Yesterday I mailed a complaint about City Council’s failures to adhere to the Open Meetings Act. It is on its way to the Illinois Attorney General, cc’d to the DeKalb County State’s Attorney. I selected three violations occurring in May and June to include in the complaint, beginning with the decision to address the financial…
Tag: city council
Lawlessness Letter
Sent this in last week and was told Monday it would be published in the Chronicle “in a couple days.” DeKalb City Council passed a resolution June 22 authorizing the city manager to reduce the number of firefighters for Fiscal Year 2010 as a means to present a balanced budget to the community. Let me…
City of DeKalb to Honor Contracts When It Feels Like It
Last night I once again spent four hours in Bizzaro World. It was very hot inside and about the same hot outside, yet the exit from the city council meeting felt like a breath of fresh air. Well, it did until a certain city official tracked me down as we stood outside in little groups…
Municipal Morality
If you peruse the city’s check registers you start getting a feel for certain patterns. Based on a sample of five months over the past 15, DeKalb on average pays out about $5000 per month on cell phone service, $600 for locks and keys, maybe up to $1000 or so for janitorial supplies and sometimes…
EPI Letter
Appearing today in the Chronicle: To the editor: In a controversial action late last year, the city of DeKalb hired a financial consultant, Executive Partners Inc., to analyze our finances and make recommendations for putting the city on better financial footing. EPI’s evaluation, “Strategic Financial Evaluation & Planning Process,” was distributed to council members May…
Budget Workshop Open Thread 2
Last night the Engineering budget was scrutinized. There were some good questions, I learned a thing or two, and there was much less shouting at the TV. However, I observed a fundamental error in thinking and that is the tying of salaries to permit revenues. This is one reason we got into such a mess…
Police Station Letter
An LTE sent to the Chronicle last week made it in today: To the editor: During the municipal election campaign I remarked publicly that DeKalb’s Police Facility Advisory Committee (FAC) was not allowed to consider any police station options other than a brand-new station built on the Lincoln Highway commercial site that had already been…
Water Games
They did it again. Last night at Council (CoW), while discussing the city’s financial outlook, it was reported that the Water Fund is operating at a deficit, and, whew! good thing they raised water rates or else it would be really out of control! What a crock. The Water Division is a money maker (pp.…