Naperville students debate referendum questions

They've battled on athletic fields across Naperville but Thursday night, Neuqua Valley and Naperville North High School students squared off at the council chamber dais.

Members of each school's Junior Statesmen of America debate teams argued the pros and cons of two of the referendum questions facing Naperville voters on Tuesday during a debate sponsored by the Naperville Voter Education League.

Neuqua Valley's team argued in favor of the first question, which aims to limit the number of consecutive terms that one person may serve as councilman to three consecutive full terms and to limit the number of consecutive terms that one person may serve as mayor to three consecutive full terms, beginning with the election in April, 2011.

“With term limits, we can introduce young people into politics and allow ourselves to represent all demographics of our city,” Matt Bockenfeld said. “And a councilman in his or her third term can focus on Naperville rather than having to worry about being re-elected.”

His teammate, Krishna Carramatsu, backed him up arguing he believes term limits are an important tool to keep special interest groups out of council races as councilmen roll over.

North's team, however, vehemently denied any advantage to term limits, even arguing that new council members often require at least one term to learn all of the nuances of the job and areas of the city.

North member Tony Castagnoli went so far as to argue limiting terms infringes on voter rights.

“If I'm being represented to my satisfaction, I should have the option to continuously vote for the same person,” he said. “We would all be best represented if we have the freedom to vote for whomever we want.”

Voters also will decide whether the city should be divided into five compact and contiguous geographic districts with approximately equal population; the mayor and three councilmen would be elected at large while the remaining five councilmen would be elected from each of the five districts. Currently, there are no districts in Naperville and the mayor and all eight councilmen are elected at large.

Neuqua Valley's team took the opposing view with Krishna Yarramasu suggesting districting would harm the relationships between constituents and councilmen by limiting the public's options of representatives to speak with.

Joey Kim busted out the night's only visual aid to suggested gerrymandering could be a negative by-product of new district's being drawn.

Noth's Michael Brotzman downplayed the gerrymandering fears, saying residents would be better served by having one specific council member to contact.

Ahmed Mohamed suggested councilmen would be more responsive to constituents' needs if there was district accountability.

The third referendum, an advisory question, was not discussed Thursday but voters will be asked if the state should “immediately pass meaningful police and fire pension reform that will reduce the future funding obligation on local taxpayers now that the General Assembly and Governor have reformed the pension systems for all other public employees.”