Tag Archives: City of Peoria

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Fire Department

City to add nine new firefighters thanks to grant

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The City of Peoria has been awarded a grant from the Department of Homeland Security for $1,558,107 that can be used to hire nine new firefighters. According to the council communication, “The grant covers both salary and benefits for the firefighters” for two years. The council will vote on accepting the grant at Tuesday’s council meeting.

The fire department applied for the grant through the Staffing For Adequate Fire & Emergency Response (SAFER) Grants program, which “was created to provide funding directly to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations in order to help them increase the number of trained, ‘front line’ firefighters available in their communities.”

City of Peoria, Crime

Police are busy finding criminals in Peoria

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No, not the criminals that are shooting at buses or committing armed robbery. The police are busy finding the real, hardened criminals in Peoria: Smokers.

Yes, when I survey the crime being committed in Peoria, I would have to put “smoking in bars” at the top of my list. How can city residents have any peace of mind knowing that some Joe down at Duffys Tap is puffing on a cigarette? I mean, really!

Fortunately for our fair city, the police are on it:

SMOKING VIOLATIONS. The Police Department has completed an unannounced inspection of bars in Peoria for potential smoking violations. The inspections took place over 4 separate occasions, for a total of 90 man hours. A complete list of establishments that were inspected is attached. A total of 8 citations were issued at 3 different locations, as follows:

  1. Cheers and Beers (4201 SW Adams), 2 citations for smokers, 1 citation to the bar for allowing smoking
  2. Duffys Tap (1900 W. Antoinette), 1 citation for a smoker, 1 citation to the bar for allowing smoking
  3. Behmer’s Dugout (2422 N. Knoxville), 2 citations for smokers, 1 citation to the bar for allowing smoking

Prior to the officers departure from each location, officers identified themselves to staff and informed them of their purpose and the outcome of the visit. This operation was possible due to Sheriff McCoy’s $5,000 sharing of a grant which he had been awarded for this purpose.

(Source: Issues Update 7/22/2011.) That’s right — 90 man hours and $5,000 in tax money (don’t let the “grant” language fool you — that just means it’s coming out of your left pocket instead of your right pocket). I’m glad we’re spending our time and money on ferreting out these scofflaws. Don’t you feel safer?

City Council, City of Peoria, Museum Block, Streets, Warehouse District

Peoria City Council Special Meeting 7-19-2011 (Live Blog)

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UPDATE: Here’s the audio from the meeting, as promised:

[audio:https://peoriachronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/Audio/Policy-Session-07192011.mp3]

There’s a special meeting (policy session) of the Peoria City Council tonight, and I’ll be live-blogging it. I’ll also put a recording of the meeting up once the meeting is over. All the council members are here except second-district council member Barbara Van Auken. The purpose of the meeting is to talk about the Washington Street corridor — specifically, what section of the street to work on improving first. After a short introduction by Patrick Urich (City Manager), the floor is opened to anyone who wants to address the council.

Continue reading Peoria City Council Special Meeting 7-19-2011 (Live Blog) →

Redistricting, West Bluff

Should the West Bluff be added to the first district?

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That’s one of the questions that will be debated at the West Bluff Council Redistricting Forum taking place tonight in the Michel Student Center Ballroom at Bradley University starting at 7 p.m. Of course, the West Bluff will be looking at it from their perspective (i.e., will it be good for the West Bluff to be included in the first district?).

Here’s one interesting point for the neighborhoods to consider from that perspective. In the last election (earlier this year), there were 552 ballots cast in the West Bluff (precincts 15 through 20), and there were 654 ballots cast in the entire first district (precincts 1 through 14). Additionally, on the proposed map, downtown moves out of the first district and into the third. Downtown (precinct 12) accounted for 105 of those first district votes in the last election. This would indicate that, if the proposed map were adopted and the West Bluff got moved to the first district, the West Bluff would likely have quite a bit of influence in the election of the first district representative.

Of course, it would also be a good idea to look at this from another perspective: Is having the West Bluff (and their influence) included in the first district good for the first district?

City Council, City of Peoria

Peoria City Council 7-12-2011 (Live Blog)

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Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Here I am at Peoria City Hall, Room 400, waiting for the city council meeting to start at 6:15 p.m. As always, I will be providing live reaction to the city council meeting, so if you’re following along live, be sure to refresh your browser periodically. There will be some preliminaries that I won’t cover; my coverage will start once the business portion of the meeting begins. You can see a hyperlinked version of the meeting agenda on the City’s website here.

And now, without further ado, here’s tonight’s agenda:

Continue reading Peoria City Council 7-12-2011 (Live Blog) →

City Council, City of Peoria

Growth Cell Report makes questionable assumptions

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The City of Peoria has released a new report on the supposed success of the City’s “growth cell” strategy.

2011 Growth Cell Report

The report states, “based on the calculations and assumptions used in this report, the following expenditures and revenues are reported for the Growth Cells from 1996 to 2010:”

Revenue $102,276,553
Capital Expenditure -$25,367,090
Operating Expenditure -$35,908,175
Difference Between Revenue and Expenditures $41,001,288

The key word in that statement is “assumptions.” In reading the report, it’s clear that the City does not have adequate actual data to use, so it must rely heavily on estimates of revenue and expenses. Their methodology for calculating those estimates is questionable.

For example, the report takes the total sales taxes and HRA taxes collected in the City and divides it by the number of acres zoned commercial in Peoria to get a per-acre value of sales/HRA taxes. It then takes that number and multiplies it by the number of commercially-zoned acres in the growth cells to estimate the revenue generated by the growth cells.

There are a couple problems with this methodology. First, it doesn’t account for the difference in density between older parts of the city and the growth cells. Let’s try a little thought experiment. Suppose you had Building A that takes up an acre in an older part of town. It relies on street parking and an adjacent parking deck from which they rent spaces, and it generates $10,000 in sales/HRA taxes per year. Building B also takes up an acre, but it sits on a four-acre lot in the growth cell. The other three acres include a large surface lot, driveway, setbacks, and screening. It also generates $10,000 in sales/HRA taxes per year.

Now let’s add their tax revenues together ($10,000 + $10,000 = $20,000) and divide by the total number of acres (1 + 4 = 5). What’s the average revenue per acre? It’s $20,000 divided by 5, or $4,000. Do you see where this is going? Using the City’s methodology, we take that $4,000 per acre and multiply it by the number of acres in the growth cell (4, in our example), and look, our “estimate” shows that the growth cell generates $16,000! Revenue from denser areas of town get artificially shifted to the growth cell through creative mathematics.

The revenue estimates also don’t take into account business and residents that move within the city, providing a gain to the growth cells but little or no net gain to the city. For instance, Menards closed their store on Pioneer Parkway (outside the growth cells) and moved to Allen Road (inside the growth cells). Is it really fair to credit Menards’ tax revenue to the growth cells?

So the revenue figures are suspect, but what about the expenses? There are three categories of expenses: capital costs, operating costs, and debt service. For capital costs, we’re given an “actual” figure of $18,819,227 — this is supposed to be the cumulative capital investment from 1996 through 2010. That means roughly $1.25 million per year has been spent in the growth cells. If you think that sounds really low, you’re not alone. It might help if we knew what capital projects were specifically included in that figure, but alas, the report does not give us that information. Does it include the building of three firehouses in the growth cell areas, for instance?

For debt service, the report states, “Calculations in this report account for the cost of debt service for sewers only,” but gives no explanation as to why. Is there really no other debt service in the growth cells? If there is other debt service, why wasn’t it included in the calculations?

Finally, the operating costs are figured on a per-acre basis just like the sales/HRA tax revenue: “The total operating budget for the City is divided by the total number of acres in the City, returning an average per acre cost. This cost is multiplied out over the total acreage in the Growth Cells to establish a base total cost. The result is discounted by 40% based on current data that indicates 60% of the total Growth Cell area within the City of Peoria is developed. [emphasis added] As operating costs are de minimis in non-developed areas, the costs associated with these areas was backed out of the final equation.

I have to question the 40% discount. Do the roads in undeveloped areas of the growth cell not have to be maintained? Do the firefighters and police officers not have to travel through undeveloped areas? Do the snow plows not have to plow the snow in these areas? And why is a discount for undeveloped property only on the expense side and not on the revenue side of the ledger?

This report should not be taken at face value. There are too many questionable assumptions.

Amtrak, City Council, City of Peoria

Peoria’s peculiar priorities

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The City has set its “top” and “high” strategic priorities at its latest planning session, reports the Journal Star:

Of 27 possibilities, the council labeled only six policy priorities as “top” priorities for 2011-12. Those included focusing on code enforcement performance and direction, developing a school strategy and action plan, focusing on short-term shared services with Peoria County, prioritizing city services, framing the city’s economic development strategy, and the redevelopment of the Hotel Pere Marquette into the $102 million Marriott Hotel project.

What do you think, Peoria? Are these your top priorities?

I agree with the focus on code enforcement, shared services with Peoria County, and prioritizing city services. I don’t know what “framing” our economic development strategy entails, but if it’s a discussion about what we will and won’t do to attract business, I think it would be a worthy discussion.

I question the value of spending city resources to develop a “school strategy and action plan.” We have separate public bodies that administer the public schools in this area. It seems redundant to me that the City would now be spending its time discussing schools, too. What’s next? Will area school districts start spending their time on a city strategy and action plan?

And then there’s the Wonderful Development. Despite the developer’s inability to meet any deadlines in either of the redevelopment agreements he’s inked with the City, and despite the fact that he’s having trouble paying his bills across the river, the City Council is apparently still just itching to give him $37 million of taxpayer money. Regardless of who is developing it, this is not a top priority in this city right now. The redevelopment of the Pere Marquette should be done by the private sector, just like the former Holiday Inn City Centre was recently transformed into a Four Points by Sheraton without any City assistance. The City has no business getting into the hotel business; they should let it go and focus on improving their core services instead.

The council also prioritized a management agenda for the coming year. Of the 14 items, the council selected “top” priorities for engaging the community on appropriate behavior, developing a neighborhood crime reduction strategy, containing health care costs, a community investment plan for capital and equipment, study fees, and reorganize the city.

That’s all well and good, but the real test of whether it’s a “top” priority will come at budget time. Will these priorities really be reflected in the budget? Or will the increased debt service created by non-essential items like the Wonderful Development crowd out the community’s top needs?

Developing a strategy for a four-year state university leaped to a “high priority” status for the City Council to address…. [City Manager Patrick Urich] said in the next six months, the council will have discussions with state lawmakers and other state officials about whether there is an opportunity for Peoria to land a four-year public school…. Other “high priority” polices included directing an early retirement program for city employees, updating financial policies, providing more assistance for businesses, developing a strategy for landlord and tenant accountability, and advocating for a rail link between Peoria and Normal.

I’m befuddled by this attempt to attract a new four-year public university. Where did this idea come from? How long has the council been talking about it? How did this rise to the top of the list?

I like the idea of working on a strategy for landlord and tenant accountability; hopefully something positive will come from that. Updating financial policies is certainly a good idea, assuming they strengthen fiscally-conservative policies.

I think we currently provide more than enough “assistance for businesses.” We regularly waive our zoning regulations to the detriment of surrounding homeowners. We use the Enterprise Zone to benefit businesses all over the city instead of the depressed areas it was intended to help. We loan taxpayer money to businesses that doesn’t always get repaid, and we give away no small amount of tax money as a direct subsidy/grant (e.g., $37 million for the Wonderful Development). We can’t afford the “assistance for businesses” we’re providing now; how can we afford to do more? Oh, that’s right, we’ll cut police, fire, road maintenance, and other basic services.

And finally, they’re now advocating for a rail link with Normal. I applaud the priority to reestablish rail service to Peoria, but the rail link needs to be with Chicago, not Normal. Nobody wants to take a train to Normal. Such a link would not attract enough ridership to be feasible. I’ve written on this topic at length before; you can read more here and here.

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Quiz: What did the desk clerk know of Peoria? (UPDATED)

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I was recently on vacation with my family when we stopped at a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. The front desk clerk asked me where I was from, and I told him Peoria. What question do you think the desk clerk asked me next?

A. “Peoria? Isn’t that Richard’s home town?”
B. “Peoria? Isn’t that the place people like to make fun of?”
C. “Peoria? Do you work for Caterpillar?”
D. “Peoria? Home of Big Al’s?”
E. “Peoria? Is that where they’re building that new Global Immersion Theater?”

UPDATE: The answer is A. The conversation went like this:

“Where are y’all from?”

“Peoria, Illinois.”

“Peoria? Isn’t that Richard’s home town?”

“Yes, yes it is. He wasn’t too proud of his home town, though.”

“Yeah, born in a whorehouse he said, but was that true or just part of his act?” he asked rhetorically. “He was a very multi-talented man.”

City Council, City of Peoria, Redistricting

Redistricting committee forwards Map #12 to full Council

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The City Council’s redistricting committee voted to recommend Map #12 to the full Council for discussion:

(Click on map for larger image)

I was out of town and unable to attend the meeting. But the Journal Star reports the map was approved by a 3-1 vote. Voting in favor were Barbara Van Auken (2nd Dist.), Tim Riggenbach (3rd Dist.), and Bill Spears (4th Dist.). Dan Irving (5th Dist.) voted against the map, and Clyde Gulley (1st Dist.) “was absent from the vote.”

As mentioned in a previous post, this map would move the West Bluff into the first district (from the second), and move downtown Peoria — including the Warehouse District — to the third district (from the first). The second district boundary has moved to the north. And north Peoria is more evenly divided between the fourth and fifth districts.

Spears, the chairman of the redistricting committee, reportedly said that the map, “if it’s approved by the council or not, will return to the committee for further public discussion,” after it’s discussed by the full Council.

What are your thoughts on the proposed new boundaries?

City of Peoria, Peoria Fire Department, Peoria Police

More kids being kids (UPDATED 2x)

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Remember when we were kids, and how much fun it was to point fireworks at police officers and firefighters and shoot them off?

What, you didn’t do that? Well, that’s just the latest incident of kids being kids here in Peoria:

A “major incident” involving a large group of people shooting fireworks at police and firefighters occurred near the Taft Homes just before 10 p.m. Sunday, about the same time the fireworks show on the riverfront was ending.

Police had to briefly shut down Adams and Eaton streets, near Taft, as they dispersed the large crowds.

No officers or firefighters were injured, dispatchers said on the radio.

At one point, police were ordered to tell those in the crowd to go into their apartments, leave or be arrested for unlawful assembly.

I’m sure it was just a party that was letting out, and this large group was on its way home, having a little fun. There was no property damage or injuries, so there’s no reason for concern. In fact, I wonder if the fireworks were really being shot at police and fire personnel at all, given that there are no interviews with neighbors who corroborate that story.

[/sarcasm]

UPDATE: Another news source in town — 1470 WMBD — is now reporting that there were injuries. “One police officer was treated for minor burns and hearing loss, while police say a fire fighter was treated for hearing loss,” according to their report. They also say that police described the event as a “riot.” I question whether these reports are true, however, since the Journal Star said there weren’t any injuries. After all, the Journal Star has editors that vet these stories before printing them to make sure they’re accurate. They wouldn’t just print something they heard on police radio without verifying it with two other sources. Right?

UPDATE 2: The Journal Star has updated their story. They are now confirming that there were injuries to police officers and firefighters. And they have some video of the incident. I was most interested in the City’s plans to deal with this situation in the future:

The fire engine never made it to the burning trash bin. [Division Chief Gary] Van Voorhis said the fire was not threatening residents or property and was allowed to burn as officers assisted the engine in turning around and exiting Taft. […] Van Voorhis added that firefighters have been targeted by fireworks before, but that the magnitude of the incident Monday was unprecedented. In response, the department will review its policy of how to respond to crowded areas with fires that don’t appear to threaten anyone’s physical well-being or nearby property.

Peoria police, too, will devise enhanced security measures for Taft Homes next year, Burgess said. Revelers there have traditionally held private firework displays on the Fourth and previously made targets of police and passersby, though not to the same extent as Monday.

If I were on the City Council, I would also want to know why this “tradition” of illegal fireworks displays on PHA property and targeting of police and passersby has not been addressed before it escalated to this level. I would also want to know what effect recent cuts to police staffing levels have had in the police department’s ability to respond to this riot.