All posts by C. J. Summers

I am a fourth-generation Peorian, married with three children.
Elections, Peoria Park District

Park Board President Election Results

Incumbent Tim Cassidy easily won reelection as president of the Park Board over sitting board member Robert Johnson. The vote wasn’t even close:

Tim Cassidy 9,200 72.46%
Robert Johnson 3,496 27.54%

There wasn’t a lot of controversy surrounding Cassidy; he endeared himself to many voters by voting against the land-sharing deal with District 150 for a new school adjacent to Glen Oak Park. Robert Johnson was outspoken in his criticism of Cassidy’s vote on that issue and intimated that the decision could be reversed if he were elected president instead of Cassidy. I think that hurt him. Also hurting him was his off-the-cuff remark that the Junior League wouldn’t be able to build their children’s museum if the City Council approved historic landmark designation for certain elements of Glen Oak Park. He later retracted that statement.

The ultimate result is that the Park Board remains completely unchanged.

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Library, State of Illinois

Referenda Results: Library, Smoking

5 Comments

The referendum to spend $35 million on the Peoria Public Library system passed overwhelmingly:

Advisory Proposition To Issue $35,000,000 Library Bonds

Yes 9,951 71.59%
No 3,949 28.41%

The referendum was advisory and non-binding, so the next step is for the library to get City Council approval for their plans.

City council members are usually reluctant to raise property taxes, fearing voter backlash. But last night, the voters showed that they don’t mind having their taxes raised for basic city services (in this case, library service). I think the council should consider that as they start working on the budget.

The other referendum on the ballot was, “Should the State of Illinois Prohibit Smoking In All Indoor Work Places and All Indoor Public Places?” Results:

Advisory Proposition To Ban Smoking In All Indoor Work Places And All Indoor Public Places

Yes 9,191 66.84%
No 4,560 33.16%

This was the most meaningless referendum on the ballot. As originally proposed by Councilman Chuck Grayeb, it was supposed to ask voters if they wanted a smoking ban in Peoria. Grayeb didn’t have the votes to get that question on the ballot, so this question was substituted. These results will be put in the form of a resolution that will be forwarded to Springfield, where it will be received, filed, and ignored.

Elections, Peoria Public Schools

School Board (2nd District) Election Results 2007

9 Comments

Perhaps the most surprising returns of the night came from the District 150 School Board election (winners in bold):

Candidate Votes %
1 Linda Butler 1,439 24.87%
2 Rachael Parker 1,277 22.07%
3 Bill O’Brien 1,243 21.49%
4 Alicia Butler 962 16.63%
5 Beth Akeson 864 14.94%

I was not surprised that Alicia Butler didn’t win. On her campaign postcard, the very first bullet point reads, “Open, honest communication with the community.” Kind of ironic, isn’t it? Since the charges were levied that she did not have the degrees she claimed to have, she’s not had open communication with anyone (we’re still waiting for a comment from her lawyer), and obviously her honesty is the very thing at issue.

I was surprised that she didn’t come in last. Beth Akeson tied for first place in my precinct, but in district 2 at large she came in dead last, even behind Alicia Butler. I’m not sure I understand why. I guess her message just didn’t resonate with the voters. Maybe this is for the best — now she can continue to focus on the Heart of Peoria Commission instead of having her interests divided.

Bill O’Brien was interviewed on WCBU after the final numbers came in. Even though he only lost by approximately 30 votes, he was willing to graciously concede rather than pursue a recount. We all thought that was very gentlemanly of him.

Rachael Parker was one of my endorsements, so it’s good to see her win, of course.

The biggest surprise to me was that Linda Butler came in first. I’m clearly out of touch with other voters in the second district because I didn’t see that coming at all. I felt Linda Butler was the status-quo candidate; she’s the only candidate that didn’t take a hard stance against the school in the park idea. I never would have expected her to come in first.

I’m going to predict that this will not represent much of a shift for the school board.

City of Peoria, Elections

City Council At-Large Election Results 2007

8 Comments

With the exception of Turner moving from fourth to second place, the general election results for the top five vote-getters were exactly the same as the primary election. Here are the final results (winners in bold):

Candidate Votes %
1 Gary Sandberg 13,767 18.84%
2 Eric Turner 11,912 16.30%
3 Ryan Spain 11,894 16.27%
4 George Jacob 9,656 13.21%
5 Jim Montelongo 7,773 10.63%
6 Dan Irving 5,136 7.03%
7 Gale Thetford 4,915 6.72%
8 Patti Sterling-Polk 4,313 5.90%
9 Gloria Cassell-Fitzgerald 2,172 2.97%
10 Dan Gillette 1,552 2.12%

This is not a big surprise. There was some question as to whether Montelongo could hold on to the #5 spot, but the top four winners were solid. I was impressed with Dan Irving’s final showing. He was eighth in the primary and moved up to sixth. Even though the margin between fifth and sixth place was approximately 2,600 votes, that’s still not bad for an at-large election. I’ll bet if he would run again in two or four years, he would win.

Peoria Public Library

Researching just got a whole lot easier: NewsBank from Home

7 Comments

NewsBank LogoDon’t you just hate it when you search the Journal Star’s archives for a story that’s more than two weeks old and they want to charge you $3 per story to download the full text? You can always go to the library and look it up on microfilm (any year) or through their subscription to NewsBank (articles from 1991-present). Either way, you have to go to the library, probably spending $3 in gas right there. Then, if you use the computer, you have to sign in and wait for a computer to become available.

But not anymore.

The Peoria Public Library has unveiled, as of April 6, a new service called “NewsBank from Home.”

The Peoria Public Library databases have always provided information for users over the internet at the library. Now a new addition allows patrons to access newspapers from home with their library card. Newsbank contains The Peoria Journal Star, The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and almost 30 top news magazines like Fortune, People Weekly, Real Simple, Newsweek, Time, Popular Science and Sports Illustrated.

Newsbank is searchable and contains full-text articles that are available without charge through this database. In most cases, newspaper and magazine websites charge for full-text articles. In addition, Newsbank returns search results from the entire database at one time and allows the viewer to save the articles to a “saved articles” folder.

This new feature for Peoria Public Library patrons will allow students, the business community, educators and hobbyists to find the information they need from any Internet-connected computer. Schools and business that may have subscribed to their own electronic versions of these databases in the past may find they no longer need those subscriptions.

All I can say is, this is FANTASTIC news. Now, that’s the kind of 21st-century library service we need around here. I’m so excited — it will make researching so much easier for me.

In order to use it, you have to have a library card. If you live in West Peoria or some unincorporated areas of Peoria County that don’t pay taxes to any library system, a library card will cost you $103. But for everyone else who pays taxes to the library system, it’s free. You just have to go down to your local library and sign up for it.

Blogosphere, Nation/World

Bloggers and the Media

7 Comments

Yesterday I was asked by HOI News if I thought blogging was the “fifth estate,” so to speak. I said no, I see it as an extension of the fourth estate; i.e., I don’t make a hard distinction between what newsy blogs do and what the mainstream media does.

This morning, on NPR’s Morning Edition, they had a whole story on just that idea — blogs and traditional media (in this case, newspapers) working together as partners instead of adversaries. And Scott Janz today points out how important a certain blog was in reporting the Virginia Tech shootings.

What do you think? Should blogs and the media hold hands and sing Kumbaya, or should they continue as adversaries?

City of Peoria, Elections, Voting

Vote Today

Vote today and you’ll get this nifty sticker to proudly display on your lapel.

Once again, here’s a recap of the Peoria Chronicle endorsements:

City Council

  • Gary Sandberg
  • George Jacob
  • Dan Irving
  • Dan Gillette
  • Jim Montelongo

School Board

  • Beth Akeson
  • Rachael Parker

Park Board President

  • Tim Cassidy

Library Referendum

  • Yes
Peoria Police

Officer Jordan’s video worse than audio

18 Comments

Phil Luciano reports today that he’s seen the surveillance video of the Terry Beachler incident from March 26, and it’s not pretty.

The tape shows the youth’s attempt to buy the smokes, and the clerk’s dumping of the ID into the safe. Two minutes later, Jordan – dressed in plainclothes – bursts through the front door, steps to the cash register and flashes a badge at the clerk – fast enough that the clerk might not have seen it well.

“Give me the boy’s ID!” Jordan yells.

The clerk quietly explains that the ID is in the safe. Jordan cuts him off, shouting, “I need the ID, or you’re going to get arrested. You can’t take someone’s ID!”

The clerk (who declined to comment for this story) calmly asks if he should call the owner to get the ID out of the safe.

“No, I’ll arrest you,” Jordan says. “You can’t take someone’s ID. … You have no right to take someone’s property. You understand me?”

The clerk tries to explain that he is simply following the policy of the boss. Again, Jordan cuts him short.

“I don’t care what he says,” Jordan yells. “The law says you can’t take somebody’s property.”

The clerk nervously replies, “OK, OK.” He then grabs the phone to call Beachler, and Jordan walks outside.

Did you notice Jordan’s very first interaction with the clerk? “Give me the boy’s ID!” He’s already yelling. Sort of dispels the notion that he acted “with restraint.” The police chief hasn’t seen the video yet, but I’m going to bet he sees it soon. I’m guessing the public is going to want this officer to account for his actions.

Defense of the officer up to this point has been essentially, “Terry Beachler is a jerk, so the officer was justified.” I don’t buy that defense, but if you do, consider that Terry Beachler wasn’t even there when the officer first started yelling and making threats. It was just a 27-year-old clerk trying to do her job. No need to threaten and intimidate, especially right off the bat.

I still say the officer needs to be reprimanded.

The Peoria Chronicle

Peoria Chronicle is on the air

6 Comments

Vintage MicThis afternoon during my lunch I was interviewed by HOI 19 News for a follow-up story on the effect of blogs on the media. Scott Janz was also interviewed for the segment. It will run tonight at 6:00, and maybe a shortened version at 10.

Tomorrow night, Jonathan Ahl of WCBU 89.9 FM has invited me back into the studio to comment on the results of tomorrow’s general election. I’ll be one of a four panelists (besides WCBU reporters): A Knight in Dragonland (who will be covering Pekin politics), councilman John Morris, who is not running for reelection, and H. Wayne Wilson, host of WTVP’s “At Issue” (although he’s on hiatus currently).

Also I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Billy Dennis is also going to be on the air tonight on the 9:00 news on channel 59. Be sure to check that out, too!

Note: This post was updated at 5:50 p.m. to correct erroneous information and add info that I should have included originally.