i just returned home from finance committee meeting - since "crisis averted" due to mayor dicianni caving into the reality that the vote for referenda question was about to be 13 to 1, in favor of the people, alderman levin suggested that we now need to wait until the april, 2013 municipal election, since, well, this concerns a municipal issue, but more importantly, we need to have a "properly worded" and "completely legal" referendum question, which, well...could take...a significant amount of time to put together, and alderman york seconded it. chairman hipskind at least did ask to see what timetable would be if it could be put together sooner (it can be folks...like in a day they can have a really decent draft...and alderman levin is a lawyer with government experience...so he knows this...). i think the only way this will ever get accomplished is if the people actually do put together their own grass-roots effort and gather signatures to put a question on the november ballot because obviously, there are 3 people on the finance committee that would just as soon wait until dicianni was gone following his victory on the county board before doing anything about this. sad, sad, sad.

Darlene Heslop wrote "alderman levin suggested that we now need to wait until the april, 2013 municipal election, since, well, this concerns a municipal issue, but more importantly, we need to have a "properly worded" and "completely legal" referendum question, which, well...could take...a significant amount of time to put together, and alderman york seconded it." not surprising that after DiCianni beat Levin to be Mayor he appointed Levin to the city council. Now it appears to me Levin wants to drag his feet on this referendum to show loyalty to DiCianni, how stupid does he think we are? After this I wouldn't vote for Levin as dog catcher.

Imagine that........$ 6K/yr or $ 50K/yr plus pension?? So Surprised...NOT !!!
At least that's better for Elmhurst .

You people are a bunch of venomous vipers, your life is the Patch, constatly slandering people that do not go along with you views. Mr DiCianni, THE MAYOR FOR ELMHURST, has done a wonderfull job in making this town more stable.
I have lived in this town for 35 years, DiCianni is the most caring and most active mayor this town has ever had. However because he does not say yes to everyone like the few phonies in the city council, you vipers that are friends of the 3 or 4 fakes on the council have found a way to prevent this man from serving the community more effective. The Patch is currently being used by the few miserable individuals that have no lives. These propagandist blabermouths feel good when their incideary comments cause animosity in an enviroment, trust me I have worked with some, they are hatefull. Well I am sure they must be happy. However they will only short live such happiness. Watch and see they will eventually destroy each other with their venomous heart. I am sure I will be attacked for my comments, this is fine with me. I will not stand down to any of these hateful individuals.
Like someone else stated this is like facebook and the bullies are always on it.

never trust anyone who seeks political power, by means of election.

The Athenian's during the time of the great philosophers determined that anyone seeking office should be barred, and instead a lottery should be done and the average citizen take politicians places, this would off set any imbalance of power and potential political corruption.

This is why I hereby would like to see Jim Court as our next Mayor of Elmhurst.

Pamela Redmond also known as the head house keeper at Pete DiCianni's house

Mr. Howard, well stated.
This administration is a Slow Motion Train Wreck. Total and complete disregard for the rule of law as well as policy on the books. Thank God for the Howards,' Mulliners' and the Berlins' of the world. Otherwise, power of the people would be snatched away via power consolidation.
He takes not a shred of personal responsibility for what he brought on himself and brings a black eye to the City of Elmhurst on so many respects.
If you scratch below the veneer, you will see hunger and thirst for Power, Prestige, and Money. A very skilled divider of the City council and community.
True colors have been shown. Did he really take the MONEY at the county board plus pension over the love for the City? I love my job, but I'll take the money.

the bottom line here is this...first and foremost...we got to this point because of the decision that dicianni made, then, when provided with proof that he was wrong...refused to acknowledge it (and still does)...he can never, ever accept responsibility for his actions unless it is something that he believes is worthy of a press conference or photo op. however, now that we are here, it's time to finish what we started - clarification of what we in elmhurst, and quite possibly du page county and eventually, the state of illinois, believe about public office - one person for every one elected office. if alderman levin, york, and hipskind want to delay this from happening, there are alternatives, and action is already being taken to ensure that this question appears on the NOVEMBER ballot - there is more than one way to get a referendum question on a ballot...granted...one is easier than the other...but if we need to do it the hard way, so be it...they can either be on our side and help us or they are going to be the 3 that look like...well...their initials are m, l, c.

Jim, I enjoy your input, you are thought provocing. Keep it up, and stay above the noise.

ms. peggy..., the more i read what you write, the more "spot on" i think you are...and it's not about me, either. when i look back at comments from mr. court, it consistantly looks as if while he is perfectly content at denying that he is passive-aggressive, many, if not most of his posts exhibit this type of "reasoning", including asking for more oversite on the part of the patch. i have a tendency to base many of my opinions on facts, i have not only a medical background (which facts are key), but also an engineering degree, so i like numbers, too. i write pretty much the way i talk, and i'm not always the best at spelling (we learned by the "fon-iks" method, and it didn't necessarily work very well), but i think i get my points across. my sole reasons for doing what i'm doing is to get the people of elmhurst to understand what is really going on in their government and to hopefully bring about some kind of involvement, if anything, right now, it is as simple as signing a petition to put a referendum question regarding dual office holding in elmhurst on the NOVEMBER ballot. this is a totally citizen-driven campaign, since the finance committee did not take alderman mulliner's suggestion on monday to move forward - we didn't need to ask marilyn gaston for a timetable...count backwards from august 22nd and you can figure it out in about 3 minutes. the citizens have only until the first of august to collect enough signatures, and we can use every one that we can get.

Darlene,
Thanks for all the great info. I have no idea, but do you or does anyone else know what the referendum will cost the tax payers?

not a thing...except their vote. when it comes time to write the actual ordinance, the city attorney will write it, so i guess on top of the millions storino already charges the city for everything else he does, he will be able to charge for this, but we already have a working prototype, so the actual charge will be very minimal, in the area of a couple of hundred dollars in attorney time.

jim, my brother and uncle both live here and are homeowners - uncle for over 30 years, brother for almost 20. niece is in school system, has been since kindergarden and will be all the way thru york. i've lived here for 8 years, longer than a lot of homeowners, and this place is a "nest" if ever there was one. i know the mayor's wife and mother, both are wonderful, caring women - his wife must feel like a single parent sometimes. he has 3 kids who will only be the ages they are for a brief moment in time, it's in his and their best interest that he tries not to do multiple jobs as this takes him away from them. i never cared if he wanted to run for county board - just as long as he resigned from mayor if he was elected, that's it. i've been investigating his campaign finances (public record) and i don't like what i see - too much coming from the east with ties to political big shots, as well as i don't like to see campaign contributions from the developer of the ford dealership property right before the announcement of mariano's coming here (facts). i'm more open minded than the vast majority of the people who live here, including you, and i'm not driven by contempt for others, i'm actually driven by persuit of knowledge, intellect, and the desire to get the rest of elmhurst, mostly homeowners who can't even name their own aldermen, more engaged in what is going on. peggy is not an agnry woman at all - just because she corrects you and it tee's you off.

what you don't like about me is i'm very matter of fact, and i won't back down - not from you, not from dicianni, and you interpret this as being "angry". you belittle me, call me names, yet insist you are not "passive agressive". you attempt to continuously prove that you have all the answers to all the problems here in elmhurst as long as we support our mayor and implement every idea you have, including those that would cost the gdp of a small country to implement. you continually complain about the city inspectors, code enforcement, etc., not to mention the section 8 tenants that have made your life miserable, and constantly tell us about how busy you are, yet you seem to find many hours to continually comment here, which, unfortunately, doesn't make sense to me - how do you have time to constantly comment here, yet don't have time to come to a city council meeting or committee meeting to give some of these ideas to the aldermen and mayor in person?

does any one know the percentage (by population) that Elmhurst comprises of DuPage County District 2 ? from the Map, and land area, it looks like about 10%, but that of course is skewed by Oak Brook, which is large on land, and short on population ? when peter d campaigns in other cities, i wonder what he says to them ? i wonder if he has one set of literature/mailings for the south side of elmhurst (his first love), one for villa park (where he works), and one for the rest of the cities he wants to represent. i just hope a guy like former attorney general Ryan has wised up about pete. i think most of the rest of the local politicians now try to stay as far away from him as possible.

Jim,
Thanks for the positive dialog. "I got your back"
Jim

Meanwhile, back on topic...."DiCianni also spoke about his achievements as mayor, including "seeing the community through one of the worst recessions ever and balancing finances for the first time in many years." He mentioned the floods of 2010, and that declaring Elmhurst a federal disaster area was an event that "shook me to the core.".....

Please cut the dramatics. It's not like you were overseeing the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War. Come on...its just Mayberrry.

peggy..., you are one wise woman and very observant...i have to agree with everything you wrote. thanks :-)... .

I don't know if anyone monitors these old threads - that is, if all comments show up for moderation regardless of the age of the article and other comments. However, as a recent transplant to Elmhurst, it would be great if the editors would consider NOT removing comments if they disrupt the flow of the comment section. I realize that sometimes things get flagged and removed much later than when posted. I appreciate that some comments might violate terms and need to be removed. I just wish there were some way to see what Peggy and this Mr. Howard (I assume it is the Jim that Jim Beauchamp refers to) had said that Ms. Heslop and Mr. Beauchamp were responding to. I understand I am months behind this article but this would apply to current articles as well, where someone coming in only a day or two later will miss half the conversation due to post removal. I understand that fairness and civility may and even should take precedence over comment continuity and I thank the staff whose job it is to oversee this...I just wish I could read the other side of the argument.