Hello everyone. I arrived a little late tonight, so if you want to get the low-down on the first part of the meeting, I recommend checking out Billy Dennis’s blog “From the Newsroom,” or John Sharp’s blog “Word on the Web,” as they’re both liveblogging this evening as well.
Here’s the agenda, starting at the point I came in, so we’re joining “in progress,” as it were:
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced recently his intention to eliminate over half of Illinois’ school districts through mandatory consolidation. There are already bills introduced in the state legislature toward that end:
State Senator Jeffrey M. Schoenberg (D-Evanston) recently introduced a bill, SB1324, which proposes to amend the Illinois School Code to require the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to conduct a feasibility and cost-saving benefits study on the prospect of consolidating school districts in the same geographic area. The ISBE would be required to recommend specific school districts for consolidation in a report due to the general assembly and the governor on or before January 1, 2013. […]
State Representative Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora), Chair of the Illinois House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, has introduced HB1216 to create an 18-member School District Realignment and Consolidation Commission to report the “optimal enrollment for a school district and where consolidation would be beneficial.” The Commission would make recommendations to reduce duplication of efforts, eliminate obstacles between qualified teachers and students, lower property tax burdens, calculate the net costs savings of realignment, and advise school districts on reorganization.
So what will this mean for Peoria? The City of Peoria includes three school districts: Peoria, Limestone, and Dunlap. Peoria Heights’ district is completely surrounded by Peoria. Analysts say, “Anticipated targets of the legislation are small school districts with low staff-to-student ratios.” But, they add, “A less obvious aim of the bill is the opportunity to merge small, well-financed school districts with disadvantaged ones to balance economic inequities.”
At first glance, it would appear that Peoria would be a prime candidate for merging school districts. This would mitigate one of the major factors leading to population migration to the north by putting the whole city under one school district with a unified tax rate to support it.
But there’s always been a complication to reforming District 150. The makeup and election of its Board of Education is set by court order, not legislation, as the result of a civil rights lawsuit back in the 1980s. Will this be able to keep the State from consolidating this board with other districts in the region? Or can the State get around the court order by dissolving the various school charters and creating a new district from scratch? Will the State have the political will to make such a move?
The process as currently defined boils down to recommendations from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). It will be interesting to see what they recommend … if the process gets that far.
Editor’s Note: The following editorial was written and submitted by Frederick E. Smith, a resident of the East Bluff. The views expressed by guest contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor.
The East Bluff of Peoria is in trouble. Almost 62% of the homes are rental properties, crime is up every year for the last two years (according to a study by the Glen Oak Impact Zone committee), and now that the area has been declared “blighted” by the results of a study, property values have taken a skyrocketing decline.
The Near North Side is in trouble. Almost 86% of the property there is rental, the crime rate is one of the worst in the city, and the private buildings are in a state of decay.
The Knoxville and Wisconsin business corridors are filled with empty buildings and property left to rot while property owners scramble to fill the vacancies.
The Mayor of Peoria has an answer. Tax Increment Financing. And the Mayor wants to impose this on us, whether or not we agree.
You only have to read the EVGC Advisory Committee Charter to know this is true. The membership of the Committee consists of two City representatives, one County representative, one member of the District 150 School Board, two representatives of OSF St. Francis, and one member at large each from each of the three affected Council Districts, all appointed by the Mayor.
I sent a revised version of the Charter to Tim Riggenbach and Corporate Counsel Randall Ray over a week ago. My revisions included cutting the number of OSF Representatives to one and increasing the number of members at large to five, three from District #3 (the largest affected area), one from District #2, and one from District #1. I further changed the appointment of the members at large to the various Neighborhood Associations instead of the Mayor. My thinking here is at least there would be an even distribution of representatives for all concerned. After receiving Tim’s assurance that it would be given due consideration, I have yet to hear back from either Randall or Tim. Well, they are busy men, I am sure. (Anyone wanting a copy of my proposed revisions, let C.J. know, and he will forward the request, or if he gets too many, perhaps he can publish it.)
But this is the part that sticks in my craw: the City of Peoria wants to improve the area, but has no plan to do so,at least no plan anyone is willing to talk about.
The gentleman from Springfield who gave the first “TIF 101” presentation spoke directly to the hazards of enacting a TIF without a plan. They are currently in an “Adversarial Position” with their City Council as to the proper distribution of TIF funds. Why? Because, as noted in the current TIF Proposal, the City Council has the right to redistribute TIF funds as they see fit, without so much as a “by your leave” from the area where the TIF funds are collected. City Counsel Randall Ray confirmed this at that same meeting. The City Council of Peoria could use these funds to do other things, like pay off the debts due from the infamous MidTown Plaza TIF, or support the poorly planned Glen Oak School/Community Center. They might even use those funds to buy up properties surrounding OSF to allow them to expand their campus, enhancing the areas around the Catholic Diocese and Peoria Fire Central. And of course, there are the sewer repairs that are being done to the tune of five million dollars beneath OSF.
OSF has already stated that they want to expand their campus. Both the White School and the Irving School have been acquired, and the latest vote of the counsel has opened the door to demolishing the Irving school despite its historical properties status. OSF paid for the TIF Proposal Study. OSF has been vocal and present at every TIF meeting, even the “TIF 101” session. And one of the most vocal speakers at the City Council on the night the change was made to allow owner permission to be a prerequisite to the establishing of a historical designation was OSF.
Okay, so we know the City is wanting to ram this through, and OSF seems to have a vested interest in seeing it succeed, at least for their purposes. But how about the residents of the East Bluff?
The truth of the matter is that very few of the property owners in the East Bluff seem to care, or at least that is the impression when you start counting who shows up at the meetings. Most of the people in my area of the East Bluff are supposedly represented by the East Bluff Serenity Neighborhood Association. Jim Combs, a former member of the East Bluff Neighborhood Housing Services, is the president of that association. I have yet to meet the man. Guess I am going to have to go knock on his door to do that, seeing as he doesn’t seem to want to be involved. Richard “Mitch” Mitchell is the president of the East Bluff United Neighborhood Association, and by all impressions to date a reasonable and honorable man. But I wonder how many people he actually speaks for. Glen Oak Flanagan and Glen Oak Park Neighborhood Associations are also present in some form, since Lisa Fischer sits on the Joint Review Board for the EVGC TIF, and is also a board member of the East Bluff Neighborhood Housing Services (despite earlier rumors to the contrary, I sat behind Lisa at the last board meeting).
Basically, the Mayor is going to get what he wants. Not because it is the right thing to do, and not because the project is going to save the East Bluff. It won’t.
Neither will the East Bluff Neighborhood Housing Services, who have not made a low interest property improvement loan in the last two years, and who are currently in the business of buying and rehabbing homes in the East Bluff (they currently own four properties, including the property that serves as their headquarters on Wisconsin.), ostensibly for sale. Of course, with the area recently declared “blighted” by the TIF Proposal and those findings officially accepted by the City Council, trying to sell property in a “blighted” area might prove to be a somewhat daunting task.
The East Bluff is doomed, a victim of age, apathy, decrepitude, and obsolescence. The houses here are out of date, the infrastructure is vastly inadequate, and the median income level of the residents is near or below poverty levels, based on the number of family members per household with a median annual income level of $36,009. 50. That 62% of rental property I mentioned at the beginning is rapidly becoming too expensive to maintain, so the smart thing to do for any rental owner is to get out while the getting is good, take their profits and sell off the property for whatever they can get. If you hang on to it too long, the City will eventually use eminent domain just as they did with the MidTown Plaza TIF to snap up the land and sell it at a profit to a developer, who will build newer properties for the Doctors, Nurses, Administrators, and staff of the expanded OSF facilities. Of course, they are going to need a convenient grocery store and other retail outlets, which will open up the redevelopment of the Knoxville and Wisconsin business corridors. And they will need new schools to send their children to, so District 150 will be reborn as the new Mecca of higher education, since the tax dollars from the new residents will be several times more than is currently being collected. And Doctors, Nurses, Administrators, Lawyers and other professionals will never let their children attend inadequate schools.
Wow. Sounds like a plan to me. I wonder if they have thought of it?
Sen. Dale Risinger is resigning, and Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis wants to be appointed to fill the senate term. If that happens, the council would have to appoint a new mayor. If they appoint a sitting city council member, then someone else will have to be appointed to take that council member’s place. If they appoint an at-large city council member — for instance, Eric Turner has indicated he would like the job — it will impact the at-large city council race.
Whew! It certainly will be interesting to see who gets chosen and the impact it will have.
Another state has spurned federal dollars to establish high-speed rail.
…Florida Governor Rick Scott announced he will decline $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail funding — putting a quick and unexpected end to the projected Tampa-Orlando line that was to be the Obama administration’s bullet model for the rest of the nation. Scott now becomes the fourth Republican governor in the past several months to scuttle a major rail project, following in the (backward-moving) footsteps of New Jersey’s Chris Christie, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, and Ohio’s John Kasich.
The article goes on to address Scott’s stated concerns. Of course he touts supposedly “better” ways to use the money — by expanding existing interstate highways. Furthering our dependence on automobiles and, by extension, foreign oil is a conservative value, apparently.
Only it’s not. Even the American Conservative magazine recognizes the red herring of concerns over government subsidies: “Still, libertarians [and Republicans] shriek, ‘Subsidies!’—ignoring the fact that highways only cover 58 percent of their costs from user fees, including the gas tax.” Others have noted:
Both our highway system and airline industry are heavily subsidized. In 2002, Congress appropriated $32 billion in highway funding and $14 billion for the airline industry in 2002. The FAA ran on a 2005 budget of $7.8 billion. How “successful” would the private airline industry be if it were not subsidized by the government? Would our “car culture” exist without our governments involvement in building and maintaining highways?
These Republican governors are impeding efficient and prudent national transportation improvements to the detriment of their own states. Their reasoning doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, and is leading some people to question whether this isn’t simply political posturing against a Democratic president. I won’t presume to judge whether they have such ulterior motives. But I will say that these governors are short-sighted and doing their constituents a disservice.
New and improved rail transportation, besides creating jobs and spurring economic development, alleviates highway congestion, lessens our dependence on oil, and has a positive impact on the environment. As far as transportation strategy goes, Republicans appear to be stuck in the 1950s.
In a 2008 InterBusiness Issues article, Mayor Jim Ardis announced:
Our growth strategies are working—and they’re paying for themselves too. A special census was recently completed, and the results were better than expected. The city added 1,453 dwelling units and an additional 3,256 citizens in select areas of the city. Combined with the total from our last special census in 2004, the city has added 3,653 additional dwelling units and 8,455 citizens since the 2000 census. That’s great news!
Peoria’s population as of the 2000 Census was 112,936. If we added 8,455 citizens by 2007, as the Mayor stated, then our new population as of 2007 would have been 121,391. But today, I received a press release from the City stating, in part, this:
According to 2010 Census data, the City of Peoria has a population of 115,007, an increase of 1.8 percent over the 112,936 counted during the 2000 Census. Census data are very important in determining the allocation of Federal and State funds to the City of Peoria, proper representation in Voting Districts, and as an important source of strategic planning data. Council Member Ryan Spain said, “After a population decline since 1970, this is a positive sign for the City of Peoria as population has begun trending upward.”
Trending upward? But we had 121,391 in 2007, and now we only have 115,007! Isn’t that trending downward? Which is it? Did the population go up or down?
To answer that question, we need to understand how a special census is conducted. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “A Special Census is an actual enumeration of housing and group quarters of a specific area, conducted on a specified date. Special Census counts will include new housing and population that came into the area after Census 2000.” In other words, since 2000, Peoria has annexed more land and new subdivisions have been created. The City wanted to get credit for all the (supposedly) new people that had moved into Peoria since the 2000 Census, so they counted just those new areas to see how many people were living in there — a special census, conducted in a selected area on a specific date. In 2007, for example, the “selected areas” of the Special Census count “included the subdivisions of Northtrail Meadows, Rollingbrook, Timberbrook, Prairie Lakes Apartments, Sommer Place, and Chadwick Estates to name a few,” according to a Jan. 30, 2008, press release.
The presumption was that all of these residents were new to Peoria and represented population growth to the City as a whole. In reality, they showed growth in only the area(s) of the City counted. They didn’t show whether there was growth or decline in other areas of the City. Now we know that, while the special census count areas increased in population by 8,455 citizens, the City’s overall growth was only 2,071. This implies that 6,384 citizens — the difference between the 2010 total census increase and the 2004/2007 combined special census increase — merely shifted from one part of Peoria to the special census count areas.
Bottom line: the population did go up 1.8% since 2000, but more significantly, the population shifted to the north. Our growth cells are working, but it unfortunately appears they’re drawing more migrants from other parts of Peoria than new people from outside of Peoria.
In the short run, though, there’s an even bigger concern, and that’s this: the City of Peoria has been receiving state-shared revenue funding based on the 121,391 figure from the 2004/2007 special census additions. Thus, from a revenue-sharing standpoint, our population dropped, and we will be getting less revenue from the State as a result — at a time when we can least afford to lose any money.
“The City of Peoria will hold a news conference on February 18, 2011 at 10:00 a.m., in Room 400 … to discuss the data released by the Census Bureau,” Alma Brown announced today. Despite the hopeful tone of today’s press release, the City is going to have to face some tough questions about population shift and revenue loss at Friday’s press conference.
Richard Mitchell announced this meeting in a comment to another post, but then I also received notice from the City about the same event:
East Village Growth Cell
Residential Rehabilitation Program Meeting
WHEN: Monday, February 21 @ 6:00 P.M.
WHERE: New Beginnings Church
1917 N Wisconsin AvenueWHY: The creation of a TIF District has the ability to bring about positive change in the East Village Growth Cell. This meeting will provide an opportunity for neighborhood residents to learn more about how TIF can be used to improve a neighborhood.
Mitch added that “It [has] now been confirmed that we [will] be having another presentation centered around a representative from the [Decatur] TIF Area.” There’s a residential TIF in Decatur that the City of Peoria is using as an example of how successful these kinds of TIFs can be.
From my inbox:
Reforming Schools in PeoriaOn Friday, February 18, 2011, Mayor Jim Ardis will host a community meeting that includes elected officials, governmental bodies, educators, business leaders and staff members. The meeting will be held from 8:00 a.m. until 9:30 a.m., at Peoria City Hall, in Room 400.
The forum will include a presentation by Bob Darling, President of the Peoria Federation of Teachers Union, in conjunction with Dr. Patrick Dolan, a nationally recognized consultant in the field of education change and structure. The presentation is entitled Reforming Schools in Peoria. The topic relates to efforts by Mr. Darling and Dr. Dolan to move into a new era of education unionism.
And this:
AFT President Randi Weingarten to Visit Peoria Mayor, School Teachers and Education LeadersWASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on Thursday will visit teachers and students at Glenn Oak Primary School, and later meet with Mayor Jim Ardis and representatives from Peoria’s education community to discuss the ways that teachers and school district officials are collaborating to improve public education in the city as many are now opting for Trilogy Education Services.
“In a time when there’s so much finger-pointing around education, it’s exciting to see the union, school district and other stakeholders working together to support teachers’ efforts to improve the lives of children,” said Weingarten.
Peoria is the first stop on the AFT’s “Making a Difference Every Day” tour, which highlights the positive influence educators and public employees have on the people and communities they serve.
WHO: Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis; AFT President Randi Weingarten; Peoria Education Liaison Bob Collier; Peoria Superintendent Grenita Lathan; Illinois Federation of Teachers President Bob Montgomery; Peoria Federation of Teachers President Bob Darling
WHAT: “Making a Difference Every Day” in Peoria
WHEN: Schedule for February 17 (Members of the media are invited to attend)
8 a.m.: School visit to Glenn Oak Primary School for a closer look at the school’s successful teacher mentoring and induction program. Meet at 809 E. Frye Ave., Peoria.
1 p.m.: Luncheon and education discussion with Mayor Jim Ardis and members of Peoria’s education community. Meet at Jim’s Steakhouse, 110 SW Jefferson Ave.
State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons isn’t charging an eight-year-old boy who brought an unloaded gun to school, but he is charging the gun owner with whom the boy lives.
Arwon Clark, 30, of 1401 NE Glendale Ave. will face charges of endangering the life or health of a child, a Class A misdemeanor, and failure to secure a weapon, a Class C misdemeanor.
This is the right move. Media reports indicate that the kid didn’t know what he was doing and was not bringing the gun to school with the intent to harm anyone. Specifically, he removed the magazine from the gun before bringing it to school (can’t hurt anyone with an unloaded weapon), he may have broken the magazine when he removed it, and he “showed it to a group of boys in the bathroom.” I think it’s pretty clear that he was not taking it to school to shoot anybody, but just to show it to his friends for whatever reason.
The adult in the household (nobody know what relation the man is to the boy, if any) is the right person to charge. Leaving a loaded gun where the kid can get to it is a recipe for disaster. The kid could have shot himself (or others) playing with the gun and trying to remove the magazine.
Apart from legal charges, however, the boy still needs to face school discipline for bringing a gun to school. Bringing weapons to school cannot be tolerated or excused. Even unloaded weapons could be used to intimidate since only the person holding the gun knows whether or not it’s loaded. According to the Journal Star, “Peoria Public Schools District 150 spokesman Chris Coplan declined to discuss specifics of the case Monday, saying generally that the boy would be subject to the same weapons policies as other students.”
From my inbox:
Beginning March 7, 2011, WCBU will expand its offerings for Peoria area public radio listeners. The station will offer all news, information and entertainment programming on 89.9 FM, and expanded classical music to be aired on its digital frequency, WCBU 89.9 HD2.
“We believe this is a win-win for our current listeners,” says WCBU Executive Director Thomas Hunt. “It also gives us an opportunity to increase membership and do an even better job of meeting the needs of our audience.”
“We have heard from many members who have asked for additional news and information programming,” says Shelli Dankoff, President of the WCBU Advisory Board. “We’ll be able to give listeners even more opportunities to hear different viewpoints and to learn and discover new things. We are excited about what this means for our listeners.”
The station will continue to air popular shows like Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and will expand information and National Public Radio (NPR) programming — adding new shows like BBC News, the Diane Rehm Show, Fresh Air and The World, all aired commercial-free. Listeners will also continue to enjoy entertainment programs like Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk and Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and local programs like Outside the Horseshoe, Out and About, theater reviews and more. Local music programs, such as Music from the Heartland and Jazz from the Hilltop will be heard on both WCBU and WCBU HD2. The station will also maintain its dedicated newsroom and reporting staff for local and regional news coverage.
The change will also allow WCBU to offer central Illinois’ classical music listening audience more music in a superior format: Digital radio, which delivers CD-quality audio with crystal clear reception. Digital listeners can tune in on a digital radio or listen online at www.wcbufm.org, with minimal interruption and the familiar voices of WCBU on-air personalities.
“We’re committed to being stewards of art and culture in our region, giving the Peoria-area community access to many viewpoints and classical music programming,” says Hunt. “These format changes will help us deliver on that commitment.”
“As the Internet continues to expand our broadcast world, and with our move to digital broadcasting in 2007, the launch of WCBU2 provides a 24 hour opportunity to serve more listeners by consolidating all news programming and all music programming to their unique streams available on air and on-line all the time,” added Dankoff.
The new WCBU and WCBU HD2 program schedules and more information on HD radios will be available on the station’s web site www.wcbufm.org.
WCBU is the public radio service of Bradley University, and has served listeners in Peoria and central Illinois for more than 40 years. The station broadcasts daily from studios on the Bradley University campus.
You can see the new schedule for WCBU here, and the new WCBU “HD2” schedule here.