The Northern Star has submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain the names of the persons considered by the mayor for the vacated Third Ward alderman spot. With the questionable past of the 3rd Ward, it is interesting to see that the city has decided to withhold this information from the public,…
Tag: city council
Word of the Day: Patronage
patronage [pey-truh-nij] —noun 3. the control of or power to make appointments to government jobs or the power to grant other political favors. 4. Offices, jobs, or other favors so controlled. 5. the distribution of jobs and favors on a political basis, as to those who have supported one’s party or political campaign: DeKalb became…
One Hundred Fifty-Four
DeKalb City Council members will soon be looking at city-owned real estate, 154 parcels in all, possibly with an eye to selling off some of these assets. But you, Dear CB Reader, do not have to wait for city staff’s compilation to get a sneak peek at the totality. After the jump, I have listed…
Guest Post in Sunlight Foundation Blog
Transparency Growing Pains in DeKalb, Illinois More about the Sunlight Foundation, which CB has linked to for a couple years under the “Good Government” blogroll heading.
You May Raise My Taxes When…
Is it wrong to prefer a Council meeting without Wogen and Simpson? I’ve decided there’s no immediate need to get rid of Wogen unless he starts showing up again, or if the 3rd Ward wants the mayor to appoint somebody to the spot. And Simpson can take as much time off as he likes unless…
Appalling Comment #101,382
There was so much not to like at Monday night’s meeting I let this slip past until now.
Is It Really Legal?
The agenda for the last meeting of the local chapter of Insomniacs Anonymous included a reading list. So, I’ve been perusing the Illinois Statutes (this one, this one, and this one). Each contains provisions allowing elected and appointed municipal officers to do business with their municipalities — but only under strict conditions. The following is…
Alderman Renews DeKalb for TIF Money
With the help of city administrators, Victor Wogen managed to parlay his seat on the DeKalb City Council into income approaching $60,000 of taxpayers’ money in 2008, about ten times more than his annual salary as representative of the Third Ward.
Flood-Prone Home Buyout Thread
Acceptance of a “pre-disaster mitigation grant” for buying more flood-prone homes is on the agenda for Monday (.pdf p. 33). Questions: 1) We’re broke, except for TIF. Where do we get the the $289,507.00 for our share? 2) What is the cutoff for number of years of home ownership required for a buyout? In other…
MICA
Tuesday night at the joint City Council–Financial Advisory Committee meeting, staff announced they had researched several providers of liability insurance and had made a decision on a favorite, an outfit called the Municipal Insurance Cooperative Agency (MICA). There were three red flags when the MICA plan was laid out. One was that we were not…