Remember how City of DeKalb never got rid of its legal assistant, even when the city switched to an outside attorney who is contractually obligated to hire and pay his own help? The city is still providing the attorney with hired help, only now they’ve changed the name of the position to “administrative assistant.”
Category: City Watch
Fighting Over Scraps
The Chronicle posted an article online last night about council’s fight over the proposed annual budget that begins January 1. The article says that city staff presented a draft budget with 75% cuts in the social services allocations. This is different from the online version available to the public, which shows the line item (account…
DeKalb’s Decaying Support of Social Services
**Correction and clarification added 11/30** In DeKalb’s fiscal year budget for 2008, $214,000 was allocated in the legislative department budget for social services funding. Two years later, the amount was reduced to $150,000, because the city was still experiencing post-Great Recession budget crises. The funding has never been restored. It’s been at $150,000 ever since,…
Balancing a Budget through Neglect of Neighborhoods
In “Mayor’s View: DeKalb in Solid Financial Shape for 2017,” John Rey is claiming that DeKalb is in fine financial shape. This will be his campaign refrain, but it’s nonsense. DeKalb has been spending more than it’s been taking in, the steep rise in spending is primarily due to over-staffing, and the foremost casualty is…
DeKalb Tried to Hide Settlement Agreement with Former Community Development Director
Last year, City of DeKalb got caught violating the Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA) in approving a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. There were actually two violations, but the one we are concerned with here is DeKalb city council’s failure to take its final vote on the matter in a public session…
DeKalb City Manager’s Office Tried to Keep ‘STEAM Team’ Under Wraps
City staff are proposing to spend $400,000 in 2017 for a STEAM learning center — and that’s just for the architectural service called “building analysis.” The city is already spending $75,000 on a consulting firm, and council has been spending time in closed sessions to discuss the purchase or lease of property. This is an…
Surprise! What Management Analysts at City of DeKalb Don’t Do
Fun tidbit has come my way, and by “fun” I mean enormously dispiriting. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request dated 10/31/2016: Please provide examples over the past three months (8-1-16 to 10-31-16) of analysis documents produced by anyone holding the title “management analyst” within the city of DeKalb’s employment. This request is entirely for the…
Letter from Clerk Liz Peerboom on the State of the DeKalb City Clerk’s Office: ‘This is Your City. Take it Back’
Here’s a letter to the editor from Liz Peerboom, whose career as a deputy clerk and city clerk in two communities spans nearly 20 years. Currently the clerk for the Village of Maple Park, Peerboom was awarded the title Rookie of the Year by the Municipal Clerks of Illinois in 2011, in part for implementing…
DeKalb Council Votes for Convenience over Public Safety
If we’re to change anything in DeKalb city government, we need city council members who understand their role as policymakers and as supervisors of the bureaucrats. Have I ever passed this on to you? During a conversation last spring about the clerk issue, I was told that council members are fellow city employees. Who told…
DeKalb’s $10 Million Budget Hole
I’ve had a preliminary look at DeKalb’s FY17 budget. The proposed operations (General Fund) budget, which begins in January, has $2.8 million in additional spending for personnel alone when compared to the FY16 budget that ended June 30. (I am ignoring the current six-month “FY16.5” budget at this time.) Biggest jumps: $743,000 more in regular…