According to records obtained from City of DeKalb, on February 27 a man stopped in to city hall to file a complaint against then-Alderman Scott McAdams. This included a letter addressed to Mayor Cohen Barnes and the city manager, along with screen shots of a messaged conversation during which McAdams used racist slurs. The letter…
How much time should we give the DeKalb mayor to learn to run a proper meeting?
The Daily Chronicle published a story about Mayor Cohen Barnes’ so-called apology for dramatically interrupting a woman who was attempting to make a public comment during a recent city council meeting. The mayor interrupted first by arguing with her, then by calling her out of order, and finally by obtaining a motion for recess and…
“Time Bomb” Barnes & the First Responders
DeKalb mayor Cohen Barnes is hoping to become the Democratic candidate in this month’s primary election for Illinois House District 76 representative. In his introductory statement during a candidates’ forum, Mayor Barnes said, “We’ve hired over 20 police officers in the last year alone — and firefighters.” The statement is unusual in at least two…
DeKalb aldermen can’t get items placed on their own city council agendas
Sixth Ward Alderman Mike Verbic has attempted to get items included on DeKalb city council agendas for nearly a year, but the city manager has yet to comply. Emails from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show that Alderman Mike Verbic began requesting items be placed on city council agendas in March 2023, and…
5 issues ignored so far in City of DeKalb’s budget plans
Need for a finance director. DeKalb’s finance director left this year and it looks like there’s no plan to replace her. That’s too bad. Besides the risk of returning to subpar audits, a qualified finance director could fill in for the city manager if needed, which is particularly important since the assistant city manager’s position…
“A way to harass poor people”
I’ve been talking to people familiar with DeKalb’s administrative hearing system to try to understand the point of it all. (One of the responses became the title for this piece.) At heart it’s theater, but hardly entertaining. What’s collected probably doesn’t cover the costs of putting on the show, and the performance contains the threat…
DeKalb’s plans for a new fire station don’t make sense
Management staff at City of DeKalb are proposing to build a fourth fire station on South Malta Road, next to the property housing Schnucks. Here are three reasons to question the plan. Let’s expand on that last thought because it’s extra bizarre. The area of greatest demand is the northwest quadrant, but management doesn’t want…
Put Mayor Barnes’ financial interests front and center in the eminent domain discussions
Mayor Cohen Barnes owns two parcels of property in downtown DeKalb as Bandits Castle, LLC. One of them should occupy the center of attention as the city council contemplates authorizing the condemnation and acquisition of the building owned by D-N-J Properties at 128-140 South Second Street via eminent domain proceedings. During Monday evening’s council meeting,…
DeKalb’s crime-free housing program was a mess when they passed new rules in the fall
This is a follow-up to last week’s post, “DeKalb’s not following its own rules for training landlords.” I’ve received feedback since posting it that the training has been hit-or-miss for several years. Also it turns out the landlord education fails are the tip of the iceberg. When new Crime Free Housing Bureau director Bob Redel…
DeKalb’s not following its own rules for training landlords
DeKalb landlords, property managers, and other registered contact persons for rental properties are required to take an initial landlord education course provided by the city, with annual refresher training after that. But according to a response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted earlier this month: [P]rior to the appointment of the current Crime…