Peru Mayor Harl and Economic Director Off to Vegas in May Searching for More Retail

Peru Mayor and Economic Director Off to Las Vegas

This year our Volunteer Economic Director, Robert Vickery is taking Peru Mayor Scott Harl along as a companion on his yearly trip to Las Vegas. They claim success on previous trips when Vickery traveled with D. Biederstedt.

I noted the emoji's at the bottom of the article and the angry red one seemed to be the winner.  I don't believe anyone currently sitting on a council or in any other of the many new positions created by the Mayor in the last several years are in touch with the residents of this city. None of the businesses mentioned as previous wins are anything the residents would choose to bring into the city. We don't know about Chipotle because they are not constructed yet. Hilton Hotel is also only on paper and this hotel is only one of others being built nationwide and locally one is going up in Streator also. The website for that information is an interesting read  about the many many hotels either in the planning or construction phase.

Just mention the same complaints the residents have given this past few months.
1.  Poor scheduling of the Peru Ice Skating Rink installation for the winter. Might as well forget it for this year.
2.  Downtown Peru had no Christmas spirit and/or color and inability to install the proposed decorations in other Peru locations.
3.  Spending tax dollars poorly while our population is moving downward.

These are my personal opinions as a long time resident of this city.  Yours may be different entirely and feel free to comment and share yours.

Cost of China trip sparks online ire for Peru

Cost of China trip sparks online ire for Peru

Ice Skating in the Illinois Valley Locations and Times

Ice Skating in the Illinois Valley

Click on the above link

Merry Christmas From My Home to Yours

Sincerely hope all the people in Peru are having an enjoyable and blessed Christmas, wishing you all the best. That includes everyone even if we disagree on many political decisions taking place currently in Peru. It is freezing cold so keep your eyes open for anyone that might be in distress from the cold. That means neighbors and friends and those who have no home .

Appears We Have A First Class Mayor and Economic Director

While we all wondered why the cost for the Mayor of Peru and Economic Director to take a flight to China to attend an economic conference was so costly at 10 thousand plus dollars, it now appears that it was because they chose to fly First Class on your dollar.


The Mayor of Ottawa and his companion made the trip for a bit over 1 thousand dollars and traveled Coach..

Personally not surprised that our mayor would take advantage of our city for his own personal preferences. What is going to be the response of the Peru City Council who voted 7-1 to approve of this trip? So now we wonder when they knew of the cost of the trip for the two and why they would approve such an outrageous expense.

LaSalle 2017 LBA Christkindlmarket

Not Only Peru, It Is A Statewide Problem with People Leaving and Taking Their Money With Them

http://www.mywebtimes.com/news/editorial/statewise-it-s-illinois-birthday-hey-wait-come-back/article_50e6903a-18ca-5038-b662-ff87b96a5127.html#tncms-source=block-behavioral

Unless something dynamic happens to improve the status of the state of Illinois, the stats are not going to change.  All towns will be affected and more than likely small towns in particular. The young and educated are looking for more than we offer to them and their young families. My point is that cities need to look for ways to make their cities inviting to those very same people. After awhile this sounds like a broken record and that is because nothing is changing.

I expect other cities to release their expenditures on the recent trip to China and will they have had good economic sense in not abusing the expenditures of taxpayer money?

How Much Do You Think a Plane Ticket for Two is For A Trip to China Is?

Gathering the information.

Actual information from the city of Peru web site, disbursements.

From the disbursements on 11/15:
Harl visa fee 965.07

From 11/29:
Airfare to China $10, 704.28
Travel to/from OHare $250.00

From 12/13
Vickrey phone China $1,190.12
Hotel Beijing China $617.10

Taxpayers spend tens of thousands on Illinois municipal conference

Taxpayers spend tens of thousands on Illinois municipal conference This is one of numerous articles by the same source doing some investigation of the needless cost to taxpayers by officials going to the IML yearly. We have been writing this up since the first Harl administration and I am sure you can find comments on previous trips in our archives. This is the first I am adding and will follow with the one about Peru and La Salle.

La Salle IML trips

Peru taxpayers pick up the $3,500 tab for three officials to go to the two-day conference

Peru taxpayers pick up the $3,500 tab for three officials to go to the two-day conference



City of La Salle holds tight on IML expenses

Peru Prancer to Peru Weekend Schedule and Locations

http://www.newstrib.com/free/on-prancer-to-peru

Surprise Surprise An Expected Contribution

Most of you have probably seen this picture of what is the Scott Harl campaign contributions as required by law to be sent to the state of Illinois.

Significance is this is typical Pay to Play.  The month before that the McAnarney contract was not sent to the Peru City Council for approval or disapproval but was instead listed in disbursements as a monthly expenditure in the Administrative section. Sadly to see it looks like it was at the same time that our Lobbyist gave a $300.00 donation to the Scott Harl political campaign fund.

I never expected this from Scott Harl when he ran for Mayor of Peru and again I was one of many who supported him and now feels so much regret. Political gain has taken over what we thought was a sincere desire for this city to progress and improve. Crickets at City Hall because of politics.

More Details China Ottawa Web Times

http://www.mywebtimes.com/news/local/business CHINA TRIP

Here Is the Answer That Peru Did Not Give to its Residents.

http://www.mywebtimes.com/news/local/ottawa-streator-officials-to-pitch-region-in-china/article_fe456474-474f-58ff-ab05-97bdb9df4725.html

Peru Mall wants a 42 percent cut in taxes

Peru Mall wants a 42 percent cut in taxes



We all would like to large percentage of our property taxes cut also and with the continual increases more people will move on to states and cities where this does not happen and business is doing well.

Read Between the Lines on This Discussion

Just a few weeks ago a comment by me, that at one time Peru wanted very much to have a City Engineer to be the Public Works Director which would eliminate any differences between having both a City Engineer and Public Works Director working on some of the same projects in this small city as seems to show up in this news article. Maybe there is too big of an overlap in some areas of the job description. And along the same lines, I see that someone from Chamlin engineering still attends city council meetings and sits at the table with other Department Heads. Now that Peoria Street resurfacing is finished and the sewer project is completed. Does Public Works need more people for city maintenance and fewer being paid at the top?  Asking this not as a blog writer but simply as a resident of this city

.http://www.newstrib.com/free/peru-committee-puts-the-freeze-on-baker-lake-disc-golf/article_8e03ee24-c3d1-11e7-a8c3-f7e2a912067d.html#tncms-source=article-nav-next

My notes from the Peru City Council Meeting 10/30

First time in a long time I decided to attend a Peru city council meeting. The usual residents present and a few people who were there because their requests were being considered by the city.

They did not discuss the closed session minutes.  Ald. Potthoff said it all was about employee negotiations and no vote was taken on opening them to the public or not.

I think the City Administrator may have responded to one question. Director of Public Works said nothing. Eric Carls our City Engineer spoke about projects and everything pertaining to the Public Works of the City and it reminded me that at one time the city had hired a qualified engineer, in fact they insisted that we hire an engineer and he handled the entire Public Works Dept. for the short time he was here.  Why is Eric Carls not handling our Public Works Dept as he certainly understands all aspects of the work involved.

Definitely a different atmosphere at this meeting, a definite lack of cohesiveness is the only way I can say it felt. New bldg inspector was not present.  This was the first time I ever heard anyone on the council or even the mayor talk about bringing investment into somewhere in the Illinois Valley, it did not matter if it was in Peru or any other town.

Retail sales tax is down but motel tax is up so it seems to balance it out. Maybe this is the reason.

COLUMN: A mandate for openness

COLUMN: A mandate for openness

Published Agenda for the Peru Public Works on Oct. 25, 2017

This is the agenda from the Peru web site for the meeting to be held last Monday.  As you can see there is nothing special to be discussed.  This is transparency Peru Style.           

This is actually what was discussed as written in the News Tribune of La Salle.  As you can see there was a great deal to be discussed that related to the residents of the city.  They consistently do this with no honest agenda being put forward by any of the City of Peru Committees. Transparency Peru Style.

Actual Meeting of Peru Public Works

Peru to Hire a Community Service Officer

Yes Peru We Do Still Have a Lobbyist in Springfield

I believe this would have been the third year the Mayor would have brought to the City Council a request to continue to retain a Lobbyist for Peru at the cost of $24,000 per year. To be truthful I never thought it necessary but continue to follow the work done by obtaining the quarterly reports sent to the city by the Lobbyist. If you are interested in past comments just put the word  MrAnarney into the search bar on this blog and you will get those posts and reports from past years.

Last year there was some hesitation on the part of several of the Aldermen but they agreed to see what happens in the next year spanning July 2016 to July 2017. This year I began watching City Council minutes to see when a discussion about this hire would appear and it did not but a friend told me that is was strange that the amount of $2000 a month was appearing on the disbursements to the Lobbyist but no contract was found or any discussion about the issue was found or heard.

This was my foia to find out why we were paying an individual each month but we did not renew the contract.  Now how many people would look to the budget under Administrative Expenses for the Mayor to find the answer.  Evidently the Mayor did not wish to bring up the hire up at a City Council meeting. And we should all be asking Why. I believe I know Why but you are free to make up your own mind.

A Look Back at The City Council and Gambling Two Years Ago

05959a232293.htmlhttp://www.newstrib.com/news/local_news/peru-committee-folds-on-gambling-restrictions/article_83e64974-95ba-56fb-9197-05959a232293.html



Interesting to look back and see who thought what 2 years ago and then read the new outlook in todays News Trihune.

Harl says Peru employees are bogged down by Freedom of Information Act Requests

Harl says Peru employees are bogged down by Freedom of Information Act Requests


I have to admit I filed one today, not on a whim, but because the city has failed to provide the information I have been waiting to see in the minutes of one of their council meetings and it has never appeared.

The Mayor should be pleased that so many people are interested in Peru City Government.

Mayor Harl Would Like You to Pay for a Trip to China

Public comment criticizes City of Peru

Public comment criticizes City of Peru

So only the Financial Officer of 2 years is commenting.  What aldermen who have held their seats for 15 years or more?


Relative to the first post is this link that I wanted to publish.  It is dated but that is immaterial as I doubt it was changed.

https://www.iml.org/file.cfm?key=1288

Contentious City Council Meeting This Evening

 " What we've got here is failure to communicate" 

The quote is from a well known movie of the past years and seems appropriate.

If you have been recently following this blog, you will recall my concern for lack of communication between the city and its residents.

I understand the settlement of the recent lawsuit   between Peru and a resident of the city in which the city was ordered to pay a sizeable sum of money for not repairing home damage caused by the cities sewer issues.  At that time our City Atty told the home owner to sue the City, when they did not agree to pay for the repairs.  Well she did and I understand won many times the requested $12,000.

That lady attended the meeting this evening and expressed her feelings.

Additionally there are currently issues with the City Credit card being used improperly. I will not detail this issue because this is one that our Peru news reporter should cover in detail.