Letter: Steve Morley Wants Your Property

During his campaign for mayor, Steve Morley wanted you to understand a few things: his leadership, transparency and integrity. He also said two other things throughout his campaign: He is against eminent domain (or condemnation of private lands) and that he had nine alderman behind him and his campaign.

Well, less than one week after the election and before even being sworn in, it turns out Steve lied to us about one of those last two items. At the April 15 City Council meeting, condemnation of the Pauli's Marathon gas station near the Hahn Street site was on the agenda. With out saying a word, Steve Morley voted against the measure. So far, so good.

However, the nine other aldermen he said he had in his pocket voted against him, and the city is now authorized to condemn property that has been the business and life blood of the Pauli family for many years. Since this matter was also discussed behind closed doors, Morley knew his nine Aldermen would cover for him, the condemnation would pass anyway, and he could vote no.

Following his logic, he also now feels he has "cover" in paying whatever price, reasonable or not, the property owner may want, using your tax dollars, and then trumpeting that at least we avoided condemnation. The problem is, Elmhurst residents are smarter than Morley thinks and can see right through what happened. In fact, if he was not smart enough to understand that, or if he thinks the taxpayers of Elmhurst are that misinformed, we are in for a long four years.

—David Pezza, Elmhurst