The well known children’s book titled “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” describes the escalating consequences of honoring what appears, at first glance, to be an innocuous request. 

Tonight the Park Ridge City Council will consider giving the “mouse” known as the City’s O”Hare Airport Commission (the “OAC”) a “cookie” – in the form of a resolution to put the following innocuous-sounding advisory referendum question on the November ballot: 

“Shall the City of Park Ridge support the efforts to stop the expansion of O’Hare Airport?”
 

When it comes to O’Hare expansion, we would hazard a guess that the vast majority of Park Ridge residents are against it.  That’s because it’s hard for most of us to see a bigger O’Hare providing any substantial benefits for Park Ridge.  Instead, we see it bringing more noise and pollution. 

But it’s one thing to be against O’Hare expansion, and another thing to want to “support the efforts to stop the expansion of O’Hare Airport” by throwing away a lot of our increasingly scarce tax dollars – especially with Chicago, Cook County, the State of Illinois and the federal government all promoting that expansion, as evidenced by the Obama Administration’s recent $410 million gift to help Mayor Daley build two new runways and extend a third.   

So by proposing referendum language that doesn’t put a price tag on that “support,” Ald. Rich DiPietro (2nd Ward) is either an inept draftsman or just plain dishonest, because leaving out any dollar commitment appears designed to seduce a vote of general support that can later be used by the Council to justify whatever dollars it decides to appropriate for fighting O’Hare expansion – just like previous Councils used to do when appropriating $65,000 a year for Suburban O’Hare Commission (“SOC”) membership, or squandering $650,000 on a Peotone airport. 

Ironically, DiPietro’s referendum question was opposed by the three aldermen who wanted to budget $165,000, $200,000 and $250,000, respectively, for the OAC: Alds. Don Bach (3rd Ward), Robert Ryan (5th Ward) and Jim Allegretti (4th Ward).  Their objections, voiced at the last Committee of the Whole (“COW”) meeting, were directed to the arguable lack of time between now and November 2 to “educate” the voters so that they can make “informed” decisions. 

Ryan was the most vociferous on that point, and he should know: he was instrumental in both tax-hike referendums for Elementary School District 64 (1997 and 2007) which mobilized scores of volunteers and spent more than a year’s time “educating” the voters about why the District needed, in the first instance, a new Emerson Middle (a/k/a, Junior High) School and, in the second instance, multi-millions of additional dollars to shore up irresponsibly-depleted reserves.  From what we’ve seen, what Ryan calls “education” can also be called “propaganda.” 

But since DiPietro appeared to spring that language on the Council at the last COW meeting, maybe Allegretti’s, Bach’s and Ryan’s “no” votes were merely a knee-jerk reaction.  Because if they have had a chance to chat up DiPietro in the interim, they may have come to understand the deceptive benefits of a warm-and-fuzzy referendum question that doesn’t splash cold-water reality of what it will cost into the voters’ faces. 

While we think a referendum question without a price tag attached is dishonest, we do support a price-included O’Hare referendum for the November ballot, for the reasons stated at the last COW by Ald. Joe Sweeney (1st Ward) and Mayor Dave Schmidt.  Sweeney correctly pointed to the much higher turnout that November general elections enjoy over our April local elections, while the mayor correctly noted that the April election results would come too late for the 2011-12 budget cycle.   

Will DiPietro become enough of a stand-up guy to amend his referendum question to include a price tag?  If not, will Allegretti, Bach and Ryan figure out that DiPietro’s vague language might be their best chance to get voter support for something they can then use to argue for boxcar dollars for the OAC? 

Tune into 505 Butler Place tonight at 7:30 p.m. and find out.

Update (06.22.10): Last evening the City Council approved Second Ward Ald. Rich DiPietro’s O’Hare expansion referendum resolution for inclusion on the November 2, 2010, ballot – but only after Mayor Dave Schmidt broke a tie so that a dollar limit could be added to quantify the amount of “support” the voters will be asked to approve for fighting O’Hare.

With Ald. Robert Ryan (5th Ward) absent, Schmidt’s vote ensured passage of Sixth Ward Ald. Tom Carey’s amendment placing a $500,000 limit into the referendum question, someting opposed by Alds. Jim Allegretti (4th Ward), Don Bach (3rd Ward) and Frank Wsol (7th Ward).  Once the dollar figure amendment passed, however, Wsol and Bach joined with Carey, DiPietro and Ald. Joe Sweeney (1st Ward) to pass the referendum resolution over Allegretti’s lone objection.

Allegretti’s principal objection to any sort of O’Hare referendum, especially with a dollar amount attached, was that the addition of such an amount would increase the likelihood of the voters voting “no” – a result Allegretti consistently argued would be the product of ignorance.  But when questioned by a resident about what information he believed the voters need to cast an informed referendum vote, Allegretti’s response was: “a lot.”

Allegretti has been unwavering in his view that Park Ridge residents want the City Council to make decisions for them without these cumbersome referendums.  Fortunately, his view was in the minority…even if for only one night.