Municipal Elections Ahead

Submittted to Good Company for posting on November 28, 2004

In April our town will have elections for mayor, seven aldermen, District 205 School Board and the park board. The mayor of Elmhurst has been campaigning for many months now, courting favor with veterans and making the most of any air time on the local cable channel that also broadcasts city council meetings.

So far no other mayoral candidate has come forward in spite of the belief that literally anyone, even the Easter Bunny, could beat him. There is a sense that something is "rotten in Denmark" and lots of people are starting to wonder why anyone would still want to be mayor when there is really NO pay and no payoff. People are starting to wonder if maybe there is a payoff. The truth may never come out and maybe the mayor just wants to keep going to meetings and ribbon cuttings. We may never know.

Yet all around town the buzz is that Elmhurst needs new leadership that cares about the neighborhoods and wants to include the taxpaying citizens in decision-making. I had a more than a couple of people tell me that they call their alderman and he/she never even gets back to them. What happened to all the promises of being available and fighting for the residents of the Ward? What good is an alderman or a mayor who doesn't make positive change for the residents and who makes matters worse by raising taxes?

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