City of DeKalb’s three-year-plus hiring spree and pensions are not the only budget-busters we have to face. The wage growth for part-timers hired within the past three years, obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, is another area that appears out of control: [table id=96 /] This is a sample of eight part-time “Chapter 3”…
Category: City Watch
The Mayoral Vote is the Problem When You Have Odd Aldermen
This happened on Monday. DeKalb’s council is made up of seven aldermen chosen by ward and a mayor. Aldermen seemed interested Monday in establishing a rule that would call for at least four aldermen to be in favor of a measure before it could pass. On most questions brought before council, a simple majority vote…
NIU’s Meddling in City Business: University Village
You may recall that Security Properties, a real estate investment and development company in Seattle, fought hard for much of last year to get approval for zoning changes for DeKalb’s University Village apartment complex. Security wanted to buy and rehabilitate UV, but first had to meet its government lenders’ conditions, and those requirements included action…
This is Why Your DeKalb City Property Taxes Have Gone Up So Much
People have been asking me why their city property taxes went up sharply this year. While much of it has to do with your assessment, of course, here’s the rest of the story. [table id=95 /] Until recently, City of DeKalb levied property taxes for pensions and FICA only. I went back as far as…
Walters Knew His Employment with NIU was Problematic from the Start
You’ll recall that Ron Walters was a consultant hired by NIU President Doug Baker to help plan and launch his Bold Futures initiative. Walters acted like an independent contractor and got paid like one (e.g., getting reimbursed for his commute to/from work) but Baker had actually hired him as an NIU “affiliate” employee. This is…
What’s the Deal with DeKalb’s Legal Assistant?
DeKalb used to have in-house legal counsel, but now has contracts with individuals and firms to supply legal services. One of the legal service providers is Dean Frieders of Frieders Law, LLC, who supposedly works for DeKalb three days per week.* Frieders is required by his contract with the city to supply all of his…
More Gift Card Info
A couple of weeks ago, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request regarding DeKalb’s practice of buying gift cards for employees, the latest round of which occurred in December 2015 when City of DeKalb spent $5,400 on “employee holiday gift cards” for some 230 city employees. Among other things, the FOIA request asked for…
DeKalb Park District Position on Consolidation with City of DeKalb
FACT: Sometime last month, DeKalb Mayor John Rey approached Phil Young, who is the president of the DeKalb Park District, about the possibility of consolidating the two units of government. As you may already know, local government consolidation is a hot topic at the state level and a project of our lieutenant governor, Evelyn Sanguinetti,…
Forget What You’ve Heard about Steve Kapitan’s Resignation as City Clerk
***Update 5:45 p.m.*** The Facebook discussion on this post is here. I’m going to ask you to set aside for a few moments everything you’ve heard about why Steve Kapitan resigned as DeKalb city clerk in 2012. Instead, I’d like for you to entertain the possibility that he was a casualty of a DeKalb city…
Part 2 of Account 8306, Special Events
It has come to my attention that clarification is needed on the post about the General Fund “special events” account named 8306. If you contact City of DeKalb and they tell you that 8306 is for events such as helping with the expenses of July 4th festivities at Hopkins Park, that is 100% correct. However,…