A word of caution to Du Page County voters:
Don`t expect Aldo ”Ax Taxes” Botti to follow through on campaign vows to act in your best interest unless there`s a reporter around to see him do it.
Remember Botti`s promise last year to give back half his $69,300 salary if elected chairman? It was a move calculated to position him as a man whose concern for the taxpayers far outweighed his own self-interest.
Back in January, after his first month in office, Botti did hold a press conference to announce that he was giving back half of his first pay check to the taxpayers.
The press conference didn`t receive much attention, but that really wasn`t important. Or was it?
Since then, more than half the fiscal year has come and gone, and no one has heard much about Botti`s pledge. So we decided to check and see whether he has continued to give back half of his bi-weekly salary.
According to the county treasurer`s office, Botti returned a portion of only one other check-on March 8. That`s quite a bit shy of the pay, after taxes, he has promised to return.
When asked if he planned to give back the rest of the money, Botti fumed indignantly, ”I have every check cut and in the drawer of my desk.”
It`s true. With his permission, we checked the drawer and found a fistful of checks for the proper amounts.
Asked when he planned to give the money back, Botti said:
”I`ll give it when I want to give it . . . I`ll give it when I want P.R. I promised that I`d do it, and that`s exactly what I`ll do. I will give it in one lump sum. I like good P.R. I`ll give it back when I want. I`ll write one big check, and I`ll give it all back at one time.”
Oh.
A well-paid attorney and an embattled politician, Botti doesn`t need the county cash as much as he needs a packed press conference and some favorable news stories.
Boys of summer
Roselle resident Terry Ayers has been the visiting coach on a lot of different playing fields, but none as far away as Argentina.
That`s Salta, Argentina, the home of the 1991 Pan American Games, where Ayers will be coaching a baseball team of 10- and 11-year-olds for the United States.
Last May, Ayers-a teacher at Fenton High School, in Bensenville, and a member of the Illinois Regional Planning Commission-was selected as the assistant coach for the 10- and 11-year-old division, the youngest group that will compete.
”We`re putting together a team now, and we`re looking for the most outstanding, dominant players we can find in the country,” Ayers said.
A high school baseball coach for 24 years, Ayers now serves as the regional director for Doyle Baseball in Illinois, which sponsors baseball schools across the state. It was his reputation as a coach with Doyle that got him the position on the Pan Am team.
”I`m taking a leave of absence without pay from my teaching job,” Ayers said. ”It`s going to cost me a considerable amount of money, but I`m honored to have the chance to coach this team.”
More Moy
Most officials affiliated with the Du Page County judicial process-be they judges, state`s attorneys, sheriff`s police or county board members-agree that the county`s new courthouse needs more security. The only question is, how much.
But board member Ken Moy is not ”most officials.”
At Tuesday`s County Board meeting, the members spent a good deal of time debating the number of extra security staffers who should be hired to man the new facility.
Moy was the only member to argue that the building didn`t need any extra security at all.
In a stream of unconsciousness speech that left many wearing quizzical, bemused expressions, Moy called the courthouse a ”judicial palace;” equated it with the Taj Mahal; claimed there were ”bailiffs falling all over each other over there;” and seemed to feel that the biggest problem at the facility wasn`t security, but second-hand smoke.
Fortunately, the rest of the board merely chuckled, and voted to staff the building with 17 extra-and according to Sheriff Richard Doria-badly needed security personnel.
