Dupage Policy Journal

Four candidates running for reelection to the Naperville Park District Board—Mary Gibson, Alison Thompson, Rhonda Ansier and Leslie Ruffing—are facing renewed backlash ahead of the April 1 election for supporting strict COVID-19 protocols that have since been deemed ineffective and potentially harmful by the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. 

“Naperville voters, these four pushed and supported the most extreme COVID measures for their constituents, opposed challenging the Governor’s executive orders, and then wasted your money paying a high end lawyer to research the censure of a colleague for questioning all of it,” SafeSuburbsUSA said on X.  

“Then they promptly spent your money to travel to the open and free State of Tennessee for a ‘conference’ while all of us and our kids were on lockdown. Notice how soon the need for social distancing disappeared as soon as this photo op opportunity arose.” 

Photo of Josh McBroom's son being forced to play basketball while wearing a mask. | Facebook / Josh McBroom Naperville City Council

“Highly partisan. Extreme. Hypocritical.” 

“They’ll waste your tax dollars while pushing max tax levies.” 

“Vote against electing any of those in this photo. They do not deserve your vote.”

Naperville City Councilman Josh McBroom recently recounted a negative experience linked to the group running for reelection that happened during the summer of 2021, when he was still an elected commissioner to the Park Board. 

“This photo came up on a FB memory of my son 4 years ago, playing a basketball game with a ridiculous mask on,” McBroom said on Facebook. 

McBroom described how the board re-instated a strict no-exception mask policy. 

“Sometime around when this picture was taken, the majority of the Park Board decided they wanted to re-institute an aggressive no-exception mask policy at the park district, even more aggressive than what was required by the state,” he said. “Meaning, among other things, that little kids playing full-court basketball and even outdoor soccer needed strict mask requirements.”

McBroom objected to the policy publicly and informed his constituents, suggesting they contact the park district for questions. 

“When the majority of the park board proposed the new no-exception mask policy, I objected to it publicly,” McBroom said. “I also informed my constituents about the change in policy and that the majority had the votes to pass it. If they had questions/concerns about this new policy, I suggested they contact the park district. And I did this on social media, best way for me to get my message out quickly.” 

However, McBroom’s actions were not well-received by the Board. In an unexpected move, the board initiated an ethics inquiry into his conduct, which he claims was a reaction to his objection. 

“Well, the board didn’t like my position, and they didn’t like that I effectively stirred the pot by shining a light on it to the public,” he said.

“Their response to our disagreement on policy?” McBroom said. “To comb through my social media, take things out of context, and in a public meeting, without any warning- spring an ethics inquiry into my conduct. This of course created a short local media frenzy.”

The criticism of the Park Board comes months after the release of a U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic report in December 2024, which found many of the COVID-19 measures implemented across the U.S., such as the six-foot social distancing rule and mask mandates, were both ineffective and potentially harmful.

The report highlighted that there was no scientific basis for the six-foot rule, with Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins admitting that it was an arbitrary decision. 

The report also concluded that face masks provided minimal protection and that mandates, especially for children, may have caused more harm than good, with potential negative effects on development and mental health.

The report aligns with findings from leading epidemiologists, including signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration, released in October 2020, which advocated only for focused protection of high-risk populations.

Emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that Fauci and Collins collaborated to discredit the declaration, calling its authors "fringe epidemiologists" and pushing the media to downplay their ideas. 

That suppression extended to social media, with Facebook censoring the declaration’s mentions. This attempt to quash debate and control the narrative over pandemic policy raised concerns about censorship and the stifling of scientific discourse.

Despite such warnings from renowned virologists, Illinois instituted some of the most draconian COVID-19 protocols in the country.

The state required mandatory masking from May 1, 2020 to Feb. 28, 2022 and shuttered over a third of businesses in the state for over a year – many of which never reopened their doors.