City Council Agenda February 9, 2010

[Terri]

http://www.berwyn-il.gov/pdf/MtgAgendas/2010/20100209-CouAgenda.pdf

[moxnix]

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend last nights meeting.  Did anyone here attend?  Anything to report?

[OakParkSpartan]

Apparently for the payroll amount reported for the previous council and last nights was wrong in the agenda.

My understanding is that Ald. Paul questioned why payroll had dropped several hundred thousand dollars at the last meeting and was assured by the Mayor and Ald. Chapman the figures were correct.  They weren't.

Rather than reporting Gross Payroll, they were only approving Net Payroll.

You'd think that Mayor Lovero, who was the Budget Committee chair for several years and likewise with Ald. Chapman who is presently the Budget Committee chair would have wondered why their payroll dropped by several hundred dollars.

This episode does not inspire confidence that they are closely watching finances.

[n01_important]

Inspire confidence?  That assumes we had some confidence in them. 

Any all such confidence was lost in my book when they continue to articulate their wetdream of filling budget gaps with "grants and monies from the state".

This just tells me that nothing has changed.

[EC]

Relying on grants and program money to balance a budget is a bad practice unless it is to be used for a temporary program. Once that money dries up, you're back to square one again.

[Thor]

Apparently for the payroll amount reported for the previous council and last nights was wrong in the agenda.

My understanding is that Ald. Paul questioned why payroll had dropped several hundred thousand dollars at the last meeting and was assured by the Mayor and Ald. Chapman the figures were correct.  They weren't.

Rather than reporting Gross Payroll, they were only approving Net Payroll.

You'd think that Mayor Lovero, who was the Budget Committee chair for several years and likewise with Ald. Chapman who is presently the Budget Committee chair would have wondered why their payroll dropped by several hundred dollars.

This episode does not inspire confidence that they are closely watching finances.

Oh come on Brian you need to keep you're mouths shut, ears open, and see what happens.
Seriously yet another great catch for Ald Paul and a pretty scary oversight on behalf of the mayor and ald chapman. Kinda makes you wonder what other mistakes they are making while holding the purse strings. Probably too busy planning festivals.

[Terri]

The January 20th consent agenda listed the city payroll at $584,759.58. Before the consent agenda was approved Alderman Paul asked council why the payroll numbers were so different, almost $300,000 less than it should have been. The city payroll amounts approved each council meeting are generally between $880,000 to $900,000.  Both Mayor Lovero and Budget Chairman Chapman said the numbers were correct.

When I read the February 9th agenda I noticed the payroll figures were again out of line, $580,484.22 to be approved. Because Alderman Paul was told the payroll was correct I needed to know why there was again a difference of approximately $300,000 less. I sent an email to Alderman Chapman to ask if there had been a change in the system to show only the net payroll amount and a shift of benefit expense amounts into another account. And since I didn't believe the City had laid off employees or lowered salaries I hoped as Budget Chairman she could explain the difference. I also copied the Mayor, Finance Director and all of our Alderman.

At Tuesday's council meeting there was a motion to remove the payroll from the consent agenda for a correction. Alderman Paul was right, the payroll numbers were wrong.

[NYWREB]

Relying on grants and program money to balance a budget is a bad practice unless it is to be used for a temporary program. Once that money dries up, you're back to square one again.

You are in a worse position than square one...  You are in a position to fall off a cliff.  When these temporary funds dry up we will have a bigger hole than we do now.  Only 3% of cities in the US have raised taxes as a way to deal with budget deficiets.  97% of cities are making hard decisions - reworking benefit packages, moving to 4 day work weeks, taking a hard line bargaining approach with their unions.   (This data is from the national leauge of cities). 

Welcome to Berwyn... we're in the 3%...  and we will be in worse shape when this fiscal crisis is over becuase our administration is NOT using this opportunity to make the hard decisions and implment changes in what services are delivered and how they are delivered.  In these fiscal times, do we really need our own "township health department".?

Why are we still fueling the failing Main Street Program?

Why are our taxes increasing and te unions getting raises?  Who in private sector is getting raises these days??

[EC]

You are probably correct, but the point I was trying to make is that when the money runs out, you're back to having nothing again.

[n01_important]

Look at it this way... they screwed the Berwyn residents and raised taxes 15% at the very last minute while telling us all throughout the year, "we are working on reducing the budget"... and what were the consequences? 

How many people protested at City Hall?  None.
How many wrote letters of protest?  Maybe a handful.
How many made phone calls to their aldermen and part-time mayor?  Probably none.
How many people raised an eyebrow?  Other than a few of us at BTF, not many.

They took care of the constituents that would protest and screwed the ones too busy watching TV to raise an eyebrow.  I'm beginning to think they were politically astute... irresponsible, short sighted, incompetent and lazy but very politically astute.

[OakParkSpartan]

Look at it this way... they screwed the Berwyn residents and raised taxes 15% at the very last minute while telling us all throughout the year, "we are working on reducing the budget"... and what were the consequences? 

How many people protested at City Hall?  None.
How many wrote letters of protest?  Maybe a handful.
How many made phone calls to their aldermen and part-time mayor?  Probably none.
How many people raised an eyebrow?  Other than a few of us at BTF, not many.

They took care of the constituents that would protest and screwed the ones too busy watching TV to raise an eyebrow.  I'm beginning to think they were politically astute... irresponsible, short sighted, incompetent and lazy but very politically astute.

I doubt many people know that taxes went up.  Hardly anyone reads the Life.  There is no alternative newspaper.

[MRS. NORTHSIDER]

The vast majority of homeowners have their taxes and insurance incorporated into their mortgage payment and don't even realize that taxes have gone up until they get a notice from the bank that their payment is going up because their escrow is in the negative because taxes have gone up.  Even then, spread across 12 months it really doesn't seem so bad and most people just accept it as a fact of life - bills usually go up.  On the other hand, you have people who pay their taxes themselves (me) and suddenly have to come up with a much larger outlay of cash than anticipated when taxes go up and that hurts.  Which is why I appeal my taxes every chance I get and wish more of my neighbors would.

[n01_important]

The vast majority of homeowners have their taxes and insurance incorporated into their mortgage payment and don't even realize that taxes have gone up until they get a notice from the bank that their payment is going up because their escrow is in the negative because taxes have gone up.  Even then, spread across 12 months it really doesn't seem so bad and most people just accept it as a fact of life - bills usually go up.  On the other hand, you have people who pay their taxes themselves (me) and suddenly have to come up with a much larger outlay of cash than anticipated when taxes go up and that hurts.  Which is why I appeal my taxes every chance I get and wish more of my neighbors would.

Agree with most of your post.  Sad but true, most of our fellow residents are either defeatists ("oh, we can never change it anyway"), idiots ("our taxes went up?") or clueless ("taxes?").

I disagree with "wish more of my neighbors would"... from all I could read on BTF and other areas, the tax pool is fixed... so if you succeed in lower your assessment then someone else has to pay more to make up the gap. 

The system SEEMS to be set  up to be a "beggar thy neighbor".   If that is true, it's better that no one else but you appeals.   

[MRS. NORTHSIDER]

N01 - You're totally wrong on the "beggar your neighbor" post which means you really don't understand how the assessor's office works.  The more neighbors that appeal their assessments and have them lowered is better for you.  The bottom line is basically that your assessment will go up every three years and if people don't appeal those higher assessments the higher assessments will be your comparables which means you basically have no leg to stand on in your appeal.  I had a very helpful taxpayer advocate help me out about 10 years ago who when my assessment was lowered basically told me "you are now lower than your neighbors and that's all you can ask for".  The town will collect taxes on whatever your assessment is - no one has to pay more taxes because your assessment is less.

[Ted]

N01 - You're totally wrong on the "beggar your neighbor" post which means you really don't understand how the assessor's office works.  The more neighbors that appeal their assessments and have them lowered is better for you.  The bottom line is basically that your assessment will go up every three years and if people don't appeal those higher assessments the higher assessments will be your comparables which means you basically have no leg to stand on in your appeal.  I had a very helpful taxpayer advocate help me out about 10 years ago who when my assessment was lowered basically told me "you are now lower than your neighbors and that's all you can ask for".  The town will collect taxes on whatever your assessment is - no one has to pay more taxes because your assessment is less.

  Mrs. N, I think N01 is right on this.  If your assessment goes down, then other people who have not had their assessment go down with have to pay more taxes.

  It's like a giant pie - your assessment indicates how much of the pie you have to pay for. If your percentage of the pie goes down, someone else has to make up for that decrease.

Ted

[n01_important]

I also proceeded my statements with "from all I could read on BTF and other areas," and "The system SEEMS..." to make it clear that I really don't know for sure.

But none of that matter when your intent is to bash No1    Now I know how Obama feels.   

[MRS. NORTHSIDER]

I also proceeded my statements with "from all I could read on BTF and other areas," and "The system SEEMS..." to make it clear that I really don't know for sure.

But none of that matter when your intent is to bash No1    Now I know how Obama feels.   

Please, get over yourself.  And I disagree not only with you, but also with Ted, on how the assessor's office figures out how much we will pay in taxes and the system that created such.

[buzz]

The vast majority of homeowners have their taxes and insurance incorporated into their mortgage payment and don't even realize that taxes have gone up until they get a notice from the bank that their payment is going up because their escrow is in the negative because taxes have gone up. 

I'm lucky.  My home is paid for.
This year my home insurance went up 6.9%  Never had a claim.
It's not just taxes.  People tend to lose track of rising home insurance rates because it all comes out of the escrow account and is spread over the year.