By now most New Year’s Eve hangovers should have dissipated, but we predict that the following two political hangovers from 2008 will continue to cause headaches for the honest, taxpaying citizens of Park Ridge well into 2009:

It’s Baa-ack!  The Park Ridge Herald-Advocate reported this week that the Park Ridge General Caucus for Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 will meet January 7, 2009, in the Field School auditorium. (“School caucus to endorse candidate for 64, 207 slates,” December 30)

For those of you who don’t pay attention to such things, the Caucus is a semi-official looking but make-believe quasi-organization of unelected “delegates” that springs up every two years to hand-pick candidates for both the District 64 and District 207 school boards for whom it then collects petition signatures and, if somebody dares to run against its slate, campaigns for the slated candidates using unspecified “dues” and a war chest, the amount of which is not disclosed on its website, http://caucus.park-ridge.il.us. 

Over the past decade, only 2 non-Caucus candidates have dared to challenge a Caucus slate for any of the 18 available slots on the Dist. 64 board – only one successfully.  And that successful candidate, current board member Ted Smart, won election in 2007 in a race that was theater of the absurd: after challenging the Caucus slate Smart tried to drop out of the race, but his decision came too late for his name to be taken off the ballot; and he ended up defeating Caucus candidate Shlomo Crandus, 5,062 to 3,495.

Enraged Caucus members suggested that Smart’s election was the product of anti-Semitism, and they demanded that Smart refuse the seat to which he was lawfully elected.  Those demands were reportedly accompanied by threatening telephone calls to Smart’s home.  But in the almost two years since his election, Smart has shown himself to be the typical go-along-to-get-along, rubber-stamp Dist. 64 board member.

So expect the Caucus to once again round up the usual suspects – basically decent, unremarkable folks whose main qualification is that they are pleasant and unlikely to rock the boat despite the facts that: (a) Dist. 64’s budget keeps going up; (b) its teachers and administrators continue to receive higher salaries for jobs that are more secure, and provide better benefits, than those of the taxpayers who are paying the freight; and (c) no Dist. 64 school shows up on the annual lists of the Top 50 ISAT high achievers for either elementary [pdf] or middle [pdf] schools. 

UPDATE 1/2/09 @ 2:35 p.m.
We just received a copy of an e-mail [pdf] from Caucus Chair Phil Eichman which further illustrates what kind of farce the entire Caucus process appears to be, especially as it relates to Dist. 64: Although the Caucus claims (on its “About Us” web page [pdf]) that its candidates “first undergo a rigorous and lengthy interviewing process…[and] appear several times before Caucus delegates to make policy presentations,” Mr. Eichman’s recruitment e-mail clearly shows how the Caucus leadership seems willing to consider for endorsement anybody who fills out an application and shows up on Jan. 7. 

We can only guess that, at least for the Caucus, “rigorous and lengthy” aren’t what they used to be.

We also wonder why the Caucus hasn’t posted on its website the completed “extensive application” forms for candidates Lawson, Gentile, Uhlig, Mueller, Barsanti and Derrick, so that the public who the Caucus purports to serve can get an idea – before the endorsements are made – of exactly what qualifications and ideas these candidates bring to the process. 

Salt, Overtime, Cause Budget Woes.  The Herald-Advocate also reported this week that that the City’s Public Works department is in full budget-busting mode as it runs low on salt and high on overtime for its snow plow drivers (“Brutal December weather eats through Park Ridge salt supply,” December 30).

Due to escalating prices, the City reportedly is already $190,420 over budget while paying roughly three times the $40 per ton that it spent for salt last year.  And in order to conserve the costly salt the City has utilized more plowing, hence more overtime pay.  We don’t have a problem with that trade off, as roadway safety is of paramount importance.  But with a City budget that was already sporting a yawning budget deficit of $1.7 million – on the heals of a similar hole last year – things are not looking promising for City finances.  Again.

Fortunately, Public Works Director Wayne Zingsheim still holds out hope of a “mild winter,” although he has not indicated on what information (the U.S. Weather Service?  The “Farmer’s Almanac”? The color bands on the Wooly Bear caterpillar?) he is pinning that hope.  And The Zinger doesn’t even dare to whisper how much bigger the budget hole will get once the cost of repairing all those potholes that are already springing up all over town is figured in. 

Hey, Wayne, any chance that one of the reasons many Park Ridge streets already look like they belong in a war zone is because last year’s potholes weren’t repaired correctly due to lack of money?  Or should we pose that question to Mayor Howard “The Coward” Frimark, who kicked off his re-election campaign by crowing about how well he has managed City finances?