West Chicago football parents in row with county fair over parking duties

DuPage County Fair officials say they fear they were taken for a ride by a group of West Chicago High School football parents who promised that players would handle parking lot duties, then did not supply the necessary bodies to do so.

But the parents say DuPage County Fair President Jim McGuire pulled out of the agreement in error and that they fulfilled their obligations.

At the close of the fair Thursday, the fair’s second day, McGuire approached some parents supervising a handful of the football players and told them that they would no longer be needed. He said the parents only had four students and one parent on hand during the early-Wednesday morning shift.

Both sides agree that this happened. However, that’s where the agreement ends.

McGuire said the verbal pact between the two sides called for at least eight people to direct traffic in the parking lot early Wednesday morning and for an additional eight to 10 people to come in for the late morning shift.

He said that would have given them a larger group during the fair’s peak hours as shifts overlapped.

Because of what he says were insufficient workers, he said he had to shift workers from other areas of the fair to make up for the gap.

But one of the parents, Cathie Sanzeri, said that decision was McGuire’s and that it was unnecessary because they met the terms. She said both sides agreed that four students and a parent would suffice for the early morning shift.

McGuire said DuPage fair officials had yet to determine how much they would pay. Sanzeri said she did not expect the full $10,000 that had been promised to the booster club, but that they should be paid for their two days of work.

Additionally, she said some of her students were mistreated and some boys were left stranded after their parents dropped them off for work Friday.

“An apology would be nice,” she said. “He was really giving them a hard time.”

Sanzeri said she suspected that McGuire had pulled out of the pact because of low attendance figures Wednesday and Thursday.

Every year, fair officials find community groups to direct traffic. McGuire said it frees up others once they know that the parking lot is taken care of.

When McGuire called to retrieve the vests, flashlights and badges at the end of the night Thursday, he said he was surprised at the number of students who were at the fair, considering parents had said they could not call in extra workers when asked to.

“If 20 kids can find the time to come enjoy the fair at our expense without putting in the effort to help where they were hired, that is being taken advantage of,” McGuire said. “We are trying to reach out, be good neighbors and trying to help other organizations who are willing to help us. At the same time, we don’t appreciate being taken advantage of.”

McGuire said he had to scramble to fill the fair’s busiest days, Friday through Sunday, but that he stood by his decision to relieve the football group because the workers were not living up to their end of the deal.

“We want to be part of the community,” he said. “All we ask is that if we offer a job, that you do the job. I don’t think that’s asking too much.”