All posts by C. J. Summers

I am a fourth-generation Peorian, married with three children.
City of Peoria, Peoria Public Library

Peoria Library History and Organization

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This week’s Issues Update from the City Manager’s office had this interesting review of the Peoria Public Library’s history. Fifth District Councilman Patrick Nichting had asked staff for this review at the last council meeting because “several citizens had requested information regarding the history regarding how the City Council became the authority over the Library versus other Libraries being under a Library District,” according to the council minutes. Nichting went on to say that “other Libraries under Library Districts had a mill rate and increases were voted under public referendum and voters decided increases in budgets.” Here is the report back:

The Peoria Public Library is organized and governed by the Illinois Library Act, 75 ILCS 5/1-01, et seq. As a Local Library, it is part of the City, in the sense that as the City annexes more property, that property is automatically served by the Peoria Public Library and is de-annexed from any library district it may have been a part of. As a Local Library, the Peoria Public Library is managed by a Board of Trustees, consisting of nine (9) Trustees appointed by the Mayor, with the approval of the City Council. A review of the City’s ordinances reflects that even as early as the 1940 Code Book, the ordinance establishing the Library was in place.

Under the Local Library Act, it is for the City to levy taxes for Library purposes. 75 ILCS 5/3-1 provides that in a city of 500,000 or fewer inhabitants, the corporate authorities (the City Council) shall levy a tax for library purposes of not to exceed .15% of the value of all taxable property in the City. There is also a provision in that section for an increase in that amount by referendum.

Historically, the City of Peoria, as a home rule municipality, has far exceeded the .15% limitation provided for in the statute. Currently, we are at .34%. Occasionally, there has been some discussion between the Library Board and the City over the question of whether the City has a duty to levy amounts requested by the Library Board. Section 75 ILCS 5/3-5 provides that the library taxes provided for “in this Act” shall be levied by the City Council in the amounts determined by the Board. This Section requires the City Council to levy the not-to-exceed .15% amount in an amount determined by the Library Board. The City Council is not required to levy whatever the Library Board wishes, based on the City’s home rule authority, because there has never been a referendum increasing this amount,. The City’s home rule authority is not a tax provided for “in this Act” within the meaning of Section 3-5.

A review of the history of the library levy reveals that in 1968 the library levy was .12%, which continued until 1971 when the rate became .1505%, then raised to .1708% in 1978. In 1986 the library levy went up to .2256% and in 1989 it went up to .4094%. In 2006, the amount was .3398%.

The referendum conducted last April was an advisory referendum. It could have been mandatory had the question been:

“Shall the annual library tax for maintenance and operation in the City of Peoria be increased from .15% to .50%?”

If such a referendum passed, then the City Council would have to levy any amount requested by the Library Board up to the .50% figure.

There is another type of library district which is organized under the Public Library District Act of 1991, 75 ILCS 16/1-1, et seq. In this second type of library district, the district itself levies taxes and the members of Board of Trustees are elected.

The statutes provide three separate ways for a Local Library such as ours to become a Public Library District under the Illinois Public Library District Act. The first, found in 75 ILCS 16/10-10, provides that the Board of Trustees of the Library adopt a resolution calling for the conversion and certifying the question of the conversion to the Election Commission who shall submit the question to the voters at the next regular election.

The second method of conversion, under 75 ILCS 16/10-15, which provides for the conversion upon the resolution of the Library Board and requesting the approval of the conversion of the City Council. If the City Council approves the conversion within 60 days after the resolution is adopted, the Board of Trustees shall convert the Local Library to a Public Library District. That statute goes on to provide that library in a home rule unit converted under this section shall have a maximum tax rate not to exceed the greater of 0.15% or the last rate levied by the municipality for library purposes for the most recent year before the conversion and that rate shall not be subject to any rate limitations or referendum requirements imposed by the Act. An increase, however, would require a referendum.

Finally, if the Library Board of Trustees does not initiate the change by adopting a resolution, the change can occur through a petition signed by 10% of those voting in the previous election and a referendum.

City of Peoria

Race Relations Commission created

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From a press release:

At the Mayor’s State of the City Address this year, he announced the formation of the Peoria Race Relations Commission to focus on race issues in the community, and positive means to deal with them. Dr. Amir Al-Khafaji, [Chair of Civil Engineering and Construction] at Bradley University, has agreed to serve as the commission chairperson.

Persons interested in participating on this Commission are asked to send a brief resume and their reason for serving to the City Communications Director, Alma Brown at abrown@ci.peoria.il.us or City Of Peoria, 419 Fulton Street, Suite 207, Peoria, Illinois, 61602, no later than Wednesday, March 19.

Dr. Al-Khafaji intends to have the commission named by March 21. Meetings will be open to the public with community input welcome.

City Council, City of Peoria

Double standards

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Last October, Second District Council Member Barbara Van Auken made a motion to spend $183,750 of the $200,000 that was budgeted in the 2007 Capital Improvement Program for use on the Sheridan Triangle project. That motion was defeated 6-5. Why? Well, there were lots of concerns about the fact that starting this project would require money to be spent in subsequent years to complete it, and “the Council needed to recognize their limited resources” and “decide how to execute strategy to complete projects,” according to the Oct. 9 minutes. There was also a desire to “determine what the priorities were for the entire City” before committing to this project. So it had to wait until after the next budget cycle to get passed.

But my, how things are different when we get to the fifth district’s road project that was approved last night:

The $3.3 million project – $1.175 million of it paid by the city [emphasis mine], $1.175 million paid by Peoria County, $1 million from Northwoods Community Church and $150,000 from developers of the area – targets a road improvement of Wilhelm from Northtrail Drive to Allen and also on a stretch of Allen.

It’s not mentioned in the article, but Van Auken and First District Councilman Clyde Gulley asked Public Works Director Dave Barber if this was budgeted in the Capital Improvement Program budget. Answer: some of the cost was, but not all of it. And furthermore, they won’t know the total cost until after the project goes out to bid. Nevertheless, it passed 10-1. By voting for this project, the council committed itself to spending 2009 dollars above and beyond what the council agreed to budget in the last negotiations, even though the city is projecting a deficit in 2009.

Strangely, on this fifth-district road project, there was no concern raised about the city’s limited resources, or about setting priorities or executing strategies. There was no delay. There was no CIP budget amendment. There was no discussion on where that extra money is going to come from in 2009, whose funding was going to get cut to make up the shortfall.

This all begs the question: Why the double standard?

2008 Campaign

Colleen Callahan ain’t gonna win

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Colleen CallahanThe Democratic candidate in the 18th Congressional District race, Colleen Callahan, has revealed her platform. See if this sounds familiar (transcribed from a WCBU report, which you can hear on Billy’s blog):

“It’s time to work together to create change. It’s time to refocus on middle-class values.” […]

Callahan says her top issues are ending the war in Iraq, improving the economy, increasing access to higher education, and repairing health care.

Who does that sound like? I’ll give you a hint, she’s a presidential candidate. Her talking points sound strikingly similar to Hillary Clinton’s. “Strengthening the middle class,” “providing affordable and accessible health care,” “ending the war in Iraq” — the rhetoric is practically identical.

And that’s why Callahan will lose in November. She’s running in a Republican district. In fact, the district is specifically gerrymandered to pick up as many Republican votes as possible (just like the 17th district cherry-picks Democrat voters). If she wants to win, she’s going to need crossover votes. She needs Republicans to vote for her.

Her platform is not going to get any crossover votes (except, apparently, for Carol Miller — the one self-described “moderate Republican” WCBU managed to unearth who said she’d cross over for Callahan). Why? Because it’s a liberal Democrat platform. It’s Hillary’s platform.

Schock has already proven how popular he is with Republican voters (he won the primary with over 70% of the vote in a three-way race). Callahan is going to have to hope that they all stay home and that all the Democrats come out to vote. And we know that’s not going to happen.

Schock can order his Congressional stationery now.

City of Peoria, Traffic

Proposed Northmoor Road Improvement Project Neighborhood Meeting March 18

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From a City press release:

An informational meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 18th at 7:00 p.m. at the Expo Gardens Youth Building, concerning the proposed Northmoor Road project to discuss the section of the proposed improvement between University Street and Allen Road.

City and County engineering staff, city officials, Senator Dale Risinger, and Representative Dave Leitch will present project information and take input from the community.

For questions regarding this News Release, please contact Office of the City Engineer 494-8801.

Peoria Pundit, State of Illinois

Pundit tries out Blog Talk Radio

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I caught a little bit of Billy Dennis’ online talk radio show Sunday. It was very interesting. Billy’s guest was John Bambenek of the Illinois Citizens Coalition and the topic was whether Illinois voters should approve a Constitutional Convention (or “con-con”) to rewrite Illinois’ constitution.

I heard about the last half hour, and plan to listen to the first half the first chance I get. I encourage you take a listen.

Bradley University

With a little help from my friends

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Another Bradley student is dead, the victim of horseplay. Once again, the perpetrator was an underage drinker:

According to police reports, the two friends were walking on the sidewalk along the west side of University with about five other people when [Robert] Hurt was allegedly pushed into oncoming traffic and struck by the passenger side of a southbound car near the intersection of Russell Street….

Hurt was taken to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center with severe head injuries and died about an hour later, according to Peoria County Coroner Johnna Ingersoll…. After interviewing witnesses, police arrested [Brandon] Gish. He was also ticketed for consumption of alcohol by a minor along with Brooke A. Rumbold, 20.

Hurt was 21; Gish is 19.

I’ll be interested to hear more specifics on this case as the details unfold. The paper says Gish pushed Hurt into oncoming traffic — this leaves me with many questions. Was he just trying to push him generally, and Hurt lost his balance and fell into oncoming traffic? Did he get pushed into the street in time to get back on the sidewalk if he would have reacted quicker? Or did Gish deliberately push Hurt in front of a car, thinking that his friend wouldn’t be badly injured from the incident, but might walk away with some bumps and bruises? Or some other permutation of these options?

And what about the alcohol? Was it a factor? We know it impairs judgment and reaction time. It had to have played some part in the incident. Bradley has already formed a committee to develop a comprehensive alcohol action plan; it was formed after a previous incident where a student died as the result of a prank involving roman candles.

One thing we know for sure: this is a tragedy, and my sympathy goes out to everyone involved and their families, but especially the parents of Hurt. My deepest condolences to them.