More time, but not Southtown TIF Funds

Now and then, I am pleasantly surprised by the Peoria City Council. Not often, but now and then.

Being unable to attend Tuesday's City Council Meeting, I had to wait for Beth Ball to send me the minutes and read them over. It was a pleasant surprise that, while the council did give the "Wonderful Development" an additional six weeks, it did not give them the funding originally to come from the extended Southtown TIF. The pleas of Councilman Gulley, and the comments of many citizens from the Southtown area, not only pointed out that those funds would be much better used where they were collected, but that many of the projects originally intended for Southtown were never completed. Hmm, and I thought the purpose of a TIF was to rebuild the area. Sounds to me like very little rebuilding is going on there at all.

None of this should surprise anyone here in Peoria. Even when the City Council claims to be helping its citizens, they are actually hurting the current residents by "planning" for the future. Despite all its actions for community improvement, crime is up 36% in Peoria, according to the reports found on the City of Peoria website, and if you look at the stats for 2011, you'll notice the South end of Peoria is one of the hardest hit areas. After all these years, you would think that some of that TIF money could have been used to make safer neighborhoods. Not surprisingly, the East Bluff is also among those areas where crime is high. I wonder how much of the EVGC TIF funds will be used to help the residents who will be paying for that?

A Peoria Inauguration

Well, not quite as auspicious as all that, perhaps, but for the 200 or so people who crowded into the council chambers to bid adieu to outbound members Montelongo and Jacobs, to congratulate the returning incumbents, Turner, Spain, and Sandberg, and to welcome the newest members, Weaver and Akeson, it must have felt like the podium was smack dab in the middle of D.C. From the moment I walked in, you could tell the air was charged with anticipation. Several occasional visitors to the council chambers we present for the ceremony, and while I will invariably forget to mention someone, I will mention "Mitch" Mitchell, president of the East Bluff United Neighborhood Association, Don Cummings, a resident of the East Bluff and prominent member of American Legion Post #2, as well as many friends and family of the newly elected council members. I sat with several of the East Bluff ladies, and noticed our old friend Savino Sierra was there as well.
The council convened and the business was handled in quick order. City Counsel Ray verified that all incoming council members were eligible to be seated, and this was verified by the City Treasurer. The consent agenda was quickly passed, and Savino was given the opportunity to speak, and did so eloquently and briefly, congratulating the winners, and making a special comment about how happy he was to see Councilman Jacobs recovering.
There was no executive session, and Mayor Ardis quickly moved on to the presentation of thanks and praises to the outgoing members, Montelongo and Jacobs. Montelongo received his parting gift from the council without remarks, and since Jacobs was unable to get to the podium, his son George Jr. accepted his gift for him. Upon the conclusion of Mayor Ardis' remarks concerning Councilman Jacobs' service, he received a standing ovation, the first of several to come.
Next, after a proclamation by Mayor Ardis for both Montelongo and Jacobs, Montelongo gave a speech, a humble and gracious speech, extolling the honor of service and his pleasure to serve the community. Standing ovation again.
Next the 6th grade son of Jacobs, Jake, read a speech prepared by his father, and you could see the pride and humility in Jacobs' eyes as the young boy eloquently and passionately delivered his father's words. Standing ovation.
Next the members of the council, in turn, beginning with W. Eric Turner and working clockwise around the horseshoe, gave their words of thanks to both Montelongo and Jacobs, with the exception of Barbara Van Auken, who declined to speak for fear of becoming too emotional. After all had spoken, Mayor Ardis tendered his comments with passion for the service of these fine individuals. Having closed his comments, the meeting was adjourned.
While the room was reorganized, several people exited the chamber to tender their personal thanks to both Montelongo and Jacobs. I stepped out for a moment and greeted Chuck Weaver and several others, asked John Sharp how his shorthand was going (he also was armed with pad and pen for the event...there are a few of us old timers around), and headed back in to get my seat for the ceremonies.
Mary Haynes, the longest incumbent City Clerk in Peoria, presided over the swearing in. Her words were kind, soft, and enthralling. She spoke with sober tones to the At Large Council Members who were about to be sworn in, telling them that while they had been elected, the seats did not belong to them. They belong to the citizens of Peoria, and they are there to serve those people, and not themselves. The new Council Members were sworn in individually, in alphabetical order, and then seated around the horseshoe. Mayor Ardis convened the council, and asked that all stand while Pastor Cal from the Northwoods Church delivered an invocation. A special session convened and each member of the council was given the opportunity to welcome the returning members and the new officials to the horseshoe. At the close of those remarks, both Beth Akeson and Chuck Weaver gave short prepared speeches thanking the many people who helped them win their seats. Pastor Cal closed with a benediction and the meeting was adjourned.
In the hallway, treats and punch were served, people milled about and congratulated the council members. Smiles and handshakes all around. And people went off to their respective parties or homes.
Just another night in Peoria. But maybe a new beginning. I hope so, I know we could use one.

What will you choose?

I'm not much for blind faith. It took me a more than a year of reading scripture and contemplation to finally take the plunge (no pun intended) and be baptized as a Christian. I tend to look into things and not take them at face value. But when I find the value, I tend to support things adamantly, and persistently.

This does not mean I am always right. I have been wrong in the past, and will make mistakes in the future. But I have come to accept that as part of the Human Condition, a failing of our shared mortality. We, as a species, want to be right. And when we are wrong, we can do one of two things. We can admit the wrong and try to make it right, or we can go forward from that moment in the hopes we will eventually be right.

Tonight, we will install the elected At-Large Members of the City Council. We have elected them as our leaders, and we are now committed to hearing their voices and watching their actions, at least for another 4 years. We have elected two new members, in hopes their voices will be the voices of the people they represent, the voices of the people of Peoria.

Let us pray they are guided with wisdom, patience, and fortitude.

Election results show poor turnout!

"Only 11,962 of 68,429 registered voters, or 17.5 percent, cast a ballot." - Peoria Journal Star, 4/5/11.

Chuck Weaver and Beth Akeson will join the City Council with Gary Sandberg, W. Eric Turner, and Ryan Span returning.  Now how many people could have made the difference if they had voted? I guess I have to wonder what the rest of the 64,011 voters were doing this evening. 52,049 voters decided that their vote didn't matter. And by failing to vote, they in fact did vote. They voted to make this an uphill battle for a return to basic services. To the soldiers who will fight on our behalf, I salute you. To those who ran and were not elected, I salute you as well for the courage you displayed in offering to serve our community. While I did not agree with every platform, I respect the willingness of the citizens who were willing to stand up and be counted.

Now we look to the future, and charge the incumbents to take note. While the turnout was small, the voice was loud and very clear. We, the citizens who do pay attention, demand change. We will not longer sit idly by while you continue to make back room deals and flaunt your arrogance at the demands of the people. And there are a few of us who understand what it will require to campaign for the next election in two years.

Some of us are preparing now.

Sandberg cannot do it alone!

I've been an attendee at the City Council since January, watching the various consent items come and go, listening carefully to the voices of the council members, and hearing the complaints and comments of the citizens of Peoria who attend on various issues. One thing is clear. There is exactly one voice in the "horseshoe" who is concerned with what the citizens of Peoria care about. Gary Sandberg. He demands explanations for spending our tax money, and has the courage to stand up and oppose the items he believes are wasteful or just plain wrong. He is consistent in his approach, and a man who obviously does his research before speaking.
But Gary cannot do this job on his own. He needs allies on the board who will share his passion for Peoria, and his dedication to the people of this city. He needs allies who will support a basic services platform and listen to the will of the people.
A few weeks ago, the Peoria Journal Star came out to endorse the three most likely candidates to aid Gary in his fight. C. J. Summers, a local e-journalist and outspoken advocate of basic services, Beth Akeson, a local advocate for the Heart of Peoria Plan and Neighborhood Reinvestment, and Chuck Weaver, a local businessman who volunteers his time with local schools and other youth organizations.
If these people are not placed on the council, Peoria can look forward to four more years of the same.
On April 5th, VOTE! Take the time to go by your polling place and make a statement to the city. We will no longer accept this philosophy of "We know what's best for you" from the current administration.
Vote Sandberg, vote Summers, vote Akeson, vote Weaver.
The time to be active is NOW!

Wow....I think this is one of the problems that is holding us back.

Bill Lopotko, a local citizen involved with the Transparency in Government project and a concerned citizen in Peoria, has written a letter to the Journal Star that points out one of the major problems we might have with District 150. With Bill's permission, I post it below:

Should we call Superintendent Grenita F. Lathan, Governor? Recently, I discovered that the Peoria School District #150 Superintendent out-earns all 50 of the Governors. With a base salary of $198,000, Lathan makes more base salary than every Governor of the 50 States according to The Book of States 2010.

I was stunned. How have we let this happen? The people of Peoria are principled, hard working citizens. According to Sperling’s The Best Places to Live, the average home cost in our town is $91,380. Coldwell Banker’s website lists our average household income at little more than $46,318.

Our property taxes fund our school district. With property taxes increasing each year, our homes are harder to afford. We are literally renting from our school districts.

Someone needs to tell the Governor.

 Well, Bill, those are fine statistics, but you should hear them in context with a few other facts. Like the fact that those income numbers are primarily above War Memorial drive, when the schools that are taking the hit with this latest reshuffling of students are the ones below War Memorial. Like the fact that closing schools and increasing class sizes will probably lead to a mass exodus of qualified teachers out of the Peoria area, at least out of District 150 schools, particularly below War Memorial. Like the fact that the average teacher in a District 150 School earns about 1/4 of that outrageous salary.


And the worst of this is that Grenita Lathan cannot be blamed for a bit of this. I sincerely believe the woman is a very intelligent, very dedicated person who is simply trying to do a job. Unfortunately, she is not fulfilling the duties of her job, since we are still experiencing a rapid decline in our schools. Partially, of course, because of the outrageous salaries being paid to civil servants.


Gee, what's next? A City Manager with no experience running a city for an outrageous amount of money? Oh yeah, we already have one of those.


Election time is coming up, folks, and the basic services platform is the only one we can afford to support. C. J. Summers, Beth Akeson, and Chuck Weaver have all been endorsed by the Peoria Journal Star, as well as some very astute bloggers and some local organizations as well. We need Gary Sandberg re-elected, and for the fifth seat, lets hope that either Jim Stowell, who left the BOE to run for City Council, or George Azouri, admittedly wet behind the ears, but not a part of the machine, are elected. We need people on that council who will at least try to listen to the people and Take Back Peoria.

No poor old seniors at Sheridan and War Memorial - The City Gets its TIF

C. J. Summers of the Chronicle did a live blog from home of the council meeting tonight, so rather than repeat his excellent reporting, I'll just give you the highlights of what I heard.

You got to hand it to Barbara Van Auken. When the lady wants to give a speech, she can really give a speech. Doesn't even have to be based in facts. She knows how to form sentences and syllables so well, that you end up agreeing with her even when you know she is flat wrong. Her impassioned speech was about the Senior Housing project that would have been constructed at the corner of Sheridan and War Memorial. Her reasons were that 1) the neighbors didn't want it, 2) the zoning was wrong, 3) the cut through traffic would increase, and 4) the fire trucks and ambulances couldn't get through if the traffic was increased on Sheridan due to that Senior Housing. Zoning can, of course, be changed. The location would be across the street from the current Buehler Home, a residence for seniors, which doesn't seem to be prohibitive in traffic situations. Cut through Traffic? To where? The streets in that area are dead ends and cul de sacs, with not a lot of ways to cut through to anywhere except the residences of the white families in the area. And of course, no one wants to see the property values of those $100,000+ homes go to pot. I also noticed that the gallery of observers and citizens who were there to observe and potentially speak out against the issue (albeit they never got the opportunity) were white. And like the good citizens they are, they promptly left after they were assured that there would not be a senior residence at the location. Guess if you live in an area with $100,000 homes that are primarily populated by white people, "the neighbors don't want it" is sufficient reason to kill the project. Still not quite sure where Barbara is getting the Diverse part of her description of the neighborhood, but it sure did sound good.

Now one item caught my eye on the consent agenda, the one about $17,000+ for Police Duty Ammunition, with an additional $3,000+ for .45 caliber ammunition. I have no problem with the $13,000+ for Police Range ammo. Hey, I think all officers should practice Gun Control (hitting what you aim at). But $17,000+ for Duty Ammo? Exactly how many major gun battles have taken place in Peoria this last year? Folks, it's not like these things have expiration dates. When I was in the Navy, I could draw several hundred rounds each year for practice, and most of the boxes they handed us were from WWII manufacture. And they worked just fine. Not quite sure why they need to replace working ammo unless it is being expended.

I, of course, had to make a trip to my chiropractor after watching Dave Kinney do a 180 degree turn on the TIF. If you will recall, when the January 22nd council meeting took place, Dave and the Superintendent of Schools stood at the podium and begged the Council not to do the TIF because the frozen funds would hurt the already bleeding District 150 school budget. Ah, but the later agenda of the Council made clear the reason for the reversal. 10% of the TIF money will be set aside for Vocational Training to be done at the old Woodruff High School facility, which will now also house the kids on suspension from their home schools (read discipline problems). Gee, the price of cooperation is getting pretty cheap these days. 10% of an expected $95 million dollars over the next 23 years. About $434,000 a year. Now I am not quite sure what kind of vocational training they had in mind, but since the example made by one speaker, Wozniak, was a young person becoming a CNA (sheet changer, bedpan cleaner, etc.), this is certainly an OSF inspired idea to get 150 off their back and create a permanent underclass of "grunts" to do their (if you'll excuse the pun) shit work. No mention of automotive training or basic shop skills was made, and at that price, how could you? Tools, equipment, teachers who could actually teach auto mechanics are expensive, and these days require college level skills and classes. Same thing with shop classes. CNC systems are expensive, folks, ask the people at Caterpillar, who also now have a substantial presence at ICC. Oops, there we go again with the college level skills. So what kinds of vocations will they teach?

Riggenbach also made numerous mention of the meetings that had been held regarding the EVGC TIF. Let's see, there were two meetings that were entitled "TIF 101's" that were not meetings at all, but lessons on how the residential TIFs in two other Illinois cities worked (both of which are in financial straits, by the way). Then there was the last meeting, a "planning session" hosted by Ross Black where a white board was laid out with various options (one from column A, one from column B) to attempt to formulate a plan. But a plan was never agreed upon, even though the council voted today to create a plan. And while the other meetings were actual meetings to discuss why we should have a TIF at all, there were never any more than 40 or 50 people at these meetings. And most of those people were against the idea of the TIF.  But then again, we are talking about an area where the homes are assessed at between $35 to 60K, and the population is very diverse (Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics all live in the East Bluff). So I guess "the neighbors don't want it" doesn't apply if you come from an area where the average mean income is $36,009.50.

Notable attendees were George Azouri (who left with the crowd after the council killed the Senior Residence) and Chuck Weaver, who arrived a bit late but stayed for the end of the meeting. Obviously C. J. was listening as well. Also notable was the only Nay vote for the items regarding the TIF, Gary Sandberg.

Hope everyone is paying attention when April 5th rolls around.

Quick note of Congratulations and notification of Transparency in Government meeting.

Well, how about that? The Peoria Journal Star did their research and concluded what others and I have been telling you for a couple of weeks now. C. J. Summers, Beth Akeson, and Chuck Weaver have all gotten endorsements from the Journal Star, while Spain and Turner are the people to remove. Rather than repeat their already informative and well-researched articles, which are available in today's paper as well as at pjstar.com, I'll just add my recommendations for all three candidates as people who have exceptional skills and a real desire to return to a constituent based vision for Peoria. We need council members who will consider the desires of the citizens first, not empire builders with some esoteric vision of what the future could be. We need to get our crime problems solved, rebuild our infrastructure, and get our school district back on track before we worry about other problems. We also need to listen to the citizens who want the council to respond accordingly when an overwhelming number of citizens say NO to sweetheart deals, back room politics, and outright cronyism. We need fresh blood and fresh ideas to help Councilman Sandberg on the council.




Transparency in Government

Now that the rant is out of my system, another announcement for you all. Brian Costin of the Illinois Policy Institute will be the guest speaker at the monthly Peoria 9/12 Project on Thursday, April 21st at 6 p.m.. Doors will open at 5:30 and the meeting will begin at 6 p.m. The subject of the talk centers around making local government transparent to the voters and citizens.

A short biography of Brian Costin

bcostin@illinoispolicy.org

Brian Costin joined the Illinois Policy Institute in January of 2010.  Previously, he worked for the Heartland Institute as assistant director of government relations. Brian has been active in the Institute’s Liberty Leaders project, which he now leads, and founded the Schaumburg Freedom Coalition, where he won the 2010 Government Watchdog Award from the Sam Adams Alliance for his work exposing government waste & fraud in his hometown of Schaumburg.

Brian graduated with distinction from North Park University where he received a Master in Management of Nonprofit Administration. While attending North Park University, Brian worked for UPS in operations management and business development. As an undergraduate at Illinois State University, Brian completed a Bachelors of Science degree, double majoring in Economics and Politics & Governance. 

Brian’s work has earned coverage from national and state media outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, and Chicago Tonight.  He is a regular guest on the nationally syndicated television show First Business and the Mornings with Ray Hanania radio show. 

Click here to view policy reports, articles, and other work by Brian Costin. 

Bill Lopotko and I will be on hand to accept volunteer applications for learning more about how you can be involved in helping to create a more easily accessible government here in Peoria.

The TIF and the City

John Sharp has written an excellent piece in the Journal Star about the upcoming East Valley Growth Cell TIF that will soon be enacted for the East Bluff and Near North Side. While his article is balanced and tries to include both sides of the argument, there is an interesting side note to the entire affair.

Now the TIF funds are at the mercy and discretion of the City Council, once it is enacted. So, since the consensus appears to agree that it will go through despite objections of residents like myself, the question really becomes WHO do I want holding the checkbook? Despite the protestations of Timothy Riggenbach, who has publicly stated he will fight the disbursement of EVGC TIF funds to the MidTown Plaza TIF, the funds generated by the TIF (Taxpayer Dollars) can be maneuvered by the City Council to other TIF areas. And while the last meeting of the TIF Advisory Committee was a show designed to give the illusion of community involvement, the charter of that Advisory Committee clearly states that they are strictly that, an advisory committee, who's information, recommendations, and findings can be disregarded in part or entirely. There is not regulation or law that prevents the City Council from doing whatever they want to do, in spite of the desires or objections of the homeowners.

Personally, I think the incumbents have lost sight of their purpose and their calling. They are not there to be Empire Builders or Dictators, but Servants of the People. We are the ones who should be telling them what we want done, how we want it done, and what we think should be the direction of our city.

Gary Sandberg, C.J. Summers, and Beth Akeson appear to have this message in their platforms. The other candidates...well, not too sure. Still checking and I will be listening very carefully on Wednesday, March 16th when we have them on the Dais at the Peoria Theater starting at 6 p.m. Will you?