On August 16, 1937, pro-union President Franklin D. Roosevelt authored a letter to the head of the Federation of Federal Employees, commending the latter on his organization’s resolution against strikes in government service.  FDR wrote: 

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. 

We heartily agree with that view, and with similar views expressed by private-sector union leaders like the iconic AFL-CIO president George Meany.  Those views and the public sentiment they engendered were sufficient to keep unions out of the public sector until the late 1950s, when public-sector unions gained official recognition in Wisconsin and New York City.  

By 2009, public-sector union members outnumbered their private-sector counterparts, despite there being 5 times more private-sector workers than public-sector ones.  As a result of that increased union membership and collusion between our elected public officials and public-sector employee union leaders, this nation’s taxpayers are not only facing higher government current operating costs, but also as much as a trillion dollars of unfunded public-sector retirement obligations for employees who can (and often do) retire 10 years earlier than their private-sector counterparts, with guarantied pension benefits that dwarf our 401(k)s.     

Now, in 2011, we have a “first” in a local election: a slate of candidates – Nicholas Giordano, Kristen Mattes and Peter Wachowski – being sponsored by Local 73 of the Service Employees International Union (“SEIU”), the very union that represents some of the Park District’s workers. 

And by “sponsored” we mean Local 73’s vice president Tim McDonald circulating their nominating petitions;  and the union’s paying for that slate’s signs – as reported in last week’s Park Ridge Herald-Advocate (“Park Ridge Recreation and Park District: Union-backed candidates criticized by opponents for park board seats,” Mar. 22).

That raises a serious question of to whom those candidates will be beholden if elected.  That question distinguishes them from all three of their opponents: incumbent commissioners Jim O’Brien and Mary Wynn Ryan, and newcomer Mel Thillens. 

O’Brien has been a dependable voice for fiscal responsibility in his four years on the Board.  Thillens brings both financial and recreation experience from the private sector in the form of his work for his family’s businesses: Thillens Check Cashing and Thillens Stadium. 

And although we have disagreed vehemently with Ryan on the closing of Oakton Pool, and on running the Community Center and the Senior Center more profitably, we believe her views on those topics are more her own than the simple parroting of the position of some special interest or other.   

That’s why we strongly encourage you to vote for Jim O’Brien, Mary Wynn Ryan and Mel Thillens for the Park Ridge Recreation and Park District Board on Tuesday, April 5.

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