When IS It Time To Panic?

Toward the end of the comments section of our Thursday post, we suggested the first quarter revenue reports for this fiscal year should not be a cause for financial management panic.

Which begs the question -- when do we think we may be inclined to panic?

Short answer -- by the end of the third week in December.

Eight months of the City's fiscal year will have elapsed by that point in time. The shopping season will have been well underway and coming to a close. Some new businesses will be open and operating, possibly providing that hoped-for uptick in local sales taxes. The second installment property tax bills should have been sent out by the shitsqueaks working in Crook County by then. And we will have eight months worth of expenses and revenues to look at, and the ability to gauge the City's financial picture much better.

If expenses have risen sharply and revenues have taken a corresponding dive, then we are going to panic.

We will also be frantically paging through the City budget to see what if any expenses can be eliminated in the fourth and final quarter of the fiscal year so as to avoid another abysmal year of big budget deficits.

You may recognize our panic because we will be the people who've pulled Christmas stockings down over our faces while mainlining some liquid holiday cheer.

Time Is Relative!

Take some time to enjoy your weekend!

Hardly Worth The Wait! -- COW 8-23-10 Video!

The video abruptly begins with City Manager Jim Hock's report to the Council on the Financial Condition of the City (.pdf). Beyond the discussion of the City Manager's report, there is also discussion of the Treasurer's report, which does not appear to be part of the documentation available for review on the City's spanky new website. Though now we better understand where the Herald-Advocate reporter got her information for the simpleton report she wrote for this week's edition.

All in, it's another budget discussion cluster. But the PRU Crew has a new drinking game! We call it 'A Hard-on for Hynes' -- every time Mayor Schmidtzkrieg mentions the State's Comptroller, take a drink!

Further indexing of the video, as time allows -- no promises.

Hump Day Quickies!

For our faithful PRU readers who can't get enough of governmental budget discussions, you can now look forward to School District 64's budget review!

As reported in an online article by the Herald-Advocate, the District 64 deadline for adoption of their budget is Sept. 30th. The School Board's Finance Committee of the Whole will be reviewing a final draft of the District's 2010/11 budget at their September 13th meeting! Time to pay attention, people!

What will also be occurring at the Board's regular meeting on September 13th is administration of the oath of office to whomever is selected to fill the current Board vacancy! How exciting!


At last week's meeting of the Park Ridge Park Board, The Big O -- that's Parks Director Ray Ochromowicz -- let it be known that the City of Park Ridge again intends to pitch a proposal to the District for use of one or more parks as water retention locations in the hopes of alleviating residential flooding in certain areas.

Previous attempts to persuade the Park Board Commissioners of the wisdom and necessity of this plan were met with little, if any, interest by Board members.

And we don't blame them.

Should the discussion of the City's proposal go beyond a polite "thanks, but no thanks," we fully expect the Park District Commissioners to ask lots and lots of questions before agreeing to allow the use of park land for water retention and flood mitigation .


OOH! Park Ridge could get all spruced up! An article in the Chicago Tribune Local -- Park Ridge wants to improve its southern exposure -- discusses all the wonderment of possibilities for what is known 'round these parts as the Higgins Corridor.

The article notes, "Traveling the corridor today, one can see why Park Ridge wants to spruce things up. Looking north, the first a visitor sees of the city is a gas station, a grocery store and a sea of parking spaces. Elsewhere is a mishmash of commercial and residential buildings of different styles, sizes and uses."

Because if you're going to have a spruced up "gateway" then it better not be "a gas station, a grocery store and a sea of parking spaces!" Commercial and sales tax revenues shmevenues! Future visitors, probably on their merry way to lose their paycheck at the new Des Plaines casino, must be given something spruced up to look at! Like a shiny glass, multi-story office building! There's a real head turner!

The biggest laugh the PRU Crew got from the whole article was what was missing! There are quotes from Mr. Jacques Gourguechon, principal consultant with Camiros, the urban planning firm hired by Park Ridge -- quotes from the City of Chicago's 41st ward Alderman Brian Doherty -- quotes from Ms. Gail Haller, of the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce, in which she notably states, "the organization has not discussed the plan other than to note its preliminary approval." which may explain why the article says, "Business owners along the corridor who could be reached said they didn't know much about the plan." -- and finally, there are quotes from Ms. Carrie Davis. Remember her? She used to be employed by the City of Park Ridge as the Director of Community Preservation & Development.

So what is missing from the article? Not a single word from any City of Park Ridge elected official! Though we can't blame the reporter if he didn't want to talk to any of them. As we all know, that bunch can be very annoying. Or maybe the reporter tried to get their statements but they all deferred his calls.


Finally for the consideration of our faithful and patient PRU readers, another Trib Local article -- With longtime ex-mayor in prison, Niles debates term limits.

The PRU Crew must admit, we aren't big fans of term limits since we believe limiting terms, or not, is the purpose of elections. And those who tend to support term limits usually do so because they want to limit the terms of, what they perceive to be, the opposition.

Instead of term limits, we would really really really like to see a local recall ordinance. Just a suggestion!

Allegretti? Allegretti? Allegretti? ***Addendum

Once again last night, our very special City Council held another special meeting. And once again last night, an Alderdunce was absent -- specifically, the 4th ward's Ald. Allspaghetti.

In spite of Ald. Allspaghetti's absence, the assembled Alderdunces moooooved the political football, known as contributions to community groups, forward. The 2nd ward's Lord of the Manor, Ald. DiPietro, motioned to divide the question and vote on each contribution separately. The vote totals were mixed, but everything passed, with only the 7th ward's Ald. AssWsol voting "no" across the board -- we're looking forward to the video.

However, if Mayor Schmidtzkrieg was paying attention -- or took off his shoes in order to use his toes for counting -- he may have noted the potential and likely votes available to sustain what will be his coming veto of these budget items. It will be interesting to see what response Mayor Schmidtzkrieg will choose to last night's Council vote.

As the PRU Crew suggested some time back, if Mayor Schmidtzkrieg had used a discerning red pen veto, instead of swinging a total budget veto axe, some of what the Mayor's budget goals are, and veto intentions were, could have and probably would have received sustaining votes. And if the Mayor had taken a decisive position on cuts we suggested and then had taken an equally decisive position on cuts to reach the balanced budget he was seeking, he would have forced the Council to act on his terms and his recommendations and we believe he would have drawn some modest victories as well as populist support.

And the long and unnecessarily drawn out saga of contributions to community groups would not be the pitiful political folly it has become. You would have to have had your head thoroughly up your ass not to hear exactly what each of the Alderdunces were willing to do on this issue.

It will be interesting to see if all of the special Alderdunces can manage to show up for the next meeting where consideration of the Mayor's veto will be voted on.

What are the odds...

Well if this year's history is any teacher, there's a slightly better than 50/50 chance all the Alderdunces will show up for that meeting. As we mentioned in our post yesterday, attendance by all the Alderdunces at regular City Council meetings reaches only 54%.

Only 4 of our 7 Alderdunces appear to have attendance records of 100% for the 13 regular City Council meetings held so far this year -- they are, Ald. Sweeney, DiPietro, Allegretti, and Wsol.

By our count, Ald. Bach has missed only 1 regular City Council meeting for a 92% attendance record -- Ald. Carey has missed 2 regular City Council meeting for an 84% attendance record -- Ald. Ryan has missed 4 regular City Council meetings for an attendance record of 69%. Old hookie habits die hard, eh Bobby?

To date, there have been 11 COW meetings held with only 50% of those meetings having a full complement of Alderdunces in attendance. The individual attendance records are --

Ald. Sweeney -- has missed 0 COW meetings -- 100% COW attendance

Ald. DiPietro -- has missed 1 COW meeting -- 90% COW attendance

Ald. Bach -- has missed 1 COW meeting -- 90% COW attendance

Ald. Allegretti -- has missed 2 COW meetings -- 81% COW attendance

Ald. Ryan -- has missed 1 COW meeting -- 90% COW attendance

Ald. Carey -- has missed 3 COW meetings -- 72% COW attendance

Ald. Wsol -- has missed 0 COW meetings -- 100% COW attendance

Why should people care about attendance at COW meetings? Because COW meetings are presumably where the nitty gritty discussion and debate on issues takes place before an item goes before the City Council for, presumably, final consideration.

In addition to regular City Council meetings and COW meetings, so far this year there have been no less than 18 Special City Council meetings and Workshops. On the City's spanky new website there are 4 sets of minutes and-or videos missing -- the 1/25/10 Flood Control Task Force workshop, and the 3/6/10, 3/13/10, and 3/20/10 Budget Workshop. For our purposes, we've assumed full attendance at all of those meetings, but we're fairly certain there were absences.

The individual Alderdunce records for attendance at Special meetings and Workshops are --

Ald. Sweeney -- has missed 0 meetings -- 100% attendance

Ald. DiPietro -- has missed 0 meetings -- 100% attendance

Ald. Bach -- has missed 0 meetings -- 100% attendance

Ald. Allegretti -- has missed 4 meetings -- 77% attendance

Ald. Ryan -- has missed 1 meeting -- 94% attendance

Ald. Carey -- has missed 5 meetings -- 72% attendance

Ald. Wsol -- has missed 2 meetings -- 88% attendance

So there you have the year-to-date attendance records for each of our 7 Alderdunces. We're sure the people of the 5th and 6th wards are simply thrilled with their smaller, more efficient representation!

*** Addendum

Mayor Schmidtzkrieg sent out the following press release --

from: Dave Schmidt
to: presscontacts@electdaveschmidt.com
date: Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 1:15 PM
subject: Text of Mayor's comments to the aldermen given at Aug. 23 Special City Council meeting
re: community group contributions


I have personally contributed to at least seven of the organizations.
I whole-heartedly support their efforts. I encourage the aldermen, the
residents and the business community in Park Ridge to also generously support the organizations of their choosing...but with their own money.

We should not be supporting the organizations with taxpayer money.
Taxpayer money should only be used to fund essential city services
such as police, fire, water services, sewer services, roads and
tree-trimming.

Even if the money was available, which is something I have serious
doubts about, the money should be spent on those essential services.
By way of example, $190,000 would pay for reinstating brush pick-up.
It would pay the salaries of two laid off policemen who could help
patrol the streets. It would pay for almost a full block-long relief
sewer. Or it could be used to help offset the multi-million dollar
deficit we experienced last year and are facing again this year. You
should vote no on these contributions.

COW Piles of Money! Very Special!

Beginning at 7:00 p.m. tonight at City Hall there is another Committee of the Whole meeting. The agenda (.pdf) isn't very long, but the subjects listed should provide plenty of entertainment.

Under the Finance portion of the agenda, we're looking forward to the debate surrounding the Financial Condition of the City (.pdf). We hope all the corporate authorities take their time to fully vet the subject, but at this point we suspect City Manager Hock is pretty pleased with himself -- being off by only $17,415 under the projections in only one revenue category in a total City budget of more than $53,000,000.00 is not bad.

Even the highly contentious subject of State shared income tax revenue appears to be beating the predictions of some local alarmists. What remains to be seen is how long the State can put off making the promised disbursements and what municipalities can do about it if the State continues to do so.

We would strongly urge some local alarmists to learn the difference between State and local revenues and collections.

Still, these are the numbers for just the first quarter of the fiscal year and if some of the economic predictions are correct, the actions of nefarious characters in the public sector won't be the only time we suffer the aggravation of double-dipping.

The failure of the State to disburse promised funds to local governments, along with scads of other State funding recipients, is one of the reasons City government should seek to be as healthfully flush with cash on hand as is possible.

And being healthfully flush with cash on hand is one of the reasons Benedict Alderman Ryan's scheme to purchase the Scharringhausen parking lot -- referred to in City documents as the Fairview Lot (.pdf) -- makes ZERO SENSE at this time. Hell, the PRU Crew isn't sure such a scheme would ever make sense. But if you've been paying attention, then you understand the difference between fund accounting and actual cash in the bank, and how actual cash in the bank is necessary to fulfill the financial obligations of the City, despite the way in which the City accounts for its funds.

Finally, under Procedures and Regulations, the PRU Crew is really really really looking forward to seeing how the Council, with straight faces, addresses the issue of attendance levels for boards and commissions. Gentlemen of the City Council, are you aware of your own attendance levels and the fact that, collectively, only 54% of City Council meetings have been fully attended by Aldermen so far this year? And that's the best percentage of attendance! COW meetings have only been fully attended 50% of the time, and special meetings and workshops have only been fully attended 41% of the time -- and that 41% is generous since there are meeting minutes and videos missing from the City website for no less than 4 workshops, and 3 of those sets of missing minutes are for the budget workshops.

Additionally, Alderman Sweeney is the only Aldermen who does not appear to have missed a single meeting, while some of the Aldermen have records of attendance for City Council, Committee of the Whole, and Special meetings and Workshops which fail to hit the 75% attendance level they require for members of boards and commissions.

Also scheduled for tonight at 9:00 p.m. is another Special meeting of the City Council. As our faithful PRU readers may recall, due to the absence of Alderman Carey from the last City Council meeting, the Council deferred voting on contributions to community groups. Let's hope all the Aldermen show up tonight! If not for the purpose of moooooving this political football forward, then at least to improve their attendance records!

Three Cheers for Three Years!

'Three Cheers' by artist Jenny Muncaster

That's right, faithful PRU readers! Tomorrow marks our third year of blogging!

-- 649 posts and counting, and a steady average of 2000 unique visitors per week. We can't even begin to count the hours of reading, research, and writing behind each of those posts. But we hope you, our readers, have found value in the effort we've made, and the time you've spent here worthwhile. We find your continued interest and participation rewarding. And remember, we're always willing to loan you a pair of Doc Martens!

For all those willing to keep fighting the good fight --

City Council Meeting 8-16-2010 Video!

For those who hate to miss a moment of the drama!

Indexing when time allows --

We Are All $6,672 Safer!

Various news outlets and the Chicago Tribune are reporting today that the Mayor of Chicago has issued a one day suspension to a bureaucrat for circulating an email memo "warning police supervisors that the city was on track to fall far short of this year's "targets" for parking ticket revenue." The unfortunate bureaucrat broke the cardinal rule of bureaucracy -- never tell the whole truth.

When it comes to things like parking tickets and red light camera citations, the bureaucratic script must be diligently followed -- parking tickets are written because a parking law has been broken and red light cameras are all about safety at intersections. Everybody got that? Politicians are not, repeat not, interested in revenue generation from things like parking tickets and red light cameras. They are only concerned with public safety and enforcement of the law.

The bureaucratic script, demanding discussions of public safety and enforcement of laws, are particularly important when discussing the use of red light cameras and the potential for installing more.

So any local news story or memorandum (.pdf) that includes and emphasises the amount of revenue generated by the use of red light cameras should not leave readers with the impression that there's any truth beyond your local government's concern for public safety and enforcement of the law.

Everybody got that?

Quick Hits!

For our faithful PRU readers who are interested -- At last night's City Council meeting, consideration of payments to Community Groups was again deferred -- due to the absence of the Sixth Ward's Unfriendly Ghost, Ald. Tom Carey.
The issue has been rescheduled for consideration by the City Council at a Special City Council meeting on August 23 at 9p.m.

The PRU Crew really enjoys our smaller, more efficient Council. We all owe former Mayor Howard P. Frimark, and his cut-the-council helpmates, Steve Huening, John Kerin and Amy Sullivan, our undying gratitude!



In case any public service-minded individuals in our reading audience missed it -- the Schoold District 64 Board of Education is accepting applications to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of board member, Mr. Russ Gentile.

According to a District 64 announcement, "Interested candidates should submit an application no later than Monday, August 23 at 4:30 p.m." Applications are available here (.pdf)

The PRU Crew feels those anonymous souls who dedicated such tremendous effort circulating flyers opposing the last District 64 referendum should apply!



We almost forgot! For those who keep up with the doings of the Park Ridge Park District and -- or use their website, you may be pleased with their new look and upgraded navigation!

Nicely done, PRRPD, and long overdue! Drop-down menues would have been nice, but we'll overlook their omission since you've spared us those annoying pop-ups!

The PRU Crew is also looking forward to the time the PRRPD decides on a new method of video hosting and sharing! Just a suggestion!



In case any of our faithful PRU readers should be mislead -- the "Editor's Notes" added to the most recent round of comments on the Public Watchdog have falsely been attributed to the owner of our blog. The false statement of fact does seem to rise to the level of the Public Watchdog Editor's having willfully cast our blog and the PRU owner in a false light, which is defamatory.

PRU.ADMIN did attempt to submit comments pointing out the error and requesting a correction. An email was also sent, last Friday morning, to both the Public Watchdog editor and their blog host, Mr. Dave Kaufman at dkworldwide.com. However, our PRU.ADMIN's comments were deleted, we have not received a response to the email, and neither a correction nor retraction seem to have been undertaken by either the Public Watchdog editor nor their blog hosting company, as of this writing, and despite the apparent completion of the site's upgrade.

So much for information being the currency of democracy -- maybe we were wrong to assume Jefferson's quote implied accuracy!

We're Awake! We're Awake!

The PRU Crew has been enjoying a long summer snooze. We hope our faithful readers have also made good use of their time!

We're sorry to wake people up from a dreamy slumber but once again the nightmare that passes for our City Council will be meeting at City Hall this evening.

The agenda (.pdf) looks as if it may offer some entertainment. The first item of interest is under --

Planning & Zoning Commission – Ald. Sweeney

a. First reading of an ordinance for an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan, known as the Higgins Road Corridor Plan

The PRU Crew hopes people pay close attention to this plan as we believe somebody had their head in the clouds when they cobbled it together.

Other agenda items which we know some people love to hate, but which offer great opportunities for political posturing party games are under --

Finance and Budget Committee –Ald. DiPietro

b. Approval of payments to Community Groups in the amount of $190,080.
c. Approval of City Manager Hock’s Employment Agreement

The PRU Crew expects at least one or some of the Aldermen will approach item "b" in a way much like we previously suggested be taken by Mayor Schmidtzkrieg. We are fairly certain the payments to Community Groups will receive the approval of a majority of the Aldermen, but if Mayor Schmidtzkrieg isn't too busy gazing around the inside of his colon, he may want to use his fingers and toes to keep count of the votes.

As for City Manager Jim Hock -- his mission, should he choose to accept it, will be to continue to function as the City Manager of Park Ridge. The PRU Crew is wondering if a taped recording offering him the job will self-destruct five seconds after he listens to it.

We hope everyone has been having an excellent summer! We've got some catching up to do!