If previous actions are any indication, the Cohen Barnes administration would like to get rid of DeKalb’s Human Relations Commission, but apparently doesn’t have the votes required for repeal. So it’s decided to undermine the commission instead. DeKalb’s next city council meeting will include consideration of changes to three city commissions that have not met…
Tag: ethics
DeKalb’s Transportation Fund a model for Water Fund budgeting transparency
Let’s start with a summary of the problem. City of DeKalb secretly charges its Water Fund (Water) to help compensate employees in other operational departments and divisions. Because the Water subsidies into the General Fund (GF) aren’t tracked in budgets, the expenses shown in Water budgets misrepresent the actual personnel costs of providing water to…
A closer look at Barnes’ ethics blunder in his DeKalb mayoral campaign
I promised readers I’d follow up our discussion on Facebook of the DeKalb mayor’s use of photos of our fire and police chiefs in uniform in his campaign mailers. People don’t like what he did, but did Mayor Cohen Barnes also violate state and/or federal laws? Mayor Barnes never answered my questions about whether DeKalb’s…
Put Mayor Barnes’ financial interests front and center in the eminent domain discussions
Mayor Cohen Barnes owns two parcels of property in downtown DeKalb as Bandits Castle, LLC. One of them should occupy the center of attention as the city council contemplates authorizing the condemnation and acquisition of the building owned by D-N-J Properties at 128-140 South Second Street via eminent domain proceedings. During Monday evening’s council meeting,…
Be more like Shelby County
It was nice to see the [Shelby County Board’s] discussions on numerous matters including not paying certain invoices which had no public purpose. The committee pulled those bills and took it upon themselves to reimburse the source of the invoice from their own pocket to the person who submitted them. They did so because that…
County housing authority paid for employee’s bridal event
Public funds, property or credit shall be used onlyfor public purposes. Constitution of the State of Illinois, Article VIII. Housing Authority of the County of DeKalb (HACD) reimbursed a housing authority employee $250.00 for a bridal event thrown for another employee. Payment records obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show HACD reimbursed then-employee Jennifer…
Water is the new TIF
For years, DeKalb bailed out its general operating budget with tax increment financing (TIF) funds. TIF administrative fees helped soften the blows following the 2008 market crashes and assisted the hiring spree after that. Now the enormous “TIF 1” district is gone, replaced by the “Downtown TIF” that is but a shadow of its previously…
Public officials’ ill-advised campaign contributions
We’ve talked about ethics issues and Bill Nicklas before, in the context of his outside employment, which — shamefully — the city council has so far failed to address. Now we see Mr. Nicklas, DeKalb city manager since the beginning of 2019, has been making political contributions to Illinois Representative Jeff Keicher. (“Report Received Date”…
DeKalb Township, that ship has sailed
DeKalb Township has begun posting its meetings on YouTube. In this video from Wednesday night, the township spends the first 20 minutes of its monthly meeting trying to put new township clerk Andrew Tillotson in his place for exercising his First Amendment rights. Trustees express concern about how the new township clerk’s public comments might…
Housing authority helped Cohen Barnes with marketing his company
Besides giving Cohen Barnes of Sundog IT frontrunner status on contracts, including providing him information about his competition, staff at Housing Authority of County of DeKalb (HACD) used their resources to assist him in crafting a testimonial with their name on it. Notice the HACD operations director cc’d the executive director in granting the favor.…