City Council’s most damaging flaw is its low overall level of intellectual curiosity. Between the grandstanding and the gotchas and the preening and pomposity, there is little time or inclination left for understanding the fundamental shifts necessary for our continued well-being, much less prosperity. Whatever energy might have been devoted to real study of big-picture…
“Make Whole”
For the record, I was not the first person to bring up the “make whole” agreement between the schools and the city over TIF. Here are some links, newest first: “Adapt, improvize… probably not,” January 14, 2009 “District 428: Defining Moment in Local History,” January 9, 2009 January 27, 2008 letter to the editor from…
Fire Fighter Open Thread
From Monday’s City Council meeting agenda: 2) RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF DEKALB, ILLINOIS TO EXECUTE A VARIANCE AGREEMENT TO THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT WITH THE DEKALB INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FIREFIGHTERS, LOCAL 1236, AFL-CIO FOR THE PERIOD OF JULY 1, 2008 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2011. The City and IAFF Local 1236 have…
Choose 2 Reuse Today
The second Choose 2 Reuse event is today at the old Sawyer building at 5th and Lincoln. If you have things to give away, drop them off between 6-8 a.m. Start browsing mode at 8 a.m. It goes until 4. For an extra-large item such as a piece of furniture you can’t carry in by…
Your Tourism Dollars at Work, Part 2
Part 1 is here. This was going to be about why the City Council should hold DeKalb Area Convention & Visitor’s Bureau (CVB) accountable for its $50,000 annual allocation. It’s still about that, but also counters a story being floated in some circles today about how Re:New DeKalb nobly requested their $45,000 allocation come from…
Your Tourism Dollars at Work
On July 13, 2009, City Council once more approved a $50,000 allocation to the Chamber of Commerce‘s tourism branch. Through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, City Barbs has obtained some financial information. This is how they spent the money last year: DeKalb Chamber of Commerce Tourism Fund a.k.a. DeKalb Area Convention & Visitors…
City Clerk Implementing New FOIA Standards Now
The new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) legislation has an effective date of January 2010, but DeKalb’s Office of the City Clerk will not not wait until then to begin implementing policy and procedural changes in fulfilling FOIA requests. In fact, at least two changes — that of charging for copies of documents only after…
FOIA Request Rejection & Appeal
Kay’s post about Governor Quinn’s signing the new, improved FOIA legislation is great news, but comes too late to help with this current and ongoing situation. Let’s start with a recap of events. I have been trying to obtain, via the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), ReNew:DeKalb meeting minutes. Re:New, as a private organization,…
SB 189 > Public Act 096-0542
Gov. Quinn signed Senate Bill 189, the upgrade to FOIA. The full text can be read at this link. It takes effect January 1, 2010. It seemed to take him a while to get around to signing it but I see that his office created a new Web site which is here: http://accountability.illinois.gov/. This is…
Letter to County Board Re: Monsanto Enterprise Zone
Dan Kenney has sent the DeKalb County Board a more detailed version of last week’s letter to the editor: August 17, 2009 DeKalb County Board members: Please consider the information below before voting on the Monsanto request for the enterprise zone expansion. The citizens of DeKalb County are counting on a vote that will best…