Many of you may remember when Mayor Howard was pushing his referendum to cut the city council from 2 aldermen per ward to 1 alderman per ward.
One of the robo-calls Mayor Howard sent out to voters included the promise that, should voters approve his referendum, it would save money. The PRU Crew knew the sum would be paltry in relation to the city budget, but the argument wasn't a lie or all that unreasonable.
When the Crew was doing our reading of the city budget documents for our library post yesterday, one of the Crew noticed another interesting tidbit at the top of pg. 10 --
Summary of Expenses 08/09
That interesting tidbit is the Legislative line item. The Legislative budget does include expenses beyond the $1,000 per month paid to the Mayor, the $750 per month paid to the Clerk, and the $100 per month paid to the aldermen. As we expected, the Legislative line item in the city budget was projected to drop after the council was cut, but it looks as if the actual budget expenditure was $5,200 more than the actual expense for the previous 14 member council.
What we didn't expect was, after the initially projected drop in the legislative budget, that line item would immediately rise to a level above that of the previous council. And what we're baffled by is the near doubling of that legislative budget line item for 2008/09.
We believe the police department audit cost probably accounts for the drastic increase, but we are left wondering why the budget for 2009/10 doesn't again reflect the savings Mayor Howard said would be ours if we cut the council.
It looks to us as if Mayor Howard isn't doing more with less, as he promised. But rather, he and his lapdogs are doing less and costing us just as much and more!
December 9, 2008
Doing Less with More!
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13 comments:
It is all creep. The little costs all add up. The pennies add up. If you don't have competent people minding the store then before you know it you're in the hole.
Let's hope that with today's events
involving the arrest of Gov. Blago that more indictments will follow.
Maybe we will see :
- Rosemary M. and her 20,000 promised
to her from Gov. for a PK "art in the park" per project!
- Frimark and his " south corridor study. Where did those funds come
from ? What rep's ( state )level
had their local hands in there?
- Frimark and his " noise wall"
pet project which was state funds ?
Lets' hope that the feds will look into these questions too.
- Frimark and the 500K once promised from Jan S./ Fed money
that was taken off the table on the Cumberland Ave study after learning that the people did NOT
want it.
Stay tuned!!
it would be nice to see the locals who have been involved with blago or blago-like corruption go down. i won't hold my breath.
but we can at least hope that this blago arrest will send a message to everyone that the days of getting away with this kind of stuff are over.
Genius:
One would have thought that message would have been delivered with some of the privious arrests -Rosenkowski for example.
Aside from being complete scum bags, I see it as almost like a sickness. Not only did he not need to do it for financial reasons, he kept doing it even knowing that he was being investigated and there was a high likelyhood that people were listening.
If someone is like, that then all the arrests in the world are not a message that will be heard.
The other thing I would say is that there are still many people getting away with it at many levels of government.
Not sure where you get your info, but Gov. Blago is in financial troubles. Desperate people do deperate things. Again, the only one hurt are the children.
Enjoy your new cell mate Ryan!
Can Il. go 3 for 3?
OK, I know his life is basically destroyed and he is going to do time.....but $4500.00 bond?!?!?!?!?! You have to be kidding me!!!!
Anon. 1:28
Please define "financial trouble" in reguards to the man who resides in the Governor's mansion". Somehow I doubt we are talking about the same difficulties that many people are trying to stuggle through. Perhaps what you mean by finacial difficulties is......
Sorry dear, no new Mercedes this year.....or your scheduled Cartier shopping trip is cancelled...or perhaps you may just have to walk around carrying last years Coach model purse. Booo Hooo.
All the while people are clipping coupons, walking instead of driiving, or creativly working out how to pay next months gas bill. Please... give me a break. How could you possible compare the two?!? And follow up with the desperate people comment? This is PURE GREED!!!
Easy Anon 8:20. He is broke! Do your homework! He is afloat because of his governorship. When done he hardly has a dollar to his name. Now he won't have any connections or friends. Not saying I care, he deserves all he is getting and more.
Sorry if this is off topic, but it does refer to a previous post regarding PRC partners and the uptown developement.
In todays H.A. update, it would seem that Amphora will be relocating into the "new developement. Although I wish them nothing but luck in their new and larger space, I can't help but to wonder what kind of deal was struck to fill the empty devlopement. It's not as if we are gaining anything "new" what we are doing however is playing the shell game.
...Fill this space so it looks successful...in the meantime... still empty store fronts somewhere else. And a landlord now without a tennant. Hmmmmmm.
Well at leat the new developement will look occupied, and that's all that really matters anyways right?
anon 9:37:
It is his choices that put him in the position of losing his connections and friends.
The point I was making related to his financial situation is that as govener, if he would have operated in an honest and lawful manner, there would have been a career for him after leaving office. Even if there was a perception that he did a bad job as govener, there would have been a 6 figure job for him.
Your probally right. However, he should never have been voted in for a second term. He is arogant and never kept his promises from his first term, but we voted him in. After Ryan, I guess we were desperate. Let's hope people take the time and do some due diligents this time around before placing a vote!
I was just thinking.
Since Frimark's a 36 year PR resident, wonder what would of happened he he tried to run for Mayor earlier on?
Would he have gotten away with this stuff.
I assume no because we had a much stable govornment but who knows.
Why is the city council
supporting Howie - now ?
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