ASM = Administrative Services Manager
PSM= Public Services Manager
It now appears that those 2 positions have become the more important than the Mayor and City Council unless things change and they become more involved in the what is taking place in Peru. This has nothing to do with right or wrong but it is just the way this ordinance is written.
58 comments:
Has there been any action taken as of yet with regards to finding a Director of Public Utilities? It's 4 months since this ordinance was passed and I have neither heard nor seen on the city website the desired qualifications for this position. What effort have we put into filling this position? The only job opportunity listed on the city website is school crossing guard.
Why is the city paying for a school crossing guard? This should be paid for by the school.
1248 where have you been? There has been a major search for this position here locally adds, trade magazines and on the web. The city does not consult you and Lois for these types of things. You should run...again.
1:24 PM
IMHO If a major search has been done by the city and no one they deem capable of doing the job has come forth and therefore they will have to continue this arrangement until something very wrong happens or they tire of it, then they are not looking or Peru is considered an undesirable employer. In todays market where well paying jobs are not that easy to find, we should have had an overwhelming number of applicants and some of them immensely qualified. Perhaps the city needs to look inward.
And if what you say is true 1:24 do you mean to tell me not one qualified individual has applied as of yet? Give me a break!
This ordinance is very questionable: Why does the ordinance state personal names and praise certain particular city employees. This is not a Letter of Recomendation but is a legal document.
Job description/Job analysis should state qualifications necessary and responsibilities of ASS and PMS positions only.
This four page ordinance is nothing but a legal money tree for the city attorney to make continuous changes for unnecessary updates as personnel changes are made.
Anon 1:12PM Either way it will be paid by our taxes. Not important enough to debate unless you were paying additional police to perform school crossing guard duties. Than you'd be speaking of real money. There are enough irons in the fire of vast importance to bring up accepted age old policies. Presently I think the job is being done at very little cost.
1:12 who cares who pays for it as long as the kids get across a busy street safely.
Look at the date of this ordinance. When did Harl make the two people mentioned as temporary. Do those date match or even come close to each other. This was all set up by Harl and the alderman just followed suite. When did Harl appoint King a full-time employee as fire chief and a couple other positions? Was it Nov. 2013? When this happened I didnt feel our city needed a full time fire chief. Needless to say the above ordinance has titles and who has those task at hand. What qualifications and work experience do the two specific names listed, Bernabei and King have for job qualifications????? What has happened to this city, and what kind of alderman do we have. Aldeman, you should be ashamed of yourselves for not doing your job in which we taxpayers voted for you. NOT A ONE SINGLE PERSON HAS EVER ANSWERED THE QUESTIONS REGARDING QUALIFICATIONS Of HARLS APPOINTEES. One Last thing, check to see who donates to Harls campaign fund, and again, this will tell 1/10th of the story. And to any blogger that wants to comment on what I''ve blogged and say to make an appointment and ask these questions if the persons themselves should not even bother commenting. I don't play that game, too many people would like answers on an open forum, not behind closed doors! Thank You.
Please post a copy of ordinance when Harl appointed a full-time fire chief.
1:12 crossing guards are all around town not just by the schools and they are paid for by the city.
Crossing guards should not be paid for by the city. They are only near the school and therefore are a responsibility of the school. They are not "all around the town".
If the city is paying for this, they need to charge the school district. On top of that, WHY! are city employees plowing snow from the school parking lots in the winter! Another "freebee" for the school district!
Real smart to those worried about co-operation of the city and the Peru School System. lets petti anti this all to hell and hire more janitors and double the amount of equipment all at the taxpayers expense.
I wish LaSalle, Peru, Oglesby and Spring Valley and the school systems would do more co-operative tasks rather than less. Are some of the people in this area as backward, ignorant and stupid as they represent themselves to be?
I think they might be paid and work for the police department.
Why is it that people get so emotional, like 7:58, at the mere suggestion that the school district might be doing something inappropriate?
But she is correct - we need more government cooperation in order to weed out redundancies. In fact, LaSalle, Peru, Oglesby and Spring Valley could merge school systems and cut loose some of the dead weight. I see no reason to have so many independent schools in such close proximity to each other. That is what we should strive toward. Fewer buildings, fewer administrators, and fewer staff to accomplish the same task!
Has or will the City given serious thought to privatizing the Public Works, Sewer and Water, and Electric departments? This would save vast amounts of money. Since the employees would be transferred to a private company, the retirement and medical insurance would transfer with them. I think a private company would also manage staffing requires better. Needless to say, there is a good chance the unions would be out. This should be given serious thought.
I live right by one of the schools and the city does not plow the school parking lots. Thye contract this service out.
The city does hire the school crossing guards and they are not just by the schools. the last time I checked there are no schools on Peoria stret but there is a crossing guard there and other places as well. Thye work for the police department because they are controlling streets off of school property. This should be a police matter and it is the SAME taxpayers paying for the service so why does it matter.
Why would you want your taxes raised to pay for a larger school system when we have the best school district hands down in Peru? Do you think this would lower your taxes in Peru? What a joke. all of those communities have far higher taxes.
8:47. I'm not concerned with the taxes. However, the overall cost of education is increasing at many times the rate of inflation. This is largely due to the costs associated with administering the schools and maintaining buildings.
You cannot convince me that having school buildings scattered across the map all within a fifty square mile radius is more efferent that centrally locating them according to the population distribution.
Additionally, every district has a huge overhead cost in administration that is not dependent on the student population. It makes more sense to spread this overhead over a large student population and tax base.
Nope. I'm a firm believer that the way forward is larger districts serving multiple communities. In the future I see three school districts serving all of LaSalle County. The districts would be centered in LaSalle-Peru, Ottawa, and Mendota.
And don't even try to spin this as "big government." This would be a reduction in government. Fewer school districts equals lower overall costs when spread through the population.
I thought the days of letting kids walk to school where long since gone. I thought the Helicopter Moms in their SUV's drove them everywhere.
Since I am away at work during the day - just how are these crossing guards utilized? I don't believe I have seen one in action since the late 1970's or early 1980's. Do they stand there all day or are they only utilized during the kiddy commute time before and after school? Are they there year round or just when the school is open?
If it is just during the school year, this sounds like a school issue and not a city issue. On that same line, I would assume that crossing guards needed more during the summer when the schools are closed. The kids are going all over the place... baseball, softball, parks, etc. Why don't they post them during the summer?
10:11 you think the cost of education is going up many times the cost of inflation? You are talking about college costs not what our local public schools cost. Lol
You ARE talking about bigger govenrment! Show us proof that the largest school districts are cheaper to run orr that they are actually better. In Peru we have a low tax rate and the other communities have a much higher tax rate and we have great schools that are doing things the right way.
I agree that there are some small schools that don't make sense but that is not the case here. We have a great school system in Peru that many envy. Think what you want but I will keep our schools right here and you can bus your kids across the county for higher taxes.
Hilarious.
10:11: I see what you mean about some places but Peru? Raelly? I do care abouit taxes, Do you realize the school district is going down to two bvuildings? Do you know that they built Parkside without proerty taxes? Yes, it was sales tax but that was a very smart move. NOw they got a grant for Northview.
As a Peru taxpayer you are not paying for those other schools in your property taxes. Do you want to be in Streator or Ottawa or Lasalle and pay those taxes? Higher taxes and not even close to the same schools. Why in the hell would Mendota keep its own schools and not us? What about Streator? You make no sense. You do know that we would have to bus the kids all over the county too right?
As a taxpayer with kids and now grand kids who have gone though the Peru Schools is one of the strong points of our town and I want to keep it that way. Ask a realtor. They will tell you the same thing.
If our city ran like the Peru school district we wouldn't have the problems we have.
Before the well managed and sensible set-up of crossing guards become another issue which becomes completely out of hand by those who know nothing or little about it. It is efficently working, it is cost efficient and the guards are doing a excellent job guarding our children.
Now what are some of the things that I can do to increase the safety of our children? Evidently I can obey speed limits and slow down when I see children I also can utilize be highly aware of hours children go to , have lunch hour and return home from school. Parents your additional suggestions are also wecome and needed.
As you see there is a all around purpose to this blog.
Such emotional responses. If you think it through it really makes sense. A campus would be located in Ottawa, Mendota, and Peru / LaSalle (which is really one town when you get down to it).
Yes - bus the kids from Streator to Ottawa.
The cost of education across the board is going up at many times the rate of inflation - the colleges are "many many" times the rate of inflation.
You need to get your emotions out of it and really think analytically. I didn't say three buildings - I said three school districts. LaSalle-Peru would have a high school and a grade school(s). Same for Ottawa and Mendota.
I think a lot of the heartburn comes from "civic pride" and rivalries. Get over it. We need and should have s County based school system.
Taxes are taxes - no matter how they are collected. Peru just happens to have a large retail base. We are getting the citizens of every community in the Illinois Valley to pay for our schools. I don't think that is particularly right. But, if we eliminate and consolidate, we could have a county sales tax or one county school property tax rate to pay for the three school districts equally.
Now lets talk about administration. We pay six figure salaries to "Doctors" that cant seem to solve any problem without asking for more money. As far as I'm concerned, fire them all and but an MBA in charge. I think 20% of the school budget could be cut immediately without having an effect on education.
Nope - you cannot convince me that having all of these districts is more cost effective than having 3 or 2 or even just 1 for the entire county.
And again - fewer government bodies is less government. You cant possibly call school consolidation "big government." The individual government might be larger - but having less governments equates to smaller government in the aggregate.
How about telling the kids to look both ways before crossing the street :)
Anyway - larger school districts get more money from the state. I say, make ONE school DISTRICT for he entire county. Tear down most of the buildings (not all), sell the land and bus the kids. We will be money ahead. Other added benefits are a reduction in overpaid stuffed shirts on the administration, uniform policy, greater opportunity for socialization, and more.
Unfortunately - the school unions wont let us do this. So its not worth talking about until the tax base erodes so far that we just need to quit and start all over again.
It is not just the schools that need to consolidate. It is the cities. LaSalle, Peru, and Oglesby could be one city. It should be one city. What do we have to do to get the ball rolling?
All the "townships" in LaSalle County need to go away and we need to shift the county to a "commission" form. Think of all the waste that would be eliminated immediately. Sad to say that this will cause some government workers and school employees to be downsized - but hey, that's the way the ball rolls. Nobody cried a tear when I was laid off back in 2009. We have a bloated government system across the board - and that includes the schools. Bloated system full of overpaid people that vote for their own salaries.
My point of view - you should be able to drive for half an hour without crossing 18 different jurisdictions (maybe an exaggeration, but probably not).
Consolidate and Cut! That should be our battle cry.
1:13 who is being emotional? Who said anything about civic pride and rivalries?
You are being analytical? Really. Lets check that real quick
According to the state board of education website state funding is by student. Bigger schools only get more state funding on student basis so they don't really get more money because it would be for the same number of students. You make no sense there.
While you are at it I think you better do some research on what transportation costs are for like 20,000 students in lasSalle county because this alone has to be millions fo dollars a year.
I just looked up Peru schools "administration" cost. This is all online. It is 3 percent of there budget. So tell us Mr/Mrs analytical where do you get the 20 percent savings?
Fire a superintendent and principals and hire an MBA and save 20 percent. When the total cost is 3 percent. Realy.
Yes you are veyr analytical. Tell you what, please keep your "analytical" mind off of my business okay? Sounds like you are the only one being emotional.
As for your teachers union argument I would noramlly be with you on this, but instead the teachers unions will be. Larger districts ALWAYS pay more in teacher salary and that is where most of the money goes. It's not adminitration or at least not here.
On a side note I have a relative in southern Illinois. They went through a controversial school consolidation as the vote was very close. Their taxes have gone up siginificantly and their consolidation was nothing compared to what you are talking about here.
I'll keep my tax dollars here where I know who is spending them. You keep talking and showing your us your "analytical" arguments.
This has wondered off topic.
Boss Harl wants to hire a Yes Man - but we actually need somebody that is qualified. The last qualified person the city of peru hired was quickly run out of town.
2:28 - Take a chill pill. I think you are obviously close to the situation. First off, you can't believe anything the State Board of Education says - I'm saying that tongue in cheek but it is more truth than fiction. Anyway, you are very emotional - I can feel your pain and you are afraid that this idea is catching on - which you ought to be. There will be a sea change in the way education is structured and funded in the not to distant future. Age old paradigms will shift away from the antiquated structure we must endure now. Part of that shift will be centrally located schools and a larger degree of funding spreads across a broad population base. We are not talking about dollars per student we are talking about infrastructure and administration - which despite what you say is the majority of the cost. Bussing the children to central locations will be a cost - that is true - but it will be offset by a great reduction in office personnel, principals, and other administrators. Technology today might also make is possible for children to "work from home" a couple of times a week. Must be careful there do to the socialization thing, but it is doable.
I am still a firm believer and you can't convince me otherwise that changes like this are necessary and the only resistance is do to emotions and not logic. Football and other sports made for the entertainment of parents also factor in. If you reduce the number of schools, then you reduce the number of football games and other such nonsense.
Nope - I'm all for centralization. It's going to happen and you can't stop it.
The city needs qualified people, not people who are booty kissers. Why even do an appointment for positions when person isn't qualified? Could somebody explain Harls thinking process?
I see on the city website that there is a committee as a whole meeting tonight at 6:00.
4:32. Take a chill pill? I'm close to the situation? Football?
Sorry none of the above. I just have some good old fashion common sense and always get a good laugh at arguments like yours that way more "emotional" than anything I had to say.
What happened to your analytics. I thought you were giving us facts. You said "infrastructure and administration" are the majority of the cost of schools. Please prove this for us. I gave you a number straight from a reliable source I found online about our own local schools and you tell me you can't believe what the state board says.
Okay prove me wrong genius. When you do than we can start sending all of our kids across the county and watch our taxes drop and our kids will get a better education!
10:03 - this is not my blog. I don't have the space to do that. Why are you so hateful? I want you to step back and do a little reading yourself.
Homework assignment - read through the budgets of all the local school districts and figure out the redundancies that exist and identify opportunities to leverage economies of scale.
So, which school do you work for? My bet is, you work for Peru in some sort of administrative way - possibly a curriculum manager or some other made up title made up title to expand the "administration."
Nope - shut them down, consolidate, make larger building if necessary, sell of the land, and fire 2/3 of the administrators!
Would someone please post the administrative salaries that are online. Just the website. Thanks.
Peru Superintendent - Salary plus benefits $172,403.
Northview Principal - Salary plus benefits $121,779
Parkside Principal - Salary plus benefits $129,236
Washington Principal - Salary plus benefits $110,955
Parkside Dean - Salary plus benefits $86,988
According to the staff directory, the district has 6 secretaries, 8 food service with managers, a bookkeeper and a secretary for the superintendent, Technology and Computer consultants, 7 custodians, several preschool babysitters. These salaries are not listed.
It is also worth mentioning that there are a lot of last names that are common to most government entities in the Illinois Valley.
Absolutely no way lasalle and peru grade schools should consolidate. Let's get back to City business and the joke that it is.
L-P staff?
LaSalle and Peru municipalities should be consolidated first. Then we can get around to the schools. Makes absolutely no sense to have all these little political fiefdoms.
Those salaries and benefit packages are outrageously high for the illinois valley.
To find all the Illinois educators salaries for 2012 go to: 'Illinois Taxpayers Foundation'. You may be surprised.
LP Director of Athletics - Salary and Benefits - $99,773
LP Assistant Superintendent - Salary and Benefits $148,113
LP Assistant Principal - Salary and Benefits $102,370
LP Assistant Principal #2 - $98,902
-to be continued -
LP Area Career Center Director - Salary and benefits $140,501
LP Superintendent - Salary and Benefits $178,299
5:39 you are hilarious. Who is hateful? You just hate facts and keep spewing propaganda with nothing to back it up. So now if someone disagrees ith you they must be a school administrator. Im a small business owner who supports the schools but please keep talking. You sersiously think they make up titles just to "expand the administration?"
We are soon to have two nice buildings in the Peru school district and you want to tear them down and sell the land and build schools where? How do we acquire that land? How many hundreds of acres would that be? From where? At what cost? Do you know the cost for building your new schools? How would you plan to pay for your grand scheme? How much would that cost the taxpaerys?
Lucky for those of us who are sane you don't get to decide yourself. That would require a vote of the taxpayers.
Or........ do you have something to gain YOURSELF? There ya go.
LP Building Director - Salary and Benefits - $98,647
LP Director of Technology - $76,375
Actually I was assuming that the other kids would come to Peru. So there you go again. And nope, I don't sell anything to schools or anything like that. I just call a spade a spade and I see a whole deck of them in the Illinois Education Industry. All takers, no producers.
You should also read a little more closely - I said sell the land, not acquire more.
So if you are not an administrator and are a local business person - what are you selling to the government? Huh??? You obviously have a dog in the race otherwise you would not be so emotional when people suggest that we slow down the gravy train.
you don't need $20 million to build a school. Unless of course you are an administrator making over $200K.
An adequate school can be built for less than half that.
Typical liberal response - grab one little piece of data and call somebody insane. I find it hard to believe that you own a business Mrs. 2:09. Unless of course it is Amway or Mary Kay. Or.... maybe it is Pizza?
Let's get back to the above ordinance. Read what each name is assigned to be responsible for. Do they have qualifications for jobs? Hasnt bloggers asked this before? Did alderman and the mayor ask questions and request documents for certifications? Daily field operations of public works department, electric department. Qualifications of the ASM AND PSM? Is this ordinance a joke? Answers please.
So if I understand this correctly, the employee cost for administering Peru Public Schools is just about $621K. I looked it up and the district has 998 students. So The administrative cost per student is $641... which dose not include the cost of the actual teachers or any other direct educational cost.
Holy Cow!
"You don't need $20 million to build a school."
To build what school? What is the square footage? 10,000? 50,000? 250,000? Waht does an administrator salary have to do with the cost of a new school? "A school" means nothing to your arugemnt and you arent going to put that number of kids in "a school."
You do realize that the school would be built by a private contractor and the cost would be based on the square footage after a public bid right?
So you want to sell land and bring thousands of kids to Peru. Where are we going to put them? In our beautiful new schools? Or are we going to tear down Parkside and built a new one twice the size? Biuld a couple more stories on top?
I don;t know where you live but our grade school district in Peru is consolidating itself from three buildigns to two. NOw you think we should expand and bring everyone else in the Illinois Valley to Peru.
Hang on to your wallets folkS! NO THANKS!
5:46 - give it up, you are loosing. Go back to school on Monday morning and start planning on shutting down your gravy train. The people have had enough! We won't pay for it any more!
Mrs. 5:46, as a Public School Administrator, you should know better. Centralizing and removing a large portion of "takers" (aka administrators) is the best course of action. As far as the building goes, I bet we could construct an adequate schools that would house a few thousand students for less than what we paid for the Parkside Mansion. It's called priorities - You as a School Administrator need to learn priorities if you want to keep your gravy train "do nothing" job.
If people where allowed to vote with their pocket book, instead of being forced to pay into the public school system through various taxes, I suspect that many would abandon the system for more cost effective and superior options.
My guess is that 30% or more of the students (most likely the best and brightest) would be enrolled into alternative schooling if the Government Education Industry would allow vouchers for private schooling.
Morton Buildings make good schools. Don't need to spend a fortune on a Taj Mahal like Peru did.
I'm sorry. I will go back to that gravy train administrator job on Monday morning and fix this right away. We will get rid of all the principals and superintendents and build Morton buildings after we sell all the land and tear down all the fancy schools. Lol
12:33, Mrs. School Administrator. That is good. Now that we have that settled we can start discussing joining Peru, LaSalle, and Oglesby into one city.
I do not consider the above an ordinance, it reads like a resolution.
You asked for a city manager and now you have one, probably not what you hoped for, but from what I hear one person running this city now....and he isn't looking back now.
Who is it 6:45?
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