Municipal leader bubble is ongoing

Are we getting this right? Du Page County spends $364,000 to attorneys at $500 per hour to determine why $19 million in funds is missing from the DuPage Water Commission?

Recently, the city of Naperville spent about $1.5 million for their attorneys to fight a $139,000 lawsuit from one of their own councilman. DuPage County and the sheriff's office spent almost $1 million over eight years to prevent their police and court officers from organizing; a litigation they ultimately lost while their attorneys benefited from DuPage taxpayers' money.

I could continue, but I trust that everyone sees that there is no recession when it comes to wasteful government spending. Just like the dot-com bubble and the mortgage bubble, I believe we have an ongoing municipal management bubble.

Many in government, not only in DuPage, have mismanaged not only public funds, but the public trust, which has resulted in massive deficits in their budgets. Instead of taking responsibility, government demands that pensions be reformed and concessions made by employees who work tirelessly in our communities. Cities won't give up owning a golf course and banquet facilities (as in Bolingbrook) or real estate ventures, and they refuse to stop spending vast amounts of money for village parties, fireworks displays and other unnecessary expenses.

Instead, it's lay off the police and other public service workers unless they give up their pay so they can provide a stimulus package to our local governments. To heck with safety. Have they asked their attorneys to take some concessions? No recession there, folks. This management problem will continue as long as those in power refuse to take ownership of the problems they caused and quit blaming their employees because government has mismanaged and misspent taxpayers' money.

Joseph Andalina

President, Metropolitan Alliance of Police

Bolingbrook