. He does this with an appearance of confidence knowing that he is literally and figuratively speaking in an elevated position, with a microphone that doesn’t have a 3-minute cut-off time, backed by an off stage time keeper that tells citizen speakers that “your time us up”, supported by 8 other council members, not one of which has the courage to reign in their peer and ask that he show respect to the speakers who are citizens of Naperville. With this type of support system Councilman Boyajian relishes in the opportunity for verbal ‘beat downs’. Without a support system it’s unlikely he would engage in a fair exchange of opinion (refer to posting ‘City Council Saved by the Bell’ when Naperville citizen Jim Rooney had the City Council down for the count of ‘nine’ before they were saved the time-keeper).
Take a look at this exchange between Boyajian and citizen JoAnne St. Ives during the Naperville city council meeting on April 6. The hot topic of discussion is whether or not the City should move forward with their quest to install a wireless smart meter grid vs. a fiber optic cable wired solution.
Also, please note the comment below to the Watchdog website from a Naperville Citizen who attended that meeting.
”Yesterday evening I attended the Naperville City Council meeting. I had a ringside seat to what I believe to be the best and worst of the City of Naperville city council. Our City Council opened the meeting by recognizing those who have made a difference in our community. Their involvement and passion is what makes our city great. In the open forum, the issue of Wireless Smart Meters was discussed and the first few responses from Council members were respectful and professional. Unfortunately these positive acts were overshadowed by what I would consider as unprofessionalism and bullying on the part of Councilman Boyajian. Our residents have an opportunity to voice their comments in an open forum about issues that are important to them. One of the women who spoke about the on-going concerns about the wireless smart meters was greeted with disdain and comments that were not rational or fact based. There were merely his opinion and perception. This would be acceptable, if Councilman Boyajian were involved in the process, had reviewed any of the information, or was respectful to one of the people that he ultimately represents. Unfortunately he has been asleep in his chair (if he was even present) and has ignored the multiple attempts to meet on this subject with the key people from the organization. I applaud those Council members who have gone out of their way to meet with the concerned citizens of Naperville to create a win/win scenario on this initiative. Unfortunately, when you are outgunned, outclassed and at an intellectual disadvantage the rule of thumb for Councilman Boyajian is apparently to resort to bullying, cutting people off multiple times in mid-sentence as they are answering his questions and acting as if he didn’t have the time to spend on their issue. What is most concerning is that his behavior and comments are on public television and make our city look bad. He needs to remember that he represents us, not the other way around.”
Now the fact that soon-to-be ex-councilman Boyajian will no longer be part of the Naperville city council and will be riding off into the sun-set on his motorcycle with training wheels tightly affixed would seem to make him a non-entity and a moot point in the annuls of Naperville history. However, with Commandant Boyajian’s regime coming to an end, the important lessons to be learned by the Naperville city council are that the citizens of Naperville have a right to respectfully voice their opinions about issues that are important to them during public forums; council members need to respect the citizens of Naperville that they represent; council members work for their constituency; and their positions as council members are not positions of ownership, but rather positions of stewardship.
The three-minute limit on Naperville citizens during the Public Forum is not a boxing match, it’s an opportunity for Naperville city council members to do their job, and that job is respectfully listening to their constituency