The village of North Riverside is still holding out hope that somehow the Illinois Court of Appeals is somehow going to cut against the grain of everything that’s transpired since the fall of 2014 and hand them an avenue for privatizing the fire department.
With a ruling from an administrative law judge dismissing a key village argument, that they are allowed to unilaterally terminate a contract with a union that can’t strike or be locked out, it’s hard to see how an appeals court is going to side with the village.
This case has been over for months. All that is being served now to keep paying legal fees to the firm that advanced that faulty premise in the first place.
Surely, the village will continue to seek a cost savings for fire protection. That’s as it should be, but this isn’t the way, clearly.
It’s time to abandon this strategy and broaden the conversation, including consolidation, for the future.
