Category Archives: City of Peoria

City Council, City of Peoria

1 out of 4 City employees don’t live in the City

28 Comments

Tucked away in the agenda for next week’s City Council meeting is a report on city employee residency. Overall, 73% (580 out of 795) of the city’s permanent, full-time staff lives inside the city, which means that over a quarter of the staff chooses not to live in the city.

The report breaks the data down by department. Several departments have all their employees living in the city: Council, City Clerk, City Manager, EEO, Legal, HR, Treasurer, Economic Development, and Workforce, and there are many employees in here or independent contractors so the use of an online 1099-misc maker can be helpful to manage the payments of these workers.

The lowest percentage of City residents comes from the police department. Statistics from Labor Law Compliance websites say only 58% (168 out of 288) of police officers live within the City limits. Second lowest is “ECC,” which I assume is the Emergency Communications Center: 65% (24 out of 37). And third lowest is the fire department: 77% (163 out of 213).

By now, you’re probably thinking, “so what?” I don’t know. Councilman Jacob requested the report, but I’m not sure why. Perhaps we’ll find out Tuesday night.

At first blush, it’s easy to think that, if our own employees don’t want to live in the city, why would anyone else want to move here? But take a look at those numbers again. Most of those employees who live outside of the city are public safety employees, and there are reasonable arguments for why police and other public safety officers would want to live outside of the city they protect (e.g., for their family’s and their own protection and privacy while off-duty). It doesn’t appear from this report that any residency requirements are being violated. Learn about labor poster requirements here to check your Labor law compliance.

The important thing is that all our elected officials, of course, live within the city and have a personal stake in the outcome of any policy directives (e.g., new taxes, fees, land use issues).

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Pundit, Radio

Council coverage falls off without Ahl; blogs pick up slack

10 Comments

It used to be that you could count on WCBU to cover any city council meeting held on a Tuesday night, including important budget discussions like the one happening tonight. But since former news director Jonathan Ahl left the station, coverage has fallen off. It appears now that only regular city council meetings (twice a month) are carried.

That’s unfortunate, because the council meeting tonight covers important budget issues facing the City of Peoria. What’s being discussed tonight is at least as important, if not more important, than the business taking place at the regular council meetings. Why have they stopped being covered?

Fortunately, there’s still one media outlet that’s covering the event live — Billy Dennis’ Peoria Pundit blog. All Billy needs to do is figure out a way to provide a live audio stream through his blog in addition to his running summary.

City Council, City of Peoria

Next council meeting will focus on budget

19 Comments

The agenda for Tuesday night’s Peoria City Council meeting is short — just two items. But don’t let that fool you into thinking it will be a short meeting.

It’s that time of year when the council starts discussing the dreaded budget. In keeping with the council’s desire to include more meaningful input from citizens, Tuesday’s meeting will offer residents a chance to comment on the budget after some pertinent information is presented:

A. REVIEW of CURRENT OUTSTANDING CAPITAL PROJECTS;
B. PRESENTATION OF OVERALL VISION/MISSION/CORE FUNCTIONS;
C. REVENUE REVIEW;
D. PUBLIC COMMENT Relating to the 2009 CITY BUDGET.

If you’re looking for information on the city’s budget, look no further than peoriabudget.com. City staff has assembled a number of helpful charts and graphs to give you a picture (literally) of the city’s revenue and expenditures, broken down a number of different ways. Here are a couple that will be germane to Tuesday’s meeting (click on the thumbnail to see the full graph):

These two graphs show the revenue sources for the city. They’ll come in handy when it comes time figure out how we’re going to raise more revenue for the city’s needs.

City of Peoria, Crime, Peoria Police

Violent crime declining in Peoria

7 Comments

Steve Settingsgaard. The police union gave him a vote of no confidence. Residents and some in the press criticized him for posting mug shots of prostitution and drug arrestees. Yet local government officials and many citizens defend him and even sing his praises. Why?

One word: Results.

In 2007, there were a total of 74 shootings and 16 homicides; 104 shootings and 18 homicides were logged in 2006. So far this year, there have been four homicides.

No doubt some will try to attribute these results to everything under the sun other than the police chief; and to be sure, the credit absolutely needs to be spread around. These outcomes aren’t the result of a one-man show. But you can bet if the trend were the other way, the fingers of blame would all be pointing directly at Settingsgaard.

So I say, let’s give credit where credit is due. Nobody’s perfect. We’re never going to agree on every tactic used by the chief. But let’s acknowledge and be thankful that our city has gotten safer under his watch.

City of Peoria, Form-Based Code, Heart of Peoria Plan

Sheridan Triangle final public meeting planned

2 Comments

From a press release:

The City of Peoria will host the third Public Open House at the Council Chambers, Room 400, City Hall, 419 Fulton Street, Peoria, on Thursday, October 9, 2008 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The purpose of this open house is the discussion of the preferred alternative identified in previous open houses, and the review of the potential streetscape layout components and landscaping options, and to collect final comments on the Master Plan for the Form District known as the Sheridan Triangle Business District, before its presentation to the Peoria City Council.

The intent of the project is to revitalize the character of the streets in the study area to create urban, pedestrian-friendly streets through narrower travel lanes, wider sidewalks and a tree canopy, as well as other improvements to be determined through this public Master Plan process.

2008 Campaign, Aaron Schock, City of Peoria

Schock does the right thing; case closed

14 Comments

Rep. Aaron Schock held a press conference yesterday with Mayor Jim Ardis to announce he will “voluntarily” pay back the City of Peoria for costs incurred when President Bush visited Peoria for his private fundraiser. As far as I’m concerned, this matter is now closed. I agree we should move on and talk about more important issues.

I think it would be a good idea for the city council to settle the policy issue, just so we don’t have a controversy like this again in the future. But as far as the candidates are concerned, I think this issue is over.

City of Peoria

Citizen input on budget report released

2 Comments

The City of Peoria has been trying to get residents’ input on the city’s 2009 budget. They had some public meetings and an internet survey soliciting our ideas on what the city’s budget priorities should be. The results of those efforts are available now in a new report from the City:

Dear Citizen of Peoria:

Late this summer, you helped the Council and staff of the City of Peoria better understand your feelings about the FY2009 budget by answering a brief questionnaire. Thank you for all of your hard work, thoughtfulness and creativity in giving us your input on budget priorities, revenue sources and cost cuts. In total, 116 citizens completed the questionnaire, resulting in:

  • 391 suggestions on where City tax dollars should be invested;
  • 203 recommendations concerning additional or increased revenue sources;
  • 182 idea regarding ways the City could reduce costs; and
  • 78 additional comments.

City staff has prepared an analysis of your comments, and this report was received by the City Council at its September 9, 2008 meeting. You can view a copy of this report by visiting www.peoriabudget.com.

You are also invited to provide public comment at any City Council meeting regarding the budget. Upcoming meetings, all held in Council Chambers on the 4th Floor of City Hall, are October 7 (5 pm), October 14 (6:15 pm) and October 21 (5 pm).

Thank you again for your participation in this process. We look forward to your continued input, both this year and in years to come.

Sincerely,

Christopher Setti
6 Sigma Black Belt
City of Peoria

Not surprisingly, basic services — public works and public safety — topped the list of budget priorities:

[C]itizens appear most interested in investing in Public Works projects. Of 340 responses, 129 involved this department in some fashion. […] The next most frequently involved unit (83 responses) was the Peoria Police Department, which is generally reflective of the community’s concern about crime. The Police Department was followed by Economic Development (63 responses), Planning and Growth Management (53) and the Fire Department (35).

Residents were asked for their suggestions on how to increase revenue for the city. The result:

Overwhelmingly, citizens felt the best method to increase revenue was to improve on the City’s ability to collect fees and fines (46 responses). […]the next largest category was “Government”. This was really more of a “catch-all” category for those responses that involve better governance. One theme that emerged within this category was finding ways of providing City services to other municipalities. Citizens also discussed increasing tourism to Peoria and creating a new alcohol and tobacco tax.

Finally, residents’ suggestions for cost savings:

The largest category involved creating a more efficient City government (28 responses). These suggestions ranged from broad appeals for greater productivity to specific ideas for certain departments.

Other responses involved reducing staff (16 responses) or eliminating/re-organizing certain programs (14). Some citizens (15) also felt strongly that the City would save money if it stopped offering incentives to businesses. Many within this category specifically mentioned eliminating TIF Districts. Finally, 14 responses fell into the category of “energy efficiency.”

The report includes all the responses received — about 50 pages worth — including an essay submitted by Paul Wilkinson.

Bradley University, City of Peoria

Van Auken lambasted by Luciano, BU students

32 Comments

Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken is taking a beating in the press and on student internet forums over her confrontation with an allegedly noisy frat house. Journal Star columnist Phil Luciano ticks off the facts that are continuing to come out regarding the incident, then offers this advice:

I don’t know what she plans to do this weekend. But the next time she hears a crime complaint, perhaps she’d best put down the wine, leave her Superwoman outfit hanging in her closet and let the cops do their job.

And he’s right — if we were to cuss out a police officer and poke him in the shoulder while we had alcohol on our breath, you can bet we’d be sitting in the back of a squad car and taken to the pokey.

Meanwhile, Bradley University students are having a field day with this on a Bradley Basketball internet forum. Here are some of the more scathing comments:

  • I was actually on the street that night, about a block away. I can assure you their music was inaudible from half a block away. Thankfully, I left before this crazy lady could make her way down the block. Even more thankful I didn’t see those teeth in person… WHY WASN’T SHE BREATHALYZED?????????? WHY WASN’T SHE TICKETED????? I guarantee I would have been, immediately. So were members of our bball team in the past.

  • Van Auken = Bully
    She should get raked over the coals.

  • This woman has a few drinks and then decides to have a power trip in front of some important people in the neighboorhood. What does Illinois law allow when it comes to confronting trespassers? They should have taken out the hose out and sprayed her down till she left the steps.

  • Typical politician – Thinking that the rules don’t apply to them. Drunkenness and belligerence is unacceptable…unless you’re the one partaking in it, right?

  • From all accounts (except her own of course), it seems that Van Auken got a little tipsy and decided to use her ‘beer muscles’ to try and bully some college kids and impress her friends.

  • I think that the fact that this may end of being a positive for the councilwoman is disgusting, and, in comparison if I were even to handle a situation after consuming even a sip of alcohol(which, from what I understand is MUCH less the VanAucken had) in my position as an RA I would be swiftly reprimanded, and find it disheartening that the expectation of a elected official is that much lower….

  • I’m surprised she didn’t tell the police she has many leather-bound books and her apartment smells of rich mahogany after she informed them of who she was.

  • And why doesn’t she go knock on the doors of some crack house (there are plenty in her district) with her ambulance buddy? Come on big hitter. Step up to the plate.

This ought to be a big embarrassment for Van Auken, the council, and the second district. But as has been stated by various commenters, this may actually be perceived by many in the second district as a positive thing. No doubt several residents see BVA as a hero, standing up to Bradley over noise violations. The more details that come out, though, the more I think that opinion will fade.

We’re all waiting with bated breath for the video to be put up on YouTube.