On-The-Go Elmhurst Politician Drives While Doing Job

ELMHURST, IL — DuPage County Board member Pete DiCianni is a man going places. At least during meetings he is supposed to attend.

The on-the-go DiCianni, a former Elmhurst mayor, has taken part remotely in the last two meetings of the county finance committee while driving at least some of the time. He is seen in the Zoom videos of the meeting.

In Tuesday's session, DiCianni showed up in the Zoom videoconference about six minutes late. He could be seen pointing the camera in the passenger seat toward him. Then he proceeded to drive.

About two minutes later, the meeting video shifts to budget graphs for the next half hour, so DiCianni and the others could no longer be seen. When the video returns to members in attendance, DiCianni, a Republican, is missing. He is not seen again for the remainder of the nearly three-hour meeting.

At a meeting about a week ago, DiCianni attended most of the nearly two hours. But with about 20 minutes left, he walks out of what appears to be an office building and into a parking lot. One official acknowledged DiCianni's walk through the lot, prompting him to smile.

DiCianni hangs up a suit coat, then proceeds to drive for the rest of the meeting, even weighing in on a budget issue at one point.

DiCianni, who makes about $50,000 a year as a county board member, did not respond to a question through text message about driving while attending meetings.

In the days of the pandemic, people are finding new ways to attend meetings. DiCianni is not the first elected official to attend a meeting remotely while driving.

A couple of weeks ago, a British truck driver resigned from a town council after taking part in a Zoom session from his moving vehicle, according to a Fox News story. He said he stopped to connect to the meeting and was only listening while he drove.

"I was just listening, what's the difference between listening to that and your car radio. People twiddle with car radios and what have you, what's the difference?” the driver said, according to Fox News.