Your tax dollars are hard at work, threatening people. Last night during the council meeting, city attorney Dean Frieders not once but twice discussed a “fake” City of DeKalb page on Facebook. The first time he described it as “libelous” and the second, egged on by Ald. Naylor, he pondered whether anything about it was…
Sustainable is the Last Thing This Is
A Chronicle article last week talks about all the new building, equipment and personnel the City of DeKalb is investing into its fire department. I read the article after just having skimmed through the city’s check register for August. The police department spent, among other things, $125,000+ on software and $2600 on the new dog,…
The Manning Numbers
A request made by Brad Manning Ford came up in the last DeKalb council meeting agenda: The dealership says it can get $400,000 from Ford to put towards the [$2.3 million expansion] project, but that it still can’t foot the rest of the bill. The $110,000 that it is requesting from the city represents about…
Update on the Search for DeKalb’s Next City Manager
The city manager, not the mayor, is the chief executive officer in DeKalb’s council-manager form of government. Ideally we should be paying as much attention to selection of the city manager as we do the mayoral election — especially these days, when the city council declines to put expiration dates on their managers’ contracts and…
Baker Says City Employees Were Terminated for Conducting Personal Business on City Time
**Update September 15: Here’s the link to the full, 56-minute Housing Bureau discussion (HT M.C.)** The City of DeKalb and the Chronicle recently made a big deal of a Housing Bureau employee’s using city email in negotiating her rent. But now that looks like the tip of the iceberg. For adequate context, I recommend watching…
Public Safety Consolidation ‘Inevitable’
A new article from the Better Government Association explores growing pressures to consolidate public safety services. …[M]unicipal budget shortfalls are forcing a growing segment of Northern Illinois suburbs to consider what was once unthinkable: Merging basic hometown public safety operations with neighboring or regional governments, such as the county sheriff’s departments. Skittish residents, however, are…
Manipulation Analysis
Is the City of DeKalb postponing action on its consultants’ recommendations for political or other selfish reasons? When the financial consultants known as Executive Partners, Inc. (EPI) first came to town in 2009, the City of DeKalb made a big deal of them. DeKalb needed to show it was doing something about its financial mess,…
Belated High Five for District 428
Talk of a possible teachers’ strike last month was tense and emotional for a lot of us. When the school board and the teachers’ union came together at nearly the last minute, I felt relieved and psychologically moved past it right away. But that was wrong. What I should have done, and will do now,…
New TIF Video Lays Out the Issues
This is from WBEZ so is Chicago-centric; nevertheless it’s a useful way to look at Tax Increment Financing districts and features three TIF experts. Bonus: Ben Joravsky’s latest, a look at the DePaul Basketball Boondoggle. The mayor says it will cost at least $55 million to buy land for [a hotel] project and the money…
Why the Truancy Ordinance is Probably Doomed
The Chronicle reports that city staff may drop the truancy ordinance. The council voted unanimously to postpone any action on the proposal until Sept. 23, but now staff are considering dropping it completely. Except that’s not their call. It’s council’s. This probably indicates there are not enough votes to pass the ordinance. Too bad. Smack…