***Update 8/6/2022*** DeKalb city council is expected to approve an intergovernmental agreement during its regular meeting on August 8 that specifies a developer buying the Suburban property, the city annexing it and connecting it to city water, and DeKalb County providing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds of $862,500 for the water infrastructure improvements. Agenda…
Author: Lynn Fazekas
DeKalb’s discussion of lead service line replacement leaves out key provision of new law
City of DeKalb appears to be unaware that a new state law changes the rules for how lead water service lines are replaced. During its regular meeting Monday, the city council discussed whether to use grant money to offer incentives to property owners to replace the portions of lead service lines that lie within their…
Among the issues plaguing delivery of care in Illinois skilled nursing facilities
Almost a year ago, in the cause of shedding the landlord collectively known as Hunter Properties, City of DeKalb signed a settlement agreement with them. DeKALB – After a series of unresolved code violations, the City of DeKalb and Hunter Properties have reached a tentative agreement which will include a change of ownership of four…
Nursing home sales and ownership, and our local situation
Recently the DeKalb County Board signed a contract with Marcus & Millichap (M&M) that has two phases: first, M&M as consultant in deciding what to do with our DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing Center (DCRNC); and secondly, M&M as broker of a sale with a 3% commission attached. If this sounds like a conflict of…
We deserve an examination of the nursing home failures
The DeKalb County Board used more than an hour of its Committee of the Whole meeting last week to start discussing options in determining the fate of DeKalb County Nursing & Rehab Center (DCNRC) in responding to its financial crisis. In my opinion, the board and administrator have acted responsibly and transparently from the moment…
Support of the clerk’s office helps protect DeKalb elections
The Daily Chronicle published a story last week about the DeKalb city clerk’s absenteeism at city council meetings. Sasha Cohen’s attendance record since taking office is running about 50%, and the city council is whining about it. Unfortunately, the article is missing context, such as the double standards and hostile environment at play. While I’m…
Letter urges investigation of the housing authority’s contracts with the mayor’s IT firm
Derek Van Buer’s latest letter to DeKalb County Board regarding Housing Authority of the County of DeKalb (HACD) urges authorities to investigate evident irregularities with HACD’s service contracts with the DeKalb mayor’s firm, Sundog IT, including allegations that HACD is not following HUD procurement rules nor its own procurement policies in approving and executing contracts…
Unauthorized compensation of city commissioners: the fix should be simple
City of DeKalb has been paying compensation to at least two of its advisory commissions without proper authorization. Members of the Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) and the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners both receive what look like meeting per diems in the expenditure records. But it turns out the payments aren’t properly authorized…
DeKalb Township is getting things done
With the election shenanigans and rough start of the new township board last year, I didn’t expect much from this public body at first. But eight months into it and they deserve credit for pro-public policies and practices. Meetings This week, for example, the board reversed an earlier decision to remove agenda background material from…
We could strengthen open meetings laws by plugging the ‘walking quorum’ loophole
I decided to find out more about Sycamore’s new city manager (who comes to us from Wisconsin) and ended up adding to my vocabulary. A ‘walking quorum’ is a series of gatherings among separate groups of members of a governmental body, each less than quorum size, who agree, tacitly or explicitly, to act uniformly in…