Elmhurst News Release Excludes Union Position

Elmhurst IL

05 August, 2021

11:14 AM

Description

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst rarely issues news releases about meetings of the City Council, let alone its committees. But it did so after a meeting in March — one about a controversial issue in the mayoral campaign. The subject of advanced life support for fire trucks was discussed during the March 8 meeting of the Public Affairs and Safety Committee. The three aldermen in the mayoral race parted ways on the issue — Michael Bram in favor and Scott Levin and Mark Mulliner against. It turns out then-Mayor Steve Morley, most aldermen and the city attorney also were against adding such equipment. The majority argued that if the city added such a service, the firefighters union would demand greater pay in exchange for the extra duties. At the committee meeting, union President Steve Talaski said that wasn't so. He said firefighters wanted to provide the service and would make no such demands. The news release laid out in detail the case made during the meeting against advanced life support for fire trucks. But it included not a word about the position of the Local 3541 firefighters union. This week, Patch got emails from city officials in response to a public records request. One of them showed that the city's communications manager, Kassondra Schref, sent the draft news release to the committee's chairwoman, Ward 3's Dannee Polomsky. Schref characterized the release as summarizing the meeting. "Please provide any changes," Schref said two days after the meeting. About 20 minutes later, Polomsky replied, "How about this?" The revisions were made in an attachment, which Patch has sought through a follow-up public records request. In an email Thursday, Patch asked Polomsky why the city excluded the union's position in a news release that was intended to summarize the committee meeting. Polomsky responded to other questions in the email, but did not answer the one about the release. Polomsky endorsed Levin in the mayoral race. He won April 6.