Freewheeling PRU Briefs!

#1 -- The more efficient council of 7!

As our regular PRU readers know, the PRU Crew has a good time keeping up with the City calendar and reading through meeting minutes.

We noticed yesterday that a City Council COW Special Meeting (Closed Session) had been cancelled. The single agenda item (.pdf) listed was "III. ADJOURN TO CLOSED SESSION TO DISCUSS COLLECTIVE NEGOTIATING MATTERS, 5 ILCS 120/2 (c) (2)"

That sounds important, doesn't it? Does anyone think that agenda item may have had something to do with the on-going discussions between the City and employees regarding wages and budget issues? If you said "yes" to both those questions, you are correct.

So why was the meeting cancelled? To get an answer, the PRU Crew did what it always does and we asked our sources.

The answer? Three of the Aldermen couldn't make it to the meeting; therefore, there would not be a quorum.

The reduced City Council of 7 -- the millions of dollars deficit gift that keeps on giving!


#2 -- An exercise in power?

One of our sources reports that Mayor Schmidtzkrieg has been reading up on what a Mayor and leadership is all about. The PRU Crew has been told to look forward to Mayor Schmidtzkrieg exercising his Mayoral powers -- the proper execution of which Mayor Schmidtzkrieg's predecessor never seemed to grasp.

The PRU Crew has gone back and forth with our source on this very cryptic tip, but our source won't budge and provide any further detailed information.

We're looking forward to the big reveal!


#3 -- Outside the lines with a hometown bent!

Most of our faithful PRU readers probably remember the discussion that took place a little more than 1 1/2 years ago to consider the adoption of a local recall ordinance. Our illustrious box of rocks, a.k.a. our City Council, thought a recall ordinance was a bad idea. At that time, 4th ward Alderman Jim Allspaghetti lead the charge against adoption of a recall ordinance -- with all manner of support from former Mayor Howard.

There were those who contended that without a State amendment providing for recall of elected officials, the City of Park Ridge couldn't adopt such an ordinance.

Yesterday's Chicago Tribune editorial about the actions of the Illinois House's Rules Committee makes it clear that those opposed to a local recall ordinance here in Park Ridge have a lot of support down in Springfield and elsewhere.

Here are the list of "supporters" opposed to a State recall amendment, as listed in the Tribune's editorial --

Speaker Michael Madigan (Chicago), Edward Acevedo (Chicago), Luis Arroyo (Chicago), Daniel Beiser (Alton), Maria Berrios (Chicago), Mike Boland (Moline), John Bradley (Marion), Daniel Burke (Chicago), Will Burns (Chicago), Linda Chapa LaVia, (Aurora), Marlow Colvin (Chicago), Barbara Flynn Currie (Chicago), John D'Amico (Chicago), Monique Davis, (Chicago), William Davis (Hazel Crest), Anthony DeLuca (Crete), Lisa Dugan (Bradley), Keith Farnham (Elgin), Sara Feigenholtz (Chicago), Robert Flider (Mt. Zion), Mary Flowers (Chicago), LaShawn Ford (Chicago), John Fritchey (Chicago), Esther Golar (Chicago), Careen Gordon (Coal City), Jehan Gordon (Peoria), Julie Hamos (Evanston), Betsy Hannig (Litchfield), Gregory Harris (Chicago), Elizabeth Hernandez (Cicero), Jay Hoffman (Collinsville), Thomas Holbrook (Belleville), Constance Howard (Chicago), Eddie Jackson Sr. (East St. Louis), Naomi Jakobsson (Urbana), Charles Jefferson (Rockford), Lou Lang (Skokie), Joseph Lyons (Chicago), Frank Mautino (Spring Valley), Karen May (Highland Park), Emily McAsey (Lockport), Kevin McCarthy (Orland Park), John McGuire (Joliet), Deborah Mell (Chicago), Susana Mendoza (Chicago), David Miller (Dolton), Elaine Nekritz (Northbrook), Harry Osterman, (Chicago), Brandon Phelps (Norris City), Dan Reitz (Steeleville), Al Riley (Olympia Fields), Kathleen Ryg (Vernon Hills), Michael Smith (Canton), Cynthia Soto (Chicago), Andre Thapedi (Chicago), Art Turner (Chicago), Patrick Verschoore (Milan), Mark Walker (D-Arlington Heights) Eddie Washington (Waukegan), Karen Yarbrough (Maywood), Michael Zalewski (Chicago).

Asshats all!

A Recall Amendment?

As most of our regular readers know, we've discussed the issue of a recall vote for local elected officials before. It is a topic that remains of interest to many Park Ridge residents.

We first spotted a report on the recall issue over on the burbcops blog --

Verbal fireworks part of Capitol recall debate

And then again on the local news last night --

House approves putting recall option on November ballot

"If a recall ever went into effect, it would apply to all the elected constitutional officers and the state legislature, no one at any local level. It's a long shot in Illinois because of the political dynamics, but definitely an embarrassment to the governor."

The bill still has to go before the Illinois Senate for a vote, and if it passes there then Illinois voters will have their chance to vote on the measure next November.

We haven't done any research on this legislation to see if it forbids local governments, especially those operating under home rule, from having a recall ordinance on their books, but we're going to bet it doesn't.

No Discouraging Words, Please.

In typical pol fashion, the mayor and city council have decided to do a citizen survey, to find out what citizens think about various subjects, but without asking the dangerous question: "Do you think Park Ridge should adopt a local ordinance that allows for the recall of an elected official?"

According the 12-17-08 city council minutes (.pdf), a randomly selected sample of 1200 households will receive the survey.

Questions will range from issues of "traffic calming" to citizen opinion on building a new police station. There will also be questions asking those 1200 residents about police conduct, despite the mayor and city council's already having determined that police conduct is an issue that requires an independent investigation at considerable cost.

But the mayor and city council DO NOT want to hear what citizens have to say about having the right to recall an elected official.

Citizen opinions that displease the pols are just too negative.

Worse Than Kool-aid!

The games have begun! In today's issue of the Journal & Topics, we read two interesting items. The first is an article about the amazing disappearing council agenda item regarding council decorum:


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It seems the city council has more than one whiny cry baby occupying a seat. It appears the 5th Ward's Benedict-Alderman Ryan went running to the Mayor to wail about a personal email from the 1st Ward's Alderman Schmidtzkrieg that he didn't like, and the Mayor was willing to place the item on the city council agenda for public discussion. We understand that Benedict-Alderman Ryan isn't used to being strongly challenged either publicly or privately, but we had no idea he was such a remarkable cry baby.

According to Mayor Fri-nocchio, he pulled the item from the council agenda because he was afraid the meeting would last too long. Since that entire city council meeting was about 30 minutes in length, we feel Mayor Fri-nocchio must have pulled the agenda item for other reasons. And we are digging in to find out why.

The second item of interest is a letter from 1st Ward resident Dave Kemerer:


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Mr. Kemerer accuses Alderman Schmidtzkrieg of having a "penchant for loose rhetoric." It appears to us that Mr. Kemerer has a penchant for "loose truths." As an attorney, Mr. Kemerer should know better than to declare something unconstitutional before a court has declared something unconstitutional. But we feel the crux of the matter for Mr. Kemerer is not necessarily the truth involved with the constitutionality of a recall ordinance as much as it may be his desire to spin the message and provide his pals with cover.

It appears to us that Mr. Kemerer isn't any better with numbers than he is with his treatment of the truth. The final vote to approve the density variance for Norwood's condominium project was 4 to 3. Schmidtzkrieg was joined in voting "no" by Aldermen Wsooooolman and DreadBach. So, in fact, "the rest of the council" did not "conclude" that the density variance was justified.

Mr. Kemerer also seems extremely concerned that Alderman Schmidtzkrieg may run for mayor - something Schmidtzkrieg himself has said he is not doing, much to the PRU Crew's disappointment.

We wonder what Mr. Kemerer is "running" for?

In any case, what is going on here is that the Usual Suspects Club is cranking up the smear and spin machine. It's of vital importance that a representative with populist appeal gets knocked down and dragged around so that the politically connected can have their way with public policy.

It's nothing more than absolute bullshit.

Kwitcherbellyachin'!

The 4th Ward's Aldermoron, James Allspaghetti, is sounding a lot like a whiny cry baby these days.

Last week we told you about Allspaghetti's whiny response to the proposal that the city council consider a recall ordinance for local elected officials. An article in the November 15th edition of the Herald-Advocate quoted Allspaghetti as saying that if an aldermoron had to face a recall election he may say, "This job ain't that great -- see ya."

In an article in the November 14th edition of the Journal & Topics, about Discussions Could Be Limited To 30 Minutes At Council Meetings, we read that Allspaghetti was again whining about the job demands of being a Park Ridge Aldermoron. This time Allspaghetti was quoted as saying, "I don't want to be there for two-hour, three-hour presentations anymore."

Two city council meetings in the last 6 months have lasted considerably longer than the usual 2+ hours that council meetings normally take. And both of those meetings dealt with issues of serious concern and potential impact to the Park Ridge community; one meeting on July 16, 2007.pdf included an address by Nicor about PCB contamination to residences in Park Ridge, and another meeting on August 20, 2007.pdf included one and a half hours of citizens commenting about Allspaghetti's and 3rd Ward Don DreadBach's zero tolerance idiocy, as well as a presentation by Norwood builders for their condominium development at Executive Office Plaza.

From our reading of both those sets of meeting minutes, it appears to us that what extends the length of meetings is the back and forth debate and questions from and among city council members, as well as increased citizen participation. We don't view any of that as being a bad thing, nor as too demanding of representatives' time.

But from all the whining Allspaghetti has been doing lately, it would appear that he feels sitting through the seemingly rare "two-hour, three-hour presentations" at city council meetings - the only venue where the public can have almost as much access to applicants and information as the city council has - is just too much time for Aldermoron Allspaghetti to have to spend on doing the public's business, in public.

Hey, Allspaghetti! We agree! We don't want you to sit through two-hour, three-hour presentations anymore either! You could save yourself from all the demands of being an elected representative, and save the people of Park Ridge from having to listen to you whine like a cry baby about it, and just leave office. The job you're doing ain't that great -- see ya!

Do-Over Redux!

As we told you before, we're down with Ald. Dave Schmidtzkrieg's (1st Ward) proposal for a recall ordinance that would allow the voters of any ward, after gathering enough petition signatures, to force a recall election for their sitting aldermoron if he isn't getting the job done.

Not surprisingly, Mayor Howard Frimark and his hand-picked successor, Ald. James Allspaghetti (4th Ward), don't like that idea. As reported in last week's Herald-Advocate, Allspaghetti thinks it's a bad idea: "By passing this we open ourselves up to the removal of a volunteer government and the potential for a government by action groups, or a government by interest groups." Say what? How the hell would a recall election be any different from the regular election?

Allspaghetti is also reported to have claimed that if subjected to a recall election, most sitting aldermen would say, "This job ain't that good -- see ya."

To any aldermen who would whine like that, we say, "Good riddance."

But leave it to Allspaghetti's lord and master, that great dissembler, Mayor Howard, to provide the most disingenuous reason for not supporting a recall ordinance: "When you are voted in, [voters] expect you to serve the four years of your term unless you do something that is a felony," Frimark said. "I don't think it's good judgment that if they don't like the way [elected officials] vote they vote [them] out."

Gee, Mr. Mayor, weren't you the leader of an action group petition drive to cut the council in half by depriving the voters in all seven wards of the seven aldermen that they voted in only two years earlier? Did any of those seven aldermen commit a felony? Even a misdemeanor?

Could it be that Mayor Howard is just determined to hold onto the current council because he knows he's got at least four alderpuppets to rubber stamp anything he wants?

Do-Over!

If you voted for the guy on the left, but you discovered that you got the guy on the right, would you want a do-over? We would.

Alderman Dave Schmidtzkrieg (1st ward) has asked that the city council Procedures and Regulations committee discuss the possibility of adopting a recall ordinance for elected officials. We also hear he is getting a lot of inside resistance to the idea of even discussing the issue publicly.

Now that the residents of Park Ridge have only one alderman per ward to represent them, we feel they should also have the opportunity for a do-over if that one alderman turns out to be an idiot.

The Procedures and Regulations committee chairman, Ald. James Allspaghetti (4th ward), now seems very concerned about "a small group of individuals" who may use such an ordinance to force an elected official to "endure another campaign before their term of office has ended."

That's very funny, or Ald. Allspaghetti is an idiot.

Alderman James Allspaghetti, after giving a campaign contribution to Mayor Frimark and then being appointed to his aldermanic seat by Mayor Frimark, and then giving the Mayor yet another campaign contribution, was one of only two aldermen on the city council who supported Mayor Frimark's referendum to cut the city council in half...which would have forced half of those aldermen to run another campaign before their term was up if they wanted to keep their seats. We feel the referendum to cut the city council in half was a referendum on that city council and a dishonest means of recalling those aldermen.

We feel an honest discussion of the issue of recalling elected officials is a discussion worth having.

Ald. Schmidtzkrieg is saying he didn't raise the issue because of what he's seen from and heard about 5th ward Benedict-Alderman, Robert Ryan. But if he had, we'd be okay with that.