Will County Executive Larry Walsh on Monday pleaded guilty to drunken driving. He was ordered to pay $1,250 in fines and court fees, plus a $185 fine for improper lane usage. He has to seek counseling and will have his license suspended for 30 days, after which he can drive for work-related purposes only for another 60 days.
Walsh has apologized for his error in judgment. About 40 percent of Naperville's 142,000 residents live in Will County, where Walsh is the top elected official.
What do you think--does the punishment fit the crime? Walsh's lawyer says he sought no special treatment by the court, and the penalty appears consistent with what a first-time offender would receive. Do you agree? How do you think the incident will affect the political career of Walsh, a former state senator?
What a stand-up guy! He admitted his guilt and apologized. What more could we ask for? For the court to maybe be a bit lenient on someone who stepped up and took responsibility for his own actions RATHER than hiring an attorney to plea bargain it down sound fair and reasonable to me.
Seems like a more than reasonable approach for the judges to reserve "throwing the book" at someone who shows no remorse, admits guilt, or accepts responsibility.
The guy made a mistake and from his own statement I think he has learned from it. Most likely, people will respect him more for how he handled this in court than if he had simply paid a ton of money to an attorney to make it go away.
None of us are perfect and the closer our elected officials can be to the people they represent the better off we all will be. I'd vote for the guy.
He basically admitted he had impaired judgment when he drove drunk.
We can not let anyone with impaired judgment run a county with all the problems of Will County.
Impaired judgment by Will County Officials in arresting Kevn Fox for the rape and murder of his daughter resulted in the loss of 15.4 million dollars to the Naperville Taxpayers and others in Will County.
Combine that with the District 204 fumbling the ball and the City of Naperville increasing taxes by a rate of 4 times of any other government body and the poor Will County Residents of Naperville are taking blow after blow. Where does it end? How does it stop?
We need sober officials who are running our governments.
Who is to say this guy was not drinkng on the job which is not a DUI but could be 100 times as costly to us residents when he makes wrongful decisions regarding our financial futures.
Let us find officials who drink coffee instead of booze!
I think he should be required to moderate any blogs on SD #204 or MVHS for the next 90 days. That type of punishment should deter anyone.
I did not know Naperville was 40% in Will County.
Does this mean when we have 14 Naperville Cops collecting OT in Dupage County sitting in a jury box, we have another 9 Naperville Cops collecting overtime in a Will County Jury Box. Holy Toledo! Holy Cow! Holy Mackeral! May God have Mercy!
I sure hope Chief Dial does not allow the cops who work in the Dupage part also work in the Will County part. That would mean the officer has to go to both counties to collect his OT at our expense instead of only one. Double the OT if you will! May God have Mercy again if this is happening!
Could this be part of the OT problem?
Maybe we need to see if Will County will take the part of Aurora that is in Dupage and give the rest of Naperville to Dupage in a swap deal with a little financial compensation to which ever party gets the short end of the deal. It makes practical sense that one town should be in one county and not two counties.
All our government officials have made life miserable for the residents both with their past, present and possibly future actions.
Maybe we can trade or negotiate with Mr. Walsh for the rest of Naperville to be incorporated in Dupage County before he fully sobers up. He just may hand it over to Dupage.
I am sure if there was a referendum the Will County residents of Naperville would want to be annexed into Dupage County. Dupage County taxes are less than Will County last time I checked!
Larry Walsh handed Kevin Fox $15.4 million because of the stupidity of his Will County police officers which he is ultimately responsible for. He certainly can afford to hand over some land with homes on them in a swap deal that may not cost Will County anything..lol... He may even get the Fox Valley Mall which I believe is in the Dupage Portion of Aurora. No effect on Naperville Taxpayers since the sales tax goes to Aurora anyway.
On a serious note, I would like to see Naperville be in one county instead of 2 counties. I think there would be some tax savings if we were in one county preferably Dupage County! Does anyone agree or am I completely off?
How about that, yet another topic turned into a NPD overtime whine session by a Napergatian.
Serena, what exactly does your chain letter rant have to do with Larry Walsh and his DUI conviction?? I know it is difficult, but try to stay on topic. You and your fellow lemmings are chasing away people that want to discuss current events without having every topic turn into a NPD bashing fest.
As far as Larry Walsh, it is admirable that he took responsibility for his actions, instead of trying to blame the police for his arrest, or use his influence to get leniency.
Serena,
In your post,(Serena on May 20, 2008 5:38 PM ) you forgot to write the line about how you have been reading these blogs for some time, but this is the first time that you have ever written on them. Isn't that what you have been posting on the other blogs?
I am curious about your comment that "Dupage taxes are less than Will county taxes last time I checked". What prompted you to check and what are they? - please enlighten me because I didn't realize this. Interesting that you "did not know that Naperville was 40% in Will county", but apparently you keep abreast of the tax rates?
Actually, I too have a serious question for you. Perhaps you and your gang of Napergatians can find out if Larry Walsh purchased his liquor from one of the Napergate man's liquor stores? Wouldn't that be a story? NGM brings down another official!
Really - this is becoming too easy!
back to the topic: Larry Walsh received the same sentence that most, if not all first time offenders receive. Sounds fair and just, at least he admitted his crime and lack of sound judgment.
Some of you people need to seriously chill out. This guy admitted his guilt and is willing to accept both the consequences and the penalty. Yet that isn't enough?
There is an old saying about people living in glass houses...
How many of us have ever driven after drinking too much and just had the good fortune of not being stopped? How many of us are REALLY sure we are under .08 EVERY time we get behind the wheel... as in our BEST GUESS or have we ever actually had it measured and know for sure what our own real limit is?
There is nothing credible to suggest that any of this happened while on "work time" or that he made any "official decisions". There also is nothing credible to suggest that this arrest renders him incapable of performing his job duties.
The only thing that really concerns me is whether or not he was driving a government vehicle at the time of his arrest? In my opinion, if he was driving a government vehicle at the time of his arrest he should forfeit all future use of government vehicles and instead be reimbursed a simple mileage for anytime he is required to drive somewhere on official business. As was learned from the DuPage case last year the consequences of a government worker driving drunk in a government vehicle are to simply to severe and the county board should act accordingly if he was operating a government vehicle.
Anonymous on May 21, 2008 12:14 PM
What a great point about whether Mr. Walsh was driving a county vehicle when arrested. I drive a company car and have signed a contract with my company that states if I am convicted of a DUI the car is taken away and I become responsible for my own unreimbursed transportation.
I haven't seen a report on the car he was driving. Was it government issued?