Here we go again! It’s Tuesday night in beautiful downtown Peoria in historic Peoria City Hall, Council Chambers. All the council members and the Mayor are present except for Montelongo, and they will be disposing of the following agenda. Be sure to refresh this post often as I’ll be updating it throughout the evening.
The business portion of the meeting starts at 6:41, after 25 minutes of proclamations.
I’ve been saying it ever since the sphynxlike Kellar Branch Corridor Corporation first appeared that its clandestine efforts were going to cost the taxpayers lots of money. Now we know just how much: $1,250,969.
That’s the amount of money in taxpayer dollars the Peoria Park District is going to pony up to buy out the leasehold interests of two rail companies on the Kellar Branch rail line: Pioneer Railcorp and Central Illinois Railroad. Doing so will free up the middle portion of the line to be converted into a recreational trail.
But that’s the beginning. After they buy out the leasehold interests, they still have to actually build the trail, which will cost untold millions itself. In 2006, the estimated cost of conversion was just under $6.5 million.
But there are other costs. The City of Peoria actually owns the Kellar Branch. So in order for this plan to go through, the City has to give the Kellar Branch (technically, the easement) to the Park District. The appraised value of the Kellar Branch is $2,872,500. So how much is the City planning to ask for this valuable asset? $1. That’s right, $1. And the City doesn’t even get the salvage rights for the rails.
Perfect timing. Right on the heels of a City Council retreat where we learned the City is facing a $10-11 million budget deficit and is in dire need of a new revenue source, our illustrious City Council will likely approve a request next Tuesday to squander a nearly $3 million asset. Pioneer Railcorp at one time offered the city $750,000 for the line, but the City turned them down. No, they were holding out for the Park District’s winning bid of $1.
Anyone who thought that the Kellar Branch Corridor Corporation was buying out the rail carriers’ leasehold interests out of charity was naive. Included in that $1.25 million is $140,800 for the Corporation’s “expenses.” No list of expenses is given. I suspect it includes a little reward from the Park District for finally acquiring what they’ve coveted for so long.
For those of you keeping score, let’s see what our new grand total is for tax dollars wasted on non-essentials/poor investments:
| “Wonderful Development” (Downtown Hotel) | $37,000,000 |
| Peoria Riverfront Museum | $34,700,000 |
| Firefly Energy Loan Guarantee | $6,000,000 |
| Civic Center Expansion | $55,000,000 |
| Kellar Branch acquisition | $1,250,969 |
| Kellar Branch conversion | $6,441,738 |
| Total | $140,392,707 |
|---|
It’s like they say, pretty soon you’re talking real money. But we can’t afford to fix sidewalks or resurface streets, or fully staff our police and fire departments. Yes, I know I’m conflating expenses from several municipal organizations (City, County, Park District), but the fact is that all that tax money comes from the same source: our pockets. The Park District raising its property tax levy puts pressure on the City not to raise its levy. It’s all related.
Perhaps we could take those toll booths we’re removing from Riverfront Village and install them at the entrances to the Kellar Branch trail. Given the number of users predicted by the Journal Star, we should be able to solve our entire budget deficit by charging a modest toll.
The Peoria City Council had their annual retreat Wednesday night at the Peoria NEXT Innovation Center on West Main street. All the council members, the Mayor, and City department heads attended the retreat.
I was unable to attend the entire retreat, but did get there for roughly half of it. Based on materials distributed at the meeting, revenues are down again, and they’re expecting another ten to eleven million dollar deficit. They also appear to be anticipating a possible decline in population. One of the slides labeled “Key Expense Drivers” stated, “5,000 Loss in Population equals Approximately $500,000/yr of per Capita Income — 1 person = $100/capita.”
The Journal Star reports that revenues are down for a few reasons: (1) “reduction in property tax revenues because of a slump in the city’s equalized assessed valuation” caused by “assessment devaluations of commercial properties throughout the city,” (2) “January’s sales tax figures dropped by 10 percent from their November and December numbers,” indicating a troubling trend, and (3) “state income tax revenues are down from a year ago.” Nothing but bad news from the finance director.
By the end of the meeting, the following “next steps” were established, which are nearly identical to last year’s budget process:
Translation: Expect higher taxes and/or fees, the possible invention of new fees, and more cuts in services. The Mayor especially made it clear that he believes the budget hole cannot be filled by cutting alone — new revenue will have to be generated.
Good evening, and welcome to Peoria City Hall, Council Chambers. We’ve just said the Pledge of Allegiance and it’s time for the meeting to begin. It looks like all the council members and mayor are present. Remember that this post will be updated frequently throughout the evening, so if you’re following live, be sure to refresh your browser every so often to see the latest update.
Here’s the agenda for this evening:
The Riverfront Village platform was built in 1999 at a cost of roughly $9.5 million — $4.5 million of which was public tax money that won’t be paid off until 2018.
And yet, despite the fact that it’s only been 11 years, the stairs leading to the platform have rusted “very pre-maturely…to the point that complete replacement is necessary.” The bids are in, and the cost to replace the stairs is more than a quarter million dollars — $265,617 to be exact. Riverfront Village developers Mike Wisdom and Monte Brannan have declined to help with those costs, according to the Request for Council Action. Instead, the council communication says, “The Developers are committed to a separate improvement which will allow access to the platform and pads during periods of high water. It is hoped that the stair improvement and the alternative entry will help the businesses on the pad to prosper.”
Here we have a project that was designed precisely as a solution to the flooding problem. They knew the area floods and so they devised the raised concrete platform as the answer to that challenge. But they used materials for the steps — the part that would be under water during flooding — that evidently were not rust-resistant, and they designed no alternative entry to the platform that could be used during periods of high water. A rather staggering oversight, wouldn’t you say?
Now that the stairs are about to fall off the platform, the developers are not offering to help pay for their replacement. Instead, they’re offering to correct another design flaw, and acting as though that sort of evens the score. I don’t get it. The developers should stand behind their product and incur at least some of the cost of replacing the stairs. And the City should exercise some serious oversight of this new “alternative entry” the Developers want to build to ensure the taxpayers won’t have to replace that, too, in another eleven years.
According to a Request for Council Action on Tuesday’s City Council agenda, “Firefly’s bankruptcy filing, and the City’s and County’s guarantee of a loan from National City (now PNC) Bank to Firefly have given rise to a complex legal situation. It has been deemed advisable to retain outside counsel with experience in this type of complex bankruptcy.”
The request asks the Council to approve hiring Thomas O’Neal of the law firm Westervelt, Johnson, Nicoll & Keller for $255 per hour. Here’s your trivia fact for the day: Tom O’Neal sought to fill a judicial vacancy on the Third District Appellate Court in 2006 after the retirement of Judge Kent Slater of Macomb, but lost the Democratic primary. He’s also been recognized by the state and county for his pro bono legal representation of the poor.
The Peoria City Council retreat was originally scheduled for Saturday, April 24, but was rescheduled at the request of City Manager Scott Moore. “I had asked the Council to consider rescheduling the retreat due to several of their colleagues having a conflict and would not be attending the session,” Moore explained. “I felt it would be important that all the Council members attend the session to weigh in on the budget and establish key strategies for staff and I to work on this upcoming budget season.”
So the new date is Wednesday, May 5, according to Moore. The time has not yet been announced, but weeknight special meetings usually start at or around 5 p.m. Presumably the agenda will be similar to the one released for Saturday’s meeting:
ITEM NO. 1 WELCOME – Mayor Ardis and City Manager Scott Moore
ITEM NO. 2 MACRO-TRENDS – Dr. Aaron Buchko
ITEM NO. 3 CITY TRENDS – City Manager Scott Moore
ITEM NO. 4 CONFRONTING THE “BRUTAL REALITIES” – Dr. Aaron Buchko
ITEM NO. 5 BREAKOUT #1 – Key Strategic Issues
ITEM NO. 6 BREAKOUT #2 – Addressing the Issues: Guidelines
ITEM NO. 7 BREAKOUT #3 – Addressing the Issues: Action Items
BREAK
ITEM NO. 8 STRATEGIC ISSUES: Priorities, Policies, and Budget Implications
ITEM NO. 9 CITY/COUNCIL DISCUSSION – Budgetary Issues
ITEM NO. 10 WRAP UP and NEXT STEPS – Mayor Ardis and City Manager Scott Moore
ITEM NO. 11 ADJOURNMENT
Hello everyone. Welcome to council chambers at Peoria City Hall for another City Council meeting. I arrived a little late. The consent agenda has already been passed, except for items “D” and “I,” which was pulled off by Gary Sandberg. Discussion is going on right now. Here’s the agenda:
On the Peoria City Council agenda for Tuesday night is this item:
ACTION REQUESTED: AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO CONTRACT WITH HVS FOR UP TO $15,000 TO PROVIDE ANALYSIS AND CONSULTATION REGARDING DOWNTOWN HOTEL PROJECTS.
BACKGROUND: Since 2006, the City has worked with HVS to analyze potential hotel projects involving the Peoria Civic Center. This work included conducting a 2006 market study for a Hilton adjacent to the Civic Center at Kumpf and Jefferson and professional advice on the redevelopment agreement reached with EM Properties in December 2008. Currently, the City has contracted with HVS to conduct a market study of the most recent version of the Marriott Pere Marquette project at a cost of $7,500 [emphasis added]. (The City was able to work with HVS to reduce the cost of a full market study by agreeing to complete some of the local staff work.) That specific task will be concluded by April 30, 2010, but HVS’ expertise may also be required to analyze particular facets of the redevelopment agreement. The proposal from HVS to provide these services is attached.
HVS’ 2006 market study is available here. The most recent version of the downtown hotel project has a different design and fewer rooms, but at the same overall cost of $102 million. The developer is asking for $37 million in public assistance for the project.
Guess who was in Peoria this week? Dick Durbin and Aaron Schock. You may recall that Scott Sorrel, Tom O’Neill, Jimmy Dillon, and Tim Riggenbach just last week traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with these same two people, at a cost to taxpayers of $3,000. They didn’t actually meet with them, though. They met with Schock’s and Durbin’s staffs.
The justification for this trip was that the city council and county board reps could meet with “key projects directors for the legislators, who are the one’s who really make things happen,” and who “typically don’t make it to Illinois.” Of course, those staffs work for the Senator and Congressman, not the other way around. So they only “make things happen” with the support of Durbin and Schock.
The bottom line is, they could have met face to face here, and Schock and Durbin could have directed their staffs to “make things happen” when they got back to D.C., and the taxpayers could have saved $3,000. Better yet, the City and County could simply stop squandering our money on bread and circuses so we wouldn’t have to lobby Congress for money to take care of basic services like municipal road repair.
Hope our local officials enjoyed their taxpayer-funded vacation to D.C.