Freshman Year Is Over!

One year ago, Mayor Dave Schmidtkrieg took the oath of office and was seated as the freshman Mayor of Park Ridge, IL. And now Mayor Schmidtzkrieg's freshman year is over -- time for final grades!

Math Skills -- C

We had hoped your final budget veto exam would have produced a better final grade. But your math is a bit fuzzy, you failed to show your work, and you failed to complete some equations. We understand why you chose to estimate next year's budget projections based upon last year's budget projections, but we feel you could have done a much better job of formulating your answers.

We also found your class participation, over the ten session budget course you signed up for, rather disappointing. We note the rules of participation for the Mayor's engagement in discussion and debate were changed during your tenure as an Alderman -- while the Council has failed to follow the rules it voted to institute, consistent practice has allowed the Mayor to engage in discussion and debate to the heart's content, and you have not taken advantage of the opportunity.

One of your best attempts at problem solving occurred when you undertook to formulate a workable solution to the water fund deficit -- however, your budget veto address seemed to call into question, if not contradict, your own calculations about the projections of the water fund balance.

Your other best attempt at problem solving was your overall, general attempt to work with positive numbers. Calling for a balanced budget -- a correction to your two previous year's work as an Alderman engaged in the manipulation of negative numbers -- was an excellent effort which has some potential to produce the only balanced city budget in the black since the Spring of 2006-2007, right before you were seated as an Alderman.

Language Arts -- D

You began the year with a strong showing -- the PRU Crew appreciated many of your well-worded press releases and emails to supporters. However, over the last half of the year, you seemed to become distracted and your dissertations on issues seemed rushed, shallow, and plaintive. You failed to properly correct misinformation in the public domain and you failed to properly elucidate the fine points of issues and your positions. Additionally, while we don't have access to your fraternity's files, we believe the work you've submitted for review is not necessarily your own.

Your lack of communication and attention to the commissions and task forces you created left a vacuum of balancing opinion and thought and now you are faced with both policy and political problems which will undermine your good government agenda and goals. The PROAC and Flood Control Task Force, both of which you created and populated with your appointees, are prime examples of bodies with which you have failed to adequately communicate through attendance and participation at their open forums.

We're not fans of social media such as Face Book, but we understand there are plenty of people who are -- and you are one of them. We understand your desire to reach out in an informal way to supporters and friends. However, if you are using your Face Book account for the creation and maintenance of personal friendships we strongly suggest you remove your personal Face Book account from your official campaign/Mayoral website. Or if you are using your Face Book account for political promotion, and we believe you are since it was originally created and placed on your electdaveschmidt.com website, then we strongly urge you not to limit access to readers. We note, as far as we know and have found through a cursory search, you are the only politician with a Face Book account who does not provide unfettered access to constituent readers.

We strongly encourage you to refrain from any and all discussion of city business on any social media account you may hold -- and when anyone, especially one of your task force appointees, on your friends list (Dick Barton? Chris Provenzano? Seriously?) attempts to open up such a discussion you immediately nip it in the bud and removing the comment would be advisable.

Science -- D

Leadership is not only an art, it's also a science. A leader must understand the way in which instruments can be used and the correct scientific method for their use. We find your employment of the instruments at your disposal, and the methods you use, to be rather lacking.

The biggest test you faced as a leader was when you tried to use the ethics ordinance instrument at your disposal. Your method of employing this instrument and the way in which you treated this instrument earned you a failing grade on one of the biggest tests any leader can face -- choosing enforcement of the law and prosecution of a wrong above any other consideration. The wasted time, energy, and resources was nothing less than gross mismanagement and manipulation of the instruments at your disposal.

What has kept you from earning a total failing grade in this subject area is the leadership effort you've made in the subject area of math -- taking responsibility to course-correct past errors in the overall, general approach you've taken on seeking a balanced budget.

Social Studies - F

Where to begin?

During your freshman year as Mayor, you demonstrated far too much fraternity and far too little egalite.

Your refusal to consider your own campaign rhetoric in the area of social needs services, your failure to demand evidence of the accusations being made about certain community groups, and your equivocating position on special event cost reviews leave us scratching our heads.

We find your lack of demand for total accountability from each of the community groups and private organizations which have come under scrutiny to be a failing of one of your most foundational campaign positions -- transparency. We're also very well aware of your failure to provide total transparency in other areas of public policy consideration, but those assignments remain incomplete, so we have not factored them into your grade.

Your seeming abandonment of your campaign rhetoric about preserving Park Ridge as a bedroom community in light of your silence on the newest liquor license is strange. We understand Mr. Ed Berry was one of your campaign contributors, and that you consider him and Mr. Declan Stapleton to be your friends, and so you disclosed the economic relationship and recused yourself from the public discussions. However, we believe you should also understand that disclosure does not require recusal from discussion. We believe you chose recusal on the subject as a way of providing yourself with political cover. We are not opposed to changes in the environment of Park Ridge, especially if a seeming majority of residents favor some changes, but we aren't willing to accept a representative's silence on any subject under the guise of ethical conduct when we strongly suspect political expediency as the motivation.

Finally, in the subject area of social studies -- lay off the goddamn beer. And for added strength of character, you may want to review a recent court settlement from Des Plaines -- and we don't mean the billboard case.

Your final average grade for your freshman year as the Mayor of Park Ridge, IL. is a D. You have not met your potential. We hope for a better showing during your sophomore year -- try not to be sophomoric about it.