PeoriaStory

District 150 Board suppressing public comment

PEORIA -- The Peoria District 150 School Board continued its apparent campaign to suppress public comment and criticism when it moved the public comment section of its Nov. 28 meeting to the end of a lengthy meeting, and limited comments to two minutes each. 

That prompted me me to speak to complain about this new wrinkle in trying to avoid the public.  The audio is posted below. 

This board has a now lengthy track record of secrecy.  First in the spring of 2009 it stopped the live cable TV broadcasts of its meetings, claiming, falsely, that the equipment to do a good job was too expensive.

Instead it videoed the meetings for replay a week later, and omitted - censored - the public comments, often the only interesting and newsworthy part of the meetings. I began recording the public comments for this blog. Soon the rebroadcasts ended. 

Now in the Nov. 28 meeting the comments were relegated to the end of the meeting, enough to discourage all but the truly dedicated. 

The meeting, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., began 10 minutes late.  It was labeled a 'committee of the whole' meeting -- the excuse for moving the public comments to the end and cutting back the time to two minutes per speaker.

The label was a fraud.  It had all the earmarks of a regular meeting, including votes to pay bills, discipline and expell students and hire personnel.

Student and school presentations (propaganda?) took up 25 minutes until a presentation and discussion of the tax levy and audit began, and lasted 70 minutes. The audience, naturally, began drifting away.

The public comments didn't begin until after votes by the board on routine matters.  In all, the meeting lasted nearly three hours, with the public comments stalled until the end.

After my complaints about the time limits and placing the comments at the end of the meeting, Sevino Sierra spoke with the same complaints. "You want to quash the watchdog people from giving constructive criticism. You won't succeed," he said.

He also complained about the physical facilities, including a water stain on the ceiling of the Trewyn School library, where the meeting took place. "That could create mold," he said, asking that it be repaired.

Activist Terry Knapp criticized the board for not following its own policy that a committee of teachers select textbooks. Supt. Grenita Lathan at the previous meeting admitted that an administrator had selected an expensive set of science textbooks, not a committee, as had been the practice for years.

That came after a free 'audit' by a consultant for the textbook company. Activists are still seeking information on how this happened.

Knapp used the Freedom of Information Act to request the credentials of the administrator who picked the books.  The district responded that it has no "public records regarding" the administrator's "teaching record or undergraduate coursework." 

He said he did receive information on her master's degree, in educational administration, not science.

Knapp reminded the board that Illinois law requires the board to vote on textbook acceptance -- something that has not been done recently.

Now you see why the board would not want this information disseminated to the public!  

If broadcasting is not feasible (yet other community groups use the cable TV system to broadcast meetings, so why isn't it feasible?), the district could use students to webcast the meetings on its own website.  That's not rocket science. Illinois Central College and the Peoria County Board already do this.

But if it can operate in secrecy, while proclaiming transparency, so much the better, I suppose.

Here's the audio:

D150 Nov 28

 -- Elaine Hopkins

Interesting news at OSF St. Francis

PEORIA -- Dr John Carroll has an interesting post on his blog concerning OSF St. Francis Medical Center, Peoria's largest hospital and a powerful player in local politics. 

It seems Carroll's old foe, Dr. George Hevesy, has been voted out as chairman of the hospital's Emergency Department, though he is still director .  That's a distinction I don't quite understand, but the medical/industrial bureaucracy is a world unto itself. 

Carroll blames Hevesy for promoting AMT, Peoria's ambulance service run by the three hospitals, at the expense of the firefighters who have the same or better training as AMT's staff, thus providing second-rate service to accident victims in some instances.

Hevesy was part of the bureaucracy that fired Carroll from the emergency department years ago, to get rid of his effective charity Haitian Hearts. It was competing with funds that St. Francis wanted for its own projects.

Carroll also was outspoken about problems in the ED but the hospital didn't want to hear it.  Carroll was proved to be right, but big hospitals don't want any criticism from their staff. (After all, it's just human lives versus money.)

Carroll, a brilliant physician and speaker of unquestioned integrity, still runs Haitian Hearts.  He says Hevesy is on AMT's payroll, as well as the hospital's. Anyway Hevesy apparently has lost one of his titles.  Not sure about the paycheck.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

ACORN Scholarship Breakfast Dec. 3

PEORIA -- From a news release:

 

PEORIA – The Board of Directors of the ACORN EQUALITY FUND invites the public to our annual family breakfast to be held at the Embassy Suites Hotel in East Peoria, IL, on December 3, 2011, from 9am -11am. $25,000 in scholarships will be awarded.

The keynote speaker this year is Zach Wahls, the young Iowa man who gained fame by speaking on the strength of his family during a public forum on House Joint Resolution 6, a constitutional amendment to define marriage between a man and a woman, at the Iowa Judiciary Committee Hearings in February of 2011. 

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the door or by e-mailing  [email protected]

The Acorn Equality Fund, a 501(c)(3) Not-for-Profit Corporation, established in 1999, is a grassroots organization that provides financial support for the advancement of the education, health, and civil rights of gay, lesbian, and transgender persons and their allies in downstate Illinois.

For more information: Scott Mozingo, 309/678-7997 or [email protected]

 -30-

Strip mine threatens Canton

CANTON -- A proposed strip mine threatens Canton Lake and the city's water supply.  Here's a story from a national publication about it. 

The public hearing is Dec. 6 at 5 pm and 7:30 pm.  Here are the details, where you can also sign a petition against this travesty.

Gloria and Requiem: interesting music

PEORIA -- Two modern choral works, Poulene's Gloria (1959) and Durufle's Requiem (1947), were well performed at a Nov. 20 concert St. Mary's Cathedral, by the Bradley University Community Chorus and Bradley Symphony Orchestra.

These beautiful, modern, and at times dissonent works, sung in Latin, echoed through the tall cathedral, which has lovely accoustics for choral and symphonic music.  A children's Treble Choir in the second balcony also sang during the Requiem, adding an angelic flavor to the piece.

The many people involved in this program deserve congratulations for presenting these difficult but beautiful choral works. 

 -- Elaine Hopkins

Check this out...

PEORIA -- Aside from Democracy Now, which is always good, one of the best new TV talk/news shows is Up with Chris Hayes on MSNBC (channel 47 on Comcast in Peoria).  It's way better than the network talk shows on Sunday morning.

The Nov. 19 show is especially interesting, with highly insightful news and commentary.

The downside is that it comes on early -- 6 a.m. on Saturdays, 7 a.m. on Sundays.

So set your VCR, DVR or TiVo, record it, watch later.

Or watch it on your computer, links above.

  -- Elaine Hopkins

 

Canton Lake debacle

CANTON -- Suddenly Canton is in the national news. Here's the headline: 

Canton Lake Debacle: Gov. Quinn, Do You Know Your IEPA Might Permit the State's Most Destructive and Reckless Strip Mine?

Read this Huffington Post story by nationally known writer Jeff Biggers, then sign the petition at the link below.

http://www.savecantonlake.com/sign-the-petition/

-- Elaine Hopkins

Proposed garbage tax is garbage, and bad policy as well

Update 11/23/11:  Well, they voted to do it. Be sure to read the comments on the PJS story.



 

PEORIA -- The Peoria City Council will soon vote on a flat tax/fee to increase the already onerous $6 monthly garbage tax/fee by 133 percent, to $14 a month.  This is terrible public  policy. 

It's a flat tax that makes the poor, and/or the single person living in a small house with barely any trash at all, pay the same amount as the family of eight living in a McMansion. 

Included in the proposal is a requirement that would deliver a huge toter to everyone, even those that don't want it or can't handle it. 

City officials claim they need the money to pay for road improvements.

And we get this from Mayor Jim Ardis, who was elected on a promise to repeal the $6 tax/fee, but never did it.  Now he wants more.  (Can this be the reason the public voted not to allow the city to run the water company?  Who knows what the council would do if it could raise water rates at will.)

There are so many questions about what's going on here:

• Instead of a flat tax/fee, why not a property tax increase? I have seen no information on what would be required of a property tax hike to raise the same amount of money. Has this never been discussed? Why not?

• Like the $6 tax/fee, it will be on the water bills.  How much more will the water company be paid to collect this extra amount, and will a poor person who cannot pay it actually lose water service and perhaps be evicted because they can't pay the trash tax/fee?

• It's also bad public policy to use garbage tax/fees to fix the roads.

• It will be a huge incentive to not recycle, as many people cannot store 2 large containers.

• Speaking of that, who manufacturers the containers? Are there conflict of interest issues here? That wouldn't be unknown in Peoria. Are they made in the USA? Does the manufacturing process pollute the environment?

Here is a letter activist Joyce Harant sent to the Peoria City Council:

Dear Members of the City Council,

 

I am sorry that I can not be at your meeting this evening-- at least by the time that you will discuss this item.   I offer you these thoughts and comments:

 

• I have not heard your discussion of the garbage fee or toter issue discussed with any consideration of their impact on improving future household recycling.  It is my opinion that the public does not want to pay per month for a toter that is much larger than what they need.  If they are forced into it-- they will have a disincentive to recycle-- this is the opposite of what we should be pursuing.
  
• 
  
• The toter physical size as well as weight when full is of importance to residents.  If I have a 95 gallon toter that I place one small bag in-- the issue is not weight but size of the toter.  I will not be happy to pay for the toter- and I will be less likely to be able to store two 95 gal toters- one for garbage and one for recycling. If one has to chose one (because of inadequate home storage-- they will have to chose the garbage toter not the recycling toter.  
  
• 
  
• If you mandate toters, you need to have a full range from 40- 95 gallons available.  Charge people if they want to switch from their first choice.  Enable people for the one week a year that they have extra to buy a sticker.  Give people choices that makes it more likely that they will see the benefit of recycling.  Please do not make decisions that create direct or indirect disincentives for people to recycle. 
• 
  
• I ask that this issue should be discussed in a more holistic discussion of recycling, creating jobs from recycled materials and how to reduce what is eventually landfilled.  It is my understanding that Peoria County will be conducting a very detailed update of the Peoria County Solid Waste Management Plan.  I urge the City of Peoria to be a key participant in this process.  I suggest that how the City of Peoria and all municipalities collect waste, recylce and develop jobs by re-using the recycled materials should be key to the SWMP plan update.

Thank you.

 

Joyce Harant 

This bad idea must be thrown out with the trash!

 -- Elaine Hopkins

 

 Here's a comment by Ed Dentino via email:

Just read Joyce's column on trash bins and the city plans.   I certainly agree with Joyce on all of her points.   This 'tax'  needs to be better thought out.   Needing the money is one thing.  A reason to have wheelie bins (Brit expression)  used is a second.    Dealing positively and rationally with recyclable materials is more important long term than this plan represents.  The combination being presented by the city needs to be shelved and given a great deal more research. 

I cannot think this plan represents any long term research or evaluations of comparable city experiences. -30-

 

Football glory program Nov. 21

PEORIA -- From a news release:

 

                Woodruff football co-captain and author Robert L. Sulaski will transport football fans through 59 years of Peoria Thanksgiving Day football games on Monday, November 21 at 6:00 p.m. at Peoria Public Library North Branch. 3001 W. Grand Parkway, Peoria (behind Menards off Allen Road) with photos, headlines and tales of the games won and lost.

                Sulaski, a member of the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame, memorialized the long tradition of holiday football games in Peoria in his book 59 Years of Drumsticks and Pigskins after a group began holding reunions of Turkey Day participants.  He has collected the stories by Peoria’s sports writers, complete with headline, as well as numerous photos. Catch glimpse of early players with no helmets grappling on what was to become the site of the Bradley University library. Team photos and tales of football heroics continue through 1973 when the tradition ended.

                Over the years, paid attendance for the 73 games totaled 350,000. Players went off to war, became community leaders and brought their own sons to watch and then play in the games. Sulaski knows the stories of the teams, the coaches and the players who participated and his photos will bring the stories to life at this free presentation that will be enjoyed by all ages.  Call 309-497-2021 for more information about the program.

 

Remembering Pearl Harbor Dec. 3

PEORIA -- From a news release, an event that looks interesting:

 

Peoria Public Library will offer two films with discussions on Saturday, December 3 at Peoria Public Library Main Library Auditorium, 107 NE Monroe, in honor of the 70^th Anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. At 10:30 watch the new documentary L-Bird- The Little Plane That Did and have your questions answered by moderator Kenny Crawford.

At 1:30 p.m. watch “December 7^th”, a period documentary directed by John Ford that is seldom seen now and uses footage from Pearl Harbor.

After the 40 minute show, Bradley Assistant Professor Rustin Gates from Bradley University will lead a discussion about how our information and understanding of the “Japanese enemy” has developed extensively since the end of the war.

 December 7^th takes a close look at the day Pearl Harbor was attacked while L-Bird, The Little Plane That Did examines the light-weight reconnaissance planes that took off and landed from cables strung on the sides of aircraft carriers. December 7^th begins with the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and mixes footage of the invasion with reenactments. Individual American soldiers are profiled and honored and finishes with the Navy’s recovery of a vessel. L-Birds, also known as liaison aircraft, were widely used in WW II for a variety of purposes including:  reconnaissance, observations, military evacuation and a variety of other roles.  Flown by civilians and enlisted men alike, this movie will illustrate the importance and unique role that these planes played in World War II. Both programs take a look at the brave men and women who were caught up in extraordinary circumstances created by the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 The public is invited to attend either or both programs. Those who wish to stay for both programs are invited to bring lunch and eat in the auditorium.