What’s a politician to do when the word on the street isn’t favorable? Complain to someone at Word on the Street, which is what Jim Montelongo when he started hearing people thought some of the stuff he was doing as a member of Peoria City Council was *gasp* politically motivated.
Montelongo, a Republican, is the likely opponent to state Rep. Jehan Gordon, D-Peoria, in the November 2010 general election.
“Anything I do now is politically motived no matter what it is,” Montelongo said, referring to critics who believe his votes on the council floor are done with a political motivation. “I don’t have a response for that other than I’m doing my job right now as a city council person.”
He also defended his “Peoria Makeover” proposal against similar criticism, saying Peoria’s neighborhoods really isn’t state business.
In my original post about the Peoria Makeover suggestion, I took it as a given that Montelongo was hoping that people would like the idea and it would translate into votes.
I made that assumption because, well, that’s the way politics works everywhere in the known universe where people have the right to vote.
Montelongo apparently objects to people thinking he would dirty himself by doing something voters might like well enough to elect him to higher office.
My complaint was preemptive. I think that after the votes are in, it would end up on the shelf will all the other spiffy ideas that come out of Peoria City Council members’ mouths when they are stumping for votes.
This is the second time in as many weeks where the PJS’s Monday-morning local politics column was used by members of the city council to dispel an idea being disseminated in the Blogosphere.
Critics of publicly financing a Downtown hotel have linked last year’s City Council vote to extend $39.3 million in bonds for the $102 million Marriott with this year’s budget reduction decisions.
Some council members are fighting back, saying the criticism is unfair and inaccurate. They say the bond issue for the hotel project has nothing to do with next year’s budget deficit, or with the budget in general.
“There is a misperception being promoted that the city has $39 million in the bank and is giving it away to a private developer when that is just not the case,” at-large City Councilman Ryan Spain said.
Of course it’s unfair and inaccurate. The taxpayer money for cops, firefighters, roads and sidewalks come from the wad of cash the city keeps in its right pocket. The wad of taxpayer money they use to pay millionaire developers to build stuff is normally kept in the city’s left pocket.
Silly bloggers. We’re always complaining about deteriorating infrastructure and criminals running around without enough cops to arrest them while millionaires get millions in tax breaks.
And thank goodness the Journal Star is there to offer council members a place to complain without all that silly taxpayer perspective.
End sarcasm.
Tags: Jim Montelongo, Peoria City Council, Word on the Street
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Well… Mr Montelongo did vote to layoff a sizable number of police officers. Being a Republican candidate who is a soft on crime is …. a prescription for failure.
Well, let’s be honest here. He did pitch an idea to form a non profit, of which he would surely lead, to raise money to do something that is already being addressed in the community. If he were to come out and help some of these other organizations raise money to keep doing what they were already doing, then this wouldn’t seem anywhere near as political.
Exactly. This is my problem with how things are done sometimes. Averyone wants to do something that they promote as the next magic bullet, or the next magic beans that will grow Peoria out of the mess it’s in.
What we need is more of our taxes going to essential services. But there’s no ribbon cutting ceremony for that.
Also, I have to say that if you’re going to attack anyone in the WOTS column it should be Karen McDonald. She is the worst as shilling for pols. John is usually a pretty straight shooter and calls them like he sees them. If this were a KM section, it would have been solely about the press release (and by solely I mean word for word) with no mention of any concerns at all.
I’ve addressed issues with Karen’s reporting before. But I’m not seeing such stuff now. Overall, the quality of the JS is declining.
11bravo — What, you didn’t like the hard-hitting investigative piece McDonald did earlier this year on what local pols would be doing for summer vacation? I thought for sure the Washington Post would have whisked her away to the Woodward-Bernstein wing of their newsroom after that fine piece of journalism. I hope she gets to the bottom of what our council members’ favorite foods are someday.
Oh she can be hard hitting, when she is told to be by certain pols. Its just not across the board.