City Council 12-20-2010 Video!

And a jolly good time was had by all, if you're a fan of clusterf#%&$!

The PRU Crew would like to point out that we strongly believe, on the issue of voting to appeal from the decision of the chair regarding his ruling on the motion to reconsider being out of order, the Council is in violation of the law.

In support of our belief, we offer --

Appeals that cannot be entertained

Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised states that "when the chair rules on a question about which there cannot possibly be two reasonable opinions, an appeal would be dilatory and is not allowed." Demeter's Manual recommends using the mnemonic devices F, T, R, L and J, O, D to remember that no appeals can be taken from the Chair's rulings which arise out of known Facts, evident Truths, established Rules or operative Laws, but can be taken only from rulings which are based on his personal Judgment, Opinion or Discretion.

The City's Zoning law, an established operative law, providing fact, truth and rule is unequivocally clear -

H. Limitations on denials

"No application for a variance which has been denied by the City Council or Zoning Board of Appeals shall be reconsidered for a period of one (1) year from that date of denial."

And we note the City Attorney's opinion on the matter. We also note the City Council's lack of understanding the necessary fine point of the language denying an application versus preventing applicants from coming before the public body more than once in a given year. It is reasonable to deny repetition of specific applications while allowing applicants to submit as many different applications before the public body as he or she can possibly muster.

So gentlemen of the City Council, if you are going to cite and follow the rules provided for by Robert's Rules of Order and the City's laws, then it appears you've once again screwed the legal pooch.

Hey Baby, What's Your Sign?

For our faithful PRU readers, who've had the dubious privilege of attending a meeting in the City Council chamber at City Hall, you may have noticed there are signs on either side of the Council horseshoe -- No Citizens Beyond This Point.

The PRU Crew feels very strongly, we need new signs. See above.

The practical effect of the new signs may be reducing the number of Alderdunces allowed to sit at the Council horseshoe, but the voters of Park Ridge have already shown their approval for reducing their representation. What could possibly go wrong?

For those interested in watching the smaller, more efficient Council in action -- there's another City Council meeting tonight, set to begin at 7:30 pm. If you're interested, you can review the revised agenda (.pdf) and then send Ald. Allspaghetti and possibly Ald. assWsol a thank you note -- so much for Allspaghetti's continual harping on talking issues to death! The Council is reportedly set to entertain a motion to reconsider the Hoffman Homes project (.pdf) proposed for Touhy Avenue. Because as we are all learning, "no" does not mean "no."

The meeting will also include another veto (.pdf) from Mayor Schmidtzkrieg -- this time, of the Police Chiefski's salary. Approval of the proposed City Manager's contract (.pdf), is also up for discussion and a vote, and we look forward to more unsubstantiated claims by those expected to whine their way through discussion of suspending the City's Facade Improvement Program (.pdf).

B.O.H.I.C.A. humbug.

City Council 11-3-10 video!

Some hair of the dog for your viewing displeasure!

Hump Day Post-election Hangover?

We hope our faithful PRU readers are recovering from any post-election hangovers. However, for those who believe in the hair of the dog cure, we suggest giving the City Council some of your time and attention this evening.

What passes for our local representative government will be meeting tonight at City Hall, beginning at 7:30 PM.

The revised agenda (.pdf) isn't as jammed with entertaining possibilities as usual, but there are some important topics under consideration. Supporting documents for tonight's meeting are available on the City website, here.

You Are Cordially Invited!

Good afternoon, faithful PRU readers! We think tonight's COW meeting may be one of those times it's in your best interest to get dressed, get out of the house, and go keep an eye on what your local City government may be planning to do to for you!

Beginning at 7:00 PM, in the Council Chamber at Park Ridge City Hall, the Finance and Budget, and Procedures and Regulations Committee of the Whole will be meeting.

On the City's website you will find .pdf file links to the supporting documents for tonight's meeting -- the PRU Crew is particularly interested in the following --

•Budget Policy -- worth a look.

•Spending Authority of the City Manager -- be careful what you wish for!

•City Manager's Employment Agreement (draft) -- here we go again!

•Facade Improvement Packet Info. -- more evidence Park Ridge is unfriendly to business! The PRU Crew feels the program should be suspended until somebody in local government gets their ass in gear and provides proof of the programs claims -- notably that "The City of Park Ridge (City) promotes the improvement of existing facades to make properties more attractive and increase long-term property values." The program has been in place long enough for an analysis to be done so a more informed decision can be made. While we appreciate being told what the City has so far spent on subsidies to private property owners for improvements of their private properties, we sure would like to see that hoped-for "increase in long-term property values." And maybe we missed it but, we would add the condition that any property owner receiving City Facade Improvement money is precluded from filing a property tax assessment complaint for at least two property tax assessment cycles.

•Public Information Coord. Agreement -- and here we all thought the Spokesman produced itself!

•Taste of Park Ridge Analysis (rev) -- time to reimburse the City for costs, gentlemen!

•Financial Report -- or as we are calling it, a post-mortem of last year's DOA budget.

•FB Monthly Report -- no, this is not a report on the Mayor's monthly FaceBook activity.

•Severance Payments -- looks like the Mayor and Council were for 'em before they were against 'em!

•Community Group Funding -- why the hell this was posted on the City website we have no idea. It's no more informative than an agenda line item.

•Code Clarifications - Dept. Head Appt. -- clean up on aisle 3! Which code language gets cleaned up will be very telling about the mindset of certain elected officials!

Something for everyone!

Tuesday Quick Hits!

For those interested in a quick hit update on the doings at last night's City Council meeting, this one's for you!

Last night the City Council, in a vote of 4 (Sweeney, DiPietro, Carey and Wsol) to 3 (Bach, Allegretti and Ryan), upheld the Mayor's veto of City Manager Hock's contract. We can't account for the apparent change of heart in Alderman Carey, but the PRU Crew approves. As we previously stated, the original contract offer was more than generous. We also believe it is in the City's best interest to make sure all payments to employees are contracted for properly. What we do not approve of is the foot-dragging irresponsibility of having let this issue languish for so long. Like it or not, that kind of irresponsibility creates instability throughout the internal workings of the City. And if controversy is added to the matter, undertaken in public discussions, multiply that instability by 100.

Also last night, despite the issue being, in our opinion, improperly listed under the Mayor's report -- because it is the City Manager's responsibility -- the issue of the vacant Finance and Budget Director position report and discussion was handled by the City Manager. We understand information about potential candidates to fill the vacancy will be given to the Mayor and City Council in the coming days. The PRU Crew is wondering if the City Manager, in hopes of cajoling our elected officials, is bringing them into the process to obtain their approval prior to his hiring a new Director of Finance -- perhaps particularly in relation to an employment contract. Otherwise, the PRU Crew is at a loss to explain what role the Mayor and Aldermen have in this process -- other than micromanagement of personnel issues by elected officials.

The O'Hare airport Resolution – Request for Supplemental Environmental Impact Study passed the Council with...we can't resist...flying colors. We're pleased this action didn't cost anything.



Also at last night's Council meeting, it was reported that there are a number of 1st ward residents concerned with a proposal by the Park Ridge Park District for the installation of cell towers at Northeast Park -- which we first discussed here. As we told one of our recent correspondents -- We fully understand the concerns expressed and strongly encourage people to make those concerns known to the PRRPD Board of Commissioners. We also understand that, while the Park District's budget is in reasonable financial shape, there are always spending pressures and unavoidable cost increases on units of local government, and we are open to ideas for ways in which those units of local government can generate revenue for the benefit of residents without attempting to increase property taxes. We hope people will keep an open mind on the subject of alternative revenue generation.



After last night's open meeting, the Council adjourned to closed session to to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employee(s), pursuant to 5 ILCS 120/2 ( c ) ( 1 ) -- but as we understand it, Park Ridge now has a new Chiefski! This time for the Park Ridge Fire Department. Our sources tell us congratulations go to Mr. Michael Zywanski, who will be leaving his current position as Deputy Fire Chief in Naperville, IL.




For our faithful PRU readers who take an interest in local school issues, and for any of you School Board hopefuls, the PRU Crew thinks you may find a recent report by the Chicago Tribune very interesting -- New ISAT lets kids pass with more wrong answers.

The above report comes on the heels of another Chicago Tribune article -- School days shrinking in Illinois.

The PRU Crew would be mighty pleased to hear the current School Board and candidate hopefuls discuss these issues and share their opinions.

Of course, the PRU Crew has opinions on both of these matters but we want to hear what the school district whizzes have to say about them first.

COW 10-11-2010 Video!

For the viewing displeasure of our faithful PRU readers. It was a very long meeting, but we strongly urge people to take the time. As we said in our Monday post -- the agenda for this meeting was flush with consequential issues. And we feel strongly that these subjects deserve your attention.

City Council 10-4-2010 Video!

Amazing men on their flying trapeze!

Another Monday Call To Order!

Once again our faithful PRU readers have another chance to watch what passes for our local democracy in action! The City Council will be meeting tonight at City Hall beginning at 7:30 PM.

The most interesting item, not noted for discussion anywhere on the agenda (.pdf) nor specifically listed under the City Attorney's report, is likely to be discussion of the City Attorney's Authority of City Manager Memo (.pdf).

The memo is the result of "Park Ridge Mayor David Schmidt [having] asked for a legal opinion as to whether City Manager Jim Hock overstepped his authority by providing a laid-off city employee with a payment of $25,000 without receiving approval from the City Council." as recently reported in an article in one of the local rags. The article also notes the concern of 7th Ward Ald. Frank Wsol -- "Wsol pointed out that the City Council did not approve a contract with former Public Information Coordinator Aggie Stempniak for Stempniak to produce future copies of the city newsletter, The Spokesman. He has also sought a legal opinion on the matter."

What is most notably absent from the City Attorney's memo is any information regarding the City Manager's authority in reference to the $20,000 severance paid to our dearly departed Director of Economic Development Ms. Kim Uhlig -- presumably because neither Mayor Schmidtzkrieg, Ald. Wsol, nor anybody else asked about that.

All of the above and the absence of specific agenda placement, for discussion of the City Attorney's memo, should make the debate surrounding the City Manager's Employment Agreement (.pdf) all the more entertaining!

Listening Politely!

Sorry people -- this post was supposed to be scheduled for publishing this morning but PRU.ADMIN, not to name any names, somebody forgot!



For our faithful PRU readers interested in the City's efforts to mitigate neighborhood flooding problems, by proposing use of Park District property as we mentioned here a few weeks ago, some of the news does not appear very promising.

As many of you may be aware, the City of Park Ridge has approached the Park Ridge Park District, armed with the recommendations from Burke Engineering -- the City Flooding consultant, about the idea of using park property for storm water retention ponds. The location currently under consideration for discussion are a significant portion of the fields at Northwest Park.

At last week's Park District Board COW meeting, Park District Commissioners were treated to a 90 minute presentation and discussion of the subject with two of the consultants from Burke Engineering, the Park Ridge City Manager Jim Hock, Director of Public Works Wayne Zingsheim, City Engineer Sarah Mitchell, and 2nd ward Alderman Rich DiPietro. City officials attempted to persuade the Park Board of the necessary wisdom of allowing the City to spend $1.9 million for the project, which could probably reduce flooding for 145 homes in the area, but would have the effect of also reducing the availability of the playing fields.

According to the Park Board minutes (.pdf) page 7 of the meeting, in addition to the reduced availability of the fields, Park District Commissioners also expressed concern about field damage and water safety issues.

Park District Executive Director Ray, The Big O, Ochromowicz did offer an alternative option to City officials -- turfing and lighting fields at Centennial Park so they are playable and available for night games. Some preliminary estimates we've heard are that the alternative plan could cost as much as $2 million in additional dollars to the City. Ironically, if the alternative plan were accepted, the total cost would be approximately $4 million -- equal to the amount Burke Engineering has estimated it would cost for underground work at Northwest Park.

The Park Ridge Park District Board has not formally discussed the alternative plan and City officials are said to be requesting the Mayor's involvement in the discussions, moving forward.

Why the Mayor hasn't already been involved in the discussions we can't explain.

In other Park Ridge Park District news, according to their meeting minutes --

"Executive Director Ochromowicz expressed his concern with the [Senior Services] agreement and said the District needs to stop the increasing subsidy. He said subsidy has to be decreased and he believes the senior building is used 99% of the time for Senior Services so the Senior Services should pay 100% of the full-time employees' salaries. Still under negotiations are that all programs that are planned and organized by Park District staff are open to all Park Ridge residents with no penalty." (sic)

~~THUD!!!~~ We're in love!!!

Committee of the Whole 9-13-2010 Video!

Enjoy the show!

We're sure our faithful PRU readers will appreciate the very gifty natures of some of our Aldermopes.

And we just loved the policy vs. ordinance discussion about tree preservation!

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!

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!

City Budget Freewheeling Crazy Train!

For anyone who's got a thought or more on any aspect of government related to the Park Ridge City budget, you can share your thoughts and more here. You should feel free to ask questions too.

This coming Saturday at City Hall another budget workshop is scheduled. We again strongly encourage residents to attend and comment.

The PRU Crew has noted the calls for balancing the city budget, the cries for maintaining favored programs and personnel, the moaning over increased taxes and fees, and the complete lack of conscience by those who've called for maintenance of favored programs and personnel without offering suggestions and ideas for either making budget cuts in other areas or honestly calling for still more increases in taxes and fees.

People, you cannot have it both ways. We either spend within our means or we buy on credit and shift the burden down the road. But make no mistake about it, all bills eventually come due. If anyone thinks there's some magic bullet as yet undiscovered and which will make the city budget magically balance without anyone incurring any pain, we welcome you aboard the crazy train.

To City Manager Jim Hock, the PRU Crew expresses appreciation for the effort you've made in suggested cuts and revenue increases so far, while we remain disappointed in the lack of your offering a preliminarily balanced budget -- we are looking forward to further suggestions from you at this Saturday's budget workshop.

The Bi-weekly Goat Rodeo!

1. -- 6:30 pm Special City Council Meeting

Tonight the City Council will be meeting to discuss and review the performance of the City Manager, Mr. Jim Hock. The extensive agenda (.pdf) includes a single motion to go into closed session for the discussion of the City Manager's performance. So anyone hoping to hear the Mayor and Council discussions on the subjects contained in the City Manager's memo (.pdf) -- especially the Mayor's and Council's discussion and opinions on the "prioritized goals" -- will probably be s.o.l.

The PRU Crew is pretty sure discussion of nearly all the subjects contained within the City Manager's memo don't fall under the exceptions to the Illinois Open Meetings Act, but what do we know.

2. -- 7:30 pm Regular City Council Meeting

After reviewing the performance of the City Manager, the Mayor and Council are set to begin their regular meeting festivities. The agenda (.pdf) for the meeting is light but, once again, we encourage PRU readers to pay particular attention to the Planning and Zoning topics on the agenda.

Our sources tell us some of the Aldermopes are wavering on their previous votes concerning whether or not to neuter the independent review authority of the Planning and Zoning Commission. We feel interested parties -- and by that we mean, people interested in a healthy system of governmental checks and balances -- should make the time to show up to tonight's meeting and help the Aldermopes understand that altering the current process is not in the community's best interests.

3. -- School District 64 H1N1 Update

For those who may not have received either the District's robocall or email announcement, District 64 has been informed that schools in the Park Ridge 60068 zip code only are tentatively scheduled for the CCDPH vaccination visit on Wednesday, December 2.

An informational packet and permission form (.pdf) are available in English, Polish and Spanish on the District 64 website.

Timing Is Everything!

It's time once again for the City Council to hold their bi-weekly regular meeting. Tonight's agenda (.pdf) is farshtopped with consent items, which aren't likely to be pulled off the consent agenda for discussion.

Also on tonight's agenda are two items of interest for closed session -- one is for discussion of pending litigation, and the other is discussion of an employee matter. We're guessing the employee matter will be City Manager Jim Hock's review, since that review was deferred from the last regular City Council meeting held on 9-21-09.

At that meeting, City Manager Jim Hock boasted of an award Park Ridge received -- "The Voice of People Award for Excellence Award" presented to Park Ridge for recognition of the City’s code enforcement. Mr. Hock states, "The City of Park Ridge was in the top 3 of the top 10%" of more than 500 jurisdictions surveyed for the award.

You can watch the video of that portion of the meeting below, beginning at the 02:45 mark --

video #00002.MTS PRCC 9-21-09


At the 04:32 mark is where the "timing is everything" moment of sad irony begins. Immediately following the City Manager's boast of how well the City of Park Ridge reflects the voice of the people, two residents address the Council on a building code enforcement matter which appears to have been an utter failure on the part of the City's Community Preservation and Development Department under the Directorship of Ms. Carrie Davis.

We had expected that some PRU reader would have come along and commented on the above at some point.

The issues involved with the residents' complaints about lack of code enforcement were followed-up in last week's edition of the Journal & Topics newspaper -- 'Residents Claim New Home Causes Flooding'

In the article, the Director of Community Preservation and Development Ms. Carrie Davis says, "When it comes to flooding regulations and standards, each property owner is responsible for his or her own water drainage." The PRU Crew was left virtually speechless after reading the article and Ms. Davis' quotes in it. We're left wondering why the City of Park Ridge has a sewer system at all!

By the way, who selected Ms. Davis to be the new Director of Community Preservation and Development? That's right, people -- City Manager Jim Hock.

Whether the Council chooses to review Mr. Hock's performance in closed or open session, we sure hope they demand some explanations from him as to why his Director of Community Preservation and Development has once again made an ass of herself, and what he intends to do about moooooving forward in addressing what appears to be Ms. Davis' inability to read and understand the Park Ridge building and zoning code.


On a side note -- The PRU Crew spends a considerable amount of our limited time reviewing and indexing the videos from various meetings. We also try to keep an eye on the number of views each video receives, and we do that by checking the Melidosian Motionbox folder.

We're both irritated and disappointed that it appears the only videos which receive a respectable number of viewings are the ones we post here on our blog.

Come on people -- just because we pull out and highlight something doesn't mean you shouldn't make the effort to go beyond the information and opinion contained here.

The Melidosian Motionbox folder link is the first link in our list, provided for you on your right.

Click. Go. Watch.

And we'd like to suggest you give the Planning and Zoning Committee videos your time and attention too.

For Coffee or Kool-aid!

Available from zazzle.com

In this week's edition of the online Herald-Advocate we read an article, written by Ms. Jennifer Johnson, titled 'Bach: Council should manage city employees'. If that title alone doesn't make you sit up and take notice, then the opening paragraphs of the story should --

"Some might call it micromanaging, but for Park Ridge Alderman Don Bach, giving the City Council the authority to reorganize city staff and terminate positions is a necessity in light of the current economic climate.

Accusing City Manager Jim Hock of not doing enough to cut expenses, Bach presented the council with a proposal Monday night that would allow aldermen to "mandate reorganization and staff reduction for specified positions in specified numbers in a specific period of time by a super majority vote." Since 1949, when the position was created, the city manager has had the authority to "consolidate, combine or reorganize positions or units" that fall under his jurisdiction. These positions include all department heads and any employees exclusive of police officers and firefighters."

Holy wow! Does anyone really feel that politicians should control the hiring and firing of public employees? We mean, anyone besides City of Chicago Mayor Shortshanks?

Thankfully, it appears the rest of the Park Ridge City Council didn't hop on 3rd ward Ald. Don Bachtard's patronage wagon.

The article quotes the 2nd ward's Lord of the Manor, Rich DiPietro as saying --

"This City Council has enough problems trying to figure out what it's doing and being consistent in what it's doing without trying to run the day-to-day operation of the city," said 2nd Ward Alderman Rich DiPietro."

PRUdos to Ald. DiPietro! The PRU Crew has noted the same problems and inconsistency!

Anyone interested in viewing the Council's discussion of this topic can do so by going to the 38:33 mark in video #3 and the beginning of video #4 which we posted here.

For a quicker view, we've been provided with a link to the specific video segment, below --

Are You Paying Attention?

As one of the Crew's grandmothers used to say, after having lived through the Great Depression, "If you watch the pennies, the dollars take care of themselves."

But that was then, and this is now. And it costs the U.S. Mint more to produce a penny than the one-cent value of a one-cent piece.

So the PRU Crew is interested in watching dollars today. We would also like our elected officials to do the same.

In just five days, the Park Ridge City Council will meet in their annual budget workshop (.pdf). We are hoping our elected officials do not give in to the temptation of political appeal, and show themselves willing to make the hard sacrifices that may help carry this town through what will probably be a very rough economic year.

We are aware that City Manager Jim Hock has suggested some deep cuts. The PRU Crew would suggest the cuts be made deeper.

As distasteful as it may be to certain special interests in the community, we would suggest that any program that is not essential to city functioning and citizen welfare be cut to the bone. And whether we like it or not, we also suggest that it is radically irresponsible to renew, for any reason, the soon to be retiring Public Works Service Center and Alley Paving bonds, which have cost the Park Ridge taxpayers roughly $1,200,000.00 per year in debt service payments.

Current estimates for next year's city budget indicate that again the city will be operating under a wave of red ink -- approaching $2,000,000.00

Are you paying attention?

Two-steppin' Blue-footed Boobie!

John Sill - freelance artist and bird illustrator

From the Journal & Topics online, we read an unattributed article titled "Committee To Review Caudill Agreement." What caught the PRU Crews attention were a few lines in the piece indicating what can only be described as a lack of transparency and cooperation on the part of city government; specifically, acting City Manager, Julianna Maller. The article states:

1) "The revised agreement was not provided to the media."

2) "The Journal & Topics Newspapers was told to file a Freedom of Information Act request for access."

3) "Maller would not speak to a Journal & Topics Newspapers reporter regarding the issue; choosing to respond only to written questions."

4) "...but she did not indicate if that was at Caudill's original rate of pay or at the increased rate."

5) "She also did not answer a question asking if the three additional months of settlement would be adjusted to reflect only the first 4% increase."

The Illinois Attorney General's website says, “…it is declared to be the public policy of the State of Illinois that all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government […] Such access is necessary to enable the people to fulfill their duties of discussing public issues fully and freely, making informed political judgments and monitoring government to ensure that it is being conducted in the public interest.” (5 ILCS 140/1)".

And, the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) "...is intended to open the government to all citizens by guaranteeing access to governmental records in whatever form they are maintained. The Act maintains a clear preference for access to public documents while still protecting legitimate governmental interests and the privacy rights of individual citizens."

Before PRU readers jump to any conclusions about their right to access public information -- a task the press often undertakes on the public's behalf -- the PRU Crew feels the need to translate the above into what government officials understand the FOIA to mean; that is, "As government officials, we can delay and deter access to information by requiring anyone seeking information to jump through hoops."

So while you may think that FOIA is for the purpose of ensuring that "access is necessary to enable the people to fulfill their duties of discussing public issues fully and freely, making informed political judgments and monitoring government to ensure that it is being conducted in the public interest”, what you really should understand is that, before completing your duties as citizens in an open and free democracy, government officials will expect nothing less than an Olga Korbut performance on paper from you.

And, even when government officials snootily demand that all questions must be submitted in writing, you shouldn't expect those written questions to be answered either.

Busy Bees!

Tonight's City Council agenda (.pdf) is pretty full. The PRU Crew is wondering how badly the taxpayers and citizens of Park Ridge will get stung.

A few items have caught our attention:

1) A City Council discussion of off street parking (.pdf) for a property at 14 Main St. -- this item is on the agenda at the request of Benedict Alderman Robert Ryan (5th Ward); it seems Ald. Ryan is always eager to see to it the Real Estate company of his campaign treasurer, Owen Hayes, gets plenty of special attention.

2) Under the City Manager's report, a discussion of the proposed extension of Cumberland Ave. (.pdf) under the train tracks; this isn't the worst idea we've heard come out of City government, but couple it further with a proposal to close Greenwood at the train tracks, and it becomes perhaps the most boneheaded proposal we've heard come out of City government.

3) Also under the City Manager's report we see that an amendment to the separation agreement with former Chief of Police, Jeff Caudill, is up for discussion. We're going to bet this has something to do with the Pension Board's denial of a portion of the compensation package Caudill received.

4) Under Planning and Zoning is a first reading of the rather extensive changes to the year-old zoning ordinance that includes language we believe allows for more development of R-5 projects (.pdf); the densest and tallest residential projects that can be built. We're also wondering how much the City has paid out in consulting fees on the zoning re-write and why these changes weren't recommended or corrected by the consultant during the re-write process.

5) Under the Procedures and Regulations Committee report, the City Council is set to give a first reading to a new ordinance (.pdf) allowing Mayor Howard to control all appointments of the City Council.

6) Finally, under the Finance and Budget Committee report, we read that the City Council plans to authorize Mayor Howard to sign a lease agreement (.pdf) for parking spaces at 20 S. Fairview Ave. We are pleased to see that the City will pass through all parking space rental costs to those leasing the spaces, but we do wonder why the City will be providing bookkeeping and secretarial services to SCH Real Estate LLC, free of charge. We also wonder why the City's required disclosure of ownership (.pdf) documents have not been provided by SCH Real Estate LLC in accordance with the City's ordinance.

Those are just a few of the items we hope residents will be paying attention to, but we admit we haven't checked tonight's t.v. listings; though we all know that the City Council meeting won't be among those t.v. listings.