Archive for April, 2011

City Manager Oversteps His Bounds

Author: yinn

Apr 22

During the April 11 Committee of the Whole meeting, the DeKalb City Council discussed whether to outsource any or all of its legal services. Here’s how it ended.

MOTION
Ald. Gallagher moved to direct staff to prepare a Request for Proposal, using Version #1 to out source the City Attorney’s position; seconded by Ald. Verbic.

AMENDED MOTION
Ald. Baker moved to direct staff to prepare two (2) Requests for Proposals, using Version #1 to out source the City Attorney’s position and Version #2 to outsource the entire Legal Department. Motion failed for lack of a second.

VOTE
Motion carried 4-3 on roll call vote. Aye: Simpson, Verbic, Gallagher, Kammes. Nay: Teresinski, Naylor, Baker. Mayor Povlsen declared the motion passed.

Clearly, the vote directed staff to prepare an RFP for partial outsourcing. Now we see this in the April 25 agenda:

4) RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER OF THE CITY OF DEKALB, ILLINOIS TO ISSUE A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS ATTORNEY SERVICES. The City Council previously discussed the outsourcing of the City Attorney’s duties and responsibilities, and directed that a Request for Proposal (RFP) be issued soliciting private contractors to perform these services. Circumstances have since changed necessitating a modification of these RFPs to instead solicit private contractors to perform all of our legal services, not just those assigned to the City Attorney.

The resolution appears on the consent agenda, so the city manager doesn’t think his decision is up for discussion. However, circumstances don’t get to change how the city manager carries out the council’s directions. Council gets to do that. In open session. Council members should pull this item from the consent agenda and put the smack down on this violation of their purview. Read the rest of this entry

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New Developments in Reduction in Force Story

Author: yinn

Apr 21

As reported in Reductions in Force Outcomes, one of the decisions the City of DeKalb made last year in implementing the Reduction in Force (RIF) was to lay off AFSCME-affiliated workers in June even though it was contractually obligated to pay them their regular compensation through December 2010.

Nobody questioned it much at the time, but then it came out that DeKalb was notified in August it must also pay unemployment compensation to these idled workers for the same period.

On top of borrowing $1.1 million for the other piece of the plan, the Voluntary Separation Program (VSP), the RIF was not looking like a very good deal for the taxpaying public. A closer look for the purposes of evaluating the RIF decisions seemed reasonable to me. Read the rest of this entry

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Last in Line

Author: yinn

Apr 19

As predicted in Sunday’s post, suddenly DEKALB’S FIRST RESPONDERS ARE #1 PRIORITY AND OMG WE MUST BUILD THE POLICE STATION RIGHT NOW, according to our city council.

It offends me deeply, because the The NUMBER ONE PRIORITY statement is a BIG LIE. The people who really have made public safety the priority are the folks who have protested new SUVs, serial land acquisitions, and ReNew DeKalb’s insatiable appetite for baubles ever since the first of the budget troubles appeared three-plus years ago.

If first responders were really the NUMBER ONE PRIORITY, Council would have insisted one or two of them be hired instead of a central purchasing person and an economic development person/company.

If public safety were really the NUMBER ONE PRIORITY, Council would have found a way to squeeze a couple more cops out of the $400,000 freed up from the debt restructuring.

They should knock it off already. The real story is probably some combination of a) the City being shamed by recent events, and b) the banker overlords requiring a new infusion of tax dollars now that the downtown project is winding down. Read the rest of this entry

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Filed under: Council/City Watch, First Responders | Tagged as: ,

Special Meeting on Muni/Police Building & Financing

Author: yinn

Apr 17

A special meeting Monday of the DeKalb City Council and the Financial Advisory Committee is set to examine two Municipal Building remodeling/building options with emphases on police station space needs and improved access for people with disabilities.

The Good
One of the options presented includes a proposal to sell off city property worth $2.2 million to help finance a renovation and addition.

The Bad
We don’t know where the rest of the money will come from. Perhaps some bucks have been “freed up” by the debt restructuring. After paying some employees twice for not working and having the General Fund balance dip to $22,000 recently, it’s uncertain whether they can make a solid case for it, though. Read the rest of this entry

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Filed under: Council/City Watch, First Responders, TIF | Tagged as: , ,

Be Prepared

Author: yinn

Apr 16

Zombie forecast: 99.9% chance of infestation in DeKalb today.

This is a few Halloweens old, but the advice is timeless.

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Zombies Lurch Into Town Tomorrow

Author: yinn

Apr 15

zombie babyDaily Chronicle:

Zombies are slated to meet at 5 p.m. at the Holmes Student Center at NIU, then walk along Lincoln Highway, Annie Glidden Road, Lucinda Avenue and along the DeKalb Nature Trail near the East Lagoon.

Brown said Saturday’s walk is a test-run and he hopes to help organize another one closer to Halloween. He said he was surprised by the response and support the event has gotten not only from students, but from people in the community.

Ahem.

DeKalb Zombie Walk 2011 Facebook page has nearly 600 participants signed up. The page includes a map and rules.

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Filed under: General Happenings | Tagged as:

Code Enforcement & the Sign Ordinance

Author: yinn

Apr 14

The City of DeKalb’s Safe/Quality Housing Task Force met Tuesday. Greek Row safety was a popular topic of discussion, and so were code enforcement issues. The Quality Subcommittee had several suggestions about the latter, including:

  • Condense and summarize housing codes for public consumption where possible.

  • Institute a tracking system for code complaints, preferably an online public system such as Elgin has.

  • Prioritize code violations in order of severity.

As a person who understands that our code enforcement division is understaffed — and as someone who has occasionally nearly fallen off or through rotting front stairs and porches in this town — I totally support the idea of prioritizing dangerous states of disrepair over, say, stands of too-tall weeds.

Here’s a possible place to start: DeKalb’s sign regulations. Read the rest of this entry

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Workers Comp in DeKalb

Author: yinn

Apr 12

You may recall that DeKalb would like to join the Municipal Insurance Cooperative Agency (MICA) instead of continuing to self-fund its liability “insurance,” but MICA calculated the premium at $1.1 million per year up front and we can’t seem to find the money. The premium was based in part on a five-year average of actual annual liability losses including Workers’ Comp, FY05-09.

There’s been a lot of talk about Workers Compensation and state workers, so I finally got around to asking for some payment records from the City of DeKalb’s Workers Comp Fund (and as soon as I did, an incumbent candidate for alderman suddenly made an issue of it).

Bottom line: Since January 1, 2005, DeKalb has paid out $2.7 million to more than 50 employees. Read the rest of this entry

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Filed under: Council/City Watch, Payment Due? | Tagged as:

Cohen Barnes for School Board PAC

Author: yinn

Apr 6

[Update 4/7: Do not miss the comments on this story.]

Cohen Barnes for School Board Committee: Schedule A-1, Report of Contributions of $1000 or more.

13 Comments
Filed under: Dist 428, Local Campaigns, Political Campaigns

Redistricting Clock is Ticking

Author: yinn

Apr 6

Recently while doing some lookups in Chapter 3 of the Municipal Code, I came across this:

3.02-5 REDISTRICTING THE CITY.

The wards of the City of DeKalb as heretofore established and as may hereafter be established shall be reapportioned according to population. In the formation of the reapportioned wards the population of each shall be as nearly equal as possible, and the wards shall be of as compact and contiguous territory, as possible.

The method for reapportionment shall be as follows:

That whenever pursuant to Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, there shall be taken an actual Enumeration within every ten years in such manner as the Congress of the United States shall by law direct, the City Council shall, by using the census tracts derived from said Enumeration, apportion the population among the wards accordingly. Said reapportionment of population shall be completed within two years following the Federal decennial year and no later than October 1 of the current year (1972) and by that day and month every subsequent ten years hereafter.

Yesterday John Acardo, DeKalb County Clerk, confirmed that the city must have its redistricting done by October 2012. The Clerk’s office has a redistricting manual for municipalities available.

Let’s make this an open thread. Feel free to comment on yesterday’s elections, anything.

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Filed under: Council/City Watch, County Watch, Growth | Tagged as: , ,
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