Tag Archives: Peoria City Council

Census 2010, City Council, City of Peoria, Redistricting

City redistricting maps released

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City staff has created nine options for new Peoria City Council districts. You can see all the proposed maps in the Redistricting Committee June 21 meeting packet from the City’s website. I’ve also put a copy of the maps on my site here:

6-21-2011 Redistricting Maps

Several different scenarios are included: columnar districts (north to south), layered districts (east to west), drawn-out-from-center districts, and districts expanded from current boundaries (there are several of these). All of them have one thing in common: the fifth district gets smaller and the other four districts get bigger.

There’s also an interesting memo from Randy Ray at the end of the packet that details what the process would be for changing the number of districts and council members, and eliminating cumulative voting for at-large council members. The City’s current system of government (five at-large council members elected by cumulative voting plus five district council members) was established as the result of a civil rights lawsuit in the 1980s, so any change to this system would have to be approved by the federal court that decided that case. In addition, state law requires that changes to the system of government be approved by the voters via referendum. So the process would be this: A public referendum would have to be drafted and approved first by the federal court and then the voters. In order to have enough time to comply with redistricting requirements, the decision would have to be made this year (2011) on whether they wanted to try to make these changes. It will be interesting to hear the discussion on this possibility at the next meeting.

The next meeting of the redistricting committee is Tuesday, June 21, at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.

City Council, City of Peoria

Peoria City Council 6-14-2011 (Live Blog)

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Hello everyone. I’m here at City Hall, room 400, for the Peoria City Council meeting on this Flag Day 2011. It’s very warm in council chambers, and the windows have been opened to help cool things off. It appears that all the council members and mayor are in attendance, and there is a rather long agenda for this evening. As usual, I’ll be adding my comments about the proceedings under each item below (the consent agenda is a single item). Also in attendance are Chris Kaergard from the Peoria Journal Star, Tanya Koonce from WCBU-FM, and Shaun Newell of 1470 WMBD radio.

Without any further ado, here’s tonight’s agenda:

Continue reading Peoria City Council 6-14-2011 (Live Blog) →

City Council, City of Peoria

Council to meet Saturday for strategic planning (UPDATED)

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There’s a special meeting of the Peoria City Council on Saturday, May 7. The “leadership and strategic planning” session will be facilitated by consultant Lyle Sumek, who has been meeting with individual council members during the weeks leading up to the planning session. Here’s the time, location, and agenda for the meeting:

SPECIAL MEETING
PEORIA CIVIC CENTER, 201 S.W. JEFFERSON, ROOM 135
10:00 A.M. TO 3:00 P.M.

ROLL CALL
INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
PETITIONS, REMONSTRANCES & COMMUNICATIONS

ITEM NO. 1 New Realities for Cities: Leadership During Turbulent Times
A. National Trends and Their Impacts on the City of Peoria
B. Realities for Peoria, Illinois

ITEM NO. 2 Strategic Planning for the City of Peoria
A. Document
B. Process

ITEM NO. 3 City of Peoria’s Successes for 2010 – 2011
A. City Achievements and the Values for Residents
B. Actions by the City to Reduce Costs/Respond to Service Demands and Requirements
C. Departmental Successes

ITEM NO. 4 Looking to Peoria’s Future
A. Mayor and City Council View: Success in 2016, Major Challenges, and Action 2011
B. Departmental Perspective

ITEM NO. 5 City of Peoria’s Mission

ITEM NO. 6 City of Peoria’s Core Beliefs

EXECUTIVE SESSION

CITIZEN’S OPPORTUNITY TO ADDRESS THE CITY COUNCIL/TOWN BOARD

ADJOURNMENT

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UPDATE: All the council members were in attendance except Barbara Van Auken (who reportedly “didn’t feel well”), Gary Sandberg (who had a previous engagement), and for the most part Chuck Weaver (who also had a previous engagement, but was able to attend the last 45 minutes or so of the meeting). John Sharp of the Journal Star has some initial reports posted on his blog here and here.

If you’re interested in seeing the strategic plan from the last time Lyle Sumek and the Council did some strategic planning (about eight years ago), it’s still available on the City’s website here.

City Council, City of Peoria

Deadlines? What deadlines?

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From today’s Word on the Street column in the Journal Star:

The mayor, meanwhile, said the hotel project – which has yet to begin – could be finalized by the Fourth of July. He said Marriott representatives were in Peoria a couple of weeks ago. He said progress is being made toward demolition work on the existing parking deck and the businesses attached to Big Al’s later this summer.

The City Council has to vote on changes to the redevelopment agreement, which are likely to take place in July.

That quote, of course, is about the downtown hotel project that City Attorney Randy Ray dubbed a “wonderful development” during the time the city was suppressing public information about it. It was rushed through the council in December 2008 with only one business day of public disclosure. The information was released on a Friday afternoon, and the council voted for it the following Monday evening. The timing was so crucial, they couldn’t wait a couple of weeks, or one week, or even a few days extra. It had to be passed that night — December 15, 2008 — or else the whole project would have fallen apart.

Interim City Manager Henry Holling (during his first interim appointment) explained, according to the council minutes, “although the proposed development would not be completed until 2012, the timing of the project was critical because convention and meeting planners were making decisions for events three to four years from now.” Councilman Spain said, “time was of the essence.” Mayor Ardis said, “as soon as the Agreement was signed, the hotel could begin booking events
as many events were booked two to three years in advance.” It was all so … urgent.

And now it’s Monday, May 2, 2011, and nothing — zero, zip, nada — has happened to the site. The original deadlines were never met, so the developer, Gary Matthews, returned to the city council on May 25, 2010 — nearly a year ago — to get those deadlines extended and make some major changes to the design and scope of the project. The council obliged.

One of those new deadlines, from section 3.1 of the agreement: “The Redeveloper shall commence construction of the Project not later than one (1) year from the date of the execution of this Agreement….”

That means construction is supposed to commence before the end of this month. But now Word on the Street tells us the Mayor says the project won’t be finalized until July. And Matthews will be coming back to the council for more changes to the redevelopment agreement.

That’s right. The Mayor has essentially announced that the second agreement’s deadlines will also not be met. Instead, a third redevelopment agreement will have to be drawn up and approved this July, more than two and a half years after that time-critical first vote.

One wonders why the council ever bothers writing deadlines into these agreements when they are never, ever enforced.

Business, City Council, City of Peoria

Sex club ban on Council agenda

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On Tuesday, the City Council will consider a ban on live-sex-act businesses in the City of Peoria. If the ordinance is passed, it will make Club 307 — a sex club located at 801 SW Adams 307 Oak St. — illegal and subject to being shut down. From the council communication:

Concerns have been raised on the Council Floor by citizens complaining about the existence of a so-called swinger’s club in the City of Peoria. The attached Ordinance, based on an ordinance from Phoenix, Arizona which has been upheld by the Court there, makes it illegal to operate a business which charges admission to view and/or participate in live sex acts…. [A]ctivity unprotected by the First Amendment, which Council can find to be harmful to the health and wellbeing of Peoria, including but not limited to contributing to the spread of diseases, takes place in these establishments.

Club 307 is right next to Brown Bag Video, an adult bookstore. The council recently rejected a request from the owner to convert the bookstore into a 4 a.m. bar. The council declined to grant the 4 a.m. liquor license, although they approved a 4 a.m. liquor license four blocks north of this location to accommodate Big Al’s strip club. Many citizens expressed concern about Club 307 when the council was considering the adult bookstore’s liquor license request, and that’s what prompted this proposed action by the council.

In 2005, 62 percent of voters in a non-binding referendum said the city should “impose a ban on full nudity in new and existing adult cabaret clubs and strip clubs,” but no action was ever taken by the Council, even though the proposed ban was based on existing Indiana law that the courts upheld. City Attorney Randy Ray at that time expressed concern over any action that would impact an existing business, saying the first thing he would do if the Council acted on it was hire an outside lawyer to handle objections to the ban on constitutional grounds. The Journal Star opined, “When governments impose new rules that threaten businesses, they enter a legally dangerous area called an ‘illegal taking.'” Yet the council communication for shutting down Club 307 states there is “no direct financial impact,” and there is no indication that an outside lawyer would need to be hired. So, perhaps now the time is right to revisit the public nudity ban that was supported by the majority of Peoria citizens.

Census 2010, City Council, City of Peoria, Redistricting

Mayor to appoint redistricting committee

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The boundaries of the five City Council districts will have to change due to population shifts within the City. It’s a process called redistricting, and Mayor Ardis wants to employ a more “inclusive” method than the one used in 2001. The request from the mayor is on next Tuesday’s council agenda:

I am requesting the Council to concur with my recommendation to appoint a Redistricting Committee comprised of the District Council Members, chaired by Council Member Bill Spears. The Committee will be charged with a public process of drafting changes to the Council Districts and making a recommendation to the City Council regarding those changes.

Note that Redistricting Committees, comprised of District Council Members, were used in 1981 and 1991. I think the public process will be more inclusive than our internal process used in 2001.

The district council members are Clyde Gulley (Dist. 1), Barbara Van Auken (Dist. 2), Tim Riggenbach (Dist. 3), Bill Spears (Dist. 4), and Dan Irving (Dist. 5).

The 2010 Census shows the City’s population grew to 115,007 overall, but that growth was not evenly distributed throughout the City. Thus, the boundaries have to be redrawn such that each district includes approximately 23,001 residents (one-fifth of the total population). Here’s a chart that was provided in the council communication showing how many residents are currently in each council district, and how many need to be added or removed to reach the target number:

Council
District		 2010 District
Population		 Target Change
1 20379 23001 2622
2 20615 23001 2386
3 21305 23001 1696
4 21381 23001 1620
5 30624 23001 -7623

The new boundaries also have to meet federal standards for minority representation, and meet the requirements of the State of Illinois’ municipal code, which says that each district shall be “nearly equal in population,” “of as compact and contiguous territory as practicable,” and be created so that “no precinct shall be divided between 2 or more [districts].”

State law also requires that the redistricting process be completed “not less than 30 days before the first day set by the general election law for the filing of candidate petitions for the next succeeding election for city officers.” That means it would have be complete by October of 2012, but it usually gets done sooner so the Election Commission has time to redraw the precinct boundaries.

2011 Election, City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools

Election Results 4/5/2011

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Here are Tuesday’s election results for City Council and District 150:

Peoria City Council

# Candidate Votes Pct
1 Chuck Weaver 14,784.5839 24.95%
2 ♦ Ryan M. Spain 10,071.9164 17.00%
3 ♦ Gary Sandberg 8,390.0000 14.16%
4 ♦ W. Eric Turner 6,911.3335 11.67%
5 Beth Akeson 6,040.0832 10.20%
6 Charles V. Grayeb 5,559.3335 9.38%
7 Jim Stowell 2,402.7500 4.06%
8 André Williams 2,261.2499 3.82%
9 Christopher (C.J.) Summers 1,812.4167 3.06%
10 George Azouri 1,011.3333 1.71%

District 150, Ward 2

Candidate Votes Pct
♦ Debbie L. Wolfmeyer 1,150 55.66%
Mike Mitchell 916 44.34%

District 150, Ward 3
(All candidates were write-in candidates)

Candidate Votes Pct
Rick Cloyd 2,120 67.11%
Janice K. Deissler 759 24.03%
Jody Pitcher 181 5.73%
Phillip E. Cline 99 3.13%

♦ = Incumbent

2011 Election, City Council, City of Peoria

Please vote for me on Tuesday, April 5, and then come to the party!

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Tomorrow is the election. There are ten candidates for City Council, and the top five vote-getters will be our at-large council members for the next four years. I’m asking for your vote so that I’ll be one of those five.

Here’s my radio ad which has played the past several business days on WMBD (1470 AM), WSWT/Lite Rock 107 (106.9 FM), and WPIA/KISS-FM (98.5 FM); it explains what my priorities will be if I’m elected:

[audio:http://peoriachronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/Audio/Summers-for-Council-2011_192K.mp3]

I would like to thank everyone who has supported me, those who have already cast their vote for me during the early voting period, those who have endorsed me and given me advice, those who have put my sign in their yard, those who have encouraged their friends and family to vote for me, and all those who will be voting for me tomorrow.

You’re all invited to join me at the G.A.R. Hall, 416 Hamilton Blvd., on Tuesday night starting at 7 p.m. for an election night party. (In the spirit of consolidating services, Beth Akeson and I will be having our election night party together.) I hope you can all attend!

2011 Election

Endorsements 2011 (other than me)

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Obviously, I hope you all vote for me. But besides that, there are a couple of candidates that I also endorse for Peoria City Council: Beth Akeson and Gary Sandberg.

Beth is a former Heart of Peoria Commissioner, school board candidate, and city council candidate. She lost her bid for the third district seat two years ago by just 12 votes. But she doesn’t give up. She’s running again this year — this time as an at-large council candidate. I support Beth because I share her vision for Peoria. She’s not content with the low standard of “better than nothing,” but rather aims for excellence. She’s accessible. She does her homework–often making calls and traveling to other cities to gather first-hand information. Just as one example, when researching the East Village TIF, she not only attended the presentation of a city planner from Decatur, but then followed up by visiting Decatur to see their residential TIF for herself and asking follow-up questions of the planner there. If you’ve been to any of the candidates forums, you will have heard Beth say that she’ll be a “full time council person.” Believe it. I saw how much she poured herself into her work as a Heart of Peoria Commissioner; she’ll do the same as a City Council Member.

Gary has the same philosophy I do about the purpose of municipal government: it exists to provide basic, essential services to taxpayers in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. His votes are always consistent with that philosophy. Having been on the council for several terms, and having been a city employee before that, Gary has a lot of institutional knowledge. He too is accessible and does his homework. The criticism against Gary is that he’s often the lone “no” vote on controversial issues. I think this criticism is misplaced. Given that even his critics concede that Gary is often right on these controversial votes, a critical eye should be cast toward the other council members who mysteriously vote in concert on nearly everything, often without any public deliberation or discussion. I don’t think Gary should be held responsible for the apparent collusion of the other council members. Instead, we need to reelect Gary and replace the other council members with candidates who share a basic-services philosophy.

2011 Election, City Council, City of Peoria

Last scheduled Council candidates forum tonight

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There’s a candidates forum for the Peoria City Council at-large race tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the G.A.R. Hall, 416 Hamilton Blvd., downtown Peoria. The event is sponsored by the Central Illinois Landmarks Foundation (CILF), so there will certainly be questions about the candidates’ views on historic preservation. However, the questions will not be limited to that topic. Any city- or council-related issues are fair game.