Posts Tagged ‘ Peoria City Council ’

I thought I was in store for a puff piece when I saw this headline: City Councilman leads effort to brand region. But Peoria Journal Star reporter John Sharp actually made some phone calls and got some balance for his article on Peoria City Councilman Ryan’s Spain efforts to “brand” the city. I like this graph: “You...
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Well, thank goodness they have a plan: A policy addressing the demolition of vacant houses should be considered to help stabilize the city’s deteriorating older neighborhoods, a new city plan looking into Peoria’s future says. The comprehensive plan, which will be introduced to the City Council on Tuesday, said the city should consider a new policy...
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The Peoria City Council today approved a $165.8 million budget that eliminated 69 jobs, a log of them from the police department: At-large Councilman Gary Sandberg criticized council members and city officials who have pointed to the slumping of revenue sources during the recession as the main culprit for the deficit problems. He said the...
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C.J. Summers has some interesting posts recently. First, he makes the observation that it might be a good idea to hire a special prosecutor for Tyler McCoy.  And C.J. isn’t happy with the new water tax, considering it didn’t save any police officers’ jobs.
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Sure, the Peoria City Council spent $16,000 to print a glossy and mail a glossy magazine full of old information that’s readily available elsewhere. But there’s nothing to worry about, says the Journal Star’s Word on the Street column. After all, the money was budgeted last year. And they aren’t doing it again this year. And some people...
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Press release: Date: November 25, 2009 Released by: Alma Brown, Communications Manager Subject: NEGOTIATIONS WITH BARGAINING UNITS The budgetary problems of the City of Peoria projected for 2010 have been well publicized since June, 2009. A number of formal and informal meetings have been held with represented employee groups during the past five (5) months. Many...
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From a press release: Date:    November 16, 2009 Released by:  Alma Brown, Communications Manager Subject:   CANCELLATION OF COUNCIL MEETING Pursuant to  Rule 32 of the Council Rules, the Peoria City Council Meeting scheduled for November 17, 2009 is hereby canceled. The cancellation is due to the City Council’s inability to make budget decisions necessary to close the deficit and...
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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...
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My thoughts on the idea of utility fees: Utility fees are a much fairer way to tax residents for the services they use that property taxes. Property taxes affect only residential and commercial property owners. They do not affect the non-profits, like the huge mega institutions like Bradley University, the three hospitals and other big...
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Peoria knows a lot about eminent domain for private gain. They used it to build the half-abandoned MidTown Plaza. Well, one Long Branch, N.J. neighborhood fought back and the city caved in after along battle. “Today’s agreement finally ends this government-created nightmare that was imposed upon these Long Branch homeowners,” said Scott Bullock, a...
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C.J. Summers has a pretty good blow-by-blow of Tuesday’s city council meeting. What was I doing? I was sleeping, after being up almost all night previously deal with with the nasty WordPress worm that’s going around I had three blog sites to upgrade. I’m done with the upgrading, but there’s still some work left to...
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Date: August 13, 2009 Released by: Alma Brown, Communications Manager, Subject: NEWS CONFERENCE Mayor Jim Ardis and Members of the Peoria City Council will be holding a news conference on Friday, August 14, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. The news conference will be held in City Council Chambers.
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George Jacob is upset that the City of Peoria cannot vote to reduce salaries of council. He says the statute was created to prevent office h0lders from increasing their salaries. Barbara Van auken says it’s a small matter because if their “teeny tiny salaries.:
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Peoria city staffers were asked in May to report to the council on the advisability of a new ordinance requiring animal owners to physically restrain their pets onto their property. Current ordinance simply provides for fines for allowing animals to run at large. The report (available here in PDF format) is generally negative toward the...
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The “consent agenda” alone contains 40 items, and the items on the regular agenda alone should generate a lot of discussion:
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