Archive for June, 2011

DeKalb’s Structural Budget Issue

Author: yinn

Jun 30

Alderman Teresinski cautions us every year that we need to address DeKalb’s “structural” budget issues. Here’s one.

FY2009 ActualFY2010 ActualFY2011 EstimateFY2012 Budget
Total regular compensation13,702,00014,063,02213,625,02512,929,500
Total personnel expenses23,516,97424,538,65124,388,75024,322,868
All General Fund expenditures28,193,09128,629,57427,403,48829,357,321

Do you remember how many employees DeKalb got rid of last year? If memory serves, it was 34 full-timers, for a savings somewhere between $3-4 million. But from the budget figures, you can’t tell they’re gone. How scary is that?

Source: FY2012 draft budget, p. 30.

p.s. Because the city is currently negotiating with the unions, the FY2012 budget only includes pay adjustments for management employees.

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Another Denial of a Public Library Levy Request

Author: yinn

Jun 29

Galesburg, November 2010:

The Galesburg Public Library voted Thursday night to slash $20,000 from its earlier budget request in an effort to gain the City Council’s support in raising the library’s property tax levy.
[...]
Relations between the city and the library have been increasingly strained due to disagreements on whether to increase the property tax levy in the face of sharp budget shortfalls. The City Council is expected to vote Nov. 15 on the city’s property tax levy, which includes the library’s levy.
[...]
For years, the City Council has been opposed to levy increases. Last year, the city rejected the library’s levy request, forcing library officials to make several cutbacks. As part of its efforts to reduce costs last year, the library closed on Sundays and reduced its budget by $93,000.

Galesburg joins Naperville as another recent example of a city council exerting control over public library levy requests.

Last November, DeKalb’s city attorney said the city had no such authority, though even DeKalb has reduced the DeKalb Public Library’s tax levy in the past.

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DeKalb Public Library at It Again

Author: yinn

Jun 29

Library ShelvesLet’s review, shall we?

A library DISTRICT is an independent taxing body with an elected board.

Though it is attempting to function as one, DeKalb Public Library is NOT a library district. It is a public library and a component unit of the City of DeKalb. The mayor of DeKalb appoints the board members with the advice and consent of the council. It is the city council that approves DKPL’s annual budget, tax levy, and building expansion plans.

Council could also approve the issuance of bonds for a building expansion without having to pass a referendum, so it’s likely DKPL has zero interest in becoming a district. Therefore the city, being stuck with a rogue board, must address the problem. There are at least two approaches: the mayor could dissolve the board and start over, or the city could use its bonding power as leverage to get DKPL back in line.

Last time our city council tried to put the reins on DKPL’s tax levy, the city attorney said it did not have the authority to do so. That was pretty funny, because the council has done so in the past. Also, back in January the city council of Naperville asked its public library to make $300,000 in budget cuts. It is clear that Illinois cities have authority and responsibilities of oversight of their public library boards.

Today’s report in the Daily Chronicle that DKPL is also refusing to say where the money is coming from for its latest efforts at land purchases is especially troubling. A buildup of reserves for undeclared purposes is a slush fund, and has no place in the business of the public.

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Police Station & Raises

Author: yinn

Jun 27

One of the things I’ve been meaning to ask about the FY2012 budget, but simply did not get around to, is about the total in staff pay raises included in the budget.

We supposedly MUST raise taxes to build a police station. What if we extended the pay freeze a couple more years, as we see in the real world? Would we need to raise taxes for the police station in that case?

Or, as an alert reader has posed it to me today: Is the proposed tax hike really about giving raises?

I have posed the question to council members via e-mail and hope someone will ask it.

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Raises for Management?

Author: yinn

Jun 27

The General Fund may look OK at the moment, but there are deficits in other funds, some of them deep (Workers Comp). We also have at least three other lawsuits going (airport, airport, monster truck) and a state that is late and that may still prove even more unreliable. Utility tax revenues continue their decline, suggesting DeKalb may still be losing population; EAV has dropped and is dropping, and we are trying to afford a police station and build some reserves.

In the midst of this reality, should we really approve a cost-of-living adjustment for management employees?

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The Switch

Author: yinn

Jun 26

The City of DeKalb claimed that the hiring of Laura Pisarcik fulfilled recommendations made by Executive Partners, Inc. (EPI). This is what the EPI report recommended:

DeKalb would benefit from a proactive centralized procurement program. [p. 19 of Benchmarking section]

Definition of procurement, from Wikipedia:

Procurement is the acquisition of goods and/or services. It is favorable that the goods/services are appropriate and that they are procured at the best possible cost to meet the needs of the purchaser in terms of quality and quantity, time, and location. Corporations and public bodies often define processes intended to promote fair and open competition for their business while minimizing exposure to fraud and collusion.

This is what we got:

[The Finance Director] [a]dvises the City Manager on the availability of revenues and the allocation of expenditures within those revenues; assists the City Manager in preparing a balanced budget for recommendation to the City Council; and, manages the City’s accounting, treasury, receivables, payables, parking, payroll, reception, and utility billing functions. The division’s goal is to provide the citizens of DeKalb with a comprehensive and uniform financial management system that conforms with financial standards set forth by such organizations as the Government Finance Officer’s Association and the Government Accounting Standards Board.

Laura Pisarcik, then, is no procurement person but just another assistant city manager. We’ve been had. Read the rest of this entry

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Voluntary Separation Agreement

Author: yinn

Jun 23

The Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) agreement landed in my inbox last evening.

The actual contract agreement signed by qualified individuals is the same for AFSCME union employees as for non-AFSCME IMRF/management/“Chapter 3″ employees. Due to the AFSCME side letter and the difference in required numbers of service years for the two groups, I had gotten the idea they were different, so having the agreement cleared that up.

I’ve also discovered that the employees who qualified and took the VSP are prohibited from being rehired to full-time city positions for two years — which was one of the mysteries that prompted me to ask for more information about the VSP agreement in the first place.

The real story, however, is that the VSP, which was arguably sold as a substitute for an Early Retirement Incentive (ERI) under IMRF (and for which the city does not currently qualify) was offered to employees as young as 36. Read the rest of this entry

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Reduction in Force: AG’s Review of Denial of Info is Complete

Author: yinn

Jun 21

If you require a recap of last year’s Reduction in Force (RIF) plan and how the Request for Review under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) came about, please see New Developments in Reduction in Force Story.

The results of the AG’s review, in short:

  • In the matter of the denial of the cost-benefit analysis used to decide on the RIF plan: The denial was proper under FOIA exemptions for collective bargaining.

  • In the matter of the denial of the Voluntary Separation Agreement (VSP) for management employees: The city misunderstood the request and will make this document available.

    • Find the June 14 letter from the AG’s Public Access Counselor after the jump. Read the rest of this entry

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    City of DeKalb Tax Revenues and Budget Estimates

    Author: yinn

    Jun 20

    Each of the images below represents the first portion of a three-part spreadsheet devoted to tax revenues and budget estimates for each of four tax revenue sources. The city’s new central purchasing director says this is the data she used to determine sales tax revenue projections for the draft FY2012 budget. Read the rest of this entry

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    FY2012 Budget Questions Answered

    Author: yinn

    Jun 19

    If you watched the DeKalb City Council meeting last Monday, you know that I had prepared questions for the public hearing but was prohibited from asking them.

    So I sent the questions to Laura Pisarcik, who was hired as the central purchasing person but who now seems to be acting as an assistant city manager, at least as concerns the budget. Emboldened answers are taken verbatim from response e-mail. Read the rest of this entry

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