Have Some! And a Welcome Note!

Have Some Cow pie!

For our faithful PRU readers who may want to take a break from the holiday madness, may we suggest some madness of a different sort? How about a COW meeting!

If you're up for some assorted madness, you can attend tonight's City Council COW meeting -- the agenda (.pdf) offers topics for discussion and action on subjects for every City Council committee!

The PRU Crew is very interested in hearing the discussions on a number of issues. We feel the pending agreement with Lutheran General Hospital, on the issue of the parking garage tax, should be of extreme interest to the people of Park Ridge. And we look forward to learning precisely what community health care services the City has been providing, in addition to ambulance and paramedic services, since the community groups listed on exhibit A (last page) of the supporting documents (.pdf) are not City-provided community health services. But the PRU Crew is mighty intrigued by the idea of being able to contract for the rescinding of tax ordinances and then earmarking payments to government for preferred program support!

We're also wondering about Lutheran General Hospital's ability to use the proposed agreement to help satisfy legal requirements for providing charity care.

The PRU Crew expects the Mayor and City Council will support the addition of "advice and consent of the City Council" when reviewing department head hiring, and express approval of the City Council, by vote, of severance payments. And we feel this is a cluster f%$# waiting to happen. If history provides any instruction and-or insight, it is likely this Mayor and City Council would have approved the extra severance payment made to the former Director of Economic Development, while voting against any extra severance payment to the former Director of Community Development. And their doing so would have been highly subjective and rife with personal sentiments. But hey, discrimination lawsuits are always interesting!

Finally, we expect the residents on Vine Ave., seeking reimbursement for engineering costs (.pdf), may want to be prepared to bend over and grab their ankles. But some of the residents on Bonita Drive may have better luck with the City Council, right after explaining what they are really after is enforcement of the current truck parking ordinance -- versus the inexplicably stupid cover memo (.pdf) which states, "There seems to be two groups of thought – one believes the restrictions on truck parking should be stronger and the other group believes they aren’t strong enough." Just more of the same nonsense of the continuing saga of Meatgate and one family's adventures in local government!


Welcome Note!

Today was the first day candidates for local office could submit their petitions for inclusion on the ballot for the upcoming spring elections.

We're told, as of noon today, current Aldermen Joseph Sweeney (1st ward) and Rich DiPietro (2nd ward) have submitted their petitions to the City Clerk for inclusion on the ballot.

We're also told relative newcomers to the fun that is local City of Park Ridge government, Franklin Ramirez (7th ward), Sal Raspanti (4th ward), and Dan Knight (5th ward), have also submitted their petitions to the City Clerk for inclusion on the ballot in the same aforementioned elections.

Welcome! The PRU Crew is very much looking forward to your campaigns!