19 hours Ago By Steve Lord
Mike Saville doesn’t expect anyone to agree with him all the time. “You’re not going to be able to come to 100% agreement,” the 6th Ward alderman in Aurora said recently. “We don’t always have to agree.
I mean, spouses don’t always agree. We might disagree one time, and agree the next 99 times.” That has been a guiding concept for Saville, who is nearing 40 years on the Aurora City Council – more than 40 years in public service – the most consecutive years on the council for any alderman since at least the change of government in the city in 1977, and maybe ever.
He has served through five mayoral administrations – David Pierce, David Stover, Tom Weisner, Bob O’Connor and Richard Irvin – and with other aldermen too numerous to mention. And in that time, Saville has left a mark on downtown Aurora and in his near West Side ward by supporting what he calls “quality of life issues” – development standards, parks, historic preservation, flooding and his particular focus, the Riverwalk through downtown. Moreover, he has made a connection with people in his 6th Ward to the point of enjoying ongoing support, even when they don’t agree.
“What I’ve tried to do is listen as much as possible, to always see if there’s a compromise, or if they just want me to vote no,” he said. “Sometimes, I would vote in favor of my constituents, when I might have voted for something else. “My secret is when an election comes around, I run scared.
I don’t take it for granted. I try to get back to people. I try to remain humble to the experience.
Even though I have experience, I never go into an issue where I know it all. “I always say, don’t call me alderman, call me Mike.” Ald.
Carl Franco, 5th Ward, who has served about 10 years with Saville, said it is that even-tempered attitude that has contributed to Saville’s longevity on the council. “Mike’s just a good person, a solid person,” Franco said. “He just wants to do the right thing.
He’s on a very even keel. I get agitated at times. I couldn’t do it for 30 years, I know that.
” Mayor Richard Irvin has served for the past seven years as mayor with Saville on the council, and with him as a fellow alderman for 10 years before that. He said Saville is “not only synonymous with Aurora, but also synonymous with fairness, professionalism, balance and community service.” “His four decades on the City Council have granted him a historical access and longitudinal perspective that only time can provide,” Irvin said.
“He’s a walking encyclopedia of Aurora happenings and is an elected official who brings his years of personal experience to every single decision he votes on. “He is the people’s politician and a darn good one.” Saville graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago with a degree in political science.
After graduation, he traveled a bit, but eventually made his way back to the city where he grew up, Aurora. In 1980, Chet Albright, who was the 6th Ward alderman at the time, sponsored Saville for the Aurora Plan Commission (now the Planning and Zoning Commission). “I had no planning background,” he said.
“The Plan Commission was a great educational opportunity. I realized, I’m happy being a planner. This is fun.
” When Albright resigned from the City Council to take a new job in 1985, Saville put his hat in the ring for the position, along with two others. David Pierce, mayor at the time, chose Saville. “I never thought I’d be here after all these years,” Saville said.
Mike Saville, Aurora’s 6th Ward alderman for almost 40 years, presents an award at an Aurora City Council meeting as part of his duties as mayor pro-tem, filling in when the mayor is absent. (Steve Lord / The Beacon-News) Almost immediately, Saville took an interest in improving development standards in the city, which were “loose” at the time, he said. His interest would lead to years of chairing the City Council’s committee on development, known by several names over the years but now called the Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee (which he does not chair now).
The first legislation he sponsored was to force property owners who tore buildings down to put in topsoil and plant grass on the lot, known as “greening” the lot. “Aurora was a very different town,” he said. “It was in the path for development, but it needed guidance.
To see Aurora change and change for the better, it’s been a phenomenal opportunity.” Through the years, a partial list of things Saville has supported or sponsored include: Increased lot sizes for building and rebuilding; requiring vacant houses be boarded up and painted; an anti-monotony ordinance so the city would not have narrow row houses; and amendments to the sign ordinance, including support for taking billboards down in downtown. Linda Girardi / The Beacon-News At center, Aurora Ald.
Scheketa Hart-Burns, 7th Ward, and Ald. Michael Saville, 6th Ward, with scissors, cut the ribbon at a new park in Aurora in 2019. Hart-Burns, who died last year, spent 32 years on the Aurora City Council.
Saville is now nearing 40 years as an Aurora alderman. (Linda Girardi / For The Beacon-News) Saville has been a staunch supporter of historic districts. Three of the four such districts in the city – Riddle Highlands, Palace Street and Tanner – are in the 6th Ward.
Another of the first challenges Saville faced – one that took a long time to deal with – was flooding in his ward. “When I became alderman, we had one good storm sewer,” he said. “The rest of the ward had bad storm sewer systems.
There was a time when I didn’t like it when it was raining because I knew I was going to get a call. Now, I enjoy the sound of rain again.” Saville also was a supporter of neighborhood downzoning throughout the city, a long-range reversal of the rule enacted in 1957 that allowed many single-family homes to convert to multi-family.
At the time, it was seen as a solution to a housing crisis, but it turned out to be a true neighborhood-buster leading to overcrowding. In the effort to turn those homes back to single-family, Saville and other aldermen worked with such neighborhood activists as Lillian Perry, Elaine Parker, Arlene Shoemaker, Betty Barr (who also served with Saville on the City Council) and Marie Wilkinson. But perhaps the one issue Saville is most connected to is passage of the 1987 Riverwalk Commission, and its eventual companions, the FoxWalk District and the Design Review Committee.
“I knew Kane County had it on the books to bring the bike trail to Aurora,” Saville said. “It was going to stop. I thought how do we get it through downtown? Let’s have a Riverwalk; Naperville has a riverwalk, other cities have a riverwalk.
” The idea of the commission was so popular that there were too many people applying to be on it, so the idea of a Riverwalk Advisory Committee was born. In 1993 the city created the FoxWalk District, which included the entire downtown. After that came the Design Review Committee, which signs off on all design things downtown, from benches, signage to light poles.
“When we proposed it, there were seven different light standards downtown,” Saville said. “Look at downtown today, it looks as good as it does because of the Riverwalk. Every succeeding administration, to their credit, has carried forward those standards.
” Saville points to the section on Stolp Island, between Downer Place and Benton Street, where the new Stolp Island Theatre is, and the refurbished GAR Museum. But there are 10 different vistas featuring the river that have been created downtown since the commission came in, he said. “It can be a place of commerce and excitement,” he said.
“In 1987, I said the river and the downtown are the heart and soul of our community. And we did end up connecting the riverwalk with the downtown. So, it’s been fun and rewarding to watch and unfold, even though we’re not done yet.
” Saville is not done yet, either. Longevity like his on the council is rare. Bob O’Connor served as an alderman at-large for 36 years before retiring in 2021, and Scheketa Hart-Burns spent 32 years on the council, passing away in 2023.
Saville did try for higher office in 2017, when he ran for mayor, losing in the primary to Irvin and Rick Guzman. But he continued as alderman, winning reelection in his 6th Ward most recently in 2023, eventually gaining 72% of the vote despite facing six candidates. “Truthfully, I’m just taking it one election at a time,” Saville said.
“I’ll see how I’m doing, check the constituents. Today I feel good. I’m making a difference in the community.
” [email protected].
