***Clarification*** added 12/3 due to a question that came up in this Facebook discussion: Firefighters often work overtime and they almost always receive overtime pay for it. However, according to their contract they might with permission accumulate a little comp time instead, up to 205 hours, after which no more comp time is permitted to…
Category: City Watch
November 25 Council Agenda
The city has put up another meeting agenda for tomorrow that’s a revision of the original, so all you early birds will have to read the new one. However, keep the old one handy because they didn’t include the rest of the packet with the revision. Highlights: Item 1: Another hit to the Public Safety…
Obtain a Hunk of Junk from City of DeKalb
From Public Notice Illinois: Notice of Request for Proposals: Automobile Salvage The City of DeKalb, pursuant to Court Order in DeKalb Circuit Court Case No. 12 MR 79, has acquired salvage titles for approximately seventy two (72) automobiles, trailers light trucks, medium duty trucks and tow trucks ( “vehicles “) as a component of its…
DeKalb Public Library and Greed
In a post from January 10, I told you I’d continue trying to get information about the state’s Public Library Construction Grant Program since we knew so few of the institutions that won them. Part of the reason it has taken so long to get back to you is that I goofed up my chance…
DeKalb – Firefighter Quid Pro Quo
The City of Springfield is expecting to approve a new contract with its firefighters’ union soon. Golly, I wish we had that kind of news coverage. Remember the last-minute hoop we had to jump through to find what the 2011 contract with our firefighters was about? The Springfield story reminded me that the longish closed…
Permit & Inspection Fees on DeKalb Council Agenda Tonight
I’ve isolated the comparison charts for you and put them after the jump (or you could teleport to the agenda instead and go to page 5 of the PDF file). First, though, I’d like to spend a minute on city staff members’ reasons for requesting approval of new fees and fee hikes: The changes of…
Egyptian Expenditures on Next Council Meeting Agenda
What timing I have! I posted city expenditures for Egyptian Theatre projects on Tuesday and now there’s a memo dated November 6 in the agenda packet for next Monday’s meeting about this (see page marked E-3, which is p. 13 of the PDF file, my emphasis added): In March of 2013, the City Council agreed…
Spending TIF Money on the Egyptian Theatre
Last month I was going through recent City of DeKalb check registers for something or other and came across a payment out of DeKalb’s Central Area Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Fund for $189 with the description “EGYPTN THTR UNCLG BSMNT DRN.” I also found descriptions for “EGYPTN THTR STG DOORS LCKS” and “LGHT FXTR WMNS…
TIF Funds Paid for Airport Signage
Click on the image for a larger version.
DeKalb’s Financial Hole
As with yesterday’s clip, today’s video comes from a recording of the April 2013 workshop meeting involving DeKalb officials and the financial consultants Executive Partners, Inc. In this one, EPI’s Larry Kujovich explains why the city needs to shift to a more strategic, longer-term approach in allocating its resources. The clip comes from the first…