Illinois Legislative Caucus Foundation

I was invited to speak to the the Illinois Legislative Caucus Foundation yesterday by the Hispanic delegation of Senators and Representatives to Springfield. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the conference during the day, because of other commitments, but I enjoyed the part I was involved in. Six mayors were invited, myself, and the Mayors of Blue Island, Aurora, Berwyn, Palatine and Waukegan.

I talked about the need for representation of the Hispanic community of greater Round Lake in the elected process. My central point was around grass roots participation in government and to wit I mentioned that the Round Lake Area is roughly between 35% and 45% Hispanic. Yet at this time there are: (by the way this is off the top of my head the numbers, hopefully I am wrong and missed some people).

• 32 Municipal leadership positions (Mayors Clerks and Trustees) 1 is Hispanic! (Sylvia Valadez the Clerk in Round Lake Beach) and 2 speak Spanish fluently (me being the second).
• 19 other positions (Park Boards, Library Board, School Board) 3 are Hispanic!
• So there are 51 elected officials and 4 are Hispanic--- so that means 8% are Hispanic.

There was a question and answer session afterwards that was more like a group of people making statements rather then questions, which was educational. I was impressed that Mayor Dick Hyde of Waukegan brought his own hecklers/loonies with him. He pointed them out in the audience to me beforehand, and then basically paraphrased what they would say. Sure enough they said it almost verbatim. Over an issue the city solved a few years ago no less as well.