I think the Park District Board should meet and dissolve the City Council of Naperville for incompetence and inefficiencies.

It is amazing how wonderful the Park District runs without a leader.

I can't imagine how great the Park District will be once they find a leader.

I never saw the Napergate Man ever expose anything on the Park District in the dozen years he was blasting away at government corruption at all levels.

But it sure seemed like he could not buy enough ink to pin point the incompetence of City Hall and the City Council!

I agree with the below comments of Born and Raised:

I like our Parks - they are abundant, clean and well kept.
I like our Park Police - they are polite, courteous, and available.

Keep up the great work, Park District!

Thanks for not buying those Ponds of Hobson West after the nutty City Council inflated the price by rezoning it to high density to try to benefit the Wehrli family. Can you imagine Councilman Wehrli did not see the need to recuse himself? Apparently neither he or any city council member can comprehend the meaning of a conflict of interest!!! Even our city attorneys do not aeem to understand the significance that a conflict of interest presents to our community and residents.

Wow, and they want to take over the Park District Board! Heaven Forbid!!! May God have Mercy!!!

Wow. Take a breath. The issue was the City Council's action regarding the Park District.

I think we can all agree that overlap is a big problem at all levels of government - local, county, state, federal, you name it.

Bigger is not always better or more efficient. To make a broad statement such as "all of the companies in the private sector thrive on this concept" is simply misleading and untrue.

My point was simple. The City Council has overstepped their authority (surprise, surprise!) and Park District is being singled out.

And I don't have a short memory. Look around...we are surrounded by controversy in this town. The difference is that I don't paint everybody with a broad brush. The Park Police that I have interacted with over the years have been polite, courteous and available, with few exceptions.

"One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch, girl." - Donny Osmond?? or was that Michael?

"I like our Park Police - they are polite, courteous, and available."

What a short memory some of us have. It wasn't that long ago that the Naperville Park Police were at the center of one controversy after another. The park police are just one in the long line of examples of systemic problems in Naperville government.

Born and Raised,

Yes, we all know the Park District was formed by a public referendum. And yes, only the votes can disband the Park District by referendum. Rhetoric aside, the city council has no power to disband the Park District.

In the bigger picture we have way too many layers and levels of government. Other cities, other states have found ways to streamline and be more efficient. Certain counties in California provide fire and EMS services to the entire county and it works efficiently and fine. Look around Illinois and all of the different police agencies we have... state police, sec of state police, sheriff police, local police, metra police, park police, forest preserve police... and the list goes on. Fact is everyone who is a police officer has the same police power issued by the State of Illinois and their powers are good anywhere within the state. All we really need is one statewide police force. By eliminating all of the duplication and waste and inefficiencies and inside deals and BS with overtime, etc we would end up with one heck of a lot more police officers and a lot more officers actually on the street. Posted above Mark was whining about a park not getting patrolled over a major thoroughfare. Mark, get in your car and go drive around on major thoroughfares in Naperville. Drive during the morning rush hour, drive during the day, drive during the evening rush hour. You will rarely see any Naperville police officers on patrol. Where are they? Some of us know where they are. The real question is why the supervisors and command officers don't know where these officers are and what they are doing. Fact is the major thoroughfares aren't getting patrolled and they would if better efficiencies were brought to bear in the entire law enforcement community.

The bottom line, whether it be the Park District or a state wide police force we have all bought into the fear of doing away with the existing system in that things can only get worse not better. We are also conditioned through city hall propaganda to believe that our local police, fire, whatever department is doing the worlds best job for us and that without them our world as we know it would end. Yes, crime would skyrocket overnight. The truth is that all this is baseless fear designed for us to maintain the status quo.

Look at townships as just one example of a totally useless form of government. If townships are so great why do most states not have them? Why are there no townships in Cook County?

Another great example of stupidity and waste is IDOT. Why should the state of Illinois have control over any local road like Rt 59 or Ogden Avenue... just because it happens to be designated with a state route number on it? Big deal! The vast majority of those using these roads are local residents. Yea, a few are using the route number off a map or a gps to get them somewhere else and they are just passing thru. Big deal. You have to admit it pretty much sucks when the City of Naperville and the Naperville Police do nothing when something goes wrong on a state route. Nope they won't even pick up a phone and report it to IDOT... so much for the tax dollars we are paying... all of the union workers who answer the phone anywhere in Naperville even if you try to report a problem on a state route just tell you it isn't their job or their jurisdiction. So musch for all that inter governmental cooperation we keep hearing so much about. And so much for getting any customer service with those tax dollars we are paying. If that doesn't tell you change is desperately needed I don't know what will.

If mergers and acquisitions are such a bad thing then why do all of the companies in the private sector thrive on this concept. I say full steam ahead with the mergers. Step one could be to merge Naperville with all of the surrounding towns... Lisle, Warrenville, Aurora, Bollingbrook, Plainfield... Wow, all of a sudden we are now the second largest city in Illinois. Think of the political clout we would now have. Thiink of how much more efficient all of these towns would now be with the elimination of duplicate services and how much less we would pay in tax with a larger scale of efficiencies.

In these times where all organizations are reinventing themselves to position themselves more competitively for the future only our local form of government remains with its head firmly planted in the sand blissfully ignorant to what is happening all around.

I find this action to be extremely arrogant on the part of our City Council. Would we as a citizenry find it acceptable for the Naperville Park Board to pass a resolution to dissolve the City Council? Of course not...

Would we find it acceptable if they set their sights on the Naperville 203 School Board or vice-a-versa? Of course not...

This is not to say that problems don't exist, of course they do. There is waste (time and money) within all areas of our local government. Why is the Park District being singled out?

Tha Naperville Park Board was created by the passage of a public referendum back in the mid 60's. The creation and/or dissolution of any taxing body should be spearheaded by the residents of a community - not by another taxing body. There are state statutes that dictate the procedures involved and they are arduous for a purpose.

The City Council needs to tend to their own garden - which by the way is not free of weeds.

I like our Parks - they are abundant, clean and well kept.
I like our Park Police - they are polite, courteous, and available.

If you are a councilman/woman that voted in favor of this resolution...don't count on my vote in the future. You are overstepping your authority and your overwhelming desire for control is clouding your judgement.

Old Pickles, I am guessing that you made an attempt at sarcasm in your comment about a park district fire department and paramedics. You do realize that all public safety is not the same and that other than fire prevention education, inspections and citations, there is little firefighters or paramedics can do to PREVENT incidents. On the other hand there is a whole lot police can do in that regard and it will not get done as effectively without those part time (relatively inexpensive) park district employees dedicated solely to patrolling the parks! You are foolish to believe otherwise and I speak from a previous background in law enforcement.

When this City Council operates effectively, without infighting, AND if the park district tax revenue is not pooled with the City of Naperville General fund, I would be more open to the idea that consolidation could work. Until then, it is a big fat NO!

Mark: How about a park district fire department with paramedics too? The park police are the second largest waste of money by the park board. (no offense to you intended) The parks I think should be policed by the municipality and if the park is in an un-incorpated area, it should be the sheriff's responsibility. Multiple law enforcement agencies operating within the City of Naperville is a perfect example of big fat inefficent government California style. Disbanding the park board is the idea, not disbanding the park district. You can still tax on a district boundary basis. We are simply advocating disbanding the 9 people that simply do not consistently perform as a group. We agree it is a point well made that the city council has its issues with each other too. However having only one elected governing body will allow citizens to monitor the behavior of one board easier. You know, there was a time in Naperville when the parks were part of the street department as I recall and run by the city council. I think it was called Parks and Parkway Department.

Well anonymous, no comment on the council's handling of the band shell? I have been watching Naperville City Councils for over 30 years and have seen many many reorganizations of city departments, not necessarily positive. I am not spreading rumors, merely looking at past practices. It seems to me that the Park District delivers the goods at this time. Do you honestly think the delivery of service to the public will improve with a consolidation, because I am willing to bet that it won't and we won't save any money either. And you are naive to think that given a choice, patrol of Knoch Park would win over any major thoroughfare.

Hey bloggers: Do you only have a problem with the park board or the park district as a whole? Do you really want to abolish the park district entirely? Yes, their are issues with the board, but on a whole the park system in our city is excellent. It is often cited as one of the reasons Naperville is voted one of the top places in the country to live. When there are problems with the school district should we abolish the current system and have the city run that as well?

Mark,

It is absurd to claim to know what the city council may or may not do once they take over the park district operations. Spreading false rumors like this doesn't help to clarify the facts and only tends to play into some people's fears.

Blaming the voters isn't a solution. Yes these clowns were elected by the voters for whatever reasons they choose to cast their ballot the way they did. We have suffered thru a couple of elections now without any really, really good candidates stepping forward so it has really been voting for the lesser of evils. Maybe I'm a cynic but I don't see any announcements from better qualified candidates for the next election (though it is a bit early) and I also don't think we can expect a larger per cent turnout. If the pool of candidates doesn't change much and if the voter apathy doesn't changer much that means we are pretty much left with a status quo.

I vote YES. Sorry to have cancelled your vote out, now it is up to how ever many more Yes or No votes exist out there.

I vote NO. It is true that the park board has had issues, but I point the finger to the total lack of interest displayed by the voting public. After all, how do these people get elected? As it stands, the separation of the City and the Park District insures that our parks are well maintained and the programs are wide and varied.

Some of the very same councilmen initiating this proposal are the ones that would be slashing programs at the first sign of an economic downturn. There would be NO WAY to compete with essential city services and you would quickly see a degradation of park facilities and services. AND the parks would not be patrolled as the Naperville officers would be on the streets responding to calls, writing tickets, conducting follow up investigations, not walking the parks. Look at all the complaints from this blog site about too many officers downtown. When the police budget is cut or several officers are out on injuries or a big investigation pops up, where do you thing they will reduce staff- park patrol.

Finally, if you remember, it was the same council that decided to build the new band shell, eliminating public restroom facilities in order to save money at Central Park. Now, there is a trailer porta potty and you will be fitting the bill to retrofit some restrooms. I VOTE NO!!!

Who cares how many revolutions of the the revolving door have been made over what period of time?

The fact of the matter is we aren't any better situated to keep an Exec Dir now than we were 5 years ago. Mostly because the members of the board are arrogant and serve their own ego's rather than the interest of the voters.

They have had more than enough opportunity to get their act together. Barbara Heller had a retreat with these same clowns and nothing was accomplished then so what makes any of us think another retreat will do them any good now? Just another waste of the taxpayers dollars to coddle these incompetent jerks. Anyone who was foolish enough to vote for any of these clown reach around and give yourself a pat on the back.

Just like a bunch of spoiled children who can't play nice, sometimes their parents need to give them a time out. In this case the legislature hasn't given us a practical timeout like recall powers to throw jerks like them out of office. We do have right and ability to abolish the Park District thru a referendum though. Since this is our only available option to force change and considering the length of time this sad saga has gone on for I regretfully acknowledge that it is now time to abolish the park district as a separate body and merge the operations with the rest of the city.

"In 12 years, the district has tried eight different executive directors, several leaving not because they necessarily wanted to."

Boy, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story. The district has actually had 3 directors in the last 11 years. First, they count the last year of a director whos served a very long term. The directors who followed him were Ken Brissa, Barbara Heller, and now Daniel Betts. The others listed were INTERIM directors. They knew they were going to be replaced. Currently, it is stated that Mindy Munn is the "go-to" person while Betts is on leave. Well, Naperville Sun, since this is her second term as the interim boss should we sensationalize the headline to "Park District hs 9 directors in 12 years"???!!!

Most cities seem to operate just fine when their park operation is just another city department. If it can work well in other cities there isn't any reason why it can't work just as well in Naperville.

The problem with maintaining the park board operation as it is now is that we continue to reward bad management of the board itself. A few years ago the police entered park district headquarters with a search warrant and had their run of the place. The SUN did an excellent job continously reporting on the matter. Financial improprieties under the noses of those elected to serve our interests seemed to have been taking place among park district staff as we later learned, with criminal impunity. Yes, no charges were filed but the mismanagement resulted in several people losing thier jobs. Those of you from Chicago, New Jersey, New York or good ole Massechusetts may not have a problem with corruption but local law enforcement serving warrants on local government officals in Naperville was unprecedented. We expected one or more to be charged with criminal activity and were very disappointed no charges were brought forth. Now we have a park district director AWOL with no accounting to the public about what is going on AND outside legal counsel is retained by the board. The board does not answer questions and they do not believe they are accountable to the public. So it is my opinion contrary to the SUN editorial today, under these circustances it is time to abolish the board and the management duties go to more accountable and full time management. The issue the SUN should have editorialzed about is how much offical misconduct should we tolerate? No disrespect to Ms. Young (her father in law was one of my PE teachers in high school, a great teacher and coach) but I don't think she is the answer to restoring confidence in the park board. She may find that she will come to regret her quest for a seat on the board.

Funny thing is that the Park District had a good director a while back, and then this paper fabricated a scandal that forced him out. Ever since, no one decent has wanted the job.

Sometimes the whole town suffers from the over zealousness of a few.

It's true that the leadership at the Park Board has had serious difficulty working together. However, Kruse's proposal is absurd. Go to a City Council meeting and see how much extra time you think the Council has to run an entire additional government body. If you have problems with the Park District, bring it up with the Board members, or better yet, let your voice be heard at a public Board meeting.

Another Anonymous,

I agree with most you said except for finding someone in the local area who has held onto their job for 10 years or so. I may be wrong, but I'm sure the people in the park industry talk and everyone in the Chicago metro area at the least are fully cognizant about the mess of our park board and the revolving door of the exec director.

If you were doing a good job and had been at it for 10+ years would you jeopardize that to give something as flaky as the Naperville Park District a shot? I wouldn't nor do I suspect most true park professionals. I also have a sneaky suspicion that we are about to learn something really troubling about the current "leave of absence".

I have faith in the voters. Most voters are all to painfully aware of the exceptionally poor job most of the city council members have been doing. We will be seeing several new faces sitting up there after next election. Most of the current incumbents had their shot, they have had their 15 minutes of fame, and they choose to blow a golden opportunity. Soon we will have a new council and it will be up to them how they want to handle and resolve city problems.

There are a lot of people here who have no idea what they're talking about. The Park Board is not paid, and they did use a search firm to select Daniel Betts. Not that this excuses them, though. And the City Council is not exploring the disolution of the Park Board, but the whole park district.

I'm just as unhappy with the park board as everyone else, but I am pretty proud of the parks Naperville has. My kids play on multiple traveling sports teams, and I can personally vouch for the high quality of our fields compared to other cities/districts. And check out your next tax bill and look how much you pay to the park district- what is it, about $100 per YEAR? Roughly eight bucks per month? Yeah, its obvious we're getting ripped off!

Obviously, whoever is doing the hiring is incompetent.

We just need a quality executive director from a nearby city who has shown success and held on to his current job as Park District Director for 10 or more years.

With 200 suburbs around, if someone hiring had a half brain they could recruit the right person from a neighboring suburb.

Most directors would consider the Naperville Park District position a promotion of sorts and jump at the opportunity.

If the board is that incompetent as far as hiring, let us get an outside agency to do the hiring.

Or maybe the City Council can instead of this louzy Park District Board.

I don't care if the park district is put under the jurisdiciton of the city council. I just hope that is not an excuse to double their pay a few months later! I am not really sure we can trust the city council either.

Aren't they the ones that want to build parking decks while restaurants are going out of business left and right? Who is going to park in the 19.9 million library parking deck that will destroy the beauty of the area? On second thought let us disolve both the park district board and city council and see if dictatorship may be a better form of government. At least it will be open dictatorship that is transparent.

Right now we have the establishment dictating to the council how to vote on each issue. In essence we have disguised dictatorship in sheeps' clothing!

I would rather have OUTRIGHT DICTATORSHIP that at least is STRAIGHT with the people!

Yes, yes, yes! The park board is outdated and over payed. We have too many levels of redundant government alraedy. Let's cut expenses for a change.

Let's see, the City of Naperville will save the taxpayers money by absorbing the Park District and keeping all of the employees?!

Fact: The park district employees are all non-union and when it comes to many of the blue collar folks, they make half of what City's public works people do. Great idea City leaders... turn $10/hr lawn mowers in to over $30/hr. Save money?

Fact: The City Council should look at their own problems. No fire chief. No city manager. Nine different councilman all trying to run the city their own way or spending more time trying to get elected to higher office. One city councilman suing the city he represents and city employees named individually. How about getting your house in order before trying to overthrow other governments who have balanced budgets. Furstenau's lawsuit need some park district soccer money?? Need to build any more million dollar islands in the middle of the road that will cost a ton of money to maintain year after year? Fix the park district like you did the red light cameras, downtown parking, and transportation issues??? Save money??

Fact: Krause is talking about all the money to be saved with the park cops being absorbed in to the Naperville police department. Go to the library and pull the park district budget to see what they pay for their entire police force. I'd be surprised if Dave Dial could hire two or three cops for that price. I guess (mayor-wannabe) Krause is really saying let's take more police off the streets and hope bad people dont come to the parks. Save money???

Fact: The city council granted a developer the right to build townhouses at Hobson Ponds and then tells the neighbors that the park district will buy the property and make it a park. Great solution city council. Way to solve that problem. Write checks with someone elses checkbook after you've increased the value of the land! Save money????

Fact: The park district commissioners were elected by the same voters that elect city councilman. Look at the bios of our city council and the park district commissioners and there really isnt much difference outside of how political their pasts are. Come next election lets hope that educated, dedicated, ethical, business-sensed, non-political or "one issue" candidates run for the park board. Elect them. The right people will steer the correct course for the park district. Besides, that will leave plenty of time for our city council to concentrate on the things they were elected to do in the first place. Save money????? I won't hold my breath.

A big "Thank You" to Doug Krause for stepping forward and demonstrating some true leadership at the city council level. What a refreshing breath of fresh air to finally see a proposal from within the city council membership that actually makes sense. This kind of leadership is what Naperville needs, has been sorely missing, and is something the Mayor and the rest of the city council would be well advised to use as an example and start to emulate.

City council elections are not that far away. Once again it will be time for the voters to cull the wheat from the chaff. To many of the current city council members are just taking up space while long term city problems breed, fester, and are left unattended.

My expectations of the city council members is to fix problems and make the city better. If some city council members can't identify the problems or can't work to find a consensus to fix problems then we need to elect other representative who have the ability and desire to get the job done.

And what happens to the areas of the Park Dist. not within the City limits? Do they get a rebate of tax monies? It went to pay for land that will now be owned by the City. Just asking.

I vote yes: abolish the park district board. Hire an administrator who reports to the city manager and lets get that Bombay Saphire Circus shut down. Whoever proposed this is absolutely correct. The board cannot act with any successful continuity as has been demonsrated over the past ten years or so. It does not matter who is on the board. There are too many egos, too many jockeying for power, opinions and in general, people do not play nicely with each other at the park district. The board is too big as nine members is excessive for the job in my opinion. Too many opinions make it difficult to arrive at a consensus because there is nine times the necessary compromise required to reach a decision. Streamline it, professionalize the management structure and we are certain it would perform better. Lets vote yes and turn it over to city management.

I vote yes: abolish the park district board. Hire an administrator who reports to the city manager and lets get that Bombay Saphire Circus shut down. Whoever proposed this is absolutely correct. The board cannot act with any successful continuity as has been demonsrated over the past ten years or so. It does not matter who is on the board. There are too many egos, too many jockeying for power, opinions and in general, people do not play nicely with each other at the park district. The board is too big as nine members is excessive for the job in my opinion. Too many opinions make it difficult to arrive at a consensus because there is nine times the necessary compromise required to reach a decision. Streamline it, professionalize the management structure and we are certain it would perform better. Lets vote yes and turn it over to city management.

I am totally in favor of abolishing the Naperville Park District and merging the operation into the existing city structure as just another city department reporting to the city manager and the city council.

Let's all support the city council on this as both a goal and a priority. The more people who stand up and support this idea the sooner it will become a reality. If we need to vote on it as a referendum, so be it. Let's do whatever it takes to get the question on the ballot of the next city election.

A park district should operate quietly in the background to simply serve the recreational needs of citizens. For way, way too many years there has been one conflict after another, one issue after another, one executive director after another all of which has only served to distract the executive director and the district board from delivering on their main mission. It it time to end all of this nonsense once and for all and move on.