There was a distinct vibe shift at the Monday night, June 2 meeting.

Liuan gives an update on the Illinois grocery tax situation, and comments made by the finance committee about it.

There was a VACANCY in an elected office! What happens next??

Is it good to have a city council that disagrees?

Ancel Glink law firm gave a presentation—which was basically a 7th grade civics lesson on the separation of powers—plus more about that law firm itself.

And we’re, once again, back to Michael Guttman’s contract and whether or not it held over from the last administration to this one.

Options we have:

1) let the judge decide on this. (A months-long costly process.) Who wins in this case? The lawyers. Who loses? The taxpayers.

2) go through a peaceful agreement process. Try to come to a consensus without letting it continue in court.

We come up with a fundamental question: if you’ve decided to vote one way no matter what your constituents say—OR if the entire council votes in lock step all the time—what’s the point? Why have a city council with no dissension, and why serve on the council at all if you’re not interested in listening to the voters?

A former alderman came forward during the public comment to emphasize that the public should not twist facts and ‘fill in the blanks.’ But as was brought up by many others during public comment, there’s so many things we don’t know (that we have reached out to aldermen to ask about)—we have a lot of questions, and we haven’t gotten a lot of answers.

“When people don’t have a lot to go on, it makes sense that they fill in the blanks… and there’s kind a sense that they’re trying to hide things if they’re being so closed-door about everything.”—Liuan

The legacy council members seem to have an attitude that voters are easily misled. These elected officials are taking their own experience as THE experience… and it’s a problem. We discuss particular comments made by Jeanne Short during public comment and after the meeting, and admit that the group has a long way to go.

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