Council COW Round Up!

Mayor Schmidtzkrieg called last night's Council COW to order and our representatives got down to business.

As usual, the meeting agenda contained a line item allowing citizens to address the Council on non-agenda items -- Mr. Dave Areen took the opportunity to discuss the vacant property at Greenwood and Northwest Hwy., stating he believes the large swath of land in that area could be used for an underground water retention facility to relieve some of the flooding in the area. Nice thinking, Mr. Areen!

The Council then moved on to the Public Works portion of the meeting.

The Council COW members present -- Ryan and Carey were both absent -- voted unanimously to approve the contract for Traffic Controls and Street Light Maintenance.

The next item of business was approval of the low bid for replacement of the condenser unit for the City Hall air conditioning system. Public Works Director Wayne Zingsheim said the low bid for replacement of the system came in $4,000 less than the original proposal he previously presented to the Council and that no bids were received for only repair to the system.

City Manager Jim Hock told the Council that the cost of this unbudgeted item may be eligible for reimbursement from a $158,000 grant expected to be received by the City of Park Ridge from the federal government.

Both Aldermen Don Bachtard (3rd ward) and the 2nd ward's Lord of the Manor, Rich DiPietro asked Mayor Schmidtzkrieg if he considered this expenditure to be a matter of emergency spending and if the Mayor would otherwise veto this expenditure.

Mayor Schmidtzkrieg questioned Director Zingsheim at length about whether or not the City Hall system would breakdown. Zingsheim answered that, "That is the $64 thousand dollar question" and that his recommendation is to put in a new system now and avoid an emergency situation.

Director of Economic Development Kim Uhlig repeatedly reassured the Council that this expenditure would meet the federal requirements for showing energy savings and would be reimbursable from the expected federal grant.

Mayor Schmidtzkrieg again asked the Director of Public Works if it is "more likely than not the air conditioning system would fail" and Zingsheim again said he believes it is "more likely than not" that the system will soon fail and require replacement.

Alderman Bachtard expressed his grave concerns for adding to the budget deficit at this time and that he would rather "roll the dice" and take the risk when the matter is "not an emergency yet."

The Council COW then voted 3 (Allegretti, DiPietro and Wsol) to 1 (Bach) to approve replacement of the City Hall air conditioning unit.

Next up the Council discussed passage of and ordinance that will require businesses to remove snow from sidewalks. Seventh ward Alderman Frank Wsooooolman suggested changing the wording of the ordinance to say "commercial property" and that he is concerned that city staff has the discretion to issue daily tickets for non-compliance with the proposed ordinance.

Alderman Jim Allspaghetti expressed his concern that passing this ordinance may "create a cause of action" should a commercial property owner fail to remove any naturally accumulating snow. Both the City Attorney Buzz Hill and Mayor Schmidtzkrieg agreed that the ordinance could add language that specifically says the ordinance does not create a cause of action.

Alderman Wsol again asked if there are any other instances where city staff has discretion over the amount of fines and City Attorney Hill said there were but that it has been the City's policy, when issuing daily fines for non-compliance, to issue those tickets at the minimum.

The Council COW then voted unanimously to approve the ordinance.

The next item on the agenda, related to snow removal, was another plea from Public Works Director Zingsheim to change the current snow removal ordinance and allow Public Works to issue warnings and then tickets to people who plow or shovel snow into the street, after Public Works plows have cleared the roadway. Council members found the ordinance as written to be problematic -- Ald. DiPietro offered that whenever residents get wind of what the Council is proposing on this issue they then "come to enlighten the Council" on the issue, and for that reason Ald. DiPietro has opposed this ordinance during the 3 previous times it has been offered. The PRU Crew tried hard not to laugh when we read that in our source reports.

On the matter of passing and ordinance to make it unlawful to deposit snow from a public or private area onto the public way, the Council chose to defer the matter and allow city staff to try to more precisely word the ordinance.

The next item of business was to approve the placement of 11 parking meters along the North side of Summit Avenue, east of Washington Ave. Public Works Director Zingsheim assured the Council this would not add any expense to the current budget since the meters are in stock and staff is present during the day anyway, so there wouldn't be any additional labor costs involved.

The Council COW then voted unanimously to install the new meters.

The Council COW also voted unanimously to approve the mandatory sidewalk replacement plan -- with City Engineer Sarah Mitchell noting there are currently about 1000 sidewalks squares which meet the city rating for mandatory replacement.

The Council COW then discussed various flooding and traffic issues on Western Avenue, Touhy to Elm as well as hearing updates from the Public Works Director about flood control plans in other towns. Zingsheim noted that both Palatine and Arlington Hts. have subsidy plans that allow for city reimbursement of up to $5000 for private homeowners who install overhead sewer systems.

The PRU Crew feels using public funds to subsidize private property improvements is a very bad idea. We are told the Lord of the Manor noted the City of Park Ridge has provided this very option in the form of facade improvement grants to commercial properties, so this may be something to consider. Alderman Bachtard also strongly expressed his support for this idea.

The PRU Crew rests our case. Bad idea.

The Public Safety portion of the agenda was up next for Council COW discussion and, as expected, the Council COW unanimously approved an ordinance restricting use of skateboards in the underground parking garage.

Next, Hoopty Lou Jogman, who was sitting in for acting Police Chief Tom Swoboda, updated the Council on some IDOT issues with Red Speed's efforts to install red light cameras in Park Ridge. Hoopty Lou said Red Speed expects the cameras will be up and running by August.

The PRU Crew has previously stated our opinions of both red light cameras and Hoopty Lou -- 'nuff said.

The last item on the Council COW agenda brought kudos from Council COW members for Mayor Schmidtzkrieg's Flood Control Task Force, with Aldermen noting that to date the task force is populated with impressive talent which it is hoped will lead to workable suggestions for flooding controls.

Finally, Ald. Bachtard offered a brief update of on an O'Hare, ONCC, and FAA issue involving the FAA's reconsideration of the 65DNL sound level used to measure jet noise disruptions over communities. Ald. Bachtard noted that Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and the ONCC has pressed the FAA for this re-review of the matter.

The PRU Crew is wondering why Congresswoman Schakowsky didn't lock in this effort by insisting her proposed amendment to the 2009 FAA Re-authorization bill be made a part of that law? Not that we don't trust big hulking federal bureaucracies, but we don't.

There you go people! Your regular Council COW round up!