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 --
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?"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)
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!
22 comments:
The comments in HA have once again been removed.
Anon@12:44 --
Right you are. Apparently, anything critical of Mayor Howard is considered abusive.
Or evil. We've heard that one too.
Frimark, and his campaign manager, know he's in trouble, politically, or they wouldn't be so desperately worried about 4 critical comments under an article about Frimark turning his back on the voters and refusing to take questions at a forum open to average citizens.
If I remember right, the most recently posted comment was pretty benign, but again, when it comes to petty dictators like Frimark, nothing critical is considered benign.
Wow. I totally missed it PRU. Thanks for pointing out that Bach said they all heard about the Casino maybe going into Des Plaines back last October. The Mayor and the rest of them did nothing until the license got granted. How about that 6th ward alderman, doesn't he have some interest in this because of his horse racing business? You would have thought he would be paying close attention because of that and this is going to be right next to his ward! These guys are unbelievable. Complete morons.
Here is a fun one for ya. This afternoon, Howard was caught, twice, peeking through the window into Alderman Dave's campaign headquarters. Kinda creepy. Maybe he is trying to get some pointers. Dave has an army of unpaid citizen volunteers working their butts off to return this city to the people. It's got to be making him nervous.
Apparently now, exercising our right of free speech is considered abusive if the free speech you express is unfavorable to the Mayor.
How long have I been asleep? Is Park Ridge a communist city now?
I may be expressing an unpopular opinion here, but I don't get what the big deal is about a casino in Des Plaines. I know it will be close to the Park Ridge border and gasp! one of our high schools, but I just don't get the big deal.
The lawyer for the Gaming Board said the crimes go up with problems by employees of the casinos not in the surrounding area. I haven't seen anything that says otherwise.
I'm also wondering about the Bingo games that our seniors go to put on by Maine Township. Aren't Bingo games gambling too? Some of those elders maybe are hella rabble rousers too you know, but I think all this Chicken Little Sky Is Falling stuff is over the top.
HA comments, before they disappear again:
janet joyce wrote:
Debate on the issues is an important part of the election process. The excellent CURBB forum is an opportunity for the candidates to explain their views and proposals with their fellow citizens. I have attended these in the past and found them valuable in formulating my opinions as a voter.I am disappointed in this development and recommend that they be continued and supported by the attendance of all candidates.
1/28/2009 7:14 PM CST on pioneerlocal.com
Recommended (10) Report Abuse
herman cruz wrote:
What's the Mayor afraid of? Tough questions from the voters? The truth?
1/24/2009 11:21 PM CST on pioneerlocal.com
Recommended (15) Report Abuse
barry cronin wrote:
I have attended the CURBB forum both as a candidate and an interested citizen and have found it to be a valuable exercise in the great American tradition of town-hall style democracy. The CURBB forum gives each candidate for mayor and alderman an opportunity to speak his or her piece to the public and to take questions about his or her vision for the community and specific issues. Mayor Frimark did not regard the CURBB forum as "unprofessional" when he first ran for alderman or when he subsequently ran for mayor. So, why does he regard it as "unprofessional" now? Evidently, because he does not want to participate. And why would Mayor Frimark not want to participate? I would guess one of two reasons: 1. He is confident that he will be reelected even if he doesn't participate, or 2. He is afraid to answer questions from the public about his record as mayor. Arrogance? Fear? Perhaps it is a combinaton of the two. Either way, Mayor Frimark's skipping the CURBB forum is a slap in the face to the voters of Park Ridge.
1/24/2009 3:09 PM CST on pioneerlocal.com
Recommended (16) Report Abuse
wondering wrote:
So what happened Howard?? Cat got your tounge when it comes to debating?
What has happened that you won't come to the CURRB debate? You've been to it twice before... shall we assume that back then CURBB was "credible" and held "professionall structured debates"? What has changed? Or more to the point... why have you changed your mind?
People want to hear you go up against Schmidt and, as you are so fond of tell everyone, hear you defend your "accomplishments" and record. Why won't you do this??
1/24/2009 2:20 PM CST on pioneerlocal.com
Recommended (18) Report Abuse
Howard........come on now.....get with the program.
Planes overhead.....
Casino coming to Rosemont ??
Its not a done deal.....
Hey Linda....get him some headache powder will ya!!!
He does not look good !
Shorts too tight!!
this comment removal thing isn't anything new...
No....it's not new, in fact it's growing quite old.
Time to come up with some new tricks.
Howard knows what a disaster it will be if he gets up in front of a crowd without a pre-written script and a list of answers. It will mean that he will do his usual mumbling unintelligible words, mispronounce names, and sound positively mentally incompetent. And of course that is if he has remembered to take his meds, eat correctly and get to the event.
Come on now, people. Quit pushing the envelope and let's keep it on the reservation.
yeesh....now don't go getting all "incest" about it!!! (ha)
it was a very short meeting tonight.
I would really like to hear Howard up there on the witness stand in cross to see if he...worked/squeesed any money out of the fmr gov. blago ?
And who helped him from the senate side too?
Strange bedfellows......
Bob ( Howie )
Ted ( Sen who )
Carol ( We know who )
Alice ( Don't quit the fight )
probably a short meeting because Howie had to get back to driving/ walking by Schmidt's campaign office.
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
Anon @ 4:07, I'm curious to know how they defined 'crime' when they came up with that stat. Did that include drunk driving? What about the increase in traffic, which will affect Park Ridge? There is also a perception of casinos and the type of people they attract. This will affect property values for homes near there. Of course, the planes are doing quite a bit of damage on values...
Know matter how you look at it, you can't have a casino and not attract some unsavory characters.
I don't care if the entire PR city council attended those so called hearings regarding the casino dressed like their favorite cartoon characters and danced a jig in front of the gaming board. They wouldn't have even been noticed.
That kangaroo court was appointed by our former gov and they were about as interested in public opinion as Stalin.
Our only option is to fight this legally if we have the stones to do it.
Yeah, anon February 3, 2009 11:01 PM, just keep giving Howard and the City Council another excuse for being asleep at the switch on the casino: Nobody woulda listened.
Because nobody from Park Ridge showed up, we'll never know. But why wasn't Frimark (or the City Mgr., if Frimark was too busy campaigning or getting contributions) at least talking to Arredia about getting some financial concessions from Des Plaines back when the issue was still technically in doubt and he had a reason to be nice to us?
Looks like the Advocate rulers can't tell the difference between what is a legitimate criticism and what is potential libel. You would think people in the paper biz would know, but then it is the Advocate and I guess not.
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