Council Recap!

Greetings, PRU readers! We've got a council meeting recap for you today -- it's not as full as we wanted it to be, but sometimes digging into background information isn't as easy as we would like it to be. And sometimes we come up empty too.

Without further ado, here's your council meeting recap!

Monday night's City Council meeting began with an attempt by the leader of the ORD-REST community group to provide a power point presentation.pdf (we assume it's the same one presented at the 12/13/08 Town Hall Meeting) to the assembled masses, but Ms. Christine Kutt-Zolt couldn't get cooperation from the technology gods. Instead Ms. Kutt-Zolt went ahead and verbally presented the case for ORD-REST and what they hope to do. Mayor Howard and some of his Alderdopes are looking to make ORD-REST a city sponsored task force, and no doubt shift the responsibility for dealing with the O'Hare issue away from themselves, the elected officials who dropped the ball on this for the last two years.

Our sources report the Council's eyes boggled as Ms. Kutt-Zolt began listing expenses for the proposed ORD-REST groups becoming a city task force -- the grand total being $300,000.00 to begin the effort to research whether or not there is anything that can be done to pursue some forms of relief from the O'Hare expansion.

The ORD-REST effort could include the hiring of many many consultants to research and advise on such things as the Environmental Impact Statement issued for the O'Hare Modernization Program, write federal legislation "to protect us and others" from airport problems, give ORD-REST a "seat at the ONCC table" -- which conveniently lets Mayor Howard and Alderdunce Don Bachtard (3rd ward) off the hook of accountability -- as well as suing the FAA on behalf of property owners in Park Ridge who believe their property value has diminished in light of the opening of the new 9L/27R O'Hare runway.

We feel those efforts would be an exercise in futility. However, we strongly feel the City of Park Ridge should not even be thinking of using taxpayer money to fund lawsuits on behalf of some private property owners. We know there are those who will argue that the city has an interest in the value of that private property; however, we maintain that city funding of lawsuits that may or may not return monetary relief to private property owners, in the way of some settlement, is not the sort of interest the city should take in the issue and would not serve to protect the collective city interests.

Sources tell us that after the Alderdopes listened to the dulcet tones of the cash registers in their heads begin ringing, the 2nd ward's Lord of the Manor, Rich DiPietro, suggested the issue be referred to committee and that the process of interviewing task force members, by the Mayor's Advisory board for recommendation for appointment by Mayor Howard be followed. And here PRU readers should note, bureaucracy has its advantages -- as every bureaurat comes to understand in time.

The City Council then moved on to discussion of how the City Council COW meetings are to be conducted. We are told the low light from this portion of the meeting was having to listen to 4th ward Alderman James Allspaghetti, in response to an amendment offered by 1st ward Alderman Dave Schmidtzkrieg that would have demanded a super majority vote of the council to limit debate, argue that debate should be allowed to be limited by a simple majority vote, and that he's never seen the limiting of debate "abused", and that he feels demanding that a super majority vote to limit debate of public business is not good government. For his part, Alderman Bachtard whined that "COW meetings should mirror City Council meetings" and that now there would be two sets of rules for different meetings. Schmidtzkrieg argued that COW meetings are supposed to be different from City Council meetings.

Initially a voice vote was taken on the amendment and it seemed to pass, with our sources telling us that Aldermen Bachtard, Allspaghetti, and Benedict Alderman Ryan voted no on the amendment that would have demanded a super majority vote to limit debate. But then, in what has become a sort of City Council tradition, confusion ensued and a roll call vote was requested -- a sort of City Council do-over. With the roll call vote, sources tell us the Unfriendly Ghost from the 6th ward, Tom Carey, seemed to change his vote to a no and then the amendment to demand a super majority to limit debate was defeated.

The Council also discussed the complaints they had received about the COW meeting location at the Public Works Service Center -- by consensus they have decided to hold COW meetings at City Hall.

The next item on the agenda was discussion of 7th ward Alderman Frank Wsooooolman's resolution to include a referendum on the April ballot asking voters something -- we still don't know exactly what -- about building a new Park Ridge police station. Alderman Wsooooolman said he was introducing this resolution because, until Monday morning when Joe Egan and his volunteers submitted 2800 plus signatures to the City Cluck for their referendum effort, it had seemed to him the citizen effort to get the referendum question on the ballot wasn't going to be successful, so he figured he would do it. Which leads us to wonder why, after learning Joe Egan and his volunteers were successful, Ald. Wsooooolman didn't pull his discussion item for a referendum resolution off the City Council agenda?

During the very lengthy and circular discussion of Wsooooolman's resolution the assembled masses were treated to another Ald. Allspaghetti dissertation on the ignorance of the citizens of Park Ridge, saying we are "uninformed." Allspaghetti's remarks elicited a pointed retort from Ald. Schmidtzkrieg who said "calling the populace uninformed is wrong." Then the Lord of the Manor, Ald. DiPietro, offered that Ald. Wsooooolman had come up with referendum language because at an earlier meeting Joe Egan had said that if the council didn't like his referendum wording they should come up with their own. Alderman Benedict Ryan said he though Ald. Wsooooolman's referendum "clarifies" the issue. The PRU Crew is wondering if Benedict Ryan needs a new pair of glasses because the final wording of the Council's referendum --

"In adopting a capital project to improve the administrative/public and police facilities, shall the city of Park Ridge require as a condition of issuing any bonds for such improvements that the total spent, absent interest and operational costs, be less than $16.5 million and the facilities be located at 505 Butler Place on land already owned by the city?"

-- seems to us to be anything but clear, or clarifying.

Ryan then attempted to amend the referendum by adding language that said approval of the referendum "will not cause an increase in taxes, fees, or service reductions as of 2008 levels."

The first portion of that language to get axed was the "as of 2008 levels" then, after City Manager Jim Hock said the language would tie the hands of the City Council while making budget decisions, the Council nixed the rest of Benedict Ryan's amendment.

The Unfriendly Ghost, Tom Carey, motioned to have the issue deferred for two weeks, but that motion failed.

We are told Alderman Wsooooolman then launched into some bellicose bellowing, to borrow a phrase, on how all the discussions about building a new police station and land needed for the project had taken place in open meetings.

Sometimes this really is like shooting fish in a barrel, isn't it?

Would anyone like to remind Ald. Wsooooolman about the discussions that have taken place behind closed doors about land purchases? Would anyone like to remind Ald. Wsooooolman about Mayor Howard's discussion and attempts to INCREASE THE PRICE THE CITY WOULD PAY for the property at 720 Garden Street, all of which took place behind closed doors? Would anyone like to remind Ald. Wsooooolman about Mayor Howard's attempts to get a deal for his friend and campaign contributor, Bill Napleton? Many many many of the discussions about the deals, plural, for Napleton's property have taken place behind closed doors.

The final vote on inclusion of the Council referendum on the April ballot was approved by a final vote of 5 (Wsol, DiPietro, Bach, Ryan, and Carey) to 2 (Schmidt and Allegretti).

The Council then moved on to discussion of Ald. Wsooooolman's next proposed referendum question -- whether the voters want the City to go to referendum whenever non-emergency debt is being considered. This item was referred for consideration to the Finance and Budget committee by a unanimous vote.

Next up, City Manager Jim Hock let everyone know that it's business as usual with ComEd. Hock reported that 80 homes were without power during the recent subzero temperatures, and that this outage was actually scheduled by ComEd. Hock also told the Council that another report received from ComEd said that an additional 1000 homes were without power, but that report turned out to be false. Unfortunately, the City had begun notifying residents before being able to confirm the validity of ComEd's report. Alderman Bachtard said it wouldn't do any good, but he wants to call ComEd on the carpet anyway. Sensational!

The assembled masses were then given a report by acting Chief of Police Tom Swoboda on his investigation into the Oberweis incident involving allegations officers had attempted to intimidate employees at the ice cream shop who were allowing police station referendum petition volunteers to collect voter signatures in the store. The result of Swoboda's investigation resulted in his finding that one employee received a telephone call from a woman claiming to be a Park Ridge police officer, who complained about the referendum effort. The PRU Crew is wondering if dollface has been smiling and dialing? Swoboda also said that one officer had been in the Oberweis store but nothing other than "small talk" took place. Swoboda then went on to complain bitterly about inaccurate information being released to "the press" and how that unsubstantiated information damages the reputation of the police department. Chiefy, the PRU Crew thinks you do a pretty damn good job in helping that effort along yourself.

Mayor Howard then took the opportunity to say, and we quote -- he was "incest" because of the incorrect and invalid accusations, and that "our police officers aren't types that bully people."

Next up, City Manager Jim Hock proposed the City Council go into closed session to approve closed session minutes and als discuss acquisition of land. Ald. Wsooooolman earned his only PRUdo for the night by asking City Manager Hock if the land acquisition item had any relation to the Park Ridge Police Department? Mr. Hock reportedly replied, "Potentially." Ald. Wsooooolman, fully realizing the implications, then said "this is why residents don't trust us." Ald. Bachtard simply said "we can't afford land right now", but Ald. Allspaghetti said that discussion doesn't mean we have to buy it. The Council approved the closed session agenda item to review other closed session minutes but did not vote to discuss any land acquisition in closed session.

The Council then voted to form a task force to review the tree preservation ordinance, because you can't possibly have too many unelected, Mayoral appointed bodies making recommendations to elected officials on city policy.

Under the Council's agenda item for New Business, Ald. Bachtard again said he wanted a ComEd representative to come to Park Ridge. Sensational! Bachtard also went on to say he has received complaints about empty stores and city policies that "keep them empty" so he wants the Procedures and Regulations committee to review city ordinances governing local business matters. We can't wait for the recommendations from the Procedures and Regulations committee!

All together now --

Give us a "T",
give us an "A",
give us an "S",
give us a "K",
give us an "F",
give us an "O",
give us an "R",
give us a "C",
give us an "E"!

Made Us Feel Like Dancing!

ComEd gives us that 'Saturday Night Fever'! We loved the strobe light effect produced when the lights repeatedly went on and off -- made us feel like dancing!

Once again, the thunderstorm season is upon us. We can all look forward to more of the "light shows" provided by the on-again, off-again power supply provided by ComEd. And the 'Jive Talkin' on the part of ComEd and our elected officials makes us want to put on our 'Boogie Shoes'!

Remember the Ten ComEdments, and say a prayer that Mother Nature takes pity on us poor power customers this summer.

B.O.H.I.C.A!*

PRU readers may remember an October post we put up about the City's meeting with ComEd. Our posts on ComEd and the City's meeting were a result of ComEd's piss poor performance in the aftermath of an August storm that left many Park Ridge residents and ComEd customers without power for as long as 98 hours. Many residents and business people in Park Ridge began to also discuss the generally piss poor service the Park Ridge community has received from ComEd over the years. ComEd's response to the complaints was to promise to do a report and get it back to the City.

The PRU Crew still maintains that ComEd and the City of Park Ridge should be discussing the costs and benefits of burying power lines.

Yesterday we came across another article in Crain's about a recent move by ComEd's parent company, Exelon Corp., to link Commonwealth Edison Co. to PJM, an East Coast power grid. According to the article, "The decision to join PJM instead of its Midwestern counterpart, commonly known as Midwest ISO, means the Northern Illinois power market is now tethered to the East Coast, where electricity supplies are far tighter and prices correspondingly higher than in the Midwest."

And ComEd customers can expect to see "households and small businesses...rates jump by 1 cent per kilowatt-hour by 2009, according to Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) staff calculations — 10% above next year's average rate of 10.2 cents per kilowatt-hour." Additionally, "in October, ComEd filed for a $360-million rate increase for delivering power, which if approved in full would raise household electric bills by about 8% starting next year. Put the two items together, and that's an 18% increase in electric bills by 2009."

The article notes:

"By itself, the PJM-related increase would nearly erase the relief won in this year's Springfield negotiations, which reduced ComEd's 24% rate hike that took effect at the beginning of the year to 13%.

In those negotiations, Exelon's Mr. Rowe won an important and overlooked concession: State officials are barred for the next 15 years from trying to force ComEd off the PJM grid."

It's clear to us that public officials are nothing if not fashionably late to a party; the article goes on to report that, "Local officials are beginning to question the PJM tie-in. In a hearing before the ICC last week, Commissioner Robert Lieberman chided PJM officials for hiking electric rates with no promise of anything in return from the industry. "It's not clear to us what we're getting for that," he said."

Maybe PJM will promise to do a report and get it back to the ICC.

*Bend over, here it comes again!

Surprise!

In today's Journal & Topics newspaper, we read that the Park Ridge - ComEd town hall meeting was not well attended. Park Ridge's Public Information Coordinator, Aggie Stempniak said, "There weren't a lot of people there...I was a little bit surprised by the number. I thought there'd be more."

We are not surprised. We are not surprised even a "little bit." We understand some things that seem to be escaping city officials:

1) Anger fades pretty quickly.

2) The city waited too long to hold this meeting, perhaps by design.

3) Citizens want to hear about solutions, not be suckered into telling their stories over and over and over again at municipal group therapy sessions.

4) Citizens are not likely to have faith in a utility company that promises to "do a report and get it back to the city" as the sum total of its' response to the problem of frequent power outages.

5) Citizens are incredulous of the abilities of a city administration that tells them "the key thing ComEd emphasized was calling the company when power is out".

6) Citizens really do expect utility companies to know when their power is out; that's not an expectation of "osmosis" - that's an expectation of monitoring and maintenance. If their car's dashboard can tell them when it's time to change their oil, why can't ComEd's dashboard tell them when power is out?

Scheduling a succession of town hall meetings is an exercise in condescension. How many tales of woe do the city administration and ComEd need to hear before they begin providing real solutions?

Here are some free clues for city officials: Read the story in the Journal & Topics. Take note of the 419 utility poles "taken down" during the storm. Stop scheduling group therapy sessions for citizens. Begin discussing the merits and costs of burying power lines.

Shazam!

No need to thank us. Really, we are very self-interested on this one.

Iraq Ridge?

U.S. soldiers walk through an electrical substation in the Ghazaliyah area of Baghdad.

By John Moore, Getty Images

Problematic power grid plagues Iraqis - USATODAY.com

No, not really - Park Ridge residents and businesses aren't suffering infrastructure mismanagement to the same degree as Iraqis. But shouldn't the residents and businesses in Park Ridge have more to look forward to than just another city-arranged bitch session?

Customers have the right to demand service from utility companies, and elected officials have the ability to help them do that.

There are utility company customers who do understand what good service is:

"When my phone system was destroyed by that flood, I thought I would be out of business for days if not weeks. Instead, Allied Tele-Com came to my rescue and had me up and running twelve hours later. Now that's what I call service!"Allegretti & Associates Mr James L. Allegretti, Attorney at Law - Welcome to Allied Tele-Com

Now that Mr. James L. Allegretti, Attorney at Law also carries the title and authority of Park Ridge Alderman, maybe he can make an effort to see to it residents of Park Ridge can some day also proclaim, "Now that's what I call service!"

Der Schmidtzkrieg!

Alderman David Schmidtzkrieg, representing the 1st ward in Park Ridge, wants to carpet bomb residents with information In Event Of An Emergency. That would be a big improvement over what residents are usually bombarded with from city hall.

To date, Ald. Schmidtzkrieg is the only local official we have heard quickly and publicly suggest any immediately useful ideas for addressing some of the issues faced by residents of Park Ridge in the aftermath of last month's act of God.

While State Senators Garret and Kotowski attempt to discover where God's responsibility ends and ComEd's liability begins, this municipal soldier has begun the tactical vormarsch for some real improvement in emergency response at the very local level.

Kein Rückzug, Schmidtzkrieg!

The Ten ComEdments!

1. Thou shalt not expect thy mayor to participate at meetings for Residents vent to ComEd.
2. Thou shalt not take the name of thy utility company in vain; even after going without power for as long as 98 hours, or repeatedly suffering outages for no obvious reason.
3. Remember thy billing date and remit thy payment immediately.
4. Thou shalt not murder ComEd's designated flack catchers at public meetings; thou shall know that only angry grumbling is allowed and expected, and that ComEd designates these people for the special job of catching flack at public meetings.
5. Thou shalt not accuse ComEd's flack catchers of bearing false witness about telephone waiting times.
6. Thou shalt not adulterate thy power supply by considering solar panels for thy home.
7. Thou shalt not steal thy neighbor's electricity; thou shall ask nicely to run extension cords across public streets; thou shall be shit out of luck if thy surrounding neighbors also do not have power.
8. Thou shalt not covet reliable power service.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's generator.
10. Thou shalt not expect a reasonable dialogue on any part of the Ten ComEdments decalogue.

Shock The Monkey!

Howard Frimark may be shocked to learn that after campaigning to become the mayor, the people of Park Ridge really do expect him to perform in that role - beyond directing the Public Works Department to make "Mayor Howard P. Frimark" signs to strategically hang around town.


Sources inside the city tell us a lot of people are asking the Mayor a lot of questions and demanding answers and action to address the problems of bad, really really bad, electric service and flooding.


Press coverage of the losses suffered by some residents have offered a mix of understanding and exasperation with city officials. When a resident finally got a hold of somebody at city hall so she could ask what to do with all her spoiled food, the answer was "I don't know". Finally! An honest answer from city hall!


Expectations for politicians performing badly, and acts of ComEdus interruptus, remain high. We suspect most Park Ridge residents have grown accustomed to being left in the dark, feeling dissatisfied.

And we don't want to make it worse by mentioning the effects of bad services on property values.

Pop Quiz!

The above picture is of:

a) Park Ridge police officers and vehicles.

b) ComEd's public relations team.

c) A public relations effort by the PRPD to appear "resident-friendly".

d) All of the above.

If you answered "d", you are correct!

Park Ridge police were passing out fliers letting residents know that ComEd is hard at work:

Those "STOP MEANS STOP" signs must be working perfectly!

The PRPD/ComEd flyer doesn't have a ComEd number to call for residents who are still without power.

But, the city web site does: http://www.parkridge.us/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=150

We can't claim any expertise in the mysteries of electrical engineering, but we're pretty sure the city's web site can't be viewed by residents who might be seeking information on how to contact ComEd if those residents don't have power to do so.