***Update 8/6/2022*** DeKalb city council is expected to approve an intergovernmental agreement during its regular meeting on August 8 that specifies a developer buying the Suburban property, the city annexing it and connecting it to city water, and DeKalb County providing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds of $862,500 for the water infrastructure improvements. Agenda…
Tag: home rule
Elmhurst Hooplah leads to new “Right to Garden” state law
The Illinois General Assembly has passed and sent the Garden Act, aka “Right to Garden Law,” to the governor for signing. I first wrote about this situation in 2018. Hooplah started when Nicole Virgil and her family decided to take their raised-bed organic gardening to the next level by growing as close to year-round as…
DeKalb city council voted to allow me to participate remotely in order to exclude you
As DeKalb’s city clerk, I’ve been participating in council meetings via teleconferencing since April. Then, during the July 13 committee-of-the-whole meeting, the city council, somewhat bizarrely, took a vote to allow me to teleconference. This post will explain why. Here’s the clip of part of the mayor’s introduction to the topic. (The first 4-1/2 minutes…
Will DeKalb learn from the departure of Tinez Tacos?
Last weekend I found out that the owners of the Tinez Tacos food truck have worked out a parking spot in Malta, and will serve from 11am to 7pm weekdays this summer at Hickey’s Corner Store. If comments at the City Barbs Facebook group are any indication, residents of DeKalb wish them well in their…
Rockford aldermen promising to control themselves if voters give back home rule
***Update 3/21/2018: Home rule was rejected by nearly 54% of Rockford voters.*** Let’s start by reviewing what almost happened here a couple months ago. The city manager in DeKalb decided she wanted to raise the sales tax, claiming complete inability to balance a budget without it. Having the highest sales tax around is not the…
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…
Illinois Statutes Versus DeKalb Municipal Code in the Matter of the City Clerk
Just yesterday, we were comparing the positions of city clerk as practiced in Sycamore and DeKalb. You can see from that post that Sycamore and DeKalb treat their city clerks very differently, though this was not true in the past. To continue the comparison: Sycamore’s municipal code follows the applicable Illinois statutes, while DeKalb’s differs…
The Mayoral Vote is the Problem When You Have Odd Aldermen
This happened on Monday. DeKalb’s council is made up of seven aldermen chosen by ward and a mayor. Aldermen seemed interested Monday in establishing a rule that would call for at least four aldermen to be in favor of a measure before it could pass. On most questions brought before council, a simple majority vote…
DeKalb Public Library and Greed
In a post from January 10, I told you I’d continue trying to get information about the state’s Public Library Construction Grant Program since we knew so few of the institutions that won them. Part of the reason it has taken so long to get back to you is that I goofed up my chance…
Trib’s Undeniable Indictment of Home Rule
Yesterday’s Chicago Tribune: “Towns Borrow, You Pay”. When the Trib covered the Rosemont story a few weeks ago, it looked at Home Rule but more tangentially. This time, the poster child is Bellwood and Home Rule, which gives municipalities free rein on borrowing and taxation, is front and center: The vast majority of states —…