Darien Mayor Suggests Defying Governor

DARIEN, IL — Darien's mayor suggested this week that the City Council could vote to let him allow the opening of restaurants, bars and other "nonessential" businesses in defiance of the governor's stay-at-home order. He said he wanted to give the council options.

"We can take pretty drastic action on our own, but it's something we have to agree on," Darien Mayor Joseph Marchese said at Monday's council meeting. "I would like the direction to come from you."

Under the governor's plan, restaurants and bars may have to wait until July to reopen. Marchese and other DuPage County mayors say Gov. J.B. Pritzker shouldn't lump DuPage County with Cook County in the same region as part of the state's reopening plan. Cook's slower progress, they say, is holding back the suburbs.

During the meeting, several Darien aldermen said the town should not go it alone if it decides to reopen its businesses in violation of the governor's order. Ideally, they said, it would be better if all 35 members of the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference agreed to that course of action.

But Marchese said some longstanding mayors in the conference oppose an assertive stance in relation to the governor's order. These mayors, he said, carry more weight in the organization.

Marchese and other DuPage County mayors regularly discuss the governor's stay-at-home order in video conferences. Some mayors, Marchese said, are political in their approach, with a few saying they dislike Pritzker because he is a Democrat. Marchese said a consensus needs to be built among the group's members for an assertive stance.

Ward 5 Alderwoman Mary Sullivan said the city should strive to open businesses and that conference members need to rally together if Pritzker fails to change his course.

"We have to figure out a way to live our lives with the virus still out there and protect the most vulnerable," she said.

Ward 2 Alderman Lester Vaughan said the governor's plan to reduce the spread of the coronavirus has worked, resulting in fewer cases in DuPage County and statewide. And he, too, said Darien cannot act alone in opening its businesses.

"The strength is in numbers. If we stick together, we'll get through this. I know it's painful. Personally, I lost a lot of money, too," he said.

Ward 7 Alderman Tom Belczak also called for opening businesses locally, but said it should be done with other towns.

A couple aldermen — Ward 6's Eric Gustafson and Ward 1's Ted Schauer — took a harder line against the governor.

Gustafson said the state should protect those at higher risk and let everyone else get back to work.

"We're getting to the point where the cure is worse than the disease," Gustafson said. "We should move forward and go against the governor. I feel the governor is treating this more as a political issue than a medical issue."

Schauer said he would be "more than happy" if the mayor went against the governor to open restaurants and bars.

Ward 4's Tom Chlystek said he prioritizes residents above businesses, noting two of his constituents had died of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.

He said he knows about the effort to separate DuPage County from Cook, but he noted that people travel all the time between the two counties. And he said not enough testing was being done to determine who has the virus.

The mayor thanked the aldermen for their feedback.