I hope to do better in the coming days. Thanks for your patience.

The event will feature sales, tastings, prize drawings, massages, makeovers and demonstrations — in short, plenty of activities to appeal to a group of girlfriends looking for an evening of leisure.

Click here for all the details and participating merchants.

The three topics after the break:

1. Pension reform. Barrington and Lake Forest have already put advisory referenda on the ballots.  Every taxpayer in the state knows by now the unfunded pension burdens the state has wrought by recklessly pillaging and then underfunding the public employee retirement accounts.
2. Term limits for local office. Specific to asking for a yea/nay to a possible limit of three consecutive terms  for council commissioners, and a two consecutive terms for village mayor.
3. Consolidating layers of government. Specifically asking the question can service be more efficiently delivered by county and municipalities, bypassing townships?  Illinois is #1 in number of government units, with a staggering multiplicity of taxing bodies.

QUESTION:  How many government units do we have in Illinois?

Sandack will be looking for a First Reading (workshop) next week.  Council has the ability to add advisory referendum questions as an easy way to gauge the pulse of the community on a topic.  Advisory referendum are , as the word implies, advisory and not binding.

What do you, gentle reader, think?  Good items?  Do you have any you’d like to see as a referendum question?

ANSWER to the question: 8,472

The village is asking residents to complete a 16-question Garbage Service Survey online, or to stop by Village Hall, 801 Burlington Ave., Public Works, 5101 Walnut Ave. or the library, 1050 Curtiss St., for a paper copy. The village says the survey takes about seven minutes, but most will probably be able to dispense with it in half that time.

“The results of the survey will be presented in a report to the Village Council and will be used to help determine customer preferences regarding garbage services,” the village Web site states.

The survey will be available for about a month.

As for last month’s DGreport poll on preferences for local garbage collection, a third of respondents favored a toter for recyclables and half wanted a choice of stickers or toters for garbage. The current 18-gallon recycling bins were favored by only two of 74 respondents.

The water commission has come under increased scrutiny since November, when it was revealed administrators had spent down nearly $20 million in financial reserves.

While the Tribune is reporting that some area mayors are denouncing the effort — which they see as a “power grab” by Cronin, the Republican candidate for county board chairman — Mayor Ron Sandack reacted more favorably.

“Although I have yet to read the proposed piece(s) of legislation and fully think through the possibilities, it appears this may be a worthy endeavor,” he said in an e-mail.

“As many know, the DuPage Water Commission has some significant problems so if the county can provide the service within its existing infrastructure why not seek to reduce an extra layer of government and try and find some efficiencies?,” said Sandack, who along with Commissioner Bob Barnett and local attorney Jim Russ Jr. spearheaded the “Downers Grove for Dan” effort for Cronin’s primary campaign.

DuPage Water Commissioner Liz Chaplin of Downers Grove, who early on questioned the agency’s administrative practices also sees some merit to the proposal.

“I agree with the basic idea of the county having control over the DPWC,” she said in an e-mail, noting that she had proposed such an action in 2002 and would like to see the commission become a department of county government “with no middlemen and no municipal representatives.”

However, Chaplin questioned the need for the “Water Operations Committee” proposed by Cronin and also expressed concern about the prospects of the commission’s sales tax ending up on county coffers.

“More government that is not needed,” she said.  ” I would like to see the public works of DuPage County take over the commission and report directly to the county board.

“We have exactly what Cronin is suggesting and it has not worked,” Chaplin said. “There are six county-appointed members and the county board has never asked (those) water commissioners  for any reports. I took it upon myself to e-mail my concerns to Chairman (Bob) Schillerstrom.”

“I am also concerned with the additional sales tax going to the county.  Since the county just received a sales tax increase last year I would like the sales tax that was collected by the DPWC abated if this was to pass,” she said.

The meeting is schedule for 7 p.m. at Longfellow Center.

The move is necessary because the district’s administrative costs — including salaries, benefits and travel expenses for the superintendent, the business manager and other business personnel, and the assistant superintendent for personnel — increased by nine percent from FY09 to FY 10, or from $1,302,207 to $1,413,920.

The reason for the increase is the appointment of Supt. Paul Zaander in January 2009  and Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Staff Development JayneYudzentis in March 2009, as well as the move to full-time from part-time employment by Controller Jim Popernik.

Zaander was the interim superintendent following Dale Martin’s departure from the district in 2008, while former Assistant Superintendent Larry Bending was contracted to serve in his previous position. Bending served 112 days of his 120-day contract. Those personnel changes resulted in a three percent reduction in administrative costs from FY 2008 to FY 2009, Popernik said.

In addition to the public hearing, the district was required to send a notice of the waiver application to its union leadership and also to local legislators.

The Illinois State Board of Education will rule on the district’s waiver request. The relatively late application — FY 10 ends June 30 — is due to the district’s move to a new auditor. Audits are typically completed in November or December, but in this case there were delays related to the district’s status as a new client, Popernik said.

Even so, the ISBE isn’t expected to act on the request immediately, he said. “It’s a formality.”

David Vaught, Governor Quinn’s budget director, announced Quinn’s intention of reducing income tax payments to municipalities in Illinois by 30%.

“You need to take a look and say OK, does everybody have skin in the game here?” Vaught said. “It just doesn’t make sense that the municipalities would get a pass.”

While there is no plan to fully fund the $4.1 billion in required state pension obligation, the state proposes refusing to distribute the normal 10% of state income tax receipts to local municipalities, creating a $300 million gain for the state.

For 2010, DG had budgeted for $3.75 million in state income tax revenue.  That budgeted number represents a grimly realistic decline of  almost 10% over 2009, and almost 19% from 2008.  If adopted by the state, DG stands to lose up to $1.125 million in revenues, blowing another hole in the financials.

On Wednesday Quinn plans a state address to broach this topic, along with another pitch for a large increase in the state income tax.

The projections don’t see a turnaround until 2013, when existing EAV is predicted to rise by three percent following dips of two percent in 2010 and 2012 and four percent in 2011.

The assumptions reflect a housing market that is a far cry from its heyday of double-digit appreciation. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the predictions will materialize and also whether local property tax bills will reflect the decline.

District administrators furnished EAV and other assumptions to PMA Financial Network, which presented the information February 8. The district’s Financial Advisory Committee also provide input into the numbers.

On the plus side, the district will benefit from about $20 million in new property EAV this levy, Controller Jim Popernick said. “The new growth is a very  nice feature, but the reality is that even though EAVS have slowed and the consensus is they will go down in 2010, it doesn’t mean revenues will go down.

“The tax cap protects school districts. I’m not going to provide a gloom-and-doom scenario when our past history says that never happens,” Popernick said.

“Moving forward, basically the district can run a balanced budget based on normal revenue streams and normal expenditure patterns,” he said. “When building the budget, we have some flexibility. We can react to outside forces. We can make cuts, evaluate programs and reduce program, supply and equipment budgets.”

While the EAV numbers may be of particular interest to homeowners, D58 like other school districts, is keeping a close eye on how much state aid is forthcoming.

D58 receives $3 million to $4 million in categorical aid and $1 million to $2 million in general aid. If Springfield can’t solve its financial problems, categorically aid is likely to be cut, Popernick said. Categorical aid is earmarked for special education and other mandated programs, which means proportional cuts aren’t possible.

“For all school districts, 2010-11 will be a tough year,” he said, noting that districts are also dealing with the effects of last year’s historically low 0.1 Urban Consumer Price Index . The 2010 CPI-U is back up to average at 2.7 percent, he said.

Fortunately, the district has a cushion in its Medical Reserve Fund as a result of savings realized when it changed health plans and revamped its benefit schedule. Following two years in which expenses were reduced by five percent, the district is projecting 15 percent reduction resulting in $900,000 in savings next year.

D58 also aims to maintain  an overall fund balance of eight to 12 percent, or $4.4 million minimum, he said.

With America’s reading and writing habits going electronic, most of the daily mail is both unsolicited and unwanted. I easily toss 75 percent of whatever winds up in my mailbox, and have for years.

Nor do I make regular use of snail mail. I pay my bills online. E-cards ensure that birthday greetings will arrive on the very day you wish.  As for mass-mailings like Christmas greetings, those became a luxury when stamps hit 44 cents.

Now days, I pretty much send mail to elderly relatives who remain steadfastly opposed to e-mail — and that’s about it.

And don’t get me started about the “service” aspect of the Postal Service.  My block seemed to encounter a new carrier every week until our current, hard-working “Q” came on the job.  We also seemed to be an afterthought to the day’s delivery, frequently getting mail after dark.

Things have since improve, I’m happy to report, but no one would call the Postal Service a model of efficiency or transparency. A few years ago, it began surreptitiously began removing mailboxes without announcement or explanation. My efforts to track down an official who could address my questions were an exercise in futility.

So, too, my recent attempts to find out how mail volume in Downers Grove has fared and whether any mailboxes are in danger of disappearing with this round of cuts.  The downtown PO referred me to a district spokesman. After dialing the number numerous times, this was all I got:

“You been forwarded to a voice-mail system. However, the person at 7763 has not subscribed to this service.  Call answering cannot be continued at this time. Transferring to an attendant. One moment please.Your  session can not be continued at this time. Please try again later.”

Maybe they cut that position?

The information was posted last week on the recommendation of the Environmental Concerns Commission, which reviewed the coyote issue in January at the request of the village council, said Doug Kozlowski, village communications director. Others have also raised the issue with the council in recent months.

While there haven’t been any local coyote attacks or a discernible increase in the number of coyotes in Downers Grove, the ECC advised the village to increase public awareness of the dog-like animals, which “have pointed ears, yellow eyes, a slender muzzle and a drooping bushy tail with a black tip,” according to the Village Web site.

“They are usually a grayish brown with reddish-colored fur behind the ears and around the face,” the site states. “A study by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County’s Willowbrook Wildlife Center reports that coyotes in DuPage County average about 25 pounds, though their heavy coats may make them look larger.”

Coyotes apparently pose the most danger to domestic animals when in mating season, which runs from February through April.  The village recommends keeping on a leash during this time as male coyotes are more likely to attack even large dogs during this time.

As for residents who might encounter one of the animals, the Village recommends they shout, clap or throw something in the coyote’s direction.

“Acting aggressively helps re-instill a fear of humans in coyotes,” the site says.

Residents are also encouraged to call 911 if an animal appears threatening or the Willowbook Wildlife Center at 630-942-6200 for further information.