It’s Tuesday evening, and time for another Peoria City Council meeting. I’m coming to you live from Peoria City Hall, Council Chambers. I’ll be updating this post throughout the evening, so refresh often.
Absent tonight are Mayor Ardis and 5th District councilman Dan Irving. Mayor Pro Tem is At-Large councilman Eric Turner.
Here’s part of Laura Petelle’s rationale for voting to close a high school:
These planned 43 staff reductions will total approximately $2.7 million in savings. [emphasis added]
An additional $800,000-$900,000 in savings may be realized by shuttering a building for the year and not paying operating costs (operating costs are somewhat, but not astronomically, higher at Woodruff than at Peoria High).
These are lower-end estimates. [emphasis added] There may be more job cuts to be found, and there may be more savings from those initial 43 cuts. May.
Now, I’m not trying to pick on Laura. Lord knows she does her homework. She did more due diligence and was more transparent about her justification than any other board member now or in recent memory.
But imagine my surprise last night when I heard on the news that closing a high school would save “$1.5 to $2.7 million.” I could hardly believe my ears. I wasn’t home to watch the meeting, but I taped it, so I pulled out the tape of the meeting and, sure enough, there was Superintendent Ken Hinton saying that closing Woodruff would save “$1.5 to $2.7 million.”
I’ve been following this issue pretty closely lately, and I can tell you that I never heard an estimate lower than $2.7 million. Maybe they said it before, since I don’t hear everything. But I don’t remember it. And considering that Laura — who’s on the board — said that $2.7 million was a “lower-end estimate” just a week before the vote, I’m inclined to say that this new range of figures is brand new information, brought forth at the last moment from Mr. Hinton.
This raises several questions, none of which are very comfortable:
This is the reason citizens don’t believe any numbers that come out of 3202 N. Wisconsin Ave. It always appears that the numbers are either (a) pulled out of a hat, or (b) deliberately manipulated to elicit the vote the administration desires. Or both.
Here’s one more question: Is anyone going to tabulate the actual savings next year after all is said and done to see if it matches the estimates? Considering they haven’t done that for any other school closing, my guess would be “no.”
From a press release:
PEORIA, IL— The Senate’s Redistricting Committee will meet Tuesday [Sept. 22] in Peoria to continue a series of subject-matter hearings regarding how Illinois should best approach its redistricting process. The hearing will include proposals for changing the current redistricting process in Illinois.
State Senator Kwame Raoul (D – Chicago) currently chairs the Senate’s Redistricting Committee. Amidst a fury of reform ideas on various subjects in the closing weeks of the legislative session, Raoul made it clear that the process – which only happens every 10 years – needed to be addressed free of distractions in a comprehensive manner. Since that time, Raoul has convened a series of subject matter hearings, with his fellow committee members, to take on this unique subject.
“Thus far committee members have learned new information about how redistricting processes across the country are conducted,” Raoul said. “This further proves the need for a comprehensive review.”
With all of the myths and spin regarding the upcoming redistricting process, Raoul aimed the first meeting of the committee at informing legislators and the public on the basics of the redistricting process. The hearing included an overview of the history of Illinois redistricting, census data and the legal requirements for redistricting.
The second hearing of the committee included an overview of redistricting legal principles and requirements. The hearing also included testimony on a review of the redistricting process in other states.
“We need to approach this in a workman-like manner. We need to be intellectually honest and try to do the best thing for the state,” Don Harmon, a member of the Senate’s leadership said.
Despite an ongoing push for a constitutional amendment to be voted on hastily, Raoul and Harmon remain steady to their commitment for a comprehensive review.
“We need to remember that some of today’s critics were yesterday’s cheerleaders, when they were in the majority and controlled the redistricting process. We need to be mindful that we don’t rush into a reform that’s not really reform but instead simply rearranges partisan advantages,” Harmon added.
During the last redistricting process, Senate Republicans were responsible for legislative maps which have drawn criticism from those familiar with the process. These districts include the obscure 17th Congressional District map which was sponsored by Senator Kirk Dillard, a Republican from Hindsdale.
Dillard now joins his fellow Republican colleagues Dale Righter, J. Bradley Burzynski and Dan Rutherford as they attempt to fix the gerrymandered maps they created during the last redistricting process.
An agenda was included with the press release, but it was in the form of an encrypted PDF file that doesn’t allow you to copy the text and paste it into another document or post. Also, did you notice that the press release doesn’t say where or what time the meeting will be held? All we know is that it’s today in Peoria. Helpful. If that’s any indication of the competence of these people to execute redistricting in Illinois, heaven help us.
The meeting is at noon in the Hartmann Center Theatre, Bradley University, 1453 St. James.