In my last post, I explored how Tax Increment Financing (TIF) dollars for FY2016 were budgeted versus actual spending. This time I hope to explain the discrepancies, at least partially. TIF districts have their own budgets in their own funds that are separate from the city’s general operating fund called the General Fund. DeKalb currently…
Tag: Freedom of Information Act
Barb City Action Committee & TIF
There are honest people of good faith who belong to the Barb City Action Committee. There really are. However, it makes good sense to try to tease out the motives for any organized political action, especially one that launched itself out of nowhere and appears to have “shadow” members as well. Recently I donned my…
Auditors Identified a “Significant Deficiency” in City of DeKalb’s Internal Accounting Controls
City of DeKalb’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016, contains a letter to management from the auditors that discusses a “significant deficiency” in DeKalb’s internal accounting controls. The DeKalb city council is set to discuss the report during its Committee of the Whole meeting January 9 at 5…
DeKalb Tried to Hide Settlement Agreement with Former Community Development Director
Last year, City of DeKalb got caught violating the Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA) in approving a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. There were actually two violations, but the one we are concerned with here is DeKalb city council’s failure to take its final vote on the matter in a public session…
DeKalb City Manager’s Office Tried to Keep ‘STEAM Team’ Under Wraps
City staff are proposing to spend $400,000 in 2017 for a STEAM learning center — and that’s just for the architectural service called “building analysis.” The city is already spending $75,000 on a consulting firm, and council has been spending time in closed sessions to discuss the purchase or lease of property. This is an…
Surprise! What Management Analysts at City of DeKalb Don’t Do
Fun tidbit has come my way, and by “fun” I mean enormously dispiriting. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request dated 10/31/2016: Please provide examples over the past three months (8-1-16 to 10-31-16) of analysis documents produced by anyone holding the title “management analyst” within the city of DeKalb’s employment. This request is entirely for the…
Growth of Part-Time Wages
City of DeKalb’s three-year-plus hiring spree and pensions are not the only budget-busters we have to face. The wage growth for part-timers hired within the past three years, obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, is another area that appears out of control: [table id=96 /] This is a sample of eight part-time “Chapter 3”…
Illinois Attorney General Removes ‘FOIA Shield’ of Personal Email
***Update 8/18: The Facebook discussion of this post has prompted me to expand and clarify it. What I’ve added, I’ve placed in italics.*** The Illinois Attorney General has issued a binding opinion concerning public employees’ use of personal email accounts when messages pertain to public business. What the opinion does is to remove doubt that…
What’s the Deal with DeKalb’s Legal Assistant?
DeKalb used to have in-house legal counsel, but now has contracts with individuals and firms to supply legal services. One of the legal service providers is Dean Frieders of Frieders Law, LLC, who supposedly works for DeKalb three days per week.* Frieders is required by his contract with the city to supply all of his…
More Gift Card Info
A couple of weeks ago, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request regarding DeKalb’s practice of buying gift cards for employees, the latest round of which occurred in December 2015 when City of DeKalb spent $5,400 on “employee holiday gift cards” for some 230 city employees. Among other things, the FOIA request asked for…