City Barbs

I went to school with Scott Rasmussen. He will not remember me but everyone remembers him. He was already a legend. Stories about him on DePauw’s campus in the 1980s were unbelievable. He has a new book out:

In Search of Self-Governance.

His upcoming book sounds like it is way more fun:

Mad As Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System.

I am not going to agree with everything from the conservative side of issues but that man knows more about what Americans think than any of us.

We need a local Golden Fleece award, to recognize the ultimate in wasteful spending. My vote will be for the Roundabout, after the County Board approves the thing on Annie Glidden and Rich Road. We could have a regular four-way stop, well marked, with solar-powered flashers for under $13K. But, nooooo, the County Board wants to blow over a million dollars on a roundabout. Here are four pictures of a roundabout in Avon, Indiana.

When the Roundabout goes in, at a cost over a million dollars more than necessary to improve traffic safety, it will be my vote for a local Golden Fleece Award.

It’s Chicago we’re talking about, but it bodes well for the very similar DeKalb Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests made by our local dailies, does it not?

March 5, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — The Illinois Attorney General’s office says the Mayor’s office must turn over job applications for the two vacant Alderman positions.

The city had tried to keep the information secret. Late this afternoon, the AG’s public access counselor, Cara Smith, ruled that the public should have access to information about the application process. Read the rest of this entry »

County of DeKalb, 2004-2008: Jail! Jail! Jail! Jail!

County of DeKalb, 2009-10: No, wait! Courthouse! Then jail.

County of DeKalb
9 groups of elected offices (County Board, County Clerk, etc.)
9 appointed boards & commissions
18 departments
552 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions (approx.)
2010 budget for Information Management: $1,004,400* (PDF p. 6)
2010 budgeted regular compensation for IM: $542,000
2010 budgeted overtime for IM: $14,000
Number of IM employees: 10

City of DeKalb
2 groups of elected offices
13 appointed boards, commissions & committees
6 departments
220 FT employees + additional FTE of 13 (approx.)
2010 budget for Information & Technology: $1,078,000 (PDF p. 51)
2010 budgeted regular compensation for I&T: $527,462
2010 budgeted overtime for I&T: $30,000
Number of I&T employees: 7

*There’s an additional allocation of $253,000 for county doc storage. City I&T budget includes doc storage.

When I was running for mayor, a voter tracked me down on Election Day to ask this:

“If you were mayor, would you be willing to make a public statement saying that your administration would not tolerate discrimination?”

“Of course,” I responded. “What else?”

Turned out, that was all.

Really?

Yes. The voter explained that other DeKalb mayors had been approached similarly during their tenures, and had refused to make such a statement.

I was astonished at that moment, but in light of recent events it apparently really WAS too much to ask of them. Read the rest of this entry »

…and can be found at http://stopthemega-dump.org

Read the press release from Stop DeKalb County Mega-Dump group and see the e-mail that forbids County Board members from contacts with constituents about the landfill application at DeKalb County Online.

The following letter about the proposed county mega-dump is addressed to the Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). I swiped it off of Facebook; speaking of which, the Stop the DeKalb County Mega-Dump Group on FB has grown to 453 members and 9 officers in little more than a week.

On to the letter… Read the rest of this entry »

Fourth Ward Alderman Brendon Gallagher has been guiding a BYOB license proposal through the city’s legislative process. Here is what he reported at his website about last Tuesday’s Liquor Commission meeting.

One member of the Commission asked the GM of the Haru of Japan sushi restaurant (who was at the meeting for liquor license approval) and I am not kidding on this question, “What ethnicity of waitstaff are your [sic] going to hire?”

This is 2010!!! Is Archie Bunker on this commission? What type of question is that to ask?

The General Manager of Haru of Japan asked a simple “What?” for his response.

Now you would think that the commission member would have taken the hint not to ask this again. But oh no he swung for the fences with “What ethnicity of your waitstaff are you going to hire?”

Wow! I could not believe he asked it a second time.

The GM of Haru of Japan looked shocked. He gave a great answer, “We are going to hire responsible people who want to work and be over 21 if they serve alcohol.”

From Gallagher’s description, it sounds like much of the meeting was a professionalism FAIL.