Monthly Archives: November 2006

Kellar Branch, Peoria Park District

Illinois Prairie Railroad Foundation lobbies STB to save Kellar Branch

In a recent filing (large PDF file) with the Surface Transportation Board (STB), which has yet to rule on the fate of the Kellar Branch rail line, the Illinois Prairie Railroad Foundation (IPRRF) claims the right-of-way can be shared by the rail line and the proposed Rock Island Trail extension:

We have done extensive investigation into the situation and do believe and can support the fact that the trail and rail line can share a joint right-of-way. Very little of the trail would have to be moved over a block or two along the way to accommodate it. The actual length of the rail line is 8.29 miles and the trail advocates want less than four miles of that.

Peoria Park District officials claim that running the trail next to the rail is too expensive because the right-of-way is too narrow. They say the trail has to be built to AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) standards, which require a 14-foot-wide paved trail, plus five feet of setback from the rail line. They further claim that avoiding narrow portions of the right-of-way by moving the trail to the street would make them ineligible for their grant money. The Illinois Bicycle Path Grant Program requires “land acquisition or trail development [be] along a single trail corridor” (emphasis in original) to be eligible for funding.

The IPRRF also says that plans are in the works to provide passenger service along the line:

We are also working with a number of groups in the area to use the Kellar Branch for a park-n-ride trolley for use as a tourist draw and also to provide commuter rail service if deemed feasible by the community. Along with its continuing use for rail freight service, the Kellar Branch right-of-way would provide three different functions.

This would be beneficial for all of Peoria and not just for a select few. It will increase economic development in the area and also assist in increasing the local tax base.

IPRRF’s filing reviews the other reasons for retaining service on the Kellar, including continued support of Carver Lumber, the ability to attract more business to Pioneer Park and Growth Cell Two, and the presence of a willing carrier and buyer/lessee (Pioneer Railcorp).

My take: If the trail is too expensive to build next to the rail line then it shouldn’t be built at all. IPRRF and others have made a compelling case for keeping rail service along the line. Greater economic benefit can come from running freight over the right-of-way and attracting new business with good-paying jobs than making it a running/biking path that would very likely cost 50 jobs.

Conventional wisdom propounded by the newspaper is that we need this linear park because the gap in the Toulon-to-Morton trail is “embarrassing.” But that supposed “need” is completely contrived. The Peoria Park District currently holds approximately 9,000 acreas of parkland — that’s more land the entire Heart of Peoria area! They also have no shortage of fitness facilities (anyone remember the RiverPlex?). They either need to figure out a different way to connect the Rock Island and Pimiteoui trails or give it up. We’ve wasted too much time and opporunity for growth already.

Public Building Commission, State Legislation

Our legislators get their facts wrong again

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Last time Rep. Schock spoke on SB2477 on the House floor, he said the City Council supported the legislation, which was not true. Yesterday, Sen. Shadid took to the Senate floor to argue for overturning the Governor’s veto (which is surprisingly easy in Illinois, needing only a 3/5 majority instead of the 2/3 required at the federal level). He pointed out that the District 150 board passed a levy cap of .60% at a recent board meeting, which is true. But then he went on to state that the current levy is .62%, so the levy would go down for Peorians. That’s false. As I reported in a previous post:

First, the school district capped the tax rate at .60%. And, as you can see from Part 1 of this post, the current rate is .5578%. So, even by their own definition it will be a tax increase — an increase of .0422%. And, of course, since this supposed “cap” is only set by the school board and not state law, it could easily be repealed at any time.

Where did I get my information? From the Peoria County Clerk’s office — the ones who actually figure our tax bills. The levy figure came from the 2005 Tax Computation Report (there is no 2006 report yet). So, once again, lawmakers are making decisions based on faulty information provided by those who are supposed to be representing our interests.

But instead of representing the people, Shadid has chosen instead of represent the school board. Let’s hope Koehler doesn’t follow in his footsteps.

WiFi

WiFi is coming to Springfield

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About 95% of Springfield is getting WiFi, courtesy of AT&T:

[Mayoral spokesman Ernie Slottag] said the agreement with AT&T, which would need the council’s approval, would be similar to existing access agreements with companies such as Cingular Wireless, Verizon and Insight Communications.

“Basically, we have to determine how much we will charge per pole. It could be 300 to 400 poles citywide,” Slottag said, adding that telecommunications companies typically pay an annual fee for use of the utility polls. The city’s cost initially was expected to be about $8,000 per year to power the nodes.

My take: This is the way to do city-wide WiFi. A private company provides the equipment, pays the city for use of their utility poles, and determines a cost structure that will allow them to be competitive in the marketplace yet still profitable. AT&T is being treated just like a cable company with a franchise agreement, and that’s how it should be. If a company wanted to provide such a system here in Peoria, I would be in favor of it.

Peoria Public Schools, Public Building Commission, State Legislation, State of Illinois

BREAKING NEWS: Illinois Senate overrides Governor’s veto on SB2477

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The Illinois Senate today voted 45-11 to override Gov. Blagojevich’s amendatory veto of SB2477, and Sen. Shadid got a round of applause as this was his last public act before leaving office.

SB2477 would give Public School District 150 the ability to use the Public Building Commission to raise funds for school construction. Blagojevich’s veto amended the bill to require a referendum to access PBC funds. If the House follows suit and overrides the Governor’s veto, the bill will become law as is, and the PBC could sell bonds on behalf of the school board for renovation or construction of school buildings without taxpayer approval via referendum.

UPDATE: Today, I’m unveiling a new feature on my blog: audio! Click the play button below to hear the Senate action today on SB2477:

[audio:http://www.peoriachronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/Audio/SB2477.mp3]

I’m still working out the kinks a bit — for instance, you’ll notice there’s a buzz in the audio; that’s because my current setup for recording is analog and I have a bit of 60-cycle interference. I’ll try to fix that for the future.

My thanks to 1 Pixel Out for the WordPress embedded audio plug-in.

City Council, City of Peoria

Council Roundup: I’m officially disappointed

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Another year of the regressive $6/month garbage fee.

Another year of understaffing at Fire Station 11.

Another missed opportunity by the council as they voted 8-3 essentially to finalize a budget that once again does not address two of the biggest issues of the past several years.

I thought this “new” council was supposed to be different. But it turns out the only ones to vote against this budget plan were the vererans: Sandberg, Grayeb, and Gulley.

Evidently, from the discussion last night, it’s a virtue not to raise property taxes, even if “holding the line on taxes” means compromising fire safety in one of the most densely-populated areas of town and hitting the poor and elderly with regressive fees. Yeah, they really took the moral high ground last night. It will look good in political ads anyway.

I was willing to give the council the benefit of the doubt last year. The rookie members needed time to get their bearings, understand the budget process, etc. I bought it. I was willing to wait until the next year for the revolution. But “next year” has come, and things haven’t changed. What’s their excuse this time?

What does it take to get representatives who will do what we elected them to do?

Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Public Schools, Public Building Commission

Journal Star could use some remedial civics classes itself

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Speaking of the Journal Star’s editorial yesterday, they sum up their case for PBC funding with this condescending paragraph:

But again, the primary criticism comes from those who’ve never quite come to grips with the fact that they live in a republic, not a direct democracy. Should District 150 regain its PBC connection, perhaps it should spend those funds constructing a building in which they teach civics, the lessons of which seem lost on a certain segment of the population.

Translation: if you’re against the school being able to get funding through the Public Building Commission (PBC), then you’re an ignorant boob in need of remedial education.

Maybe the editors of the Journal Star should attend those civics lessons instead. They can start by studying the words of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, where he says that governments “deriv[e] their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Thus, if the people don’t want the school board to have the power to spend tax money on new schools without a binding referendum, that is perfectly within the rights of the citizens of a republic.

Indeed, one needn’t throw out the school code or the Constitution, nor do they need to resort to direct democracy, in order to place reasonable limits on their representatives in our current form of government. In the case of the PBC, these limits already exist, and those who oppose PBC funding are not arguing for new legislation, but the status quo.

And since when is it the job of our legislators to represent other municipal corporations? Are Schock and Shadid representatives of the school board or the people? In this case, they’re acting as representatives of the school board, since the people clearly don’t consent to additional bonding authority being given.

And since the Journal Star thinks PBC funding should be available to all, why are they in favor of SB2477 which would only grant this bonding authority (a) for 5 years, and (b) only for Peoria Public School District 150? The Journal Star should be fundamentally opposed to this abridgment of our republic and advocate instead a bill that would completely repeal the 1993 law that stripped all school boards from using the PBC. Of course, such a bill would never pass the legislature, because it’s easier for representatives from elsewhere in Illinois to pass laws that don’t affect their constituents.

Here’s another civics lesson from Bob Bratt: citizens of Illinois have the right under Illinois’ constitution “to make known their opinions to their representatives and to apply for redress of grievances.” In other words, voting our representatives out of office is not our only avenue for participation.

General News

Arnstein’s Ladder

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I was doing some research at the library recently and I stumbled across this article from 1969 titled, “A Ladder of Citizen Participation,” by Sherry R. Arnstein.

In her article, Arnstein sets up a typology to explain the varying degrees of participation regular Joes (“have-nots”) are afforded by those in power (“haves”). She simplifies these into eight categories, or rungs on a ladder:

Here’s a good summary explanation of each rung:

1 Manipulation and 2 Therapy. Both are non participative. The aim is to cure or educate the participants. The proposed plan is best and the job of participation is to achieve public support by public relations.

3 Informing. A most important first step to legitimate participation. But too frequently the emphasis is on a one way flow of information. No channel for feedback.

4 Consultation. Again a legitimate step attitude surveys, neighbourhood meetings and public enquiries. But Arnstein still feels this is just a window dressing ritual.

5 Placation. For example, co-option of hand-picked ‘worthies’ onto committees. It allows citizens to advise or plan ad infinitum but retains for power holders the right to judge the legitimacy or feasibility of the advice.

6 Partnership. Power is in fact redistributed through negotiation between citizens and power holders. Planning and decision-making responsibilities are shared e.g. through joint committees.

7 Delegated power. Citizens holding a clear majority of seats on committees with delegated powers to make decisions. Public now has the power to assure accountability of the programme to them.

8 Citizen Control. Have-nots handle the entire job of planning, policy making and managing a programme e.g. neighbourhood corporation with no intermediaries between it and the source of funds.

I don’t know about you, but this ladder rings true to me. I certainly have experienced manipulation as described here. I’ve been to many meetings that were billed as an opportunity to participate in a process only to discover that it was really just an opportunity for the real decision-makers to try to overcome public objections and extol the virtues of their plan. Then afterwards they could say that everyone had a chance to be heard, and that the public input was taken into consideration — even though no changes had been made.

I think this could be a good tool for evaluating public input opportunities from various municipal organizations in Peoria. Where do you think recent public input opportunities fall on Arnstein’s Ladder? For instance:

  • Public input on the location of the new school in the Woodruff attendance area
  • Surveys on the new name for the Peoria Regional Museum
  • The Target: Peoria crime forum

Finally, do you think (as the Journal Star apparently does) that we have full “Citizen Power” by virtue of our elected representatives on these various municipal organizations?

General News, State of Illinois

League of Women Voters targets gerrymandering

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League of Women Voters logoFrom a League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria press release:

Illinois redistricting, “ILLINOIS JOIN UP — REDISTRICTING ON THE SQUARE”, will be the subject of a special morning meeting of the League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria on Saturday, November 18th at the Lariat Steakhouse, 2232 W. Glen, Peoria, IL.

THIS MEETING IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

League members have been studying the [redistricting] question for about a year, and committee chairman Dr. Elliott Murray, with Jim Thomas and Bruce Brown, will present an overview of the committee’s work and a proposed action plan for change.

The presentation begins at 9:30 AM, but a buffet breakfast ($10.00 which includes tax and tip) will be available at 8:45. Please call Bill Hall at 309-691-4706 if you plan to have breakfast.

Bravo to the League of Women Voters for tackling our heavily gerrymandered Congressional districts.

City Council, City of Peoria

Morris not seeking reelection

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It’s been all over the news today, so I realize this isn’t a breaking headline anymore, but John Morris isn’t going to seek reelection to the Peoria City Council.

The reason? He wants to spend more time with his wife and two children. Having a wife and three little ones of my own, I completely understand, and I wish him well.

And now, let the fun begin. Who will the contenders be for all the at-large council seats?