NAPERVILLE (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - The Mayor of west suburban Naperville said his decision not to seek a third term is all according to a plan.
Steve Chirico, who has been mayor of Naperville since 2015, made the announcement on Facebook, saying it's time for someone else to lead.
But, if anyone was surprised by Chirico’s announcement that he won’t run for re-election, they are not part of the Mayor’s household. He shared with his wife his plan when he was first elected seven years ago.
“When I became mayor, we set out simple financial principles that we were trying to accomplish and we gave ourselves eight years to do it,” Chirico said.
Chirico said they’ve hit those marks, confronting some serious problems along the way. It included planning for the city building out to its boundaries and needing new revenue for services and, more importantly, maintenance that had been deferred for more than a decade.
“It required new revenues, so that was a hard thing to do, to ask the public for some additional money to ‘right the ship,’ so to speak,” said Chirico.
He said Naperville has changed in more ways than fiscal. He noticed when he took office that the 135 members of boards and commissions whom the Mayor oversees did not depict today’s Naperville. Chirico said out of 135 positions, only about a half dozen were filled by people of color and only a half dozen were women. So, he sought to change things with his appointments.
“We are now pretty darn close to having our boards and commissions really represent what our community looks like, over 60 people of color, 55 women, so we’re getting really, really close,” Chirico said.
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!
Sign up and follow WBBM Newsradio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Related
