Chuck Grayeb’s last regular Peoria City Council meeting is Tuesday, as his 24-year tenure is drawing to a close.
Grayeb originally served three terms as an at-large council member, and now has spent the last 12 years as the District 2 representative.
He chose not to seek re-election in the latest cycle, instead campaigning for the mayor’s office. He failed to advance from the primary and ultimately endorsed Mayor Rita Ali’s bid for a second term.
Barring a successful recount, newcomer Alex Carmona will assume Grayeb’s District 2 seat at the horseshoe when the new council is sworn during a special meeting May 6.
Heading into his final weeks as a council member, Grayeb spoke to WCBU reporter Joe Deacon to reflect on his years of service.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity and brevity.
You’re coming to a close on just shy of 25 years of service on the Peoria City Council. How will you look back at your time at the horseshoe?
Chuck Grayeb: I'm looking forward, I'm not looking back. But if you said what would be some of the most important moments in the 24 years I could address that.
Yeah, that's one of my questions. What do you consider some of your biggest accomplishments or proudest moments as a councilman?
Grayeb: Well, for Chuck Grayeb, it would be always being an advocate for our heritage neighborhoods, because I think everyone needs to have a keen understanding that if we lose the neighborhoods to the south of War [Memorial] Drive, no amount of growth to the north, our growth cell strategy to the north, will save our city.
So that's why I'm heartened to see those efforts paying off as more and more energy is flowing into our neighborhoods to the south of War [Memorial] Drive, all the way to our downtown.
Do you have any regrets or things you wish you would have done differently, things that didn't quite work out the way you've hoped in your time as a councilman?
Grayeb: No. The reason being, I feel that I always have measured three times before I cut one time, and I think it's important to do that.
People do not understand it, but 24 years of council meetings under several mayors – we had council meetings every Tuesday; only about midway through [former Mayor Jim] Ardis’ term did we start going to every other – there's a lot of time that needs to go into analysis of what the best thing is for the city. It's not just what happens on Tuesday.
When I walk in there on Tuesday, I've already ruminated and contemplated and discussed and argued with myself and others on what the correct policy is, so I always felt that I was well prepared. That's what I told my students: They should be well prepared when they come to class – I was a principal for years in education.
So I don't think I have any consternation about any particular big miss on the major issues of the day.
Like you say, even people who are avid followers of the council meetings, they see the agenda but they don't see the giant packet and all the research that goes into every agenda item. How much time do you think you've actually spent, outside of just the council meetings, preparing for each meeting?
Grayeb: Oh, it's incalculable. One thing that helps though, the more experience you have, the more you have a larger frame of reference in terms of our city, where it's been and where it needs to go. So it's like, you know, when you're new on the council – and I was new at one time in ’95 when I was first elected – there's a lot to learn, and it kind of slows you down a little bit.
But now, we have issues that come up that are occasionally a little on the novel side, but not much. There are iterations of past issues that have come before us, and so it doesn't take as much time. But when they redistricted, pursuant to the last decennial census, I had to get up to speed fast on what was happening in the new part of my district, and that encompassed the downtown area and part of the Warehouse District.
So you say you don't really have any regrets. Some of the things you’ve said during council meetings over the years have drawn criticism or even outrage, at times. Is that just part of what comes with being an elected representative, or are there any statements you would ever want to take back?
Grayeb: None. What I would like to see happen is those people who want to distort and twist comments, I would like to see those folks banished to an island far, far away because they're purposefully distorting.
If you run for the city council, you better be prepared to think through your position and defend it, and you better get a backbone. Otherwise, don't even bother, because you're not going to leave a mark and you're not going to do right by your constituents.
Do you feel you've left a mark?
Grayeb: Yes. I think at least I've been a spectator on what's been happening to this great city of Peoria for these many decades. And the nattering nabobs of negativism, they do not impress me.
These are the people who think that our worst days are around the corner, that nothing's happening, our downtown's dying. You hear it all the time, that we're going to lose our neighborhoods south of War [Memorial] Drive. No, we're not – as long as we have people who are committed to ensuring that all of our city is vibrant.
I think our best days do lie ahead, and you know, I've seen it from the growth cell strategy working way out in the prairie land, coming all the way downtown. It's critical that we get our West Main corridor in line with our downtown area, because that is a vibrant stretch, corridor of opportunity. We just recently had some business people put up new banners for West Main. But I view that entire West Main area, which is not prairie land, coming together as a vibrant whole with the downtown area.
We're going to have, very soon, about 6,600 people living downtown. It's a neighborhood now, you've heard me see this over and over again. It's not just a commercial, legal, office center. It's now a neighborhood, and I think we need to blend that in to the West Main corridor.
We have all the neighborhoods, and with Bradley [University], one of our major employers – and we have done very well, as city councils, fostering and promoting the growth strategy which has helped us develop into a 55 square-mile city. A number of years ago, it was only 26 square miles. So I see only good things ahead.
So what would you say is your level of optimism for the city's direction and future, and what are your chief concerns right now?
Grayeb: My chief concern is crime, and you heard that on the campaign trail. And if we do not have a city that is viewed as being safe to live in because of rampant career criminality or delinquency, all this investment is not going to happen. It's not.
But I do believe that we will solve that problem, but we first have to recognize that we have the problem, and I do believe we have everybody's attention.
What are your other optimisms for the future, though?
Grayeb: We're a great city by a river – never underestimate the beauty of our city, in terms of its topography, geography, whatever you want to say. We have a neighborhood for everybody. We have the River Valley, which is absolutely stunning.
You go up Grandview Drive and out on to Prospect and continue out onto the prairie land, where you have suburban areas, if people prefer to live in a suburban setting, to the Warehouse [District’s] fashionable areas now, living downtown [and] everything in between – the heritage neighborhoods, where I live, that have history.
We've got it all, whether it's the Valley, the bluff areas: West Bluff, Center Bluff, East Bluff, and the growth cell areas way out north. We've got it all; it's a stunningly beautiful city.
That's one of the reasons I think this [proposed] Amtrak [passenger rail] line is important. It's not just to take us elsewhere; it's to bring people here. We are a great historic settlement of a city. History, it's all here in Peoria. It's all here.
Three-hundred fifty years or so since the French explorers came down the [Illinois] River, to see where we are now, it's a long time. But we are a great historic settlement of a city with deep traditions, and I think Peoria, it's great days, best days are ahead.
The pandemic caused people to reconsider living in some of the stress-filled areas of the major cities. We have people who have bought homes that they couldn't have afforded elsewhere because they can work anywhere now. We have a reasonable city in terms of the ability to get around quickly, a reasonable cost of living. So our best days are ahead.
How much has Peoria changed or evolved during your time on the council, and do you see these differences as positive?
Grayeb: Parents need to be doing a better job. Our educators need to do a better job working with parents. For many years, I was an administrator for the adult education programs, intergenerational literacy – important; we promoted that. Having parents going back to school if they didn't get their diplomas, being good role models for children.
We need help down in Springfield, though. We need help down in Springfield. We need a governor who understands that parental accountability is a big deal, and that we shouldn't shy away from that. Children who are in homes that are dysfunctional, where the parents let them get involved in criminal activity over and over again, they shouldn't be in those homes. That's abuse.
We have a Department of Children and Family Services that needs to be shaken from top to bottom. I think our school systems, we have all or part of five school systems in the city of Peoria, are doing their best, our teachers are doing their best. But we need help, and we can't do it alone. And I believe we’re working hard to get more and more parents back to school, learning. Hopefully we'll have a strong parental accountability statute coming out of Springfield.
We wait until there's a tragedy, and then we look, “oh, now, how would those parents that have been good parents allow those kids to have those guns in that home and go to school and use those guns on their fellow students? How did that happen?”
So we ask questions only when there's tragedy, but we have tragedy now. We have about 36 kids that have driven much of our crime wave, same kids. What's wrong with the system? I would have led that discussion as mayor; I believe [Mayor] Rita Ali will also continue to read that lead that discussion.
How much do you believe that your career as an educator prepared you for public service as a councilman?
Grayeb: Couldn't have better preparation, and you have to keep it simple so people understand what you're saying. A good council person has to be able to teach and explain things, explain policies. Sometimes we can explain it very well. Sometimes people don't want it explained to them, and maybe sometimes it's hard for us to explain because we've missed the mark on some things as a city.
But I do think that education is critical to being a good council person so they understand what the city is trying to do and what it's trying to achieve, and what we need to do together with our citizens, because that's the strength of Peoria: We have strong, vibrant neighborhoods. Certainly it's the strength of District 2, I've learned that very quickly being the councilman for District 2.
One thing that I've noticed about District 2 is that people feel passionately about their neighborhoods, from Rolling Acres, the St. Phil's [Philomena] area, West Bluff, East Bluff, downtown business people. We're all committed to making a better Peoria. Government alone cannot do it.
That's why I find it interesting that there are people who think that there's not a lot of energy downtown. There's not only energy from the private sector, but guess what? We're redesigning our downtown: Our two-way to one-way conversion, a $20 million project, we've redesigned the space. This is something they dreamed about doing years ago when I first got there, with all these urban planners we hired to come in. It's happening now, right now. And we're going to see great rewards from that as the years pass.
What advice would you offer for the next District 2 council member?
Grayeb: Listen, listen and listen, and provide great constituent service. Because they'll forgive differences of opinion on a given issue that might come down – there’ll be lots of issues that are going to come – if you provide constituent service and you listen to them, and they understand where you're coming from.
Now the end analysis, one of these candidates said to me, “You know, I didn't always agree with you, but maybe there's something wrong with me. Maybe we need to sit down and talk, because maybe I'm missing something.” Then when you get half the people going one way and half going another way, maybe we all need to get down and talk and talk more frequently, because District 2 does not think in a monolithic way about things.
There's many different thought processes going on, from the business people, downtown [and] the Warehouse District, all the way out to the people who live in the neighborhoods near Richwoods High School.
You said at the outset that you don't look back, you look forward. Have you decided whether or not you're going to continue public service, or do you view this as a retirement?
Grayeb: You know, people thought I was going to retire, and I thought I was going to retire, when I decided I didn’t want to run for a fourth term in 2007, after three terms as an at-large. I think John Morris and I exited about the same time, which created some openings.
I had no intention of ever going back, and then things went haywire in District 2, or at least a lot of people thought had gone haywire, and I decided I'd run again for the District 2 seat. And I've been now in the district seat, even the redistricted District 2, for 12 years.
I never say “never;” every day is new and different. But I sure am enjoying ability to do a lot of chores around the house and caught up with some of the properties that I have, and be able to relax and sleep in a little bit more.
