The proposed budget for fiscal year 2012 is now available. I’ve just begun reading it. Here are a few reactions so far. [From the 2025 Vision Statement] Its downtown is the heart of the community… Translation: We hate that the Super Wal-Mart is the closest thing DeKalb has to a town square.
Tag: budget
Tune In to the Psychic Energy
Headline: “Quinn: Approve borrowing or lose local tax revenue”. Legislative leaders are considering a proposal that would authorize [Illinois Governor Pat] Quinn to shift money from other state accounts if he is not granted permission to borrow the money. The plan also includes a proposal disclosed Friday to suspend local income-tax payments to cities and…
City Manager Oversteps His Bounds
During the April 11 Committee of the Whole meeting, the DeKalb City Council discussed whether to outsource any or all of its legal services. Here’s how it ended. MOTION Ald. Gallagher moved to direct staff to prepare a Request for Proposal, using Version #1 to out source the City Attorney’s position; seconded by Ald. Verbic.…
Reduction in Force Outcomes
DeKalb’s FY2011 budget included a Reduction in Force (RIF) plan to close a budget gap of a couple million. Here is how it played out for about a dozen AFSCME union members who got laid off as part of the RIF in June 2010. [table id=12 /]
Council to Vote on More Econ Development Help
Council members will vote Monday on a resolution to outsource economic development services from Hopkins Solutions, LLC. Hiring an economic development director was recommended by the financial consultants’ (EPI) report released May 2009. The Roger Hopkins who established Hopkins Solutions last year is probably none other than the past director of the DeKalb County Economic…
New High School Going Short on Custodians
So begins systemic neglect at the new high school — my interpretation of an article in the Daily Chronicle today: The all-day kindergarten would also be paid for by not filling four custodial staff positions at the new high school until the district has more revenue. In 2008, the Facilities Planning Committee (FPC) voted to…
Meeting Notes
First, the Hope Haven expansion vote. The good folks at HH have been raked over the coals for two months and it’s finally over. Many thanks to Mayor Povlsen and Aldermen Simpson, Teresinski and Verbic for their “aye” votes. Hat tip to Alderman Naylor for alluding to the double standard used for HH and the…
County Budget Proposal Would Cost Us
According to the Daily Chronicle, last night the DeKalb County’s Finance Committee voted to send an FY2011 budget proposal to the full county board that contains cuts to the health department and sheriff’s office — as well as a property tax hike of about 2.4% for the average homeowner. What’s the deal? [Deputy County Administrator…
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…
The Library Fund
The DeKalb Public Library’s annual budget is part of the City of DeKalb’s budget and has to be approved by City Council. In Fiscal Year 2008, which began July 1, 2007, a significant change was made in DPL’s budget that went unremarked. That year and each year since, the Library has not been projecting/budgeting all…