Councilman to Relinquish Seat to Focus on Law Practice, Family

After six years of night meetings, difficult budget cuts and hard work, City Councilman Howard Levine thinks now is the right time to relinquish his seat on the council. 

He said it's a good time to focus on his law practice at Wheaton-based law firm DeAno & Scarry LLC and family responsibilities Tuesday. 

"The city is in good hands ... the current membership does a fantastic job. We've gotten to a point where we didn't have to lay anyone off," he said. He added that the current levy decreased slightly, after "a lot of hard decisions" with the city's budget.

The best thing about being a councilman was "weathering the storm," with city finances, and coming out with not only a lower levy but the Moody's AAA bond rating. 

He recalled other high points of his service including construction of the First Trust Building, the downtown parking deck, an ordinance amendment to limit the number of downtown retail banks and passing the smoking ban before most other municipalities. Low points: laying off city workers in the last couple of budget cuts, he said, "That's never an easy job—so that was very difficult."