The late French president Charles De Gaulle once observed: “Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.”

That quote came to mind as we read the letter to the editor of Ald. Frank Wsol (7th Ward) in last week’s Herald-Advocate (“Assess budget, police station costs first,” December 25), in which he attempts to explain why he can’t support the advisory referendum on the big new multi-million dollar cop shop initially proposed by Ald. Dave Schmidt (1st Ward) and subsequently taken up by a citizens petition drive. 

In true politician style, Wsol begins his alibi by attacking the referendum language for containing “the implied suggestion that land purchases are needed and more than $16.5 million is required” for the new cop shop, which Wsol labels as “not appropriate, nor needed.”  Apparently he didn’t expect to be taken at his word on those comments – or else he just assumed that nobody would remember how he has consistently supported a new cop shop costing more than $16.5 million on land acquired by the City specifically for that purpose.

Let’s start with Wsol’s votes – as reflected in both the City Council’s Public Safety Committee March 26, 2007, meeting minutes [pdf] and the City Council’s April 2, 2007, meeting minute excerpts [pdf] – in favor of a new building containing a whopping 37,000 square feet of “people space” and another 12,000 square feet of “secured vehicle parking” that would be paid for by the issuance of up to $19 million of debt/bonds. 

And as reported in the Public Safety Committee’s October 2, 2008, meeting minutes [pdf], now-Chairman Wsol himself pegged the cost of the new cop shop building at “16.5 million plus interest” – with that “interest,” according to calculations [pdf] obtained by the City from William Blair & Company at the end of November, totaling just a shade under $12 million over 21 years, driving the cost of the new cop shop all the way up to $28,489,950…without figuring in the price of the land.   

So if De Gaulle was right, maybe the fact that Schmidt took Wsol at his word in proposing a referendum question based on Wsol’s $16.5 million figure stunned Frankie into silence at the Council’s December 1 meeting, a silence that continued until last week’s letter to the editor.  

And if De Gaulle was right, Wsol’s alibi about the cop shop referendum might not be the outright lie it appears to be.  It might simply be the product of Wsol’s not knowing or even caring what the truth of the matter is, so long as whatever he says is politically expedient – a situation that becomes more likely from reading the entirety of Wsol’s politically expedient but questionable-to-misleading statements in his letter, annotated with our comments and questions [pdf].  

Wsol’s letter, however, does make a few things clear about the alderman from the 7th ward: He’s a pretty shallow thinker when it comes to a project like the new cop shop; he’s no fiscal conservative; and he has the same disregard for hearing from Park Ridge voters that Mayor Howard “The Coward” Frimark and his Alderpuppets have displayed. 

But it does look like he has become a politician. Too bad for Park Ridge.