Daily Archives: May 30, 2008

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Library

49 Questions about the Library

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City council members submitted a total of 49 questions about the proposed library expansion. Mayor Ardis collected them and submitted them to the Peoria Public Library Board and expects them to answer them all in writing by next Friday, June 6. The council will then discuss the answers during the June 10 council meeting.

Sadly, there’s no indication which council members asked which questions. Some of the questions are completely irrelevant (e.g.,”Whatever happened to the library at Main and University?”, “Why were the libraries closed the weekend that the high schools had finals?”). Others are designed to call the library referendum into question (e.g., “What percent of the 70% of people that voted for the new library system understand your full plan?”). Some are just idiotic (e.g., “If the downtown museum is successful, would it be possible to position the downtown library at that location?”). There are good questions, too, but I’ll bet almost all of them could have been answered by Gary Sandberg if any of the council members had bothered to contact him.

Below is the cover letter from the mayor. The questions can be seen by clicking the “Read the rest of this entry” link that follows.

OFFICE OF THE MAYOR

Jim Ardis
Mayor

May 30, 2008

TO: Library Board & Director
FROM: Peoria City Council
RE: Questions regarding Library Operations and Expansions

Please find the attached questions submitted by members of the Council. Note that all members were asked to submit questions for clarification from your report or possibly some information not included in your report.

We would like to emphasize that this process should not be viewed as second-guessing your work to this point. Our collective goal is to understand your thought process and recommendations and discuss how we can incorporate them into a plan for enhanced library services that can be done within a realistic budget. Every single person on our Council supports strong libraries.

Make no mistake; we feel compromise will have to happen if we are going to move forward. Otherwise we would have approved what you submitted to us 10 days before the decision was to be made. Please acknowledge that the questions attached should be viewed as a starting point and based on your response, will likely generate additional questions. We would like to think good communication will accelerate this process and get us to a point where we can focus on what we can both agree on going forward. We are very confident that Councilman Spears will be able to do an outstanding job as our liaison.

We would like to request that a written response be provided to the Council by 5pm on Friday, June 6th. In addition, we would like to place an agenda item at the June 10 meeting to discuss these questions and answers publicly. There will be no vote taken at that meeting regarding the issuance of bonds. Please advise the City Manager of your ability to provide the written response to these questions and your willingness to participate in Council discussion as outlined.

Thank you for helping us answer these very important questions that were not clear to this point. This due diligence is very important to the decision making process. Have a nice weekend.

Jim Ardis
Mayor

Continue reading 49 Questions about the Library →

City of Peoria, Gary Sandberg, Peoria Public Library

Sandberg liaison resignation letter

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Here’s the letter Gary Sandberg sent to Mayor Ardis announcing his resignation as liaison to the Library Board. This may answer some questions about why he resigned, and raise some other questions about the intentions of the rest of the council:

27 May 2008

Mayor Jim Ardis
419 Fulton Street
Peoria, Illinois

Dear Mayor,
Please accept my resignation as the City Council Liaison for the Peoria Public Library effective at [7:00] PM on 27 May 2008. It is abundantly clear that you do not value my participation as Council Liaison by recent events. At this point I am not sure you and a majority of the Council share mine or even a common vision for Peoria. From my perspective based on behind the scene deals proposed on the 16th of May by Corporation Counsel Randy Ray such as “three negative Council votes would convert to positive votes if the Library would use it’s eminent domain powers against the Elliot’s Site (7807 N. University Street)” is totally over the top and morally, ethically wrong, if not totally illegal. Combine that with the total lack of communication regarding “unanswered questions” appearing at the last moment (after 4:00 on this day) and a last minute deal yet to be offered by Councilman Nichting at 5:30, it is clear that my views and values at it relates to public service and more importantly the public process are of no consequences to you or the Council.

The Library brought forward a product which was the result of a totally transparent process, objective criteria evaluation, careful analysis and recommendations from professional consultants that was totally within the criteria contained in the 2007 advisory referendum. To entertain debate on the merits of that product is healthy, but to politically sabotage those efforts thru these sorts of antics is totally unacceptable to me, so therefore I wish to separate myself from the Council majority that feels actions like these are appropriate.

The past year has been a wonderful experience working with the Library Building Committee, the full Library Board, and the professional Library Administration. They accepted each and every challenge to produce objective recommendations and a multi-faceted program within the referendum budget. I became completely convinced that the public interests were served by their open, transparent and inclusionary actions. The involvement raised my opinion of public service and it’s assurance that with public participation, everyone’s best interest is served. It is sad that the same opinion of public service and it’s transparency is not the rule of the City Council.

At my age, I value time and by the actions of a majority of the Council, they do not share the importance of one’s time. I do not wish to waste their time nor mine by continuing as liaison.

Sincerely
Gary Sandberg, City Councilman At Large

There was a serious proposal to put the new north branch on the site of Elliot’s strip club so the city could take that land and get Elliot’s out of the north end. Besides the obvious ethical violations, that site is too small anyway. The city would have to not only buy Elliot’s, but a number of surrounding sites for that to work, pushing up the cost of land acquisition, razing existing structures, and construction … not to mention the legal battles (if you thought what the City paid for Eagle Cleaners was high, just try to take Elliot’s via eminent domain). This from a council that is only delaying a vote on the library bonds because they are supposedly looking out for the taxpayers’ best interests.

UPDATE: Here’s Billy’s take on the resignation letter.

Here’s the Journal Star’s article.