11/11/08 Council Meeting

[EC]

Correction:

The demolition of the house behind the 16th Street fire station was NOT approved: it was refereed to the Historic Preservation Commission for review and recommendation per the recently passed demolition ordinance.

Also, I think it would be only fair to state that Ald. Chapman has been asking for audits and reports of the spending going through the drug forfeiture funds for the at least the past 8 years. She was always told it was none of her business, though I cannot recall her being told this from the current administration.

[OakParkSpartan]

  Chief Kushner replied that the former Finance Director Stephanie sent the audit information to the federal government and that was how they found out. To which Alderman Lovero replied that the city should have made sure the audit information sent to the federal government was seen to be in compliance before the audit information was sent.
  Alderman Lovero claimed that the agenda item was politically motivated. Alderman Chapman asked why it was even on the agenda, since it had no relevance to the city council   The Mayor replied that he thought it was important for the city council to know that the federal government was asking for $750,000.  Alderman Chapman stated that the city council had no control over how the police department spent the drug money and implied it was not the city council's responsibility to get involved?

Oh!  A conflict of interest within the DCoB? and in public!

Lovero says this should have gone thru the CITY first (to massage the numbers his party was responsible for, perhaps??).
Yet... Chapman says there is no reason for this to go through city council.    I understand "City" and "City Council" can be two different things, but they're treading murky waters here. 

See... It's a damn GOOD thing this went thru City Council.  How the hell else would we have found out about it?

"Politically motivated?"  
Lovero is exposing his (party's) hand.  IF he's so cock sure the "D"CoB is "different" than the BRDO, he should have nothing at all to worry about. 
He easily could have abandoned the "Berwyn Democratic" tag, but he's opted to rely on it...good luck with that, Bob. 

This seems to indicate to me that the audits were not done in a timely manner.  Why would Stephanie (hired in 2006 or 2007) be submitting reports for 2004?  Why the delay in the Shaugnessy administration?  Oh, that's right, they didn't submit the other audits to the state on time either.

[OakParkSpartan]

Correction:

The demolition of the house behind the 16th Street fire station was NOT approved: it was refereed to the Historic Preservation Commission for review and recommendation per the recently passed demolition ordinance.

Also, I think it would be only fair to state that Ald. Chapman has been asking for audits and reports of the spending going through the drug forfeiture funds for the at least the past 8 years. She was always told it was none of her business, though I cannot recall her being told this from the current administration.

Even if the house is deemed "historic", council can still vote to ignore their recommendation, correct? 

[ZORBA]

LOL!

[Terri]

  Chief Kushner replied that the former Finance Director Stephanie sent the audit information to the federal government and that was how they found out. To which Alderman Lovero replied that the city should have made sure the audit information sent to the federal government was seen to be in compliance before the audit information was sent.
  Alderman Lovero claimed that the agenda item was politically motivated. Alderman Chapman asked why it was even on the agenda, since it had no relevance to the city council   The Mayor replied that he thought it was important for the city council to know that the federal government was asking for $750,000.  Alderman Chapman stated that the city council had no control over how the police department spent the drug money and implied it was not the city council's responsibility to get involved?

Oh!  A conflict of interest within the DCoB? and in public!

Lovero says this should have gone thru the CITY first (to massage the numbers his party was responsible for, perhaps??).
Yet... Chapman says there is no reason for this to go through city council.    I understand "City" and "City Council" can be two different things, but they're treading murky waters here. 

See... It's a damn GOOD thing this went thru City Council.  How the hell else would we have found out about it?

"Politically motivated?"  
Lovero is exposing his (party's) hand.  IF he's so cock sure the "D"CoB is "different" than the BRDO, he should have nothing at all to worry about. 
He easily could have abandoned the "Berwyn Democratic" tag, but he's opted to rely on it...good luck with that, Bob. 

This seems to indicate to me that the audits were not done in a timely manner.  Why would Stephanie (hired in 2006 or 2007) be submitting reports for 2004?  Why the delay in the Shaugnessy administration?  Oh, that's right, they didn't submit the other audits to the state on time either.

It was an ethical and responsible decision for Stephanie to report the audit and to bring the DOJ findings to Council.   The Federal Government would find the misused funds at some point anyway.  Was there discussion on how to remedy the three quarter of a million dollars owed to the federal government?   

[Nazerac]

  Chief Kushner replied that the former Finance Director Stephanie sent the audit information to the federal government and that was how they found out. To which Alderman Lovero replied that the city should have made sure the audit information sent to the federal government was seen to be in compliance before the audit information was sent.
  Alderman Lovero claimed that the agenda item was politically motivated. Alderman Chapman asked why it was even on the agenda, since it had no relevance to the city council   The Mayor replied that he thought it was important for the city council to know that the federal government was asking for $750,000.  Alderman Chapman stated that the city council had no control over how the police department spent the drug money and implied it was not the city council's responsibility to get involved?

Oh!  A conflict of interest within the DCoB? and in public!

Lovero says this should have gone thru the CITY first (to massage the numbers his party was responsible for, perhaps??).
Yet... Chapman says there is no reason for this to go through city council.    I understand "City" and "City Council" can be two different things, but they're treading murky waters here. 

See... It's a damn GOOD thing this went thru City Council.  How the hell else would we have found out about it?

"Politically motivated?"  
Lovero is exposing his (party's) hand.  IF he's so cock sure the "D"CoB is "different" than the BRDO, he should have nothing at all to worry about. 
He easily could have abandoned the "Berwyn Democratic" tag, but he's opted to rely on it...good luck with that, Bob. 

This seems to indicate to me that the audits were not done in a timely manner.  Why would Stephanie (hired in 2006 or 2007) be submitting reports for 2004?  Why the delay in the Shaugnessy administration?  Oh, that's right, they didn't submit the other audits to the state on time either.

In my experience with Federal Grants, the audits can be 1-2 years after the grant initial grant cycle.  I've been audited for grants that were 2 and some years old.  I still can't believe that they didn't follow the grant's requirements.

[Ana]

We've lived here 10 years it's been a rat hole the whole time. Why? I suppose because it's abandoned and rats live in abandoned buildings. Did you take the tour a couple of years ago? They didn't even clean the dead rats out before they let people through the building.
I don't know why the city is in a deficit, overspending, the economy, politicians afraid to raise taxes....feel free to add to the list.

I don't think the bank building has been a "rat hole" the entire time you've lived here, I think that it has gradually gotten worse.  I believe there is still hope.  Preservation is expensive but sometimes you have to suck it up.  There are worthwhile causes and this is one of them.  There have been so many issues with respect to the bank building one that specifically comes to mind is the 2003 Stillo arrest for trying to pass a bribe from the developer, Josefik, to try to win City Council votes.  All work with respect to the bank building came to a standstill because of this, I believe.  This is what I mean, so much time and money has been spent on politicans' wrongdoings that should have been spent on the preservation of the bank building.

As far as why we are in a deficit, well I think the rest of this thread re audits is one answer.

[Berwyn Patsy]

Times are  tough, and I heard (gossip, I'll admit--but makes sense) that Arnie is having
a very hard time financially with running just a restaurant, therefore the "club" after hours
has kept him afloat.  More profits these days in clubbing then eating I guess.
Salernos at one time was a nice family restaurant in a nice family neighborhood.
The rodent problem was the start of the demise of Salerno's, the place went down hill after that.

[dukesdad]

Ana:

I beg to differ, but it has been a rat hole at least that long, if not longer. The Stillo indictment did not stop work, there was no work to stop. It has sat because it's not an economically viable project, never was never will be, politicians wrongdoing or not...IMHO. Now the wheels are in motion to turn the Marik Funeral Home into the next Cermak Road white elephant. Historic preservation is a noble cause, just bring a plan and dollars to the party.

[OakParkSpartan]

Ana:

I beg to differ, but it has been a rat hole at least that long, if not longer. The Stillo indictment did not stop work, there was no work to stop. It has sat because it's not an economically viable project, never was never will be, politicians wrongdoing or not...IMHO. Now the wheels are in motion to turn the Marik Funeral Home into the next Cermak Road white elephant. Historic preservation is a noble cause, just bring a plan and dollars to the party.

Given that the community has expressed a desire for historic preservation, why isn't the vaunted BDC paying attention to the residents wishes?  THEY should be bringing in business that suit the community, not working to tear down the history of the community to suit their ends.

I guess the better question is "Who does the BDC work for?"  The taxpayers?  Or the business owners that make up their membership (and a small minority of residents who aren't business owners)?

[Ana]

Isn't the BDC independent of the City?  They do not run on taxpayer money (do they?) so their interests are those of the members (business owners, some of whom do not live in Berwyn) of the BDC.  Correct?

[Ted]

Brian, the police union rep definitely made some type of statement about 15% layoffs and cut backs in the police department.  I remember it and wrote it down because I was surprised by the statement.  I didn't think there had been any layoffs in the police department.

  As for the electoral board, the whole electoral board is a conflict of interest, IMHO.  The members of the electoral board are Michael O'Connor, Robert Lovero and Thomas Pavlik.

  These are the people who rule on election challenges for the mayor's race and aldermanic races.  Talk about a conflict of interest.

  I think Jim Ramos was saying that the city's law firm (in this case Odelson) would have their livelihood depend on their benefactors getting re-elected; therefore, they could not be trusted to give an objective opinion where as an independent law firm would be more trusted to give an objective opinion because they would have no stake in a politician getting on the ballot.

  Ted

[dukesdad]

Isn't the BDC independent of the City?  They do not run on taxpayer money (do they?) so their interests are those of the members (business owners, some of whom do not live in Berwyn) of the BDC.  Correct?

A large part of the BDC budget comes from the city. Anyone know what %age?

[OakParkSpartan]

Isn't the BDC independent of the City?  They do not run on taxpayer money (do they?) so their interests are those of the members (business owners, some of whom do not live in Berwyn) of the BDC.  Correct?

A large part of the BDC budget comes from the city. Anyone know what %age?

The BDC gets roughly 1.2 million from the TIF's/City.  Membership dues are approximately $30,000.  Nice leverage.

[OakParkSpartan]

Brian, the police union rep definitely made some type of statement about 15% layoffs and cut backs in the police department.  I remember it and wrote it down because I was surprised by the statement.  I didn't think there had been any layoffs in the police department.

  As for the electoral board, the whole electoral board is a conflict of interest, IMHO.  The members of the electoral board are Michael O'Connor, Robert Lovero and Thomas Pavlik.

  These are the people who rule on election challenges for the mayor's race and aldermanic races.  Talk about a conflict of interest.

  I think Jim Ramos was saying that the city's law firm (in this case Odelson) would have their livelihood depend on their benefactors getting re-elected; therefore, they could not be trusted to give an objective opinion where as an independent law firm would be more trusted to give an objective opinion because they would have no stake in a politician getting on the ballot.

  Ted

I'd never heard of the electoral board before.  Where did you find this info, and does it describe their duties?

And that does seem to be a huge conflict of interest.

[mustang54]

Ana:

I beg to differ, but it has been a rat hole at least that long, if not longer. The Stillo indictment did not stop work, there was no work to stop. It has sat because it's not an economically viable project, never was never will be, politicians wrongdoing or not...IMHO. Now the wheels are in motion to turn the Marik Funeral Home into the next Cermak Road white elephant. Historic preservation is a noble cause, just bring a plan and dollars to the party.

Dukesdad is right on the money. If that bank needs 2 to 3 million in work it will remain an eyesoar for over a decade longer in these economic times. Especially when the city has no money to improve it. And yes, the funeral home will be destined to the same fate. The fastest,and cheapest way to revitalize Cermak is to take the wrecking ball to both of them. Once Cermak and Oak Park is developed watch how fast the rest of Cermak Road falls into place. There is nothing historic about bank buildings and funeral homes. Especially when they hold back economic development in a city that is starving for it.

[OakParkSpartan]

Ana:

I beg to differ, but it has been a rat hole at least that long, if not longer. The Stillo indictment did not stop work, there was no work to stop. It has sat because it's not an economically viable project, never was never will be, politicians wrongdoing or not...IMHO. Now the wheels are in motion to turn the Marik Funeral Home into the next Cermak Road white elephant. Historic preservation is a noble cause, just bring a plan and dollars to the party.

Dukesdad is right on the money. If that bank needs 2 to 3 million in work it will remain an eyesoar for over a decade longer in these economic times. Especially when the city has no money to improve it. And yes, the funeral home will be destined to the same fate. The fastest,and cheapest way to revitalize Cermak is to take the wrecking ball to both of them. Once Cermak and Oak Park is developed watch how fast the rest of Cermak Road falls into place. There is nothing historic about bank buildings and funeral homes. Especially when they hold back economic development in a city that is starving for it.

If there is nothing historic about the bank, why is it listed on the National Register of Historic Places???

[ZORBA]

Details, details, details Beian .....

Why preserve a historic bank building when "economic developent" will yield a strip mall with a Radio Shack, BoRics, and Taco Bell?

[dukesdad]

If there is nothing historic about the bank, why is it listed on the National Register of Historic Places???

Excellent question.

[Nazerac]

Details, details, details Beian .....

Why preserve a historic bank building when "economic developent" will yield a strip mall with a Radio Shack, BoRics, and Taco Bell?

A nail salon, and a taqueria.