Oglesby to discuss restructured government? Finley calls out mayor for advancing petition for change

A petition is circulating to restructure Oglesby government. The Oglesby City Council might task the Planning Commission with studying that proposal.

It won’t happen without a fight. At a contentious City Council meeting, Mayor Jason Curran and several commissioners revealed Monday they are not on the same page.

“No council member should use their petition for personal gain or revenge, and this is exactly what I believe Mayor Curran has done.”

—  Don Finley, commissioner

The topic arose when the council got to an agenda item listed as, “Request to have Illinois Municipal League give presentation on the different forms of government,” requested by Commissioner Greg McDermott.

“It’s not quite what I wrote,” McDermott said. “It (the agenda) got changed.”

McDermott then moved to send the restructuring question to the Planning Commission for discussion and a possible recommendation on whether to scrap the commission form of government. A commission form of government puts council members in charge of setting policy and overseeing city departments.

But since that motion hadn’t appeared on the agenda, city attorney Pat Barry recommended it be placed on a future agenda. McDermott moved to table the request. That passed 4-1, with Curran voting no.

Curran might find himself at odds with other commissioners when the topic comes up again. To hear some commissioners tell it, Curran has been circulating a petition to change the form of government.

“Are you going to confirm or deny your involvement in this?” Commissioner Rich Baldridge asked Curran.

“I don’t even know why that has any bearing on something like that,” the mayor answered.

Commissioner Tony Stefanelli suggested that residents should be wary of signing any such petition until public hearings have been conducted.

“The irony is that the people are being asked to sign something before having even a complete understand of what the recourse or effect would be,” Stefanelli said.

But the strongest remarks came from Commissioner Don Finley, who delivered a lengthy statement in which he spelled out how he found out about the petition and then criticized Curran for advancing it.

Finley said he first learned of the petition Nov. 1 and anticipated Curran would call for public discussion at the Nov. 4 meeting. Curran didn’t do so, which Finley called “very disturbing.”

“No council member should use their petition for personal gain or revenge,” Finley said, “and this is exactly what I believe Mayor Curran has done.”

Finley added later that Curran neither acted in good faith and wasn’t forthcoming about his motives.

“He will want (people) to believe he didn’t have any hand in any of the efforts to change our form of government. It’s a lie. He’s been part of the process for months, doing his best to undermine the council or, as he would say it, stick it to them.”

Curran said many of Finley’s statements were “complete falsehoods” and he studied restructuring at length. He said it’s a misstatement that restructuring would empower the mayor’s authority.

“I didn’t write a speech,” Curran said. “I probably should have.”