Council Votes to Renew Membership to DuPage County Organization

Despite a "no" vote from a couple of council members, the Village of Downers Grove will renew its membership to the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference after a majority vote in favor during Tuesday night's village council meeting.

The prospect of renewing the membership, which will cost $36,776.40, was met coldly by Commissioners Bob Barnett and Geoff Neustadt. Both found little value in maintaining the membership.

“I think we do have some benefits from a staff perspective but I haven't seen a lot of value yet,” Neustadt said.

Barnett and Neustadt also for six months at a reduced price of $18,388.20 with similar complaints.

The DMMC is a council comprised of municipal governments within DuPage County. The organization addresses municipal public policy issues and is a not-for-profit funded by membership dues and grants.

Though Barnett and Neustadt didn't see the value, other commissioners did, and the motion passed 5-2.

“$36,000 is a heck of a lot of money,” commissioner Sean Durkin said. “I look at that as a salary of a full time employee. At the end of the day...if we break it down and see what our return is, it's a lot more than $36,000.”

According to the motion presented at the council meeting, some of the “key accomplishments” by the DMCC in 2011-2012 were:

• Coordinated a municipal electric aggregation workshop to educate our members on the options available to them, regulatory requirements, and implementation process.

• Continued to facilitate the Natural Gas Franchise Consortium in its work to achieve a fair model franchise for communities.

• Successfully advocated for Pace to fully fund the College of DuPage Connector (Route 714) as part of the service board's Annual Operating Budget, reducing local contributions to zero.