A Naperville bar owner’s quest to join the City Council in April is over.
A divided council Tuesday night opted out of changing a provision in the local code that precludes anyone with an interest in the sale of alcohol from occupying a council seat. Jimmy Bergeron, who holds the liquor licenses for Jimmy’s Grill and the Wise Boxer Pour House, said he learned of the city law in January after being one of 20 residents to file for the eight council seats going before the voters April 7.
The current council members, whose terms expire with the swearing-in of the new council on May 3, plan to take up the issue again – to make adjustments clarifying the wording, and explicitly prohibit liquor licensees from having council positions – at their April 8 meeting.
“It’s pretty obvious that petty politics have won out in this situation,” Bergeron said after the 5-4 council vote, later adding, “They were looking for a reason to keep me out of the election, in my personal belief.”
Bergeron’s name remains on the ballot, but he sees the upcoming election as a nonstarter.
“Obviously I can’t legally take the position,” he said.
The tie-breaking vote against making the changes came from Steve Chirico. Others opting not to change the code, at least until next time, included Paul Hinterlong, Doug Krause, David Wentz and Mayor A. George Pradel. Council members who voted for the ordinance changes were Judy Brodhead, Robert Fieseler, Joe McElroy and Tom Miers.
Pradel, Fieseler and Miers are the only three of the group who are not running for office next month.
Prior to the close vote, Bergeron urged the council act on the agenda item Tuesday night.
“I really think this is an issue that the voters should decide,” he said, alluding to whether the electorate wants a liquor license holder on the council dais.
The primary concern for several councilmen was conflict of interest. Some expressed doubt that a bar owner could avoid frequently being compelled to recuse himself or herself when matters come up involving the city’s bars.
Hinterlong estimated at a recent meeting that votes taken by the council over the past year or so would have necessitated Bergeron recusing himself some three dozen times. The council made several changes to the code governing bar operations, over a series of meetings, in an effort to curb late-night violence that had plagued the downtown in the past few years.
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Also of concern for Hinterlong was the possibility of trouble at a council member’s bar.
“The discipline is huge. How do you discipline one of your own?” he said.
City prosecutor Mike DiSanto, however, noted that decisions related to alleged liquor code violations rest with the mayor, in his role as liquor commissioner, and don’t involve the council.
“They could appeal it to the circuit court, but not to the City Council,” he said.
Bergeron called the recusal comments a “red herring,” and suggested he believes the group’s work on the downtown bar troubles is mostly done.
“It comes down to how often issues come up to council,” he said, citing as an example the development decisions that took up an enormous amount of decision makers’ focus in the 1980s and 1990s. “There are years when there’s not a single liquor issue brought to council.”
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