Chairman Cronin, please explain why there’s not one female professional on your new DuPage Task Force. You chose 10 "real estate, engineering, planning, finance and construction industry experts" for this new task force and all are men. You could not find one female expert in the whole county? No application process? Correct this wrong and place female experts on this task force or disband this group and have an open, transparent application process. Women have worked hard and are respected and recognized for our accomplishments in all fields, including those for this task force. Do you think they will waste their precious vote for anyone who will put them back in the ‘50s?

SPEAK OUT asked DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin to respond to your comments. He states: “Since taking office as DuPage County chairman in December of 2010, I have overhauled the board and commission appointment process to introduce more transparency and accountability while pursuing diverse and representative appointees. The county board and I are proud to have appointed dozens of female candidates to serve as leaders on these boards and commissions. In fact, in a few instances we appointed women to several fire protection and sanitary district boards where they had not been represented at all. During my tenure, I have asked women to serve on both the Water Commission and Housing Authority boards, and even selected a female to chair the county’s Election Commission. My commitment to diversity and fairness is further demonstrated inside county government as many of our department heads are either females or represent a racial minority. My administration has and will continue to recruit women and minorities to serve in important leadership roles throughout the county.”—JAC

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According to the village board meeting last week, the village has more than $46 million in the bank on top of a 25-percent reserve fund.  Then, according to the Property Tax Levy report from the acting village manager to the board, dated Oct. 7, why are they only funding 66 percent of the police pension and 77 percent of the fire department pension fund?  Underfunding these is what caused the state of Illinois pension crisis.  The employees are expected to pay 100 percent of their costs; the village should do the same. Even though it may not be popular when running for state office. I look to trustees Breen and Fitzpatrick to take the lead and change the business as usual and correct this problem.

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Just read an article in the Business Insider in which there was a study that found “Watching Only Fox News Makes You Less Informed Than Watching No News At All” That explains now all the Tea-publican comments weekly in SPEAK OUT.

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HB 2417, the Shield Act, is still in committee. Experts say it will be the destruction of three-fourths of the population of the United States in a year's time. China and Russia are both prepared, but our president wants his Obamacare and illegal immigration. If we don't get the shield up, no one will get anything. Thank you.

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Recently someone called SPEAK OUT to let us know the definition of a pedestrian and then to let us know that a pedestrian is not a bicyclist. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was confused on that issue for quite some time. There is a difference between a pedestrian and a bicyclist. Some pedestrians at Main Street actually look at a stop sign and look both ways. It seems the bicyclists never, ever do. Just because you’re a bicyclist does not mean you don't have to obey the stop sign. Perhaps this person should look up the definition of a stop sign. Thank you.

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Hello, Lombard and Villa Park. Two things: A congresswoman, Democrat or Republican, who is elected by the people of this great state, who walks out of a Benghazi hearing and then responds to a question asked by the Lombardian newspaper for a comment as to why she walked out of the Benghazi meeting and tells the Lombardian she is not going to answer that should be voted out of office. We, as people, have a right to know what our congressmen and women are doing and just because they want to be like the Village of Lombard and not respond to our press questions is disgraceful.

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This is to the person who insists because I can observe people talking on their phone while driving that I’m a distracted driver, on the contrary. As a nearly 50-year accident-free driver, I can tell you that part of keeping your eyes on the road, as you call it, is observing the actions of your fellow drivers and being prepared to react. If I’m driving behind a phone user, it's obvious what they are doing because their hand and arm are up to their ears. I should know that they're the ones who are distracted and I should give them some space. I can do this and still keep my eyes on the road, as you call it. You need to keep moving your head from side to side; you don’t just need to know what’s going on in front of you and in your mirrors. You need to know what the guy in the lane next to you is doing, too. Thank you.

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This is Lombard calling. I’d like to find out why they can’t put a Cook Brothers out here in the Lombard area. They’ve got some great bargains and they also take the LINK card. Their ads are always in the Sun-Times and they’ve got a lot of great bargains. I’d like to see a Cook Brothers out here in Lombard. Thank you.

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This is to the person who believes the environmental studies or anything else that is on the Internet. I know a French model looking for an Internet date. LOL.

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The business people are playing a big game out there. If you don’t give me a tax break, I’m going to take my company and move out of state. Well, I’ll tell you what. We taxpayers have to start saying the same thing with these real estate taxes and all these fees they’re tacking on. If you don’t give us a break, we’re going to move out of state. This state’s going to play the same game and we should be playing the same game because we're being taxed to death. They’re all playing the game right now. We’re going to take our marbles and go home. Speak up, ladies and gentlemen; we don’t have to keep taking this stuff. These politicians are spending money that we don’t have and they’ve got to stop spending the money and stop taxing us to death. Goodbye.

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Hello, this is Lombard calling. I’m replying to Tammy Duckworth and the 15 Democrats who walked out of the Benghazi hearings. Please continue to pursue Tammy Duckworth and her reasoning on why she left the hearings and let’s not forget Christopher Stevens, Tyrone Woods, Glen Doherty and Sean Smith.

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Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in March 2010. Three years and several million dollars later, his administration cannot deliver a functioning Web site. Are we supposed to believe the same people who bungled the Web site can deliver affordable health care?

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What a delight to see in a Lombard newspaper the following: ”Tax dollars are the peoples’ money and the government should only take as much as it needs in order to provide basic services and the rest should be returned to the people,” from Trustee Peter Breen. True, the amount may not be great. But the use of “right reason” is so refreshing. When we have to curb our desires should our trustees not do the same? Our trustees must consider needs, not wants. Our trustees are our stewards, one who manages another’s property. A good steward is one who is fair and just with another’s property—money—taxes. I sincerely thank the following good stewards: trustees Peter Breen, Laura Fitzpatrick, Dan Whittington and Reid Foltyniewicz. Needless to say I am disappointed with the two trustees who voted against the proposal, Bill Ware and Mike Fugiel.

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I agree with the caller about keeping SPEAK OUT local, because there are so many issues going on here, and calls about national issues and politics just prompt rebuttals and back-and-forth jabs that are never going to accomplish anything. Yes, we have free speech, but I want to know what others think about things in Lombard, Villa Park and maybe the county or state that affect us. If you want to talk about national politics, join a blog or write a letter to the editor. I say, keep it local.

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Wasn’t Barack Obama supposed to be one of our smartest presidents ever? That’s what the left-wing sheep were saying five years ago. Here we are in the fall of 2013, and Obamacare is a fiasco. His team can’t even put together a working Web site, and his Health and Human Services secretary says he didn’t know about the problems of the Web site-—the one we’ve been hearing about for over three years—until after its Oct. 1 launch. So if he didn’t know about the problems, he’s clueless. If he did know, he’s incompetent. Take your pick.

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I’ll say it again, it’s called SPEAK OUT. If you only want to talk about Lombard and Villa Park, go ahead. I have a broader scope of things I want to talk and hear about. It’s called freedom of speech in America. We’re not limited. It’s “speak out.”

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“A rat’s nest of concealment and lies”—a quote from Bob Woodward, speaking of this administration. This is the guy who exposed Watergate. Even a liberal reporter like Woodward was blind, but now he can see.

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Looks like President Obama’s got a new mantra. Instead of blaming Bush, he now says, “I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”

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Hi, would anyone happen to know who would like some scrap wood? We have a whole lot of scrap wood and it’s decent stuff. Would someone pay for it or where would we take it to that’s near by? We just really need to know that. My husband had wanted to make trains out of it but that never happened, so hopefully someone might be able to use if for toys or something. And as an extra message, we just want to say we really are going to miss Mr. Z’s. We used to love it when they put out their Halloween and Christmas decorations, like with the Halloween figure in the front of the store with his hands out holding a bowl. We’ll miss the employees. We’ll miss you, Mr. Z.

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I have a curious question to put before all you people. Why must everybody on the North Side of Chicago, on the West Side of Chicago and in the collar counties be taxed to pay for the irresponsibility of all those killing people on the South Side of Chicago? Let them pay their own bills or clean up their own mess at their own expense. Goodbye.

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Hello, Lombard calling. I think it’s funny that somebody had to call in to SPEAK OUT and describe, or use a dictionary description of what a pedestrian is, pertaining to the stop sign. Walkers and bikers should just obey the signs; somebody’s going to get badly hurt, because cars are stopping, especially in the middle of Main Street. It’s a little ridiculous. The other thing I’d like to bring up is the 167 e-mails that were exchanged; that just goes to show you the inept board we have. Thank you.

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Kudos to the person who finally called in and said SPEAK OUT should be about Lombard and Villa Park and Lombard issues only. For way too long, it’s been about national issues. I know that affects everybody in Lombard and Villa Park, but maybe if people started calling about more local issues, mainly Lombard and Villa Park, more things would be done in the communities. I also have one more question: How come the haunted house is at Yorktown, way on the south side of town? It should be more in the center of Lombard, where it might attract more local people. Thank you.

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This is for the younger generation who do not know our history. With Franklin Roosevelt, the citizens came to realize that without term limits, we were marching back to monarchy. With the passing of Obamacare, forced upon the American people, while the administration, the Senate and the Congress exempted themselves from Obamacare and a host of other laws that apply only to the citizens, the time is now for term limits. Give our country back to the people. Thank you.

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Hello, Lombard calling. I noticed yesterday after stopping at Sweet Street over on St. Charles Road, that state Rep. Sandra Pihos now has an office in downtown Lombard. Not only is it an office for her upcoming campaign, but I found out it’s an office where residents can go to utilize the services of her office. It’s a great addition to downtown Lombard. Thanks, Sandy Pihos, for supporting downtown Lombard.

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Why would a sign that says “safe passage” work? Adults and children are getting shot, so why would a sign where adults and children walk make a difference? If it works, put signs on every street in America and we’ll all be safe. Really? Are we kidding?

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It was a pleasure to learn that “For the first time in 20 years residents of Lombard will not see a rise in property taxes.”