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
To end the "legal corruption" in Peru we will need to force the city to stop using local businesses. Another way may be to outsource everything to an out of state contractor that knows how to bid things out and will look at multiple sources.
@11:13AM I would feel so much better if your comment and my answer were on eye to eye contact. After many years of business experience I believe that in the long run we are both aiming for the same thing even though our ideas are much different to produce the same wanted end results. Personally my feelings are that local businesses are one of the main lifelines of our area economy. By buying in Peru or the nearest local source I am creating a sales tax and jobs for the continued success of the area plus many additional needs. I could go on but I am sure both of us are now in agreement. I am a firm believer in using methods which enable me to buy the best product at the least cost. There are many ways to achieve this goal but mainly anyone with limited resources which most of us are does his/her price comparisons on day to day needs. On big money items such as education, automobiles, weddings and purchase of a home we create a bidding process. You may set this budget guideline at $10, a $100, or whatever figure is a realistic and comfortable to you personally. All in all the figure is not as important as ones desire to follow it. Peru government also has financial guidelines, one of which is ALL expenditures of $20K and above go out for bid. Unforunely they do not always follow this ordinance and have utilized a by product called "super majority" even though the situation does not adhere to the "super majority" clause. As you can see we are both now "on the same page". I as you as educated buyers believe in a local purchase but just as important is that the local supplier is competively priced. Bidding and competive pricing create a win-win situation for all involved. I live in Peru, I buy in Peru and in the long run I feel I am getting my biggest bang for my buck in my purchases. I will also admit that in careful cost analysis if a out of town source offers me a significant savings I will purchase out of town. I believe that anyone who is a stewart of anothers money should do the same. Rather than having anyone from out of state, contractor or management facility I would rather consider hiring a professional city manager and am very interested in Streators past and future success with their previous and new city managers. As you can tell I am also long winded in comparison to you but we both have a goal of doing what best for the City of Peru. As for a city manager lets leave that for another day but not too far off of the near future. If by chance you have Monday evening free the Peru City Council will have the opportunity to decide whether they believe in competitive bids for their lawn care service which should make for a interesting meeting. Hope for a big turnout.
Today is December 15 - National Bill of Rights Day.
http://billofrightsinstitute.org/
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Thanks 2:28 pm for your common sense and thoughtful comment. If only Peru's elected officials were honest enough to realize the ethical practicality of your opinions on fair and honest bidding for services. Sadly, your plea for a big turnout tonight will not be realized. The mowing contract that will be approved tonight is just another in a long line of "Sweetheart Deals". The only thing that makes this one unique is the fact that it is the first of many to come under the direction of the Super-Chief. Imn other words "same old shit, just a different day".
According to tonight's agenda they will be voting on renewing the grass cutting contract with D&M. After reading Mr. Bernabei's cost analysis I question whether or not the city's portion of cutting Baker Lake, the cemetery, and the landfill is added to his total expense for grass cutting. Shouldn't the cost of cutting those 3 properties, by the city, be added to D&M's? This would give us the total cost for cutting all the grass in the city.
2:28 - I admire your optimism. However, there is to close a relationship between service providers and our local government. Some of these businesses could not stand on their own if it was not for government contracts. One of the businesses was created for the sole purpose of doing business with Peru - it has since expanded to other municipalities - but when it was created its only client was the City of Peru. Another business has ties so close to local government that they have de facto control of many budgets. I may be cynical - but I see that the amount of revenue that can be distributed to local crony businesses being an important part of the decision process. For instance - in my uneducated opinion, the Venture Drive problem might be corrected by using stop lights that are coordinated with the stop lights on 251. Nobody has talked about doing this - but they want to move the intersection to the west a grossly underestimated cost of $500K. I'd be willing to bet that traffic signals would cost $250K or less. But, you see, that would not be as big a benefit to a local construction company or engineering firm. Grass cutting is another one. It has been pointed out on many occasions that grass cutting could be performed by the seemingly endless pool of people serving court ordered "community service" or even work gangs from the county jail. But that dose not fill the coffers of any local business. I understand your point. But I think the political situation resulted in cronyism and the tax payers are footing the bill.
I feel the super chief's report is not accurate and he is trying to make himself look good. Has anybody added the cost of the summer help, which had more people on the payroll than the previous year. The original thought was to hire out and cut back on summer help, so in fact it doesn't make any sense to say we saved money. I would hope the treasurer could explain this, I don't think he is controlled by the administrator/ Chief/ PW Supt.
Just when drivers are getting used to that Devil intersection they want to blow a ton of money to move it a couple of feet. How do you spell ridiculous? And, apparently the Mall doesn't want people exiting to have access to Venture Drive again. They just want you to buy their stuff and get outa town.
I sense your eagerness to voice your support of someone running. It is way to early to tackle that issue and I will not be posting any ward by ward battles for council seats. The reasons are obvious, as it would lead to a nastiness I am not interested in. There might be races in all wards for all I know.
Actually Lois I'm happy with the present representation. Other then abstaining from voting on certain issues. I don't trust any Alderman who hasn't answered questions asked on this blog site to be honest.
Who is the new bookkeeper? Does anyone know? I forget we even hired one. We don't hear or get names of new workers until they are already on our payroll.
what happened to the days when you had to be from peru to get a job with the city? since we pay inflated wages dont you think we should try to find someone from peru? oops i forgot that wouldnt fit in with nepotism.
Does anyone still remember when this administration offered a early retirement package (which they had no idea of what it consisted of) because they believed or supposedly believed it was such a win-win program? What is the policy of hiring out of towners by other surrounding cities? Possibly the wage scale paid to new hirees is the problem and it would have been loyal to hire someone from Peru who pays taxes in Peru. Sad to say that loyality is the least of concerns of the present administration and will remain the least as long as certain incumbents are reelected.
The early retirement package to get rid of the dead weight ? And we were told these positions wouldn't be refilled, lies, all lies ! There were about 6 new hires this year that are still on payroll . one of those little thing the crooks of this town think we don't notice .
23 comments:
To end the "legal corruption" in Peru we will need to force the city to stop using local businesses. Another way may be to outsource everything to an out of state contractor that knows how to bid things out and will look at multiple sources.
@11:13AM
I would feel so much better if your comment and my answer were on eye to eye contact. After many years of business experience I believe that in the long run we are both aiming for the same thing even though our ideas are much different to produce the same wanted end results.
Personally my feelings are that local businesses are one of the main lifelines of our area economy. By buying in Peru or the nearest local source I am creating a sales tax and jobs for the continued success of the area plus many additional needs. I could go on but I am sure both of us are now in agreement.
I am a firm believer in using methods which enable me to buy the best product at the least cost. There are many ways to achieve this goal but mainly anyone with limited resources which most of us are does his/her price comparisons on day to day needs. On big money items such as education, automobiles, weddings and purchase of a home we create a bidding process. You may set this budget guideline at $10, a $100, or whatever figure is a realistic and comfortable to you personally. All in all the figure is not as important as ones desire to follow it. Peru government also has financial guidelines, one of which is ALL expenditures of $20K and above go out for bid. Unforunely they do not always follow this ordinance and have utilized a by product called "super majority" even though the situation does not adhere to the "super majority" clause.
As you can see we are both now "on the same page". I as you as educated buyers believe in a local purchase but just as important is that the local supplier is competively priced. Bidding and competive pricing create a win-win situation for all involved.
I live in Peru, I buy in Peru and in the long run I feel I am getting my biggest bang for my buck in my purchases. I will also admit that in careful cost analysis if a out of town source offers me a significant savings I will purchase out of town.
I believe that anyone who is a stewart of anothers money should do the same.
Rather than having anyone from out of state, contractor or management facility I would rather consider hiring a professional city manager and am very interested in Streators past and future success with their previous and new city managers. As you can tell I am also long winded in comparison to you but we both have a goal of doing what best for the City of Peru. As for a city manager lets leave that for another day but not too far off of the near future.
If by chance you have Monday evening free the Peru City Council will have the opportunity to decide whether they believe in competitive bids for their lawn care service which should make for a interesting meeting. Hope for a big turnout.
Today is December 15 - National Bill of Rights Day.
http://billofrightsinstitute.org/
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Thanks 2:28 pm for your common sense and thoughtful comment. If only Peru's elected officials were honest enough to realize the ethical practicality of your opinions on fair and honest bidding for services. Sadly, your plea for a big turnout tonight will not be realized. The mowing contract that will be approved tonight is just another in a long line of "Sweetheart Deals". The only thing that makes this one unique is the fact that it is the first of many to come under the direction of the Super-Chief. Imn other words "same old shit, just a different day".
According to tonight's agenda they will be voting on renewing the grass cutting contract with D&M. After reading Mr. Bernabei's cost analysis I question whether or not the city's portion of cutting Baker Lake, the cemetery, and the landfill is added to his total expense for grass cutting. Shouldn't the cost of cutting those 3 properties, by the city, be added to D&M's? This would give us the total cost for cutting all the grass in the city.
2:28 - I admire your optimism. However, there is to close a relationship between service providers and our local government. Some of these businesses could not stand on their own if it was not for government contracts. One of the businesses was created for the sole purpose of doing business with Peru - it has since expanded to other municipalities - but when it was created its only client was the City of Peru. Another business has ties so close to local government that they have de facto control of many budgets.
I may be cynical - but I see that the amount of revenue that can be distributed to local crony businesses being an important part of the decision process. For instance - in my uneducated opinion, the Venture Drive problem might be corrected by using stop lights that are coordinated with the stop lights on 251. Nobody has talked about doing this - but they want to move the intersection to the west a grossly underestimated cost of $500K. I'd be willing to bet that traffic signals would cost $250K or less. But, you see, that would not be as big a benefit to a local construction company or engineering firm.
Grass cutting is another one. It has been pointed out on many occasions that grass cutting could be performed by the seemingly endless pool of people serving court ordered "community service" or even work gangs from the county jail. But that dose not fill the coffers of any local business.
I understand your point. But I think the political situation resulted in cronyism and the tax payers are footing the bill.
I feel the super chief's report is not accurate and he is trying to make himself look good. Has anybody added the cost of the summer help, which had more people on the payroll than the previous year. The original thought was to hire out and cut back on summer help, so in fact it doesn't make any sense to say we saved money. I would hope the treasurer could explain this, I don't think he is controlled by the administrator/ Chief/ PW Supt.
Just when drivers are getting used to that Devil intersection they want to blow a ton of money to move it a couple of feet. How do you spell ridiculous? And, apparently the Mall doesn't want people exiting to have access to Venture Drive again. They just want you to buy their stuff and get outa town.
Cronyism is alive and well in the hiring department too. If you know the last person hired, you know who she is a good friend of.
A good friend of whose?
Lois, I heard that it's official that a person is running for Alderman in 2nd ward. How about a title solely for this topic?
Anon 2:43, I think the person is our Super/Chief who hired his good friend and neighbor for his secretarial position.
3:16 PM
I sense your eagerness to voice your support of someone running. It is way to early to tackle that issue and I will not be posting any ward by ward battles for council seats. The reasons are obvious, as it would lead to a nastiness I am not interested in. There might be races in all wards for all I know.
Actually Lois I'm happy with the present representation. Other then abstaining from voting on certain issues. I don't trust any Alderman who hasn't answered questions asked on this blog site to be honest.
If the tree, in this case the State of Illinois, is corrupt the branches will be corrupt, also in the same case the City of Peru.
7:25
the office person bernabei just hired is from lasalle - did bernabei move to lasalle?
11:36 AM
I assure you that Bernabei's hire is from Peru but there may have been a bookkeeper hired from La Salle, totally different positions.
Who is the new bookkeeper? Does anyone know? I forget we even hired one. We don't hear or get names of new workers until they are already on our payroll.
what happened to the days when you had to be from peru to get a job with the city? since we pay inflated wages dont you think we should try to find someone from peru? oops i forgot that wouldnt fit in with nepotism.
Does anyone still remember when this administration offered a early retirement package (which they had no idea of what it consisted of) because they believed or supposedly believed it was such a win-win program?
What is the policy of hiring out of towners by other surrounding cities?
Possibly the wage scale paid to new hirees is the problem and it would have been loyal to hire someone from Peru who pays taxes in Peru. Sad to say that loyality is the least of concerns of the present administration and will remain the least as long as certain incumbents are reelected.
The early retirement package to get rid of the dead weight ? And we were told these positions wouldn't be refilled, lies, all lies ! There were about 6 new hires this year that are still on payroll . one of those little thing the crooks of this town think we don't notice .
and i believe the very expensive imrf early retirement package is still on the books!
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