COW 10-25-2010 Video!

For the viewing displeasure of our faithful PRU readers! It was one helluva long meeting, but we strongly encourage people to make the time to view the video.

Mr. Mayor, you come off like a jackass on a handful of issues. The 6th ward's Ald. Tom Carey kicked your backside on the topic of the City Manager's contract -- for a figuratively blind, squirrely guy, on rare occasions Carey's flush with nuts! And the PRU Crew thought Procedures and Regulations' Chairman Allegretti acted fairly in his recall of events surrounding severance payments.

The PRU Crew was pretty pleased with the general discussion and vote on the issue of the Facade Improvement Program and we look forward to the Council's future action -- we hope we aren't speaking too soon.

As far as the Taste of Park Ridge discussion is concerned, we were again almost taken in by the warm and fuzzy effervescent spewing. But we've now gotten a look at TOPR's 990 tax return. We've taken a good long look at their expenses, we've listened to their statements about the need to maintain a "rainy day fund," and we are more than certain it's now time for the Taste of Park Ridge, Inc. to reimburse the City for costs, gentlemen! We'll have more to say on this subject in a future posting.

PRUdos go to City Manager Jim Hock for what 7th ward Ald. Wsol described as "thinking out of the box." Despite Ald. Wsol's negative approach, we hope the Council will seriously entertain City Manager Hock's funding idea for Community Groups.

Mayor Schmidt's attempt to appeal to the ids, egos, and superegos of the Aldermen, on the subject of appointment authority for department heads, was laughable in its' transparency. Suuure, Mr. Mayor --the PRU Crew is suuure your intention is to secure the voice of the City Council by suggesting they should consider whether or not they "have a say" in the appointment process of City staff below the level of City Manager. The PRU Crew is also pretty sure it would be pretty convenient for the Mayor if that "voice" were filtered through his involvement in the process of appointing individual department heads -- an authority goal long dreamed of by his predecessor. Given the performance of the Mayor on the contract issue of the already appointed City Manager, we're going with the 2nd ward's Ald. DiPietro in agreeing, "the City Manager should manage," and any conflict in the language of article 3 should be "cleaned up" and clarified to allow the City manager to manage. Or we may be inclined to begin referring to Mayor Schmidtzkrieg as Mayor Schmidtstain -- we briefly considered using "Mayor Small Fri--," but we liked the sound of "Schmidtstain" better. Elected officials with the ability of bestowing employment on department heads is a recipe for patronage disaster -- and that's not just your average Schmidstain mess, that's 7 square miles full of manure!

Finally, PRUdos to the 5th ward's Alderman Ryan -- your suggesting the City review the process by which residential improvements are approved, especially as they pertain to land grades and drainage, is timely. We've heard about a number of problems with the City's inability to address residential engineering and construction issues, and it's about damn time the problems were addressed.

"The thorn defends the rose"

Last week we talked about Rainbow Hospice and the Taste of Park Ridge. The PRU Crew's sentiments about both of these organizations and their activities hasn't changed. We still very much appreciate them both.

Our faithful PRU readers may remember from last year our post about the Taste of Park Ridge. We offered PRUdos to the Pub-dogs for pushing for transparency in the face of some seriously strident opposition and criticism.

The Pub-dogs are again making another call for transparency, regarding the financial arrangements for the Taste of Park Ridge Inc.

And again the PRU Crew is appreciating the tenacity of the Pub-dogs.

In the words of a Shaolin master -- "To suppress a truth is to give it force beyond endurance."

Freewheeling Mid-June!

#1 -- shell gaming it out!

It was reported to us by our sources that at last Monday's Council meeting a member of the audience, while addressing the Council on the issue of contributions to community groups, made mention of a "social service agency" which receives funds from the City and is sponsoring the Taste of Park Ridge.

And in an online article from the Herald-Advocate, we see that the "social service agency" is none other than Rainbow Hospice.

The PRU Crew supports the mission of Rainbow Hospice and believes the services they provide are of tremendous value. But -- and dear PRU readers you knew that was coming -- according to their most currently published 2008 annual report (.pdf), Rainbow Hospice's net assets for 2008 totaled $635,130, out of a budget that totals more than $15.9 million.

While the City Council is in deficit spending mode, costs are rising, many city employees have agreed to wage freezes, and it is unlikely the City Hall chiller unit will be the last unbudgeted "emergency" to come along, the City Council voted to give $5000 in taxpayer money to Rainbow Hospice.

In terms of the total budget and deficit for the City of Park Ridge, $5000 is peanuts -- and the Council's inflated giving of $700 more to Rainbow Hospice than the originally approved 2009/2010 budget is a speck on a peanut's ass, if peanut's can be said to have asses that is.

It appears to us that Rainbow Hospice, while doing angel's work, has managed to raise plenty of money for themselves -- a payroll of more than $7.9 million is nothing to sneeze at -- and their cause, and so they've felt generous enough to shift at least some money toward a sponsorship for the Taste of Park Ridge.

The PRU Crew likes and appreciates both Rainbow Hospice and the Taste of Park Ridge. But we can't help getting the feeling this kind of shell game of taxpayer money movement is wrong, especially in light of the City's financial condition.


#2 -- Boxed in!

The PRU Crew hasn't managed to track down the original source of the email message posted below. Nor have we been able to obtain 2 other unrelated sources for confirmation of what is contained in the message. So, we're publishing what has been forwarded to us and we're going to let PRU readers confirm, deny, and-or have their say about it --

The city of Park Ridge is in negotiations for a deal that could result in the closing off the passageway (Framer’s Alley) behind the Starbuck's/Hill's Hallmark courtyard. The plan, as I understand it, is to build a retail space facing the courtyard that completely fills the walk-through space and eliminates pedestrian passage. The open space immediately behind the passageway leading to Pickwick’s rear theatres would become more parking lot.This is one of my absolute favorite spots in Park Ridge. It is unique, charming, and a little taste of Europe. It links a main parking lot with the uptown shops, making Park Ridge’s uptown extremely pedestrian-friendly. It also very conveniently links the front and back theatres of the Pickwick. I believe the city will be making a huge mistake by eliminating this space. We already have many retail spaces, both empty and full, but only one space that lends such character and pedestrian accessibility to the heart of uptown.

Anyone care to speak up and claim authorship?

Taste of Transparency?

If you had a chance to enjoy the offerings from the many vendors at the Taste of Park Ridge this past weekend, you can thank the people in the picture above -- along with many many other volunteers -- for organizing and carrying out the event.

Thank you, people in the above picture and many many others!

Last week our friends over at the Pub-dog's asked some questions about the financial arrangements of the Taste of Park Ridge event and corporation. The PRU Crew thinks the issues raised are worth exploring, and that the Pub-dog's questions are worth answering.

We're not sure if the strident objections to the Pub-dog's postings were because of their timing in writing their articles, or whether or not people really are foolish enough to prefer to look the other way on popular and well-liked events.

In either case, our hats are off to the Pub-dog's for looking past those things, daring to stand and be counted in the face of strong objections to hard questions about a popular event, and for forging ahead in the public light.

We're always going to support the public's right to know. So thank you also goes to the Pub-dog's.