Reader Soapbox!

Today we read in the Park Ridge Herald that Alderman Ryan has asked for costs involving potential design/construction of a new police station.

I for one am for this and congratulate the city fathers once and for all.

But , recently we have seen the posted statements by our new city manager Mr. James Hock who stated that we are currently operating a city budget that is in the "red ".

Therefore, if we are already in the hole - why would we go forward with this proposal ?

Did we miss something here ?

A letter was submitted ( respectfully ) with suggestions as to how we can cut the fat from the budget. Such as :

- Stop the use of take home city cars for those non-emergency personnel.

- Stop all paid overtime with time due being substitute until funds are available.

- Salary cuts and start from the top down on a volunteer basis - first.

We are in tough financial times and have seen other cities cut very deep such as the city of Naperville in cutting three officers and two fire fighters from their budget.

The city of Hoffman estates had decided not to fill the five vacancies from their police department also due to the budget.

We certainly hope that this will not be the case here in Park Ridge but if we don't get tough and stop the spending and make some revisions within the city - we could see the above nightmare in loosing highly trained city department personnel being laid off.

I'm sure this is not what the city and the residents want.
Less coverage and more spending.

Its like the current rear wheel squad cars that we have patrolling the streets - when the heavy snow comes - our wheels will only spin.

We need some traction with our budget and those who protect us deserve only the best. Let's not let them or the residents down before its too late.

Thank you.
Gene Spanos
Park Ridge Resident

Late Edition -- Soapbox!

Published with permission of the author.

Please note -- Officer Strada is expressing his personal opinion gleaned from experience; he is not acting as a spokesman for the City of Evanston, nor in any official capacity.


October 28, 2008

RE:Homeless Shelter

Dear Aldermen, Paul Chevlin & the Greenwood-Busse Neighborhood Coalition,

I have been a Park Ridge home owner for the past twenty eight years. I live on a nice quiet block & have nice neighbors. I would like to keep it that way, but I know that if the City goes forward with it's plan to open a homeless shelter at the end of my block life as we know it will be gone forever.

Let me explain. I am a police officer in the City of Evanston & have first hand experience in dealing with the homeless. Evanston has a homeless shelter, a battered women's shelter & about six soup kitchens. The homeless shelter has rules & lets a person stay there as long as he/she is in need, is actively looking for work & is not intoxicated by drugs or alcohol. If the person is in violation of the rules the person is not allowed into the shelter. This puts the person in the neighborhood & is now a problem for the residents. The homeless subject usually wanders around until he finds somewhere to sleep off his intoxication. I am called frequently to remove some one from a back yard or front porch of some unsuspecting citizen. We have frequent complaints of the homeless urinating & even defecating in private back yards & alleys.

We have increased domestic disturbances as the men & women "hook up" at the shelter. We have panhandling all over the downtown area & the citizens constantly complain about that. There is increased retail thefts, residential burglaries & car burglaries. Remember they are homeless, jobless & penniless.

Many of the homeless have extensive criminal histories. Not all homeless are bad people. But, some make being homeless a career. They don't want to live as we do & have told me so. I have seen the same faces on the street for the past 10 – 15 years. Once you open the door to this type of community service you will never be able to close it again.

Park Ridge has always been known as a quality community with good schools, good property values & a lower than average crime rate. If the City persists in its plans, the property value in my area will plummet & the crime rate will sky rocket. The children in my area play freely outside now, but how safe will they be if Mayor Frimark has his way?

The other thing that the Mayor should consider is the cost. Even if the City did not have to donate a building it is going to cost us, the tax payer. There will be more calls for service to the police department& more ambulance calls for the fire department. More calls for service means more police & fire personnel will be needed & more equipment & more salaries & benefits etc. And lets not kid ourselves, the City will wind up kicking in some money every time things get tight for the shelter. There goes even more of our tax dollars.

Please, consider this step carefully. Do what is right for Park Ridge!

Robert Strada

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Reader Soapbox! & Freewheeling!

Quality of Writing in Terry Ekl's 2008 Audit

The writing quality in Terry Ekl's Park Ridge Police Department 2008 Audit is not high; it seems, to me, more like a first draft than a final report. This may seem a trivial issue, since the meaning Mr. Ekl intended can be determined, in most places, without great effort. It concerns me nevertheless, because I have no direct way of getting a sense of the quality of the investigation itself, as the report omits many details on which conclusions were based. I am also aware that the report was bought at a much lower price than those proposed by other firms. So I find myself asking: if the writing is this sloppy, to the extent that it wasn't even run through a spelling/grammar checker, was the same laxness applied to the investigation itself?

The report is highly redundant, and I was reminded of writing assignments from my school days, in which I didn't have much to say yet tried to take as many pages as possible to say it. There are multiple spelling errors, many of which would have been caught with the spell checker in Word. Commas are omitted where they are needed, and added where they shouldn't be. Many sentences are conflicting in the use of number, and some preposition choices are… interesting. The underlining is even misaligned with amazing frequency for such a simple task, as if done in great haste.

This issue is best appreciated while actually reading the report, but I've made some observations below.

Some Spelling Problems

Commander Jogmen's name is always spelled wrong.

“Swobada” for “Swoboda”

“Manger” for “manager” twice, one time in the fifth row

“affect” for “effect”

“effect” for “affect”

“there” for “their”

“it's” for “its”

“motived” for “motivated”

“recurrent” for “recurring”

“catlyst” for “catalyst”

“thief” for “theft”

“alderman” for “aldermen”

“who” for “whom”

“whom” for “who”

“may” for “might”

“cover-up” used as verb

“first hand” for “firsthand”

“under-age” for “underage”


A Few Excerpts

(I don't set them off by quotes, and my comments are in square brackets)

There is often two sides to how…

Once I received an accusation by a citizen against an officer, it was important to determine whether the allegations made by the citizens against the police department are credible.

…bias or agendas…

elected officials…put aside any personal agenda

…civilian complaints none of which resulted finding of “sustained”. [Note all three errors.]

…it is not possible for me to make what amounts to a credibility decision as to
whether a citizen who has complained about the conduct of an officer or whether the
officer is being truthful as to how the event actually occurred.
In evaluating my findings and suggested changes, I provide you… [He is evaluating his own findings?]

…unfair in both the administration of discipline or…

…my staff and I interviewed individuals whose identity was learned as a result of conversations with others as potentially having information relevant to the investigation of the police department.

I was able to review the videos as well as compare the statements made at the time of the incident by the persons involved and any witnesses to the information I received during the interview process with my staff.

There appears to be a sincere desire on the part of the officers to bring about
change and improvement to the department. [Followed shortly by:] There
appears to be a sincere desire to bring about improvement within the
department…

…investigation of the complaints have…

…has, in many occasions…

The promotion system provides unlimited discretion in the Chief…

…the mixed message being given to the police over enforcement of under-age drinking laws, as officers were supported by the previous city council in aggressive enforcement of these laws, however, when residents began to complain to the current elected officials, this policy changed;
When it is clear that an officer engaged in misconduct the discipline has, in
many occasions…

…she was, in fact, the victim of identity thief.

…need to impose more severe discipline to officers…

I interviewed labor attorney, Robert Smith,…

This finding should not be confused with those officers…

This perception is extremely detrimental to (1) the morale of the department; and (2) for effective law enforcement.

Love of Quotation Marks

I was asked to make “findings” as to whether…

There will be circumstances where police officers make “mistakes”…

…significance I place on the “perceptions”…

The following are “recommendations” I am making.

What can best be described as a “mixed message”…

Submitted By: C. Elegans

Reader Soapbox!

Two sent to PRU for you to read and consider --

Letter #1

Here's another example of what I'm assuming is Frimark and Friends. The following is a letter to the editor I'm sending out today. Please feel free to investigate yourself, or start a new conversation. Thanks for the great site.

Dear Editors:

I was floored to discover that the City of Park Ridge was negotiating with a bank (CenTrust) to build on the empty Napleton parking lot on the corner of Northwest Highway and Meacham, across from the Napleton Cadillac building. The plans include cutting new curb access on Northwest highway and drive-thru lanes. Anyone who has driven in the area and is familiar with traffic patterns knows this will effectively turn the residential streets of Meacham, Cedar, and Elm into drive-thru lanes too.

Not only is this an ill-thought-out plan, it is also completely contrary to what the citizens expect and what the City Council and (former) Mayor adopted for the area. The Uptown Master Development Plan, available for all to see on the City’s website (see https://www.parkridge.us/assets/Upfinalplan.pdf), clearly shows this land to be used for “transitional residential,” which is defined as condominiums or town homes (p. 16). It is not to be used for commercial at all!

If that’s not bad enough, I learned the same day that the City was talking with CVS Pharmacy about putting in a store and parking lot across the street on the site of the former Napleton Cadillac property. This too is addressed in the Uptown Master Development Plan. That land is to be used primarily for town homes.

As citizens we have to ask ourselves: who is this benefiting? Whatever answer you find for yourself, one thing is clear: it is not benefiting us. Just because the current developer is no longer interested in building town homes on the site doesn’t mean that the City can step in to help Napleton sell their property to any available buyer.

No one who lives near uptown, no one who uses Hinkley Park, and no one who is concerned with the character of Uptown wants a car-traffic-heavy (and perhaps 24-hour) drug store like CVS on that spot. Neighbors and park users do not want the bank across the street. These two businesses seem to mainly benefit people driving through town. Neither are pedestrian-oriented.

And neither of these is supposed to be allowed under the Uptown Development Plan, which was unanimously adopted and amended into the Comprehensive City Plan in 2002 (p. i).

The same Plan lists two of its primary objectives (p. 3): 1) Maintain Uptown as a small, compact, and well-defined geographical area, and 2) promote a pedestrian-oriented shopping environment.Both the CVS idea and the bank violate both of these primary objectives.

I don’t think we as citizens can allow major decisions about the character of the City, the traffic safety of our streets and parks, and the quiet altering of long-time plans to be made in back rooms, restaurants, or golf courses and then later be presented to the citizens as the new plan. The citizens have a right to expect our elected officials and City employees to follow the Plan as adopted, to keep the citizens posted on developments, and to act and communicate with full transparency so that we can see for ourselves that they are acting in our best interests.

The Uptown Development plan is clear: Uptown commercial development is not supposed to creep further up Northwest Highway. The Napleton parking lot is supposed to be residential. The Napleton Cadillac building across the street is supposed to be condos or town homes.

Stick to the plan, Park Ridge. It’s what the citizens want.

Steve Kopka

Park Ridge, IL

Letter #2

Letter to the Editor:

Today, we read where Mayor Frimark had the US government funds all set and ready to cash the check to the tune of $ 500,000 for a study for the Cumberland Ave possible extension.

Its not a big surprise here to see that all was just about closed for discussion on this issue and the ink on the check was ready to dry for mailing. But Mayor Frimark forget something - the people!

What is their desire ? What is their concerns....as well as traffic flow through the town north and south and back. A major artery that would be revised and extend - all because of HIS desire to collect federal tax dollars! "Its only federal dollars" Mayor Frimark once stated at a recent city hall meeting and its not city money.

Now, US Rep Jan Schakowsky must think that we are all two sandwiches short of a picnic in asking for federal tax money and the PEOPLE have not been approached.

Mayor Frimark this is just a continuation of the type of leadership that we have here in Park Ridge - from YOUR office sir.

Grant applications, state tax breaks, state monies from Gov. Blagojevich, veterans money stolen and used for " art in the park" with Roasemary Mulligan's fingerprints all over it ?

Parachutes being given out, a screw up with the (just retired police chief 's) pension/package and the payment to our new city manager in his cost of living - here?

I ask you sir - when is this all going to come to a halt?

Are we leading from the rear - here ?

I guess you could loop it all together and call this term the following:
" the dark night" or "the joker", or even better "space chimps".

"Momma Mia" as the film title goes.... when is the next election!!

Gene Spanos

" Dedicated Twice By Choice"
Police - Marines
Det # 553 MCL