Trying to take away debate under the guise of decorum

This week Mayor Dave Heilmann tried to introduce several new "amendments" to Oak lawn's village code enforcing rules of order and conduct at board of trustees meetings.

In fact the mayor had nine amendments to the six already on the books. He stated we need these to stop the fighting at the board meetings. He stated many people have told him this. I believe most people could care less actually. I certainly like spirited debate, but that's my opinion only.

I believe this was a blatant attempt to stop his opponents on the board from speaking on items that would make the mayor look bad on TV. I think the mayor is following the old Andre Agassi line of " image is everything" He knows an election is near and he is afraid he might look bad.

The mayor at first stated all his new rules were straight out of Robert's Rules of Order, but after some lengthy discussion with Trustee Tom Phelan, The mayor backed off and said it was mixture of his rules with Robert's Rules of Order.

If you look at the proposed new rules written by the mayor, trustees couldn't pull any surprises, the chair will dictate whether a trustee is being political and will announce him out of order before the person has said a word! Is the mayor a mind reader?

He also states that any Power Point presentation by anyone at village board meetings must be given to everyone at least a week before the meeting and provide the reason for doing so. The mayor then says the presentation can go on no longer than 5 minutes. The mayor then states advance consent shall be obtained by a 2/3 majority of the board.  This is not in Roberts Rules of Order.

This action that the Mayor wants is to prevent another incident like when Burt Odelson came to the board with a Power Point presentation on his investigation of alleged over billing practices of the mayor's personal choice for village attorneys Tressler. This event did not put the mayor in a good light, so he wants this new rule; there is no other reason for it.

The mayor also wants that any agenda items  placed on the agenda by the village manager shall be sent to board members to preview 5 days for the meeting!! Where is this in Robert's Rules of Order?

The mayor also wants to stop members for placing items on the agenda that he thinks are obstructive, improper, or political. How does the mayor know a head of time what is in people's minds?

The mayor is actually trying to usurp the village manager and the trustees' power to control the board meeting agenda. In a village manager form of government like Oak Lawn has, the village manager and the board of trustees set the agenda The mayor is the executive branch, the manager and trustees are the legislative branch. The mayor has actually been trying to get rid of the manager form of government for the last 4 years. He has been involved with a petition drive to eliminate the village managers post, but that failed when it was discovered the petitions handed in were fakes and the person running the petition drive was found guilty on election fraud and mutilation of election materials.

We already have rules on the books on how to run a meeting, the mayor knows this. I think he did this silly exercise  to make an end run to gain more power, silence the opposition, and to stop events on TV that make him look bad before the election.

He never really cared about the fighting at board meetings for the last 5 years until now. Hopefully, the trustees will vote this measure down and see the real reason for it. Absolute power.