The last full meeting of DeKalb’s Safe/Quality Task Force was November 16 and I attended. A funny thing happened there. The meeting started out with members expressing dismay that the city had unilaterally brought in a consultant to work on some of the same issues the Task Force is addressing, namely property maintenance code enforcement issues. A member asked what was it about the Task Force’s work that was not satisfactory to the city council.
The mayor and city manager sprang into damage control mode. They said it was a recommendation of the city council, that the consultant was meant to work with the Task Force as a resource, and that the firm was “not yet hired” to craft actual ordinances.
None of these assertions is particularly true.
In September, the city manager brought in a consultant, Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins, Ltd., to survey the city council and staff about property maintenance and rental housing challenges. Below is a September 14 letter from KTJ to the city, which outlines the scope of the work.
Click on either page to access larger images.
You see any mention of Housing Task Force involvement in this letter?
Why is drafting of ordinances #4 on the list if the city hasn’t hired KTJ to do that?
As for the claim that the consultant was brought in upon a city council recommendation, I asked during the Task Force meeting when the vote was taken. Turns out there wasn’t a vote of the council, and that the decision was made under the city manager’s authority. (Wonder how the two council members who attended felt about the attempt to throw them under the bus.)
I believe KTJ’s involvement was supposed to remain a secret from the Task Force because it involves a sneaky return of the fatally flawed Rental Inspection Program, but that members got wind of it. It would explain why city staff did not decide to involve Task Force members at the start. Correspondence obtained from the city under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) indicates KJT finally was set to interview the landlord’s subcommittee on November 7 and conducted the interviews November 16, two months from the sending of the scope-of-work letter and on the very day the full Task Force met.
Even if I’m wrong, that’s still a heck of a way to treat volunteers who are working hard to make DeKalb a better place to live.
8 comments
Comment by Ivan Krpan on November 26, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Did the city authorize the dollars for the consultant group to be hired? I have always believed that the purpose behind this volunteer group forming this task force was to kep from using taxpayer dollars?
It must be that this consultant was hired by City Manager Biernacki with his allowance to authorize spending if under the magical $20,000.00 threshold. Were they hired for, what? $19,999.00?
Comment by yinn on November 26, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Ivan, this letter seems to be it. There doesn’t seem to be any other contract.
I assume “under the city manager’s authority” does indeed include the spending authority.
I forgot to mention the timing: I check out rumors floating around by submitting a FOIA request November 2; meetings with other Task Force stakeholders, including the landlords’ group and the Housing Authority, are scheduled by November 7; I get the response to the FOIA November 9. I’m not saying the FOIA request triggered anything — anyone who heard the same rumors could have confronted someone at the city, thereby tipping them off, or maybe it was coincidence. But consider: KTJ had interviewed everyone else by mid-October.
Comment by Mac McIntyre on November 26, 2011 at 5:39 pm
so KTJ is like a lobbyist for the staff to get desired votes from the council members?
Comment by yinn on November 27, 2011 at 7:48 am
I suppose a consultant COULD be used this way, but it is impossible to tell. The information generated in the meetings has been withheld. Since the surveyors/consultants happen to be attorneys, the meetings are kept secret under attorney-client privilege.
Next they will hire attorneys on contract to clean uniforms so they don’t have to tell us how much starch they use.
Comment by Ivan Krpan on November 30, 2011 at 6:32 pm
There you go Lynn giving them more ideas. LOL and crying a bit too with the BS they are getting away by using legal loop holes.
People who are honest and on the up and up do not need to hide and find legal loop holes in order to do their dirty work and dealings. This should be telling hard working citizens that we have lost total control of our city hall and it isn’t just locally, it goes right up the ladder to Washington.
Comment by Ivan Krpan on December 17, 2011 at 11:33 am
This is truly all about Biernacki’s flawed Rental Inspection program. He is most definitely sneaking it back in through a back door. I am wondering why is it that Jim Keyes is still employed by the city?
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