Daily Archives: September 27, 2010

Museum Block, Peoria County

1,623 signatures not enough to Block the Bonds

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In the end, the effort to block the issuance of general obligation bonds fell short. In order to force the issue to a referendum, nearly 10,000 signatures would have to have been collected. The “Block the Bonds” supporters managed to gather 1,623. Considering that the group had only 30 days to gather signatures, and given the complex nature of the petition question (i.e., explaining what general obligation bonds are and why revenue bonds would be preferred), that’s a pretty good showing.

There are a couple lessons to be learned here.

First, the “back-door referendum” option only gives the illusion of offering voters some sort of recourse. In reality, the high number of signatures required in such a short time frame makes it practically impossible to force a referendum. I imagine it was designed that way.

Second, it’s impossible to hold elected representatives and staff accountable for their promises/commitments. Leading up to April 2009, taxpayers were promised that construction would not start until all private money was raised, that revenue bonds would be issued to mitigate the risk to taxpayers, and the maximum bond limit was $40 million. Now we’re starting construction before all the money is raised, general obligation bonds are being issued, and the amount is $41 million. Yet despite these substantial broken commitments, there is no practical recourse for voters. By the time the next election rolls around, the bonds will already have been issued, we’ll already be saddled with debt, and there’s not a thing anyone can do about it.

Some would say “that’s politics,” but I think it’s an affront to the voters. And even though the water is under the bridge on this bonding issue, the incumbents who voted for it should be voted out at the earliest opportunity simply because they’ve proven themselves untrustworthy. Who can believe a word they say?

City Council, City of Peoria

After throwing away nearly $50M, City pleads poverty on basic services

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The City of Peoria is looking at cutting the budget Tuesday night. This isn’t part of the 2011 budget negotiations, but rather a cut to the 2010 budget. City staff is forecasting that there will be a $1.2 million shortfall in state income tax and personal property replacement tax revenues. Here are the areas to be cut:

Radios: $ 40,450
Public Safety Cameras: $200,000
Furniture and Equipment: $ 69,200
Renaissance Park: $ 43,890
Neighborhood Signs: $ 9,650
Trails Edge Hammerhead: $ 63,700
Traffic Signals: $ 1,910
GIS: $ 7,700
Fire Station Upgrades: $237,600
Fire Equipment-SCBA & Harness: $ 70,000
Fire Fleet Recap: $ 71,340
Fiber Optic: $ 60,000
Fleet Recap: $ 274,560
Western Avenue Greenway: $ 50,000

Nevertheless, the City is able to afford to give away $10 million in land to the County for $1 and to give $37 million to a millionaire hotel developer.

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City Council, City of Peoria

City to hire consultant to help reorganization

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On the City’s agenda for Tuesday night:

The City intends on reorganizing as a major step to realize its overall goals to become more efficient and effective. The objective is to have the new organization fully deployed and operational no later than mid-December 2010 so that the financial benefits will begin accruing to the City no later than January 2, 2011.

These organizational changes will generate many changes to the current reporting structure and the processes currently utilized by City Government for the majority of the organization. And, unless this new organizational structure and corresponding process changes are readily and rapidly accepted by the employees the resistance to these changes will present the potential for lost productivity, turmoil, and risk to gaining the desired financial results.

With that in mind, Staff is recommending the approval of LaMarsh and Associates, Inc. to assist the City of Peoria plan for and roll out its new organizational structure and process changes to the organization. By proactively addressing the potential resistance to these changes, the organization can and will more rapidly accept and adopt these changes, generating the desired financial gains for the City and its taxpayers.

FINANCIAL IMPACT: Estimated total cost of $45,000 to be funded through the reprogramming of capital project funds relating to Federal Grant Consultant (E04009) $18,585; Community School Initiative (PB0604) $22,760 and Competition Enhancement (PB0710) $3,655.

NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERNS: N/A

I can’t wait to see what changes are being planned to the City’s organization, although I suppose I shouldn’t care. After all, neighborhood concerns are “not applicable.” Sounds like the changes, which have yet to be revealed to the taxpayers they are supposed to benefit, are quite controversial within the ranks of city employees.

City of Peoria

San Marcos to decide on city manager Oct. 1

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The San Marcos Record (Texas) reports that the City Council there will make a decision on who to hire as City Manager on October 1. Peoria’s current City Manager, Scott Moore, is a finalist for the position. Over 100 residents turned out for a “meet the candidates” forum on Wednesday, the paper said. Here’s what they had to say about Moore:

Longtime San Marcos resident Carmen Imel said she was impressed by all of the candidates but she especially came to meet Moore because she used to teach at Illinois State University near Peoria.

Imel said she believes the new city manager should help attract companies like Caterpillar to San Marcos because there is a shortage of large employers in the area.

“They need skilled workers, but I guess we’ll have to bring them in,” she said. […]

Even though he is currently the farthest away, Moore told attendees that his roots in Central Texas make him the ideal candidate.

Moore earned his Bachelors in Business Administration from then-Southwest Texas State University in 1994 and played football there from 1989 to 1993.

“I think just being able to come back and re-establish ties. I have an instant connection with the athletic department, the administration (and) the business school,” he said.

He said even though he has only been city manager of Peoria for one year, he welcomed the opportunity to possibly move back to San Marcos because he is originally from Bastrop and still has family there.

“Any chance an individual gets to go back home, you have to always say you are interested,” he said. “If a person says they are not interested in going back home or going back to where they got a start, I think it would be short-sighted for the conversation to really go beyond that because I think in everybody’s heart they would want to go close to family and friends.”

He was previously the assistant city manager of Wichita, Kan. from Aug. 2005 to Sept. 2009.

It’s interesting that in San Marcos, the public gets to meet the candidates before the Council decides who to hire. In Peoria, everything is kept a secret from the public until after the decision is made. John Sharp had a good article in the Journal Star about how our local officials rationalize their lack of transparency in the process.