All posts by C. J. Summers

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

Are books being carefully weeded or indiscriminately discarded?

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Earlier this year, one of my readers informed me that the dumpsters outside the Peoria Public Library downtown were full of books being thrown away. I contacted library officials who explained that they were “weeding” books — a perfectly legitimate process based on established guidelines for libraries.

But now a new anonymous source tells me the library staff is concerned that those weeding guidelines are being thrown out with the books in the basement:

I have attached a couple of photos of bins of books ready to be taken away and destroyed. PPL has stepped up efforts to get rid of the books being stored in its basement levels. They will all be gone soon if this process is not stopped. All the bins in the attached photo are being filled at a rate of a couple of times a day. Shelves of books are being indiscriminately emptied of books regardless of condition or value. Staff here at the library believes that this process is a violation of the responsibility of the library to the citizens. Yes, some of these books are in poor shape and really have no future, but many others could be sold, donated or otherwise reused.

bins1

bins2

That’s a lot of books. This makes me wonder, why the need to “step up” their weeding efforts? Aren’t we expanding the size of the library buildings overall? It seems there would be plenty of space to continue storing these until a proper weeding could be done. Why the rush?

City Council, City of Peoria

More taxes tacked onto water bills

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I couldn’t attend the council meeting last night, but I see in today’s paper that they’ve tacked on some more taxes to our water bills: “The council also voted to assess a 5 percent water utility tax . . . expected to generate $1.5 million annually.”

Technically, the city is taxing the water company, but Illinois American Water is fully expected to pass that cost on directly to consumers. And the selling point of this tax as opposed to a property tax increase is that it can also be collected from non-profit organizations. “City officials have estimated the typical residential customer of 6,000 gallons of water a month will pay $1.70 more a month,” according to the paper. Add that to the $6 per month we’re already paying through our water bills (the so-called “garbage fee”), and now we’re up to $7.70 — a 28% increase in water taxes/fees for the “typical residential customer.” Pretty soon, we’ll be paying more in taxes/fees than for the water portion of the water bill.

A few other interesting things about this tax:

  • “[T]he council voted on a host of issues that leaves the city with a $1.4 million surplus heading into next year,” the paper explains, and this five percent tax will generate $1.5 million annually. A quick calculation tells me that only $100,000 was needed to actually balance the budget when all was said and done last night. But the council established a tax that will generate $1.5 million. A bit of overkill, wouldn’t you say? If they had established a 1% tax, it would presumably generate $300,000 — more than enough to cover the deficit left after other actions were taken last night.
  • Despite coming up with a new revenue source that puts them in the black by $1.4 million, the council still decided to lay off 16 police officers. Public safety is evidently not real high on the council’s priority list. That’s okay. It’s not like we have a lot of crime in Peoria or anything. I’m sure the officers that are left can learn to work smarter, not harder, or something like that.
  • Speaking about the new water utility tax: “This isn’t money we’ll wildly run out and spend,” Van Auken said. “We’re still facing a deficit next year.” Ha ha ha! No, the council wouldn’t wildly run out and spend it. Of course not. They’re the model of fiscal conservatism and strategic planning. You can trust them not to fritter away taxpayer money on non-essential, risky ventures.

Bah.

General News

Unique eatery gone forever

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Vonachen’s Old Place will never reopen. The train cars are being moved to Wheels ‘o Time Museum, and the building is being razed.

And I’m sad. In a world full of cookie-cutter chain restaurants, VOP’s was truly unique. It was a great place to take the family for lunch or dinner. It was a great place to go for special occasions. The private dining rooms on the train car were great for dates. And I took many an out-of-town business associate there, since it was one of the most interesting places in town to eat.

The place is full of stories. Like the train car that is closest to Prospect Road — it was a private car for Toledo, Peoria & Western (TP&W) president George McNear. Railroad workers went on strike back in the 1940s, and McNear wouldn’t give in to their demands. At one point, he tried running a TP&W train with strikebreakers — and armed guards to ensure passage past picketers. Some picketers got injured in that confrontation, and on March 10, 1946, as McNear was walking home from a Bradley game, he was shot to death right on the street. The murderer was never found.

But now stories like that will be tucked away at a museum north of town, along with the clock from the old Peoria County Courthouse and other treasures long discarded by Peoria. No doubt a chain restaurant will take the place of the eatery originally known as Vonachen’s Junction, and it will probably be very successful, too.

Oh well. Times change.

Peoria County

Why not request special prosecutor in McCoy case?

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I was talking to my cousin over the holiday weekend. He’s a prosecutor in Indiana. I told him about the case involving Tyler McCoy and found his reaction interesting and unexpected. He asked me why the Peoria County State’s Attorney is handling this case. Normally, he said, a special prosecutor is requested to try these kinds of cases due to inherent conflicts of interest.

And in fact, that’s what other prosecutors have done in Illinois. For example, a police officer in Elgin was accused of misconduct at the beginning of this year, and the newspaper there reported:

[T]he Illinois appellate prosecutor’s office will investigate the incident to avoid a potential conflict with Kane County prosecutors, State’s Attorney John Barsanti said.

Because Kane County prosecutors work with Elgin police on a daily basis, Barsanti said he asked the department to seek another agency to investigate Chris Darr’s actions.

“Some of the witnesses are officers, and we have relationships with some of these guys,” Barsanti said. “And you don’t want to taint the way this is dealt with.”

I believe the same conditions exist here in Peoria, where the county prosecutors work with officers from the Sheriff’s department on a daily basis. Furthermore, the key witness is a fellow officer that the State’s Attorney threatened with felony charges if he didn’t testify against Tyler McCoy. Then there’s the fact that Tyler is the son of Sheriff Mike McCoy, a Republican running for reelection. State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons is a Democrat.

There appear to be more than enough potential conflicts to convince other state’s attorneys to request a special prosecutor. Why hasn’t one been requested here?

Uncategorized

Going rogue?

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I wasn’t quite sure what the title of Sarah Palin’s new book meant, so I looked it up in the American Heritage Dictionary (via Dictionary.com):

rogue
n.

  1. An unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person; a scoundrel or rascal.
  2. One who is playfully mischievous; a scamp.
  3. A wandering beggar; a vagrant.
  4. A vicious and solitary animal, especially an elephant that has separated itself from its herd.
  5. An organism, especially a plant, that shows an undesirable variation from a standard.

adj.

  1. Vicious and solitary. Used of an animal, especially an elephant.
  2. Large, destructive, and anomalous or unpredictable: a rogue wave; a rogue tornado.
  3. Operating outside normal or desirable controls: “How could a single rogue trader bring down an otherwise profitable and well-regarded institution?” (Saul Hansell).

v. rogued, rogu·ing, rogues

v. tr.

  1. To defraud.
  2. To remove (diseased or abnormal specimens) from a group of plants of the same variety.

v. intr.
To remove diseased or abnormal plants.

[Origin unknown.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Hmmm…. None of these definitions sound very flattering, do they? I wonder if she came up with that title herself, or if someone else suggested it just to be funny. Just for fun, I checked the thesaurus to see if it was a synonym for “maverick.” Nope.

Peoria County

DUI prosecuted aggressively; murder, not so much

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State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons has arrested Sheriff Mike McCoy’s son Tyler McCoy for DUI two months after the September incident:

State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons said his case will consist mainly of observations from a motorist to stopped to assist Tyler McCoy at about 5:30 a.m. Sept. 27 as well as a deputy who responded to the crash. Absent are any field sobriety tests, Breathalyzer or blood tests, as McCoy was never asked to submit to such testing.

But the county’s top prosecutor quipped that speeders were prosecuted long before the invention of the radar gun.

So the State’s Attorney is continuing to pursue this case even in the face of scant evidence and only two witnessees — one of whom changed his story after being threatened with criminal charges by the county’s top prosecutor. But Devear Lewis, a guy who fired two guns into a crowd of people, injuring two and killing Teddy Jackson in cold blood, “struck a deal for his guilty plea to a single count of possession of a weapon by a felon.” Reason: Only two witnesses were able to pick Lewis out of a lineup, and one of them changed his story from what he originally told police.

I’m all for cops being held to the same standard of justice as the civilians they are sworn to protect. But McCoy has yet to be treated like anyone else. Not being given a Breathalyzer test at the time of the incident was extremely lenient treatment. But Lyons’ aggressive prosecution is swinging the pendulum to the other extreme. Why wasn’t Lewis prosecuted this aggressively? I would submit that Lewis is way more dangerous to society than Tyler McCoy will ever be. Why the double-standard?

In case of any issue appears contact your personal family attorney.

City of Peoria

City to AFSCME: We have bargained in good faith

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Here’s the official press release from the City of Peoria:

Subject: NEGOTIATIONS WITH BARGAINING UNITS

The budgetary problems of the City of Peoria projected for 2010 have been well publicized since June, 2009. A number of formal and informal meetings have been held with represented employee groups during the past five (5) months. Many employees and their organizations have recognized the seriousness of the City’s budget deficit. Employees understand that 17% of the metropolitan area is either unemployed or underemployed. To date, seven (7) of the nine (9) labor organizations representing City employees have agreed to reductions in their 2010 compensation package, and in doing so, are to be commended both for their consideration of their fellow members, and for the continued level of necessary services to the citizens of the City of Peoria that such reductions will permit.

The City responded to AFSCME’s request to bargain on September 21, 2009 and suggested five (5) dates during the period of October 1-9, 2009 for such purpose. On October 6, 2009 the City met with AFSCME officials and requested concessions in 2010 to avert most or all potential layoffs that could impact AFSCME-represented employees. The first negotiation meeting for regular contract negotiations was scheduled for October 26, 2009.

The City submitted a formal impact bargaining proposal to the Union on October 28, 2009. It requested a wage/step freeze in 2010 in exchange for a no layoff guarantee of twelve (12) of seventeen (17) full-time employees from November 3, 2009 – May 31, 2010. The Union rejected that proposal on November 3, 2009 and counter-proposed a comprehensive 3-year package with a no layoff guarantee through December 31, 2012, a 9.6% pay increase over the last two years, no residency requirement, adding 2 steps (5% increase) for those at the top pay range and eliminating the lowest two steps (5% increase) for new hires, extreme limitations on the right to contract outside services, and the layoff/elimination of fourteen (14) management employees. That proposal was rejected by the City.

On November 5, 2009 the City sent a notice of planned layoff to the AFSCME organization. The notice contained the names of seventeen (17) full-time positions and two (2) part-time positions.

To date, the parties have met four times in regular negotiations with two of those dates partially devoted to impact bargaining. AFSCME has been provided with relevant information necessary for the parties to bargain. The Union presented a comprehensive economic and non-economic proposal for the successor contract on November 10, 2009. The City had provided its comprehensive proposal on non-economic items on November 3, 2009. The City had advised during ground rule discussions on October 26, 2009 that it would seek resolution of most of the non-economic items first, but would provide the Union with an economic first offer in sufficient time prior to the contract deadline of December 31, 2009 to permit meaningful bargaining. That process is common in most contract negotiations, is completely legal, and does not constitute any unfair labor practice as alleged by AFSCME leadership.

The City is committed to bargaining a successor contract with AFSCME and will continue to do so in good faith. It will also consider any reasonable offers from AFSCME relative to mitigating the impact of the pending layoffs. However, it believes that negotiations are best resolved and more productive at the bargaining table. It encourages the AFSCME leadership to spend available time in that pursuit instead of unfounded threats and allegations.

City Council, City of Peoria

Liveblogging the City Council 11/24/2009

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I had some time this evening to take in one more council meeting. Frankly, it wasn’t worth it. Most items were deferred, although there were a couple of interesting nuggets. This will be my last council meeting between now and Christmas. My Tuesdays (and most other days, too) are booked solid after tonight. I couldn’t live-blog the meeting tonight because internet service at City Hall (provided by Comcast) was inoperable. Comcastic, right? Nevertheless, using Windows Notepad, I “liveblogged” the council meeting offline. Here’s what happened:

Continue reading Liveblogging the City Council 11/24/2009 →