Last Wednesday, May 31, my year as President of the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference came to a close with a transfer of leadership to Wheaton Mayor Phil Seuss. During my year as President, we saw many significant achievements for the conference and in turn, for the thirty-five municipalities in DuPage County. While we saw numerous legislative accomplishments, our biggest “win,” was our push for an increase in the Local Government Distributive Fund or LGDF. It may not appear significant, but an increase from 6.16% to 6.47% will result in significant dollars for DuPage Communities that will be used for public safety, infrastructure improvements and pension funds. It took significant effort to communicate to our state legislators the needs of our communities, and this increase showed that they were listening to our information, and for that, I want to offer them thanks for their efforts on our behalf.
I wanted to also thank the team at DMMC for all their efforts in making this increase come to fruition. They worked diligently to collect and design data sheets, design social media platforms, schedule private meetings with key state legislators prior to our trip to Springfield, and their coordination and work with other Councils of Government in designing one cohesive plan of action that was implemented by hundreds of local governmental leaders. The resulting impact we had on Springfield was significant and came about only through the efforts of the team, and my thanks goes out to all DMMC staff members for their efforts.
When a group of individuals comes together, with one agenda, then the success of the organization is a shared success. As Michael Jordan states, "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships,” and our “team” in coming together, provided a championship for which we can all be proud.