The current Mayor and City Council appear to be the best group, collectively, of elected officials to oversee City government in more than 20 years.

Unlike most of their predecessors, whose style of governance consisted primarily of mindlessly rubber-stamping mayoral fiats (like Ron Wietecha’s costly anti-O’Hare obsession, and Wietecha’s and Mike Marous’ disastrous Uptown TIF fantasy) and boneheaded staff decisions, while at the same time writing of as many checks as they hoped the taxpayers could cash, the current occupiers of The Horseshoe seem to be much more a taxpayers-first, policy-oriented, trust-but-verify bunch.

But every so often one or more of them seem unable to resist the impulse to do something that is penny-unwise and public policy-foolish.  And tonight’s (08.26.13) Committee of the Whole (“COW”) meeting has the potential for providing another object lesson in that particular form of bad government.

We’re talking about the motion of Ald. Joe Sweeney (1st) to reconsider the August 12 COW vote rejecting – by a 3-3 tie – the wrongheaded and policy-bankrupt “donation” of a City-owned used 2002 Ford Explorer XLS, allegedly worth $3,000, to Maine Township government.  Or, more specifically, to the Maine Twp. Emergency Management Program (“MTEMP”), a branch of Maine Twp. government.

We wrote about the foolishness of that idea in our August 12 post, “It Really Is The Principle, Not The Money,” so we won’t re-hash all those arguments here.  Instead, we’ll focus on its return to the COW agenda: Sweeney was absent from the August 12 COW and, therefore, has a right to seek a do-over because he did not cast a vote for the losing “donation” side.

If you’ve listened to Sweeney’s comments and observed his voting record over the last four years, you know that there’s virtually no amount of spending he won’t vote for if it’s in any way related to police, fire or public safety – all while insisting he’s a staunch fiscal conservative.  If Police Chief Frank Kaminski wanted an M1A1 Abrams battle tank to deter speeders on Touhy, or to repel an invasion by Des Plaines, Sweeney would be the first to leap to his feet in wholehearted, unquestioning support.

Heck, he’d probably even suggest throwing in an armored command car for Kaminski.

So unless one of the three aldermen who foolishly voted for the giveaway two weeks ago –  Alds. Jim Smith (3rd), Roger Shubert (4th) and Marc Mazzuca (6th) – gets religion and changes his vote, Sweeney’s expected “yes” vote will send the giveaway out of the COW to next week’s regular Council meeting for final approval.  Unfortunately, we don’t know what it would take to change any of those “yes” votes because none of the aldermen who cast them bothered to say why.

While Alds. Nick Milissis (2nd) and Dan Knight (5th) explained the reasoning behind their “no” votes on August 12, the three “yes” voters sat in stony silence.  That silence, although completely permissible under Council rules and procedures, cheats the taxpayers out of a public record of the voters’ reasoning – assuming there actually is any kind of “reasoning” behind such votes.

Both Milissis and Knight correctly noted that just because the City’s used SUV is worth only $3,000 doesn’t mean giving it to another separate taxing body like Maine Twp. is the right thing to do.  That’s because whether the SUV (or any other City property) is worth $3,000, $30,000, or $300,000, it still was paid for, and belongs to, Park Ridge taxpayers.  So there better be a darned good reason why property Park Ridge taxpayers paid for with their tax dollars is being given away to other governmental units – like Maine Twp. – which also tax those same Park Ridge taxpayers.

As Knight pointed out: “If we need $3,000, we raise taxes from our citizens.”  That’s what Maine Twp. should do if it needs or wants a vehicle for its MTEMP.

City staff should have known better than to even make such a foolish and policy-bankrupt recommendation to the Council.  But keeping a close eye on Staff is why we have an elected Mayor and an elected City Council.  Too bad three of them – and apparently the MIA Sweeney – don’t seem to be able to figure these things out any better than Staff can.

If these “yes”-voting aldermen and any Park Ridge taxpayers want to give away a $3,000 vehicle to Maine Twp., however, they should take up a collection to buy it from the City (and their fellow taxpayers) and then “donate” it.  Let Sweeney and Chiefs Kaminski and Zywanski chair the effort, assuming they don’t want to each write a check of a grand and fund it themselves.

But if any aldermen insist on voting to give away City property, they should at least end their sphinx-like silence and dazzle us with the reasoning behind what appears to be an unpricipled, foolish and irresponsible vote.

UPDATED 08.27.13: With Ald. Nick Milissis, a solid “no” vote, missing from The Horseshoe last night, it looked like Ald. Joe Sweeney and the other giveaway aldermen would prevail on Sweeney’s do-over.  But Ald. Roger Shubert came up big, changing his vote from “yes” to “no” because he finally “got” the principle involved.  So with a 3-3 tie – Sweeney, Smith and Mazzuca “yes” versus Shubert, Knight and Maloney “no” – once again the SUV donation failed to move out of the COW.

Not surprisingly, Sweeney had all sorts of half-baked reasons why this giveaway was somehow a good deal for the City and its taxpayers, all of which seemed to boil down to: MTEMP does all sorts of things for Park Ridge, so it’s time Park Ridge did something for MTEMP.  But as best as we can tell, most of those services MTEMP allegedly performed were not for the City but, instead, for privately-run events like the Taste of Park Ridge, Winterfest, etc.  So if MTEMP needs an SUV, maybe those private entities should step up to the plate, buy it from the City, and donate it to MTEMP themselves.

Mazzuca, on the other hand, actually may have had an even worse reason that Sweeney for voting “yes”: $3,000 isn’t enough money for the Council to stand on principle.

Seriously, Marc?  What rubbish!

Jefferson flashed no price tags when he wrote: “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

Let us know when you come to understand that concept, alderman.

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