Dupage Policy Journal

Aurora Alderman Rick Lawrence said, at a recent town hall, that Mayor Richard Irvin is putting on an act in his run for governor. 

Lawrence also called into question the sky-high tax rate for Aurora under Irvin and questioned his inaction during the Black Lives Matter riots that occurred in mid-2020. 

“In 2016 he asked me to help him and I sat at breakfast and listened to him,” Lawrence said in a town hall. “And he gave me all these promises on what we were going to do and how the city was going to run and the people that he was going to change out and how we were going to approach economic development. He broke every single one of those promises that he made to me that morning and so I did not vote for him the second time around just based on his activity as mayor."

Lawrence also spoke about the city tax rate. 

"Our tax rate now according to Lincoln Institute is the highest in the nation for a median size home," he said. "We beat Bridgeport, we beat Newark, we beat Detroit. Little Aurora, Illinois according to the Lincoln Institute, last year had the highest tax rate in the nation. Our tax rate – our city tax rate – is five times higher than Naperville’s city tax rate – our next-door neighbor and we have to compete with that.” 

“Rich Irvin raised the levy last year 3.1 million dollars. Rich Irvin’s budget since he's been in office has gone up over 25 over 100 million dollars for the City of Aurora. The bonds that he's selling for all of these projects he does a lot of talk about economic development all this economic development is backed by the taxpayers it's not a whole bunch of risks by investors this is all done with through tiffs that are guaranteed tiffs by the taxpayer or straight out bonds or grants by the taxpayers so economic development is a convenient word to use but it's really subsidized development that he’s done.” “I’ve seen his commercial he talks a lot about what he did during the riot. Our police officers were told to stand down and not engage in the riot. And over 30 businesses were destroyed in Aurora and so that's the real record.” “It's frustrating to watch you know a made-up character by a marketing department because that's not the person that I know and it's not the person I worked with.”

Irvin was recently exposed for advocating "disruption" in the city, as evidenced by rioters from Black Lives Matter.

He has been deemed a “handpicked puppet of the political elites who lacks the courage to do what’s right,” Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Irvin has been accused of using Aurora tax dollars to pay off friends and relatives, despite the city's high tax levy, according to a release from the Democratic Governors Association. Dennis Cook, an associate, was noted as being a member of a “web of politically-connected companies and individuals” who were engaged in a redevelopment project for Copley Hospital. The Democratic Governors Association dubbed the scheme "pay-to-play" and chastised Irvin for the ethical concerns it raised.

JTE Real Estate Services, which is participating in the Copley Hospital project, and is controlled by Michael Poulakidas, Irvin's former campaign treasurer, employed Irvin's ex-wife, Crystal Rollins. The deal is expected to net Poulakidas' firm $15 million.

Poulakidas and Cook are rumored to share office space.

Other corporations who do business with the city of Aurora have also compensated Cook. According to WTTW, JH Real Estate Partners received money from a Cook-controlled Political Action Committee after the company won two $1.5 million grants from the city of Aurora.