Officer Friendly didn’t dream of being a policeman when he was little. And he certainly wasn’t thinking about being his hometown’s longest-serving mayor. “I wanted to be the head of an orphanage,” said Naperville Mayor A. George Pradel, who will finish up a record-setting 20 years in office when voters head to the polls April 7. “I wanted to be working with children. I’ve always had a love for kids.”
By the time he was discharged from the Marine Corps, orphanages were no more, replaced by children’s homes designed to come closer to the family environment. Pradel devised a workaround for that.
“When I became a cop, I found that instead of bringing home animals, I brought home kids. So I actually got my wish, to have three foster children,” said Pradel, 77, who with his wife, Pat, had three biological children as well. “It was kind of neat.”
Pradel has said, since winning an unprecedented fifth term in 2011, that it would be his last. He has cited a wish to spend more time with Pat, who is fighting bone cancer, and the rest of their family.
During nearly three decades as a policeman, Pradel was instrumental in the establishment of Safety Town, a miniature village on the city’s public safety campus where children learn how to keep away from danger. He sees that achievement — not what has transpired since he took office in the midst of the city’s explosive growth boom — as his proudest moment.
“I just feel like everything that we do around here seems to be teamwork. We don’t agree about everything, but we act as a team,” the mayor said one recent morning in a wide-ranging interview with The Sun.
“I feel very, very fortunate to be at the helm, to be a neutralizer, and have kind of a calming effect.”
Cool heads needed to prevail at times, as the city took on the myriad challenges that come with rapid growth.
When Pradel took office, the city had just seen its head count triple in a span of two decades, and it would grow by another 50 percent in the 20 years to follow. Throughout all of that, he kept his eye on the ball.
“I’ve always had kids as my main focus, since I first started on the Police Department,” he said.
“I had no thoughts about being a mayor, and it wasn’t my desire. Here I am, but I just had no desire to say, ‘Well, I’m the mayor of Naperville.'”
Acquaintances of the friendly cop thought otherwise though.
Pradel found himself in the running for the city’s top office, without really meaning to, when he was preparing to retire from the police force. He said residents would ask him to drop by for coffee and chat.
“I didn’t decide to run,” he said. “People from Naperville would invite me to their houses for a little tea in the community: ‘Come on over, we’re going to have a little get-acquainted gathering.’ And they said, ‘Well, you ever think about running for mayor?’ And I said, ‘No, I’m a cop. I don’t know anything about that.'”
About a half-dozen of those groups of subtle supporters weren’t buying it.
Eventually they managed to persuade Pradel to toss his hat into a ring that already held those of City Councilmen Jack Tenison and Doug Krause.
“I gave them all kinds of excuses — you know, ‘I don’t know anything about it, I have to go ask my wife, I have to go ask my family, let me think about it, I have to go to church and pray about it,'” Pradel said. “I was a little devious. I thought, well, if I run, one guy has 16 years on the council — shoo-in. Another guy has 10 years on the council — shoo-in. I’ll be third. … I thought, I’ll come back after the election and say, ‘Oh, I tried. I didn’t make it, but I’ll be very supportive of Naperville, because I’m retired.'”
For that one fleeting moment, he’d overlooked the children.
“I forgot that the kids I had served as a police officer now were voters, so a lot of them voted for me because I had made friends with them,” he said.
The mayor sees himself as a peacemaker and an arbiter of fairness.
He came to the position with no particular expectations, beyond a certainty he wouldn’t function as a demagogue. He said he always understood that the business of running the town successfully could only come from a healthy partnership between staff, department heads and the City Council.
More Top Picks Best Platform Beds For Small Bedrooms
At the same time, he’s faced election challenges over the years from candidates and members of the city council calling for a different style of leadership for the growing city.
Kenn Miller, who ran against Pradel in 2011, believes the longtime mayor’s greatest contribution is the role he has played as the ambassador and the voice of Naperville.
“He’s done a great job. That’s why he’s so popular,” Miller said.
Pradel recognizes his affinity for human connection as “a gift” and tries to use it to do good. He goes to many funerals and wakes in the city, whether he knew the deceased well or not.
“It’s realizing that we’re part of a family,” he said.
As he leaves office, he has a sense of peace about what, and who, will follow. With only half of the current council members seeking new terms, he’s pleased that the significant turnover, and the new mayor who will sit in the council’s midst, will bring a new array of experiences and perspectives.
“I hear so many good things about everybody that’s running,” he said.
Famous for attending virtually all city ribbon-cuttings, Pradel has begun attending campaign events as well, in an equal-opportunity way.”I’m not endorsing anyone,” he said.
“However, I’m saying nice things about everybody, and I’m going to as many of the fundraisers as I can.”
The successor to Pradel’s seat, most agree, has a tough act to follow.
“George was filled with integrity and honesty, he was just great,” said Peg Price, who served as mayor from 1983 to 1991.
“He’s such a caring man, and that comes across. He is caring about everybody, and he doesn’t have a selfish bone in his body.”
Pradel said he wishes he had known more about the public budgeting process when he came into office, but Price, 81, scoffs at the idea that it’s a requirement for the job.
“We’ve got people on the council who don’t know a damn about budgeting,” she said. “You do your homework, and if you don’t know something you go to staff and they’ve got answers.”
It’s anyone’s guess what the next mayor’s administration will look like, but Price is among those who recognize it won’t be another like Pradel’s.
“Everybody has certain strengths, and George’s was being the cheerleader and the caring, loving man that he is, and wanting to be there for everyone and not hurt anyone,” said Price, who sat on the City Council after her two terms as mayor. “George’s shoes are going to be big to fill, but whoever comes into office will bring strengths to the office like he did.”
Although the difference in their ages is the equivalent of a single mayoral term, Price said she has the sense of being a proud mom. “He’s like one of my kids,” she said. “He worked for me, and then I wound up working for him when I was a councilman.”
The soon-to-be-former mayor says the new one will succeed “by building a trust, and by keeping the office open so (residents) feel like they can just come in off the street and share with the mayor a problem they’re having.”
He also advises the next mayor to remain mindful of what the job is about.
“I think the people of the city should be No. 1, and that we should not focus on ourselves as far as position, as far as what we’re going to do next. Reach out to the person that needs us the most, to gird them around with the quality of life that we’re going to enjoy together,” he said. “We need to focus on how anything we do is going to benefit the young people who are our future, how it’s going to benefit the elderly person that’s struggling. How can we bring up the person that’s having the hardest time, that’s in the lowest position? How can we, together, focus in on their quality of life? We’re in this life together, and the stronger our city is depends on how we take care of our people and how we focus on their individual needs.”
The ability to bring people to the table and spark conversation is crucial to the job, he said.
“You really have to have people skills. You have to know that you can’t get mad at somebody all the time just because they don’t think the way you do. You’ve got to have give-and-take,” he said.
“I think I’m glad I didn’t know anything about politics, because I don’t think I would have entered into it if I’d known, because I’d be afraid that I wouldn’t be able to meet the requirements of politics. But I’ve learned over the years how to deal with politics and not overreact, and try to understand people and their thoughts.
“It’s a mystery, I think, politics. It’s not a straight game. You can’t just look at someone and say, ‘Oh, that’s what he’s thinking,’ or ‘That’s what it’s all about,’ because the politics can sometimes change. I try to keep myself away from being a politician, because I don’t really know what it is, what that means. I just want to be a people person. I want to be someone that, after I go, they’ll say, ‘He was omnipresent. He listened. He was approachable, he was kind, he was compassionate, and he cared about people.'”
There are a few things he won’t miss — council meetings that run into the wee hours of the morning, for one — but the list of things he’s a little sorry to see ending is longer.
“As a mayor, I get to know everything that’s going on. I’m going to miss the fact that I’m not getting calls every day,” said Pradel, who’s grown fond of his place in the loop.
“I think the immediate knowledge of things that are happening in town, and sometimes even taking a ride out there to see what’s happening, I think I’ll miss that, because I kind of like to be in the know.”
Notwithstanding his unlikely launch into the realm of local politics, Pradel has no regrets about how things have gone.
“I’m going to miss people calling me the mayor – but they don’t really call me the mayor, they call me Officer Friendly,” he said. “Sometimes some of them call me lieutenant. It’s not because I want the title or the position of mayor.
“So they’ll say, ‘Weren’t you the mayor?’ Ah, yes – but it’s not something where I feel I’ve got to be called the mayor. I just want to be called their friend: ‘Oh, did you meet my friend George?’
“I don’t have that feeling that you’ve got to have this title. It hasn’t gone to my head yet.”
More Top Picks Best Handheld Massagers For Back Pain For Men
Twitter @scarlman