What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is. — Dan Quayle
As you might imagine, I’ve attended hundreds of ‘em in my time, a feat which uniquely qualifies me to allege that municipal and county board meetings are just about as boring as having to listen to another Trump “witch hunt” excuse.
And monotonous is exactly what they should be! Political progress should never be held hostage to vainglorious declarations, societal fads, or making it up as you go along, which is what MAGA actually stands for, by the way. But in a case of the exception proving the rule, on rare occasion, those halcyon meetings go off the rails in such a spectacular fashion that you never forget it,
There was the 2010 time when uber corrupt former Kane County chairman Karen McConnaughay called me out from the dais as a board meeting was adjourning. I haven’t seen anything like that before or since.
A couple years later, her board “attorney” and lapdog Ken Shepro virtually assaulted me at the press table as a meeting started. The catalyst for that “event” was a perceived slight to the disabled sister of a local precinct committeeman whom I had no idea existed. As it always is in these cases, that fact made absolutely no difference.
On the lighter side, anytime former KC board member Bonnie Kunkel had the floor, everyone’s ears perked up because they knew the meeting was headed directly into the Fox River.
My favorite example of local government gone wild is the infamous “Waiting for a second” YouTube video. That one features 2009 Village of Carpentersville president Bill Sarto, who, among many other fascinating declarations, issued a death threat when he couldn’t get a board member to second his motion.
But thanks to Elgin city councilman Corey Dixon’s bizarre March 20 Committee of the Whole meeting antics, we have a new first place contender.
Since a source told me to start with his diatribe…I mean “commentary,” I cued the video to the 1:45:10 mark and prepared to be utterly underwhelmed. Unlike the majority of previous reader accounts on governmental officials’ bad behavior, this one did not disappoint!
Apparently, Elgin activist Marcus Banner had addressed that body earlier and councilman Dixon took offense to his characterization that he put no real effort into the pending ordinance creating a Civilian Review Board for the police department. Here’s the gist of his monologue:
Since I was called out by Mr. Banner earlier, I just want to tell you, brother I love you.
(extraneous banter between the two men)
Corey had nothing to do with it (the Civilian Review Bard). Corey intentionally stayed away from it. You see, Corey did what he was supposed to do because Corey don’t just talk. See, Corey gets stuff done, right? And what Marcus does is he just sits there and does a whole lot of nothing. He ain’t completed anything. You ain’t completed a thing, alright, you talk a good game, you get people riled up and you do nothing. You have no accomplishments, and then you’re not even professional. You think just because you say something people are gonna listen. You don’t even make no sense, bro. You make no sense.
Then it descended directly into the Krapper from there until Mayor Dave Kaptain called an emergency break in an attempt to restore order. Though it can’t be heard on the tape, the two men continued their “vibrant discussion” out in the hallway.
I’m guessing the irony of an irate city councilman screaming that a citizen speaker wasn’t “professional” in a formal setting was completely lost on Mr. Dixon. Not to mention that Corey ain’t done jack shit in his 1,096 days on that council – unless you count free turkey giveaways, coming up with really bad ideas, and generally acting like an entitled little bleep.
And resorting to the royal third person where Corey referred to himself as “Corey” was a wee bit much.
I’ve seen board/council members go after each other at meetings to the point where the chair had assert their authority, but I’ve never seen a councilman press a personal vendetta from the dais. It was truly a sight to behold.
After I watched that exchange a few times, I thought it would be prudent to rewind to the 1:03:40 mark to listen to Banner’s original statement. I figured he must’ve said something along the lines of, “Your mama’s so fat, her bra size is 401K,” or, “Your mama’s so old her Social Security Number is 1.”
But no! Though I’ve never agreed with Marcus’ theory on how the Civilian Review Board should operate, all he did was accuse Corey of abandoning his principles and not doing much to improve the situation, which pretty much sums up Dixon’s entire tenure on the council.
And if this is the way Dixon displays his “love” for someone, I wonder what it’s like to get on his bad side. Wait a minute! Having previously reported on his inability to maintain campaign finance reporting at anything above a sixth-grade level, I already know.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time Dixon’s gone off like this, either.
After failing to show up to any municipal meeting for months, Dixon went after Mayor Kaptain at the previous Wednesday gathering doing his best “Are you talking to me” impression in the process. The meeting before he laid out city staff for some similarly perceived minor slight.
Even though there’s a humorous side to Dixon’s middle school girl meltdowns, it’s really not that funny on two levels.
Clearly, something has happened in Dixon’s life that’s made it impossible for him to serve effectively and he needs to deal with whatever it is ASAP. It could be something as simple as reconciling his doomed mayoral effort to his massive ego, but I’m thinking it’s likely something worse. Regardless of what the issue is, the people of Elgin deserve reasonable representation, not a WWF cage match at every council meeting.
Not only does Dixon represent the people of the City of Elgin, but as an employee thereof, he’s the face of the Kane County Sheriff’s office, too, something I recently reminded Ron Hain of.
Dixon did offer a half-assed apology at the end of the video, but until he can ditch the shameful behavior and he can prove that he belongs on that dais, he really needs to consider stepping down for the good of everyone involved.
Though truth be told, his political career is already over.
