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
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
What Will We Uncover Next? I Wouldn't Even Try To Answer
This tidbit came from the minutes of the Water and Sewer committee meeting of May 16. It is online on the city web site if you wish to read what else was discussed. And we wonder why we have financial difficulties in Peru. For years I have heard rumors about the city giving breaks to the Peru Mall and from the looks of this, they seemed at the very least to be looking the other way.
Maybe its a case of staff not reading the meters, the solution is to read the meter by frequency. Looks to be a operational problem not a decision to give the mall breaks.
Does anyone know, was this topic brought up at the 5-18-11 council meeting and did Phil Hileman attend (I don't see mention of it on the minutes of the meeting)? Also, the minutes of the water and sewer meeting indicate Bartley, Drennen, and Waldorf were to meet before the 5-18 meeting and discuss the topic. Anyone hear a solution or a reason why this should have been allowed to happen for SO LONG before being caught?
The minutes of the meeting do not reveal why these meters were not being read on a regular basis other than to say they were located in vacant areas of the mall. The city should know exactly where every meter is located, who the customer is, and if it's an active account or not. Considering the individuals in attendance at that committee meeting who are responsible for meters, meter maintenance, meter reading and billing, I would not be surprised if we have been giving away a lot of water over the past ten years or more. This topic was not discussed at the regular council meeting on 5/18 as Waldorf said it would be. I will be surprised if we ever get a logical explanation about this situation.
I don't understand this meter problem with the mall. Why did we wait so long to read these meters? How can the malls bill show a credit of $8000 but we send them to bills totaling roughly $18,000. If this was a practice done in the past why did it take us over 2 years to unveil it.
Does anyone know what qualifications S. Mayszak has for this position and what her interest in it is? I know she's on the pool committee.
10:34 What qualifications are needed to be on the council, and I'm sure her interest is "the City of Peru" I would much rather see a council person have common sense as their qualifications over having a political science degree. I was told Mrs. Mayszak has been regularly attending meetings over the past year and volunteers her time on the pool committee. I also have been told that she has never once spoke up at any of these meetings during public comment, so..maybe she is the yes person the Mayor is looking for, but then again, I think she is in the same ward as Mr. Perez and he says enough for the whole council.
Do you remember who was chair of the water and sewer committee for many years, wasn't it just retired Ald. O'Beirne? Was he aware of this issue? We will never know.
Lets point the finger in the right direction and identify the correct department head at fault. The target is THE CITY CLERK. Look at what Ken D said, the city clerk did not respond to the solving the issue. This is NOT a city council issue, IT IS THE DEPARTMENT HEAD'S PROBLEM. What are we paying the DH to do ?, solve/prevent problems or just to play on the computer & c/o face book. $50K annual salary, citizens are we getting our money's worth ?
I think it is more of a public works department problem of which our water system is. The city clerk does the billing actually the clerks do the billing but they are only working with the information provided to them. The SPW and his employees should be checking on problems like this. Actually it is a problem ignored by both departments and blame should be shared equally. The city clerk should expect the information he is getting from the meter readers is accurate. Now wait who makes the list for them about what businesses should be checked. Where does the water department come into this. It is very evident you are not a fan of our city clerk but I believe you are just trying to place all the blame on him and it should be scattered and some of it given to Mr Drennan also, since he seems to know so much about that department.
Who ever was at fault, whether it be the city clerk, the SPW, Mr. Drennan, whatever, you can be assured it cost the city a sizable sum of money. And, who knows how long this has been going on if it took us over 2 years to find it. And, hopefully, the issue will be resolved and problems like this will be avoided in the future.
What assurance does the city have that all water usage has been billed to a meter. I have heard that some of the newer residences have been found to be missing meters. When the plumbing is installed and tapped onto the city line, who guarantees that a meter is properly installed and the user is billed for water. Could be an oversight ( or not) to forget to add a meter? Every permit requiring a tap should have a meter number assigned automatically. Any comments?
Remember! Every job added onto the payroll is a initial expense. If this job does not take in more than it pays out in wages and fringe benefits it is going to be a financial loss to the city. The method the city has to raise money to create payroll is taxation of some form.
NO MORE TAXES OF ANY FORM!
25% of the residents of Peru are retired and collecting Social Security which has not increased in pay for the last two years and most likely will be frozen in the third year also.
City costs must be cut and exact figures of these cuts and individual department heads and city administrators payroll published. I do not mean publishing a figure of $50,000.00 - $75,000.00, $75,000.00 & above. I mean exact figures and what pay raises they get per year in this economic downturn.
The two positions which would pay for themselves in the City of Peru many times over would be a City Manager and a City Engineer.
It seems as though a City Manager and or a City Engineer has been brought up many, many times by the citizens of Peru but the topic is never discussed at a council meeting. WHY???
OK, now we are all intriqued because we don't know who you are talking about. I have the names of all the prospective candidates and even I am stumped although I am working on an answer through the process of elimination.
The Mayor needed a sure vote, why not pick the candidate he is comfortable with! I think we just had a former govenor that picked a Senate seat. What was the interview like? Do you want a tax increase? You wonder how the process was done.
How do we know she is a sure vote for the mayor? Where did she come from and why all of a sudden is she interested in being on the council? We just had an election why didn't she run then?
anon 12:35 The Mayor interviews all the candidates that is why anybody would say that a sure vote is ready. Why would he choose a candidate that is not on his tax and spend plan?
29 comments:
This tidbit came from the minutes of the Water and Sewer committee meeting of May 16. It is online on the city web site if you wish to read what else was discussed.
And we wonder why we have financial difficulties in Peru. For years I have heard rumors about the city giving breaks to the Peru Mall and from the looks of this, they seemed at the very least to be looking the other way.
Maybe its a case of staff not reading the meters, the solution is to read the meter by frequency. Looks to be a operational problem not a decision to give the mall breaks.
Does anyone know, was this topic brought up at the 5-18-11 council meeting and did Phil Hileman attend (I don't see mention of it on the minutes of the meeting)? Also, the minutes of the water and sewer meeting indicate Bartley, Drennen, and Waldorf were to meet before the 5-18 meeting and discuss the topic. Anyone hear a solution or a reason why this should have been allowed to happen for SO LONG before being caught?
I guess we have a new alderman
9:49 AM
Sherry Mayszak is Mayors choice for 2nd ward
The minutes of the meeting do not reveal why these meters were not being read on a regular basis other than to say they were located in vacant areas of the mall. The city should know exactly where every meter is located, who the customer is, and if it's an active account or not.
Considering the individuals in attendance at that committee meeting who are responsible for meters, meter maintenance, meter reading and billing, I would not be surprised if we have been giving away a lot of water over the past ten years or more.
This topic was not discussed at the regular council meeting on 5/18 as Waldorf said it would be. I will be surprised if we ever get a logical explanation about this situation.
I don't understand this meter problem with the mall. Why did we wait so long to read these meters? How can the malls bill show a credit of $8000 but we send them to bills totaling roughly $18,000. If this was a practice done in the past why did it take us over 2 years to unveil it.
Does anyone know what qualifications S. Mayszak has for this position and what her interest in it is? I know she's on the pool committee.
Why don't we follow La Salle and install radio frequency meters to avoid this type of problem in the future?
I think somebody mentioned in the minutes recommended that radio frequency meters installed by the mall would solve future problems.
10:34 What qualifications are needed to be on the council, and I'm sure her interest is "the City of Peru" I would much rather see a council person have common sense as their qualifications over having a political science degree.
I was told Mrs. Mayszak has been regularly attending meetings over the past year and volunteers her time on the pool committee. I also have been told that she has never once spoke up at any of these meetings during public comment, so..maybe she is the yes person the Mayor is looking for, but then again, I think she is in the same ward as Mr. Perez and he says enough for the whole council.
Do you remember who was chair of the water and sewer committee for many years, wasn't it just retired Ald. O'Beirne? Was he aware of this issue? We will never know.
Lets point the finger in the right direction and identify the correct department head at fault.
The target is THE CITY CLERK.
Look at what Ken D said, the city clerk did not respond to the solving the issue. This is NOT a city council issue, IT IS THE DEPARTMENT HEAD'S PROBLEM.
What are we paying the DH to do ?, solve/prevent problems or just to play on the computer & c/o face book.
$50K annual salary, citizens are we getting our money's worth ?
4:49PM
I think it is more of a public works department problem of which our water system is. The city clerk does the billing actually the clerks do the billing but they are only working with the information provided to them. The SPW and his employees should be checking on problems like this.
Actually it is a problem ignored by both departments and blame should be shared equally. The city clerk should expect the information he is getting from the meter readers is accurate. Now wait who makes the list for them about what businesses should be checked. Where does the water department come into this. It is very evident you are not a fan of our city clerk but I believe you are just trying to place all the blame on him and it should be scattered and some of it given to Mr Drennan also, since he seems to know so much about that department.
Who ever was at fault, whether it be the city clerk, the SPW, Mr. Drennan, whatever, you can be assured it cost the city a sizable sum of money. And, who knows how long this has been going on if it took us over 2 years to find it. And, hopefully, the issue will be resolved and problems like this will be avoided in the future.
What assurance does the city have that all water usage has been billed to a meter. I have heard that some of the newer residences have been found to be missing meters. When the plumbing is installed and tapped onto the city line, who guarantees that a meter is properly installed and the user is billed for water. Could be an oversight ( or not) to forget to add a meter? Every permit requiring a tap should have a meter number assigned automatically. Any comments?
It sounds like a job for a building inspector? It's too bad we not only have an incompetently staffed dept, he is only part time.
Remember! Every job added onto the payroll is a initial expense. If this job does not take in more than it pays out in wages and fringe benefits it is going to be a financial loss to the city. The method the city has to raise money to create payroll is taxation of some form.
NO MORE TAXES OF ANY FORM!
25% of the residents of Peru are retired and collecting Social Security which has not increased in pay for the last two years and most likely will be frozen in the third year also.
City costs must be cut and exact figures of these cuts and individual department heads and city administrators payroll published. I do not mean publishing a figure of $50,000.00 - $75,000.00, $75,000.00 & above. I mean exact figures and what pay raises they get per year in this economic downturn.
The two positions which would pay for themselves in the City of Peru many times over would be a City Manager and a City Engineer.
It seems as though a City Manager and or a City Engineer has been brought up many, many times by the citizens of Peru but the topic is never discussed at a council meeting. WHY???
ANON 7:27 Surely you've got to be kidding? Surely somebody checks to make sure all new and remodeled homes have meters - DON'T THEY?
I noticed that one of the candidtes for alderman has a doctorate
He was not a better a choice than the mayors chocie?
What a joke
ANON 3:44 where did you notice that at? Were they mentioned in the paper?
The wages published never include retirement or health benefits.
The guy is a teacher and a school principal
I think he is under 40 so a younger person
could have been a good choice
I believe he announces the football and
basketball games at LP
11:00PM
OK, now we are all intriqued because we don't know who you are talking about. I have the names of all the prospective candidates and even I am stumped although I am working on an answer through the process of elimination.
I think it's Suarez
The Mayor needed a sure vote, why not pick the candidate he is comfortable with! I think we just had a former govenor that picked a Senate seat. What was the interview like? Do you want a tax increase? You wonder how the process was done.
How do we know she is a sure vote for the mayor? Where did she come from and why all of a sudden is she interested in being on the council? We just had an election why didn't she run then?
anon 12:35 The Mayor interviews all the candidates that is why anybody would say that a sure vote is ready. Why would he choose a candidate that is not on his tax and spend plan?
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