The PRU Crew has been told Mayor-elect Dave is heading out of town for a tropical vacation. We hope he enjoys the rest and takes some time to clear his head.
On Monday, we received a copy of the following letter from our Mayor-elect, and it is published here for your review.
April 7 was a tremendous day for ordinary citizens who have felt left out of the political process. Although some have mentioned that voter turnout was low, there were actually more votes cast in this mayoral election than there were four years ago. And the results of the referenda on the police station sent an unmistakable message to the aldermen which they have received and appear willing to respect.
More importantly, many people became involved who had never done so before. That bodes well for our city. The more people who participate in the political process, the better off we will all be.
I want to thank all of the residents who came out to vote for me. I was touched that nearly 5000 people were willing to put their trust in me. I will do my best to earn that trust. I will also do my best to earn the trust of those who did not vote for me or who did not vote at all. I will be your mayor as well. There is much work to be done and problems to solve. I will need the entire community's support as the City Council, the City staff and I address those problems.
I have already taken the first steps in fulfilling a major campaign promise: that is making flood relief and the sewer system our city government's highest priority. My Flood Relief Task Force is already taking shape and will be getting to work as soon as possible. I am also heartened by what appears to be a commitment from a majority of the aldermen to shift their focus away from building a new police facility at this time so that we can address the flooding issue.
I am not a perfect person and will no doubt make many mistakes along the way. However, I promise that my mistakes will be honest ones and that I will own up to them and try to learn from them. I ask the residents to be patient as the aldermen and I search for solutions to the many problems we face. Most of all, I ask the citizens to stay involved. The solutions to many of our problems lie in your ideas which you should feel free to share. I will listen to you and I will learn from you. Thank you again.
April 22, 2009
A Letter from Mayor-elect Dave Schmidtzkrieg!
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41 comments:
U rock, Mr. Mayor-elect!
I believe that the voter turnout in Park Ridge, when compared to other similar communities (population wise) was actually very good.
That is kind of like being the best hockey player in Ecuador.
Voter turnout is measured as a % of registered voters who cast ballots...it's not measured by population, or as a percent of the voting-age population.
Of the registered voters in Park Ridge, a little over 33% turned out and voted...which makes us one of the communities in the area with one of the highest voter turnouts...one of the top 3, I believe...which would seem to be just a little more impressive than comparisons to playing hockey in Ecuador...vs., say...Canada...
Our turnout, as a % of registered voters, was better than that of Niles...where for the first time in decades, voters had serious choices at the ballot...which um...a majority of them cast in one race in favor of a convicted felon...but whatever...that's Niles...
hmmm...a convicted felon as your mayor. what's THAT like?
We believe Bean was referring to the election of new Niles trustee George Alpogianis -- the man has 7 felony convictions on his record.
gypsy,
I was talking about the recent election of a Niles trustee, not Mayor Blase or the new Mayor Callero.
Sounds to me like Niles needs a blog!
Niles had a blog -- the Niles Underground, which is linked in our side bar.
Unfortunately, the Niles Underground seems to have suffered some form of cyber flu.
Bean:
I understand your point. Forgive me if I do not stand up and applaud for 33%. If you do look at it as a % of voting age population (approximately 28,000) it dips well below a third. As I recall, turnout of voter age population for the presidential election was about 55%.
In a local election, where so many decisions affect our pocketbooks and the direction of the town, and with such clear differences between candidates, the fact that less than 1/3 of those who could voted took the time to vote is abysmal.
Rather than say that we were very good compared to other communities, I find it more accurate to say our turnout did not suck quite as much!!
gotcha.
did Blase go to jail? wondering...
Alrighty then, anonymous at 1208...you're right, the glass is half empty.
gypsy,
Not yet...
I love that you have your finger on the pulse of stuff, Bean. Seriously...thank you for your contributions!
gypsy,
um...thank you?...:::squeak:::...
Moving right along...with the topic of today's blog...
Thank you to newly elected Mayor Schmidt for the letter. I'm looking forward to new, reality-based, and sane leadership for Park Ridge.
not like THIS type of governing/spending?
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/parkridge/news/1537550,park-ridge-noisewall-042109-s1.article
GET OUT, Frimark! GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!!!!!!
How can Schmidt say he has already taken steps to fulfill a major campaign promise when he voted for a budget that does next to nothing about flood relief?
I have to say that Dave had the nicest group of volunteers, and besides the awesome victory, we took away from it more friends in town. It was a hard-fought battle with a great gathering of people.
See you at the swearing in!
Dear Bean 12:11,
Would it be more accurate to describe the glass as 33% full?
2:12--you need to follow along better. Or "more better" as Frimark would say.
2:12pm
The same way Howard can say that he secured funding for the noise wall for Park Ridge Pointe!
anon 4:07,
That is hilarious. First Frimark takes the credit, then when the money gets delayed, Frimark blames Kotowski. Hilarious.
I think Schmidt isn't doing the same thing at all though. From what I have heard he can't get any funding in the budget before his task force gets some ideas on the table or the consultant the city hired gets some ideas on the table and we know what the costs will be.
The costs for any real flooding controls will probably be buckets of money too. Should Schmidt have voted for a budget that built in even more buckets of promise money for spending on things we don't even know the extent of yet? That would have been more like something Frimark would do.
So you are saying that it is better that he voted for an unbalanced budget (1.8 mil) that did not appropriately cover potential flooding?!?!?!?!?!
anon 4:23,
I think you need to slow down and read better and that is what I'm saying now.
"more better"
Alrighty then, My Wild Irish Prose...you're right, the glass is 33% full.
gypsy,
Po' Howie...he got da mo' better blues...
;)
Anonymous April 22, 2009 4:17 PM
"Should Schmidt have voted for a budget that built in even more buckets of promise money for spending on things we don't even know the extent of yet?"
NO, because that wasn't the budget that was voted on Monday night. The budget up on Monday night was one that featured smoke and mirrors (as PublicWatchdog writes in today's post), and it looks like Schmidt voted for smoke and mirrors.
anon 4:58,
Nice change of horses in flooded midstream. The original complaint was about the budget not having anything in it for flooding and accusing Schmidt of making false claims about taking steps to address our flooding problems.
My response was that you can't approve a budget for added flooding controls when you don't know what those costs are yet.
You seem to have a different issue altogether that you got off the PublicWatchdog site.
What do you think should have been done with the budget Monday night?
Apologies. I forgot to say I think putting a group of engineers in the community together to get their hands dirty and look into the flooding problems is taking steps to keep Schmidt's campaign promise. I think though this town suffers from instant gratification problems and Schmidt's biggest problem will be getting people to have some patience like he asked for in his letter here.
Anonymous April 22, 2009 5:16 PM
It's up to city staff to come up with a budget that the council can approve. If it doesn't have enough money in it for meaningful flood control, then either additional revenues have to be found - most likely, through higher taxes - or more expenses need to be cut. No mystery there.
And it's no mystery that any meaningful flood control will take buckets of money, most likely a bond issue. But that doesn't mean that you wait for a bond issue to start raising revenues and/or cutting expenses.
"What do you think should have been done with the budget Monday night?" I think it should have been rejected and staff sent back to the drawing board.
Hello everyone,
My name is Ruby, you can call me Rew, everyone thats anyone does. I’m new to Pak Ridge. I think this blog has some really cool people on it so I feel comfortable asking a few questions, if someone wouldn’t mind answering them for me.
I noticed there are planes sometimes coming pretty close to my house. What’s that all about? And the other day I called a taxi and it took like 20 minutes to get to my house, What’s up with that? I told my neighbor that I was going to call Yellow cab but he said I would be in some kind of violation and the cops would come fine me and possibly arrest me. Is that true? And has anyone else been offered the everglade accessable property for sale in Florida by a guy named Frimaker or something like that? I don't know a lot about real estate but it seems like a good deal.
One more thing for the record – I "GET" the picture of our new mayor. The skirt and pointy toes and all. I just want everyone to know that I am cool with alternative lifestyles.
Okay, thanks for your help.
oh Howard, we see right through that. Get back to packing your shit and stay off the "evil blogs."
Money for flood control??????????
Whatever for....you folks KNEW you were moving
close to the Des Plaines River when you bought your
homes. WHY should the rest of us spend money
keeping YOUR houses dry??????? Its nice and DRY
on our side of town so WHY should we care about YOU? Nothing will be done about it. After all,
you can't fight Mother Nature. Sound familiar?
the flooding isnt just at the river. Much of it is because sewers havent been maintained properly.
Ruby (Rew)
Re the low-flying planes, few residents know that the City has a limited number of Stinger shoulder-fired ground-to-air missiles that are effective on aircraft flying below 11,000 feet to a range of 5 miles. You can contact City Mgr. Jim Hock for further details, but due to the recent budget deficits residents are now being charged the full $38,000 per missile cost.
Re cab service, Park Ridge Taxi already paid the current mayor for its monopoly, so you're stuck with PRT for the foreseeable future.
Re Florida property, the name is Frimark and he may be moving there permanently.
anon@11:57:
You did bring a smile to my face. I get a great deal of smiles from these blogs, whether it is from the intended humor or pure stupidity.
I get the point you are trying to make. However, there is a gigantic hole in your logic. Let me explain it for you. The flooding that took place in my neighborhood and the vast majority of Park Ridge did not occur because the Des Plaines river overflowed it's banks and poured into the city. The flooding occured (among other reasons)because we have a sewer system that is circa 1950 and cannot handle a good sized rain, let alone a "100 year rain". There are also many people in town (thank god not me) who experience floodng in even a medium storm.
If I had purchased a house with a river view, your argument might make sense, but that is not the case.
As an aside, I do support the effort that you were defending in your post.
I think there is something that people in this community are losing sight of. We are all one community. I don’t have flooding/sewer problems but I care about these issues because members of my community are affected. The new runway has brought more noise and negative impact to my home but I know that there are others that have it worse than I do. People invest not only money but their heart and soul into a home. They buy a home for what it is at the time they purchase it and also for what they think it has the potential to be.
I don’t think anyone would knowingly purchase a house they thought would flood every time it rained. I also believe that when people purchased a home in Park Ridge, the altitude, noise levels and flight patterns of air traffic played a role in their decision of where to buy. Issues that impact one part of a community also affect the others, although the lines connecting the two are not always so obvious to see. It’s too bad that more people can’t understand that.
Brought some noise to PR ?
Foul smelling/breathing air in PR ?
We have approx 150 million in real estate that's been impacted and some are saying....we need a study?
Open ended ? I'd say!!
Today we read where Mr. Frimark left office and now the main door to 505 has a swinging door!
Howie's UNPAID bills are coming back at us like gas after Xmas turkey!
350K owed to the IDOT folks for a Howard Frimark wall of shame !!
Approval to build it but no check in the bank to pay for it!
We are in deep do do now....
4:45---Howie left?
12:21 Then we DIDN'T NEED the sand bags
around Boardwalk??? As far as the "wall" around
Pk. Ridge Pt. The residents should pitch in a pay for it......same principle.......not OUR problem.
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