Daily Archives: October 16, 2009

City Council, City of Peoria

Take me to your leader

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As I mentioned in my correction to the last post, one of the cuts approved by the City Council on Tuesday is this:

Eliminate Economic Development Director
The current compensation for this position in $125,329. $25,000 is retained for restructuring the department. Without a full-time director, there will be a serious reduction in efforts, especially in marketing the City to regional and national developers and companies.

The Economic Development Director position is currently held by Craig Hullinger, who recently announced he will be retiring on November 6.

This raises a whole host of questions. Why would they keep an Economic Development Specialist position, but eliminate the Director position? How will decisions be made in the department without a Director? Majority vote? Or will one person act as the de facto leader without the title or the pay? (I don’t see how that could be avoided, frankly.) If the department doesn’t need a Director in order to function efficiently and effectively, then why have we had one all these years? And are there any other departments where the Director is unnecessary and could be cut to save money?

City Council, City of Peoria

Police at bottom of council’s priority list

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Tuesday night, we got some insight into the Peoria City Council’s priority list. We know that the Fire Department is at the top of the list. All the proposed cuts to the Fire Department were restored. And we know that the Police Department is near the bottom of the list. The council chose to cut 17 additional staff positions there without any discussion whatsoever.

The reason? Well, because the firefighters agreed to give up their wages, but the police officers didn’t. Hence, the firefighters are being rewarded for being team players, but the police officers are being punished by taking the brunt of the budget cuts.

There’s only one problem with this plan: The joke’s on us. It’s the citizens who lose because police protection is reduced. To add insult to injury, the council reaffirmed their commitment to keep the Economic Development department fully staffed. [Upon further review, it appears Craig Hullinger’s position will not be filled upon his retirement; hence, although the council saved an Economic Development Specialist position, the department will not be “fully staffed” next year; at least, at this point — perhaps the director position will also be reinstated at the next council meeting.] And, to my knowledge, they’re continuing to pursue a downtown hotel deal that will cost around $4 million in debt service annually. That could pay for a lot of officers and other basic services.