DeKalb City Council re-did the whole police station discussion last year because the members didn’t want an old council to dictate decisions to the new one. Apparently it’s quite all right to run a labor contract with its firefighters into 2014, though — and maybe even into eternity, as with the city manager’s contract. Check…
Category: City Watch
DeKalb Library Land Purchase is Complete
The DeKalb Public Library closed yesterday on its purchase of land for expansion from Castle Bank, trustee under Trust Agreement #2222 and the sole beneficiary of the land trust, developer Steve Irving. The purchase price is $1,450,000 plus $25,000 for each month/part of month beyond the original target closing date of October 1, 2011, according…
Municipal Electrical Aggregation & You
An organization I belong to has hundreds of members. During a recent general membership meeting, one of them stood up and pitched the idea that the group should be selling his brand of electricity to the rest of us as a fundraiser. The board of directors asked him to confirm whether his is a multi-level…
Discussion of Unsustainable State Pensions
Prairie State Blue: The Problem with Pensions: Defined benefit plans are not inherently unsustainable. They made sense and were solvent when salaries were lower, payout levels were lower, employees retired later and died earlier. With higher salaries and especially stepped-up pay schedules, earlier retirements, increased longevity, and payouts of up to 75% or higher on…
Attorneys as FOIA Exemptions
This is a follow up to “The Housing Task Force, Its Surprise Consultant & Trust”. The Illinois Attorney General’s Office of the Public Access Counselor notified me this week that its staff will review the denial of a related Freedom of Information Act request. As I mentioned in the comments section of the post, DeKalb…
Calling All Cluck Lovers
Want to know more about keeping chickens in the city? Join Hannah Dwyer at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship hall in DeKalb tonight. Ms. Dwyer has been shepherding a proposal through the legislative process to allow City of DeKalb residents to keep up to five hens for their eggs. City council has so far assigned the…
Opposition to New Police Station Location
Now that work has begun on the proposed police station site on Lincoln Highway, Northern Illinois University students have become aware what the city intends to build there. Some don’t like it. The most immediate issue is a station sitting across from the Center for Black Studies and NIU Resources for Women, and in particular…
Ivan’s 22 Myths About the Well-Being & Future of DeKalb
DeKalb native Ivan Krpan shared an unusual rant on Facebook yesterday. What’s unusual: it’s in the form of a list! Reprinted with permission and minimal editing. Ivan’s 22 Myths about DeKalb: 1. Lowered property values will translate to lower property taxes. 2. Mayor Povlsen and his city council are in control of city hall. 3.…
ShoDeen Doing Things in Wrong Order
Before ShoDeen is given a nod for housing and commercial development on DeKalb’s northwest side, the company should tear down the homes it bought downtown and boarded up as (IMO) any local developer would have been made to do long ago. (Or were the comments about using the homes to prove “blight” for the formation…
Thoughts on Property and Sales Taxes in DeKalb, and Where We Go from Here
The City of DeKalb is close to setting its property tax levy for the year. It is requesting the same amount as last year. I read in the paper that 2nd Ward Alderman Tom Teresinski is saying we will pay the same amount in property taxes as last year because even though the rate will…