It's Getting Crowded In There!

For most people who find themselves in the position of experiencing something from a different point of view, that experience is often idiomatically referred to as "the shoe being on the other foot."

For 4th ward Alderman Jim Allspaghetti, it appears the other shoe is in his mouth -- as evidenced by a report in today's Journal and Topics.

The report notes, as we recapped for you yesterday, "Ald. Allspaghetti complained about the candidates [for replacement of the 1st ward alderman] appearing before Schmidt's committee instead of the council. "We had no input and as Mayor Schmidt has said, he selected this candidate from input he had from four members of some commission he selected."

The Lord of the Manor, Ald. Rich DiPietro diplomatically corrected Allspaghetti's recall -- or lack thereof -- and urged that the Council minutes for the meeting, at which Allspaghetti was appointed, be furnished to current Council members.

We think you should get to see those minutes too --

Council Min 6605

It looks to us as if Allspaghetti has trouble remembering the things he does and the events he participates in. That must be why Allspaghetti, along with former Mayor Howard, forgot to mention the pre-appointment $300 campaign contribution Allspaghetti made to Frimark's mayoral effort.

The PRU Crew doesn't believe a campaign contribution of $300 would have been a good enough reason to keep Allspaghetti off the Council. But we do feel the failure to disclose the contribution during the appointment process sure does raise some red flags and reveal the characters of those involved.

We sure are glad that particular bit of history isn't repeating itself.

Crack that whip! Whip it! Whip it good!

The City of Park Ridge will be 100 years old next year. The first City Council meeting was held on July 7, 1910. The PRU Crew is wondering if in all that time any Mayor has ever exercised the legal power of his veto.

Well people, there is a first time for everything -- and we may have on tonight's City Council agenda (.pdf) what could possibly be the first Mayoral veto of a City Council action in the history of Park Ridge.

Crack that whip! Give the past the slip!

Mayor Schmidtzkrieg has issued a memo to the City Council detailing his reasons for issuing a spending veto -- a spending veto! -- of the Council's decision to approve "contributions to various community groups over and above the amounts specified in the budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year adopted by the City Council on April 20, 2009." (emphasis added)


When somethings going wrong, you must whip it!


We can hardly wait to hear the reports of the Alderspenders tortured justifications for insisting on going over and above the budgeted amount they originally approved, and why it is necessary to override Mayor Schmidtzkrieg's veto, as we expect they will.


It's not too late to whip it, whip it good!


Also available on the City website is another memo from Mayor Schmidtzkrieg naming Mr. Joseph Sweeney as the Mayor's choice to fill the remainder of the term for 1st ward Alderman.

The PRU Crew was very happy to see that Mayor Schmidtzkrieg did the right and honorable thing by disclosing to the Council that Mr. Sweeney was a generous $150 contributor to his campaign. We noticed that campaign disclosure statements weren't due for a few weeks -- you know we try to keep track of those things -- but we were hoping this wouldn't be deja vu all over again! We're very glad it's not.


Get straight! Go forward! Move ahead!


The PRU Crew is looking forward to throwing back a few and coming up with possible monikers for the new Council member -- after we've had a chance to see him in action, and assuming the Council approves this appointment.


No one gets away until they whip it!


Once again people, we hope to have a recap for our faithful PRU readers tomorrow!


Whip it good!