There are already chickens in DeKalb. There always have been and there always will be. Council’s refusal to slap the official okey-dokey onto the practice just ensures chicken-keeping will remain underground, in tight-knit neighborhoods where folks don’t fink on each other. What’s changed is the energetic 20-something who found that her hen-keeping proposal could not…
Category: City Watch
The Burden of Transparency
You’ve probably seen this e-mail wherein Mayor Povlsen scolds Mark Charvat for making plans to pack the house during the DeKalb Township Annual Meeting without telling him. — On Mon, 3/19/12, Povlsen, Kris wrote: From: Povlsen, Kris Subject: So much for Transparency To: “‘markX@X.com’” Date: Monday, March 19, 2012, 2:30 PM Guess this says a…
DeKalb’s Pension Cost Acceleration
[easychart type=”horizbar” width=”420″ title=”Police and Fire Pension Costs in Millions of Dollars” groupnames=”Annual Pension Costs” valuenames=”FY2004, FY2005, FY2006, FY2007, FY2008, FY2009, FY2010, FY2011″ group1values=”1.55, 1.72, 1.8, 1.98, 2.23, 2.38, 2.86, 3.36″ minaxis=”1.5″] Annual pension costs (APCs) are what the city contributes to the pension funds each year. APCs were increasing about 10% annually earlier this…
Hat Tip to the City of DeKalb
I meant to say something sooner but have been distracted by personal events this week. Last week a candidates’ forum was held at the DeKalb Municipal Building and it was televised — a first on both counts, I think. Though involved as a member of the board of the new League of Women Voters of…
Irregularities in Issuance of Tapa La Luna Liquor License
This liquor license was issued February 2. According to e-mails obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the application for this liquor license was submitted the same day. So when I read something like this… DeKalb Mayor Kris Povlsen asked if there was a laundry list of public corruption because in his long…
RIP Without the Inspections
Once upon a time (2008, actually) the City of DeKalb contemplated a massive licensing and inspection plan for rental properties (PDF pp. 15-32) called the Rental Inspection Program, or RIP. The proposed fee schedule for the RIP (PDF pp. 19-20) began at $78 for a building of 1-5 rental units for annual licensing and inspection.…
Chicago-Kent Center for Open Government Requests Legal Review of the DeKalb Public Library Expansion Process
[Update 1 added 2/23/2012 after the jump.] [Update 2 added 2/24/2010] Click on either image to access larger versions. I’ll note additions to this post, if any, at the City Barbs Blog Facebook page as well.
Hello DARA
The DeKalb Area Rental Association (DARA) formed last summer has recently launched its website, called daranow.com. It’s probably safe to say it’s not a coincidence in timing that DARA was conceived just a few months after the mayor first appointed his Safe/Quality Housing Task Force, and easy to see DARA’s formation at least partly as…
DeKalb Mayor Boots NIU Students from Council Meeting
The online consensus is that there have been many residents who SHOULD have been removed from city council meetings for disruptions or going over the time limit, but the one instance where the current mayor of DeKalb has the police remove anybody it’s when three students come to question the decision to place the new…
New Per Capita Debt Numbers
[Update 8:30 a.m.: Table headers edited for clarity.] You’ve seen most of this table before. I’ve updated it with FY2011 data from the new Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). [table id=49 /] Most of the overlapping increase came from DeKalb Community Unit School District 428. Mind you, these figures reflect only gross bonded debt. The…