Businesses can't just raise taxes

The Comedy Shrine may be leaving Naperville, but obviously the "Theatre of the Absurd" still remains. The Naperville City Council needed to first approve a $135,000 expenditure (part of a $375,000 total) before they could determine if the services had already been contracted out or were truly needed.

Two things were very apparent at a recent council meeting: Neither the council nor the city staff knew for certain if the services of Jasculca-Terman would be redundant or overlap the public awareness and education services to be provided by Monroe Partners, as part of a $1 million plus contract already awarded. Repeated questions by Councilman Krause confirmed this fact.

The council was uncertain if existing city staff has the requisite skill sets, and the available time to handle more of the work to be contacted out, potentially resulting in large savings to taxpayers. Several on the council raised this question, but it was never answered.

Instead of checking out the facts, and investigating ways to more productively use already-paid-for resources, the city council rushed ahead to throw more money at "quelling" its citizens.

If we made decisions and ran our business in his manner, we would soon be gone. Unlike government, we don't have the option of just raising taxes, fees and fines to cover excessive or duplicate expenses.

John Glass

Naperville