OK, I’m outing myself as a Halloween-o-phile. I’ve been thinking about this for a couple months. If we want to get NIU students, local teens and hip families downtown, DeKalb should host a zombie walk during Halloween weekend. Locate zombie headquarters at the Egyptian Theatre to tie into its Amenti Haunted House, and develop fabulous…
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…
CAFR & Component Units
This is a follow up to previous posts about DeKalb Public Library (DKPL), here and here, in which I posed questions about audits of DKPL and whether the failure to estimate six types of revenues in its budget for several years ever sent up red flags for the auditor of the City of DeKalb’s Comprehensive…
Library Timeline & Pertinent Expenditures
The DeKalb Library (DKPL) board passed a resolution at the beginning of 2007 to expand and improve Library facilities. This indeed has happened; since its passage, the Library started a fund for a new boiler, accepted TIF money for window and other improvements, and remodeled the Youth Services department and the lounge. Almost immediately, however,…
Fun with CAFR & the Liberry
The DeKalb Public Library has a current annual budget of $1.9 million, yet apparently has enough funds on hand to buy property valued at $1.8 million. That’s quite a reserve! Normally for slush I’d call for a refund (about $40 per resident) but perhaps we should ask DKPL to help the city save for the…
Calling Fowl in Batavia
The Daily Herald reports that the City of Batavia’s Community Development Committee is researching the possibility of allowing residents to house chickens. This Kane County development seems kind of fitting in view of Garfield Farm’s efforts to save the Black Java breed. I’ve done some homework on keeping chickens in the city, and I know…
Ethics & the Plan Commission
DeKalb’s Plan Commission has a Code of Ethics (PDF pp. 1-2). It’s flawed, but there you go. My emphasis added. d) Code of Ethics. Plan Commission members shall abide by a code of ethics as follows: (03-18) 1. Members shall exercise impartial and independent judgment in their roles as advisors to the City Council. 2.…
235 Quinn Staffers Get Pay Raises
According to NBC Chicago.com, 235 of Governor Quinn’s staff received pay raises averaging 11% this year. Of the 235 who received a pay raise in 2010, 225 of them received more than a five percent pay hike. Those rewarded with a fatter check include a labor relations expert whose pay increase is more than $5,000,…
The Unemployment Picture
Click here to see it full-sized.
Northern Illinois Food Bank a “Slam Dunk”
Charity Navigator loves it some “top 10” lists, among them a listing of “10 Slam-Dunk Charities” that the organization rates tops for sound financial management and for having privacy policies in place. Northern Illinois Food Bank has earned a place on this list. Congrats!