Dear Anonymous Idiot

Getting the weekend off right

Take it somewhere else, jerk, like over to Sandack.  I put his cell phone down.  Talk to me (cell 630-750-5179) or to Ron or to us both, but in the meantime take the inflammatory rhetoric and start your own blog.

Comparing Citizens Summit to Strategic Planning

How does what residents say compare to what staff says is important to budget for?

TIF Districts: More

Does District 99 understand what TIF’s are doing to District 99?

From the DT TIF JBR minutes at the top of page 4:

Mr. Mark Staehlin commented that he wanted to clarify a statement made by Ms. Bennett. He said speaking from a school district perspective, any taxing body that is tax capped has not lost any dollars. He explained that the school district would get a consumer price increase (CPI) in their extension every year, so whatever  mount was levied last year the school district gets a CPI this year of 2.5 percent. Tax caps guarantee the  school district that same increment amount whether or not the property is protected by the  TIF.

5 Year Strategic Plan + 5 Year Budget Plan = ?

The Strategic Plan and the Budget Plan give a somewhat muddled snapshot of what taxpayers can expect in the near future. It isn’t pretty.

I need a picture of a bigger pile of money…

5 Year Strategic Plan v 2008

5 Year Strategic Plan v 2007

5 Year Budget Plan

When you read through both SP’s, they are basically a template with much the same information on both. That’s probably good; radical changes of direction or goals generally have negative connotations.

A New Village Manager Soon?

Eh, maybe not…

Red Fred checks in with another love letter:

to: Mark Thoman <markthoman@gmail.com>

date: Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 10:46AM

subject: Hey Idiot,

Don’t suppose you noticed the village website was off line this morning. Now there’s no link through to the Village Manager’s Office. And they been having executive session personnel meetings hot and heavy lately. Methinks they hired a replacement, probably Dave Van Voren, who used to work here and was replaced by Dave Fieldman.

Anytime you wanna wake up and smell the coffee, bro.

Can’t say about the website being down, but the VM link is definitely cold. My recollection is van Vooren is a likable guy, and started around the same time as Petrarca, 2002 or so, and he was the Deputy Village Manager. One budget session, maybe ‘03 or ‘04 he was on the hot seat, right when Rita Trainor started, maybe her first year.

The last time DG hired a VM, the two finalists were announced and introduced. Nothing along those lines yet. Council needs to make a call soon. Having the new hire in place before the ‘09 budget workshops begin makes sense.

UPDATE Wed 9/24: Council met in closed session again last night, Red. MT

Recycling Extravaganza Blows Away Expectations

Directly from the village website:

Recycling Extravaganza – Recap

Preliminary results are in from Saturday’s Recycling Extravaganza:

Citizen Summit 2008: Mr. Meaney Measures Messages

Private Citizen Tim Meaney, fellow member of the Downers Grove Coalition for Managed Redevelopment, weighs in:

At our August Coalition meeting, I volunteered to analyze some of the data comprising the output of this year’s Citizen Summit. As you will recall, the document prepared by the consultant simply transcribed the flipcharts generated at the Summit – no analysis, no interpretation, no commentary.

Frank, Andy, & Pete: Three Watchmen

Through it all, accountability front and center.

Right up front: this is a puff piece, just like the post on nice guy AVM Mike Baker. Lest you think standing up and pointing out the need to follow rules that make sense is a recent phenomenon, here’s three guys that everyone in DG should know, and say thank you to. They’ve been walking the walk, looking out for residents, and speaking truth to power for decades.

TIF Districts

First the Downtown TIF District, then the Ogden Avenue TIF District.

Update: The village has released the minutes from the annual JBR for the Downtown TIF DIstrict and the Ogden Avenue TIF District.

Summaries first in case you want to skip the details.

Large Hadron Rap

Next time you think hip hop and rap are all mindless, check out this high energy phat physics. Props to Hot Air.

Family Farmers Growing More Energy Crops

If somebody has to save the world, I’d rather it was farmers instead of Al Gore.

And no, this isn’t about DG. This is about ethanol production. To be specific, the different types of energy crop farmers grow. We can start drilling tomorrow and not see a drop for years. We can grow energy crops now, and be up to speed in two years max.

There are many types of organic crops that can be used to produce ethanol. Here in the US, big Agricorps and Bushco decided it was best for them to make corn based ethanol the organic crop based fuel of choice.

Red Fred Calls One in About Fairview Village

Red Fred emailed me his synopsis of the Plan Commission meeting Monday night, along with a “where the hell were you” rejoinder. Heh. Can’t be everywhere.

Here’s his report…

Pavlicek Sues

Court filing claims former Village Manager was fired without cause.