City clerk Jim Laski has a love-hate relationship with publicity.
Another politician might decide to fade into the background, quietly lighting candles every week to the Blessed Virgin for getting through the 2003 election unopposed. Laski apparently enjoys the attention too much. Still, he’s wary.
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When Laski first presented the idea to aldermen during the budget committee hearings in October, he started out strong–if he hadn’t been sitting down he would have been swaggering as he described the plan. “And I’m gonna tell ya right now, aldermen, there are not hundreds, there are millions of dollars out there in uncollected revenues. Millions,” he barked. “We have comments in the newspaper about people who live in these high-rises who are indignant about it, who say, ‘I drive from my high-rise to Naperville, and I don’t need a sticker.’ Well, unless we wanna change the ordinance to say anybody who lives in a high-rise shouldn’t have a vehicle sticker, then we need to go after these people.”
Laski began getting huffy. Merging computer files doesn’t capture the public imagination as well as investigators creeping around dark garages. He quickly cut Brookins off. (A spokesman for the city clerk’s office says the idea’s being studied.)
“And I said, aldermen, if all of you choose to exclude these people from purchasing a vehicle sticker, then do it legislatively,” Laski retorted.
“I’m not tellin’ ya that–”
A lawyer from Laski’s office answered that the investigators would ticket only in the public sections.
