If I were Queen of DeKalb for a day, my first act would be to run Victor Wogen out of town on a rail. The man is congenitally incapable of following the rules. Just last Monday he parked in a 30-minute visitors’ spot for 3-1/2 hours. I hope he gets ticketed the next time he does it because it would be good for general morale.

My second act would be to fire all the administrators who enabled Wogen in the no-bid contract schemes. The people who gave us this mess are the last I would trust to fix it now. There’s not enough time in the world to rehabilitate a group that not only doesn’t understand the outrage, but actually seems to think a pat on the back for its cleverness is in order. At last count, that means at least three people should lose their jobs. Read the rest of this entry

I’ve no idea who Anson McDonald is, nor was I able to attend the proceedings today, but here you go.

As most of you know, the City of DeKalb’s stated procedure for the type of jobs Third Ward Alderman Victor Wogen got was that two quotes or estimates were obtained for each job and that Wogen had the lower quote for each of the projects he worked on. Today, I went to the City Clerk’s office to review what they’ve gathered so far in fulfilling my latest Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. In response to a high amount of interest, here are the other “quoters” found so far:

1st & Locust: Swedberg & Associates, Sycamore

231 E. Lincoln, East and West walls: Creative Masonry, South Elgin

235 E. Lincoln Highway: J & J Concrete, DeKalb

More later, after proper evaluation of the latest pile of docs.

Last night during citizens’ comments I addressed the perception of city mismanagement (though admittedly not well). I think Council members are trained by administrators to believe community ire is the norm. It’s not. The reason the locals are in an uproar several times a year is because of administrators’ poor judgment and ample evidence that they hide things whenever and however they can. It does not have to be this way, but the pattern will continue until somebody on the dais challenges it; and in pretending that it is OK for an alderman to get under-the-radar city work, they are throwing away a superb opportunity to start imposing a more stringent standard of conduct. Just think how it might have changed the tone of the discussion if one of the council members had said something like, “This so offends my personal code of ethics that I will find it difficult in future to work with the people involved.”

See how that works? Without drama, disapproval is expressed, a boundary indicated, a consequence imposed. Think about how one might impact the culture over time by asserting himself regularly in that manner.

I’d hoped my own alderman, the 4th Ward’s Brendon Gallagher, would have been that person last night. Read the rest of this entry

January 2008: Third Ward alderman Victor Wogen files with the Illinois Secretary of State to do business as Masonry Works, LLC. He votes to approve the purchase of the building at 231 E. Lincoln.

March 2008: Wogen votes to request a permit to facilitate demolition preparations at 231 E. Lincoln.

July 2008: Masonry Works receives payment of $31,500 for two invoices submitted for jobs at the 231 E. Lincoln demolition site. The jobs are listed in the check register as 229 and 235 E. Lincoln and the invoices are numbered 3 and 4. Read the rest of this entry