Yesterday’s Park Ridge Herald-Advocate features a letter by Park Ridge resident Bob Simoncini (“Mayor was not my first choice,” April 30), in which he takes a shot at Mayor-Elect Dave Schmidt for what Mr. Simoncini considers Schmidt’s un-qualifications for mayor.
Among those un-qualifications are many of the same criticisms outgoing Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark voiced during his unsuccessful re-election campaign: that Schmidt has not lived in Park Ridge very long, that he didn’t go to school here, that he hasn’t raised a family here, and that he wasn’t endorsed by the two local “mainstream” newspapers.
We believe most of those so-called “qualifications” are window-dressing that should take a distant backseat to principles, policies, ideas and integrity – and the voters apparently agreed when they elected Schmidt over long-time resident and consummate organization member Frimark, who received 1,000 less votes this time around than he got back in 2005.
Speaking of 2005, Simoncini was among the Frimark supporters who showed up at City Hall and (according to the official minutes of the May 3, 2005, City Council meeting) praised Frimark as being “independent, fiscally conservative, a wise businessman who cares about people and will be a successful mayor.”
The “fiscally conservative” Frimark will be leaving office with the City’s finances in shambles, thanks to two consecutive years of million dollar-plus budget deficits – and a third one currently in the works – engineered by a City Council which he packed with his Alderpuppets in 2007, a task made much easier after he successfully snookered the voters into cutting the City Council in half through a November 2006 referendum.
And the damage would have been even worse if Frimark had been successful in his quest for the big new police station, a project that hopefully has been derailed after being nuked, 6,821 votes to 1,364 votes, in the citizens’ referendum Frimark opposed.
Simoncini closes his letter with: “But, we have Dave Schmidt. God help us.”
Given the mess that Frimark is leaving in his wake, and given that the Council will still be stocked with Frimark’s Alderpuppets for the next two years, what Simoncini should have said is: God help Dave Schmidt.
8 comments so far
Mr. Simoncini… you sanctimonious asshole, God has nothing to do with what happened in the election or why Schmidt won the Mayor’s post. Schmidt won for all of the reasons cited in this post. Schmidt won because he inspired a large number of residents with his platform. Schmidt won because he pointed out the failings of the Frimark years and, NO!, this was not negative campaigning, it was getting people to pay attention to what was going on around them.
Frimark lost because he underestimated how the residents of the community were paying attention and did not like his 24/7 meddling in city business. They did not like his attempts at giveaways to his politically connected friends and contributors. They did not like his double dealing… especially on the issue of a Park Ridge homeless shelter. Geez, I could go on and on.
Get your head out of your ass Mr. Simoncini and pay attention to what’s happening around you. You may be surprised by what you see.
And, really, you and all of your pals need to quit using God, invoking God and speaking of God when it comes to issues of managing the city and local politics. Your God, my God or any God is not interested in who is the Mayor of Park Ridge.
Watchdog, you left out the part of Simoncini’s letter where he said his ideal mayoral candidate would have been the late Ald. Dave Rundblad. What was THAT about?
Oh yeah, and “homeless” are more important than “cleaning sewers”. I didn’t know that was a choice. He sounds like another PADS fanatic.
This is God and Yes I am interested. A sparrow doesn’t fall without me knowing about it. And I especially care about all of you humans and what you are up to.
However, I gave you free will and you are free to elect whomever you want.
Now go enjoy life.
Thanks God!
This is Rorschach and I am also interested.
I’m interested in having an open, transparent and responsive city council.
Why? Because even though I haven’t been living in Park Ridge as long as Frimark or even Schmidt, I plan to live here for a long time to come and that qualifies me to participate in public discussion as much as — perhaps more than — anyone who has lived here for decades.
God:
But the sparrow falls nonetheless, doesn’t it?
However, thanks for giving us the free will to vote Frimark out of office. That’s a big start toward improving City government. Any chance you can give his alderdunces some umistakable signs that they should resign their seats, like maybe a burning bush, a one-day plague of locusts, or turning Bach into a pillar of salt?
anonymous on 05.01.09 8:56 am:
I had the same question about the Dave Rundblad reference. Dave was a sweet guy, but he did nothing as 3rd Ward alderman to identify himself as a potential mayoral candidate. Heck, he only got 146 votes when he was re-elected (uncontested, as was routine back then) in 1999.
Looks like I won’t be able to see out new mayor being sworn in, I have to work.
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