The defining moment in Calderone's last term, at least as I see it, was choosing a personal friend and ally, instead of an urban professional, to be Village Manager.
Along with accepting donations from city contractors, this is why so many concerned citizens complain about him and possibly why he was unable to push through the two most recent major developments (the YMCA and the Roos Building.)
So I would probably vote for anybody else - just to get a new face in there and open up new possibilities.
But, thankfully, Tellalian seems to be an honest, serious, efficient alternative.
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Candidates for Commissioner (vote for 4)
Michael R. Curry (incumbent)
Matthew Walsh
Eric D. Connor
Chris Harris
Rory Hoskins (incumbent)
Mark S. Hosty (incumbent)
Steven R. Johnsen
Samuel J. Tarara
Tad P. Mossell
Elsie Norberg
Tom Mannix
Why would anybody run for office and not at least put up something on the internet, even if its only a free Facebook page?
So Tarara, Mossell, and Norberg are eliminated immediately.
Matthew Walsh appears to be a fine young man, but he shows no more thoughtful maturity on his website than one would expect from a high school senior.
Hosty and Curry are incumbent members of Calderone's council majority, and their websites show it -- i.e. they have nothing to say (and Curry hasn't changed his since the 2007 election - why bother?).
It does not appear that they intend to be independent minds in the council deliberations, so why vote for either one?
Tom Mannix is the fellow whose mother challenged the petitions of so many of his opponents. His responses to the questionnaire seem shallow, and since he doesn't mention it, I'm beginning to wonder whether he's ever even held a job.
So....
that leaves me with 4:
*Connor
*Harris
*Hoskins
*Johnson
*Hoskins has experience and he's been willing to flout the council majority.
*Johnson has a very heavy resume and also pledges not to take contributions from those doing business with the village.
*Harris at least took the time to answer the candidate questionnaire.
*And I don't know what to say about Connor except that at least he's a few years older
than Walsh.
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Commissioner, Forest Park Park District
6 Year Term, Vote For 2
John R Hosty
Cathleen M. McDermott
Roy J Sansone
McDermott and Sansone are the incumbents,
but I can find nothing
about them or the third candidate.
So, I probably just won't vote on this one.
4 comments:
Hi C. Miller,
I applaud your choices.
Why would someone file to run and not actually run? Really? You don't get it? It is to make the mayor's voting bloc more difficult to defeat. He has slated...oops, no slates allowed... Curry, Hosty and Mannix and thinks this will sustain his 3-2 edge and might even gain him another 4-1 council.
Can't argue his strategy. Diluting through confusion and stalking horses boosts his assured votes to a much better position.
We can't know just how bad things really are unless the Mayor loses or three votes are elected to push transparency.
Even now, two of the sitting commissioners do not always get the same information or all of the available information without doing their own legwork and fighting for each scrap.
You've picked, what I too, see as the best options on the ballot.
I know you don't think much of the forums, but I hope at some future time, you'll feel less inclined to dismiss our sincerity.
The choice this election should be crystal clear. Enough!
Hard to disagree with someone who chose all the same candidates you chose.
Harder yet to disagree with the logic.
Spot on.
Mr. Calderone's website has not been updated or changed since 2007 either.
It still talks about the southside community resource center (aka 1000 Beloit; now a very expensive piece of grass we have to maintain).
Whatever might be said about Mr. Calderone, I do think he has done a better job as mayor than the rest of us have done as concerned citizens.
Hopefully, we will someday be able to use the internet to effectively discuss public issues,
but anonymous websites like the Forums will never have crediblity as long as they remain anonymous (and despicable) slander-fests.
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