What We Normally Do: Mount Carroll City Council Notes

By Mick Parsons

For The Prairie Advocate News

MOUNT CARROLL – Except for some of the now typical tension between the mayor and some members of the city council bubbling up regarding the mayor’s setting of the agenda, everybody played nicely more or less at the July 12th city council meeting. Not only did the council pass the Budget Appropriations Ordinance, but it also decided to use Tri-State Adjustments as the collection agency for long delinquent water bills due by people who are no longer Mount Carroll residents and whose long-standing debts have inflated both the water debt debate and the actual amount of money that is reasonably collectable. Dirty water, the feasibility of the Community House Project were also discussed; and Alderman Bork presented more evidence to further her assertion that retiring Scout the drug sniffing dog will save the city money.

Alderman Tom Charles (Ward 3) who first suggested that the city find a collection agency in order to try and recover some of this debt – some of it several years outstanding – made the point to say that even with the collection agency, there’s no guarantee that the city will ever see any of that money; but everyone on the council seems to agree that some is better than none, and since Tri-State only gets paid a percentage if it actually recovers some of the amount due, going with the company – which the City of Freeport also uses – it won’t cost the city anything. The Finance Committee also considered two other agencies, Verifax – which would only perform a skip trace and not actually do any of the work debt collecting – and RRA Accounts Management.

One of the other major sticking points in the delinquent water bills discussion has been determining exactly how much money the city is owed. In the past, these long delinquent debts – the ones that will be forwarded to the collection agency – have been lumped into the same list as current residents and account receivables; what this means is that the amount of money owed to the city that it has a reasonable chance of actually collecting has been inflated in nearly every discussion by including what is essentially bad debt, or debt that could be written off. Because the city is going with a collection agency, however, Alderman Charles pointed out that creating a separate list for bad debt – those delinquent bills going to collection – would give the city council a better sense of what monies they can realistically hope to collect.

“If we were to just segregate it,” said Alderman Mike Risko (Ward 1) in support of the idea, “it would be easier to identify.”

Prior to the recommendation to push the Appropriations Ordinance up for a vote by the full city council, Alderman Bob Sisler (Ward 2) asked whether there was anything in the ordinance about raises for city employees. Mayor Carl Bates said there was nothing in the Appropriations Ordinance about raises. “We never discussed an increase,” Bates said. “The reality is that we can pass the Appropriations Ordinance and then look at it.”

The line by line fine tuning of the Appropriations Ordinance has taken longer than some would prefer, and the net savings have been more about bragging rights than any real savings of taxpayer money. It should also be pointed out an Appropriations Ordinance is not the same thing as the city’s budget; it’s true that in order for the city to spend money on anything – including everything from street repair to salaries, to maintenance for the city swimming pool – money must be appropriated. But that’s not the same thing as the city actually having the money to spend. So while Aldermen Sisler and Risko can legitimately claim they helped reduce the amount of appropriated monies in the budget, what the city will actually spend may be an entirely different matter.

One example of this is the Community House Project, which has been on the bottom of the short list of important city projects for a couple of years. Last year, when the city appropriated money for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, the estimated $20,000 that the city was quoted to repair the Community House bathrooms was not included. This led to a year of the mayor trying, with little to no success, to find a way to get the work completed free or mostly free. While it’s true that various organizations, such as The Lions, have donated money towards the project, lining up people with the necessary skills and enough time more or less assured that the Community House bathrooms would come up again during the 2011-2012 fiscal year appropriations discussion. Alderman Doris Bork (Ward 2) suggested several meetings back that it be added to the Appropriations Ordinance this year, at the previously quoted amount of $20,000. But because of the time that has passed, the council decided to put the project out for bid. Once the project is properly advertised and the bidding process is opened, all bids are due by the August 23rd Finance Committee meeting.

As she promised at the June 28th regular meeting, Alderman Bork provided a breakdown estimating how much it costs for the City of Mount Carroll to keep Scout the Drug Dog. Including the cost of paying an officer to keep the dog, as well as the equipment, veterinary, travel, and training expenses, and insurance, supplies and dues, Bork estimates the city spends $6859 a year on Scout. Bork, along with Alderman Sisler maintain that the city is spending too much money to keep a drug sniffing dog that only netted two arrests and $130 in fines last year. Police Chief Cass questioned some of her estimates, however, and it was decided that Cass should put together a report for the next meeting of the city’s Police Committee on July 25th before any decision to retire the dog is made. The mayor added that it’s a good idea to have a “healthy conversation” about whether Mount Carroll needs a drug sniffing dog.

Not all the conversations went so smoothly, however. Alderman Sisler’s complaint regarding Mayor Bates’ committee assignments reared its ugly head when Sisler wanted the June 28th meeting minutes amended before they were approved. According to Sisler, the minutes didn’t include his objection to the mayor’s refusal to put the committee appointments on the agenda. During that meeting, Alderman Sisler tried twice to have the item put on the agenda for the next meeting, but in both instances the mayor refused to consider it.

Alderman Risko complained that the meeting minutes were maybe getting too detailed. Alderman Doug Bergen (Ward 1) disagreed, however. As an example, he mentioned meeting minutes published every month in JoCarroll Energy’s publication, Illinois Country Living. Bergen said that after reading those minutes he still had no idea of what actually happens at the board meetings.

“I’d rather see too much information,” Bergen said, “than what’s given in JoCarroll’s minutes.”

Sisler then asked if there was any way for an alderman to put an item on the meeting agenda without going through the mayor. Bates answered that the mayor, by statute, always sets the agenda.

In other council news, based on recommendations from the Planning Committee, the council decided to grant two special use permits: one for a beauty salon at 828 South Jackson Street and another for the construction of a garage at 213 East Silk Street. Six new LED lights for the city park were also discussed, which will cost approximately $315 each. Mayor Bates added that while it’s difficult to see any cost savings with the LED lights downtown due to the increase in energy costs passed on from Jo Carroll Energy, that he had no doubt that the city would be looking at paying more without them.

One resident, Jean Schintzler, told the council that the water pouring out of her tap is brown. And while she didn’t bring any jars of brown water with her, she did bring a time stamped photo of her pool filled with brown water and a dirty water filter with her to illustrate not only how dirty she says the water is, but that she’s having to replace the filter three times as much as she is supposed to. She asked whether the city was planning on flushing the hydrants, only to be told flushing hasn’t occurred yet because the city was waiting for the Benton Street Project to be completed. The mayor told her someone from the city Water Department would come out and check her water to make sure it’s safe; Schintzler said they had been out to look at her water before and that it didn’t do any good. The mayor assured her that someone would be out, but that it’s likely that the problem is that her property is located at a dead end of a pipe. In that case, sediment tends to build up, regardless of the flush.

 

Loading