Over the holidays we saw Nine. The musical explores the fragile psyche of Italian filmmaker Maestro Guido Contini. Guido failed to write a script for his upcoming movie and ran away just before shooting began. When we ran into Village Administrator Tim Gillian at another show I was reminded of Forest Park’s Fellini, Mayor Calderone. His financial spin in the Forest Park Review was classic cinema italiano.
The Review reports the village of Brookfield has laid off nine employees and will eliminate some senior positions. Calderone boasts that his business acumen and macro management has kept our village from wielding the axe. Everyone should remember it was Calderone who laid off 12 village employees after former finance commissioner Gillian didn’t see money trouble coming. He has phased out positions in the building department, finance department, community center and public works. Calderone would have also scrapped the administrator’s job if his political pal didn’t need work.
Calderone claims to be vigilant in watching our expenses while commissioners use monthly accounting reports to monitor spending. Huh? Commissioner Hosty said the financial projections “suck” and during the council’s freshman year they lost $900K.
Fortunately, current finance Commissioner Rory Hoskins recognizes the village has been lucky with timely personnel changes. He knows these savings were just enough to make ends meet, but Calderone, Curry and Hosty won’t limit budgets funding non-core services.
Forest Park has laid off employees and eliminated positions just like other communities. All the Calderone-ese is just pre-production hype for his new saga, Two and a Half. Plotline: Small town mayor won’t control spending and raises taxes 2.5 percent. Hopefully Guido isn’t a consultant and Fellini won’t run.
Tony Sarley
Forest Park
