Frank Clark, ComEd chairman and CEO, said that’s a small portion of the company’s 3.7 million customers and the outcry for re-freezing electric rates is coming from problems in downstate Illinois not served by ComEd.

In fact, he noted, the complaints represent less than one-10th of 1 percent of the utility’s customer base.

“That does not scream of a crisis in northern Illinois,” Clark said.

ComEd officials Tuesday defended recent electric rate hikes in the face of intense criticism from state representatives questioning why some rates in Illinois have skyrocketed. Lawmakers are calling for utility giants like ComEd and Ameren to roll back rates to 2006 levels. Ameren serves central and southern Illinois.

The surprising rate hikes downstate have overshadowed increases in ComEd territory. While ComEd rates increased 24 percent on average, downstate rates have increased as much as 300 percent in some cases.

“Yes, there’s a serious issue in the state of Illinois,” Clark said. “But it’s not all over Illinois and 75 percent of the customer base in Illinois is not having that problem. Now do we need to address the situation in southern Illinois? Absolutely.”

Tuesday’s debate came during a rare convening of all 118 House members as a committee solely designed to address utility rates. While it gave the lawmakers a chance to berate power officials, no action was taken.

The House previously passed rate freeze legislation, but the Senate never considered that plan, so nothing happened. That stalemate continues.

Senate Republicans urged Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a Chicago Democrat, to call a similar meeting late last week, but there are no such plans.

Meanwhile, the rate increase situation has some former rate freeze opponents changing their tune.

State Rep. Carolyn Krause, a Mount Prospect Republican, spoke in opposition to a rate freeze plan earlier this year, saying it would create financial catastrophe for the utilities.

But Tuesday, Krause was among the lawmakers calling for the Illinois Commerce Commission, which regulates utility rates, to take emergency action to help customers.

Krause said the situation downstate was her motivation.

“I think the obvious, devastating hardship must be addressed and I would hope eventually the House and Senate can do something,” she said. “But to me, the commission can move faster and we’re urging them to do something.”

Hours of testimony Tuesday focused largely on Ameren issues.

Clark credited the lack of anger from ComEd customers to a $4.1 million advertising campaign the company embarked on last year.

Although no formal action was taken Tuesday, lawmakers urged power companies to postpone shutting off anyone’s power while discussion of electric rates continues.

That candidate will be Alan Bolds.

What they didn’t know for sure was that the other candidate would not be a currently seated councilman.

That candidate will be Michael Gresk, a blast from the council’s past.

The two men survived the first round of voting Tuesday to square off in the April 17 general election to become Wheaton’s first new mayor in 16 years.

The other two mayoral candidates, incumbent Councilmen Tom Mouhelis and Philip Suess, failed to make the cut.

Unofficial results showed Gresk had 2,423 votes with all precincts reporting Tuesday night, making him the top draw in the mayor’s race. Bolds received 2,127 votes.

Gresk, a former councilman, said he didn’t fear a lack of name recognition after being out of politics the past few years after a history of service in public office. He attributed his showing to a grassroots campaign that focused on getting to know friends of people he was already friends with.

“We’re very, very pleased with the results,” Gresk said. “I’m looking forward to the next several weeks and facing Alan. He’s a very serious candidate. It’s going to be a constant daily effort moving forward, but bring it on.”

Bolds’ campaign consultant Ryan McLaughlin said the Bolds camp considered the outcome a victory despite getting the second highest number of votes.

“This was a very competitive election between four candidates, and Alan’s very pleased that the voters of Wheaton supported his candidacy,” McLaughlin said. “He looks forward to a very vigorous debate on the issues moving forward. His message of fiscal responsibility and a well-rounded economic development plan for the community resounded with voters tonight.”

Suess came in third with 1,528 votes. Mouhelis finished a distant fourth with 463 votes.

Mouhelis attributed his showing to being far outspent by the other three candidates. He declined to endorse Bolds or Gresk.

“Am I disappointed in not making the top two? Yeah, but then again, I’m still on the council, serving my constituents,” Mouhelis said.

Suess said a lot of money went into the race, but he felt good that he was able to communicate his views, and voters knew where he stood on the issues. Like Mouhelis, he’ll remain on the council.

“I’m pretty sure I got more votes per dollar than the other candidates,” Suess said. “So if nothing else, I was proficient.”

There was no clear mandate for a single mayoral candidate Tuesday night. That means the suspense heading into the April 17 election will now be who gets the votes that went to Suess and Mouhelis.

The general election is also sure to draw a higher voter turnout with Wheaton Park District commission and Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 school board seats up for grabs as well.

The eventual winner will replace James Carr, who decided not to seek re-election after four terms in office. By the time he steps down this spring, Carr will be the longest consecutively serving mayor in the city’s history.

Wheaton council race won’t include Myers - James Fuller
http://www.dailyherald.com/news/dupagestory.asp?id=285953&cc=d&tc=&t=

Wheaton voters haven’t yet decided who will fill the two at-large city council spots, but on Tuesday they did decide who won’t.

Jonathan Myers was the odd man out, coming in last among the five candidates and the only one of the bunch who won’t continue onto the April 17 general election to vie for the two seats.

In unofficial vote totals, Myers received 1,228 votes, or about 11 percent. That left him about 370 votes out of the fourth spot held by John Prendiville.

In addition to Prendiville, Bob Carlisle, Todd Scalzo and incumbent Councilman Liz Corry advanced to the general election.

Corry was the clear favorite in the race, receiving 4,113 votes, or almost 36 percent and more than 1,500 votes ahead of her closest competitor.

“I am thrilled with the response, overwhelmed actually,” Corry said. “I’m anxious to get out and walk the streets and hear more of what’s on people’s minds.”

Carlisle came in second with 2,581 votes. Scalzo was next with 1,894 votes. Prendiville took the final slot with 1,599 votes.

The 25-year-old Myers said the city hasn’t seen the last of him.

“The issues are still there,” he said. “The votes weren’t there for me this time, but I still care about the issues. I’ll be around until those are resolved.”

Myers took the somewhat unusual step of endorsing Scalzo and Prendiville as they move forward.

“If people want change with the way business is done in the city of Wheaton, that’s my choices at this point,” Myers said.

DIERSEN HEADLINE: By a 12-4 vote, DuPage County Board denies Heartland zoning request 

By a 12-4 vote, with two members abstaining, the board denied Heartland Human Care Services’ request to have the residence in a three-story house on nearly 2.5 acres along Hobson Road in Lisle Township.

“I’m very satisfied,” said Dan Daghfal, one of the dozens of area homeowners who opposed the idea. “I think you saw democracy at work.”

Susan Trudeau, Heartland’s executive director of child welfare programs, says she and her colleagues are disappointed.

“We feel like some of the DuPage County Board commissioners turned their back on these children,” she said. “They listened to the few people in the community who were opposed to this.”

The shelter would have served infants to 17-year-olds who arrive in the United States unaccompanied by adults. Heartland, which works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, cares for the youngsters until immigration authorities settle their fate.

But most county board members sided with critics who argued the house isn’t big enough to accommodate the children, whose numbers might have reached 30 at times. The children, mainly from India and China, would have stayed there for 60 to 90 days.

Board member Michael Connelly said he was influenced by neighbors’ claims that the shelter would lower property values in the largely rural area where houses are selling for more than $1 million.

“If it’s about emotion, the kids would win,” Connelly said. “If it’s about proper land use and zoning, this proposal fails.”

But Jim Durkin, Heartland’s attorney, said property values wouldn’t be affected. In fact, he insists the permit application meets all the county standards.

“We presented the evidence that we would be able to maintain the home and run it a safe, satisfactory condition,” he said.

For example, Durkin said, the estimated 7,800-square-foot house exceeds DCFS standards when it comes to how many children can live there.

Heartland officials flatly rejected neighbors’ claims that children would be “crammed” into the five bedrooms.

While six children would sleep in bunk beds in each bedroom, Trudeau said one of the rooms is nearly 800 square feet. “That’s bigger than my apartment ,” she said.

The bottom line, Trudeau said, is that Heartland has been running a successful program for 11 years that protects the safety of its children.

Tuesday’s vote came as a surprise. It was expected to be postponed because Durkin was unable to attend. But a majority of the board refused to delay the vote until next month after dozens of area residents showed up.

The suddenness of it all has left Heartland officials scrambling to determine what their next move might be.

“We’re keeping our options open as far as looking at other programs or other homes,” Trudeau said.

Meanwhile, Durkin criticized the fact that the board denied his client the opportunity to present its case.

“To vote knowing full well that the petitioner would not be present,” he said. “I’m disappointed.”

West Chicago teen home plans dropped by group - Rupa Shenoy

http://www.dailyherald.com/news/dupagestory.asp?id=285874&cc=d&tc=&t=

A state contractor dropped plans for group homes serving teen wards of the state after West Chicago aldermen accused the group of misrepresentation.

Childserv, an organization that houses children in the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, this week withdrew its proposal for two group homes that would house teenage state wards in West Chicago apartments or townhouses.

“We just felt that it wasn’t a good match,” said Jeanne Becker, director of program evaluation for the agency. “We felt that it was going to be another three months until we got a decision. We couldn’t wait.”

Childserv is now scouting for another DuPage County municipality that will be “more receptive,” Becker said.

The move follows a Feb. 12 city council development committee meeting in which West Chicago police said they had pulled records and found that many 911 calls had been made from existing Childserv facilities.

Council members at that meeting said Childserv had previously told them there had been few or no problems at their current facilities. When presented with the 911 information, aldermen questioned Childserv’s credibility.

Becker, however, said she never claimed there were no problems at Childserv’s facilities. She told aldermen the organization was required to call police in certain circumstances.

Becker also pointed out that Childserv’s current group homes house younger state wards. The proposed West Chicago facility would be used for 17- to 21-year-olds.

The wards would live semiindependently, but with at least one adult supervising them at home at all times.

Aldermen responded by asking for more information, including the statistics for other area transitional living facilities housing the 17- to 21-year-old age group.

“If we want to properly compare, we need more information,” 1st Ward Alderman James Biefuss said this week. “They have to make their own decisions.”

The information requested would violate the privacy of other organizations that run transitional living facilities, Becker said. And, with state wards across the state waiting for homes, Childserv didn’t want to take the time it would need to pull the information, she said.

The organization decided to move on.

“I think that it is probably for the best,” said 1st Alderman Lori Chassee, who is also executive director of the Kane County Child Advocacy Center. “This particular proposal raised significant levels of concern.”

Chassee said she would be more comfortable if Childserv owned the property from which it would run the group homes.

Carpentersville: Bring it back, or keep it tabled?  Candidates want to talk about immigration plan - Larissa Chinwah
http://www.dailyherald.com/news/kanestory.asp?id=285971&cc=k&tc=&t=

A majority of candidates running for the Carpentersville village board support restarting discussions on a proposed ordinance cracking down on illegal immigrants.

Candidates on both sides of the debate said they would support discussing the ordinance but for widely divergent reasons.

Although the village board voted 4-3 in October to table the proposed Illegal Alien Immigration Relief Act until litigation in other towns like Hazleton, Pa., is resolved, four candidates said fresh talks are needed to resolve the issue.

Incumbents Paul Humpfer and Judy Sigwalt, as well as challenger Keith Hinz, said a discussion would aid village leaders in drafting a reasonable ordinance.

The measure would punish landlords and business owners who rent to or hire illegal immigrants. It would also establish English as the official language in the village that boasts a Hispanic population of more than 40 percent.

“I am not saying that the ordinance now with its wording is perfect or that it would be the final wording of the ordinance,” said Paul Humpfer, who introduced the proposal with Sigwalt. “But in order to get to the point where we have an ordinance that everyone is comfortable with voting on, we need to have that discussion.”

Discussions on the proposed measure first stalled after more than 3,000 people protested an October board meeting where trustees were scheduled to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile, Laura Zambrano, an opponent of the ordinance, said she would support bringing the ordinance back to the village board for reasons contrary to the other candidates.

“I agree an ordinance in limbo will do nothing,” said Zambrano, a member of the Carpentersville Community Alliance. “I do believe it needs to be taken off the table and pushed forward with more research to see where we are going to take it. Hopefully, then the village board will have the common sense to protect the interests of the village and defeat the measure.”

But two other candidates, incumbent James Frost and Sherry Dobson, a member of the village’s audit and finance commission, said the ordinance should remain tabled.

Frost, seeking his second term as trustee, argued that since no municipality has successfully introduced a law, Carpentersville should wait to see how other court challenges play out.

“It would probably take a legal resolution down the road for me to consider taking it off the table,” said Frost, who originally motioned to table the ordinance. “But right now, communities have not been able to implement the resolutions. Not many have moved forward, and they have been watered down, also.”

DIERSEN HEADLINE: Daily Herald promotes Black-American history in DuPage County, what about promoting Male-American history in DuPage County,  German-American history, Missouri-Synod Lutheran-American history, CPA-American history? 

http://www.dailyherald.com/news/dupagestory.asp?id=285958&cc=d&tc=&t=

Black history in DuPage County - James Fuller
DuPage County is not exactly thought of as a hub for African-American life.

There are few black elected officials in the county’s history. There are a handful of churches with primarily black members. There are even fewer neighborhoods with mostly black households.

For those reasons and more, groups such as the DuPage County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People continue to blaze trails toward equality while maintaining a social support network.

Yet even as the NAACP sees accomplishments in the local black population, it fights to remind that same population those victories didn’t come without struggle. Longtime residents say younger blacks are too quick to believe the obstacles are gone.

Only 50 years ago, many of DuPage County’s blacks considered themselves lucky just to find a local place to live.

Most blacks in DuPage County back then lived in Wheaton but were relegated to two areas of the city. One was near Hill Street where the original Second Baptist Church stood. The other was by the intersection of President and Washington streets. Together, they were known as “The Hill” and “The Bottom.”

It’s not that blacks didn’t want to live outside those neighborhoods. They couldn’t.

Real estate agents wouldn’t show homes, banks wouldn’t loan money and homeowners wouldn’t sell to blacks.

Stuck at ‘The Bottom’

Blacks needed a fair shot at local housing and access to DuPage County’s jobs. This became the initial mission of the NAACP when it formed a branch in Wheaton in 1953.

The branch initially consisted of many whites, primarily Wheaton College students.

A breakthrough in housing didn’t come until 1966, when Claude Audley and the rest of the NAACP branch submitted a fair housing ordinance to the Wheaton City Council.

“I made it very clear what I wanted and that was integrated housing,” said Audley, now 87. He said most of the council scoffed at the idea.

That’s when the branch took to the streets with the county’s first civil rights march.

“The council was really afraid that we were going to tear up the city,” Audley said.

Wheaton passed the ordinance in 1967. Other DuPage communities soon followed.

“This changed the housing pattern in the Western suburbs forever,” Audley said.

Life in DuPage County is different now. Many blacks say they feel much more accepted, though many also say instances of discrimination or prejudice continue to occur.

In 1987, when the Rev. Andre Allen arrived with his wife and children in Wheaton to become the new pastor at Second Baptist — the home for the local NAACP in its early years — he was struck by how family-friendly the city was.

But on the second day of the move, Allen found a racial epithet painted on his garage.

“It was kind of a frightening experience,” he said. He’s had no similar experiences since.

Many blacks active in DuPage County today say one of the big challenges now is overcoming complacency within the black community.

Mario Lambert, a second vice president in the branch and, at 30, one of the younger members, said there’s a generation gap. After the equality struggles of the 1950s and ’60s, a generation of blacks were sheltered.

“With my parents, it was a general shielding away, sort of (like), ‘We don’t even want you to deal with the struggle,’æ” he said. I’ve heard that from other people about my age, too.”

That engendered a sense of empowerment but also a sense the struggle is over. That sentiment plays out within the NAACP branch, creating a subtle divide.

Not Granny’s NAACP

At a recent meeting of the branch in Lisle, about 20 people attended, many of them seniors. There were almost no twentysomethings. The rest, including branch president the Rev. Theresa Dear, are a generation in between.

“We are in a critical transition period right now,” Dear said as the branch announced its new officers. “The NAACP today is not your grandmother’s NAACP. You have to do more than read the constitution and bylaws. You’ve got to be active.”

The concern for some of the “old guard” is that they still have a place in the organization. Being active in Zady Odom’s day meant picketing and standing on corners to collect money to get the branch going. Her husband, Nathaniel, was one of the branch’s founders. He died at age 85 in 2003.

These days, Odom, 81, of Glen Ellyn, said she’s only slightly involved in the NAACP.

“What can I do?” she said. “The DuPage branch, the way it’s set up now with all the professionals and how they go to all the corporate organizations that support them, they’re not bothered with the way we had to do things.

“There’s nothing for a person on a lower level to go out and do,” she said. “Years ago, we were so small we could not go to places like Nicor Gas and get funding. They have people who do that now, and they get recognized. It’s just not the same, but it’s OK.”

Odom has seen the generation gap within her own family. Her oldest son is in his 40s and is just now taking an interest in local black history, she said.

“When the branch was organized in Wheaton years ago, it was bombarded with young black people who are now old black people,” she said. “Now most of our young people, when Black History Month comes along, they actually try to ignore it. Some of them, like my son, are just now beginning to recognize that they missed out on something along the way, part of their heritage.”

That reality makes some senior members a bit skeptical about the future.

Olivia Garth was president of the branch from 1987 to 1988. She fears a day when the DuPage NAACP exists “only on paper.”

“Too many people think everybody has arrived,” Garth said. “They think, ‘I don’t have to worry about Mr. Charlie doing anything to me. What do I need the NAACP for?’ People think it’s all equal today. It’s just more subtle.”

Squaring past, future

“Things have got to change, but don’t throw away the foundation,” Garth said. “Membership isn’t just for status. It’s not just, ‘Oh, I’ve got a card.’æ”

Others see the future of the group in the youth chapters being established at the College of DuPage, Benedictine University and Elmhurst College. The bridge to them may be people like branch vice president Lambert.

Lambert is quick to burden himself with multiple tasks and willing to make tough decisions on his own when needed.

At the same recent meeting, when Dear renewed the call for active participation, she singled Lambert out as a big part of the future of the NAACP.

“One day, when I leave this office, my prayer is that this man will lead this organization,” Dear said.

The president is elected by the membership. Until recently, Lambert was in charge of membership, a key role for ascension.

“If that was part of God’s plan, and the people believed in my ability, I would love to do it,” Lambert said.

As one of the younger members of the branch, Lambert sees the future as reaching out to younger members, but not abandoning the past.

“We’re really focused on recruiting right now,” he said. “It’s a work in progress. I can’t say we’re anywhere we want to be. I want to follow Rev. Dear’s strategy that we include the past leaders and the up-and-coming people.”

And so it plays out in Lambert’s own life.

Lambert recently lunched with the 87-year-old Audley in Lisle. Audley was reminiscing. Lambert was absorbing, strategizing.

“You have to use whatever methods you think are necessary to get people involved,” Audley said.

Finding new members may be like finding equal housing. And the struggle continues.

DIERSEN HEADLINE: Frank Craig of Aurora praises LaVia and blasts Lauzen concerning utility rates

http://www.dailyherald.com/opinion/fencepost.asp