Wow, they already have an architect involved: The Library is proceeding with their plans to purchase the Clinic properties. The School District has expressed interest in having its administrative office space relocated into downtown. Other governmental units may also have interest in a downtown presence. With what will become a sizeable amount of publicly owned…
Category: City Watch
Ethics in the City
City Council on Monday is set to decide whether the mayor’s removal of chair John Guio from the Plan Commission for an ethics violation is proper. You’ll have to excuse me for not believing the party line here. IMO this was a move based on politics, not ethics. Consider: — Another Plan Commission member, Vince…
Hope Haven Reports: Police & Planning
Click on any one to see larger images of them all.
Rename DeKalb?
Some of the world’s great cities changed names. New York was New Amsterdam. London was Londinium. Mexico City was Tenochtitlan. So, why stop at brick mania? Why not rename DeKalb? Think of all the jobs we could create by reprinting all of the stationary! What shall we call it? Yep, file this one under snark.…
Comments on Debt Restructuring
Here’s a link to my letter to the editor published at Northern Star today. In reading it you’ll see that I didn’t actually attribute absurdity to the DeKalb City Council, but that’s probably a quibble.
Bell to Refund Property Taxes It Overcharged
The State of California is forcing the city government of Bell, a non-prosperous suburb of Los Angeles whose administrators were among the most highly paid in the country, to refund $3 million in property taxes the municipality overcharged. About 4,000 property owners will be reimbursed under the plan. Bell is not the only California city…
Lunatic Fringe Pre-Meeting Open Thread at FB
I didn’t have a chance to post about tonight’s meeting agenda, but there’s a discussion started at the Facebook page for the Lunatic Fringe of DeKalb, IL. J.P. Salovesh has pulled out for comment two items from the Committee of the Whole agenda that are of particular interest.
AG Rules Against Release of Names of Council Members Receiving Health Insurance
Yesterday I received a letter from the Office of the Attorney General regarding its ruling on the FOIA request to release the names of council members who take the City of DeKalb’s health insurance. Click on any page of the letter to see a larger image.
Time to Look at Bell
Home to 37,000 people, Bell, California is one of the least prosperous suburbs of Los Angeles at a per capita income of about $24,000, yet its residents pay the second-highest property tax rate in Los Angeles County — even higher than that of Beverly Hills. The taxes have gone to pay some of the highest…
Meeting Minutes Lost
In trying to recall some of the work done by DeKalb’s Citizens Environmental Commission, I arranged last week with the DeKalb City Clerk to look at two years’ worth of its meeting minutes. This should easily have been accomplished by my browsing regular council meeting agenda packets, but only the minutes of a half-dozen Enviro…