Today’s Chicago Tribune has a brief article, “County Board reps say aloha to trip, even paying part of way,” about DuPage County Board Chair Robert Schillerstrom, Vice Chair William Maio, Jr., and Board Members Robert Heap and James Healy (all of Naperville except Maio of Itasca) paying part of their own expenses (airfare) for a trip to the National Association of Counties conference in Honolulu this July. The Tribune notes that Robert Heap “is also paying for his own $215-a-night hotel room.”
Since the annual conference is for the “only national organization that represents county governments in the United States” the county paying for at least part of the trip (if not the whole) would seem to be pretty unremarkable. If the trip pertains to improving county government, learning best practices, etc. - it certainly seems like something the county rightfully should pay for (with members paying for expenses of the trip that are more properly thought of as “vacation”) - and that’s just the point. The Tribune story seems to show everyone bending over backward to save the county money, noting that “Schillerstrom has requested that board members pay their own airfare” and quotes Robert Heap saying, “[Board members] are shying away because it’s a long way, it’s going to cost people more and Bob’s made it pretty clear he doesn’t want the county to pick up the expense for this.”
The reason it seems so unremarkable is that it’s a story about pre-emptive political cover. It’s a story about at least one man, John Glennon, who is not named in this story - but has had extensive dealings with Robert Schillerstrom and the DuPage County Board, and is likely to be named in an upcoming story soon starring U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. It’s also about Robert Schillerstrom and DuPage County Board Finance Committee Chair Robert Heap’s political prospects after 2006.
Low-cost appearances of good government at the DuPage County Board are likely to be popular in the near future - because of the potential for some very bad government to be revealed (DuPage taxpayers generally consider paying people once for their work to be good - and more than once to be bad). Stay tuned.
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