Open meetings? We don’ need no steekin’ open meetings!

Peoria Mayor David Ransburg brings a corporate approach to solving the
city’s problems. He delegates. And holds meetings. And like most big
corporations, nothing really important gets done …

? /Journal Star/: Mayor outlines vision for city

/Ransburg opened his State of the City address Monday with that
story - personal testimony that what attracted him and his family to
Peoria some three decades ago is still here. At the same time, he
said, there is much work to be done to get to what we all want: safe
neighborhoods, good schools, clean streets.

Who and what and exactly how it will be done still is somewhat vague.

Ransburg wants to create “community councils” which will each be
assigned four goals under the topics of better government, better
education, better quality of life and a better local economy.
Basically, whoever is chosen for these councils will be trying to
find ways to make the city’s Vision 2020 plan a reality.

And whatever plans they adopt will be overseen by the Vision 2020
Leadership Council, which will report to the Peoria Civic
Federation, a private and exclusive group of CEO’s from the area’s
largest 40 employers./

Ransburg’s term in office has been noted by a reliance on calling in
experts and consultants. I was kind of under the impression that you ran
for office because /you/ had the ideas and expertise. Apparently, that’s
not the case in Ransburg’s Peoria. In his vision, the politicians are
the people who delegate decision-making to other people.

It doesn’t take a million-dollar consulting contract to figure out what
Peoria needs — less spending on economic development projects that
benefit favored contractors and businesses at the expense of existing
businesses and on the dime of taxpayers who want nothing more than
adequate police and fire protection and roads that don’t cause them to
lose their hubcaps.

And Ransburg has had just about enough of all those pesky questions from
the press.

/Even though the mayor’s flow chart has everything being overseen by
the Peoria Civic Federation, a private group which holds private
meetings, Ransburg downplayed concerns that the city’s future is
being set into motion without public scrutiny.

Still, it was at last year’s State of the City address that Ransburg
promoted a new task force to be led by former Caterpillar Inc. Vice
President Jim Despain. That task force was to focus on making city
government more efficient.

The /Journal Star/ filed suit to open up the task force’s private
meetings and, perhaps coincidentally, the task force was disbanded
shortly before the first court hearing./

Oh, great. Half of Peorians are already convinced that the City Council
is nothing more than a rubber stamp for a certain major employer, as
well as connected contractors, developers and real estate companies.

Now Ransburg wants to make it official by setting up a secret Star
Chamber that will make the /real /decisions behind closed doors.

It’s a nice article by city hall reporter Jennifer Davis. I hope it’s a
sign she’s starting to ween herself off her penchant for puffery
.