Naperville's Mayor Pradel: Council candidate not 'team player'
Naperville's ever-positive, cheerleader of a mayor has taken a negative stance on one of the 20 candidates running for city council.
Outgoing Mayor George Pradel called candidate Dick Furstenau "a bully and certainly not a team player" in a letter urging voters to carefully research all candidates' backgrounds before casting a ballot.
Pradel, who is retiring after 20 years as mayor, said he's "lost sleep" over the possibility that Furstenau, a city council member from 1999 to 2011, might be elected again in the April 7 election in which voters will choose candidates to fill all eight council seats.
Furstenau sued the city in connection with a 2006 incident in which he was accused of shoving a police officer. Furstenau was acquitted the next year and eventually dropped the lawsuit, but it cost the city more than $1 million in legal fees.
Pradel says Furstenau's candidacy concerns him enough that it warranted speaking up. He said the letter never advises who to vote for but recommends residents do their research first - especially about Furstenau.
"His motives are self-centered and not for the good of all the residents," Pradel wrote in the letter distributed late Tuesday. "I pray that the wonderful candidates will be triumphant who are seeking the position of councilman for the right reasons."
Pradel said he knows it's late in the campaign, but he said he wrote and rewrote the letter "probably 60 times" before deciding to release it.
"I have never written to the editor of any newspaper in my life because I only want to say positive comments about everything and every issue," Pradel wrote.
Furstenau said he's disappointed he didn't receive the mayor's endorsement. Furstenau said Pradel backed him in 2012 when he ran for DuPage County Board, and Pradel previously appointed him to the DuPage Water Commission.
"Why the change of heart? What could his motivation be? One can only guess," Furstenau said Wednesday.
In January, Pradel said he told all candidates for city council and mayor that "I am going to be a cheerleader for them all," in hopes of helping the city elect new leaders who will form a team and do what's best for Naperville. On Wednesday, Pradel said he thinks Furstenau is seeking a council seat for his own personal reasons and wouldn't work together with others.
The mayor's letter directed readers to the election information website of the Naperville Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 42, factsfirst.net, which provides links to news articles about Furstenau, his lawsuit and its effect on the city.
"He's not a bad guy, he just has some really concrete ways about him that he doesn't want to give in," Pradel said. "It's always about all the things that he's done, not about teamwork."
Furstenau said he is not seeking a position on the council for "self-centered" reasons.
"I really enjoy serving this community," Furstenau said. "That's the real reason I'm running for city council."
Furstenau, a 70-year-old retired AT&T executive who is a builder and property investor, frequently speaks during public forum at city council meetings and says he always acts in the best interests of the people of Naperville.
"I'm not your typical politician. I don't 'go along to get along,'" Furstenau said. "I have a long record of protecting the interests of the people I represent - not the political insiders. That may not be the popular thing to do, but that's who I am."
The rest of the city council field features incumbents Joe McElroy, Paul Hinterlong, David Wentz and Judith Brodhead and former council member Kevin Gallaher. Others on the ballot are Kevin Coyne, Bill Eagan, Wayne Floegel, James Bergeron, Robert Hajek, John Krummen, Nancy Marinello, Patricia Gustin, H. Thomas O'Hale, John Colletti, Steve Purduski, Rebecca Boyd-Obarski, Steve Peterson and Becky Anderson.