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…
Category: Payment Due?
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,…
Account 8306, Special Events
City of DeKalb has an account in its General Fund called “Special Events,” 8306 in the budget. I always thought special events were public events, such as the open house that was held for visitors to tour the new police station. Then I came across an expenditure of $5,400 for Target gift cards for employees…
College Town Partners is All About TIF
Yes, “is.” Emails obtained by Michael and Misty Haji-Sheikh of Preserve Our Neighborhoods show that even though collaborators ultimately rejected formal incorporation of College Town Partners in May 2014, the intention remained to suck sweet, sweet tax dollars out of City of DeKalb via Tax Increment Financing (not even getting into NIU and use of…
One Step Closer to the Edge
Look at that nice, wide gap between General Fund revenues and expenditures during FY2011 and FY2012. [easychart type=”line” width=”430″ title=”GF Revenues and Expenditures Net of Transfers” groupnames=”Revenues in Millions, Expenditures in Millions” valuenames=”’11,’12, ’13, ’14, ’15, ’16” group1values=”29.2,29.1,28.9,30.7,32.7,33.3″ group2values=”27.2,27.3,27.9,29.1,31.5,32.9″ minaxis=”27.1″] (All figures are actual as reported in annual city budgets, except FY2015 numbers are the…
New Annual Financial Report is Out
City of DeKalb released its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for fiscal year 2015, which ended June 30. I’m sure city staff will also release the Popular Annual Financial Report (PAFR) as they did last year. It’s a dumbed-down version of the CAFR that nobody asked them to compile, but they get some sort of…
Retail on the Bottom
David Patzelt of Shodeen Group, LLC, sent a nice thank-you letter to the DeKalb city manager for attending a meeting between Shodeen principals and city officials in the matter of Shodeen’s latest project proposal. The letter was included in the agenda packet for Wednesday’s meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission. It outlines Shodeen’s arguments…
What the hiring spree has ruined
Former DeKalb Alderman Pam Verbic wrote current Mayor Rey a detailed letter regarding the upcoming property tax levy vote. Find it here. I hope you will read the whole thing. Each of Ms. Verbic’s points is well taken and stands on its own. I don’t intend to rehash the letter. But her #4 relates closely…
$800,000 in Expenditure Cuts? Lol. Try $2.3M in Increased Personnel Costs
One argument in favor of hiking property taxes in City of DeKalb is that the city has reduced general operations (General Fund/GF) budgeted expenditures by $800,000 from last fiscal year to this one, which ostensibly shows that DeKalb has already cut expenditures to the bone. Hogwash. The fact is, DeKalb has a runaway spending problem,…
DeKalb’s Shortage of Magic Rabbits
As the city ponders a property tax hike of 37% as well as water rate and fee “adjustments,” you may wonder how DeKalb has got itself mired in financial straits. It’s actually nothing new. DeKalb’s budget issues are — and have been since at least 2005 — the result of snatching nearly every penny of…