The Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor (PAC) has agreed to examine a City of DeKalb denial of information to a representative of a neighborhood group. Here’s the usual drill. Upon the PAC accepting a Request for Review it invites the public body to respond with the legal basis for denial. The response is shared…
Tag: transparency
College Town Partners Agreements are Kind of Cray, but Still Important
I’ve read the College Town Partners documents that were leaked to the Preserve Our Neighborhoods (PON) group. (Want copies? Send an email to preserveourneighborhoods@gmail.com.) The agreements, which were never signed, lay out a corporate partnership between City of DeKalb, NIU, a local developer and two banks. They strike me as kind of nuts, actually, being…
Preserve Our Neighborhoods Hosting Press Conference Tomorrow
**Update 2:15 p.m.: The Daily Chronicle has posted the Memorandum of Understanding referred to in the press release. Don’t miss the confidentiality rules (Item 16) on page 7.** The following is a press release from the Preserve Our Neighborhoods group, the organization that sparked a recent town-hall style meeting to clear the air on the…
Observations: Yesterday’s Town Hall Meeting with NIU
NIU president Baker and the mayor each spoke to the group, as did NIU vice-president Bill Nicklas and an architect who explained the process involved in the development of the Bold Futures Thesis. In a nutshell, NIU wants to transform the thesis into a real plan for better use of the physical campus in nurturing…
If You’re Cleaning House, Why Keep it a Secret?
From the Daily Chronicle’s weekend edition: The city of DeKalb is without a finance director after Laura Pisarcik resigned the same week city Manager Anne Marie Gaura announced financial consultants would review the city’s financial policies and procedures. Ordinarily I’d applaud the sight of heads rolling for the sake of accountability. This time I can’t.…
How to Tell if a City of DeKalb Account is On- or Off-Budget
City of DeKalb’s use of administrative tow fees brings up lots of questions, such as how many of these off-budget accounts the city has and whether their collective use rises to the title of “shadow budget.” I don’t have the answers to the above questions, but I do know that even off-budget transactions are included…
Did You Get Invited? Me Neither.
Last week I decided to email our almost-daily newspapers to let them know I’ve been searching them each day for news of the DeKalb city manager interviews. You’ll remember that last summer the date for the interviews was set for November 1, but a lot could have happened since then. Then an article appeared in…
The Search for John Rey
A reader sent me this yesterday. If you’re new to DeKalb, I should explain that John Rey was elected mayor of DeKalb last spring. To be fair, the city’s website search seems to have made a recovery today. It may even function better than it did before, though I say this cautiously, not having accessed…
An Example of DeKalb’s Default Secrecy
A link to this city council special meeting agenda for Wednesday dropped into my inbox October 9. I am 99.9% sure the closed meeting is about creating a short list of candidates for city manager, which is important to us and by no means a secret. But unless you recognize the significance of the timing,…
Baker Says City Employees Were Terminated for Conducting Personal Business on City Time
**Update September 15: Here’s the link to the full, 56-minute Housing Bureau discussion (HT M.C.)** The City of DeKalb and the Chronicle recently made a big deal of a Housing Bureau employee’s using city email in negotiating her rent. But now that looks like the tip of the iceberg. For adequate context, I recommend watching…