that is hilarious, time to sell my house, i have to get out of this town. watch us tax payers jump ship one by one, what is this chicago? tax the f_ _ _ out of everyone to create goverment jobs?

Just a question, Will Chief Kopp be eligible to receive two pensions?

Mr. Grabowski should provide the citizens a list at the end of the year showing the SPECIFIC savings in consultants he now claims will arise. To validate it, Mr. Grabowski should right now provide a list of those consultant expenditures that have been budgeted (before Mr. Kopp was approved for the position) so the citizens can clearly see those items subsequently eliminated by the Kopp appointment.

Good Ole boy mentality again in this town. Stewart is right... what is this Chicago?

This move raises more questions than it answers. Even though this staff position should be provided, hiring the fire chief for this position is not a good idea. How does being in the fire dept. qualify him to do this? The fire dept. does not function like the rest of the world. And, will this truly mean that the city is going to get rid of its consultants? Speaking of the consultants, they seem to work on a very stealthy basis....but the public is entitled to know what their tax dollars are being spent on. I think that one lady Kathy is the only one that does this (good for her). What about the other guys? Where are their performance reports? Why isn't this information being provided to the public? What's the fire chief going to do about this? Like I said before too many questions. If someone can provide some answers or point the public in the right direction that would be great.

"Stewart Levine", please, put your money where your mouth is and jump ship. Elmhurst would be better off. And take Pezza with you.

I see that nothing has changed in sissy town. You bet two pensions, and they will continue to hire consultants, and spent more and more for ineffective management. The weak are leading the strong and have been for the last 20+ years in Elmhurst, and it will continue until you elect a strong Mayor and city council. But it’s my bet you won’t. You get the government you deserve Elmhurst. You see the greatest generation has been replaced by the weakest generation.

Just as Tom Paravola is qualified to run City Centre (not) here we go again. I agree the appointments just keep coming. I give Diane and Paula credit for the only ones who recogonize this. Instead we hire parking Nazi's to drive paying customers out of town while sales taxes continue to drop and the city management can't figure out why.

SPEND SPEND SPEND SPEND SPEND.... There are 4 Alderman looking out for tax payer dollars. REMEMBER THAT this time next year. When applying for his job not so long ago I'm fairly certain Mr. Grabowski did not say, "I can't do it by myself". If he had, he'd still be in Minooka. Maybe he should think about going back.

Can't allow unfounded accusations against two private citizens, Fred. And, who are you?

"Whoooo are you, who, who, who, whooo..come on, tell me who the f#@$ are you?"

I live next door to the Sol Fiske on Cottage Hill, down the steet from Big Daddy behind Stewart Levine. Duke of York is my cousin, he lives in the Pick subdivision of Villa Park.

I'm just absolutely disgusted. How about we put the money back in the tax payers pockets and eliminate a "city manager" position all together? I think the idea of nailing people for parking tickets like the other guy said is hilarious... this is supposed to be a republican town but the way it is run, you might think Betty Lauren Maltese was behind the scenes, or Daley. i think that would be the best thing to do. someone needs to start a petition against this immediately. someone should start placing anonymous complaints to the attorney generals office for forensic financial audits and complaints of potential official misconduct, this is absolutely 100% kick back city corruption taking place in our town.

I bet you if citizens stood up to this corruption and petitioned, 3 out of every 4 doors they knocked on in this town would sign it.

We need to exercise fiscal responsibility and restraint. Chief Kopp has an outstanding reputation with a history of support for the community. However, the State of Illinois is broke and is looking to push more of the burden on local government. We can not afford the pension liabilities that we are creating (the math doesn't work) nor can we support bigger government. Elmhurst Alderman need to vote in favor of the people they represent. Thank you Paula and Diane.

Stewart - quit your complaining, get off your ass and start the petition. Do something, don't just post under fake names and complain. Are you that nut job that claimed he had thousands of signatures about the property tax and NEVER produced them? If you are so disgusted, leave. Really, the rest of us wouldn't mind nor miss you.

Wade - do your homework. If you did, you would know that the council SHRANK elmhurst government by 2 bodies (and that's after adding the assistant city manager job) and that salary and pensions will be $300,000 LESS next year.

Paulan and/or Diane have been running for Mayor for 2 years. This is nothing more than additional politicing by those windsocks.

Stewardt - nope, not at all. Fortunately, I make a comfortable living and am paying into my own retirement. Don't need any public funding whatsoever. Classic deflection response by you, though. Typical of people of your ilk. Get called out on on some of your bs statements and you chose to lash out. Get off your ass and do SOMETHING. Start you pathetic petition and see how far you get. You said 3 of every 4 house would sign. You should have an easy time.

When Paula and/or Diane run for Mayor (and if they do, they will lose), you can be their campaign manager. They'd be fools not to take you as their campaign manager, with your go get them attitude, how could they lose?

at least betty lauren made sure the senior citizen's got their grass mowed and snow shoveled for free... <lol>. as for the consultants that will allegedly be without jobs when mike kopp is hired as full-time city manager (which the tax payers will be responsible for funding his retirement from both positions), they would include ken bartels (not gonna happen), charlie van slyke (retired from the city then went to work as a consultant making in the 6-figures per year - again, not gonna happen), and kathy maloney of findzall (probably not gonna happen either)...so until those 3 line items are eliminated from the budget and those contracts cancelled, we will be paying over double for the "job" that the assistant city manager is supposedly going to be doing. as for the city council, until the voters of elmhurst decide they want the city to go in a direction that is more open, fiscally responsible, transparent, and tax-payer focused, things will never change, which is unfortunate.

I will admit that I do not know a great deal of the facts (other than what I read here), but the notion that a city the size of Elmhurst needs a full-time assistant city manager does not seem implausible to me. In fact it seems quite likely given the level and quality of services the residents expect. It also seems reasonable to think that Mr. Kopp will do a very competent job in light the fact that he has been performing those responsibilities on a part-time basis already. I do not know if Elmhurst's pension liability would be less if the city hired someone from the outside who was not already accruing city pension benefits. (I would think the answer is yes; maybe someone can shed some light on that.) While I understand that reasonable people can differ on all of this, is it really as outrageous as some here say?

Here we go again Darlene it took you a few weeks to come back from your depression.
And Stewy why don't you and Darly get together and move to Looneyville (Texas, USA) it is a real place.

Dave and Dan trust me these complainers are cronies for Bram, Pezza, and Guttendorf. They are always whining.
They are part of the old regime that failed.
I am not a Kopp fan however the city manager has no connections to anyone in town, he states that he needs an asst. manager give it to him until he proves otherwise. These whiners have never done nothing in their lives except being a failure in their everyday lives. Some of these whiners joined organizations to fluff up their resume until they lost the election, then they disappeared. These are selfish individual that do not care. Look at their comments they are always negative, their life is a misery, trust me I know them. Yes I do.

since you do not reveal who you really are, i have no idea if you really know me or not. i don't join just to "fluff up my resume", never have, never will. i lost an election - have you ever run for public office? i learned a lot by doing it. i don't lead a life of misery, but perhaps you do. while you feel that my comments are negative, they aren't, they are factual in nature. just because the facts are something that you don't want to read about or hear, doesn't make my commentary negative.

i did review the tape of the last city council meeting in which this line item was voted upon. something that i found interesting was the commentary by several aldermen who stated that the impetus for requesting the asst. city manager position be approved was so that mike kopp would remain a full-time employee of the city of elmhurst. the underlying sentiment appeared to be that the city manager, staff, and majority of aldermen felt that it was essential to basically "create" a situation that would keep kopp's experience with the city of elmhurst here. i don't know if he had indicated that perhaps he might be looking elsewhere for a position as either a city manager or assist. city manager, but it wouldn't surprise me (puts him in a negotiating position for getting the job). it will be interesting to see how his move to acm then affects the fire dept. - will they promote from within or end up doing a search like they have for the police chief?

This smells of cryonyism - whether it is true or not. Hire the fire chief for a position to enhance economic development and information technology? Sounds like they have a candidate and are creating a position for him.

The only proper way to handle this is to first justify the position (and money spent), then interview multiple candidates, then hire the most qualified. If it turns out to Mike Kopp, fantastic - but at least you've done the due diligence first.

Yes, Elmhurst has a real knack for keeping their retired city employees working.

Black Hawk - If you know these alderman then how come you hide behind a blog throwing insults at everyone. You have commented with insults at others and no facts behind your position. Why do you feel this position is needed other than the request. What do you believe is the justifcation.

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