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.
August 24, 2010
Allegretti? Allegretti? Allegretti? ***Addendum
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18 comments:
Whether they show up or not, it's not like they get anything done.
Ryan is a complete embarrassment.
"Taxpayer money should only be used to fund essential city services such as police, fire, water services, sewer services, roads and tree-trimming."
So why didn't you ask the council to stop spending for all the services you don't think are essential???? Which services besides the community groups do you think the council should stop spending money for because they aren't essential????
Mr. Mayor:
I believe you mean essential city services and firework's shows....no???
PRU, you keep bringing up the City's "smaller, more efficient government" -- and I hope you NEVER stop doing so. As most will recall, the above quote was Howard Frimark's explicit promise to voters who heard the magic words, "smaller government" and that was all they needed to know to cut their elected representation in half a few years ago. The "smaller government" of fewer high-pensioned boondogglers was not achieved. What the public lost with this "smaller government" was a swat team of lawyers and other committed smart folks paid hundreds of dollars an hour in the "real" jobs who came rushing home to deploy those same sought-after brains on behalf of an ungrateful public for the princely sum of $100 a month and all the guff they could digest. Howard is gone but his gift just keeps on giving. More alderman isn't necessarily better but fewer is clearly worse. As with anything else, the fewer there are, the better -- and more reliably present -- each one needs to be. If nothing else, I hope Park Ridge will be less knee-jerk sheeplike the next time a pol cites some popular Glenn Becky slogan and think about what it might really mean, boots on the ground. But if they do, it will be largely because of you, dear PRU - the cranky cliff's notes to Park Ridge's saga!
Anon@2:00 --
Cranky?
O.k. -- busted.
2:00 PM,
More like Howard's curse.
We all need to be more careful. Democracy is a funny thing. In Democracy YOU/ME don't get to decide. The group does. We should all be careful about what any group really stands for before catapulting them into power.
"Taxpayer money should only be used to fund essential city servicessuch as police, fire, water services, sewer services, roads andtree-trimming."
SCROOGE
Are there no prisons?
GENTLEMAN #1
Plenty of prisons,' said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
SCROOGE
And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation?
GENTLEMAN #2
They are. Still, I wish I could say they were not.
SCROOGE
The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?
GENTLEMAN #1 & #2
Both very busy, sir.
SCROOGE
Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course. I'm very glad to hear it.
SCROOGE is right. It is clear to me the mayor lied about his support for the Center of Concern when he was cheering them up during his fight against PADS.
Yes. it's essential Mayor Dipschmidt's biggest campaign contributor (americaneagle) get the chance to transfer wealth to extended family members and get a tax writeoff, while Mayor Dipschmidt provides a bloviating infomercial at a public event.
Anonymous August 24, 2010 9:49 PM:
Way to connect the dots asshat.
Political football indeed. They aren't done throwing this pigskin around too.
From the “I love Dave blog”….
“Not surprisingly, nobody - neither the aldermen nor the mayor - inquired as to what exactly the citizens of Park Ridge were going to be getting for their $190,000. And, of course, none of the groups represented in the audience (notably, the Center of Concern and the Senior Center, who combined will be pulling in $90,000 of that $190,000) offered any explanation.”
I’d like to respond to this on Mayor Dave’s propaganda blog, but I just can’t stomach another inane “Editors note”. Here’s the thing. The entities in question have provided all documentation requested from the City of Park Ridge. If the City requests additional information, I’m sure they will comply. The illusion painted by the above statement that somehow these groups are non-compliant because a non-entity from the peanut gallery wants to perform another exploratory surgery du jour is asinine.
11:13 AM, for the most part I agree with your comment. But I do think the mayor or the aldermen could put a stop to most of the bitching by the peanut gallery if they asked for more information about services. I'm sure as you say the organizations would be happy to comply. What I find funny is the bitching by the peanut gallery is always aimed at the wrong groups.
LOL. Maybe the dot's asshat? Maybe the dots, asshat? Who's the asshat?
One of Howard's curses said he won't be running for a second term.
Anyone know who might be running instead of Bach?
Schmidt is a panic peddler.
His whole campaign was based on fear mongering.
It's nothing new.
Schmidt is a Rino.
Plain and simple.
Good luck with the budget-
we are all going to need it.
Maybe another back door state money train to the tune of 400K
for another thought up emergency pork plan in Park Ridge!
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