Category Archives: City of Peoria

City of Peoria

San Marcos to decide on city manager Oct. 1

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The San Marcos Record (Texas) reports that the City Council there will make a decision on who to hire as City Manager on October 1. Peoria’s current City Manager, Scott Moore, is a finalist for the position. Over 100 residents turned out for a “meet the candidates” forum on Wednesday, the paper said. Here’s what they had to say about Moore:

Longtime San Marcos resident Carmen Imel said she was impressed by all of the candidates but she especially came to meet Moore because she used to teach at Illinois State University near Peoria.

Imel said she believes the new city manager should help attract companies like Caterpillar to San Marcos because there is a shortage of large employers in the area.

“They need skilled workers, but I guess we’ll have to bring them in,” she said. […]

Even though he is currently the farthest away, Moore told attendees that his roots in Central Texas make him the ideal candidate.

Moore earned his Bachelors in Business Administration from then-Southwest Texas State University in 1994 and played football there from 1989 to 1993.

“I think just being able to come back and re-establish ties. I have an instant connection with the athletic department, the administration (and) the business school,” he said.

He said even though he has only been city manager of Peoria for one year, he welcomed the opportunity to possibly move back to San Marcos because he is originally from Bastrop and still has family there.

“Any chance an individual gets to go back home, you have to always say you are interested,” he said. “If a person says they are not interested in going back home or going back to where they got a start, I think it would be short-sighted for the conversation to really go beyond that because I think in everybody’s heart they would want to go close to family and friends.”

He was previously the assistant city manager of Wichita, Kan. from Aug. 2005 to Sept. 2009.

It’s interesting that in San Marcos, the public gets to meet the candidates before the Council decides who to hire. In Peoria, everything is kept a secret from the public until after the decision is made. John Sharp had a good article in the Journal Star about how our local officials rationalize their lack of transparency in the process.

City of Peoria

City Manager Moore a finalist for Texas job (UPDATED)

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Peoria’s City Manager Scott Moore has been announced as a finalist for the city manager position in San Marcos, Texas, according to the San Marcos Daily Record:

The San Marcos City Council has announced three finalists for the position of City Manager following two days of interviews.

They are Jeffrey Howell, city manager of Kilgore, Scott Moore, city manager of Peoria, Ill [emphasis added], and Jim Nuse, city manager of Round Rock.

They will be invited back for a second round of interviews with the City Council and a public meet and greet to be held on Wednesday, Sept. 22 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the City of San Marcos Conference Center, 3101 S. IH 35.

San Marcos is located about halfway between Austin and San Antonio in south central Texas and has a population of about 35,000. The City Manager job description for San Marcos is available here. Scott Moore started as Peoria City Manager in August 2009.

UPDATE: The City of Peoria has released a statement from City Manager, Scott Moore:

City Manager Scott Moore is a finalist for the position of City Manager in St. Marcos, Texas. As a young professional, Scott has been sought out by other communities; however, this particular location would provide him with the opportunity to be closer to family. “I enjoy the challenges that we are working through in the City of Peoria, and it is also humbling to be approached by other communities who believe you possess the qualities that could be an asset to their organization,” said Moore.

City Council, City of Peoria

City Council meetings now available online

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From a City of Peoria press release:

Peoria – (September 14, 2010) – Within one week after each meeting of the Peoria City Council, citizens can go on-line to view streaming video of the meetings.

The video can be accessed by going to www.peoriacitycouncilmeetings.com and selecting a meeting from the playlist, then click play. Specific parts of the meeting can be viewed by highlighting the tool bar at the bottom of the screen. The toolbar appears when the mouse hovers over the screen. The site does require a flash enabled web browser to view the meetings.

This new feature is provided by Focal Point Video, the company awarded the contract to record the Council meetings. The Council meetings were previously recorded by Comcast.

Council meetings are televised live on Comcast cable channel 22, and are rebroadcast Wednesdays at Noon. Dvd’s are also available for purchase through the City Manager’s Office. The Peoria City Council meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:15 p.m.

City Council, City of Peoria

Liveblogging the City Council 9-14-2010

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Hello all you lonely people who have nothing better to do than read a live blog about the Peoria City Council meeting. 🙂 Mayor Ardis is not here this evening, so Ryan Spain is filling in as Mayor Pro Tem. As always, I’ll be updating this post throughout the evening, so refresh often. Here’s tonight’s agenda:

Continue reading Liveblogging the City Council 9-14-2010 →

City of Peoria

Caterpillar puts local pharmacies out of business (also, some thoughts on incentives)

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From the Journal Star:

After 50 years, Tingleff Pharmacy will close permanently at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The pharmacy at 3617 W. Harman Highway lost 60 percent to 65 percent of its customers after Caterpillar Inc. instituted a new prescription drug plan in January. The plan designated specific national pharmacies instead of allowing employees to choose their own pharmacy, said owner and pharmacist Rick Tingleff, the son of founder Dick Tingleff.

“Caterpillar was the catalyst when they pulled benefits from the independents and gave WalMart and Walgreen’s the business,” he said.

Hometown Pharmacy, with offices in Creve Coeur, Morton and Chillicothe, was another local pharmacy that cited the Caterpillar change as a reason for closing earlier this year, Tingleff said.

In a somewhat related story, the Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Journal recently reported that, despite that city, county, and state giving Cat a combined incentive package worth just under $75 million to locate a manufacturing plant there, Cat didn’t allow any local general contractors to bid on the construction of the plant. A local TV personality there also criticized the deal because of Cat’s prescription drug policy:

…CAT isn’t opening its doors freely to local stores and vendors. For example, Caterpillar has an exclusive contract with Walgreens and Walmart to fill employee prescriptions. That leaves other chains like Target and Rite Aid out in the cold, and excludes local mom-and-pop drug stores from doing business.

The author, Jim Longworth, also criticized economic incentives in general as “nothing but corporate welfare, legalized extortion.” I found this paragraph particularly interesting:

And so, for now, at least 40 states are entrenched in the incentives game where they feel obligated to offer perks, lest they lose to a competing state. But according to UNCG professor Andrew Brod, that fear isn’t justified. “It’s hard to conclude that a company that is getting incentives from State X, wouldn’t have gone to State X anyway.” So why offer incentives? Brod theorizes, “Offering incentives to lure large companies gives politicians the chance to claim credit with little risk they’ll be blamed for a deal that falls short of its promise. It’s very important for them especially in times like these, to appear to be doing something. It’s easier to do something whose rewards and benefits are hard to assess, than to just do nothing.” [emphasis added]

How many times have we heard in Peoria that “something is better than nothing”? The question that should be asked when that statement is made is, “better for whom?” The answer according to Dr. Brod is “politicians.”

City of Peoria

New construction projects on the rise in Peoria

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From the recent “Issues Update”:

The Building Division of the Inspections Department continues to see strong growth in new construction projects in the City of Peoria. With four months remaining in 2010, permit revenue has already surpassed the total amount collected in 2009.

Illustrated in the table below is a comparison of Building Permits/Permit Revenue through August of the last five years. Permit revenue is up 62% in 2010 compared to this time last year. In addition, new construction is up 27% in 2010 compared to this time last year.

YTD 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
New Residential
Total Residential

New Commercial
Total Commercial		 238
578

44
202		 216
601

44
189		 167
556

29
172		 86
409

14
151		 100
430

27
170
Residential Fees
Commercial Fees
Other – Mechanical Fees		 $229,954
$153,842
$134,738		 $351,436
$1,150,629
$175,594		 $260,492
$584,426
$227,855		 $131,827
$213,419
$150,430		 $162,416
$514,342
$127,870
Total Fees $518,535 $1,677,659 $1,072,773 $495,676 $804,628
City of Peoria, Peoria County

Firefly bankruptcy hearing date set for Sept. 9

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Last week’s “Issues Update” from the City Manager’s office has the latest on how things are progressing with the Firefly bankruptcy:

The Bankruptcy Court has set a hearing on the City’s and County’s settlement with the Bankruptcy Trustee for September 9, 2010. Negotiations continue with Electrotherm, the company from India who has expressed interest in acquiring Firefly’s assets. In order to move that negotiation forward, the City Manager and the County Administrator have executed an agreement that the City and County will not market the assets of Firefly to any other party than Electrotherm until September 14, 2010. It is anticipated that a purchase agreement will be on the City Council Agenda on September 14, 2010.

In related news, one market for the batteries in India would be to power two-wheeled scooters:

The electric two-wheeler industry in the country is struggling for survival, as manufacturers are making huge losses. …[T]he fledgling e-scooter segment has failed to join the bandwagon of the Indian automobile industry, which is on a high growth trajectory. From 60 players in the electric two-wheeler business, including small time assemblers, only 10 remain in contention now….

The dependence on imports for key components such as battery, motor and charger also pose a challenge for the industry. Major players such as Hero Electric and Electrotherm are looking at developing local battery manufacturing capabilities. [emphasis added]

How’s Electrotherm doing these days? Here’s a recent report:

Electrotherm (India) disclosed a steep drop in standalone net profit for the quarter ended June 2010. During the quarter, the profit of the company declined 27.28% to Rs 123.43 million [US$2,633,460] from Rs 169.74 million [US$3,621,514] in the same quarter previous year.

The City and County of Peoria guaranteed a bank loan of $6.6 million for Firefly Energy in 2007; the company went bankrupt in March of this year. The municipalities have been trying to mitigate their losses by selling the company’s assets.

City Council, City of Peoria

Liveblogging the City Council 8-24-2010

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Hello everyone, and welcome to the Peoria City Council meeting. I haven’t been able to attend the last couple of meetings, but I’m back tonight, liveblogging the event for your entertainment. You can join the fun at City Hall, fourth floor, Council Chambers. You can also watch live on Comcast cable channel 22, or listen live on 89.9 FM, WCBU.

The hyperlinked agenda is here, if you want to see supporting documentation. Otherwise, I’ll list the agenda items below and give a play-by-play on each of them as the council discusses them. This post will be updated frequently throughout the evening, so be sure to refresh your browser. It’s now 6:15 p.m. and time to get started. Without any further ado, here’s tonight’s agenda (it’s a long one!):

Continue reading Liveblogging the City Council 8-24-2010 →

City Council, City of Peoria, Heart of Peoria Plan, Museum Block

City staff omits key fact about HOPC’s ‘review’ of museum design

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Before the City Council can give away the museum block for $1, they first have to approve the “design concepts” for the museum. On the council communication, under “neighborhood concerns,” it states, “Heart of Peoria Commission reviewed the drawings prior to Council approval on April 4, 2006.” This is misleading. First of all, the design plans have changed dramatically since 2006. The council communication does acknowledge that there have been “some revisions,” but that’s rather understated, considering the size of the building decreased by 26%, retail development has been pushed off to a future phase, etc. Secondly, the Heart of Peoria Commission recommended denial of the changes that reduced the building size in 2007.

Why is City staff not providing council members with all the facts? What other facts have they omitted?