Category Archives: City of Peoria

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Public Library

Library answers the City

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If you haven’t already seen them, you can read the library’s answers to the City’s questions here (large PDF file). It’s over 40 pages long, so I’m not going to paste the text into this blog entry like I did for the questions. I did like this answer, though:

There is a desire to achieve the goals arrived at after extensive study by expert consultants and input from the Peoria public, including over 45 public meetings, and web, in-house and mail comments. However, since building a consolidated branch at Exposition Gardens does not address those goals, we set aside this idea after applying the same tests we did to all other sites. One of the main goals of our building program is to be sure that we are not just doing a temporary fix on our libraries but building for the future.

Here you can see an example of what I said in my previous post. They got public input, they utilized expert consultants, and they ran the Expo Gardens site through an objective criteria. It’s also nice to see that the library is thinking about long-term solutions and not temporary fixes. That way, they won’t have to come back asking for more money in just a few years.

It will be interesting to hear the discussion that ensues Tuesday night at the council meeting.

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Public Library

Library quiz

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Q: How many members of the council currently sitting around the horseshoe endorsed the library’s plan and urged voters to support the $35 million referendum in April 2007, and who are they?

Click on “Read the rest of this entry” below to see the answer. (If you’re reading an RSS feed or the permalink for this post, don’t cheat by reading ahead — see how many you can name without looking.)

Continue reading Library quiz →

City Council, City of Peoria

Council preview 6/10/08

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Next Tuesday the City Council will meet. The agenda is online here. Notable items of discussion:

  • There’s a request to give Enterprise Zone status to all of Metro Centre, Sheridan Village, and Evergreen Square shopping centers. Big plans are in the works for all three, and the city wants to provide incentives. Metro Centre’s plans are fleshed out the most in the request — they’re planning to spend one- to three-million dollars on renovations and a mixed-use retail/residential development that will overlook the Lakeview nature preserve.

  • The Kellar Branch rail/trail feasibility study comes up for approval. This is specifically a request to hire T. Y. Lin International, an engineering firm, for a flat rate of $20,000 to give an independent analysis as to how much it would cost to build a trail next to the Kellar Branch rail line. Peoria Heights would pay $5,000 toward the cost, and the City of Peoria would pick up the remaining $15,000.

  • The request for a liquor license for Elliott’s strip club comes up for a vote again. It had been deferred while the City and club owners worked with a mediator. I have no idea if they reached a resolution or if this item will be deferred again.

Also of note, I believe this will be Jonathan Ahl’s last time covering the Peoria City Council and hosting “Outside the Horseshoe.” I hope he’s planning to have a “goodbye” episode that will feature his favorite interviews and clips over the past several years. I also hope he leaves the longest pause ever between “WCBU” and “Peoria” when he signs off.

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Library, Peoria Public Schools

City, D150, and Library Board to consider Expo/Richwoods site

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The Times-Observer is reporting that officials from the City, District 150, and the Peoria Public Library will be meeting today at 4:30 p.m. to discuss possibly building a new library on D150 property by Richwoods High School and Expo Gardens. There’s a catch:

Ardis said that closing the Lakeview Branch and building the new North Peoria library branch on, or near Expo Gardens, would trim $8 to $10 million off the proposed $35 million cost of the entire library plan.

Let’s see, how was that referendum question worded again? Here it is:

“Shall bonds in the amount of $35,000,000 be issued for Library purposes of the City of Peoria, In Peoria County, Illinois, of acquiring, constructing and installing a new library building and additions to existing facilities (including site acquisition, library materials and technology) and related fixtures, furnishings, improvements, facilities and costs, bearing interest at the rate of not to exceed 7%? Paid for by a property tax increase approximately 16 cents per $100 of the equalized assessed valuation.”

That referendum was based on the Library’s master plan, which included expanding Lakeview and building a new branch in far north Peoria. Having the city step in now and suggest closing Lakeview and building a new library across the street from the fourth district is kind of a bait and switch, isn’t it? Expo Gardens is not much farther north than Lakeview, compared to how far north the City has grown.

I can see why Gary Sandberg feels like he wasted his time over the past year.

City of Peoria, Heart of Peoria Plan, New Urbanism

The new LDC: Do whatever the heck you want

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I’m not quite sure why we even have a Land Development Code or a Form Based Code. We spent a lot of time meeting with citizens and stakeholders to come up with the vision of what we want to see. We spent a lot of money codifying that vision. But all of that work was for naught if we’re not going to enforce it.

Once again, someone has blatantly violated the Land Development Code (this time in the Sheridan Triangle Form District). And once again, the city has rolled over and played dead.

The new owner of the old Dairy Queen at Sheridan and Loucks put vinyl siding on his building, even though the Form Based Code for that area explicitly disallows vinyl siding. Then, after the fact, he asked for an administrative deviation from the Planning and Growth department. He got it, natch.

Message received by the development community: “Ignore the code. Do whatever the heck you want. Yeah, it would be best if you asked beforehand so we can rubber-stamp your variance in advance. But if that’s too much trouble, hey, just do whatever and ask for forgiveness later. We’re flexible.”

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Library

Ray admits suggesting Elliott’s site for library

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Wow — I just received this press release today from the City:

As reported in Friday’s Journal Star, I recently suggested a possible site to the Director of the Library. That suggested site is not a possible site at this time. In presenting my suggestion, I said that maybe the library would gain three votes. I should not have said this. I certainly had no knowledge that any three Councilpersons’ votes would have been swayed by selection of this site. I never intended to create the impression that I knew how any Councilperson would vote. There was no backroom deal being cut.

I regret this error and hope that this error does not detract from the on-going library discussion.

Randy Ray
Corporation Counsel

As you may recall, Gary Sandberg stated in his letter of resignation as library liaison that City Attorney Randy Ray had suggested that three votes would change from “no” to “yes” if the library board would pick Elliott’s strip club as the location for the new library and use their power of eminent domain to take the property. Library board president Mike McKenzie, library director Ed Szynaka, and councilman Jim Montelongo all attested to the truth of this deal being proposed.

Ray admits that he proposed the deal, but now says that he didn’t actually know of three specific council members who would have changed their votes when he made that statement. Evidently he was speculating that if the Elliott’s site were chosen, three council members would be so happy to get rid of Elliott’s (which has been mired in controversy ever since they applied for the adult use license) that they would vote for the $35 million in bonds.

Sorry, I’m not buying it. Read this account from the Journal Star again:

Library Board President Mike McKenzie said Ray asked library director Ed Szynaka to stop by his office May 16. During that meeting, Ray floated the idea about Elliott’s, eminent domain and how the idea would change the minds of three councilmen who intended to vote against the $35 million proposal, McKenzie added….

Szynaka, who would not comment for this story, repeated Ray’s idea at the board’s building committee meeting on May 19, a meeting that Sandberg attended as the council liaison. It was quickly rejected.

“I never heard about it again,” McKenzie said. “First off, the site’s too small for a library. Second, it’s not for sale and third, there’s an active business there. We do have eminent domain capabilities but we didn’t think that it was a reasonable proposal.”

McKenzie said even if three councilmen changed their minds and supported the library project on the Elliott’s site, current supporters might oppose the idea, nullifying the effect of the site change.

Now think about this scenario. Ray asked Szynaka to stop by his office. Ray suggested the Elliott’s site as a possible location for the library. Why this site? For what reason would he be suggesting it and why should the board consider it? It wasn’t chosen based on any objective criteria. Ray wasn’t in on the building committee meetings where site selection was discussed. It certainly couldn’t have been based on parcel size or price. No, Ray gave one reason for suggesting it and one reason only: they could pick up three council votes for the $35 million bond issuance if they chose that site. Then Szynaka presented Ray’s proposal at the next building committee meeting. The proposal was considered, objections were raised, and the committee decided to reject the proposal.

Now Ray is saying that he had “no knowledge that any three Councilpersons’ votes would have been swayed by selection of this site”? That undercuts the whole purpose of his pitching the idea to the board in the first place. If he didn’t really know anyone would change their vote based on that site selection, what was the reason for suggesting it? Because “maybe the library would gain three votes”? Why three? Who did he have in mind? And why is the city attorney trying to influence the site location with the library board by making false claims of council support for his idea?

Ray’s press release raises more questions than it answers. It actually makes the issue more serious. I mean, if you or I were to suggest to Szynaka that maybe he should consider such and such a site, that’s one thing. But for the city attorney to suggest that the choice of a site may be the deciding factor in how the council vote comes out based on his insider knowledge… that’s a serious attempt to influence the outcome of the process — and under false pretenses if what he’s now saying is true.

Methinks Ray has jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Library

49 Questions about the Library

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City council members submitted a total of 49 questions about the proposed library expansion. Mayor Ardis collected them and submitted them to the Peoria Public Library Board and expects them to answer them all in writing by next Friday, June 6. The council will then discuss the answers during the June 10 council meeting.

Sadly, there’s no indication which council members asked which questions. Some of the questions are completely irrelevant (e.g.,”Whatever happened to the library at Main and University?”, “Why were the libraries closed the weekend that the high schools had finals?”). Others are designed to call the library referendum into question (e.g., “What percent of the 70% of people that voted for the new library system understand your full plan?”). Some are just idiotic (e.g., “If the downtown museum is successful, would it be possible to position the downtown library at that location?”). There are good questions, too, but I’ll bet almost all of them could have been answered by Gary Sandberg if any of the council members had bothered to contact him.

Below is the cover letter from the mayor. The questions can be seen by clicking the “Read the rest of this entry” link that follows.

OFFICE OF THE MAYOR

Jim Ardis
Mayor

May 30, 2008

TO: Library Board & Director
FROM: Peoria City Council
RE: Questions regarding Library Operations and Expansions

Please find the attached questions submitted by members of the Council. Note that all members were asked to submit questions for clarification from your report or possibly some information not included in your report.

We would like to emphasize that this process should not be viewed as second-guessing your work to this point. Our collective goal is to understand your thought process and recommendations and discuss how we can incorporate them into a plan for enhanced library services that can be done within a realistic budget. Every single person on our Council supports strong libraries.

Make no mistake; we feel compromise will have to happen if we are going to move forward. Otherwise we would have approved what you submitted to us 10 days before the decision was to be made. Please acknowledge that the questions attached should be viewed as a starting point and based on your response, will likely generate additional questions. We would like to think good communication will accelerate this process and get us to a point where we can focus on what we can both agree on going forward. We are very confident that Councilman Spears will be able to do an outstanding job as our liaison.

We would like to request that a written response be provided to the Council by 5pm on Friday, June 6th. In addition, we would like to place an agenda item at the June 10 meeting to discuss these questions and answers publicly. There will be no vote taken at that meeting regarding the issuance of bonds. Please advise the City Manager of your ability to provide the written response to these questions and your willingness to participate in Council discussion as outlined.

Thank you for helping us answer these very important questions that were not clear to this point. This due diligence is very important to the decision making process. Have a nice weekend.

Jim Ardis
Mayor

Continue reading 49 Questions about the Library →

City of Peoria, Gary Sandberg, Peoria Public Library

Sandberg liaison resignation letter

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Here’s the letter Gary Sandberg sent to Mayor Ardis announcing his resignation as liaison to the Library Board. This may answer some questions about why he resigned, and raise some other questions about the intentions of the rest of the council:

27 May 2008

Mayor Jim Ardis
419 Fulton Street
Peoria, Illinois

Dear Mayor,
Please accept my resignation as the City Council Liaison for the Peoria Public Library effective at [7:00] PM on 27 May 2008. It is abundantly clear that you do not value my participation as Council Liaison by recent events. At this point I am not sure you and a majority of the Council share mine or even a common vision for Peoria. From my perspective based on behind the scene deals proposed on the 16th of May by Corporation Counsel Randy Ray such as “three negative Council votes would convert to positive votes if the Library would use it’s eminent domain powers against the Elliot’s Site (7807 N. University Street)” is totally over the top and morally, ethically wrong, if not totally illegal. Combine that with the total lack of communication regarding “unanswered questions” appearing at the last moment (after 4:00 on this day) and a last minute deal yet to be offered by Councilman Nichting at 5:30, it is clear that my views and values at it relates to public service and more importantly the public process are of no consequences to you or the Council.

The Library brought forward a product which was the result of a totally transparent process, objective criteria evaluation, careful analysis and recommendations from professional consultants that was totally within the criteria contained in the 2007 advisory referendum. To entertain debate on the merits of that product is healthy, but to politically sabotage those efforts thru these sorts of antics is totally unacceptable to me, so therefore I wish to separate myself from the Council majority that feels actions like these are appropriate.

The past year has been a wonderful experience working with the Library Building Committee, the full Library Board, and the professional Library Administration. They accepted each and every challenge to produce objective recommendations and a multi-faceted program within the referendum budget. I became completely convinced that the public interests were served by their open, transparent and inclusionary actions. The involvement raised my opinion of public service and it’s assurance that with public participation, everyone’s best interest is served. It is sad that the same opinion of public service and it’s transparency is not the rule of the City Council.

At my age, I value time and by the actions of a majority of the Council, they do not share the importance of one’s time. I do not wish to waste their time nor mine by continuing as liaison.

Sincerely
Gary Sandberg, City Councilman At Large

There was a serious proposal to put the new north branch on the site of Elliot’s strip club so the city could take that land and get Elliot’s out of the north end. Besides the obvious ethical violations, that site is too small anyway. The city would have to not only buy Elliot’s, but a number of surrounding sites for that to work, pushing up the cost of land acquisition, razing existing structures, and construction … not to mention the legal battles (if you thought what the City paid for Eagle Cleaners was high, just try to take Elliot’s via eminent domain). This from a council that is only delaying a vote on the library bonds because they are supposedly looking out for the taxpayers’ best interests.

UPDATE: Here’s Billy’s take on the resignation letter.

Here’s the Journal Star’s article.

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Library

Sandberg resigns as library liaison; Spears to replace him

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I just received this news release from the city:

Mayor Jim Ardis has appointed Council Member Bill Spears to fill the position of Liaison to the Peoria Public Library Board.

Mayor Ardis said, “Moving quickly to appoint a liaison after Councilman Sandberg’s resignation stresses the importance the Council places on having a liaison in place as the conduit to work with the Board, and achieve a consensus that will enhance the library system.”

Gary Sandberg said he resigned at 7:00 Tuesday night, adding, “I’m not wasting any more of my time.” He also said that the council had forgotten they had a library liaison as they were all talking to the library board directly before the council meeting without including Gary.

Ed Szynaka, Peoria Public Library Director, had not heard until this morning that Gary had resigned. He said he was “extraordinarily disappointed” that Gary would no longer be the liaison, and said on behalf of the board that this news was a “very big disappointment to all of us,” adding, “but we will work with Mr. Spears,” after learning that Councilman Bill Spears had been appointed to replace Gary.

I asked Mr. Szynaka about Gary’s comment that the council was going around Gary before Tuesday’s meeting. He said that he and the board were “barraged with communication from council members and the mayor” in the hours leading up to the council meeting. He did not receive any communication from Gary during that time, nor was Gary included on the conference calls that took place. Outside of that, he couldn’t comment on whether Gary was being kept in the loop on the discussions.

City of Peoria

New Peoria logo forum to be held

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From a press release:

The City of Peoria will hold a community forum on June 2, 2008, at 6:00 p.m., to give the community the opportunity to have input about a new logo for our City. The forum will be held at the Peoria Civic Center in Room 220.

Our objective is to develop an overall identity theme linked to the City itself, and to provide consistency and clarity in the way the City communicates with the public through its graphics, signage, advertising, and marketing. The common theme and graphic image would better define and communicate the City’s assets and benefits of its programs and services.

The Mayor and City Council Members believe that an important aspect of designing a new logo is having input from the entire community. The City wants to know what you think. We want to know what you believe are the important qualities about our City and the things we should consider when the logo is designed.

We have also designed a web survey that we encourage you to take prior to the June 2nd forum. It will only take a few minutes to complete and will provide us with important information to use in the designing of the new logo. The web link is http://logopeoria.com/.

The forum is open to the community and everyone is encouraged to attend.

The City Council approved funding for the design of a new City logo in March, 2008.