PEORIA -- The most interesting race for the Peoria City Council pits a seasoned local office holder, Tim Riggenbach, against a community volunteer and activist, Beth Akeson.
Both are registered Republicans.
They are running for an open seat in the highly diverse Third District, which stretches from the mansions of Grandview Drive through middle class suburbia to the modest houses on the East Bluff. Early voting has begun. The election is April 7.
Peoria's political and business establishment has endorsed Riggenbach, who only last November won another term on Peoria County Board. He has said he's now running for the City Council because he had not earlier known the seat would be open. A few years ago, when he lived in Tazewell County, he ran for the Illinois House but lost in the primary.
So Riggenbach appears to be an ambitious comer, and likely is being groomed for higher office if he can win the Third District Seat.
Akeson, the wife of a physician, has served on the Heart of Peoria Commission and on other volunteer but powerful commissions and boards. She's a social liberal and a fiscal conservative, she said.
Full disclosure: I'm a volunteer in Akeson's campaign. Her vision for Peoria is the most likely one to save the city from turning into East Saint Louis. She favors historic preservation, a form based zoning code and other measures that would save and enhance Peoria's historic inner city, and make it a desirable home destination for families.
The two candidates appeared at a Third District debate on March 19 where the differences between them became apparent. They were asked to answer questions submitted earlier to the organizers of the debate.
Akeson won the debate because she gave specific answers to the questions. Riggenbach, a genial guy, spoke mainly in safe generalities.
He's the more conservative and conventional of the two, and emphasized how he helped balance the budget of Peoria County. "Tough times demand tough leaders," he said.
He also wants more "faith based" groups working with the public schools, a questionable proposition for many people.
Akeson spoke eloquently about improving the quality of life for all of Peoria's residents, and about problems with local leadership.
"I see decisions make in isolation," she said, adding "then we wonder why we didn't get what we expect." She mentioned the riverfront parking deck and the failure of the Cub Foods store project on Knoxville.
The two also differ in their approach to the red-hot issue of an increased sales tax to construct the museum block downtown. Akeson stressed that she supports museums and the arts and has served on arts boards, but she disapproves of the current block plan and will vote against the sales tax. The block lacks condos and retail, and will not create the "energy" it needs to survive as a project, she said.
"We could get 100 percent private financing. I do not believe this necessitates public financing. I don't believe it's lost forever," if the referendum fails, she said.
Riggenbach noted how he helped lower county taxes, but then said he supports the museum sales tax. "This project needs to move forward," he said. The plan isn't perfect, he said, but the city-owned block has been vacant for years, and no other projects have been proposed.
"If the referendum fails, the plug has been pulled," he said. That's because Caterpillar, Inc., which has promised to build a large visitors center on the block, has said it won't build it unless the museum complex is built.
Akeson earlier had referred to "my way or the highway" thinking by some local officials, a charge that also has been leveled against Caterpillar on the museum block project. She supports negotiation and consensus building.
Riggenbach said the city needs "better plans" to save its historic buildings. He confessed to a "conflict of interest" because his church, Riverside Church, wanted to buy and demolish the historic AmVets building next door. After conflict over this project, it stalled.
Akeson said saving Peoria's architectural heritage is essential. "I don't understand how there was friction with the AmVets building. You could see it should be preserved. Where there's a will there's a way," she said.
Akeson called the much disliked $6 monthly garbage fee a regressive and unfair tax. Council members have run and won on a pledge to get rid of it, but so far it remains.
"If we need to raise taxes for services that is what we should do. A regressive tax like this is not a good idea," she said. The fee is added to water bills and applies to every household, regardless of how much garbage they put out.
Riggenbach said "people using the service need to pay for it," but offered no realistic way to manage that option. "Look at the costs and pay for what you use."
Garbage pickup once was considered part of city services and collection was free to encourage a clean city. With Peoria's poverty rates, a fee-based pickup system, using pre-paid stickers, for example, likely would result in bags of trash thrown into alleys and ditches.
Riggenbach should know that. A libertarian approach to garbage and other public necessities may ultimately work against the public good, such as a clean city.
-- Elaine Hopkins
3/20/09 Ed Dentino comments:
The idea of individuals paying for the garbage service would definitely add fuel to the downward slide of most of City of Peoria. In Washington, Il, about 22 years ago, I noticed bags of garbage accumulating on the side walk and around a house. It was a Joseph Company rental house. Apparently, the rent was not inclusive of the garbage pick up and the residents did not bother to pay the fee.
The side story to the Washington rental house was that Joseph Co. owned 2 of these side by side properties. They wanted the city to let them tear down the existing property to built apartments on the 2 lots. I think that they ignored the tenants misbehavior and the property maintenance conditions to psych people into thinking that anything would be better than the junk houses. They lost a battle with the neighborhood residents and the city council to get the zoning, sold the property, and it was restored to a livable and decent residence. One house had a fire, was replaced by Joseph Co. with a really poor design for the lot and neighborhood. It was a good example of how capitalist greed tries to override citizen and community interests.
Having picked up a couple of bushels of litter from a single vacant lot and the nearby alley on Tuesday this week, by Lincoln and Western, I can tell these candidates that if they would participate in the Western Avenue clean up effort in April, they might realize that most of the old city is borderline East Saint Louis and some of the city is as bad or worse.
In an ideal world, the city would be clean, the sewers would not overflow, people would have living wages and benefits.... Government is necessary to cope with a less than perfect place - not to pretend that it is already ideal.
Ref: http://prideinpeoria.com/schedule.shtml
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