Another verse of the Watchdog’s same old song. Don’t you get tired of singing it? You supported Raspanti and Maloney, but I don’t see them singing along. Did the Dog pick the wrong horses?

EDITOR’S NOTE: We sure do, and we wish we didn’t have to keep at it. But these new aldermen, although better than the previous crop because it’s virtually impossible not to be, have been a big disappointment so far – with the exception of Ald. Knight, who has walked the fiscal conservative walk with only one stumble that he corrected by voting to sustain the mayor’s veto of the firefighters contract.

PD:

What does that say for the position that you have, and apparently think the majority or PR has??? Are telling me that the Mayor (and you ) could not find anyone more inline with your position (with the exception of Knight) to run??? Are you saying that the Mayor (or you) did not try to get some folks to run???

First you and the Mayor scream about the “Frimark council”. This council basically leaves and you have every opportunity to get “your kind of people” to run. Either you did not or could not so the process works as it works.

You put this picture forward that you know what the public wants and this is all so obvious but could not even find a few more besides Knight to even run. Hell you did not even need all 7. Just 3 more besides Knight. So of all these people who want what you want (The Mayor’s agenda) you could not find 3 more folks to run.

EDITOR’S NOTE: What is says is what we wrote: that six of the seven current aldermen are more concerned with pandering to the City employee and private organization special interests than in running what Jefferson termed a “wise and frugal government.”

We can’t and won’t speak for the mayor, but the editor of this blog didn’t recruit candidates for City Council. Maloney, Raspanti and Knight had expressed their interest in running early on; although we like Sweeney and DiPietro personally, we would never have encouraged them to run; we had no idea who Bernick was prior to his announcement; and the 3rd Ward is such an historically apathetic territory that it doesn’t deserve even a write-in alderman like Smith.

It’s a fact that the “Frimark Council” was responsible for deficits in each of its four years (two under Frimark, two under Schmidt) totalling multi-millions of dollars, even as it continued the neglect of the City’s infrastructure that started under the O’Hare-obsesed Mayor Ron Wietecha. But through Schmidt’s tremendous efforts, we understand that the City may have come close to breaking even during the just concluded 2010-11 fiscal year. Because you obviously prefer deficit spending and/or higher taxes and/or more borrowing, you and Frimark, Allegretti, Bach, Carey and Ryan could break out your black arm bands and hold a moment of silence on the City Hall steps to mourn the death of the deficit.

Let us know how many average taxpayers show up to join you.

Anon at 3:13PM,

I’m getting tired of your same BS repeated over and over again. Do you have an intelligent comment that you’d like to add to the discussion? Make sure that it’s something that pertains to the issue. Thanks

EDITOR’S NOTE: We thought this actually was one of the most “intelligent” commentss 3:13 has made. That’s not saying much, we admit, but it’s a start.

My intent was not and is not to hold a moment of silence. My point was very simply that you had every opportunity (as did the Mayor) without breaking any rules and without any impropriety to find potential candidates that might fit in with your agenda. I wondered why for people who seem so committed to this that you would not or could not find candidates.

Agree or disagree with him, the Mayor obviously puts a great deal of time (besides his day job) to try and advance policies he believes in. The same goes for the considerable time you must dedicate to running this blog, again to advance your ideas about how government should be run.

The idea that he/you would do all that and yet pass on the best way to further your agenda, that being trying to get some like minded folks to run…..oh well.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Not our job. If “like minded folks” need to be persuaded to run, they clearly don’t have the requisite passion to deserve the office. And the proof of that is the 12 aldermen who voluntarily went one-and-done after only one term (or, in some cases, half a term) over the past 5 years.

What is the proper use of pooled money from people who live here — i.e. taxes from taxpayers — is in dispute, and that’s a good thing. Taxes are how we accomplish together things that would be too difficult or too costly to take on alone or with just some of our best buds. We, the people, get to decide what those things should be. Some societies feel compelled to keep children, the sick and the elderly from dying of exposure or starvation even though they can’t successfully compete in a dog-eat-dog arena. Some societies see the public good in providing affordable mental health services and job training; others see the public good in providing more and more prisons. But the fact that this blog provides a sane, reasoned forum for citizens to discuss, squabble, carp, fight and get down on the subject is a good thing. And the fact that this blog often departs from kvetching about what taxes should be spent on and investigates whether what we spend is giving us a decent return on our investment is cause for hosannahs.

As a taxpaying citizen, I would like to know why these non-unionized employees should take the financial fall for the city’s inability to manage taxpayers dollars. In a successful organization, the organization/company/city should pay it’s employees before anything else. Especially after laying off pertinent employees such as the policemen and firemen that have been recently laid off. These are not “Hand outs” as you have been calling them, its money that these employees went without for 3 years. They are entitle to it and no one can say otherwise. By the way, Thomas Jefferson was right, information is the currency of democracy… but not when the information is smeared with your personal bias.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We agree that for far too long the City’s “inability to manage” has caused major financial problems for taxpayers. That failure, however, isn’t represented by the “money that these employees went without for 3 years” but by the money they have been given across-the-board, for no reason or justification other than they didn’t get it earlier.

The problem I see with the new aldermen is that they don’t demand accountability from City employees, starting with the city manager (Hock), deputy city manager (Maller) and fire chief (Zywanski). They do whatever they want, screw it up, and then treat it like an unavoidable act of God. That’s all the more puzzling because many of them are businessmen who probably would fire their own employees if they were as incompetent as these city management types.

EDITOR’S NOTE: That’s what we’ve thought, and why this Council’s performance has been so frustrating.

12:05, Knight asked for that accountability last night after Hock revealed that through “neglect” he / staff have left some +$600,000 of various tickets and citations go uncollected for years, since about 2008. The Mayor suggested someone should wear he collar for the faux pas…I agree.
It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We agree: it is “interesting” how Mr. Hock can fight tooth and nail to give raises to employees, and give public funds to private community groups for services the City doesn’t even attempt to monitor, but lets $600K+ of fines lie around uncollected.

Dave Schmidt was elected for the Council some four years ago and he has been the Mayor for more than two years. Aren’t the Council and the Mayor supposed to ask questions and monitor the City’s staff and what they are doing or not doing? Maybe it is Mayor Schmidt and the Council who should wear a collar together for the faux pas.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Are you suggesting that the $12,000/yr part-time mayor and the $1,200/yr part-time aldermen should be taking turns following the $200,000+/yr city manager and his $120,000/yr deputy around on a daily basis, making sure that they are doing their jobs?

Mayor Schmidt can’t dodge this faux pax even with the help of the bloggers here. The faux pax has existed for some years now and it looks like the only way this has been uncovered is because the City manager himself reported it. It means while Mayor Schmidt has been carrying on about community donations and the bloggers here have been railing against straw man enemies nobody who was supposed to be monitoring the books and asking questions did their job we elected them to do. The Mayor didn’t do his job in asking questions and monitoring the collections even though he would have everybody believe he spends every moment he has available in combing over the City finances and budget. Are the bloggers here suggesting that Mayor Schmidt and the Council should not be expected to do a good or better job unless we pay them more and make them full time jobs?

EDITOR’S NOTE: The “faux pas” as you call it started in 2008 under Mayor Howard P. Frimark and the then-new City Mgr., Jim Hock. It was uncovered (as we understand it) not by Mr. Hock but by the new director of finance, perhaps the most qualified upper-management employee at City Hall and who has been employed for less than a year.

This blog would never suggest the mayor or the aldermen get paid more than they currently are being paid. What this blog is suggesting is that the taxpayers of this community appear to be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for full-time employees who, with a few notable exceptions, clearly aren’t doing their jobs.

Faux pas-boy: that may the single most stupid thing ever written here.

The Mayor Aldermen are supposed to monitor the goings on at 505 each day while our +$200k a year City Manager does what? And the rest of the staff does what?? You must be kidding, right? Either that or you are simply an apologist for the City Manager.

Did you ever hear the saying: The buck stops here?
As to what happens day to day, the minutia of running city operations, that “here” is at Hock’s desk.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Let’s not be sexist here: it could be a faux-pas girl who came up with what is at least a contender for “the single most stupid thing ever written here.”

One of the bloggers here called this situation a faux pas and quoted Mayor Schmidt. I think this is much more than a faux pas. This is a real screw up that started with the last Mayor and while Dave Schmidt was an Alderman. It has continued for more than two years under Mayor Schmidt. The bloggers here never want to hold Schmidt accountable for anything. We elect the Mayor and the Council to keep an eye on everything for us. None of you here seem to want to call them on any negligence and say they are part time and don’t get paid much. I think the bloggers here are apologists for the people they are drinking buddies with. The saying “the buck stops here” was said by Harry Truman by the way. He was elected to do a job and he understood that. Mayor Schmidt and the bloggers here don’t. Neither do you Anon-boy or girl.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Sounds like you’ve gone off your meds again, Zippy, but we’ll humor you this time because you have provided a “teaching moment” – even if you’re the only one who actually needs to learn this: Schmidt and the aldermen are accountable to the residents of Park Ridge for the conduct of the City’s employees, including the City Mgr. and anybody else whose day-to-day duties include making sure that unpaid tickets and fines are collected. And since you’re probably clueless on how the City works, we’ll tell you that only the Council has the legal authority to terminate the City Mgr.; and only the City Mgr. has the legal authority to terminate his underlings.

So tell us, Zippy, do you think whoever the City employee(s) was(were) whose job was to collect those $600K+ of tickets and fines since 2008 should be fired? How about the City Mgr. who is making over $200K/yr as the chief operating officer of the City and whose duty it is to supervise the other City employees on a day-to-day basis: should he be fired? If not, what penalties would you suggest?

Zippy,
You are too funny. But stupid too.
Anon-boy