Outside the Box!

Take some time out and let your imagination run wild!


Have an interesting long weekend!

True Confessions?

Back on January 21, 2009, the Journal and Topics published an article titled, Frimark Sets 'Shopping List'. In that article we learn that of the $27million total costs on Mayor Howard's shopping list, Mayor Howard's plan to make good on his first mayoral campaign promise, to bring his vision of a "flood-free Park Ridge" to reality, is to seek, all in, $7million for infrastructure improvements that may help mitigate some of the sewer problems that contribute to flooding in Park Ridge. Not all of that $7million is dedicated solely to flood relief efforts -- it includes alley paving and $1million in repairs to existing sewers in danger of collapse, as well as "$100,000 to put a watertight coating on the Riverside Drive floodwall."

The rest of Mayor Howard's shopping list, $20million, is dedicated to the purpose of building a new police station -- the police station that 7th ward Alderman Wsooooolman's referendum, the referendum being supported by Mayor Howard, assures us won't cost taxpayers a nickel more than $16.5million, not including debt payments on the borrowed money.

The article concludes by telling us "Frimark plans to send the list to Illinois State Senators Dick Durbin and Roland Burris as well as U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky." Yeah, that should work.

We haven't seen a shopping list from Mayor Howard's mayoral campaign opponent, 1st ward Alderman Dave. But we are looking forward to his ideas on how to spend our dwindling taxpayer dollars -- and we were pleased to read a discussion of Alderman Dave's support for limiting the level of City debt in the Pub-dog's post today.

Finally, PRU readers, the Crew would like to hear what's on your municipal shopping list?

Go ahead, "genius", take another bite at the apple. :-P All in fun.

Bottled COW Recap!

Busy day for the PRU Crew! We appreciate those of you who have waited patiently for a COW recap!

Our sources have provided notes and we will be double checking things, but in the meantime here's another installment from our PRU cub reporter, Naomi de Plume!

From the desk of Naomi de Plume:

Oh Lord. Anyone who attended the Committee of the Whole meeting last night is already starting to put together their survival kit.

The City's finances are spinning out of control, and the mayor and City Manager Hock are sitting there like twin Neros watching Rome burn while Finance Director Diane Lembesis mumbles about how everything will be great...in 20 years!

It bordered on the the ridiculous. No, it went well beyond the border. Hock issued a memo stating that the Uptown TIF Fund (a/k/a Black Hole) is soaking up an increasing amount of money from the City's General Fund, but the General Fund can't afford to kick in any more. But Hock said not to worry, everything will be fine based on projections.

Alderman Schmidt correctly recognized that Hock was starting to sound like the happily-departed Tim Schuenke who left the City in an awful mess, mostly because the Council spent freely based on his own rosy, but throughly unrealistic, projections.

This is not good. It's bad. Really bad. Better get your batteries and bottled water.

Another PRU Pot Luck!

1. -- Another COW cattle call!


The City Council has another committee of the whole (COW) meeting scheduled for this evening. On the agenda (.pdf) are a few intriguing items such as discussion of May 2008 - January 2009 Financial Results, debt limitation, formation of an O'Hare Commission, granting additional taxi licenses, and an appeals process for denials of text amendments by the Planning and Zoning board.


The PRU Crew would like to have seen some supporting documents in relation to the council's discussion of financial results, but alas, there aren't any listed for public review on the City's website. And we aren't willing to count City Manager Jim Hock's memo (.pdf) to the council as a supporting document.


It will be interesting to see if this cabal of self-professed Republicans actually act like traditional Republicans and grant additional taxi licenses to American Taxi, ensuring business competition and expanded service options for consumers in Park Ridge. Last time the subject came up (see pg. 4 of the .pdf file), Mayor Howard was just a lowly Aldermoron on February 1, 2005 and was in his first mayoral campaign for Mayor. At that time the pro-business candidate didn't seem to think expanding the business base and competition in Park Ridge was a good idea, at least where taxi service was concerned. And then two days later, Mrs. Patricia Carpenter, wife of Lee Carpenter the then-owner of Park Ridge Taxi, made sure to express her...agreement.



Finally, we can hardly wait to hear the genius justifications for why the risk of politicizing the Planning and Zoning process is a good and necessary public policy change.



2. -- Sir Walter fails to rally!


As we discussed last week in our post Rules Are Made To Be Broken, challenges to several Park Board candidate hopefuls had been filed. One of those hopeful candidates was Mr. Walter Mizialko.


Sources tell us that after Mr. Mizialko failed to appear at not one but two hearings on the matter, the Election Board has finally seen fit to remove Mr. Mizialko from the April 2009 ballot.


The challenge against the candidacy of Mr. Brandt will continue with an appeal of the Election Board's decision to the Circuit Court of Cook County.



3. -- Give the Pub-dogs another bone!


A most excellent piece -- Put Up Or Shut Up, Mr. Ryan! The PRU Crew enjoyed it!

TGIF!

From: mixx.com - Michiko280 - sleeping_puppies


Three Dog Night MP3 from Free MP3 Downloads

Have a great weekend!

Rules Are Made To Be Broken!

From: dangerspot.co.uk -- children's books

Today another editorial in the Herald-Advocate, The undoing of democracy for April elections, provides more evidence that our local press isn't quite what we may have hoped for.

The editorial writer describes "the dash to ensure election by eliminating opponents, finding any possible reason to have them removed from the ballot. Get enough candidates removed and the yard signs, buttons and candidate forums become a mere formality instead of a way a candidate has to prove their qualifications to voters," and laments "the extent to which the electoral boards go along with such shenanigans, or in some cases where the law allows such a meltdown of the democratic process."

In order to follow that line of thinking, one must assume that challenges to a candidate's paperwork are not a part of the democratic process -- that somehow holding candidates accountable for abiding by the arguably tedious election rules isn't an integral part of the democratic process.

The PRU Crew believes that such challenges are an integral part of the process, even when the challenges to a candidate's paperwork seem tedious or like nit-picking. It strikes us as short-sighted to say "democracy pays a price" because a potential candidate is "thrown off the ballot due to using the wrong clip to fasten their petitions together or not having them bound at all...When a candidate is challenged for an honest mistake, such as claiming to be an independent in a nonpartisan election in which everybody is theoretically running independently, the result is a disservice to the voting public." The PRU Crew would ask, if a candidate can't manage the little tedious stuff isn't the democratic process served by eliminating the potential candidate from consideration for the big stuff, like actually being elected?

Further along in the editorial, readers are told, "The law does not allow the secretaries who accept petitions at these local boards to give any direction to candidates, even on something as simple as the proper way to fasten petitions together." Well, if fastening petitions together is so simple, then why shouldn't a potential candidate be expected to accomplish that task all on their own, and then be held accountable to the simple fastening rule when they don't?

Reading between the lines of the editorial has lead the PRU Crew to believe the Herald-Advocate editorial writer had Park Board hopeful Meredith Wisniewski in mind when writing this editorial. In a February 11, 2009 article, it was reported that "Meredith is new to the process and followed the (election) handbook," said her father, Brad Wisniewski, who represented his daughter at the hearing. "We didn't find anything in there that said anything about binding" and "Wisniewski, a recent college graduate who grew up playing softball in the park district, said she asked the park district secretary about how her papers needed to be filed, but the secretary told her she could not help." And we see that young Ms. Wisniewski is still traveling the up-slope on the learning curve.

Has democracy paid a price for the loss of this particular candidate from the April 2009 ballot? Probably not, because the democratic process is a continuum of activity, not merely a moment in time. Ms. Wisniewski can move forward, tedious lesson learned, and try again at a future date. The PRU Crew deeply hopes that she does, as we are always excited about young people who not only take an interest in the democratic process, but actually step up to the plate and take a swing at public service.

As for the other two candidates removed from the April ballot, Nicholas Giordano and Peter Wachowski -- they are described in the 2-11-09 Herald-Advocate article as "attorneys with firms based in Park Ridge...removed from the ballot after both admitted they had not filed the required Statement of Economic Interest with the Cook County Clerk. Both stated they had overlooked this requirement."

Attorneys who "overlooked this requirement" for filing Statements of Economic Interest? Adios and good riddance.

Benedict Alderman Ryan, Illustrated Again!

For your reading pleasure, we've copied and posted 5th Ward Benedict Alderman Ryan's latest communication to constituents.

We feel strongly that if Benedict Alderman Ryan believes 1st Ward Alderman Dave Schmidt has done something illegal then Benedict Alderman Ryan should file a complaint with the proper authorities. Enforcement of the law is one of the responsibilities of elected officials.



As for the rest of Benedict Alderman Ryan's letter -- we'll leave it to PRU readers to comment.

Diving Back In!

from: allposters.co.uk

Greetings PRU readers! We hope many of you were able to take advantage of a long weekend. We enjoyed having an extra day off, but we're diving back into the local pool of politics and policy today!

Our fist item for you to note today is that we've added some Election Season Links to the right, under our blog archives list. There you will be able to click and visit the sites promoting various candidates for various offices up for election this coming April. And, if and when the competing slates of candidates for the Park Board get something together, we'll post that link too.

Our second item for you today is a notice we received via email about a press conference today --

Press Conference
Chicago City Hall
Feb 17th
11am
2nd
Floor

The city manager Mr. Jim Johnson of Bensenville just called my home and invited any concerned Park Ridge residents down to Chicago's city hall located at 121 N. LaSalle Street - 2nd floor press room.

It appears that the city of Bensenville who is ahead of the game to a point will kick off " Runway To Nowhere " tomorrow with all of the key media outlets that have been alerted/invited.

I plan to attend myself with our city of Park Ridge map - outlined with the 9L/27R cutting across the city's air cap along with the other two air routes from the NE to the SW.

Maybe some of our leadership will too be there!

See you there tomorrow.....strength in numbers!!

Thanks

We earlier told you about the local ORD-REST.com group taking on the issue of O'Hare expansion, and we posted a guest comment from one of the organizers. There now appears to be another group also working on fighting O'Hare expansion -- Stop-OMP.org

The PRU Crew's original opinion on the issue of O'Hare expansion hasn't changed. But we wish our friends and neighbors good luck as they pursue this issue and seek some form of relief. We'll keep watching.

Our final item -- last night the City Council had another regular meeting scheduled. The PRU Crew was decidedly on break and when we kick back and put our feet up we're fully committed to the effort. Anyone interested in reporting anything of interest from the meeting should feel free to do so here.

Love, American Style!

Have a cozy weekend with someone you love!

It's Getting Embarrassing!

As we promised PRU Readers yesterday --



What a drama queen.

Don't Quote Him On Anything He Says!

As we mentioned yesterday, a Park Ridge Herald-Advocate online update reported that Mayor Howard will attend his first meeting of the Illinois Gaming Board today. The Illinois Gaming Board's open session begins at 1 p.m. "in the fifth floor auditorium at the Michael A. Bilandic Building, 160 N. LaSalle St. in Chicago."

Readers are told that Mayor Howard will "tell members of the Illinois Gaming Board that the proposed Des Plaines casino will have a negative impact on his city."

In our post from yesterday, we pointed out that what Mayor Howard is saying now sounds a lot different from Mayor Howard's original statement in the press --



But now the pro-business Mayor will tell the Illinois Gaming Board "the proposed casino site west of River Road and north of Devon Avenue will only aggravate traffic congestion in Park Ridge and could result in an increase in crime as well."

Jeez! Mayor Howard is sounding almost as if he's pro-resident! Almost.

But as we've all been told, don't quote Mayor Howard on anything he says...or doesn't say...or doesn't mean...

One PRU reader seems to envision Mayor Howard's address to the Illinois Gaming Board, set to begin a short two hours from now, may go something like this --


Submitted for our amusement by a talented PRU reader.

February Freewheeling!

From: visualparadox.com -- free wallpapers

1. -- A slice of COW pie!

As we reported yesterday, at last night's COW meeting the City Council intended to discuss hiring a consultant to assist them in hiring a consultant to assist them in consulting on building a new police station.

Our sources tell us, instead the City Council voted unanimously to defer any action on the issue of hiring a consultant and the police station until after the April election.

Today we've also received a press release from Alderman Dave detailing his request to have city staff look into the possibility of using the city-owned vacant house at 229 S. Courtland as a means of easing the crowded conditions in the current police station.

Stay tuned!

2. -- Place your bets!

PRU readers have posted comments directing us to an online update in the Herald-Advocate. It seems the Pioneer local may have decided to really take advantage of this new fangled thang called the internet!

In the update we read that Mayor Howard "said he plans to tell the board that the proposed casino site west of River Road and north of Devon Avenue will only aggravate traffic congestion in Park Ridge and could result in an increase in crime as well." Which sounds a lot different from Mayor Howard's original statement in the press -- "Frimark acknowledged the casino "will probably increase traffic flow through town," but added, "I don't see it having a real negative effect."

The article goes on to report, "This will be the first time a representative from Park Ridge will address the Gaming Board regarding the Des Plaines casino site."

Good old Mayor Howard! Always fashionably late to the party -- or make that, just late to the party in his usual fashion.

3. -- Doo da! Doo da!

Another Herald-Advocate online update mentioned in a comment from a PRU reader lets us know that at least one Park Ridge Park Board hopeful, Walter Mizialko, may have his hat caved in and a pocket full of tin! Doo da! Doo da!

The report says, "Walter Mizialko, 62, turned himself in at the Park Ridge Police Station on Feb. 3 after a Lake County warrant was issued for his arrest. Park Ridge police did not release that Mizialko had been arrested until today, and details of the charge were not immediately available from Park Ridge or the Lake County State's Attorney's Office."

"Mizialko, who is running for the Park Ridge Park Board on a four-member slate backed by the Service Employees International Union, said he will continue his campaign."

As we told one of our friendly correspondents, "Putting this guy in a position to manage other people's money is one of the worst ideas we've ever heard!"

Mr. Mizialko, unless you are running to be first in line for the glue factory, we think you may want to give serious consideration to putting your campaign out to pasture.

Yippy Kai Yay!

The Park Ridge City Council has another COW meeting scheduled for tonight. On the agenda (.pdf) is a bit of COW comedy the PRU Crew is shaking our heads over.

We have to admit, we didn't think they were serious when the issue was first raised. But it sure looks as if the City Council will be looking to hire a consultant, who will provide consulting work, that will eventually help the City Council hire a consultant, who will provide consulting work, that will eventually help the City Council mooooove forward on building a new police station.

And the taxpayers of Park Ridge continue to get milked for all we're worth!

Got A Spare $40 Grand?

Dreaming is free!

Have a great weekend!

The Joker Writes for Pioneer Press!

In today's edition of the Herald-Advocate we are treated to a view of the inner workings of what passes for the mind of the Herald-Advocate editor.

In the editorial, Referendum rules work against input on airport question, the PRU Crew came away feeling as if the editor simply could not bring himself to give Alderman Frank Wsooooolman (7th ward) and the majority of the city council a well deserved whack on their heads for approving a referendum question that essentially duplicates if not completely confuses the issue before voters on whether or not to build a new police station.

Instead of rightfully condemning Ald. Wsooooolman and the rest of the lapdog council for their display of "political showmanship" at the 11th hour, which can be deemed as equally responsible for shutting out the possibility of a referendum question about funding to fight O'Hare expansion, the editorial suggests that it is those opposed to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's sales tax increase who have somehow done a grave disservice to voters by proceeding to accumulate measurable voter reaction to Stroger's fiscal folly.

The PRU Crew feels that kind of thinking is evidence of mental retardation.

PRUdos to anyone that takes on one of Crook County's biggest idiots, Todd Stroger. PRUdos again to anyone who backs up their opposition to one of Crook County's biggest idiots with countable votes which will then provide voter-backed ammunition needed to undo Stroger's fiscal folly.

The Herald-Advocate editor blew it again -- just more noise from one of the local rags.

Thanks for the Memories!

Courtesy of a packrat PRU reader, today we get to take a trip down memory lane.

The first stop on our trip takes us back to a Herald-Advocate article published back in March, 2003. In it we read that Howard Frimark, when campaigning to become the Alderman for the 4th ward, showed himself to be fully aware of the issues with O'Hare expansion and the actions the City of Park Ridge should take. Frimark is reported as having said, "-- now is the time for the City of Park Ridge to negotiate what is best for the community in terms of the airport."



Unfortunately for all of us, once Howard Frimark became the Mayor, he failed to take advantage of his position of leadership, and completely ignored his own stated belief on what the City of Park Ridge should have been doing "in terms of the airport."

The next stop on our trip brings us to an article from the Journal and Topics published in March, 2005. In the article then-Mayoral candidate Howard Frimark promised that "a big priority of his work as mayor" would be his "vision" for a "flood-free Park Ridge."



The WGN Radio video below shows us that Mayor Howard either needs new glasses or a new "vision" for Park Ridge.



The PRU Crew is sure Park Ridge needs new leadership.

Thanks for the memories, Mayor Howard!

Nothing To See Here -- Council Recap.

Good morning PRU readers! There isn't much of anything to recap from the City Council meeting last night. They went through the usual opening drills, then approved the consent agenda and the Volunteer Month resolution.

Benedict Alderman Robert Ryan (5th ward) did offer a proposal under new business that the Napleton parking lot at Northwest Highway and Meacham be rezoned to transitional residential. The PRU Crew would not be surprised if this proposal under new business is as far as Benedict Ryan goes in representing 5th ward area residents on this issue, but we're willing to take a wait and see approach.

The City Council adjourned the meeting by 7:50 pm.

As one commenter noted this morning,

February 3, 2009 9:46 AM

Anonymous said...

"I suspect that all the meetings between now and the election will be short, so that Howard has less opportunities to say something wrong, and so that residents have less opportunity to speak up on agenda items.

Get out the rubber stamp, bacause we are just being efficient here.

Nothing to see

Move along folks

Go back home and bake an apple pie or something"

So if you are searching for something more informative than a City Council meeting, you may want to visit the Herald-Advocate website today. Their online update, Sheriff's office describes gang presence in township, is pretty good and worth your time.

Monday PRU Pot Luck!

1. -- City Council meeting tonight.

As predicted in guest reporter Naomi de Plume's council recap, tonight's city council meeting agenda is full of consent agenda items. The only scheduled opportunity for an elected official to speak has been reserved for Mayor Howard -- got to love the privileges of incumbency and warming the big chair while being able to set the city council agenda! Mayor Howard will probably have City Cluck, Betty Henneman, read a resolution in recognition of Volunteer Month while he poses for a photo-op.

Business as usual at City Hall.

2. -- Owed an apology?

In a Journal and Topics article we read --

"Bach also questioned the amount of time between the proposals and the license award. "We found out in October that Rosemont or Des Plaines were one of seven places for this casino to land," he said. The board then held meetings and public hearings before awarding the license on Dec. 22. "Doesn't that seem a little bit short?" Bach asked." (emphasis added)

"Michael Fries, chief counsel for the Illinois Gaming Board...spoke of the meetings and receiving correspondence from many area residents. "We did not receive one correspondence, pro or con, from anyone in Park Ridge," he said. (emphasis added)

He added that there was a lot of media coverage of the process. "This was at least 115 newspaper articles: the Chicago Tribune, the Journal. It was on every single TV station." (sic -- emphasis added)

Apparently sometimes things move forward too fast for Mayor Howard and his Alderlapdogs to keep up with. Perhaps the Illinois Gaming Board owes an apology to Mayor Howard and his Alderlapdogs for not moving forward more slowly so that Mayor Howard could keep up? Maybe the Illinois Gaming Board should have sent an engraved invitation to City Hall to ask Mayor Howard to attend the meetings and public hearings?

The PRU Crew had a hearty laugh while considering this tidbit of idiocy. If they found out in October that Des Plaines was one of the possible locations for the tenth casino license, what the hell were they waiting for before showing up to the meetings and public hearings to express concerns about any potential effects on Park Ridge? What the hell were they waiting for before approaching Des Plaines to discuss mitigating those effects or seeking an agreement for revenue sharing?

Business as usual at City Hall.

3. -- Now you see them, now you don't!

Cyber gremlins have been having a good time clicking the "report abuse" option for comments under the Herald-Advocate article Frimark kicks debate to the 'CURRB', causing the comments to be auto-removed, and requiring the web wizards at pioneer local to have to restore them.

The original H-A posting for this story was on January 23, 2009. Since that time the unflattering comments made under the story have shown up and disappeared, by our count, no less than twice.

To the Herald-Advocate's credit, or maybe they just get pissy about some things, they have consistently restored the comments and kept moving the article up the news posting chain; thereby keeping it high and dry for readers who click into their main news page -- the latest posting being January 30, 2009.

PRUdos to the Herald-Advocate.

4. -- Interesting story.

A PRU reader submitted this story to us this morning. From theINDYchannel.com comes the story of 'Church Faces Eviction Because Of Members It Serves -- Congregation Makes Rent, But Zoning Is New Challenge'

It seems what the PRU Crew calls a matchbook reverend with a storefront church opened a homeless shelter without notifying the landlord of his plans for use of the property.

The landlord appears to be caught in a catch-22 since "Columbus city officials would have to alter zoning regulations to allow the church/homeless shelter to stay where it is.", which is exactly what our elected officials did -- but PADS took a powder on regulation and licensing anyway. But since it doesn't appear Columbus officials have undertaken a zoning change, the landlord appears to be abiding by the local zoning laws and demanding that the church vacate the premises.

Maybe Bandito Brett McCleneghan can give this property owner some legal advice like, "ignore the city and open the shelter."

5. -- Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers!

And thanks to the Arizona Cardinals -- one hell of an exciting fourth quarter!