Levy fixed, discord variable

Mayor Sandack doesn’t want a village dentist.

This is going to be a collaborative report, and will be modified.  I took what EJ wrote last night and spliced in my own notes, and she will do the same later.  I encourage everyone to chime in with their own thoughts, as a couple times I was caught in a “what the…” mode.  I’m sure EJ was not referring to my gray hair (note: I have less gray hair every day), but I’ve been watching budgets take form for a while now, and I’ve never seen anything like this 4-3 vote before, but there you go.

The National Championships of Cycling (“The granddaddy of Midwest cycling events”), last held August 15-16 on the scenic streets of Downers Grove are gone.  End of story.  There was no support on dais in favor of maintaining the annual Criterion races, which should ring a dinner bell for the other suburbs that have been licking their chops over the prospect of hosting this national sporting event.

As for Heritage Fest, a lot of time and talk was proffered tonight as staff rolled out a proposal to trim $90,000 in expenses, cut down to no more than three stages and downsize the whole thing, much as had been discussed here at DGreport.

Mayor Ron Sandack may have offered the best and most realistic long-term solution when he suggested suspending the event  in 2010 in order to give the Community Events department and Community Events commission time to reconfigure the fest and recruit private sources of support.

Commissioner Sean Durkin, when apprised that there have been no contracts for the event signed yet, said he would then just cut it, to which Mayor Sandack quickly interjected “If you were king for a day.”  (Laughter)

Durkin also offered that the fest was too spread out, and that the downtown had changed from when it first started.  There was a lot of talk about true cost of the fest, as Martin Tully commented elsewhere:

Heritage Festival cost the taxpayers $161,000 last year. As suspected, that figure is not derived from the operation of the festival, per se, but instead largely from the personnel costs associated with the community events staff that is charged with planning and running ALL events conducted in the Village.

Commissioner Marilyn Schnell said it’s hard to justify keeping a “$300,000 party” while cutting two policemen.  Commissioner Bob Barnett  said he was in favor of a severely reduced Heritage Fest, as a precursor to moving  it off the village dime and killing the Community Events Department.  Moving the village out of Heritage Fest doesn’t mean it would end, just that someone other than the village would provide it, he explained.

Commissioners Neustadt, Waldack, and Beckman agreed the annual blow-out needs to be down-sized.  Sandack suggested something more like a village-wide block party.  When HF started that’s kind of the vibe it had, before the bigger carny rides and food on a stick.  Commissioner Bill Waldack said that Heritage Fest is more than just a party, and it should be redirected to be more appropriate.

Stay thirsty at Fest my friends, and buy pop from Boy Scouts.

A Boy Scout from Troop 89 commented that selling pop at the fest allowed him and many others to finance their participation in scouting events.  As a former Scoutmaster (Troop 55, the finest in DG), I can verify that.  We paid scouts out of the money made to work the booth, which allowed several scouts to earn money for events such as summer camp which they would not have been able to otherwise attend.

Just one example that Heritage Fest does more for the community than just provide a pork chop on a stick.

So look for Heritage Fest to be modest this year, and if it can’t be moved outside the village budget it may disappear in 2011.  If you feel strongly pro or con on Heritage Fest, you might want to attend the Community Events Commission meeting on Thursday.

When each councilman did a summation, they were to say where the extra savings should go.  Neustadt said to keep the tax levy where it is and direct the savings to the general fund.  Waldack said to use it on seniors programs such as  Meals on Wheels and human services.

Durkin said to put it towards reducing the $900,010 draw from reserves, Schnell said to use it for cops or to reduce the tax levy or add back social services, Beckman said counseling and social services, and Barnett said any savings goes toward the deficit.

The meeting amped up when council members gave their final thoughts on the levy.  Waldack suggested that they raise the levy ceiling by $500,000 so they could continue to parse down what really needed to be cut and what might get a partial reprieve.

He said he was miffed that the use of reserves was being employed when they should have raised the sales tax long enough ago that it would kick in January 1 and provide the extra revenue the village needed.  He even cited former mayor Brian Krajewski as having set a good example.

Neustadt said he was okay with everything as it was.

Durkin asked about the library budget, which is up four percent, and Village Manager Dave Fieldman responded that the library board is an autonomous body outside of council control beyond the mayor’s responsibility to appoint board members.  Sandack just renewed six year terms for Library Board President Stephen Daniels  and member Kathy DiCola.

Beckman prefaced his remarks by relating his extensive budget experience as a D99 school board member.  He said good governance is built on compromise and that as a school board member he never once voted against a budget levy because it was a product of compromise.

This budget, he said, he would vote against because it represented no compromise, and he went on to list several examples of revenue sources ignored and cuts pushed through.  He held up the West Suburban Living magazine (see page 100)  and noted that most every item cited as making Downers Grove a great place to live was being cut completely, or in the case of Heritage Fest, cut back.

Beckmanwas not pleased that all of the fine arts and cultural support had been stripped out completely, but was particularly displeased that counseling and social services are to be completely shut down; to him and many others these were elements of the village character that helped define the village as a great place to live.  He ended by saying he would be voting “no” to a budget for the first time.

Barnett supported the staff recommended levy, noting that at this time there is no budget to make them all comfortable,  that no one thing defines us, and that none of the cuts are long-lived expenses.

Schnell said it’s disturbing alternative revenue sources have not been found.  “I can’t understand how we can tax our people 12 and a half percent but we won’t institute red-light cameras that will hit people who are breaking the law. ” She also indicated she would be voting no.

Sandack was agitated by the time his turn came.  “I’ve got  a colleague to my right who flippantly says let’s add $500,000 to the property tax, I’ve got a colleague to my left who says she in good conscience can’t raise what is being proposed even thought the vast majority of it is being jammed down out throats because they’re pension obligations, and I’ve got a colleague who says because we didn’t compromise on Counseling and Social Services he’s not going to vote  on the budget.”

“That’s not a lack of compromise, that’s a lack of consensus,” Sandack said.

The village cannot be all things to all people, he said, adding that a village dentist would be great, but when times got tough they’d be up there arguing about how could they stop this vital service.  Good leadership is not a popularity contest, he said, and the current math is irrefutable.

The village has to chop away to end up with a budget that allows for a sustainable government.  “How did we fund Meals on Wheels in the first place?” he asked rhetorically.  It was pretty obvious he was frustrated and maybe even tired when he called for a motion.

There were attempts to speak by Beckman and Waldack, but any Robert’s Rules devotee knows the time for talk was past once it got to that point.  Durkin read the motion-always a whopper as it includes all outstanding bond debt issuances, and the vote was taken.

AYES: Barnett, Durkin, Neustadt, Sandack.  NAYS: Beckman, Schnell, Waldack.

So what does it mean?

Right now, less than you’d think, although the vote sets a ceiling for how much the village can spend and, as a result,  how much it can raise property taxes.  The discussion will continue next week.

EJ will take this ball back and run with it tomorrow.  I’ll be back Friday.

Lost in the commotion

A very positive report by Greg Bedalov on the move by Dover Corp. to Downers Grove from New York City.  “From Park Avenue to Highland Avenue” was his quip, suggesting Mayor Sandack might call  Mayor Bloomberg to say no hard feelings.  Sandack did a “Yeah right he’d take my call.” rejoinder.  Levity and good news before the budget storm clouds moved in.

Huge upside here.  The Landmark V building, with DeVry and now Dover moving in, goes from zero percent occupied to more than 90 percent occupied.  Property taxes go from about $7,000 per year to about $700,000 per year.  Of that, the village gets about $70,000, D58 gets about $240,000 and D99 gets about $210,000.  Way to go!