D99: Lawyers, Tums and money
Everyone behave. Or else.
That’s the vibe I got from the beginning of the Aug. 17 school board meeting. Dr. McDonald apparently has pretty much had his fill of bad behavior, and read off a statement saying no one he knew of did anything untoward about grad speeches specifically in 2007. He’s been a straight shooter since he got here, he has a good record in his five years as principal of South, and since then as superintendent, so I believe him.
Somewhere between last meeting and this one Board President Julia Beckman dusted off Robert’s Rules and reminded board members to behave; last month member Megan Schroeder got into it with a commenter that ended the meeting, and member Terry Pavesich got into it with another resident after the meeting.
This week Schroeder didn’t say more than “aye” to vote, and at the end of the meeting Pavesich rolled out the new D99 cookbook with fanfare and aplomb. Word on the street: BUY IT. Anderson’s Bookshop has it, and it finances the distsrict’s Education Foundation, which does all kinds of good things each year for the kids.
Beckman’s statement came after McDonald’s and admonished everyone to behave themselves, and that Mr. Faulkner, the school attorney, would be present to make sure we did.
None of the 2009-2010 budget detail is up yet, but bottom line is in the minutes here starting on page 5 that covers all the bases. EJ’s “Dollars and Sense” post covers this part of the meeting.
When it came time for the comments from the board, it was pretty light fare, except for Bob Lemke, who reiterated he was disappointed staff didn’t take a harder look a health care costs to try and bend down that curve. As you may recall, he was rudely and incorrectly shouted down bringing forward that information at the May meeting via an out-of-order “calling of the question” by Schroeder. To her credit, she did not shout anyone down rudely and incorrectly and she was never out of order during this whole meeting.
Speaking of which, I saw Schroeder’s sister there taking pictures, and she probably got some good ones of Greg Boltz, both as he addressed the board and after the meeting out in the hall as he spoke to a reporter. When Boltz got up during the second reception of visitors I’m thinking “Here we go,” but I got to hand it to him; he was calm, polite, collected, and made some good points. Look for the video. Resident Bill Wrobel also was there and let the board have it for wasting $10,000 on lawyers. Dan Slayden complimented the board on how good the football field looked.
And yes, I got up, and was pretty nervous, and made four comments in a shaky, high-pitched voice that I correctly took some high quality crap for from a couple other attendees. Hey, I was standing right next to the lawyer I was paying good money to, just so he could intimidate me. I got what I was unwillingly forced to pay for. My comments:
- Make the appointments that Beckman is required to make as board president or tell us why she can’t or won’t.
- Tell us what the responses are to FOIA requests, approved or denied.
- Accept emailed FOIA requests.
- Start taping and archiving the meetings on-line.
Apparently Lemke has been pushing on this committee/liaison thing too, asking for a complete change of who does what.
As requested, I had emailed McDonald and Beckman a week earlier, told them I would be taping the meeting, and asked them where I should set up. They told me to in the back so as to not disrupt the meeting, so my apologies if everything looks far away and it’s hard to hear.
Where do we get the video?
We’re working on getting it up on YouTube, hopefully by later today.
Yes, sadly, public discourse is no longer possible in Downers Grove without digital recordings of some type. Really, I’m all for the capture of the meetings by digital means. It is vastly superior to the minutes by the staff secretary. However, the true purpose of the recent rash of recordings, photos, or videos is, let’s be truthful here everyone, not for the dissemination of information but rather to fuel the blogging furnace (EJ, MT, LL) or to foster partisanship (Greg Boltz) by memorializing some perceived transgression, verbal slip or nefarious act by one faction or another. And that is why it will be a cold day before current elected school board officials will be pod casting anytime soon.
Whether it be the local school board, Village Council or PTA bake sale committee, those that serve are on notice that a snippet could soon be incorporated into the next internet posting, saved for an election Youtube campaign link or, more likely than not, exhibit “A” to some future lawsuit. But is the new digital reality a bad thing? The diodes don’t lie so why keep open meetings digitally inaccessible to those not in the seats. Let’s push the envelope: What of electronic participation by the public at public meetings? Where is the clamor for that tool? Our citizens’ expectations about being able to interact with their local governments through digital means are likely to increase along with the sophistication of the technology that will be available to make it happen.
In the past we have had village council members “on the line” participating in meetings, so why not the next step? Of course that act would inevitably lead to “On-line” citizens interacting with “on the line” elected officials. Heck, why even have a Village Hall for your “Town Hall” meetings when the video screen and key board are all you really need? Since no one on either side of the dais needs be anywhere physically near Downers Grove, let’s outsource the whole darn thing. I can see it now:
Hello, this is Raji and I call to order the regular Tuesday virtual meeting of, how do you say, Dower’s Globes Village Council. Please have your credit card ready.
Since truthfulness is your aim, Yikes, I’ll remind you that I’ve been pushing for school board meetings to be podcast or broadcast for years. Not so I can fuel my “blogging furnace” — my campaign predates this site — but to make the meetings more accessible to everyone, you included.
As the parent in charge of dinner and homework most evenings, I’ve personally found it difficult to get out to meetings. Watching them at home means I can multi-task. Having them available as podcasts means I can rewind the audio as many times as necessary to get quotes, numbers and other information right, which strikes me as a very good thing for bloggers, columnists and anyone else who cares about accuracy.
As for simply desiring fodder for tomorrow’s blog post — not. We’ve been struggling for two days to get video of Monday’s meeting up. It’s time-consuming and the quality isn’t great. I’m sure D99 could do much better and invite the district to try at its earliest convenience.
And if embarrassing public officials was my aim, you would have seen footage of the July meeting here — that was a doozy. Instead, we honored the request of the superintendent and board president and refrained from posting it although it was our legal right to do so.
BTW, a video record cuts both ways. It also allows viewers to draw their own conclusions rather than getting their information through the filter of a newspaper story or blog post.
That said, I think you have point if you’re trying to say that digital technology can lead to some sort of virtual citizenship. I agree the advantages must be carefully weighed against the disadvantages.
But when it comes to making public meetings more accessible, I will line up with the mayor and Village Hall (and with other local bodies that are moving in that direction; the Park Board with its once-monthly broadcast and the D58 board with its non-archived monthly audio) and, for that matter, with the many recent candidates and political groups that used YouTube and other digital tools to their advantage and that of interested voters.
Lap top + web cam = video of meeting streamed live or uploaded to the web.
I think we have just gotten our first volunteer to televise these meetings on a regular basis!
Yikes,
I guess I look at recording and posting the way people behave as a documentary. If everyone behaved, there would be nothing to report on in the blogs or newspapers.
In my opinion, the people who do not want their poor behavior or are uncomfortable with how they act are the ones who do not want the behavior recorded. I seem to recall a public pool meeting that went south when the same type of documentation was attempted.
Remember back in the day when they suggested that you video yourself doing a presentation to catch all those nasty traits so you can correct your behavior?? If a poor behavior/management style is recorded, then that’s what it is nothing more. A documentary of the event. Use it as a teaching tool to improve future meetings.
It’s not just for the elected but those in the audience who should behave better too.
Be safe all
Read the Reporter toady, read the past papers, read all EJ and MT. Beckman tries to blame someone else. Went to the meeting. WTG GB! They lied about you and you called ‘em on it. My hat is off to you sir, for speaking truth to such ugly power. No apology though. The school board president won’t come clean.
The District 99 Board Zoo uhh Meeting needs to be taped from now on. Why did DG re-elect the board minus Deb Boyle? Also regarding McDonald I went to DGS when he was Principal there (I graduated in 08) and he was always honest and fair. I didn’t notice anything in his grad speech in 08.
Good article in Today’s paper about the whole D99 issue. Interesting to see that Mr Wrobel, mentioned in this blog article as well as mentioned several times in the newspaper piece Doesn’t even have any children in the D99 system. He’s retired! I understand residents feeling the need to speak up about issue’s in our community, but ones that specifically afffect oursleves or our children I can totally see the resoning and logic of bering outspoken but why someone who is retured, has no children attending the D99 school has to be so vocal. I also know he attends several Village council meetings throughout the year and he tends to speak up a lot there as well. Just wondering. No personal attack intended. I just need help understanding this reasoning. Seems just stirring the pot is a hobby here. My kids are barely out of diapers and I read and care about the community as a whole but until my kids attend D99 I have no reason to be so overly concerned about the current situation as it relates to the daily/weekly business agenda’s of the board.
Retired people pay taxes, and they have both a right and a motivation to speak out on the actions of the governmental bodies that collect those taxes.
It is the right and duty of every citizen in a free society to be involved in every aspect of their government. Therefore, it is in your best interests to keep tabs on your school district, park district and village council just to stay informed. One day the issues they are discussing will affect you and yours one day soon!
John…Chad…you two, I’m feeling the love here…
I can’t speak for Wrobel and the handful of other “regulars,” but I hope I’ll be similarly involved and active when I’m a retiree. I know those “little kids” years kept me far too occupied to tune in to local government and even teenagers need a fair amount of care, supervision and transportation.
For everything there is a season as they say.
Even school board members don’t necessarily have kids in the schools they oversee. D58 member Scott O’Connell doesn’t have kids in district schools and prior to this last election neither did Claire Jaros or Mary Ellen Young.
D99 members Julia Beckman and Megan Schroeder don’t have kids in the district. I believe Terry Pavesich’s youngest will graduate before her term expires. Not sure if Paul McCarthy’s kids are still in the schools; maybe someone else knows.
My point is that whether or not you have kids in the schools hasn’t been and shouldn’t be a barrier to your involvement — at least IMHO.
I wonder (out loud) how the board members with children in the schools reconcile their own “conflicts of interest” on all matters involving their children.
The way certain conflicts of interest or perceived conflicts of interest between School Board members and the actions of their Children while attending district schools, it would seem to me that having board members who do NOT have children currently attending the school on a school board. I would label this person free of all Nepotism and Conflicts of Interest. As long as the person is for the betterment of the school system, I would vote for a “conflict free” board member. This is the advantage OC brings to D58. Tell me that a school principal doesn’t have to think a couple times before disciplining a board members child…especially right before his or the superintendent’s contract(s) come up for renewal….
Chad, John and EJ, Many thanks. I have a much clearer picture and thinking process now. great insight. Keep up the goood work Sockey! Love your writing!
I wish to contribute to District 99 and therefore felt it
necessary to say that “enough is enough”
My four children attended South High School and I have
been a resident of the District for 41 years and have never
found it necessary to appear or speak at the School Board
Meeting.
However, at this time, because of the CIRCUS we have
going on regarding Boyle and Nepotism perpetuated by
by incumbent Board Members, with Regional Recognition of the Conduct of our Board, I found it necessary to speak out.
I find it irresponsible of the Board to use the Taxpayers
Check book, to hire an attorney, trying to put Boyle on the shelf.
At the August 17th meeting, they again reached for the
taxpayer’s check book to protect themselves with a lawyer who was called in for the public comment session. This Board threatened the Resident/Taxpayers
with a hired gun, which the taxpayers paid for. I don’t
believe that they paid him out of their own pockets?
I regret to report that the incumbents on this Board have lost my respect and I believe countless other Downers Grove Residents, retired or otherwise.
Bill Wrobel