I’m amused that people say I’ve changed my mind — or my endorsement — from Cathy Adduci to Patty Henek. It reinforces something I’ve often said: reading is a skill that, sadly, is in short supply. Apparently when I said the following a few days before endorsing Patty, some took it as an endorsement;
“Perhaps the chief thing we learned [in a debate] is that Cathy Adduci understands the president’s job as that of CEO while Patty Henek does not. The contrast between them as executives with budget and staff experience was perhaps most striking. Ms. Henek’s experience is quite clearly not as compelling as that of Ms. Adduci. But both of them would do well to have much sharper thoughts about issues and stating them clearly and concisely.” Where in that statement anyone can find an “endorsement” is a mystery. It’s an observation.
After that I talked at length with Patty Henek and said the same thing to her. She said that were she to do it all over again, she would not have said that the village president is not the “CEO.” She very clearly understands what the job is.
I asked Patty directly where she stands on the currently weak diversity declaration, on the embarrassing affordable housing plan and on Lake & Lathrop. I already know that Ms. Adduci is proud of the diversity initiative, no matter that it’s wholly inadequate; and I’ve listened to her on affordable housing enough to know that she has no intention of changing anything about it. Patty agrees that the village must step up in a much more meaningful way on diversity and that, with the current “plan,” no affordable housing will ever appear in our village. As for Lake-Lathrop, she agrees that any observer with any knowledge of the project understands that the developers simply do not have anything close to the necessary financing to build that project. It has to be shut down.
So no. I did not change any “endorsement.” I like Ms. Adduci. But she’s proven in eight years that she has nothing more to offer us.
Ed McDevitt, River Forest
