Posted by markthoman on July 6, 2008
This is an unexpected turn that shows a staff willing to bring bad news to the public light. It would be nice if it’s always good news, but good news or bad news; what matters is that it’s accurate news so informed decisions can be made based on that accurate information.
Two items of note regarding budgeting and spending coming up for discussion at this week’s council workshop that reflect that mindset:
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Posted by markthoman on July 3, 2008
Compiled from the village budgets, and required standardized annual reports filed with the State Comptroller. These graphs represent select information, not everything. Trying to find “tells” of expenses for specific future purposes by going through the budget is all but impossible. Our budget reporting is not unique in being dense and difficult to understand; in fact DG does better than most communities. Someday it will be searchable, but that day is not now.
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Posted by markthoman on May 24, 2008
Posted in budget | 3 Comments »
Posted by markthoman on May 5, 2008
Posted in budget, flooding, infrastructure | 3 Comments »
Posted by markthoman on May 3, 2008
Sales tax receipts adjusted to reflect 3 month delay of disbursement by state back to village. HRST went up 2.62%/year, averaged over the 4 year period shown. Click on graphs for larger version.
Posted in Tax revenues, budget | No Comments »
Posted by markthoman on April 8, 2008
At Monday’s special Village Council Workshop staff rolled out a $95,400 plan to hire North Star Destination Strategies of Nashville TN for an “integrated branding and marketing initiative” for Downers Grove.
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Posted in branding, budget, planning, snark | 11 Comments »
Posted by markthoman on April 1, 2008
The bond issuance for construction of Fire Station #2 was for $10.2 million, and the total construction costs are firming up around $9.3 million. The bonds have been issued and it is not simply a matter of paying back the near million on the bond-you cannot necessarily do that. So what to do with the extra $$?
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Posted in budget, fire department, infrastructure | No Comments »
Posted by markthoman on April 1, 2008
Posted by markthoman on March 31, 2008
|
|
National Municipal Bond Yields:
Triple-A Rated, Tax-Exempt Insured Revenue Bonds
|
| |
CURRENT
YIELD |
PREVIOUS
YIELD |
CHANGE IN
YIELD |
28% EQ
YIELD |
1 WEEK PRIOR
YIELD |
1 MONTH PRIOR
YIELD |
6 MONTH PRIOR
YIELD |
| 2-Year |
2.38% |
2.37% |
0.01% |
3.31% |
2.46% |
2.44% |
3.59% |
| 5-Year |
3.04% |
3.04% |
0.00% |
4.22% |
3.04% |
2.88% |
3.69% |
| 7-Year |
3.45% |
3.45% |
0.00% |
4.79% |
3.44% |
3.17% |
3.79% |
| 10-Year |
4.05% |
4.05% |
0.00% |
5.62% |
4.05% |
3.67% |
4.02% |
| 15-Year |
4.79% |
4.79% |
0.00% |
6.65% |
4.80% |
4.31% |
4.43% |
| 20-Year |
5.04% |
5.04% |
0.00% |
7.00% |
5.00% |
4.72% |
4.63% |
| 30-Year |
5.19% |
5.19% |
0.00% |
7.21% |
5.16% |
4.87% |
4.66% |
|
General Obligation (GO) bonds typically are 1/4%+ or more higher. AA+ rates are a little higher than AAA.
Posted in budget, flooding, government | No Comments »
Posted by markthoman on March 30, 2008
That’s about the ratio of the sales tax increase vs. the property tax rebate granted in a special session of the County Board Saturday. Two of our three board members (Bennington and McMahon) did not show up at all. Nice job on doing your jobs, boys: last time anyone looked, you are both on the payroll. Try acting like it.
The Daily Herald’s Jake Griffin reports:
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Posted in budget, county, government | 2 Comments »
Posted by markthoman on March 29, 2008
Update:
Mark:
Thanks for the inquiry, it has always been our intention to place a
podcast/MP3 file of this meeting on the Village website.
If you have any other questions, please let me know.
Cara Pavlicek
Village Manager
Despite a light agenda for this Tuesday’s meeting, staff scheduled the village council to meet this Monday at 6pm in the Committee Room:
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Posted in budget, elected officials, flooding, government, public works | 3 Comments »
Posted by markthoman on March 29, 2008
Malfeasance: Misconduct or wrongdoing, especially by a public official.
The County Board met Wednesday in a special session to divy up the goodies provided by Gov. Blago’s sales tax kick to the groin of Illinois retail commerce. That swift kick that punishes us all for an incompetently run RTA supposedly adds millions for transportation purposes. Since King Bob was right by Blago’s side whispering in his ear for the now famous “and public safety” clause, DuPage County will not be spending any of that newly minted money on transportation projects.
Where will King Bob and his yes men legions will spend $20 million this year, and $40 million starting next year?
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Posted in budget, county, elected officials, ethics, government, infrastructure | No Comments »
Posted by markthoman on March 26, 2008
Posted in budget, elected officials, infrastructure | 1 Comment »
Posted by markthoman on March 21, 2008
Tuesday the village council will workshop hiring a lobbying firm based in Springfield to help convince IDOT, the legislature, and other needed entities that DG should get the $8.5 million out of state so we can start the Belmont underpass.
And to maybe end run DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, who made his position clear: he wasn’t about to help with any of “his” millions.
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Posted in budget, development, elected officials, infrastructure, muni code | No Comments »
Posted by markthoman on March 19, 2008
After a half year of asking and being ignored, the Downers Grove Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DGACOCAI) Legislative Council met Monday with DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, looking to get a commitment that part of the $20 million in newly minted sales tax revenues ($40 million next year) could help move the Belmont Avenue underpass forward.
Mayor Sandack and Commissioner Waldack reported on funding efforts at the Council meeting, and several others verified what went on at the Monday meeting, mainly: it’s good to be King (Bob)… Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in budget, development, elected officials, government, streets | 1 Comment »
Posted by markthoman on March 9, 2008
I rarely get many comments, but DGDood scraped a nerve here, saying in comments:
You should post this over at DGreport. More people need to see how we overpay. One reason local government wants to get this big stormwater public works project going is so they become indispensable cogs in that gravy train.
and three days later:
You still haven’t put this over at DGreport. Chicken? Don;t want to upset anyone? I’ll do it if you won’t. Where did you get the info?
This is where reports are put on-line at Daniel Hynes Office of the Comptroller. Municipalities are required to file annual standardized reports. It piqued my interest because DG has yet to file their 2007 report. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in budget, government | Tagged: budget, government | No Comments »
Posted by markthoman on March 5, 2008
I got the idea for this from Evanston Now, who ran a significantly more in depth analysis among Evanston and two nearby communities. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in budget, government | 7 Comments »
Posted by markthoman on February 6, 2008
Interim Director of Public Works Robin Weaver broke the sobering news to council tonight: the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is on the way, it’s closer than anyone thinks, and nothing anyone has done stops the 100% lethality of this pest. Evanston is getting hammered right now; hundreds of trees need removal, and their Public Works crews are swamped.
It’s all very sad. Ash trees had their foibles, but some, especially purple Ash, really are beautiful shade trees. Hardy, tolerant, robust, and completely vulnerable to a small bug from China. Probably the best way to know the EAB has arrived will be the tiny sideways ‘D’ holes in the tree, and the woodpeckers pecking away eating everyone they can find. Sorry, the woodpeckers don’t stop them either.
Public Works will be taking out 400-450 trees this year, trying to get ahead of the problem like everyone else did not. Replacing all those trees is going to cost money, and it is my intention to see what we residents might do to help lower the cost to the village. I’ll report in on this if/as things happen. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in budget, development, environment, infrastructure, public works, trees | 1 Comment »
Posted by markthoman on January 31, 2008
There are not direct links to this, but here’s the PACE BUS Circulator Study. Click on Project Reports, then scroll down to Service Specification Reports. Downers Grove has the full report. Chapter Three has the estimated costs, and estimated sources of revenue, such as they are. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in budget, downtown, infrastructure, shuttle | 3 Comments »
Posted by markthoman on January 30, 2008
The Village has more projects than stormwater projects this year. On a Tuesday when the council did not meet, members of Public Works showed residents what else is coming for the 2008 construction season.
The weather turned pretty lousy by 7pm, but there was pretty good attendance anyway.
I hoped DG’s newest news man RonBurgandy would be there, or even say, a columnist from the Sun, but there was no press at all. I took these pictures on my phone, so the light is suspect and makes everyone look shiny.
I didn’t think to take down names, so this amiable guy in the dark shirt is Bike Path Guy. He talked about the first two phases of signage and stripage for designated bikeways, so he’s also Sign Guy.
It’s tough adding in bikeways in DG because our streets typically don’t have the width in the older parts of town, and there isn’t much off-street path opportunity. Signage is important to alert drivers that bikers are around. Most pathways will be marked with signs every 220 feet or so. The two guys in the sign department will be very busy this year.
As usual, there were several staffers on hand to answer any questions. Deputy Village Manager Dave Fieldman was in good spirits. Usually he’s the guy who answers a lot of questions at council meetings (although Tom Dabareiner, Director of Community Development, is giving him a run for his money lately).
There were several PW guys there handling questions, so he had a light load for a change.
Like I said, my phone cam makes everyone look shiney, although the focus is always perfect. Yeah, Dave looked a little, I don’t know, blurry.
I talked briefly with Ms. Weaver to continue lobbying for saving our mature, non-ash, non-invasive parkway trees from straight line sidewalks (seeTrees Winning New Friends at Public Works ), and the Sidewalk Guys have the message to save every tree possible from now moving forward. Just in a three block run we saved 18 trees. Have to say, if she keeps to her plan we’ll save several hundred trees before we finish sidewalks in DG and get back up to speed on infrastructure. That matters.
L-to-R Village Manager Cara Pavlicek, Plan Commissioner Greg Beggs, and Public Works Director Robin Weaver.
Like I said, I didn’t think to write down names of people, so I only know the well-known names, so I don’t know who this guy is . Said his name was Ron something…
I’m kidding. Mayor Sandack was all smiles too, and took time to talk with residents and thank them for coming out in such bad weather.
Posted in budget, government, infrastructure, public works, sidewalks, streets | No Comments »
It appears 
The current agenda for tonight’s meeting includes the updated slides. There is one bullet point on the very bottom of page 4 that is not correct. It was an informative meeting, and I would urge everyone with an interest in knowing what is happening for the largest assumption of village debt ever to listen to the MP3 podcast file when it is posted.
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