Tag Archives: Karrie Alms

2010 Election, Peoria County

Peoria County Board, District 3: Karrie Alms

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I’ve known Karrie Alms for a few years now, and I can tell you this: when she tells you that she believes in transparency in government, following established processes, and giving citizens the opportunity to have meaningful input — she means it. She has worked harder than anyone I know to hold our government leaders accountable. That’s not always easy. It often involves making dozens of calls and requesting a lot of documents through the Freedom of Information Act. Once, it even required taking legal action against the Park District at her own personal expense.

Karrie makes decisions on principle, not out of political expediency. Those principles include common-sense positions such as taking care of needs before wants (a basic-services-first position), keeping our debt load as low as possible, and keeping citizens informed and engaged in the decision-making process. She’s an independent thinker who makes decisions based on facts, wherever those facts may lead. She’s relentless in her search for all the information she needs to make the best decision.

Accessible, responsible, transparent, principled — these are the kinds of attributes I think everyone wants in a representative, and Karrie Alms has them. She is endorsed.

2010 Election, Chamber of Commerce

Chamber endorsements always a mystery

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The Journal Star is wondering why the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce PAC endorsed Jehan Gordon over Jim Montelongo. I suspect it has everything to do with Montelongo’s vote against the Wonderful Development back in May. The Journal Star didn’t mention that the Chamber PAC also endorsed Lynn Pearson for County Board over Karrie Alms, even though Pearson is also a Democrat and no friend to business. Why? Alms is opposed to the current plan for the museum, which the Chamber supports, and Pearson was for it.

It appears to me that the Chamber has a litmus test for candidates. You have to endorse the Chambers’ pet projects or you will not be endorsed by their political action committee. Your philosophy or record on business issues is irrelevant to them.

2010 Election

Karrie Alms is running for County Board, not City Council

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Apparently there’s a rumor going around town that renowned activist Karrie Alms is circulating petitions for an at-large seat on the City Council. Not true, says Alms. She’s running for County Board and only County Board. She’ll be facing incumbent third district Representative Lynn Pearson in the November election. Pearson is the Democrat candidate; Alms is running on the Republican ticket. The third district’s boundaries, according to the Peoria County website, are “Downtown and northeast along the river, with boundaries of Knoxville, Nebraska, and Glen Oak Park.”

Museum Block, Peoria County

Museum looks to meet private shortfall with public funds

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The latest town hall meeting on the county sales tax referendum took place tonight at Dunlap Valley Middle School. The presenters were Brad McMillan for the museum, Erik Bush for the county, and Karrie Alms for Citizens for Responsible Spending. I was pleased to see that tonight’s meeting was a balanced presentation, pro and con. Kudos to the county for now allowing both sides a seat at the table.

While most of the evening was filled with no new information, there was one significant development. As you may know, the museum has set separate goals for private and public funding. The sales tax is supposed to plug the gap in public funding, but there is still an $11 million shortfall on the private funding side. At just about every meeting, the question is raised as to how the museum group plans to close that $11 million private funding gap. And the answer has always been that they’ve gotten a commitment from the CEO Roundtable to raise $8 million of it, and that they’re confident that people will come out of the wings to support the project once they know the public funding is in place. Sounds far-fetched to me for various reasons, but I don’t want to digress on that right now.

What we learned tonight is that they are also trying to plug that gap with (perhaps not surprisingly) more public money from state and federal sources. Mr. McMillan said the group is working with state senators Risinger and Koehler, as well as Congressman Schock to get grants, stimulus money, and any other funds the government might have lying around that could go toward the museum.

This indicates a bit of a shift in strategy on the museum’s part. It would appear that they are now changing their public/private funding goals. Why might they be doing this? Could it be because they don’t really believe they can make up that $11 million shortfall with private donations after all?

(P.S. On a side note, do you remember a comment on another post from “kcdad” where he said today’s schools are set up to teach children consumerism? Well, after seeing the brand new, state-of-the-art Dunlap Valley Middle School tonight, I’m inclined to agree with him. The building looks like a shopping mall inside and out, not an educational institution. Architecture and environment teach you something about what a community values; clearly the value here is consumerism.)