Daily Archives: October 13, 2007

City of Peoria, HOPC

Preliminary capital budget includes $0 for Heart of Peoria Commission

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Unless the council asks staff to put it back in, the Heart of Peoria Commission will receive none of the $145,000 it requested from the 2008 capital budget.

Plans were to use the money to bring in a transportation expert to help the city develop a comprehensive transportation policy for the Heart of Peoria area (the process would include all stakeholders through the use of charrettes), a comprehensive marketing strategy for the Heart of Peoria Area with materials to raise awareness of the opportunities that exist for residential and commercial investment, and grant writing to get more non-city funding for projects.

Earlier this year, the mayor suggested changing the Heart of Peoria Commission from a city commission to a private advocacy group similar to Peoria City Beautiful. After further negotiation, a compromise was reached where HOPC would remain a city commission, but would meet less frequently (six times per year instead of twelve).

The council accepted the commission’s work plan, except for the capital budget items because they needed to go through the budget process with all other projects. We’re now in that process, and HOPC’s requested funding is not in the budget recommendation from city staff. Since the budget is currently balanced, a council member who wants to see HOPC’s funding restored will have to find an equal amount of money to cut elsewhere.

Peoria Public Schools, Public Building Commission

Is District 150 authorized to use PBC bonding authority?

Peoria LogoProbably. After all, the Illinois General Assembly passed Senate Bill 2477 at the end of 2006 in order to give District 150 the ability to access the Public Building Commission for five years.

Or did they?

They did amend the Public Building Commission Act, but they didn’t specifically name District 150. Instead, they changed the definition of “municipal corporation” so that it made an exception for any school that met certain criteria. This amended definition would “include a school district that (i) was organized prior to 1860, (ii) is located partly within a city originally incorporated prior to 1840, and (iii) entered into a lease with a Public Building Commission prior to 1993, and its board of education.”

The idea here was to write the definition so narrowly that only District 150 would qualify. That means District 150 would have to meet all three criteria in the legislation. Peoria’s public school system was chartered by the state in 1855, so the first criterion is met. And of course District 150 most recently entered into a lease with the PBC about 1991-1992 for Lincoln Middle School ($5 million) and Valeska-Hinton Early Learning Center ($7 million), so criterion number three is met.

But what about the second criterion: a school district that “is located partly within a city originally incorporated prior to 1840”? Well, now that’s an interesting question. The City of Peoria was incorporated April 21, 1845. 1845 is obviously not “prior to 1840.” So some have made the case to me that District 150 is therefore not eligible for PBC funding under SB2477.

On the other hand, the Village of Peoria was incorporated on March 11, 1835. Perhaps this is the date of which the bill writers were thinking. But the legislation doesn’t say anything about a “village.” It says “a city originally incorporated prior to 1840.” Cities and villages are two separate and distinct municipal corporations in Illinois.

Splitting hairs? Maybe. But then again, maybe that split hair could save the taxpayers upwards of $60 million they would be forced to pay without a referendum. So, perhaps it’s not such a crazy question after all: Is District 150 authorized to use PBC bonding authority?