Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

ones. (laughter) But you'd have those. And they were always interesting, and they'd have
discussions, and you'd have to be recognized from the chair.
The mayor ran the meeting. And oh, occasionally he'd call different aldermen up to
preside. I presided more than once. Generally followed decorum and they didn't last too
long. They last a lot longer now. They didn't last too long, maybe an hour to ninety
minutes. A meeting that lasted over ninety minutes - they started at seven o'clock and
- or seven-thirty I think - and you were out, always out, of there by nine o'clock.
Of course you'd always have some attendance, some spectators, some different department
heads, the fire chief, and the police chief would always come, and the comptroller would
always come. And the deputy city clerk. The city clerk and the city treasurer were elected
on their own, but the comptroller was appointed. The mayor's appointees would be there.
It seemed like after Alton got a city manager - they had a city manager for a number
of years - the cost of government expanded. But I don't say that it was the city manager's
fault.
But as I said when I left the city council, I left. I don't think I was ever back there but
one time in my life. They had a member of the General Assembly up there for discussion
and I went. Not that I didn't like it, I just was in a different field of endeavor.
The precinct committeemen's meetings were strictly political and you'd have the candidates
there you know and the rabblerousing and the guys that were looking for favors and griping.
and like that. They were maybe without decorum.
The mayors I served under were Leo Struif and Harold Wadlow and they were both good
mayors and they ran good council meetings and they've both gone to their reward now, but
I had no problem with either one of them. I didn't always vote for all that they wanted,
but I didn't always vote against them. The only trouble we had with Wadlow was the
appointment of the fire chief. And I guess the biggest thing that happened under Struif
was the police and fireman bond issue. And that was resolved as I mentioned before to
the satisfaction of everyone. And the police and firemen got their back pay.
Q: What made you decide to run for mayor pro tern?
A: Oh you know what - I guess it was an honor. I never had much ambition to he -
I've had people mention it to me but I wouldn't want to be mayor I don't think. I don't
know why I did. I knew I was going to run for the assembly and I thought maybe it would
help me, give me more experience and just instead of saying you're a former alderman, I
could say I was a former alderman and a former mayor pro tem.
But I sure didn't win. I got beat. And that taught you a lesson in a sense. You know,
that you can't take anything for granted. Because that is the truth what I told you. Now
they just elected a mayor pro tem. I wasn't in too many of those elections because 1 was
only in four years plus another year I guess, another ten months. And there was only four
mayor pro tem elections. But the three out of the four were held openly and the one I got
beat in was held by secret ballot so . . .
Q: Why did they change the procedure?
A: Well I think they done that to beat me and they didn't want to know - I don't say that
vainly. I think they thought I could win openly. They couldn't beat me openly, but they
thought by secret ballot they could beat me.
Q: They did, huh? (chuckles)