Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Infrastructure Committee Mtg. 11/30
Tonight a meeting was held at city hall by the Infrastructure Committee which is supposed to hold their meetings and announce them 48 hours ahead of time to allow any interested citizen to attend. Following their usual schedule, it would be held on this coming Monday Dec. 5.
Much to my surprise this committee did not publicly post on the internet the day and time of this meeting which is against the Open Meetings Act. I checked and there is no agenda available.
Was this planned?
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27 comments:
Good catch Lois. You are absolutely correct. Notice of this meeting should have been posted.
No excuses from me.
Who cares when the committee meets or what they recommend?
Last night the 4 Alderman who would oppose any recommendations from the mayor had their arguments ready to stop or delay any vote on the Road Project presented.
Open minded Alderman would ask questions when a project of this size is presented.
Instead of questions and discussion the opposing Alderman who voted against the Sales Tax lined up as expected to voice opposition.
More divided government seems to be the normal routine in Peru.
Many people care whether we have open meetings or not and whether they should be announced or held behind closed doors without public notice. This is important stuff in the realm of open government.
The committee was developed to support the Mayor, they are not elected. Why do they need to follow open meetings act?
Steve, we all understand that this was just a honest mistake. I bet you reported this error to the Attorney Generals office! It looks like this whole transparency thing only applies to those that you decide it applies to. Hypocritical. How many times have more than one member of the committee held meetings to discuss city business? You have Lisa Madigans number and she would like to hear you confession.
Anon 930 according to the Tribune article the only questions that were asked were by those who oppossed the plan. How about those who lined up without any questions and gave their unconditional support? I am concerned about a government that does not ask questions.
We can't wait for residents to attend the meeting. We had to move quickly and get this passed. Sorry Lois!
2:27 PM
I'm sorry too as I was planning on attending the meeting on Monday. For me Nov. was too busy but now I can get back to business and I suppose the committee has done its job and ready to call it quits.
Lois, the committee will continue. We just started.
I really would have liked to have been at the meeting on Wed as I know there are some very bright people working on it and I would have liked to hear their points of view. I would like to have heard the opposite point of view from that presented by the Mayor because I know it happened. I get the strong feeling that some heavy pressure is being put on them to agree and go along with the mayor. My big question is "are these people on the committee to serve the mayor or the people of Peru"?
To 12:00 p.m. - I still have Lisa's cellular number on my speed dial and I consulted her regarding the situation as soon as I heard about it. She commented on the "progressive and pro-active" attitude in assembling a citizen based infrastructure committee and agreed with me that although an advisory committee, our meetings are of course subject to the OMA.
She also agreed with mee that this instance was an honest mistake and nothing at all like the egregious and illegal closed door meeting in December of 2008 in Don's office where a select cast of characters decided to award TEST, Inc. a $2.5 million dollar no-bid contract. You remember, that was the meeting the Illinois Attorney General's office determined had been "knowingly" conducted in violation of the act. The same meeting for which the AG's office issued a letter of reprimand to city officils.
Not at all like the meeting of the IAC on Wednesday in the community room.
I promised Lisa we would try to do better and she suggested we should try to get along. I told her I would keep her informed.
Steve, your sarcastic comments and continued attack on the past administration serve no purpose. It reminds me of the Obama strategy to blame Congress or Bush or the private sector. I don't see your attacks on the other groups helping your Mayor. Funny thing about momentum, it sometime rises and sometimes sinks. Stay on the liferaft as long as you can......ITS TIME FOR A CHANGE.
It was announced that the full committee was in agreement with the Mayor's plan. Ald. Perez took the vote at the IAC meeting. It looks like most of the projects will be in the area of Eakas and North Peru. No committee members were in favor of alternative plans or different financing? Wow. With 20 committee members NOBODY had a different approach? Go down to John's place any day of the week and you can't find 3 people to agree on anything, let alone a committee of 15-20.
8:42 Am
Steve, What was the rush for the meeting Wednesday?
To Lois 10:41
This is what many folks voted for during the last election. Why challenge the Mayor for his heavy handed persuasive tactics? I thought you stated in the blog that you worked for him and support him in the last election.
My, what strange bedfellows one has made. I guess a person cannot judge a book by its cover.
My advice; Grin and bear it .
Those of you who voted for Harl got what they deserve and at the same time the city of peru is going down the drain of "debt" to help the buddies.
Since there has been dissatisfaction expressed because the Infrastructure Committee held a meeting that did not have a posted agenda at least 48 hours before why doesn't this same committee meet before Mondays council meeting with a posted agenda so that those interested parties could be updated with info from Wed's meeting which they intended to attend and would have a opportunity to express themselves to this committee Monday night. Who is responsible for posting a agenda 48 hours before a meeting in city government?
3:28 PM
I would think the chairman of that committee would make sure that the city clerks office got it right and posted when and where it should be.
I'm pretty sure the mayor and Steve were well aware of the rules regarding this meeting and its' not being posted. As a matter of fact I'm pretty sure the mayor mentioned the "open meetings act" requirements his committee would have to obey while he was establishing it's members.
Who is the chairman of the infrastructure committee? Who took minutes of the last meeting before Monday night and who took minutes Monday night? If this is titled a volunteer committee is anyone receiving any form of compensation for being at their meeting? Although not posting a agenda 48 hours before the meeting is a huge boo boo I do not think it would be enlarged to what it presently is if someone had not made it such a big deal during the last administration. Maybe this will be a good lesson to them, remember what goes around comes around.
FYI... We have an infrastructure Committee meeting this coming Monday at 6:00 pm in the Ron Wren Community Room. I "double checked" to be sure this was on the agenda for Monday. As always, we welcome the public to " ALL " meetings.
My apologies for not checking on last weeks meeting as this was an error that happened in a non perfect world. as I.. which I'm sure as with the others, took for granted that it had been posted. This administration has, and shall continue to focus on open communication and transparency.
I posted details along with my opinions of our last infrastructure meeting on my "Alderman Rodney Perez" Face Book page..Which is open to the public to visit.
Thank you,
Rodney Perez
Only if you belong to facebook Rodney. Therefore the public cannot visit your comments.
To my information, the infrastructures committees meeting were ALWAYS held on the same night as the monday nights city council meeting
Thank you 7:56.. I will look into an Alderman Web Page that I can give updates on.
12:51 I believe this Monday will be the committee's 6th meeting. Being the committee was going to move forward with presenting a plan to the council on Wednesday the 30th the mayor called a meeting to be held prior to the council meeting. Unlike the Finance committee meetings that are set, the infrastructure committee meetings are subject to changes. I believe most will stay on the the Monday nights the council meetings are held.
Thank you,
Rodney Perez
The problem was that the entire council was not well informed about the 2 proposals on the table. Kind of a communication gap. It would have been nice for the council to make public the second proposal.
As the infrastructure committee is an advisory committee only, shouldn't both proposals have been put before the entire council to study and eventually voted on at a later date.
FYI In a non perfect world not everyone realizes that everyone does not belong to face book. In business you do not take important laws, procedures and formalities for granted. If you doubt this statement obtain the phone numbers of several of the last governors of Illinois I doubt if you can dial them direct. It is not what you focus on or claim to do but what you actually do. Incidentally I understand there was a comment made at the council Wednesday that the corporation demolishing the power plant have some pressure applied to them because we have plans for that property. Is this where some have plans of building the next swimming pool? Whats the hush hush about these plans and why would any government money be invested in a flood plain? I wouldn't be surprised to hear that a public park is being thought of for one night a year in association with fireworks, just keep pecking away until it appears that something has actually been done correctly. It is evident why there are laws for redistricting every so often Hurry Up!
I believe according to the OMA any meeting of a quorum or more (4 aldermen and the mayor) has to be announced 48 hours in advance Rodney. Steve even admitted this particular meeting was a violation of the OMA. It would have been nice for this committee to explain to the remaining aldermen and the public why they chose this plan and not the other one. Had aldermen Waldorf not mentioned the other plan I'm not sure the other aldermen would have even known it existed. Surely the public would not have. The public, as far as I know still does not know what the other plan consists of other than I believe no borrowing of money is involved.
Anon 6:34 Your beliefs have to be incorrect as 4:59 PM,a alderman, states "This administration has, and shall continue to focus on open communication and transparency". Are you old enough to remember when the three monkeys, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil, were just a cute statue creating a good example of how to conduct your life.
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