Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon never got past Class A in four years as a minor league catcher in the California Angels organization.
But after retiring as a player he became a scout for the Angels, then a hitting instructor and, finally, a manager in the Angels’ farm system where he had an undistinguished 279-339 record in 6 seasons before ending his 15-year stay in the “bushes” and being promoted to a coaching position with the parent club in 1994. In 11 years with the big-league Angels he was a first-base coach, bench coach and interim manager.
He was given his first big-league managerial job with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for the 2006 season, 27 years after his playing days ended.
Despite 2 World Series appearances, the Cubs’ first championship in over a century, and recognition as one of the best managers in MLB today, his major league managerial record is a relatively modest 981-852, for a .535 winning percentage – including last season’s stellar 103-58 (.640).
We were reminded of Maddon’s apprenticeship and journeyman roles as we considered the current Park Ridge mayoral campaign, where Lucas Fuksa is challenging Acting Mayor Marty Maloney for the right to lead City government for the next four years.
Maloney’s road to the “big leagues” has not been nearly as lengthy as Maddon’s, but it is significant: elected twice to the Park Ridge Park District Board – serving 8 years (2003-2011), including 2 separate 1-year stints as Board president; and elected twice as 7th Ward alderman – serving 6 years (2011-2017), including the last 2 years as Acting Mayor.
That’s 14 years as an elected public official, with a 14-year record not just of ideas and positions but, also, of actual real-world decisions and countable votes, both winning and losing ones.
To slightly paraphrase the estimable Yankee manager Casey Stengel: “You can look it up.”
During his first four years as alderman, Maloney, along with the late Ald. Dan Knight (5th), proved to be the staunchest of allies of the late Mayor Dave Schmidt and his “Honesty, Integrity, Transparency & Accountability” philosophy of City government. When Mayor Dave died suddenly in March 2015, Maloney was so respected by his Council colleagues that they selected him as the Acting Mayor.
As best as we can tell, Maloney has continued Mayor Dave’s H.I.T.A. legacy for the past two years. That offends those special interests looking for personal advantage and profit from local government, but delights the majority of Park Ridge voters looking for good government and good value for their tax dollars. Consequently, the City has continued its recovery from the many failures and general boneheaded-ness of City administrations from 2001 through 2011.
Challenger Fuksa’s record? Non-existent.
No service in a local elective office. No service in a local appointive office. And after a fairly exhaustive Google search, we could find no record of his showing up at any local government meeting or otherwise taking any public position on ANY local governmental issue – City, Park District or School District – until his announcement late last year that he was running for mayor.
In other words, he’s been MIA for his career as a Park Ridge resident.
If one considers Maloney’s 8 years of Park Board service as the “minor leagues” (if only because its budget is just a fraction of the City’s), his first 4 years of aldermanic service as major-league “coaching,” and his 2 years of Acting Mayor as “interim manager,” that’s still a 14-year journey to the “manager” position.
Fuksa, on the other hand, hasn’t even been a batboy.
So what does Fuksa bring to the table in the way of grand plans or great ideas that might counter-balance, even slightly, his having been MIA from every aspect of local government since his days as a student at Maine South?
We’ll talk about that in our next post.
Update (03.24.17) We must correct our statement that Mr. Fuksa has been “MIA for his career as a Park Ridge resident.”
In April 2011 he and his wife appeared before the Zoning Board of Appeals seeking a zoning variance for a pergola that was six feet too close to the home they had purchased six months earlier even thought the property had no full certificate of occupancy and the pergola had been built by the previous owner without a permit. The ZBA denied the variance.
So his MIA status has been only in connection with City issues unrelated to his own direct personal interest.
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9 comments so far
Great comparison, and very apt even given the differences in the requirements of mayor and manager. Park Ridge taxpayers wouldn’t still be Park Ridge residents if the City had bungled its operations for 108 years instead of for just that screwed up 10-year period from 2001 through 2011.
First, Joe Maddon didn’t win two World Series championships. He got Tampa Bay to the World Series in 2008 but he didn’t win it, the Phillies did.
Second, we have President Trump who had no political experience, and he is now the President! So does a person really need to have political experience to be Mayor, especially since we have a city manager?
Third, why not mention how Maloney voted on issues as opposed to his length of experience? Isn’t that truly more important?
Fourth, I support Maloney but it is because who he is and what he stands for; this isn’t a position to be won because of tenure. That is what your blog is implying!!!
Finally, I look forward to hearing what Fuksa does bring to the table. No experience for a mayor role doesn’t disqualify him by default. He may not beat Maloney, but there are previous mayors that I would have voted for Fuksa over (i.e. Frimark)!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thank you for your first point: We have made the correction.
Second, we don’t hear a lot of Park Ridge residents singing Trump’s praises after 60+ days in office, so that’s probably not the best benchmark.
Third, Maloney’s record is public; and we’ll be getting to that.
Fourth, this blog is implying no such thing. “Tenure,” except to protect scholars propounding controversial theories, is stupid.
Finally, we’ll be talking about Fuksa’s ideas in our next post. We’re sure you’ll love it.
Agreed. If only more people could have embraced the same philosophy for the presidential election. Hopefully people now — in elections minor and major — are coming around to the idea that experience, not to mention a basic understanding of government, matters.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Still whining about the presidential election, eh MWR?
I’m not a big fan of “experience” for its own sake, but much experience versus no experience is a difference maker to me.
The least qualified mayor in the last 20 years was Frimark, who served as alderman for 2 years before being elected mayor. Schmidt had a couple/three/four years on Planning & Zoning and 2 years as alderman before being elected mayor. Wietecha was an alderman and Park Board member before being elected mayor. Marous was never elected mayor so he doesn’t count.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Agreed. Mike Madigan’s got tons of experience that he has used to ruin our state.
Mr. Fuksa recently posted a flow chart with what he purports to be his ideas for advancing the city. Unfortunately, most of “his ideas” seem to be very similar the concepts recently developed by Mayor Maloney, the city council, and city administrators in our Comprehensive Strategic Plan. For the most part, ideas that were not gleaned from the Strategic Plan are either silly, or have been discussed and rejected by the council after deliberations.
Experience matters! And while tenure in a position is no reason to vote for someone, the time that Marty Maloney has devoted to public service in various roles within our community has exposed him to circumstances, and issues that make him the appropriate choice to be our Mayor. To the best of my knowledge Mr. Fuksa has not participated in a single role that has served the citizens of Park Ridge to date.
Is “MWR” former alderman Mary Wynn Ryan, who got voted off the park board a couple of years ago? If so, maybe that goes to show that not all experience is equal, which Mrs. Clinton found out last November.
EDITOR’S NOTE: That’s one possibility. Or it could be Margaret Winifred Ross, the Australian Paralympic athlete.
Maloney has NO plan and has advanced barely anything.
His campaign is a used slogan and pictures of his kids.
. Over the last 4 years, we have seen a couple friendly ordinances…one being the TV ordinance which was bragged about by John Moran.
IT STILL SUCKS and is outdated.
Here is the list that hasn’t been touched:
* Flooding (crickets).
* Parking Plan
* Police Station
* AWFUL city services. Not enough Snow Removal (no complaints this year without snow).
* Not enough Police going through neighborhoods
* Uptown TIF isn’t solved
* WAY TOO MUCH DENSITY! How many fricken apartment/condo buildings have risen?
* Now in Uptown, we read that a medical office has now taken over a COMMERCIAL piece of business, since the City Council has surrendered.
* How’s Village Green filling out? What’s the ETA until city council puts in apartments??
EDITOR’S NOTE: Pretty much every single problem can be solved by money, starting with at least $120 million for Citywide flood remediation, not including the tens of millions more in debt service; and $8-10 million for a 350-space, 5-story parking deck on the current City lot south of Summit Mall or on the Library lot.
We look forward to your showing up at City Hall tomorrow night and asking the City Council to immediately move forward on both of those projects, and throw in a dozen new cops for good measure.
I can’t figure out who is supporting who in this mayoral race. Maloney is a Democrat but he is supported by Republicans like Dietsch, Barton, Thillens, Ald. Shubert, etc. and Republican Fuksa supported by Dems like fmr. Ald. Radermacher, Niles mayor Przbylo and fmr. state sen. Kotowski.
EDITOR’S NOTE: You’re seriously over-thinking this.
Anonymous 3/25 8:19pm, thanks for (kind of) asking. It brings up the point that is somehow getting lost in these non-partisan elections: they are non-partisan. Just because I, “a well known Republican”, support someone, it doesn’t make the race partisan.
I have to live in this town, and I want the people I think will do the best job running it. The fact that I have spent a chunk of time running for partisan office has given me the opportunity to talk to and get to know many of the candidates running for local office. I’m choosing the people who I think will make the best choices for Park Ridge, regardless of what ballots they’ve pulled in Presidential primaries.
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