Is Elmhurst Politician Right On Police Defunding Claim?

ELMHURST, IL — Pete DiCianni, a DuPage County Board member from Elmhurst, accuses some of his Democratic colleagues of pushing to defund police, which is a popular slogan in the Black Lives Matter movement. Earlier this week, he identified Ashley Selmon, D-Addison, as being among the defunding supporters.

Selmon and others, he said, made their views known at a finance committee meeting, though he did not say which one.

In an email to Patch, Selmon said DiCianni was wrong.

"As you can confirm on video, I did not make any such suggestion. Nor have my colleagues. Rather, I have offered clarifying context about the conversation that was being discussed in the national context," Selmon said. "Unfortunately, member DiCianni's recollection of the facts both of this discussion as part of county business and of his actions personally last month are not correct and do not match video of both events."

Selmon was referring to DiCianni's actions during a pro-police protest June 27 outside the Elmhurst police station. At that event, an unmasked DiCianni is seen on video speaking loudly in a counterprotester's face and arguing with others. And he later sent a crude email to a Black Lives Matter supporter, telling her to "stick" her vote up "her a--." At Tuesday's county board meeting, DiCianni said he regretted his actions and stepped down from a leadership post.

Selmon referred to the video of a June 9 meeting of the finance committee. At that meeting, Sheriff James Mendrick asked for "equity" pay increases for certain employees. Most amounted to thousands of dollars, with one employee's pay proposed to rise to $139,000, up $25,000.

Selmon opposed the idea.

“Sheriff, I have a lot of respect for you, but I feel that it’s tone-deaf, frankly, for us to be talking about this today," Selmon said. "I understand the challenges you’ve had in the past. But the reality is, we’re in a budget year that is gravely different than we had last year. We’re going to be talking about double digit cuts for almost every department. And I just have a hard time looking at your most executive staff, who already make, many of them, six figures and saying, 'We’re going to have to give you some more.'"

The county board later approved the raises 15-2, with Selmon and Liz Chaplin dissenting.

At the finance committee meeting, Selmon and Mendrick argued about the criminal activity related to the Black Lives Matter protests. She said the board's updates from the homeland security office did not include any incidents of looting.

Selmon also pushed for a discussion on whether dollars that she said were for community services should continue to "live" within the Sheriff's Office, noting that one-third of a typical government body's spending is on law enforcement. "The idea is whether or not all the duties of policing live within the policing department," she said.

Selmon referred to the sheriff's "rhetoric about looting and sledgehammers that led to Elmhurst and Addison and all those areas boarded for a whole week after all these businesses said they were struggling." She said such "irresponsible rhetoric" resulted in more damage than people wanting to express their First Amendment rights.

Sheriff Mendrick took exception, saying the sledgehammers and looting were facts, not rhetoric.

"You weren't on the street. I was. How about in one of the demonstrations where we got a guy with a bag of full body armor, helmet and long gun? How about a different one where we got a guy with a bag of guns? I hate to say it, member Selmon, you're wrong," the sheriff said.

Mendrick said at the June 9 meeting that he had been in the trenches for nine days by that point.

"It's an insult that you say that there were just peaceful demonstrations," he said. "I am sorry, but they were not. We were being attacked at Oak Brook Mall. That's just a fact. I was there. My staff was there. Don't belittle what we just did for this county."

The sheriff was likely referring to the response to looting threats May 31 at the Oakbrook Center mall in Oak Brook. According to an Oak Brook news release that day, there was no looting or any protesters or any criminal element in the mall. The only thing that happened was that burglary suspects threw a cinder block at a window at Neiman Marcus, but the window did not shatter, the village said. Because of the reports of possible looting, members of many police agencies were on hand guarding the mall. No attacks on officers were reported. Patch has requested a police report from that day.

In an email to Patch on Thursday, DiCianni said Selmon was pushing for defunding of police.

"When you don’t want to give the Sheriff’s Office funds they request, you are not funding his operations," he said.

DiCianni also said Selmon was misinformed there was no rioting or looting in the county, noting incidents in Naperville and Aurora.

"Aurora, Naperville, Downers, Elmhurst all had issues, with Aurora and Naperville being tragic with tens of millions in losses," he said.

Elmhurst police have not noted any criminal activity related to Black Lives Matter demonstrations in its regular reports to the media. DiCianni said he was referring to burglaries of a cellphone store and pharmacy, where windows and doors were smashed.

County Board Chairman Dan Cronin, R-Elmhurst, has alleged DiCianni sent "misleading" robocalls suggesting some county board members supported defunding police. Cronin said the calls created unnecessary fear.

DiCianni has declined to say whether he authorized the calls or whether he would release the audio if he did.