DGPFA Announces Village Council Endorsements

The Downers Grove Professional Firefighters Association today announced its endorsement of Village Council candidates Sean Durkin, Geoff Neustadt and Becky Rheintgen.

All nine council candidates completed a questionnaire from the DGPFA's Political Education Committee. In addition to basic questions about background and residency, the candidates were asked whether they had any prior experience with labor unions or members of organized labor and with emergency services, whether they were motivated to seek election by any recent actions or inaction of the current council, to provide their economic development strategy and their definition of core services and how to adequately fund those services, and to state their position on public safety pension reform.

"Obviously, we have an interest in the village being able to continue to fund public safety services," said Rob Pekelder, the association secretary. "That was our biggest concern." 

Although a pension question was also posed, the DGPFA understands that "the village doesn't have a whole lot of authority as pertains to pensions," Pekelder said. "We considered what the village is actually capable of doing in that regard."

The endorsements were made by a six-member committee composed of volunteers, Pekelder said. "Our committee spent nearly two weeks reviewing the questionnaires and doing other research.”

The format for making the endorsements was the same as was used in 2007. "We didn’t pursue each candidate and say 'come talk to us'," Pekelder said. "We let our questions do that. However, we didn’t refuse if a candidate came to us and offered to meet."

Although the e-mail sent to candidates didn't expressly invite them to meet with the DGPFA, "if a candidate forward enough to offer to meet with us, we would," Pekelder said.

In addition, a representative of the 70-member DGPFA attended the Downers Grove Community Advocates caucus on Feb. 26, and other members attended various meet-and-greet events, he said.

The organization endorsed Neustadt in 2007, Pekelder said. "He approached us again to ask about process. I was kind of surprised that we didn’t get many candidates seeking us out." Rheintgen was another candidate who asked to meet with the union, Pekelder said.

 "We sent all the candidates an e-mail stating how we would do process," he said. "Frankly, I was a little surprised that we didn’t hear from people who wanted to meet with us."

Any similarity to other endorsements rendered this campaign season is coincidental, Pekelder said. "We certainly don’t have anything to hide. We have the interest of our members to think of, but our job is protect the safety of the residents of the village, and we want to make sure we do that effectively."