Archive for August, 2009

Your Tourism Dollars at Work

Author: yinn

Aug 21

On July 13, 2009, City Council once more approved a $50,000 allocation to the Chamber of Commerce‘s tourism branch. Through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, City Barbs has obtained some financial information. This is how they spent the money last year:

DeKalb Chamber of Commerce Tourism Fund
a.k.a. DeKalb Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB)

Statement of Functional Expenses — Cash Basis
for the Year Ended December 31, 2008

Salaries & wages — $35,054
Payroll taxes — $3,098
Rent — $5,200
Office Supplies — $331
Postage — $345
Telephone — $960
Meals & entertainment — $366
Automobile — $249
Gifts — $75

Subtotal: $45,678

Actual touristy stuff after the jump. Read the rest of this entry

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City Clerk Implementing New FOIA Standards Now

Author: yinn

Aug 20

The new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) legislation has an effective date of January 2010, but DeKalb’s Office of the City Clerk will not not wait until then to begin implementing policy and procedural changes in fulfilling FOIA requests.

In fact, at least two changes — that of charging for copies of documents only after the first 50 pages, and charging .15 per page copied — have already been made by the office on an informal basis, according to Steve Kapitan, who has been working as Clerk for about three months. The old practice was to begin charging for copies after the first 15 pages, he said.

“Now that the law has been signed I will be changing the policy formally, including making a change on the FOIA forms in the office and on the web site,” said Kapitan, who also stated an intention to calculate and charge the exact cost of copying. Read the rest of this entry

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FOIA Request Rejection & Appeal

Author: yinn

Aug 19

Kay’s post about Governor Quinn’s signing the new, improved FOIA legislation is great news, but comes too late to help with this current and ongoing situation.

Let’s start with a recap of events. I have been trying to obtain, via the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), ReNew:DeKalb meeting minutes. Re:New, as a private organization, does not have to respond under FOIA directly; however, a provision of its contract with the City of DeKalb requires it to submit certain documents to the city. Here is the provision of the Re:New contract (p. 249) upon which I have based my requests:

SUBMISSION OF ANNUAL BUDGET, AUDITOR’S REPORT & MEETING MINUTES: ReNew DeKalb shall annually submit a copy of their approved annual budget and Auditor’s Report and copies of any board meeting minutes of any meeting where the receipt or use of City funding is discussed or acted upon within thirty (30) days of the approval of such documents.

“City funding” is not specific to Re:New’s annual allocation. It includes the use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) monies, too. The Egyptian Theatre has the same provision in its contract with DeKalb (p. 242) and its allocation is TIF funding (p. 237). Re:New is all about TIF, from the Architectural Improvement Program (AIP) to special projects like the skating rink. In fact, it would be surprising to find out that there are any Re:New meetings whatsoever that don’t discuss some aspect of the use of city funding. BTW, this has Open Meetings Act implications, too, but that’s a separate complaint. Read the rest of this entry

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SB 189 > Public Act 096-0542

Author: Kay Shelton

Aug 18

Gov. Quinn signed Senate Bill 189, the upgrade to FOIA. The full text can be read at this link. It takes effect January 1, 2010. It seemed to take him a while to get around to signing it but I see that his office created a new Web site which is here: http://accountability.illinois.gov/.

This is very important legislation, important enough to throw a party. There should be a FOIA-writing party on the afternoon of January 1, 2010. Read the rest of this entry

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EPI Meeting #1 Live-Blogging

Author: yinn

Aug 17

–Holy cow. I wondered what “modified” accrual accounting is.* So, they use cash accounting for expenditures but accrual accounting for revenues? We need to talk about that some more.

–Grandstanding. Nobody said there would be a vote to eliminate the post-employment health insurance! It is, however, clear that the city can no longer continue to pay 87% of the premium. Kay pointed out that the premium seems to be too high.

–Mac (FAC) commenting on the fact that only 5 of 8 council members filled out the survey on EPI implementation priorities and we don’t know who did and who didn’t. No one from the Financial Advisory Committee was asked. Read the rest of this entry

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Wogen Charged with Domestic Battery

Author: yinn

Aug 17

Chronicle story here.

Having DeKalb County Sheriff’s Police handle the arrest was the right move.

I am making a different decision about comments than the Chronicle has but please note I am ambivalent and may change my mind. Depends on what we end up with.

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Letter to County Board Re: Monsanto Enterprise Zone

Author: yinn

Aug 17

Dan Kenney has sent the DeKalb County Board a more detailed version of last week’s letter to the editor:

August 17, 2009
DeKalb County Board members:
Please consider the information below before voting on the Monsanto request for the enterprise zone expansion. The citizens of DeKalb County are counting on a vote that will best serve all of the county residents now and in the future.

    1. One can find a huge amount of information about Monsanto’s troubled history. The 50 plus superfund sites that the EPA claims are related to Monsanto. Clean-ups paid for with tax payer money. The fact that they took over 500 jobs out of the county as well as over $1 million in property tax revenue. One must ask why we would want to help a company that has had such a devastating affect on our County. Historical facts prove that Monsanto is not a company that can be trusted.

Read the rest of this entry

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More Employed by City Now Than in 2006

Author: yinn

Aug 15

The Executive Partners, Inc. (EPI) Report contains a chart comparing the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Headcounts from June 2006, June 2007, June 2008 and February 2009. See page 117.

The first joint meeting of the council and the Financial Advisory Committee to work on implementing recommendations from the EPI report begins 6 p.m. Monday. Council-ranked priorities appear on page 12 of the agenda packet.

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“Realistic”

Author: Kay Shelton

Aug 13

I heard a word I liked at the Park District’s unveiling of a proposed pool facility, “realistic.” That word came out of the mouth of an architect. That was a shocker and I can only hope that everyone who talked tonight understood the importance of telling the truth, not hiding anything, and making sure that people in the community can trust their actions. Read the rest of this entry

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My Fault

Author: yinn

Aug 13

The DeKalb Rescue Me Now website notes that there is a growing call for putting citizens’ comments near the end of Council meetings instead of the beginning, as happens now.

It used to be this way, but changed almost a year and a half ago when residents, including myself, called for a change:

Look at standard procedure at council meetings: The ordinance comes up for discussion; residents speak for three minutes each; the council immediately votes without further consideration or response to speakers’ pleas. Ditto the satisfaction level for the “citizens’ comments” session that, incidentally, occurs just about when everybody’s pulling their coats on. It disgruntles the speechifying residents. “Re-gruntling” grows less likely over time.

Mayor Van Buer set to changing the order of Citizens Comments right away, though almost immediately you could spot the disadvantage. With the old way, if you had filled out the Speakers’ Request form, you had the opportunity not only to speak to the issue you had arrived with, you could also comment on actions taken earlier in the evening if you had time left over. Read the rest of this entry

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