DeKalb mayor Cohen Barnes is hoping to become the Democratic candidate in this month’s primary election for Illinois House District 76 representative. In his introductory statement during a candidates’ forum, Mayor Barnes said, “We’ve hired over 20 police officers in the last year alone — and firefighters.” The statement is unusual in at least two…
Tag: budget
5 issues ignored so far in City of DeKalb’s budget plans
Need for a finance director. DeKalb’s finance director left this year and it looks like there’s no plan to replace her. That’s too bad. Besides the risk of returning to subpar audits, a qualified finance director could fill in for the city manager if needed, which is particularly important since the assistant city manager’s position…
DeKalb’s plans for a new fire station don’t make sense
Management staff at City of DeKalb are proposing to build a fourth fire station on South Malta Road, next to the property housing Schnucks. Here are three reasons to question the plan. Let’s expand on that last thought because it’s extra bizarre. The area of greatest demand is the northwest quadrant, but management doesn’t want…
How did City of DeKalb end up paying the library’s expansion debt?
Mr. Teresinski expressed his frustration that the library debt became the City’s obligation rather than the library’s. Mr. Teresinski commented there is no revenue that the City is using on the library’s behalf so it’s a pure add on to the City budget. City Manager Nicklas stated it was his understanding that the library needed…
Other counties’ experiences suggest that selling DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing is unlikely to provide a quick fix
The Executive Committee of the DeKalb County Board has voted to place a resolution authorizing preparations for a sale of DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing Center (DCRNC) on the agenda for next week’s regular meeting of the full board. During discussion of DCRNC’s plight, the chair brought up the sale of the nursing facility once…
Unauthorized compensation of city commissioners: the fix should be simple
City of DeKalb has been paying compensation to at least two of its advisory commissions without proper authorization. Members of the Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) and the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners both receive what look like meeting per diems in the expenditure records. But it turns out the payments aren’t properly authorized…
Addressing DeKalb Public Library’s proposed 14%-plus levy increase
During DeKalb’s public hearing on its property tax levy, which includes the library’s levy, several people spoke out about the library’s plan to increase its take by more than 14%. They requested the city council hold library trustees accountable for the request, which they view as irresponsible. DeKalb claims that it must approve any levy…
Another source of revenue loss for DeKalb County Nursing & Rehab is confirmed
The latest on the DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing Center (DCRNC) financial situation comes from a 35-minute discussion during DeKalb County Board’s Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting November 10. I’ve written about revenue losses due to low census, and increased expenses because of the facility’s dependence on outside agencies for staffing. Now county staff…
DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing’s management agreement
This is the third post in a series about DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing Center (DCRNC) and its financial issues. First post is here and the second, here. In the second post, I said we’d take a look at the budgeteers for DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing Center (DCRNC). While the DCRNC Operating Board, the…
DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing: How staff retention issues helped lead to its financial problems
In the first post of this series, we looked at nursing home census as a measure of the financial health of a facility like DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing (DCRNC). In fact, DCRNC gave great census, its occupancy mostly in the 170s and even 180s from 2015 until 2019. Consistently high census numbers kept revenues…