Category Archives: City of Peoria

City of Peoria, Weather

Snowstorm updates from City of Peoria 2/2/2011

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City update 6:44 a.m., 2/2/2011:

A blizzard warning is in effect.

Contract and city crews continued to plow streets overnight, with the intent of maintaining one lane of traffic.

Our area has received a large amount of snow during the night with significant drifting from high winds. We urge you not to travel. It is very unlikely that anyone will reach their destination if an attempt to travel is made. If you do go out, please use caution and call ahead to make sure that the place you are attempting to reach is open.

Abandoned vehicles that are stuck in the street will compromise the City’s attempt to plow the streets. Police have begun to tow cars off of streets that still remain on designated snow routes.

If you have issues related to your street, the public works call center can be reached by calling 494-8850.

The Parking Ban is still in effect.

City update 7:31 a.m., 2/2/2011:

Our Emergency Communications Center has remained busy throughout the storm with calls from stuck motorists who are trapped in their vehicles. They utilized all means to get to them; Police, Fire, County Highway, IDOT, Public Works; even the Army National Guard. In many instances, the responders themselves got stuck trying to help the citizens.

Our 9-1-1 count for yesterday was 366. Our non-emergency phone calls totaled over 750 calls. A quick count shows our incoming calls were well over 1,100.

The ECC was struck by lightning at 8:45 p.m. last night. This caused our main police radios and several phone consoles, along with some other equipment to go down. Vendors were called in and worked until 3:00 a.m. to restore full service. No calls or service was lost as we used our back up systems.

City of Peoria, Weather

Here comes the snow!

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The City of Peoria has issued the following press release regarding the Big Snow Storm of 2011:

NEWS RELEASE

Date: January 31, 2011
Released by: Alma Brown, Communications Manager, 494-8554
Subject: SNOW STORM PREPARATION

The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning from 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, through Noon on Wednesday. There are several details that we would like the public to be aware of in advance of the snow storm.

The City of Peoria will declare a parking ban effective 8:00 a.m., on Tuesday, February 1, 2011. If you live on a snow route, please begin moving your cars so that crews will be able to adequately plow the streets. Parking on a designated snow routes is prohibited until the ban is lifted. The fine for parking on a snow route during a parking ban is $200. Notices regarding the parking ban will be displayed on billboards throughout the city.

City crews will focus on clearing primary streets (snow routes) throughout the storm. It is imperative that we keep major thoroughfares open, therefore, residential streets will not be plowed until the snow routes have been cleared.

Please do not travel unless it is necessary. If you must travel, please have an emergency car care kit in your vehicle and carry a cell phone.

When you start the process of shoveling snow from your property, please do not blow or shovel the snow into the street. This just hampers our ability to clear snow from the streets. We would also like for owners of commercial property to be sure that snow cleared from their property remains on their location.

If you have an emergency, please call 911. Please do not call 911 to ask about snow operations.

We will open an emergency command center at Noon tomorrow.

Once the snow event starts, the City will open a call center to address calls relating to snow removal. The call center can be reached by calling 494-8850. Periodic updates can also be received by calling the snow update hotline at (309) 494-8830. Citizens are encouraged to log onto the City’s website at www.ci.peoria.il.us and sign up for e-alerts. Storm updates will be sent out via e-mail citizens throughout the day. We will keep the public informed by providing updates to the media twice a day. Storm updates can also be found on the City’s website and on a crawl going across Channel 22.

A detailed snow plan map can be viewed by going to the City’s website: www.ci.peoria.il.us/snow.

PDC Services residential routes may be delayed due to expected weather conditions for Central Illinois. PDC officials will make a determination on Tuesday morning at 9:00 a. m. if garbage trucks will operate or not on Wednesday, February 1, 2011. The decision will be based on driving conditions and driver safety. We ask all customers to place trash in an accessible place on the scheduled collection day.

City of Peoria, Peoria County, Peoria County Sheriff, Peoria Mayor, Peoria Police

Chief, Sheriff say two departments are not comparable

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At Tuesday’s State of the City address, Mayor Ardis announced a new initiative to see what it would take to combine the City and County police departments. This prompted the Journal Star to gather a few basic facts about the two forces:

The city’s Police Department has 214 employees and operates on a $21 million budget; the Sheriff’s Department has roughly 200 employees and operates on a $13 million budget.

A difference of 14 employees and $8 million seemed surprisingly large to me. So I asked Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard and Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy why there is such a disparity.

The first thing Settingsgaard wanted to clear up was that he actually has 248 total employees — the 214 number was the total of “sworn officers.” Even with that said, though, he still felt that a comparison of the two forces is “more apples to oranges than it is apples to apples.”

“[W]ithout a close comparison of both of our agencies, to include operations, budgets, staff, contracts, etc., it is impossible to tell you all the reasons there is a legitimate difference in budget numbers beyond just salaries,” Settingsgaard explained.

I would argue that the Sheriff’s Office and the Peoria Police Department are more dissimilar then they are similar. Yes we both have traditional patrol and traditional law enforcement functions but there are many more facets of what we do that is very different from one another. I don’t speak for the Sheriff and I would be interested to hear his take on it, but I believe the jail and the Court house account for the majority of his staff and his Office’s workload. I would guess that the “policing” part of law enforcement is a smaller part of his overall operation. In my Department, traditional “policing” is the vast majority of what we do and 217 of my 248 people are sworn officers as a result. I would not be surprised if a much higher percentage of my people are sworn versus civilian than what you would find on the County side and sworn staff are more costly.

There are other vast differences in areas of responsibility from crime rates, to total population, to calls for service, to poverty/income levels, etc.

It is critical to understand that I don’t point out these differences to say that one entity is better than the other. For everything I could tell you that I have to do more of, the Sheriff could probably list just as many that his staff is responsible for that I am not. I can’t tell you how many thousands of prisoners I didn’t have to house or feed that the Sheriff did. My point is that the two organizations are very different and a simple comparison of cost per employee borders on meaningless without an understanding of how different an urban municipal police department is from a sheriff’s office, and without drilling down into the level of great detail needed to understand those differences, drawing meaningful conclusions is risky at best.

Sheriff McCoy agreed. “Trying to compare agencies, on a wide level, does not work out. Comparing period …does not work out. We each have some similar functions and we have some unique functions.”

In addition to basic patrol services for 648 square miles and having contracts with nine different communities for police and dispatch services, the Peoria County Sheriff’s Office operates the ONLY Jail in Peoria County, booking in 17,000 people each year. We also serve all the civil papers for the courts as well as provide security for the Peoria Airport.

Nevertheless, McCoy did allow this observation: “In my opinion, cost differences primarily relate to individual pay and benefit packages. Peoria City Officers are paid at a higher rate than Peoria County Deputies, all thru the pay grades. Compounded, these costs become staggering for both agencies.”

And this is why the Peoria police union is not too excited about the prospect of combining forces. The given reason for combining forces is to save money, and clearly no money is going to be saved by bringing both forces up to the same salary level as city officers.

According to another Journal Star report, “A starting police officer who completes a probationary period earns $51,994 annually; a sheriff’s deputy’s starting salary is $43,227.” And there are also different pension programs: “the city’s police pension program is governed through contribution limits set by the General Assembly; sheriff’s deputies are part of the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF).”

Undoubtedly, there can be some savings by eliminating redundancies and finding new efficiencies by working together, but that’s not going to save enough money to get the City out of its structural deficit. When talks turn to salaries, the police union has already made it clear that they will fight to keep the salaries and benefits they’ve won. I don’t envy the Chief or the Sheriff as they take on this consolidation initiative.

City of Peoria, General News

Guest Editorial: Brown Bag Video needs a Tavern License?

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Frederick E. Smith, an East Bluff resident, has submitted the following editorial regarding plans to turn the Brown Bag Video store into a 4 a.m. tavern with live entertainment. Smith spoke at the council meeting Tuesday night opposing the liquor license request.

I am very concerned about the two stories in the January 28th edition of the Peoria Journal Star concerning the issuing of a Tavern license to the current owner of the Brown Bag video on the corner of SW Adams and Oak streets and Mayor Ardis’s comments that he would rather see the owner apply for a 2 a.m. operating license instead of a 4 a.m. license. In neither of these stories by John Sharp was there mention of the second part of the request, that of a license for "Live Entertainment" at the same location.

The actual application, which is available on the City of Peoria website under the Council Agenda items, is for a Class A Tavern License with a Subclass 1 (4 a.m. closing) and a Subclass 2 (Live Entertainment). In the minutes of the application, Mr. Laud states that the business would be a "bar with a very limited menu, such as microwave stuff and no kitchen." Since the proposed location is only 2,350 square feet, there are no plans to provide any additional parking spaces, which means the patrons would be forced to park on the street.

Now here is the elephant in the room that Mr. Sharp seems to be ignoring. 2,350 square feet is not enough room for most bars to have booths and tables for patrons, the bar itself, and a band with a dance floor. As a matter of fact, having been the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for a local band in the 1990’s, I can tell you at least 80 to 100 square feet is required for a band to set up. And even if you are talking about a DJ for the Live Entertainment, you still have to factor in a dance floor. So exactly what kind of Live Entertainment do they have in mind?

With the location directly adjacent to the infamous 307 Swingers club, which I grant you is a private club, the potential for a less than wholesome family entertainment is obvious. It would seem that both 307 and Brown Bag Video are in direct opposition to the goal of creating a safe, family-friendly environment that would provide the setting for a Wrigleyville to form around the area. Granting a Tavern license with a 4 a.m. closing and a "Live Entertainment" permit to a person who already caters to the "adult" industry would seem to be a contradiction to the intent of the builders of O’Brien Field.

Perhaps we should check to make sure we have all the facts before we print the story.

Frederick E. Smith
Peoria

City Council, City of Peoria, History

Further chilling of historic preservation ordinance on tap (Updated)

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The City Council is poised to raise the historic landmark application fee 1000% Tuesday night. While the Historic Preservation Commission approved doubling the fee (from $50 to $100), City Staff wants to raise it to $500. They will also increase fees for a Certificate of Appropriateness from $25 to $120 for administrative certificates, and $250 for non-administrative certificates.

The given reason is to increase revenue to the City, but let’s not fool ourselves. This will bring little additional money into city coffers. The real effect (and I believe the intended effect) will be to reduce historic landmark applications and increase the number of unapproved modifications to historic properties. The council has been undermining the historic preservation ordinance more and more blatantly as of late — not designating buildings that are clearly historic, and delisting structures that are already “protected,” meaning nothing is really protected anymore if the political forces are strong enough.

Meanwhile, still waiting in the wings is a rewriting of the ordinance itself, which is slated to be deferred once again on Tuesday.

UPDATE: I have been informed by a reliable source that “the matter of the fee increases for Historic Preservation will be deferred tomorrow night until April.”

City Council, City of Peoria

Council to pursue Urich for City Manager

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The City has issued the following press release:

After last night’s interview, Mayor Ardis, City Council Members, and Mr. Urich, agreed that both sides would like to continue discussions towards a possible contract offer. A meeting between Mr. Urich, the Mayor and two Council Members, will be arranged soon to establish a framework to develop contract specifics. The council is expected to discuss a proposal in executive session after Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

It appears the skids are greased for Patrick Urich to be the next City Manager, well before council elections take place in April.

City of Peoria, East Bluff, TIF

Joint Review Board decision invalid; revote scheduled

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On December 27, 2010, the Joint Review Board approved the East Village Growth Cell TIF unanimously. However, the legality of that decision is now in question because the makeup of the Board is not compliant with state statute.

The Joint Review Board is composed of one representative from each taxing body and includes at least one member of the general public. State law requires (65 ILCS 5/11-74.4-5[b]) that “If, as determined by the housing impact study [or] … based on other reasonable data, the majority of residential units [in the proposed TIF area] are occupied by very low, low, or moderate income households […] the public member shall be a person who resides in very low, low, or moderate income housing within the redevelopment project area.”

The public member of the Joint Review Board is Debbie Ritschel, who resides at 401 Water, which is not “very low, low, or moderate income housing” nor “within the redevelopment project area.” Therefore, City attorney Randy Ray says the Joint Review Board will have another meeting scheduled for January 31, and “the agenda will call for them to declare a vacancy based on current public member being ineligible. An eligible person will then be nominated and elected. They will then consider ratifying their earlier action re TIF eligibility.”

I wonder how they will go about finding an eligible person. If you live in “very low, low, or moderate income housing” within the proposed East Village TIF, I would encourage you to submit your name for nomination. The public member is selected by a majority of the board members present at the meeting. The members of the Joint Review Board (not including Ritschel) are:

  • Dave Wheeler (Peoria Park District)
  • Dave Kinney (Peoria Public School District 150)
  • Joe Merkle (Sanitary District)
  • Stan Browning (Sanitary District)
  • Jim Scroggins (City of Peoria, Finance Director)
  • Patrick Nichting (City of Peoria, Treasurer)
  • Scott Sorrel (County of Peoria)
  • John Stokowski (Greater Peoria Mass Transit)
  • Glen Olson (Airport Authority)
  • Edward Szynaka (Peoria Public Library)
City of Peoria, Heartland Partnership

Temporary is a long time in Peoria

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Since April 9, 2008, the Heartland Partnership has been conducting business in the former Damon’s restaurant at Riverfront Village with only a “temporary” Certificate of Occupancy. Councilman Gary Sandberg was tipped off that the building may be occupied without a Certificate, so he sent a FOIA inquiry to the Inspections department and discovered there was no Certificate on file.

Heartland Partnership is the employer of Councilman Ryan Spain, so I contacted him about it. He did some research and informed me via e-mail that “[t]he City has located a temporary certificate of occupancy dated April 9, 2008. Evidently, the employee that conducted the inspection has retired and there is incomplete information in the file.” Later, he added that “the final certificate of occupancy was awaiting signature from the fire department. The contractor and tenant requested a final inspection, which lead to the temporary certificate of occupancy on April 9, 2008. The inspections department coordinates this final step with the fire inspector.”

Inspections Director John Kunski said he couldn’t piece together exactly what happened because it was too long ago. It could be that the building inspector (now retired) didn’t notify the fire department, or that the fire department was notified but an inspection was never conducted for some reason. No one really knows (or will admit) who dropped the ball. Kunski says his department is the “gatekeeper” of the certificate-issuing process, but each department (e.g., fire department, planning/zoning department) is responsible for conducting its own inspection. If a department doesn’t follow through, Inspections “[doesn’t] have a system to flag it.”

The practice of issuing temporary Certificates of Occupancy was instituted under former City Manager Michael McKnight as a way to make the City more “business-friendly,” according to Kunski. But he said that it’s difficult to get compliance once a building is occupied. He would like to see the City require a deposit — $500, for example — that would be put in escrow and refunded once the permanent Certificate of Occupancy is issued.

According to the City of Peoria’s website, “a temporary or partial Certificate of Occupancy good for period up to eight (8) months for any building or structure” may be issued under certain conditions. However, the City Code, section 5-77, doesn’t specify a time-frame; it only says, “Upon written request, the code official may issue a temporary certificate of occupancy for the use of any building or structure prior to the completion and occupancy of the entire building or structure, provided that such portion or portions shall be occupied safely prior to full completion of the structure without endangering life or public welfare.” Kunski was also unaware of there being any time limit set for a temporary Certificate of Occupancy.

Kunski said that there were “no life/safety issues” at the Heartland Partnership building, or else a temporary Certificate would not have been issued.

Bradley University, City of Peoria, Peoria County

IPL tries unconventional approach to collaboration

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Word on the Street reveals that Bradley University’s “Institute for Principled Leadership [IPL] in Public Service” helped launched a rather unconventional City-County collaboration effort. In a surprising break from traditional negotiation, they didn’t tell the County Board anything about the endeavor. This simplified discussions considerably and was, by all accounts, non-confrontational. But the plan backfired when County Board members found out about it through the media. Rumor is that IPL will now have to resort to Plan B: communicating with all parties.

In a further effort to send mixed signals, they’ve dubbed the effort “PASS.” Yes. It’s an acronym that stands for “Peoria Area Shared Services.” (Here’s hoping Galesburg doesn’t attempt a similar acronym in their efforts to share services with Knox County.) IPL is now hoping that the County won’t pass on PASS after the PASS faux pas.