Radtke also failed to mention how many current Peru employees could be eliminated by a City Manager. He also failed to mention how many current salaries could be reduced by a City Manager. Radtke and the other Rubeer-Stampers will never authorize a legitimate "analysis" to determine if there is benefit and efficiency to be gained by switching to Council-Manager form of government. They won't do allow it because they know an honest analysis would provide a recommendation in favor of a City Manager and they are severely threatened by having their "power and influence" reduced by honest and professional management. Why do you think Waldorf was turning "Thirty Shades of Red" when Potthoff described the need to include "City Manager" in the wording of the ordinace to authorize the researech committee for city administrator? They are very threatened by the thought of honest management practices by an "outsider". When elected officials become so full of themselves and so self-important as most of Peru's elected officials have, they begin to actually beleive they are qualified to run the day to day operations of the city. Regardless of the fact that they possess no actual knowledge or understanding of what the hell they are doing. When quality leadership is absent as it is in Peru, and each and every critical decision is based solely on politcs and political influence, as it is in Peru, the daily operations of the city become nothing more than a political free-for-all and a popularity contest where the citizens end up as the least represented group in the city. That is what Peru has become and that is exactly the way most of Peru's elected officials want to keep it. Peru citizens better wise up and rise up and start replacing the phony elected officials currently in office. Does anybody agree with me? Anybody?
BTW, Waldorf knows very well the business card w/city logo is improper if not illegal, but that is how he rolls as an alderman. No-Bid contracts are improper if not illegal too. When you are as intelligent and gifted as Mr. Waldorf apparently believes he is, the rest of us just become insignificant.
Above written by Anon.
More food for thought from me. I understand the west side of city hall has been redesigned and furnished to accomodoate all the new "heads of state" we now have in place. A talented wood working member of the Public Works Department did the work and the city paid for it. Kinid of like the BB gun range. Will the Police Chief and Fire Chief now have 2 furnished offices?
48 comments:
That was the 2nd alderman setting the record straight.
He gave the specifics of the hiring and the specifics of how many are employed today and how many were employed a few years ago. Less was today!
I see the cost savings of having a technician as opposed to having a contractor bill the city. A private firm would charge the city in the range of $50 per hour and the city will save by having their own tech. With the city having a in-house engineer they are able to save and it works the same with having a tech. LaSalle county has both a engineer and a tech, it makes sense.
I do think that Alderman Perez may not understand that every engineering job requires a tech. It looks that the city has many projects on the horizon and having the in-house tech will save the city. In addition the technician will work for the city and in the best interest of the city. I don't know much about the hiring of a city manager or city administrator or what is the difference. This position may be one of those that you can't validate a financial return unless you eliminate other positions. Maybe, Alderman Perez was confused that they were hiring that position?
I think outsourcing is cheaper in the long run.
So the city is outsourcing other services and now decide to do engineering in house? Time will tell if we see Chamlin's bills decreasing. I doubt it.
I'm retired from Peru all I have to say is Rodney is the only one watching out for us. I read on Rodney's aldermans Facebook the aldermen voted for that guy without knowing his name or city he resides. How could elected officials vote for someone they don't have a clue who they are approving. I made a call to a current friend still employed low and behold he's a friend of Carl's who's surprised? Just another employee getting pockets lined. I've been told many times over the years the city will never get rid of Chamlins. Chamlins has many techs and Peru just hired another. I was also told today that the city engineer won't be taking on anymore work Chamlins will continue doing the majority as this new guy is more of a secretary
Sounds like positions would be eliminated, or should I say should. And assistants to assistants to assistants. Like the song stroke me stroke me.
1:44
Does it matter to you what town they are from? Or who it is? The process will give you the best candidate. Are they qualified? Do they have experience? City official should not have to have a name attached to the position. I am sure that a few were involved in the hiring process. Would alderman Perez based his vote on where they came from? And is he qualified to judge experience?
The billing of the tech is in every bill that a firm sends to whoever the service is performed, it won't take a lot of work to find out that the tech isn't being charged in the billing. COST SAVINGS is how I rate my representative, you must have a different outlook than most of us.
The weather has been great the last few days. Anyone notice any pothole work going on? Is the street sweeper out and about? What about the sewer sucker truck? Do we own it yet, if so - have they started cleaning out sewers?
1:44 retired or replaced?
3:36 please explain the hiring process to us. Last I heard there are one or two alderman and Kim Reese doing the interviews and hiring. Who are the aldermen and What qualifications do they have to hire professional engineers and finance employees? I'm told Waldorf and or Lukosus is calling the shots who to hire. A barber and a washing machine business owner? Haha. If the other 6 or 7 aldermen weren't told who the barber picked why the hell would they take his word for it? That's not a very good process now is it? If you don't think those elected officials needed to know who they were voting for or where they are from then you're probably part of that crazy process. So enlighten us readers what the city hiring process is because according to you no one needs to know anything. See no evil speak no evil and just nod yes.
Change of government to Council Manager needs to happen.
6:36, you just showed a lot of people how unintelligent you are, you have all these alderman as unintelligent buffoons, hate to tell you by your comment you are no way in there league when it comes to their education, Potthoff has a college degree, Lukosus, just shy of a masters in business administration. Which would qualify him for a position of City Manager, Radtke, engineering degree, Sapienza, masters degree, so when your hammering these people they are in a league way above you, so don't make yourself look like an idiot.
The human resource manager should definitely be involved in hiring of new employees from start to finish.
The Mayor should also partake plus the Chair of the committee involved.
Would the simple tweaking of moving Ald Radtke from the Finance Committee to the Chair of Public Services be a evident move and replacing him with Ald Waldorf on the finance committee.
Ald. Ratdke is a graduate engineer of the University of Illinois and his educacation and job experience fits more to C, Public Services than anyone else on the council.
Why is the city engineer not in the Public Services Committee and the Financial Director not on the Finance Committee? These positions have been hired to utilize them at their maximum.
Some people may become very unhappy if the suggested moves were made but as the business card states it is only business nothing personal.
Depending on the outcome of the upcoming election many alternatives may become evident with the aldermen committees.
I understand that the 2nd ward candidate is very up to date with modern technology and the candidate from the 3rd ward profession is insurance, finance and pensions. These qualifications make both candidates highly worthwhile of serious consideration on April 7th.
7:38 PM
You have certainly heard the phrase "book smart" and a City Manager should be a graduate of a program that gives him a degree in City Management.
I have a number of those letters after my name fyi. and I don't even get any respect from those you have mentioned. Some have no letters after their name and manage better businesses than those with them.
8;26PM What does it take to convince people that a city manager has a degree specifically for city management as a electrical engineer, Doctor, lawyer have degrees for their specific professions.
As for education and degrees behind your name it is normally a indication that you have gone to school longer than grade or high school. The really intelligent person realizes it is not how much education obtained that is important but it is important what you do with it.
7:38PM To hire a engineer or a finance director you should have someone aboard that understands that specific field and can ask and understand answers pertaining to it.
You have stated the level of formal education achieved by 4 of the 8 aldermen. With this amount of education don't you believe they should be intelligent enough to realize a key word in leadership today - TRANSPARENCY - which is a trait much better practiced than promised.
The first city official that stands up and refuses to conduct any business besides legally sanctioned situations behind closed doors will be a highly respected representative in Peru.
It is a insult to the voters who have put a person in a position of government representation that intentionally hinders their awareness of his actions.
Has the city attorney sat in on all closed sessions to warn those in attendance if they are on the verge of creating a illegal situation?
The only thing a Masters Degree gets you is more money if you are a school teacher. "Just shy" of a Masters Degree is a meaningless statement.
A qualified City Manager not only has a college degree - he or she has a professional certification.
The word professional is not something one can associate with most of Peru's Council.
6:36
If you are going to bash the alderman's jobs, lets be fair and note that Rodney is a truck driver for Walmart.
Not a thing wrong with being a hard working individual that has a eye for public service.
But none of them have daily jobs as professors, Drs., Lawyers, or Judges.
Lets be fair.
3rd ward resident that always VOTES!
7:38 You just showed people of your ignorance of what it really takes to lead and manage a business or city. Credentials mean very little in management Steve Jobs and many others have out performed many book worms who have nothing more than the ability to pass a chemistry test but couldn't pass a personality, or common sense test if they tried. Blago and Ryan have degrees too.
What smarts do those you mention have when they cast votes to approve no bid contracts, or approve city spending without reviewing bills, OR approve to hire some anonymous person? It doesn't take a brain surgeon to ask simple questions that may prevent future problems. How did that first engineer work out for the city? I don't think the issue was with him I'm guessing the issue was with city corruption
7:59
Go to the meetings! The City engineer and finance director are at and involved in every committee meeting.
5:38, you are showing everyone how uneducated you are with that statement, Look up other cities with city manager type government and see what qualification is needed for a city manager, the two degrees most looked at are a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and a Masters in Public Administration (MPA). I'm totally for a City Manager type government, my point was there are well educated people on the council, you just have a beef with them.
Question, what happens if we go with a city manager type of government and the city manager isn't playing to the blogs tune, where do you go from there, you can't vote him out, only the mayor and council can do that, they hired him. Odds are,as professional as he is, he owes everything to the present council and you usually don't bite the hand that feeds you .
It has been proven by a retired judge and FBI that one accused city official was not guilty of being corrupt in his payroll actions.
It has also been questioned that a alderman may have done whatever you want to name it and resulted in the 1st official accused directing the Chief, Peru Police Department to conduct a investigation for whatever?
The most recent questionable practice of using a business card has never been investigated nor ever will be!
City corruption?
9:49, please learn about the form of government. It takes quite a bit to fire a City Manager. A City Manager has statutory power. You are right - the council would need to fire him. But it can't be arbitrary, especially if the manger is performing the duties in accordance with the law. Here is a good web sit to learn about how a City Manger performs his / her duties:
http://www.ilcma.org/
9:49 AM, Good question. Here's your answer. The council must engage a "professional consultant" aka Head-Hunter to conduct the search for candidates for Peru City Manager. The last thing you want is any Peru official, elected or otherwise, involved in the search process. It's got to be totally "hands-off" Harl, aldermen, and any other city insiders. After candidates are vetted by the consultant based on the specific needs and characteristics of the city of Peru, then and only then do you allow the phony aldermen to become involved. Yes, the city council will then be allowed to review a list of finalists and eventually, with guidance from the consultant, they will choose one. The great thing about it is that any City Manager will understand their statutory authority and they will not only "not" play to the blogs tune, as you put it. The City Manager will not be obligated to play to the phony city council's tune either. The City Manager will be obligated by law to play to the following tunes, (btw, these are all my favorites),
Honesty, Ethics, Best Established Business Practices, Efficiency, Fairness, Transparency, Vision, Planning, and on and on and on. In other words basically everything Peru government currently lacks. Of course it is "critically important" that a City Manager must be a tough take charge kind of guy/gal who will take no shit from the current elected officials and city employees. We must make an effort to try to get that type of person ASAP!
Does that answer your question?
8:11 March 11th We totally agree with your well written comment although you do realize that alderman Radke is not a 1st ward alderman. He is 2nd ward. Also Lois commented that some new offices were being built by a city employee. Who authorized that money to be spent in that manner and were those offices really needed at this time?
What can you think of that isn't delivered by a truck? Absolutely nothing. No house, nothing. No new furniture for city hall, no computers, paper, pens, bottled water for city hall, no business cards, no shirts with city logos, no campaign signs, no deli meat, no lottery tickets, no police cars. Get my drift? Over the road truck drivers are extremely underpaid. They are what keeps America thriving. Government keeps us broke! Now, answer the first question in my first sentence!
8:26
All of those listed Jobs-great innovator, Blago/Ryan-good politicians. All of their biographies will admit one common trait--they weren't good managers!
Good managers can hire a candidate bases on credentials and a interview process. They don't need to know what town they live in and who they voted for in the last election. Its ridiculous for a city official to want to know those items before they hire.
Base it on qualifications.
I don't know why the last engineer left the ship? Maybe he was homesick? Maybe he didn't like his job? It was his choice and that's that. Do you need to have employees stay for the rest of eternity to call those good hires? Not in today's world.
City corruption? That is a big statement to make without any proof. A city business card, sled ride, signs in parks? Most of this is just fun reading and not the slightest bit of what anybody would term corruption.
I spoke to my Alderman about the hiring of the Tech position. He stated that the city will save thousands of dollars by having the in-house tech. Over the course of the last two years the city has been billed more than twice the salary of a in house tech. And there are many more projects coming up. I am not sold on more employees but this one looks to be a money saving one.
6:36 Going to college and getting a degree, doesn't necessarily mean a person is smart, or learned anything. I knew a couple guys that went to college back in the ‘70’s. They were professional students and may still be there. I worked with a lot of college graduates over the years. Some were good and learned something, and others could never learn anything. Those in the second group, got hired by “Who they knew method”. During my military tour, I would much rather be in the foxhole with a guy that grew up on the streets, with common sense, over one that had a piece of sheepskin to hide behind. I knew that 1st guy had my back. Ever wonder how many guys with degrees are flipping burgers or delivering pizza ?? Ever listen to some of the interviews with college graduate football players ?? “You know , you know , you know”. Seems that diplomas are a dime a dozen, anymore. So, in my opinion, when I size up a person, I go by how the person comes across. I don’t care if he has a truck load of diplomas or none at all. It’s the person inside and what he stands for. The diploma count means nothing to me. And yes I vote also.
10:21, everything you stated sounds good, now lets get back to reality, the don 't have to hire a head hunter , which I think is the way to go, they will utilize the Human Resources person to start the process. If you think the mayor and council will stay out of the process until the best candidate is presented to them, that would be pretty naive. Also if the council doesn't like the direction the city manager is taking the city ,believe me the council has the authority to make changes. Yes everything you said sounds great on paper, talk to people that been in the position, they will let you know how political it is.
It won't happen. The city council has voted no to the position of city manager.
10;59 AM, you don't know how the last engineer left? You have much to learn. He was driven out, he wasn't homesick. Do your homework before blurting out things you know nothing about.
Head hunter sounds interesting. But the problem would be this: headhunter service hired by the council then headhunter would be told which candidate would be best for Peru. Would most likely be a friend of a friend. If the headhunter refused to recommend that individual then the city would hire a new one. No escaping politics. Rumor has it Peru interviewed several great candidates for the job but went with the engineers buddy from school.
12:27, it is possible for the citizens to force the referendum for to change the government structure to Council Manager.
If the Mayor and Council won't vote to put it on the ballot - it can be done through a petition.
Also - at least one Alderman is collecting opinions from voters on this subject. One that you may not expect. His name doesn't begin with an R - but I'm sure he is also collecting information. So that makes at least two.
As soon a "W" is voted out - maybe 3.
To me, Mr. Radke's "setting the record straight" statment is a little misleading. He states that the number of employees has been decreased by 10% from 2009 until today. He also states that the numbers we roughly 82 in 2009 and 72 in 2014. In reality, according to disbursements, we had 109 employees in 2014 and 107 in 2013 and that does not include the kids we hire for the summer. Did he inadvertently forget the 30+ part time employees we have on our payroll? (Cannot verify 2009 actual figures as that info is not on the city website) The mention of 72 or 82 employees is in fact telling a partial truth.
You are correct 6:13 March 12th because according to the news tribune article alderman Radke states that in 2009 the city work force consisted of 82 employees and now has 72. However after reading your post, I too researched the disbursements and found that in reality the city work force in 2013 consisted of 71 full time and 36 part time employees and the work force in 2014 consisted of 70 full time and 39 part time employees. Is Mr. Radke indicating that the part time employees are not part of the city work force? Are they not a part of our payroll? I think Mr. Radke needs to reset the record he set straight.
Maybe he is talking about the number of employees that are not "juiced in."
9:41, wasn't Radtke comparing stats from 2009 to 2015, not 2013 - 2014
Get real 2:25. We are 2 and 1/2 months into the new year. Do you really think in that span of time we eliminated approximately 30 employees to get to the 72 that alderman Radke says we only employ?
On radio today, Olgesby is taking applications for summer help, instructors for tennis, cheerleading, crafts, park workers, lifeguards..... seems to be open application's, not who is who and related or friends with who....
The alderman obviously got the numbers mixed up that were provided to him by the HR department.
How could he get the numbers that mixed up 11:44?
That's the problem with the news tribune and their reporter. City officials rattle off information and the reporter just sends it to print with no investigative reporting. Ratke did the same thing, probably asked HR and never bothered looking at the reports.
So then if that is the case 11:44 he needs to set the record straight at the next council meeting.
9:47, what are you talking about, I said he was comparing 2009 to the last meeting he made that statement, and your talking about 21/2 months, where are you coming from?
11:05 Where are you coming from? Do you honestly believe that from Dec. 2014 (which is where I got my figures) until March 2015 we laid off 30+ employees? Mr. Radke stated we had 72 employees in 2015 (once again this is only March) and the Dec. 2014 disbursements state we had 109 employees. That's a difference of 37 employees in a 2 1/2 month span of time. I did the math and the investigating and that's how I came up with my figures.
9:29 Maybe you should recheck your figures. You are questioning figures given out by one of those with a diploma. You must be wrong.
11:02 My figures were taken from the city's disbursements report that alderman Radke signs and approves.
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