This blog is maintained for the sole purpose of allowing the people of Peru and those interested in the cities of the Illinois Valley to express their views.
“It doesn’t take a majority to win, just a tireless minority that will keep starting brush fires in the mind and hearts of their fellow men.” Samuel Adams
Monday, May 30, 2011
Agenda for June 1 City Council Meeting
ACCOUNTS AND FINANCE Potthoff & Radtke
Discuss sales tax increase
Discuss Department Finance Control Policy
Discuss/Approve hiring Code Enforcement Officer
15 comments:
Anonymous
said...
What is a code enforcement officer and what are her/his resposibilities? What dept. would this invidual be assigned to and who would they directly answer to? What would their starting wage be and what will it be 6 months from now? Is this a full time position or one that could be included into some other full time position?
Since a new position is being discussed how about discussing two more new postions? The future calls for a city manager and a city engineer. Peru would save a fantastic amount of money by having these two professions.
9:21 AM I don't think so and there is a possibility they will vote on the tax increase tomorrow at the city council meeting. The Mayor had mentioned that it needed to be voted on before July so it could be in place by October and start to receive the tax then.
Then, citizens of Peru, I would suggest you either attend the council meeting and voice your opinion or call your alderman and let him know how you feel.
Is "HOME RULE" the reason that the tax increase does not have to go to referendum before it is implemented. Isn't it ashame that within the same week as Memorial Day we could have a tax increase implemented without the vote of the citizens.
Since Peru already has the part time position of Bldg Inspector and members of the city council are going to introduce the idea of having a code officer why don't they combine the two positions and open it to new applicants? Their is the possibility of combining these two positions and still only coming up with a part time job. Although the bldg. inspector position is a part time position I understands he is paid over $50,000 per year. That is in a bad economy give a thought to what his pay would be if there was any building going on.
I bet that 11:55 AM did not vote for home rule and I did not either. We will never forget that the home rule referendum was placed on the ballot when the election was being held for the Peru school board and I am willing to be that most people were not even aware of that. Little publicity, no blogs can add up to very little citizen information.
5:04 I, 11:55AM never voted for home rule nor do I ever intend to. A few of the many, many reasons are the ease of manipulating financial sums from one fund to the next to the next until it becomes almost impossible to trace them down unless you are directly involved. I do not believe tax dollars should be be subject to becoming nothing but a government circus shell game.
Another reason is the governments ability to raise taxes without the vote of the people. Home Rule bestows government bodies with too much power.
Experience shows that the disadvantages of home rule far outweigh its advantageous.
As for a building code enforcement officer, that was our building inspector before the new mayor decided we needed to fire one to save money because we all know the city is broke when the mayor says it needs to be broke and has money when he wants to do what he wants. When we had two building inspectors the police dept would aid with code enforcement when asked by the building inspectors as need. But the new transparent mayor and council said we didn't need two inspectors and fired one in the name of money savings. I guess what ever mayor wants mayor gets and you kooks go right along with him hope you poeple wake up soon or our cost of living will be one of the highest in the area instead of one of the lowest. but at least it will be transparent cause god knows all the closed meetings are needed even though we only had probably three or four in the forty or so years of the last administration.
12:14PM When one was fired, we ended up with nothing as he talks in riddles that no one understands and possibly even he does not understand. AND he saved very little money with the Zoning Inspector department costing us $80,770 in the 2012 budget. From the looks of the budget we don't even have a building inspector on staff and the town is beginning to look like it. IMO there is nothing transparent at the present time at city hall.
Getting back to "Home Rule". Although my knowledge is sketchy at best.....my instincts tell me that there still wud have to be guidelines in place that would allow for tracking of the various kinds of dollars that are collectively put in the General Fund. If money was sent to the city by the state (say for road repairs). Wouldn't the state be expecting the repairs to be done because that money was granted to them strictly for that purpose - if not then the money wud have to be returned to the state? Similar to a use it or lose it situation. This is not just a one owner fund to be used at will.....this is a mixture of tax payer $, funds from the state and also $'s gleaned from the likes of the lease on the tower, etc. How can a government entity play so fast and loose with accounting and be unaccountable? Boy oh boy we taxpayers have been given the shaft for sometime....the question is are we going to continue to allow it. If so, we deserve what we get!!!!!
What city inspector? That man is a neighbor to Mayor Baker, who put him in that position. He wasn't even a good car salesman. How could you expect him to know what to inspect? I say get rid of him, the girl who runs the closed swimming pool, and the hortilculturist. that would save, at least $l40,000.00 a year. A small start for infrastructor.
15 comments:
What is a code enforcement officer and what are her/his resposibilities? What dept. would this invidual be assigned to and who would they directly answer to? What would their starting wage be and what will it be 6 months from now? Is this a full time position or one that could be included into some other full time position?
Since a new position is being discussed how about discussing two more new postions? The future calls for a city manager and a city engineer. Peru would save a fantastic amount of money by having these two professions.
Finance Control Policy is a must. Don't be afraid to make it tough.
Would this tax increase have to go to referendum and be voted on by the people before it can be implemented?
9:21 AM
I don't think so and there is a possibility they will vote on the tax increase tomorrow at the city council meeting. The Mayor had mentioned that it needed to be voted on before July so it could be in place by October and start to receive the tax then.
Then, citizens of Peru, I would suggest you either attend the council meeting and voice your opinion or call your alderman and let him know how you feel.
Is "HOME RULE" the reason that the tax increase does not have to go to referendum before it is implemented. Isn't it ashame that within the same week as Memorial Day we could have a tax increase implemented without the vote of the citizens.
Discussion on the code officer is being postponed according to my city information source.
Since Peru already has the part time position of Bldg Inspector and members of the city council are going to introduce the idea of having a code officer why don't they combine the two positions and open it to new applicants?
Their is the possibility of combining these two positions and still only coming up with a part time job. Although the bldg. inspector position is a part time position I understands he is paid over $50,000 per year. That is in a bad economy give a thought to what his pay would be if there was any building going on.
to 1155 when you voted for home rule you gave the current city council the authority to raise the sales tax at there discretion
I bet that 11:55 AM did not vote for home rule and I did not either. We will never forget that the home rule referendum was placed on the ballot when the election was being held for the Peru school board and I am willing to be that most people were not even aware of that. Little publicity, no blogs can add up to very little citizen information.
5:04 I, 11:55AM never voted for home rule nor do I ever intend to. A few of the many, many reasons are the ease of manipulating financial sums from one fund to the next to the next until it becomes almost impossible to trace them down unless you are directly involved. I do not believe tax dollars should be be subject to becoming nothing but a government circus shell game.
Another reason is the governments ability to raise taxes without the vote of the people. Home Rule bestows government bodies with too much power.
Experience shows that the disadvantages of home rule far outweigh its advantageous.
As for a building code enforcement officer, that was our building inspector before the new mayor decided we needed to fire one to save money because we all know the city is broke when the mayor says it needs to be broke and has money when he wants to do what he wants. When we had two building inspectors the police dept would aid with code enforcement when asked by the building inspectors as need. But the new transparent mayor and council said we didn't need two inspectors and fired one in the name of money savings. I guess what ever mayor wants mayor gets and you kooks go right along with him hope you poeple wake up soon or our cost of living will be one of the highest in the area instead of one of the lowest. but at least it will be transparent cause god knows all the closed meetings are needed even though we only had probably three or four in the forty or so years of the last administration.
12:14PM
When one was fired, we ended up with nothing as he talks in riddles that no one understands and possibly even he does not understand. AND he saved very little money with the Zoning Inspector department costing us $80,770 in the 2012 budget. From the looks of the budget we don't even have a building inspector on staff and the town is beginning to look like it.
IMO there is nothing transparent at the present time at city hall.
Getting back to "Home Rule". Although my knowledge is sketchy at best.....my instincts tell me that there still wud have to be guidelines in place that would allow for tracking of the various kinds of dollars that are collectively put in the General Fund. If money was sent to the city by the state (say for road repairs). Wouldn't the state be expecting the repairs to be done because that money was granted to them strictly for that purpose - if not then the money wud have to be returned to the state? Similar to a use it or lose it situation. This is not just a one owner fund to be used at will.....this is a mixture of tax payer $, funds from the state and also $'s gleaned from the likes of the lease on the tower, etc. How can a government entity play so fast and loose with accounting and be unaccountable? Boy oh boy we taxpayers have been given the shaft for sometime....the question is are we going to continue to allow it. If so, we deserve what we get!!!!!
What city inspector? That man is a neighbor to Mayor Baker, who put him in that position. He wasn't even a good car salesman. How could you expect him to know what to inspect? I say get rid of him, the girl who runs the closed swimming pool, and the hortilculturist. that would save, at least $l40,000.00 a year. A small start for infrastructor.
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