Word on the Street reveals that Bradley University’s “Institute for Principled Leadership [IPL] in Public Service” helped launched a rather unconventional City-County collaboration effort. In a surprising break from traditional negotiation, they didn’t tell the County Board anything about the endeavor. This simplified discussions considerably and was, by all accounts, non-confrontational. But the plan backfired when County Board members found out about it through the media. Rumor is that IPL will now have to resort to Plan B: communicating with all parties.

In a further effort to send mixed signals, they’ve dubbed the effort “PASS.” Yes. It’s an acronym that stands for “Peoria Area Shared Services.” (Here’s hoping Galesburg doesn’t attempt a similar acronym in their efforts to share services with Knox County.) IPL is now hoping that the County won’t pass on PASS after the PASS faux pas.