I am not thrilled with the City Council right now

I really, really thought there was a chance that this version of the Peoria City Council was going to different. I am really getting worried that I was wrong.*

Again and again, they passed up opportunities to stop spending money on non-essential stuff, which would have freed up money to return Fire Station 11 to full service fighting fires, or to rescind the hated $6 per month garbage tax.

But except for switching to merit-based pay increases for non-union staffers, they passed up on one opportunity after another to cut non-essential stuff out the budget, or in fact voted to reinsert non-essential spending that was left out of the once-balanced draft budget they already voted to accept (for discussion purposes, at least).

They voted to keep spending money to pay booking fees at the Peoria County Jail, as well as the salaries of two guards. Never mind that city residents pay two thirds of the costs of booking people in arrested in the city and county, and that county-only residents don’t pay the booking fee.

BTW: Councilmember John Morris and Mayor Jim Ardis did a very good job expressing the Peoria County Board’s point of view in this manner. I was under the impression that they were elected to the Peoria City Council. My bad.

In fact, Morris and Ardis seemed downright snippy with city administration (read: City Manager Randy Oliver) for submitting a budget that left out of a lot of stuff. Funny. I was under the impression that the council voted to order Oliver to come up with cuts so that the budget wouldn’t have a tax increase. Perhaps I’m just too literal.

As an aside: I think I have Morris’ problem figured out. He somehow got it in his head that his job is to represent the views of the committees to which he is assigned to the city council. Actually, it’s his job to represent the council on these committees.

The council also decided to continue paying for $100,000 in-kind services to Workforce Development. They did this even though no one could explain exactly what those services were, exactly how much it cost the city. And I listened to this rambling, overly long debate without hearing anyone bothering to explain exactly what it is Workforce Management does. I doubt it has anything to do with fighting fires and fixing roads, though.

The meeting ended shortly after midnight with the gang of 10 (Turner was absent) deciding to not decide on whether or not the city needs to have three employees in the Equal Opportunity Office. Barbara VanAuken pointed out that the office doesn’t do anything that can’t be done by other, already existing agencies. Of course, this led to arguments that racism is bad and that discrimination still exists. Valid points, but nothing that refutes arguments that this office does enough real work that justifies the salaries of three city employees, money that otherwise might be spent fighting fires, arresting criminals or filling potholes.

However, they did do one thing I really liked. They voted to not consider an additional 2 percent tax on amusements — like buying movie tickets, tickets to Civic Center events, and video and DVD rentals. I might have supported such a motion, had it been the second part of a motion to also eliminate the garbage tax or to fully fund Fire Station 11. Had they voted to raise this tax at the same time they declined to cut all this non-essential garbage, I do believe a blood vessel in my brain would have popped right there at the press table, and perhaps woke Dave Dahl from his nap.

UPDATE: * After a good night’s sleep, I think that the “pigs at the trough” image was a bit much, so I dumped it. And while I’m a bit miffed and disappointed at Tuesday’s missed opportunities to dump some non-essential spending, I realize there’s still more than a few meetings to go before we have a budget we’re stuck with. So we may stil see some good news regarding Fire Station 11 and the garbage tax.

UPDATE 2: Kudos to Jenny Davis for managing to cobble together this coherent report on last night’s meeting. I’ve covered too-long meetings that I had to write on deadline, before the meeting was over. She did a fine job, I thought.

UPDATE 3: VanAuken called this AM to defend Workforce Development. She called it a worthy program that is a model for the nation in how how it helps and trained workers and gives the city a return on the city’s investment. Peoria’s in-kind contributions leads to massive federal donations.

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