Could Elgin budget talks lead to 'family' feud?

If the Elgin City Council is like a "family," as Councilman Robert Gilliam says, then perhaps it is having some growing pains.

Gilliam, the most senior member of the council, clashed with colleague Richard Dunne this week for making comments in local newspapers critical of the council as a whole.

"You're us," Gilliam told Dunne at a city council committee meeting. "When you criticize the council, you're criticizing yourself."

Gilliam said he would have preferred to hear about Dunne's concerns in a budget meeting where all council members were present instead of reading about them in the paper or on the Internet.

"I'm saying let's work out our problems at the table, not through the press. That's all I'm saying," said Gilliam, a council member since 1973 who won another 4-year term this spring. "I'm voicing my opinion. I've been on the council long enough to know that when things like that happen, it doesn't help the council."

The city recently laid off 11 employees to shave $1.2 million off a 2010 budget that is $5.5 million to $6 million in the red.

Dunne, the leading vote-getter in the spring 2009 election and an Elgin fire lieutenant, has said he believes the city doesn't have a revenue problem, it has a "spending problem."

He has ruffled feathers by suggesting the city temporarily use casino revenues to fund employee salaries. Since the casino opened in the mid-1990s, city officials have used casino taxes for long-term projects or one-time expenses.

In response to Gilliam's concerns, Dunne said he grew frustrated because he requested information from the city staff in mid-September and did not receive it until more than a month later.

"When I try asking questions and the questions are not answered, sometimes out of frustration I do talk to the press when they ask me questions," he said.

Dunne said he respects Gilliam's knowledge and wisdom.

"There's more things that we agree on than disagree on," Dunne said after the meeting.

But Dunne has not seen eye to eye with council members and Mayor Ed Schock on other issues. He also has expressed his displeasure that the budget cuts are being made before he and two other newly elected council members, John Prigge and Mike Warren, had a chance to voice their views on the city's long-term strategic plan.

Dunne also has opposed a move by Gilliam to create a labor relations board consisting of Schock and the two senior council members - in this case Gilliam and David Kaptain - to meet with city unions.

Any contract, though, must be approved by a full council vote.

With difficult budget decisions ahead, one might think this is a prelude to more fireworks between the two council members.

Gilliam said that's not the case and his concerns were not to be taken personally.

"There's no hard feelings," he said.