10/01/2025
I watched a video about Boston city council brushing off parents who were flagging safety issues with a new slide. It felt familiar.
In Waterloo, I began engaging our City of Waterloo, IL Government in good faith. Early on, the back and forth was cordial. But once the questions turned critical, and more neighbors here started speaking up, the tone changed. In my opinion, Mayor Darter is comfortable when people repeat his framing; genuine pushback gets treated like a personal attack instead of civic accountability.
Based on my own firsthand observation after a recent council night at a local bar, I saw behavior that I consider disrespectful and beneath the office. I am not posting the exact words here; this is my account and opinion of what I witnessed. Others were present. To me, it fit a pattern: thin skin, big ego, low accountability.
Criticism comes with the job. Strong leaders can hear tough feedback without taking it out on constituents. Weak leaders get defensive, try to intimidate, or turn it into a grudge. That is not how you build trust, or fix real issues like water quality.
What Waterloo deserves:
• Officials who answer tough questions directly and transparently
• A mayor who treats residents with respect in public and after the gavel falls
• A culture where criticism is not punished, it is listened to and acted on
If you have tried to engage the city, on water, streets, permits, parks, anything, and felt dismissed, you are not alone. We can insist on better now, and we can elect better in 2027. Leaders who can take criticism, listen, and put constituents above ego.
Waterloo can do better. Let’s expect more.
