Berwyn Township Meeting Schedule

[Terri]

The next Berwyn Township meeting is Monday June 8th at 6:30pm.

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http://www.toi.org/BERWYNTOWNSHIP/Calendar.asp

Calendar of Events
Date(s) Event Name Description
01/01/2009 - 12/31/2009 Meeting Schedule PUBLIC NOTICE

BERWYN TOWNSHIP
The Berwyn Township Board of Trustees will meet at 6:30 p.m. at 6600 W. 26th Street, Berwyn, IL, on the second Monday of the month unless otherwise noted. The dates are specified below.

Meeting dates for 2009
January    12th  - 2009
February     9th  - 2009
March     9th - 2009
April    13th - 2009
**14th - 2009
May    11th - 2009
***18th - 2009
June     8th - 2009
July    13th - 2009
August    10th - 2009
September    14th - 2009
October    14th (Wednesday) - 2009
November    16th - 2009
December    14th - 2009

** Annual Meeting
*** 2nd meeting for newly elected officials

Any deviations from this schedule must be done by motion of the Town Board and published as required by law.  Approved this 8th day of December 2008.

[rbain]

Maybe I'm just dumb about this, but what is the purpose of having a City of Berwyn AND a Berwyn Township? Sounds to me like having 2 park districts (plus a city Rec Dept.?), 2 school districts, etc.
Do we NEED such redundancy? (Other than the need for patronage positions...)

-Rob

[Ana]

I think almost everyone agrees with you.  No we don't need them.   Definitely, the Township in its current condition is worthless.  I called, asked questions about their function and the services they provide, not enough to justify having a Township.

[Cathy]

This topic was discussed in February when Felix brought up it's Rich history.

I think the Berwyn Township should be absorbed by the City of Berwyn.  

Here is some information that many will find interesting.  Momb posted it.



Illinois townships have been criticized as inefficient, ineffective, unnecessarily
duplicative, and poor managers of the taxpayers' dollars. One study using 1999 data showed that
townships spent almost $1 on salaries and administration for every $1 in services they delivered,
almost twice as much as other local governments (Kelly and Wills, 2000a). The state Comptroller
reported that townships' General administration expenses in 2002 were 38 percent of expenses,
significantly higher than any other local government. Counties were the next highest in
administration expenses at 22 percent followed by municipalities at 17.9 percent. Kelly and Wills
(2000b) found that every dollar in general assistance resulted in one or more dollars in
administrative costs. For example, Freeburg Township in St. Clair County spent $16,000 for a
welfare program that paid out only $1,800 the entire year. The cost of passing out welfare in
Benton Township was about $7,500 a month to administer a program that served no more than
six to 11 clients a month.
Townships are criticized for collecting taxes that are not needed. In 2002, townships, in
aggregate, had 118 percent of their operating budgets in cash reserves. Given current spending,
they could operate for over a year on current fund balances without any additional tax revenue.
Three hundred fourteen townships have enough surplus cash to cover at least two years' worth of
bills. Most government finance experts suggest that governments should have a reserve to cover
only a few months' expenses and that high cash reserves are an example of poor financial
planning. The Illinois Comptroller's Office (2002), recommends that governments largely
dependent on the property tax should have three to six months in operating reserves or at the
most 50 percent of their operating budget. Indeed, Illinois courts have ruled that excess
accumulation of tax dollars in one or more local government funds is illegal and can result in
successful challenges to a local government's tax levies.
The assessment of property taxes has often been criticized as lacking uniformity. This
criticism can be attributed to the tax assessment function falling under individual township
governments. As a result, property tax appeals are plentiful, time consuming, and at taxpayer
expense. Township roads often provide the most visible display of use of township tax dollars.
However, this function is criticized as being inherently wasteful and cost-ineffective. Maintaining
duplicative and costly road equipment in every township garage to plow and work on roads
frequently crossed by municipal, county and state roads creates a tremendous overhead expense.
It also requires an additional bureaucratic structure to operate and maintain the equipment and
supervise the function. Township road commissioners are accused as being more a friend to road
equipment salespeople than the property taxpayers. They are criticized as jealously holding on to
miles of rural roads as their own political turf (Richardson, 1993, p. .
Townships are criticized as bastions of patronage hiring. An analysis of township
employment gives some credence to this charge. The number of employees varies substantially
and seems to have little relationship to the population or unincorporated area of the township.
There also appears to be only a weak correlation to the programs offered and the size of the
budget. For example, in Lake County, Waukegan has 85,620 residents with 47 full-time and 32
part-time employees and Vernon with a population 62,202 has 60 full-and part-time employees.
Avon Township with only 7,300 fewer residents than Vernon has only 13 employees. Avon also
has more unincorporated area to service than either Waukegan or Vernon townships. The
disparity is not readily explainable, but Waukegan Township is home to the largest city in Lake
County with the largest political organization. In addition, Vernon Township's supervisor is a
twenty-year member of the Illinois General Assembly and Lake County's senior state senator.
Even though Waukegan has a larger population than Vernon and more people who qualify as low
income, the Vernon Township 1999 budget of $4.2 million overshadows Waukegan Township by
$1.2 million. The ratio of employees to population for Waukegan is 1,084, for Vernon 1,034 and
for Avon 4,224. One would suspect that the high number of employees per population served in
Waukegan and Vernon townships has some relationship to the influence of the political
organization in the townships.

As indicated previously, many townships incur incredibly high administrative costs as
they carry out their functions. There are some striking examples of the inefficiency of townships.
For example, one study found that Thornton Township employed nine workers to maintain 10
miles of roads. Another report indicated that Thornton spent $525,000 to hand out $220,000
in general assistance grants during the 1999-2000 fiscal year. In Palos and Orland townships, the
cost of administering general assistance grants exceeded the amount of the grants themselves by
340 percent and 320 percent, respectively (Kelly and Wills, 2000c; Szremski, 2003).
Cook County townships generally have higher administrative costs than the state-wide
average of 38 percent. Tables 7, 8, and 9 show the townships with the highest percent
administrative costs for the general fund, the general assistance fund and the road and bridge
fund. Note that all 10 townships in Table 7 have administrative costs in their general fund that
are larger than the state-wide average. In addition the general assistance administrative costs in
Table 8 for the top townships are higher than the general fund. Finally, the percent
administrative costs for the road fund in Table 9 have a substantial variance from the lowest to
the highest.

Townships with Highest Administrative Costs as % of Town Fund (2003-2004)
Town Administrative          % of Administrative                Township Fund Costs Costs
Calumet 583,850                  305,000                                        52%
Maine 3,205,430                1,675,233                                          52%
Rich 2,695,699                   1,403,172                                        52%
Berwyn 305,473                 155,051                                           51%
Palos 661,300                  313,000                                              47%
Schaumburg 3,599,832     1,663,351                                             46%
Northfield 933,100           410,600                                                  44%
Norwood Park 628,650       259,300                                               41%
Niles 1,491,175               600,900                                                 40%
Palatine 2,619,081        1,024,151                                                  39%

[Bonster]

I'll bet Tom Pavlik could give at least two good reasons for the redundancy; he's both the City Clerk and Township Clerk. 

[Snoopy]

That's two paychecks!  I heard rumor he gets three.  Must be nice!

[MRS. NORTHSIDER]

That's two paychecks!  I heard rumor he gets three.  Must be nice!

I've heard of double dipping but triple dipping - Good God Almighty!

[Berwyn Patsy]

What's the 3rd one?

[Snoopy]

I was hoping someone here could illuminate on that too.  As I said, it was a rumor that I heard.  I was told that he makes more money than the Mayor. 

[OakParkSpartan]

What's the 3rd one?

Possibly the township health district?

[Bonster]

Is he really getting multiple checks?  Seems like an inefficient waste of accounting and paperwork. 
Why not one fat one?

Regardless, can't fault the guy for this if true...no DCoB conspiracy here.  Didn't he hold the same positions as an IVBer?


Now, as to the function and veracity of a Township, who knows...watcher?  Tom?

[Ted]

... 2 school districts, etc.  Do we NEED such redundancy? (Other than the need for patronage positions...)

 The arguments given by some people in District 98 for not merging the school districts are:

1. "Financial stability" - District 98 has had a balanced budget for a number of years. The counter arugment is that District 98 is forced into a balanced budget because it has maxed out its debt, has a higher debt ratio and has a higher tax rate)

2. Small districts are "cozier" - Having a district that is smaller in size will be theoretically "closer to the kids and parents"

3. Fear of neglect - There is a fear amoung some north Berwyn residnts that if there was a merge with south Berwyn, the school district would be dominated by south Berwyn and north Berwyn schools would be neglected

4. Sperlik lawsuit - Finally, (in a very loud whisper), some school board members will mention the Sperlik law suit against District 100 and state they don't want to have to pay out the large financial settlements expected out of the law suit.


 The arguments given by some people in District 100 for not merging the school districts are:

1. Finances - The North Berwyn school district has a higher tax rate and has maxed out its debt while D100 has a debt ratio that is half of size of District 98.

2. Small districts are "cozier" - Having a district that is smaller in size will be theoretically "closer to the kids and parents"

3. Tax rate increase - If the districts were to merge, the taxes paid in south Berwyn would go up while the taxes in north Berwyn would probably go down.

4. Racism - Some people who don't like blacks or Hispanics want to keep their taxes in south Berwyn rather than pay taxes to support Hispanics and blacks living in north Berwyn.

Those are the arguments you will hear about not why the elementary school districts should not be merged.

[Berwyn Patsy]

They can erase racism from their list.  There are Hispanic
and black children living and going to school in south Berwyn.
Selfish not to share the law suit settlement, after all
Sperlik could have taught in a North Berwyn school. 
Poor excuses, if you ask me. It is 2009 now, time to
start moving the schools forward.
I was always amazed that the 2 districts 98 and 100, never
used the same text books, or even had the same days off.  Is that
still true?

[OakParkSpartan]

They can erase racism from their list.  There are Hispanic
and black children living and going to school in south Berwyn.
Selfish not to share the law suit settlement, after all
Sperlik could have taught in a North Berwyn school. 
Poor excuses, if you ask me. It is 2009 now, time to
start moving the schools forward.
I was always amazed that the 2 districts 98 and 100, never
used the same text books, or even had the same days off.  Is that
still true?

Not selfish. District 100 was responsible for hiring and supervising the guy.  Why should I be expected to pay for their screw up when I can't elect the officials?

As for the "close" argument, Berwyn is roughly 4 square miles.  That is a silly, silly argument.

I wonder if they use the same text books as well?

[buzz]

The thing I find "silly" is the whole North/South mentality.  We are one community.

[OakParkSpartan]

The thing I find "silly" is the whole North/South mentality.  We are one community.

We are.  But this screwup is on D100.

I wonder when someone will decide to start a petition drive to combine both park districts.  That would seem to be a logical first step IMHO.  No arguments that you are hurting the kids etc.  And if I recall, they already allow each areas residents to register for activities, thereby acting as if they were one district anyways.

[Thor]

Actually I think we should split into 2 cities, N Berwyn and S Berwyn. The north side can keep Lovero and his cronies and the south side can elect someone that will look out for its interests. It wouldn't take much since we already have seperate school and park districts.
I would nominate Mark Wiener for Mayor! and have his first official act to exile Bear to N Berwyn and second to get rid of the Township since alot of its duties are duplicated on the state level.
SARCASIM!!!

[Ana]

Love it!  Sorry Bon, you're on the wrong side of the tracks.  

As far as textbooks are concerned, seeing that both 98 and 100 feed into District 201, shouldn't they have the same core curriculum? 

[Berwyn Patsy]

It would make sense if the schools had the same core curriculum,
you would think!
This is something I have questioned, but don't think anyone could
answer???  Same goes with the same days off.

[mustang54]

  Years ago people in Cicero questioned having two seperate park districts. The answer was because of their size difference that as seperate districts one is eligable for certain programs and grants because of its small size,the other because its so large. If they merged into one they would lose some funds as one big district. I don't know if theres as big a difference in size in the two Berwyn districts where the same reason would apply.