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Police spending too much time helping citizens

The City Council will be voting on a new fee a week from today (it’s actually on tonight’s agenda, but with a motion to defer until next Tuesday). Here’s the background information from the “request for council action”:

BACKGROUND: While reviewing the process for towing private vehicles, it was determined the Police Department had a considerable amount of time invested in processing vehicles from the initial tow to the release of the vehicle. In an effort to cover these costs, it was determined that an administrative fee of $25.00 per tow should be assessed. The Tow Operator will collect the $25 City administrative fee for each rotation tow the tow operator receives compensation for. The Tow Operator shall forward on a quarterly basis all City administrative fees collected, along with an accounting setting forth the number of rotation tows performed during the quarter, the number of rotation tows for which the operator was paid during the quarter, and the amount of City administrative fees forwarded. Upon adoption of this Ordinance, the new administrative fee would go into affect October 1, 2005.

FINANCIAL IMPACT: Estimated new revenues of $75,000.

IMPACT IF APPROVED: Estimated new revenues in the amount of $75,000 would be recognized in the General Fund to support Police Services.

IMPACT IF DENIED: The City would recognize no new revenue relating to towing of private vehicles.

First of all, what exactly is a “considerable amount of time”? And secondly, if time spent is the justification of this new fee, what else will the police want to charge us for in the future? Helping an elderly person change a flat tire? Calling an ambulance at the scene of an accident? Helping a lost child find his parents?

I’m sorry, but I just don’t think it’s asking too much to have the police call you a tow truck. I mean, isn’t that a basic service? Isn’t helping citizens part of their job? Aren’t they looking out for your safety and the safety of others by assisting you in this manner?

If time is such a problem, why did they just agree to be truancy officers for District 150? I like the idea of them being truancy officers and cooperating with the school district, but if their time is so crunched, why are they taking on additional responsibilities?

Now, if this passes next week, when your car breaks down and you need help, instead of getting help from police, you’ll essentially be assessed a fine. It’s kind of like getting a ticket for breaking down, only it doesn’t go on your record. I mean, if it’s not a punitive fine, what is it? A deterrent? Are we supposed to wave the police off if they come by offering “assistance” like you’d wave off guys with squeegies who want to wash your windows at stoplights?

Another thing that bugs me is that this is only going to mean a measly $75,000 extra per year for the city. Compare that to all the money they’ve squandered looking into the water company buyout every few years. Or compare that to the money they’re throwing away to give away the Kellar Branch to the Park District instead of selling it to Pioneer for $565,000. You’d think the city had money to burn.

And who is this policy going to affect the most? Who is most likely to have a car that breaks down and needs a tow? Someone with an older car, perhaps? People who can’t afford a new car, so they keep driving the same old beaters to their minimum-wage jobs? Oh, let’s just come right out and say it — the poorer among us, right? I doubt anyone on the north end with their new Mercedes and AAA Motor Club membership is going to need the police to help them out. But the poor guy on the south side with an ’81 Buick trying to scrape by whose car breaks down on the way to work is going to get “help” from the police, for a small fee.

The council should shoot down this proposal. There have to be more equitable ways for the police to raise revenue.

Kellar Branch

Don’t ever say I don’t admit when I’m wrong

 

Upon further review, I’m going to do an about-face on my earlier comments about Pioneer Railcorp’s chances of winning their attempt to purchase the Kellar Branch. 
Apparently, if I’ve read some other Surface Transportation Board (STB) rulings correctly (and, seriously, who knows if I have?), an “offer of financial assistance,” or “OFA,” can be made in a discontinuance case only if the purpose is to subsidize the current carrier, not to purchase the line.  What that means is Pioneer will most likely lose their attempt to purchase the Kellar Branch, and, depending on how quickly the STB moves, we’ll probably be seeing a trail in the making as early as this fall.
The bad news is, while other communities create industrial parks with rail service from scratch and attract higher-paying industrial jobs to their cities, Peoria will tear out its rail service and probably fill up its “industrial park” with lower-paying retail jobs. 
But the good news is, we‘ll have the most precious commodity any community can ever have — one, without which, the future of our city would be bleak at best — an asset that will draw hundreds of new residents and attract millions in tourist dollars — a natural resource that will catapult us into financial independence and superior health:  a hiking and biking trail.  Lord knows how this city has survived for 161 years without it.

 

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Cardinals magic number: WON

If the Cardinals lost the rest of their games this season and Houston won the rest of their games this season, the two teams would be tied. Since the Cardinals won the season series against Houston, the Cardinals would win the tie-breaker. So, technically, their magic number is one, but they’ve essentially won the National League Central Division for 2005.

If they win one more game or Houston loses one more game, they will have “officially” clinched the Central Division. Go Cards!

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Cubs magic number: Three

Yes sir, only three more years until the Chicago Cubs can celebrate the 100th anniversary of the last time they won the World Series. Start planning now for the festivities! Let’s see, gotta get the Bartman pinata, the spit for the cursed-goat roast, a Harry Carey impersonator . . . .

Kellar Branch

Boiled Down

 

I was going to respond to this in the previous post’s comments section, but I thought it deserved its own blog entry.  I received this fair criticism of my last entry from an anonymous commenter:
I don’t think you’ve received any comments yet because this blog is opaque. Please boil this down to something the average interested person can understand.

I still think you’re off base for wanting to keep Brenkman in business at the expense of a good trail through a town that is seriously under-trailed. Your proposal to route the trail along and through Detweiler doesn’t keep the trail close to PEOPLE. I don’t want to have to put my bike in may car to get to a TRAIL!

First, I admit the last entry was pretty arcane, so let me attempt to “boil it down,” as requested:
Pioneer wants to buy the Kellar Branch line from the city.  The city doesn’t want to sell it because they want to tear it out and turn it into a hiking/biking trail.  However, there’s a possibility that Pioneer can force the city to sell the line against its will by going through the Surface Transportation Board (STB).  The STB has sole control over the railroad right of way; even though the city owns the line, they can’t just do with it what they want.  They would need to get STB approval to stop running trains over it and turn it into a trail.  However, the STB, as a rule, leans toward keeping rail service in place if there’s a carrier willing to service the line.  In fact, that’s why they allow forced acquisition of rail lines to begin with — to keep the trains running.
So, the city (or technically, their contracted rail carrier, Central Illinois Railway) has sent notice to the STB asking if they can discontinue service on the Kellar Branch.  Pioneer has sent notice to the STB that they want to buy it.  The city is trying to rebuff Pioneer’s offer by saying the Kellar Branch was abandoned in the early 80’s (which is true) and claiming Pioneer can’t offer to buy the line under these circumstances (which I think is false).  The upshot is that this will likely be another drawn-out case before the STB, and there’s a chance that Pioneer might win this one.
Secondly, I never said I was for “keep[ing] Brenkman in business.”  I’m simply for keeping the Kellar Branch a rail line for a variety of reasons you can read about in a previous blog entry.  
Finally, I love this final comment: “I don’t want to have to put my bike in [my] car to get to a TRAIL!”  And yet the Park District would have us believe that people will flock to Peoria to use our trails and have a huge economic impact.  Here’s someone who says they won’t even drive across town to use the trail — they’ll only use it if it’s in their back yard!  So much for all those tourism dollars from trail enthusiasts.  Ha!

 

Kellar Branch

Pioneer trying to force sale of Kellar Branch (told ya!)

Today, Central Illinois Railway (CIRY) filed with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to abandon the Kellar Branch line. And today, Pioneer Industrial Railway (PIRY) filed with the STB to purchase the Kellar Branch. Just as I predicted.

As you may recall from my previous post, “Congress and the STB have adopted procedures that make it possible to force the sale or subsidy of lines slated for abandonment,” “to encourage continued service.” The procedure for forcing a sale or subsidy is to file an “offer of financial assistance,” or “OFA.” Under this procedure, “any financially responsible party seeking to continue service on a line approved for abandonment (or exempted) may compel the railroad to sell or conduct subsidized operations over the line,” according to the STB website. That’s what Pioneer is trying to do.

The city, of course, doesn’t want that to happen. So, CIRY is trying to side-step Pioneer’s purchase request. This gets a little technical, so I apologize in advance. The legal maneuver is this: citing the STB’s ruling in City of Rochelle, Illinois — Adverse Discontinuance — Rochelle Railroad Company (5/27/1999), CIRY claims that Offers of Financial Assistance (the procedure for forcing sale of the line) need not be entertained because this is not an abandonment, but a discontinuance proceeding. The line was formally abandoned when the Rock Island line went belly up back in the early ’80s. If the STB buys this line of argument, then Pioneer can’t file and OFA, and the discontinuance will sail through unopposed.

However, I read this ruling, and it doesn’t say what CIRY and the city want it to say. First of all, in Rochelle, they weren’t asking to completely discontinue service and tear out the tracks. They were essentially asking the board to replace operators — i.e., replace Rochelle Railroad Company with a city contractor — just like when Peoria wanted to replace Pioneer with CIRY. What the board actually said in that case was, “offers of financial assistance will not be entertained in this proceeding, because the City is continuing to provide rail service over the line” (emphasis mine). In other words, they didn’t rule out a forced sale because it was a discontinuance proceeding, but because the city was still providing service over the line in question. Here in Peoria, that condition does not exist. The city wants to permanently discontinue service by any and all carriers.

Furthermore, it is clear from other filings that the STB accepts — even expects — Offers of Financial Assistance in discontinuance cases, not just abandonment cases as CIRY asserts. For instance, one need look no further than a case CIRY cites in their own filing: Norfolk Southern Railway Company — Discontinuance of Service — in Sumpter County, SC (8/30/2005). In that case, the board said:

Provided no formal expression of intent to file an offer of financial assistance (OFA) has been received, this exemption will be effective on September 29, 2005, unless stayed pending reconsideration. Petitions to stay and formal expressions of intent to file an OFA under 49 CFS 1152.27(c)(2), must be filed by September 9, 2005.

Now, why would they provide a deadline for filing an OFA if they disallow OFAs in discontinuance proceedings? I don’t think CIRY is going to win that one. But, by fighting it, they will continue to delay the proceeding. I’m not saying that Pioneer will prevail in forcing a sale of the line, but I am saying that the CIRY and the city will probably have to go through the OFA process, which will delay the Park District’s plans again. If they haven’t already, the Park District better start filing for another extension on their grant money.

This Kellar Branch saga is kinda like watching a chess match, isn’t it?

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Latin phrase of the day: stare decisis

I don’t know if any of you have been watching the confirmation hearings for John Roberts, but if you have, you know what I’m talking about. They must have said the phrase stare decisis (pronounced star’-ee dis-ice’-us) a million times this morning. Here’s a definition:

A Latin term meaning “to abide by decided cases”; this principle of the common law requires judges to apply previous binding decisions of their own court or any higher court.

I think it was made abundantly clear that Judge Roberts believes in stare decisis.

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Something Unusual

Well, since I live in a different part of town now, I started looking for a good, neighborhood grocery store to support, so I went to Haddad’s for the first time. There I experienced something that I haven’t seen since I was a little kid: they bag your groceries and carry them to the car for you. I could hardly believe my eyes. Imagine, a grocery store that actually serves the customer! Heck, most grocery stores today not only expect you to bag and carry your own groceries, but half of them want you to do the cashier’s job as well!

What a pleasant surprise. And the prices weren’t much different than Kroger or Schnucks. I think I’ll be going back to Haddad’s.

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Word Verification

Well, I’m sure you’ve all seen this by now, but I turned on “word verification” in my comments section.  That means that you will be shown a graphic of a word that only humans can read (so far — I’m sure some resourceful hackers are working on this) and you’ll have to type it in for verification in order to post a comment.
 
I had to do it.  I was getting a lot of spam comments, which is really annoying.  My original plan was to send the spammers to Singapore and have them caned mercilessly.  But, there were certain logistical and legal problems with that, so I turned on word verification.  Thanks for your understanding. 

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Peoria-to-Chicago environmentally-protected habitat

According to the Journal Star today, the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission identified “six Peoria-area environmental corridors and recommendations on how to preserve them.”  One of them is the “Peoria to Chillicothe bluffs:  steep, wooded, overlooking the Illinois River and habitat for numerous native plants and animals including the bobcat.”  Plans for preservation include:
requiring storm water management, natural landscaping and floodplain and topsoil protection. For the most sensitive sections, protection includes encouragement for landowners to use conservation easements and preservation of open spaces. Local governments could incorporate these requirements into zoning and other regulations.
The first thing I thought of when I read this is — it’s another setback for the long-suffering Peoria-to-Chicago highway project.  Proponents of a direct Peoria-to-Chicago expressway were disappointed when congressman LaHood supported simply widening Route 29 to a four-lane highway.  Now, that corridor could be in jeopardy if environmental preservation of the bluffs is legislated.  At best, it will add substantially to the cost of widening the road; at worst (for proponents, anyway), it will eliminate that corridor from any widening at all.
 
It should be noted that the Peoria-to-Chicago highway project is part of former mayor Ransburg’s “Vision 2020” plan (remember that?).  Ransburg said* that he would continue working on this plan even though he wasn’t mayor anymore, so I wonder what he thinks of this environmental report.  On second thought, who cares?  🙂
 
*Reminder:  you can’t believe anything Ransburg says.