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
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Visit With Mike Hart at the Eagles TODAY
Mayoral candidate Mike Hart will be holding a Meet and Greet at the Peru Eagles (west end of town ) from 1 to 4 this afternoon.
Take a few minutes this cold afternoon to meet Mike and chat with him.
Mike did a fabulous job at his meet and greet. Very friendly and open guy. His wife is a lovely lady and very supportive. I like how he thinks (conservatively). He said he will take charge of the council meetings instead of letting some councilmen control them, which is what a mayor should do.
Good luck, Mike. I look forward to hearing more from you!
Not very impressed with Mr. Hart. Seems to be lacking some of the skill set needed to become a Mayor. If he is depending on management skills developed while working for the State I won't even comment on that.
mike is business and he would not have thrown his name in the hat if he didn't care about the way things are going. he won't rant/rave and throw you under the bus but he will get the job done. he won't give you a line of B.S. he does his homework. buddys are buddys and friends are friends but when you have a job to do you better get it done
Being Mayor doesn't mean you need to know everything about everything. It means that you put people under you that know how to run each area of the city and can do it honestly. It doesn't mean appointing someone to inspector because he sold you a car 20 years ago. You need to talk to your supervisors and solve problems and not ignore the citizens.
I believe Mr. Hart will be a voice for the people and for Peru unlike our current mayor who seems to be oblivious to what's going on at meetings. Apparently the past administration held the title of "good ole boy's club". I'm not so sure there doesn't exist such an organization with the current administration.
One of the most important question asked was what kind of relationship would he have with the new council. That is a very important question since the council basically controls how everything is done in the city. We know he will have Becky Mueller, Tony Ferrari, Mike Radtke, Dave Potthoff and Rodney Perez for sure. I wonder what will happen to the other wards? Do we want Mike Sapienza or Ankiewicz in? Tough decision there(that isn't sarcasm). What about the three way race in the 4th ward? Both alderman Lukosus and weberski are in the good ol boys club, but I still don't know what to think about Loger. Either way we will have to see what his relationship is with each of these people if we really want to move forward.
I believe Mr. Hart will get along well with them, the big question is how will they get along with him? It's obvious our current mayor does not like or support the two current second ward aldermen. These are the two aldermen who best represent the citizens of Peru (all of them).
I firmly believe the council is now in control and the mayor is content to be Mayor Scott Harl. What comes next with the next mayor will be how the individual uses his strengths and skills.
3:08 p.m. You are correct in saying some of the council won't change and that's fine, nothing can be done about that. I would rather see ankiewicz than sapienza but we will see what happens. I like to keep tabs in the 4th ward because that's where I live. Lukosus has done ok with the people he has served but nobody knows who he is because he doesnt get out there. I cant say too much anout weberski, he is obviously too good to comment here anymore. Myself and my friends have personally dealt with Justin with city issues for the past year or so, even though he isn't an alderman. We ask him a question and we have an answer from him in 24 hours, that was the longest wait time. Something to think about.
I would be interested in knowing why you would vote for Ankiewicz as he is the biggest obstructionist on the city council and very few people actually trust him. The 4th ward is going to be very interesting. If you like the mayor, you will be happy with either Lukosus or Weberski. Justin thinks for himself as far as I can tell.
7:39 Why would you rather have Ankiewicz than Sapienza? And could you please explain what Lukosus has done with the people? I totally agree with you with regards to Justin.
7:39 Can you be more specific about Alderman Lukosus and what has he done that was OK? I feel the voters of the fourth ward could benefit knowing how he has served the residents. Thanks!
Sapienza doesn't think for himself. He likes to ask questions then scoff at responses. Plain and simple. I said lukosus has done ok. He will usually respond, although it isn't too timely. In any case I have my opinions on who is the best candidate, feel free to share yours.
Who's Alderman Lukosus? Need I say more?? There are Two Aldermen on the council who voice their concerns and opinions for the city of Peru. There are two other aldermen who are strictly Mayor Scott Harls puppets. The other four are past members of the good ole boys. Mayor Scott gave into the good ole boys figuring if he allows them full reign of the council and do as they please, they would work with Harl as long as he didn't rock the boat. Since Mayor Scott realized that would seal another term he jumped in the boat with the four good ole boys and brought his other two puppets with him. One thing Mayor Scott never realized was the other TWO were going to be the death of his 2013 Election because they just won't shut the Hell up. This is why we are all seeing the Peru city administration falling apart at the seams. Of course when there are Narcisists such as the Mayor, and Ankeiwitcz on the council they feed off of each others negative, but yet arrogant attitudes. Good Luck Peru! You need it.
8:49 PM Mr Sapienza has been to many council meetings and committee meetings. Yes I have had conversations with him and considering he is new to Peru City government he is new to process of present and past decisions. He said to definitely call him if you have a question and I do believe he would give you an honest answer as to how he feels about it. In contrast I have seen Ald. Ankiewicz blatantly lie like he did at the last council meeting when it was time to vote on the fireworks contract. After 4 months of discussions on several committees, he voted to send it back to committee because he didn't like the decision, in other works this Navy veteran did not like Democracy at work in Peru.
Anon 11:29, what do you moving back with Harl? I see new roads, Eakas expansion, a budget in the black. Sounds to me it is more personal especially since you resort to name calling. What facts do you base that on??
What new roads? Are you talking about road maintenance, that in every other city is standard but in Peru it is celebrated with signs?
Eakas expansion versus continued exodus of business, business exploring moving because of utility hike, brown fields increasing, and potential lawsuits? Net loss in jobs?
City resources and liability for private concerts? Most restrictive public comment procedures in the state? Selective broadcasting of council meeting? High number of closed sessions?
Budget trending toward massive red ink with high debt load?
I think 11:29 served his candidate better by not bringing up a load of nothing like you did for Harl. I do not agree with the name calling either, but anyone who looks at the state of the city of Peru does feel a little like hurl.
10:09, again a lot of conjecture with NO supporting evidence. Truth be told, past administrations never had a public forum, never broadcast council meetings, and as far as job losses and debt, I don't where you have been living, but this is not an isolated phenomenon. State the facts if you want to have an intelligent debate, otherwise you can keep spew half truths and conjecture and maintain your whatever personal agenda you have.
I know Steve will think for himself, I was referring to the relationships the Mayor has with each of the candidates. A new mayor would certainly take care of that issue.
Fact: stated new roads when in fact it was simply road maintenance and surfacing. Fact: net loss in jobs and business utility increase Fact: use of public resources , funds for private concert Fact: debt not reduced during term Fact: multiple demolitions mismanaged and clean ups pending Fact: most restrictive public comment in state, past administrations not relevant to your point. Fact: possible lawsuit over Rec board actions
12:57 I am to take your word on these facts?? What research did you perform. Have you contacts every municipality in Illinois and inquired as to their public comments policy for meetings??? Show me the city budget with actual numbers. How has Peru performed versus other Illinois municipalities?? If you are referring to Concerts for a cause as city funding for private causes then I take it you do not support operation Promise either. Once again you present no facts or figures, just opinions.
Fact: they only broadcast the meetings they choose to post. Fact: the Eakas expansion is costing the city a great deal of money. Fact: new intersection is causing established businesses to lose money on a daily basis and we show no concern.
1:56 You do not make any logical arguments refuting any of those facts. You deflect and cast aspersions at the writer. The public comments policy was researched by the city, and they selected similar procedures to the other restrictive cities in Illinois. They wanted to make sure it could withstand court challenge. There is no current city with open forum that has a more restrictive procedure. Certainly none in the central Illinois area.
Perhaps Justin could weigh in on the budget and projections. The debt has not been reduced during Harls term.
Comparing a for profit concert with operation Promise is again irrelevant and wrong.
Again I ask, can someone logically debate the facts, not just say where is your proof. I f they are not true they should all easily be discredited. Please do so. I welcome it.
2:33 you present no evidence of your claims and I venture to say if you had ANY facts you would present them. Yes it probably is costing the city money for Eakas expansion, although long term it will offer jobs and tax revenue. Perhaps they adopted public forum policy too keep on track and avoid the council meetings from becoming an Ann Landers open forum. I will debate this no further as I see you come to the forum with only personal opinions and no facts. Perhaps if you feel so strongly on your opinions you should run for Mayor, sounds like you have it all figured out. Overbearing and underinformed.LOL
2:33 check out Granite City's policy on public comment to the city council, looks like you are way off base with regards to Peru. If Peru was like that I could only imagine the uproar. Looks like you have made comments without doing your research. Appears to me that Peru is following the typical "benchmark" when handling public comment. If you are afraid to address the council or feel that the process is too complicated perhaps you could talk to your alderman about your concerns.
I don't see much difference from our rules to theirs except they require council approval. I believe the hostile environment at our meetings has eliminated very much commenting. Rules are one thing but environment is another.
3:09 ok I see. You will take your ball and go home. At least 4:06 tried to debate logically. Of course Granite City council meetings are not Open Forums, which I am sure is coming in Peru, but nice attempt to debate.
Still waiting for any other counter argument to the facts presented, since I did present the facts, but you just want to say things about me instead of countering the facts. I expected the insults and standard argument around here, "shut up unless you can do it better". No one is allowed to comment or have an opinion unless they run for office.
our city is in bad shape-eakas what is it going to garner 10 new jobs? really?? also how many business closed this past year? road there are no new road repaved perhaps, god knows we have seen all of his signs like he personally paid for them or something. big joke, we need someone who will be the voice of us citizens clearly he is not, the city in my and several others is depressed for a lack of better words. such a shame
3:09 I think you need to look up the difference between fact and opinion. Those were not opinions. They were facts, things that can be checked as true or false.. You only talk about a few of them and do not counter them with any facts. Your decision to leave the debate is silly because you were never in it. You only call names and ask for more proof.
Fact : how is the current economic depression Mayor Harls fault, if he didn't win the expansion then the complaints would be he didn't do anything to stimulate the local economy or create jobs. Considering the state of the national economy and jobless rates we are lucky to have any jobs left in Illinois let alone the Illinois valley. Obviously there are a bunch of haters on this blog and even when presented with the facts they are blinded by angst. It sure it easy to cast stones although Harl was the only one who had any to challenge Baker! Harl has my vote!!!
It will be interesting when it is done to see if the money put into Eakas was a waste or gain, only then will we know. At this point in time it is neither. Many people are expressing their opinion that he has not attempted to live up to his campaign promises. Nada, nothing.
Lots of people may like pickleball and Mr Hart may or may be among them but that is certainly not the same as permitting the recreation board to shove this through and giving it your silent opinion. He is aware of the sad way our parks are managed and how recreation is approved. He is informed.
The only jobs gained recently in Peru have been restaurant related and possibly a few in retail sales. On the flip side we have lost more than gained when you consider the 3 empty large buildings available here in Peru. Jewel, the furniture store across the street and now K Mart. Rural King added a few, Olive Garden a few more. What did I miss?
Statistically speaking I wonder how many politicians keep their campaign promises?? I have a feeling Lois that you can count on disappointment no matter who you support. Didn't you ever hear promises were made to be broken?? Even the most powerful man in world has not lived up to his promises, maybe you throw out the baby with the bath water??? I hope some day someone will make you happy, because after reading this blog I think you may have clinical depression.
You are very funny and I got a good laugh. Promises are not made to be broken, they are made to be kept and if you plan on breaking promises you make, your character is despicable and you are morally bankrupt! This election is about the future of Peru and has nothing to do with my happiness. At this time this city has no leadership and thus has no character. Certainly hope that we shall have mayoral debates and I believe they are being planned as I speak.
2:33 p.m. I apologize I can not give any sight on budgets or projections, I believe Treasurer Hylla would be the best person to ask. I will say projections could be difficult with Springfield able to alter or even eliminate some revenue streams, as we saw with sales tax last year.
9:36 there is far too much small town cynicism accepted in this area. People assume that they should "get theirs" , leaders are expected to be a little corrupt and break promises. Moral bankruptcy always precedes actual bankruptcy.
I am reminded of the bloggers who got on defending the waste in the Township saying, we are only stealing a little, the schools are stealing a lot. This entitlement mentality is destroying this town, whether it be a union or an elected official. They want respect but refuse to earn respect.
Justin, the debt load over the past 4 years should be readily available via FOIA requests. The local unemployment figures are readily available as well, without FOIA. I think Brian ahstaken a look at the city budget. Each year, a simple linear projection without assuming any state changes should be easy enough to see.
Earlier bloggers wanted to know how Peru was doing in comparison to other similar sized cities in Illinois. I would guess that could be a good research project for a prospective member of the governing body.
8:12 that is not a fact. You ask a question and then talk as if a previous stated fact was that Mayor Harl caused a recession. You offer your opinion of how people would react had the Mayor not supported Eakas expansion. Then you call bloggers names.
No one said that. They said debt load has not decreased , jobs have been net lost. I personally have not commented on the Eakas situation, my list of facts never included it. I stated that there has been a net decrease in jobs. Many cities have experienced increases, and others much less decrease, all faced with the same recession.
The Mayor shares no grand plan with the people. He has allowed a utility rate increase to threaten our existing base of manufacturing, with not a peep of rational from his business development manager.
Have you visited our economic expansion web site? Do that, then come back here to deal with more haters as you call us.
This evening I decided to look back and see what was being discussed in 2010 which is the last postings I can still pull up. On the left side, is a listing of the archives, try March of 2010 and you will find a letter Mayor Harl submitted to the council on his hiring of Bob Vickery. There are other interesting items in this section and gives you an idea of what preceded us when the blog began and you might enjoy browsing through them as it shows a time frame of how things have gone from then to now.
10:05. It is true we could look at other municipalities for a comparison project, but it wouldn't be a true apples to apples comparison. The purpose of any home rule municipality is to solve local problems with local solutions, that is why any municipality elects to become a home rule municipality. As for projections....anyone can take the previous years budget and add 5% thanks to the Federal Reserves printing of money. That is a larger economic issue but believe me it exists. If elected one of my main goals is to leave Peru a better place than when I came into office: financially, economically and morally. Pretty basic goals but I feel we need to get back to basics to move forward.
11:14 well you have political speech down pat Lol. When looking at comparative cities in central Illinois, there is no twin Peru. But you could see how other cities have generally coped with issues such as debt, unemployment and tangible budget measureables during the same time frame. That has nothing to do with whether a city has home rule or not. In general home rule cities are carrying higher debt burdens, according to a Chicago Trib study, but I believe the challenger needs only to focus on the net job losses, lack of new business development, and examples of favoritism to wake up the voters.
7:05 he is right, it has everything to do with being a home rule. it probably should have been expanded to say "solving local problems with local finance solutions". Unfortunately most people in politics don't understand what responsible financing or money management is, that is why most home rule municipalities are debt ridden. Go get em Justin!!
11:09 I am not saying whether Justin is right or I am right. I am saying that it is reasonable to compare budgets for Home Rule and non Home Rule cities of comparable populations, particularly in the area of debt burdens, employment and taxation. It is a fact that Home Rule allows taxation more easily, and borrowing more easily. If those two features are applied judiciously, you might guess that a similar sized city would be performing better in terms of some measurables, like employment and , yes, debt reduction. The fact that you cannot find a twin of Peru is not an excuse to say , well we need answer to no comparisons because we are own own separate Kingdom. That does not cut it. You could even compare Peru pre home rule to post home rule for debt burden and job creation. You can compare things like employment rate vs State or national rate. There are many ways to show if trends are appearing. Blaming a recession for very failure of this administration is getting old. You have some on here saying the schools need to have more raffles and bake sales to fund themselves. It is fine to have that kind of good ole Illinois Valley fundraising thinking on blogs, but I want a mayor and council with economic chops. Justin has shared his economic and civics background, and has claimed to have worked/mentored with treasurer Hylla . If he does not have any economic comparisons, figures or plans, I am concerned. Talking about getting back to good ole basics is great, but I can hear that from the old guard.
Looking for a city of similar size to Peru is not easy at least within the state of Illinois and than add home rule and you are really up against it. I don't regret my work or my vote for Mayor Harl as it was the best choice at the time. Most of us gave him overwhelming support the first 2 years when he complained that he could get nothing done because of the council. We believed him when he said he would hold town forums, reduce the number of council mtgs etc AFTER the mid term election. So again people worked to get him new council members and some turned out to be no better than the old. Then as someone stated Mayor Harl decided to jump in the boat with the aldermen he had been complaining about. Now it is his time to go because you don't lie and win re election at least not with my vote.
11:43a.m. what is it with you and projections? I'll give you a number, lets say 30,000,000. There. do you feel better? if that is city revenue for a year and we don't reach it i'll give you some sort of excuse. and then I will pay financial planners huge sums of money to come up with another projection just to comfort you. some of the most brilliant ceo's hated projections (think jack welch and andrew carnegie). They were presented with a financial statement and had to make it better by the end of the year. Jack welch alone added 400 billion in market value to ge during his tenure. you want projections? go play fantasy football.
2:06 what is it with you and being unable to read. I was clear that I thought looking at the relative performance of measurables over Harls term might offer some point of reference , some ability to project where the city is going. If the city of Peru is somehow in a space time warp, where it cannot be compared to any other cities between 8 and 15,000 people in the Midwest, and no one should bother to see if the debt load is staying the same or increasing, then so be it. You all deserve what you get. You may not be able to project the future, but you can look at the last 4 years and kinda see what the H has been going on. Sorry to get all "numbery" on you. Lets go back to just bashing Harl for lying and being mean to people in the audience.
65 comments:
GO MIKE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mike did a fabulous job at his meet and greet. Very friendly and open guy. His wife is a lovely lady and very supportive. I like how he thinks (conservatively). He said he will take charge of the council meetings instead of letting some councilmen control them, which is what a mayor should do.
Good luck, Mike. I look forward to hearing more from you!
Not very impressed with Mr. Hart. Seems to be lacking some of the skill set needed to become a Mayor. If he is depending on management skills developed while working for the State I won't even comment on that.
Very nice guy.
Peru will move forward with him and not backwards like Hurl.
mike is business and he would not have thrown his name in the hat if he didn't care about the way things are going. he won't rant/rave and throw you under the bus but he will get the job done. he won't give you a line of B.S. he does his homework. buddys are buddys and friends are friends but when you have a job to do you better get it done
Being Mayor doesn't mean you need to know everything about everything. It means that you put people under you that know how to run each area of the city and can do it honestly. It doesn't mean appointing someone to inspector because he sold you a car 20 years ago. You need to talk to your supervisors and solve problems and not ignore the citizens.
11:22 Jan. 21st And what skill set did our current mayor come to the table with? Being a member of Local 150?
I believe Mr. Hart will be a voice for the people and for Peru unlike our current mayor who seems to be oblivious to what's going on at meetings. Apparently the past administration held the title of "good ole boy's club". I'm not so sure there doesn't exist such an organization with the current administration.
One of the most important question asked was what kind of relationship would he have with the new council. That is a very important question since the council basically controls how everything is done in the city. We know he will have Becky Mueller, Tony Ferrari, Mike Radtke, Dave Potthoff and Rodney Perez for sure. I wonder what will happen to the other wards? Do we want Mike Sapienza or Ankiewicz in? Tough decision there(that isn't sarcasm). What about the three way race in the 4th ward? Both alderman Lukosus and weberski are in the good ol boys club, but I still don't know what to think about Loger. Either way we will have to see what his relationship is with each of these people if we really want to move forward.
I believe Mr. Hart will get along well with them, the big question is how will they get along with him? It's obvious our current mayor does not like or support the two current second ward aldermen. These are the two aldermen who best represent the citizens of Peru (all of them).
I firmly believe the council is now in control and the mayor is content to be Mayor Scott Harl. What comes next with the next mayor will be how the individual uses his strengths and skills.
3:08 p.m. You are correct in saying some of the council won't change and that's fine, nothing can be done about that. I would rather see ankiewicz than sapienza but we will see what happens. I like to keep tabs in the 4th ward because that's where I live. Lukosus has done ok with the people he has served but nobody knows who he is because he doesnt get out there. I cant say too much anout weberski, he is obviously too good to comment here anymore. Myself and my friends have personally dealt with Justin with city issues for the past year or so, even though he isn't an alderman. We ask him a question and we have an answer from him in 24 hours, that was the longest wait time. Something to think about.
7:39 M
I would be interested in knowing why you would vote for Ankiewicz as he is the biggest obstructionist on the city council and very few people actually trust him. The 4th ward is going to be very interesting. If you like the mayor, you will be happy with either Lukosus or Weberski. Justin thinks for himself as far as I can tell.
7:39 Why would you rather have Ankiewicz than Sapienza? And could you please explain what Lukosus has done with the people? I totally agree with you with regards to Justin.
7:39 Can you be more specific about Alderman Lukosus and what has he done that was OK? I feel the voters of the fourth ward could benefit knowing how he has served the residents. Thanks!
Justin does think for himself, as was evident yesterday. He was the only candidate from the 4th at the Eagles to hear what Mr. Hart had to say.
Sapienza doesn't think for himself. He likes to ask questions then scoff at responses. Plain and simple. I said lukosus has done ok. He will usually respond, although it isn't too timely. In any case I have my opinions on who is the best candidate, feel free to share yours.
Who's Alderman Lukosus? Need I say more?? There are Two Aldermen on the council who voice their concerns and opinions for the city of Peru. There are two other aldermen who are strictly Mayor Scott Harls puppets. The other four are past members of the good ole boys. Mayor Scott gave into the good ole boys figuring if he allows them full reign of the council and do as they please, they would work with Harl as long as he didn't rock the boat. Since Mayor Scott realized that would seal another term he jumped in the boat with the four good ole boys and brought his other two puppets with him. One thing Mayor Scott never realized was the other TWO were going to be the death of his 2013 Election because they just won't shut the Hell up.
This is why we are all seeing the Peru city administration falling apart at the seams. Of course when there are Narcisists such as the Mayor, and Ankeiwitcz on the council they feed off of each others negative, but yet arrogant attitudes. Good Luck Peru! You need it.
8:49 PM
Mr Sapienza has been to many council meetings and committee meetings. Yes I have had conversations with him and considering he is new to Peru City government he is new to process of present and past decisions. He said to definitely call him if you have a question and I do believe he would give you an honest answer as to how he feels about it. In contrast I have seen Ald. Ankiewicz blatantly lie like he did at the last council meeting when it was time to vote on the fireworks contract. After 4 months of discussions on several committees, he voted to send it back to committee because he didn't like the decision, in other works this Navy veteran did not like Democracy at work in Peru.
8:53 PM
That is exactly how I see it.
With either one as an alderman the future is rather bleak in the 3rd ward. I don't see any initiative taking place with either candidate.
Anon 11:29, what do you moving back with Harl? I see new roads, Eakas expansion, a budget in the black. Sounds to me it is more personal especially since you resort to name calling. What facts do you base that on??
7:22
What new roads? Are you talking about road maintenance, that in every other city is standard but in Peru it is celebrated with signs?
Eakas expansion versus continued exodus of business, business exploring moving because of utility hike, brown fields increasing, and potential lawsuits? Net loss in jobs?
City resources and liability for private concerts? Most restrictive public comment procedures in the state? Selective broadcasting of council meeting? High number of closed sessions?
Budget trending toward massive red ink with high debt load?
I think 11:29 served his candidate better by not bringing up a load of nothing like you did for Harl. I do not agree with the name calling either, but anyone who looks at the state of the city of Peru does feel a little like hurl.
10:09, again a lot of conjecture with NO supporting evidence. Truth be told, past administrations never had a public forum, never broadcast council meetings, and as far as job losses and debt, I don't where you have been living, but this is not an isolated phenomenon. State the facts if you want to have an intelligent debate, otherwise you can keep spew half truths and conjecture and maintain your whatever personal agenda you have.
Lois Believe me Steve Weberski does think for himself. You are wrong with that comment. Marv Gum
I know Steve will think for himself, I was referring to the relationships the Mayor has with each of the candidates. A new mayor would certainly take care of that issue.
11:41
Fact: stated new roads when in fact it was simply road maintenance and surfacing.
Fact: net loss in jobs and business utility increase
Fact: use of public resources , funds for private concert
Fact: debt not reduced during term
Fact: multiple demolitions mismanaged and clean ups pending
Fact: most restrictive public comment in state, past administrations not relevant to your point.
Fact: possible lawsuit over Rec board actions
Begin your logical rebuttals.
12:57 I am to take your word on these facts?? What research did you perform. Have you contacts every municipality in Illinois and inquired as to their public comments policy for meetings??? Show me the city budget with actual numbers. How has Peru performed versus other Illinois municipalities?? If you are referring to Concerts for a cause as city funding for private causes then I take it you do not support operation Promise either. Once again you present no facts or figures, just opinions.
Fact: they only broadcast the meetings they choose to post.
Fact: the Eakas expansion is costing the city a great deal of money.
Fact: new intersection is causing established businesses to lose money on a daily basis and we show no concern.
Steve was Harl's campaign manager and that will not be forgotten. He is also very union strong and that will not be forgotten.
Fact : Hurl needs to be flushed
1:56
You do not make any logical arguments refuting any of those facts. You deflect and cast aspersions at the writer.
The public comments policy was researched by the city, and they selected similar procedures to the other restrictive cities in Illinois. They wanted to make sure it could withstand court challenge. There is no current city with open forum that has a more restrictive procedure.
Certainly none in the central Illinois area.
Perhaps Justin could weigh in on the budget and projections. The debt has not been reduced during Harls term.
Comparing a for profit concert with operation Promise is again irrelevant and wrong.
Again I ask, can someone logically debate the facts, not just say where is your proof. I f they are not true they should all easily be discredited. Please do so. I welcome it.
2:33 you present no evidence of your claims and I venture to say if you had ANY facts you would present them. Yes it probably is costing the city money for Eakas expansion, although long term it will offer jobs and tax revenue. Perhaps they adopted public forum policy too keep on track and avoid the council meetings from becoming an Ann Landers open forum. I will debate this no further as I see you come to the forum with only personal opinions and no facts. Perhaps if you feel so strongly on your opinions you should run for Mayor, sounds like you have it all figured out. Overbearing and underinformed.LOL
2:33 check out Granite City's policy on public comment to the city council, looks like you are way off base with regards to Peru. If Peru was like that I could only imagine the uproar. Looks like you have made comments without doing your research. Appears to me that Peru is following the typical "benchmark" when handling public comment. If you are afraid to address the council or feel that the process is too complicated perhaps you could talk to your alderman about your concerns.
Fact: Present administration does not conduct public forums.
Fact: Eakas may offer some jobs, but will not offset the number of employees it has laid off in the past.
How long has Dairy Queen been at its present location?
And how long has it been since Wal-Mart moved to the North?
4:06 PM
I don't see much difference from our rules to theirs except they require council approval. I believe the hostile environment at our meetings has eliminated very much commenting. Rules are one thing but environment is another.
3:09 ok I see. You will take your ball and go home. At least 4:06 tried to debate logically. Of course Granite City council meetings are not Open Forums, which I am sure is coming in Peru, but nice attempt to debate.
Still waiting for any other counter argument to the facts presented, since I did present the facts, but you just want to say things about me instead of countering the facts. I expected the insults and standard argument around here, "shut up unless you can do it better". No one is allowed to comment or have an opinion unless they run for office.
our city is in bad shape-eakas what is it going to garner 10 new jobs? really?? also how many business closed this past year? road there are no new road repaved perhaps, god knows we have seen all of his signs like he personally paid for them or something. big joke, we need someone who will be the voice of us citizens clearly he is not, the city in my and several others is depressed for a lack of better words. such a shame
3:09 I think you need to look up the difference between fact and opinion. Those were not opinions. They were facts, things that can be checked as true or false.. You only talk about a few of them and do not counter them with any facts. Your decision to leave the debate is silly because you were never in it. You only call names and ask for more proof.
Fact : how is the current economic depression Mayor Harls fault, if he didn't win the expansion then the complaints would be he didn't do anything to stimulate the local economy or create jobs. Considering the state of the national economy and jobless rates we are lucky to have any jobs left in Illinois let alone the Illinois valley. Obviously there are a bunch of haters on this blog and even when presented with the facts they are blinded by angst. It sure it easy to cast stones although Harl was the only one who had any to challenge Baker! Harl has my vote!!!
6:19 how about the people it put to work building it?? It helped feed my family.
8:12 PM
It will be interesting when it is done to see if the money put into Eakas was a waste or gain, only then will we know. At this point in time it is neither. Many people are expressing their opinion that he has not attempted to live up to his campaign promises. Nada, nothing.
I heard Mr. Hart is a pickle ball proponent
. Remember though that is only a rumor.
9:24 PM
Lots of people may like pickleball and Mr Hart may or may be among them but that is certainly not the same as permitting the recreation board to shove this through and giving it your silent opinion. He is aware of the sad way our parks are managed and how recreation is approved. He is informed.
opinion should be approval in the preceding post.
8:12 PM
The only jobs gained recently in Peru have been restaurant related and possibly a few in retail sales. On the flip side we have lost more than gained when you consider the 3 empty large buildings available here in Peru. Jewel, the furniture store across the street and now K Mart. Rural King added a few, Olive Garden a few more. What did I miss?
Statistically speaking I wonder how many politicians keep their campaign promises?? I have a feeling Lois that you can count on disappointment no matter who you support. Didn't you ever hear promises were made to be broken?? Even the most powerful man in world has not lived up to his promises, maybe you throw out the baby with the bath water??? I hope some day someone will make you happy, because after reading this blog I think you may have clinical depression.
9:36 PM
You are very funny and I got a good laugh. Promises are not made to be broken, they are made to be kept and if you plan on breaking promises you make, your character is despicable and you are morally bankrupt! This election is about the future of Peru and has nothing to do with my happiness. At this time this city has no leadership and thus has no character. Certainly hope that we shall have mayoral debates and I believe they are being planned as I speak.
2:33 p.m. I apologize I can not give any sight on budgets or projections, I believe Treasurer Hylla would be the best person to ask. I will say projections could be difficult with Springfield able to alter or even eliminate some revenue streams, as we saw with sales tax last year.
9:36 there is far too much small town cynicism accepted in this area. People assume that they should "get theirs" , leaders are expected to be a little corrupt and break promises. Moral bankruptcy always precedes actual bankruptcy.
I am reminded of the bloggers who got on defending the waste in the Township saying, we are only stealing a little, the schools are stealing a lot. This entitlement mentality is destroying this town, whether it be a union or an elected official. They want respect but refuse to earn respect.
Justin, the debt load over the past 4 years should be readily available via FOIA requests. The local unemployment figures are readily available as well, without FOIA. I think Brian ahstaken a look at the city budget. Each year, a simple linear projection without assuming any state changes should be easy enough to see.
Earlier bloggers wanted to know how Peru was doing in comparison to other similar sized cities in Illinois. I would guess that could be a good research project for a prospective member of the governing body.
8:12 that is not a fact. You ask a question and then talk as if a previous stated fact was that Mayor Harl caused a recession. You offer your opinion of how people would react had the Mayor not supported Eakas expansion. Then you call bloggers names.
No one said that. They said debt load has not decreased , jobs have been net lost. I personally have not commented on the Eakas situation, my list of facts never included it. I stated that there has been a net decrease in jobs. Many cities have experienced increases, and others much less decrease, all faced with the same recession.
The Mayor shares no grand plan with the people. He has allowed a utility rate increase to threaten our existing base of manufacturing, with not a peep of rational from his business development manager.
Have you visited our economic expansion web site? Do that, then come back here to deal with more haters as you call us.
This evening I decided to look back and see what was being discussed in 2010 which is the last postings I can still pull up. On the left side, is a listing of the archives, try March of 2010 and you will find a letter Mayor Harl submitted to the council on his hiring of Bob Vickery. There are other interesting items in this section and gives you an idea of what preceded us when the blog began and
you might enjoy browsing through them as it shows a time frame of how things have gone from then to now.
10:05. It is true we could look at other municipalities for a comparison project, but it wouldn't be a true apples to apples comparison. The purpose of any home rule municipality is to solve local problems with local solutions, that is why any municipality elects to become a home rule municipality. As for projections....anyone can take the previous years budget and add 5% thanks to the Federal Reserves printing of money. That is a larger economic issue but believe me it exists. If elected one of my main goals is to leave Peru a better place than when I came into office: financially, economically and morally. Pretty basic goals but I feel we need to get back to basics to move forward.
11:14 well you have political speech down pat Lol. When looking at comparative cities in central Illinois, there is no twin Peru. But you could see how other cities have generally coped with issues such as debt, unemployment and tangible budget measureables during the same time frame. That has nothing to do with whether a city has home rule or not. In general home rule cities are carrying higher debt burdens, according to a Chicago Trib study, but I believe the challenger needs only to focus on the net job losses, lack of new business development, and examples of favoritism to wake up the voters.
7:05 he is right, it has everything to do with being a home rule. it probably should have been expanded to say "solving local problems with local finance solutions". Unfortunately most people in politics don't understand what responsible financing or money management is, that is why most home rule municipalities are debt ridden. Go get em Justin!!
11:09 I am not saying whether Justin is right or I am right. I am saying that it is reasonable to compare budgets for Home Rule and non Home Rule cities of comparable populations, particularly in the area of debt burdens, employment and taxation.
It is a fact that Home Rule allows taxation more easily, and borrowing more easily. If those two features are applied judiciously, you might guess that a similar sized city would be performing better in terms of some measurables, like employment and , yes, debt reduction.
The fact that you cannot find a twin of Peru is not an excuse to say , well we need answer to no comparisons because we are own own separate Kingdom. That does not cut it. You could even compare Peru pre home rule to post home rule for debt burden and job creation. You can compare things like employment rate vs State or national rate. There are many ways to show if trends are appearing. Blaming a recession for very failure of this administration is getting old.
You have some on here saying the schools need to have more raffles and bake sales to fund themselves. It is fine to have that kind of good ole Illinois Valley fundraising thinking on blogs, but I want a mayor and council with economic chops. Justin has shared his economic and civics background, and has claimed to have worked/mentored with treasurer Hylla . If he does not have any economic comparisons, figures or plans, I am concerned. Talking about getting back to good ole basics is great, but I can hear that from the old guard.
11:43 AM
Looking for a city of similar size to Peru is not easy at least within the state of Illinois and than add home rule and you are really up against it.
I don't regret my work or my vote for Mayor Harl as it was the best choice at the time. Most of us gave him overwhelming support the first 2 years when he complained that he could get nothing done because of the council. We believed him when he said he would hold town forums, reduce the number of council mtgs etc AFTER the mid term election. So again people worked to get him new council members and some turned out to be no better than the old. Then as someone stated Mayor Harl decided to jump in the boat with the aldermen he had been complaining about. Now it is his time to go because you don't lie and win re election at least not with my vote.
11:43a.m. what is it with you and projections? I'll give you a number, lets say 30,000,000. There. do you feel better? if that is city revenue for a year and we don't reach it i'll give you some sort of excuse. and then I will pay financial planners huge sums of money to come up with another projection just to comfort you. some of the most brilliant ceo's hated projections (think jack welch and andrew carnegie). They were presented with a financial statement and had to make it better by the end of the year. Jack welch alone added 400 billion in market value to ge during his tenure. you want projections? go play fantasy football.
2:06 what is it with you and being unable to read. I was clear that I thought looking at the relative performance of measurables over Harls term might offer some point of reference , some ability to project where the city is going. If the city of Peru is somehow in a space time warp, where it cannot be compared to any other cities between 8 and 15,000 people in the Midwest, and no one should bother to see if the debt load is staying the same or increasing, then so be it. You all deserve what you get.
You may not be able to project the future, but you can look at the last 4 years and kinda see what the H has been going on. Sorry to get all "numbery" on you. Lets go back to just bashing Harl for lying and being mean to people in the audience.
I will not be voting for Scott Harl after what I read in this evenings paper about last nights city meeting.
7:13 pm -- Be sure to tell all your friends and neighbors your opinion and how you are going to vote!
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