Seriously, folks, it’s time for me to really put my nose to the grindstone and heavily focus on editing the big Christmas program for Christmas Eve at 10:30 p.m. and Christmas Day at 12 noon on WEEK-TV. Thanks to a couple snow days and some big news days I got a little carried away with the blogging stuff.
But the time has come. I wish to remain employed, and unlike Billy, I get $0 from blogging. So it must take a backseat for the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime, please feel free to comment on anything you’d like in response to this post — treat it as an open thread — and don’t forget to visit the fine folks on my blogroll.
Merry Christmas!
UPDATE (12/17): There’s an article in the Journal Star about the big Christmas production I’m editing. The article by Michael Miller and including many pictures of the concert is called “Holiday Celebrations.”
C.J. – sorry you are too busy to blog, but thanks for the open thread!
RE: 12/15/06 Peoria Journal Star article entitled, “Jackson questions LaHood Involvementâ€
Don Jackson raised a very interesting point with LaHood – his inconsistency in interceding in the actions of District 150’s Board of Education. Reading between the lines, Jackson seems to be stating that LaHood involves himself only in those District #150 issues that enhance his political alliances. Jackson may well be correct; it is no secret that former District #150 board president Schock led the action against Royster, and used the recognition he earned as a result of his actions to defeat the three-term incumbent for a seat in the Illinois General Assembly. In that case, LaHood maintains he refused to get involved in District matters because the board members were “elected.“ That is rather transparent since it is no secret that the Republican LaHood strongly supported, and continues to support, the Republican Schock – he couldn‘t undermine Schock‘s position as Board president by interceding on Royster’s behalf, thereby undercutting Schock’s chance for election to the General Assembly. This has the distinctly unpleasant aroma of partisan political maneuvering.
Recently a reply posted on this site commented on the Journal Star’s tendency toward propaganda and that the old Soviet Pravda would be proud. The perception of the PJS is that it does not objectively report local political events – that their coverage is biased. If the Journal’s coverage of the Park District/School Board is widely believed to be biased, why then was their coverage of Royster perceived as gospel? There have been whispers around town for several years about the allegiance of two highly-placed PJS staff members to one former, and one present, school board member. Because of these allegiances, reporting about Royster is alleged to have been skewed to the viewpoint of these board members. Regardless of individual opinion about Royster and her performance, didn’t she deserve to have the facts of the situation reported in a complete, fair and unbiased manner? How many people in this town based their personal opinion about Royster’s performance on what the PJS reported? Don’t the citizens of Peoria have the right to expect fair and unbiased reporting of local political issues? If the PJS is biased in one case in favor of the School Board, a reasonable person might conclude they were biased in their coverage and reporting of other School Board issues.
Just something to think about . . .
So it could be a good thing that the PJS is up for sale. Let’s start our prayers for an independent buyer who will promote balanced reporting.
Prairie Celt:
Then why did Rep. LaHood become involved in the proposed school in the park issue —- the school board members and the park board members are ‘elected’?
And on another front, an ‘elected’ official is playing the ‘race card’ the proposed school in the park ….
http://www.pjstar.com/php/index.php/education/
Karrie, that is precisely the point. When LaHood was asked to intercede with the District #150 board during the Royster superintendency, he said he couldn’t because the board members were elected officials. But when asked to intercede with the School Board/Park Board/Glen Oak School site issue, he jumped right in. In his position, either he establishes an “arms length” policy with local governmental groups or he intercedes. He can’t have it both ways. And yet, that is what he has done.
Is Ross playing the race card? I read Jellick’s blog earlier today. In a way, I can understand what Ross is saying. If you have a person of caucasian ancestry repeatedly referring to a particular group of students as “those kids” (when my guess is the group of students referred to is largely comprised of minorities) in a derrogatory manner, it could be construed as racial bias. Since I wasn’t present and didn’t hear the dialogue, it is difficult to comment.
The perception of racism is based upon an individual’s background and experience. As a white person, my perception of racist comments is different than the perceptions of a person of African American ancestry.
Both sides of the racism issue have to be careful not to throw around buzz phrases. Just because an African American expresses concerns about comments they perceive to be racially oriented, Caucasians shouldn’t automatically jump to the conclusion that the race card is being played. And the reverse is equally true, African Americans shouldn’t automatically jump to the conclusion that comments are racially motivated when a person of Caucasian ancestry is speaking. We all need to be more sensitive to others.
Prairie Celt: Capitalizing words for emphasis because I do not have a bold or italic function …
I do not have a verbatim recording of Wednesday’s PPD meeting at Lincoln school. I never HEARD anyone SAY…. that is what Martha Ross said she heard that does not mean that anyone said that….
“‘Those kind of people. Those kind of kids.’ That’s what I heard, that ‘those kind of kids’ don’t belong there,’ Ross said Thursday.
A person may HEAR something that is not said, because that is the lens / filter by which people may see / or hear…..
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As for being black — I am not black. As for being white and experiencing reverse discrimination from blacks in Peoria — I have unfortunately experienced that situation on more than one occasion, because I have white skin. It goes both ways. I also live in the ‘inner city’ — so I have heard countless times — ‘those people’ — guess what — I am one of those people who live in the ‘hood’. It is a smokescreen for not listening to the messenger because you don’t want to hear the actual message being delivered. IMHO — repeated cases of lack of moral courage and fortitude to discuss the real issues.
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She (Martha Ross) balked at the comments of East Bluff resident Malieta King, who said “hoodlums†at the new school would threaten the park with vandalism and graffiti.
I have personally known Maleita for thirteen plus years and I can attest that Maleita was making no reference to race, her reference was to inappropriate behavior from any individual — even if that individual had green skin with purple dots — I think you understand.
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There is no part of the word no that the School District and the Park District seem to understand, the ‘N’, the ‘O’ or the two together ‘NO’!
Having been in politics for more than a decade:
(1) When you are one voice speaking, then the elected officials marginalize you because you are only one;
(2) If you bring a lot of people for the opposing viewpoint,
then you haven’t brought enough people or haven’t brought the correct bell-shaped curve distribution of people and so marginalized again and so it goes when the elected officials ‘know’ better and do not listen to their constituents — think Ransburg, Thetford, Teplitz….
At these public forums, people have shown up —- repeatedly listened to the same basic presentations which tell us nothing. The Letter of intent can be changed or modified in any way. And actually an intergovernmental agreement can follow the same path. The ones who have spoke at the microphone on Wednesday ALL said “NO” to the GOP site and yes to the GOS site. At a previous forum in May — there is an official transcript because a court stenographer/reporter was present — the majority — I recall more than 95 % all said “NO”!
All who spoke at the microphone on Wednesday — brought different points — the range of comments and thoughts and long-term impacts on Peoria and the surrounding area were sincere, truthful and all were relevant to why the school should be in the current location.
D150 & PPD failed to present any information about the superiority of the park location over the current location and one participant asked the question to Dr. Helm that it sounded like her presentation was about programming elements that if replicated at the current site would provide the same outcomes and her response was “Yes.”
I have been told that more $$$$ is available if school districts and park districts work together on building schools —– if true…. hum
How are collaborating and building the school at GOS and building some type of park around it , adjacent to it …. ?
So what gives? The people who are the owners of the park land and the trustees who are stewards over the land should use in Steve Katlack’s terminology — Give the School District an exit strategy of “No” and tell the D150 so.
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Another gentlemen stated that Bonnie Noble has repeatedly told him that developers approach the PPD on a repeated basis with offers to purchase park land. Bonnie told this man that the answer is no, the PPD doesn’t sell land — think Madison Park and the Walgreens episode.
He continued that by approving this use, the PPD will set a precidence. I agree — if the PPD will approve to do this with GOP which is a regional park, than any local park seems fair game for being used as a dedicated ‘school’ playground.
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And this is not a case of “NIMBY” —- the residents of the East Bluff have repeatedly stated “IMBY” — in my backyard. The GOP site in their front yard.
Tim Cassidy has repeatedly stated and it is recorded in the minutes of the March 29, 2006 – LOI Approval meeting that the PPD must have final site approval for the footprint —
Ken Hinton has been quoted twice from Wednesday’s meeting by Clare Jelleck — Thursday and Friday – PJ Star …
Allen asked District 150 Superintendent Ken Hinton when the Park Board can expect to see drawings that show the footprint of the building. Hinton said the design process would start after an intergovernmental agreement was in place. Allen balked at the response.
“That would be irresponsible of us to adopt a formal agreement without seeing exactly how it’s going to be laid out,” Allen said.
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Hinton said Wednesday that District 150 doesn’t plan to develop site plans until it has an intergovernmental agreement with the park district.
Cummings said Thursday that if this is the case, it will be a deal-breaker for him.
“I can’t go along with that. I will not go along with that. (A site plan) is very material to the use of the playground the lagoon, the amphitheater,” Cummings said.
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Goes back to the moral courage and moral fortitude to make the correct decision. Enjoying the dialogue! 🙂
Karrie, I agree with you – one voice speaking in dissent is marginalized and there are never enough voices to sway the decision-makers. But you are also running into another phenomenon – Ken Hinton’s single-minded determination to have his own way regardless of what anyone else does, thinks or says, and regardless of the consequences to the organizations involved. The only thing these groups will understand is litigation, and you are doing that.
Racism goes both ways, I did not mean to imply that it doesn’t. But I have come to detest the use of the phrase “playing the race card” when it is ascribed to people the establishment finds inconvenient. Sometimes racism is real, sometimes it isn’t. The challenge is in determining the truth of the situation, and when the press engages in shaping public opinion rather than reporting the facts and allowing citizens to make up their own minds, the public debate process, the citizens and the community suffer.
I have other questions about the school board/park board mess. Why is the Glen Oak Park site so prized? I still haven’t heard a convincing answer to that question. Who and/or what is really behind the selection of the park site for the new Glen Oak School?
Do we know whether or not the $800,000+ the BOE has to date paid for the privately owned properties along Prospect represents fair market value? Were the purchase prices in line with the assessed valuation and comps of the properties?
Last May the PJS ran a series of articles concerning the District’s purchase of some of the properties and stated that Hinton closed the sales without having prior BOE approval (in fact, the BOE eventually approved the transactions after the fact). Some realtor friends were very concerned about these transactions and especially about how the commissions were handled. Commissions have to go from real estate company to real estate company – they can’t just be paid by anyone – not even an attorney. There must be the name of a real estate company on the check.
One enterprising soul was so outraged by this that she did quite a bit of research. She started by pulling the new listing sheets for the Glen Oak Park area and pulled copies of all the sale/closing documents on file with the Peoria Board of Realtors office.
Some Realtors are alleging that Hinton paid 2 – 3 times fair market value for the properties that closed last April/May (without BOE prior approval). In other words, they paid $90K for a property with a fair market value (based on comps) of $30K. They are saying that the top fair market value – for the more expensive homes in that neighborhood – is around $80K. The homes in the Republic Street vicinity are lower priced and comps on those sales are in the $20K-$30K range. They paid between $90K – $120K for 7 properties, for a total expenditure in the neighborhood of $800K. The district allocated only $1M for a total of 21 properties. With 14 more properties to acquire, they are already in a serious financial crunch and if they hold to the $1M allowance, won’t be able to acquire the remaining properties they need.
Who received the approximately $60K in commissions on these sales? The ethical standard for this type of buy-out is that 2-3 separate real estate companies are usually involved and commissions apportioned among them to avoid any taint of impropriety and preserve professional ethical standards. Some of the real estate agents in town would like to know how the real estate company involved in the sales got in there in the first place when no other real estate companies in town were even consulted.
Enough for now. I, too, am enjoying this dialogue. Perhaps others will wish to join us.
PrairieCelt– I did quite a bit of research on the property purchases. You can read about it in these posts:
District pays top dollar for Prospect properties
District 150 Realtor: Nice work if you can get it
Thanks C.J., will check these out.
PrairieCelt: CJ has done excellent research and blogging for some of your questions.
Why is the Glen Oak Park site so prized?
That is seemingly unknown. IMHO and many other citizens/taxpayers opinions, the case has not been made. If one question can produce a Yes from Dr. Helm that the outcome for the same type of programming at the GOS site as the proposed GOP site will be identical — no case has been made. Wednesday, PPD Trustee Cummings stated that if D150 could convince the East Bluff residents that GOP was better than GOS that would heavily in favor of the GOP site for him. This has never been done.
Who and/or what is really behind the selection of the park site for the new Glen Oak School? Great questions and when you have some definite answers please post them so we can all be informed.
I have heard that school districts and park districts working together can obtain larger money pots — not confirmed yet.
In early April 2006 — while in a meeting with Hinton and other neighborhood leaders from the East Bluff, the Birth through Eighth concept was his concept. How we went from K-8 to B-8 and bypassed all public discussion is amazingly outrageous — the dynamics are different, the costs are different, well many aspects are very different….and again, this exclusive method inhibits success.
Regarding the real estate transactions, all those documents are available from D150 via FOIA requests. These documents make for interesting reading — it more pieces of the puzzle — it would be interesting to have a forum with real estate agents to analyze these docs — the agents, the percentages paid and so on — seems not quite right — just not my area of expertise at this point.
It seems that D150 ‘sole sources’ out certain areas of professional expertise. If you have firm X represent you for a zillion years, then where is the check and balance vs. if firm A were to represent D150 for 2-3 years then firm B the next 3 years and so on….. 3 years is arbitrary — I think you get the idea. One lawyer said would make for more transparency because law firms do not want to have things amiss when a new law firm takes over — it can be bad for business if negative word of mouth feedback is generated — affects the bottom line. Same way for real estate contracts — for example — PHA bids out RE services….that way all firms/agents get an equal opportunity to bid on the services needed.
Prairie Celt, I’ll read the rest of your posts tomorrow — they are long. Ms. Royster traveled with an three-woman entourage known as “The Supremes” by long time school administrators. I’m happy that Ms. Royster and her entourage are long gone from Peoria. I’d say that if a white male had such an entourage, too.
Dear Returned to Peoria – it’s interesting to find out that the Supremes tag leaked out of Wisconsin Avenue. But, if we are going to discuss that, at least let’s get the record straight. The tag, “Dr. Royster and the Supremes” was started by two clerks in the Admin Bldg who were very vocal – from the outset – about not wanting to work for a black woman and very critical of the fact that the Roysters purchased a home in Twin Towers. Again the two women in question felt it wasn’t right for black people to be able to afford to live in Twin Towers when they couldn’t. Make no mistake about it, these two women spoke like this openly and in front of anyone who happened to be around at the time.
In a way, it really was a left0-handed compliment – Diana Ross and the Supremes were always at the top of the charts and the top of their game professionally.
By the way, the two clerks who started the name calling – they were among the first in the Admin Bldg after Hinton arrived to express sorrow for the part they played in Royster’s departure. Seemed they realized the Admin Bldg was a better place to work and they received better treatment under the Royster administration.
Just setting the record straight . . .
Returned to Peoria,
Were you here during the Royster administration or had you not yet returned and therefore are merely getting on the Royster damnation bandwagon driven by some openly prejudice folks – School Board members to boot?
You need to back up and realize when Dr. Royster was coming in there was also a mass exodus of Assistant Superintendents – By name there was Jeane Williamson, Scott Russel and the Controller/Treasurer Roger Kilpatrick. and Ken Hinton himself! Call it bailing out of a sinking ship or whatever, just the same these folks sought career opportunties elsewhere. Amongst them was an accumulation of many many years of experience and expertise! So, Dr Royster was faced on day one with a large district to run with no immediate help. So what did she do that you and others have second guessed her? She sought three of her trusted associates to come with her on a consultant basis to fill the breech – after all school started about 45 days later. BTW that label of the Supremes was correct as those three ladies were top notch professionals and something else you ought to know one of them was white! ^00^~
Karrie, I am trying to get an answer to your question about whether or not the proposed curriculum/program for the proposed GOP site could be successfully implemented if the school was rebuilt at the present GOS site. It may take a few days to get the answer, but will post it as soon as it is received.
This racism nonsense is nothing but a smokescreen.
Follow the money.
PrairieCelt: Great! Dr. Helms’ response to the citizen/taxpayer who asked the question, may also be contained in either the D150 minutes and/or the PPD minutes to be approved respectively on 18 Dec. and 20 Dec.
There have been several articles in the PJS recently which mentioned LaHood’s surprise over Camille Gibson’s involvement in the Mitzelfelt firing. His surprise is intriguing, because Gibson has exhibited a past pattern of similar behavior.
Within the past two years, Gibson participated in the “coup” that resulted in the ouster of Dr. Fiora Contino from the management of Opera Illinois. In fact, Gibson is reported to be the mastermind behind that action but somehow convinced another board member, Joan Janssen, to wear the “public face” for the board. Sources close to Contino report that Gibson went so far as to send Contino an email before the first contentions board meeting stating, “Dear Fiora, please don’t be too upset with me” (wisely, a hard copy of the email was saved and safely stored away).
Gibson’s actions in that matter resulted in the departure of Contino, the resignation of about 25 longtime board members/financial supporters from the board of Opera Illinois, and gutted the ranks of its auxiliary service group, the Opera League. The board (at Gibson’s direction) replaced Contino with Bill and Margaret Swain, and their management, together with Gibson’s machinations, resulted in the cancellation of the 2006-07 opera season and replaced it with themed, small-scale concerts.
The Swains have since departed Peoria for Chicago, and professional grand opera is all but a memory. Granted, opera does not enjoy the same popularity and support as sports, but the demise of the company speaks to the decline in the health and viability of our community, and the shoddy ethics and tactics of some of our community leaders.
One wonders if Gibson repeated her bevavior – only this time Mary Harkrader was convinced to wear the “public face” of the board and Mitzelfelt was the terminated staff member. It is amazing how Gibson allows others to receive the credit for her accomplishments – it is very generous, indeed.
Most amazing misconceptions that the public is experiencing:
From: Jim Stowell — all the people that have been attending the various meetings for the past nine (9) months represent the ‘vocal minority’.
From: Dr. Gorentz — He presented a list of at least five (5) misconceptions — that the community is really in support of building the school in the park.
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Best Comments:
General Parker — Dr. Gorentz needs to learn about and show ‘professional courtesy’ to Councilman Bob Manning when Dr. Gorentz extended the time a few seconds and then abruptly told Bob that he was finished … knew about the rules … went into a speech about fairness at the same time that Dr. Gorentz tells the audience that sometimes extra time is given beyond the five (5) minute allotment.
General Parker — in response to the ‘vocal minority’ comment — he would rather count the tally from the vocal minority vs. the ‘phantom majority’ who were not there, because the vocal minority would still win.
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And One Feral Kat: Dr. Gorentz will ‘try’ to get me an answer about the fund transfer. When I asked when should I expect to hear back from him? Dr. Gorentz replied that he couldn’t give me a date. So, I vote ‘F’ on Goal 5 – Culture for Customer Service.
Almost had to use a backhoe to get out the door…..