Letter to the Editor: Committee Appointments Being Blocked

“You (have) got to have at least four votes.”

In the past when Downers Grove volunteers were needed for Commissions and Committees, they were asked to serve by a council commissioner. The individual Commissioners were each responsible for several different volunteer committees. These committees and commissions provided study and recommendation in any number of areas of concern for Downers Grove. 

The Mayor or councilmen would arrange their own volunteers from this pool. Their recommendations were then presented to council and approved. This shared the work of finding the volunteers who would best serve. 

When the committee volunteer was finished with their service they were thanked for contributing to the Village. 

Now, long serving volunteers are being told they are no longer needed by four commissioners and pushed out of their committees. This is being done under the guise of “just wanting to make a change”. 

Vacancies on the committees are being approved and filled by the same four. Some new people being asked to serve by other Commissioners and the Mayor are being rejected. In my case they first approved me, and then changed their mind after the Village published my approval in the agenda. 

The four commissioners want to be only ones who decide who can and can't serve, to the exclusion of the other council commissioners and the Mayor. The four Council Commissioners are Bob Barnett, Sean Durkin, Geoff Neustadt, and Becky Rheintgen.