Monday, December 29, 2008

The House on Clifton Responds to City Hall, August 27, 2007

The plan was to give the readers exact copies of letters with the simple double click of a hyperlink. After finding that the Google Docs technology did not work as anticipated with regard to sharing PDFs, the next adventure will be through Adobe. Meanwhile, readers have not been able to access the documents referred to yesterday. Very frustrating!

So, while still trying to fix this technical glitch, following is a "cut and paste" version of the first letter my brother sent to the City of Highland Park, after receiving the City's demand that he sign a "Temporary License." The letter was addressed to Mary Anderson, with copies to Mayor Belsky, all City Councilmen and the Corporation Counsel. If this is your first visit to the blog, please be sure to go back and read previous entries. Thanks for taking the time to be informed. Please share your comments.

From the home on Clifton Avenue to:

Ms. Mary Anderson August 27, 2007
Director of Public Works
City of Highland Park
1150 Half Day Road
Highland Park, IL 60035

Dear Ms. Anderson,

The City of Highland Park and the Department of Public Works have notified me in various mailings that repair work related to storm sewers and “sanitary service lines” is being planned for the Sunset Woods neighborhood and a few other select neighborhoods. I have serious concerns and objections about the work that is planned, apparently now contracted, and the way it has been “proposed” to various homeowners by the City of Highland Park and Department of Public Works. As it appears that the City Council voted on many of the related issues, Mayor Michael Belsky and the City Council members are copied on this letter, as well as the Corporation Counsel.

I, and other homeowners as a class, have been told that our service lines need to be repaired based on tests that were conducted; and that we as the homeowners must bear at least 80% of the financial burden of paying for those repairs. To date, we have never been told specifically the results and findings of the “testing,” house by house, the nature of the specific problem with our particular line, where it was in the line, and precisely what work would be done to correct the problem if a city contractor performed the work.

With the original notification, not only were we not told the specifics of the problem, the City had not yet selected a contractor (one must assume this is done by competitive bidding but information about the bidders has not been shared with homeowners) who would outline the nature the of the work to be done for each line, for each homeowner, and provide a specific and detailed bill for the anticipated work. Detailed information about those bids is relevant to the homeowners, as each repair may differ, and especially if resident homeowners wish to contract with any other service provider at less cost.

The City of Highland Park has provided only very limited information, without any detail to which we are entitled. Individual homeowners were originally informed only that they would be held financially responsible for some undefined “sanitary service line work” contracted by the City to be done on our respective private properties. Furthermore, we were originally informed that we would be required to sign a “Temporary License for Sanitary Sewer Testing and Repair Work” (“Temporary License”). This license agreement was little more than an unreasonable blanket waiver of all rights and claims against, and a complete indemnification of, the City and the contractors. The demand was made with the threat against the homeowners that, should they not sign this agreement on the City’s schedule, they would suffer from a “violation notice with [a] time frame to correct and no City cost share” as well as “fines and penalties which may include water shutoff.” Serious demands, serious threats – all without the City providing a stitch of relevant information to the homeowners about cost, results of testing, or specifics concerning individual properties.

One doubts whether the Mayor or any member of the City Council has received such a notice for their own homes. If any have, one could only question their judgment and knowledge of the way a city government should work for the benefit of its residents. Further, the initial message sent to the taxpaying voters and homeowners of the Highlands, Ridgeway and Sunset Woods focused on “financing options” including “1) payment in full at the time of improvements; 2) property owner-secured home equity financing; 3) the City-subsidized low interest loan program available through the First Bank of Highland Park.” (How was the First Bank of Highland Park chosen over other area banks? Who decided on the percentage of the loan? The City again has not been forthcoming and we have a right to expect answers.) The amount of these costs remained a mystery through several letters to these homeowners, until, finally, in an August 15, 2007 letter – within 15 days of the date in which the City demands a return of the “Temporary License” -- the City reveals to the homeowner a glimpse of financial burden: “We understand an exact amount may not be known, however the City feels no individual service repair will exceed $10,000.”

In case the City has not been paying attention to the news, there is a serious credit problem in the housing market now. Homes are losing their value. Credit is crunched. How many residents will be pushed over the edge based on this unreasonable demand for unbudgeted and unanticipated expenses demanded by the City?

Whom should the homeowner trust to ensure that the (as yet unspecified) work is done properly and for fair value? The City which has apparently bungled this matter from the outset? The audacity of requesting that residents sign a waiver and indemnify the City was just a small part of the mismanagement of this issue. Fortunately, it seems that other residents spoke up and the City has now backed off from that thoughtless, capricious and unfair demand – which until a few days ago had the imprimatur of City Hall and the threat of penalties and water shut off for refusal to sign.

I hope that my fellow residents of Highland Park will reject this action taken by the City, based on the inherent unfairness of the proposal, as well as its lack of specific information and the considerable financial burden that will be placed on homeowners for making these repairs.

The City needs to have a historic perspective on the issues at hand. When my parents built the home at xxxx Clifton Avenue during 1954/55, the home, including its sanitary system, was built according to City code. From the time the house was built, there were serious issues and problems pertaining to storm and sanitary sewers in Sunset Woods and several other neighborhoods in the City. Year after year, my parents paid their taxes, asked for relief and infrastructure appropriate for our neighborhood yet these issues were neglected by the City. This is a situation which many of my fellow neighbors throughout the City are very familiar with in their neighborhoods, with their homes, particularly those who’ve been a part of this community for many years. I have been the tax paying owner of the house for many years and I and my neighbors deserve to be treated fairly, and not by fiat. The City should have budgeted to address the storm and sanitary sewers rather than foist, what the City calls, this “unexpected expenditure” on individual homeowners.

Indeed, instead of the City resolving the issues with taxes, it continues to allow the builders to increase the density of Highland Park beyond the ability of the infrastructure to absorb the increased population. And, it has allowed for more impervious surfaces, more houses, condominiums, commercial development, parking lots, placing greater demands on streets, sanitary lines, storm sewers, flood plains. It requires new and remodeled homes to hook up to the storm sewers. It is hardly equitable that the City is going to homeowners of older properties and demanding that we bear the financial responsibility for this management of storm sewers. The work to be done is intended to benefit the whole and the whole should pay for it.

It is inappropriate to demand that residents sign agreements and proceed with significant financial decisions based on a lack of information. Please provide the results of the testing done at my property, describe the work to be done, provide an accurate estimate for it which any reputable contractor would have provided by now and disclose the contractor(s), so I can call others to seek other bids.

I also request that you provide the names and contact information for all homeowners who have been contacted by the City with regard to these repairs. If the City Council does not take care of these issues, it will be appropriate to reach out to everyone who is affected by the City’s demands.

The residents of Highland Park deserve a plan for infrastructure that’s equitable, not an ad hoc “plan,” hastily construed, that’s imposed without regard to what’s fair and reasonable. When the City of Highland Park provides the requested and specific information for our home (and would expect no less for our fellow homeowners) and can answer some of the troubling questions raised, I will then decide the best alternatives to pursue concerning repairs.

Sincerely,
XXXXXX

Cc: Mayor Michael Belsky; Council Members: Michael Brenner, Terri Olian, Scott Levenfeld, Steven Mandel, Lawrence Silberman, James Kirsch; Corporation Counsel, Steven Elrod.

Open your checkbook, the City “feels” it won’t cost you more than $10,000…

So, let's get started with correspondence between the City of HP and "Clifton Avenue" in Sunset Park.

[After publishing the blog entry today, the blogger finds that google.com/docs does not allow for unrestricted viewing of PDF documents. Accordingly, some of the hyperlinks below will not work. So, if you would like access to them, you'll need to send me an e-mail at downthedraininhp@gmail.com to request access that will be gladly given. The blogger will respect your privacy, will not develop a mailing list from requests, and will not share the e-mail addresses with anyone absent a court order. If anyone has a better idea of how to post the correspondence, please let me know. Otherwise, I'll start to copy the language for you soon.]

On August 15, 2007, the house on Clifton received a letter from City Hall to notify the resident that the City of HP had "awarded a contract to Performance Pipelining Incorporated…expected to begin repair work in September and finish late October or early November." The letter stated that, "at the homeowners request," City staff had explored creating a Special Service Area (SSA) as alternative funding. It is reasonable to infer from this August 15 letter that residents had already complained to the City about charging residents directly for infrastructure repairs and for placing upon the homeowners such a large, unanticipated and unbudgeted expense.

Staff determined that a SSA was not feasible, which makes sense if the plan affects the entire municipality. Yet, it appears in the Master Plan for Storm and Sanitary Sewers that certain neighborhoods had been "targeted." (Is it just a coincidence that no neighborhoods east of the railway tracks had been targeted, even though they contain some of the oldest homes and infrastructure in HP?)

We have not been able to access information concerning complaints made to the City about the Master Plan for Storm and Sanitary Sewers, being told that this can be acquired only through a FOIA request. Another fine example of City Hall's practice of divide and conquer – if you can't access other residents' complaints, you may think you're the only one who wants to challenge City Hall, determine it is futile and just sign whatever they want.

Clifton Avenue was told that there were three financing options: payment in full at the time of improvements, 2) property owner secured home equity financing and 3) a City subsidized low interest loan program available through the First Bank of Highland Park. A fourth alternative was mentioned as possibly being "available in the near future" with regard to the City's Low Income Program. Ultimately, this may have been the enforceable lien for the full amount of the project [N.B., the lien was always "offered" as an alternative for paying 100% of the work to be done, and not as an option for use with the 80-20% (resident-City) split].

In the August 15 letter, there was another request for the Temporary License to be signed within about two weeks, returned by August 31. Notably there wasn't any specific description of anything wrong with the sanitary lateral line at the Clifton Avenue address, nor the work to be done there. The amount to be paid was not provided. Signing and returning the Temporary License to the City of Highland Park would be like signing a check without filling in the amount and allowing the recipient to plug in any figure he'd like – ultimately, the City could charge any amount it wanted. Of course, the City stated in the August 15 letter that it "feels no individual repair service repair will exceed $10,000." Is this how the City Manager, David Limardi, and the City Council manages City funds – on how it FEELS?—or does it just work that way with your money? Who authorizes substantial and costly work on the basis of a guesstimate? And, in speaking with someone at Sunset Foods, I heard of a family that moved into a house and suddenly was required to pay close to $25,000 or be faced with a City lien. I can't say for sure this was a result of the Master Plan, but my friend thought so and, in any event, what a painful welcome to Highland Park upon buying your new home. After all, it's not as if the home inspection people routinely examine your sanitary lateral lines.

The City demanded that the resident sign the (initial, later revised) "Temporary License for Sanitary Sewer Testing and Repair Work" without specifying the type of repair to be done. The license referred to this as "by either open excavation and/or trenchless technology." The resident was required to waive and release any claims ("known and unknown") against the City and Performance Pipelining for any harm caused to the homeowner's property. So, if they did work that caused a bigger problem or flooded your home, well, that's your problem, not the City's. Further, if that wasn't unreasonable enough, the resident had to "indemnify, hold harmless and defend the City," the Mayor, the City Councilmen and all the other people involved in perpetrating the Master Plan. It's a good time to ask the Corporation Counsel, Mr. Elrod… whom do you think you are representing? We'll leave that issue for another day. In any event, numerous HP residents signed the Temporary License in its original form, no doubt feeling that they couldn't "fight City Hall" and upon threat of having a lien placed on their property.

In response to receiving the City's demand, my brother issued a letter to Mary Anderson, with a copy to the Mayor and City Council. Take a look at his August 31, 2007 letter. You'll find in it virtually all of the questions and objections raised by the Ravinia neighbors more than a year later in December 2008.

Please take the time to read my brother's detailed August 31, 2007 letter, which was written on behalf of all HP residents. This is a brief quote it:

"The residents of Highland Park deserve a plan for infrastructure that's equitable, not an ad hoc "plan," hastily construed, that's imposed without regard to what's fair and reasonable. When the City of Highland Park provides the requested and specific information for our home (and would expect no less for our fellow homeowners) and can answer some of the troubling questions raised, I will then decide the best alternatives to pursue concerning repairs."

If you sent a letter to the City of Highland Park in response to the Master Plan, please let me know, and it can be posted on this site.

In the next blog entry, we'll take a look into the City Hall's lame response. Thanks for staying tuned.

Oh, by the way, it was 2007 when the City "felt" it wouldn't cost more than $10,000. It seems the top line will be much higher in 2009...wonder what they "feel" it is now?

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Reading the Highland Park “News”

If you think the Master Plan for Storm and Sanitary Sewers is dead, not so. It's alive and kicking, still in the hands of all the same people who didn't care about how it would affect you or your finances in the first place.

On December 18, 2008, the Highland Park News finally did a little reporting on the "Sewer Project." Where was the Highland Park News at the December 3 meeting when City Hall was so anxious about the complaints from irate residents that it called the Highland Park Police for crowd control? Where was the Highland Park News the next night when David Limardi and Mayor Belsky couldn't answer simple questions asked by the Ravinia neighbors about the Master Plan? It seems that unless City Hall provides the HP News with a written report, it just isn't news to them. Don't you think the HP News should take an interest in this community and get out once in a while and actually attend a meeting and talk with people other than the City Manager and the Mayor?

The HP News report stated that "the project would have required residents to chip in as much as $4000 to replace leaking sanitary laterals…" We've got news for the HP News: $4,000 was the minimum, and $10,000 is rapidly becoming the new minimum (a price increase most likely courtesy of the City Manager having a "single source provider" who just to happened to be the only contractor who could meet the bidding requirements), and most of the sanitary laterals aren't the problem. The sanitary laterals aren't the cause of a problem, the City's storm sewers are invading the resident's sanitary sewers and they have not yet been upgraded. Does HP News seems to print only the pap spoon fed to them by City Hall?

The HP News did get one thing right. City Hall has only deferred its plan to spend your savings. They may well circle back to the remaining residents who haven't paid up yet. The plan is on the shelf but City Hall is only waiting to go back and create a report to justify their sewer folly. The City remains interested in coercing you to follow their plan, even if that results in placing a lien on your home, a "financing alternative" proudly offered by Mayor Belsky at the December 4 meeting. The HP News reported that the City "plans to collect more information on the effectiveness of the project and look for another bidder." They should just focus on collecting the essential information that should have been there prior to foisting the Master Plan on all of us.

The Mayor is quoted as saying ""We decided to take a step back from the project because of economic times and explore alternatives that might reduce costs." Mr. Mayor and City Council, and Mr. Limardi, those hard economic times were there when you started to implement the Master Plan – and even if the economy were on the right keel, all of this should have been done before three neighborhoods were forced to pay up for unnecessary repairs. Is rudimentary investigation done only when residents complain in volume?

It was surprising to read that the Mayor told that the HP News that the "program has been already implemented in three other neighborhoods in the city and has proven successful." One may ask the Mayor to tell us exactly, what is your definition of a successful program? Residents being coerced into paying thousands of dollars for repairs they did not want or need? What technical data is there that supports the assertion that this has been successful in any material way? Certainly none has been offered to any of those neighborhoods who have already shouldered an unnecessary and inappropriate economic burden, nor to the more recent Ravinia neighborhood complaints. And, even if it were technically successful, the issue remains that this is an economic burden to be paid by the community as a whole.

Those of us at the December 4 meeting know that neither City Manager Limardi or Mayor Belsky was able to sufficiently answer even basic questions raised by the Ravinia neighbors. This is exactly why the City told us they would go back to Earth-Tech. They needed to seek the answers that were missing from Earth-Tech's initial report. And, as reported previously in the blog, .it is just plain silly for City Hall to have proposed to go back to Earth-Tech which now has a vested interest in bolstering its previous work. If the City needs another opinion, it shouldn't be one where the consultant is told to support the previous consultant. An independent consultant, one chosen on the basis of expertise and from among several bidders, is required.

The HP News quotes Mayor Belsky: "We're not going to approach any individual household until we have exact cost. We're looking for any funding sources to help this neighborhood and help other neighborhoods as well." Good to hear, Mr. Mayor. Yet, for all the residents who have already been coerced to pay for the sanitary lateral lining, none of them were given an exact cost before they were required to sign the legal documents giving the City the authority to proceed – and they were threatened with a lien to gain compliance with the City's demand to sign a "Temporary License" that required them to waive basic legal rights for any harm caused to their property. And, as for alternative funding sources, why didn't Mr. Limardi seek them earlier? Why did City Council rubber stamp Mr. Limardi's plan? And, why didn't they all know that City infrastructure improvements are their responsibility and upgrades need to be planned and budgeting for payment from our taxes?

So, it's time we start looking at the real history of the Master Plan. For many HP residents, the Master Plan already tapped their financial resources. They have written the big check from savings or with a second or third mortgage. For the next few weeks, this blog will share with the readers the saga of the Master Plan and a representative home in Sunset Park. It's a modest home on a modest lot (approx. 55' x 160'). It just so happens to be my brother's home and I've deleted his name and contact info from the documents for his privacy, but the documents are accurate and complete otherwise.

While Mayor Belsky and the City Manager asserted on December 4 that they were surprised by the Ravinia neighborhood response, the fact is that these questions and complaints are not new. My brother began to complain about 1 ½ years ago and, on the basis of some of the correspondence, it seems he was not the only person to raise important issues, concerns and constructive criticism that landed on largely deaf ears.

Tomorrow, we will start to share the correspondence between the City of HP and the representative house in Sunset Park, the home where my brother and I were raised.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Dialogue Begins with Your Comments....

The Down the Drain in HP blog has started to receive some reader comments. Thank you!

For various reasons, not everyone who has sent comments wants to be published. Comments do not automatically get placed on the blog. The Blogger program requires an additional action to publish comments. So, if you intend to share information with this blogger but don't want to be published, you can either submit anonymously (which will be published without your name) or with a request that it not be published. If you're thinking about adding a comment, please do.

Also, if you subscribe to this blog, you'll be sure to get new editions as they are posted. You can do this on the right hand column under "subscribe" and "posts."

A neighbor informs us that a petition was circulated among the 2008-2009 residents affected by the sewer program. About 5 pages of signatures were acquired. The petition was then submitted to Council prior to the December 3 & 4 meetings. It is very impressive that this important initiative to gain signatures took place. Of course, it is also unacceptable that it was necessary to get those signatures because City Hall wouldn't listen to the many individual voices.

This petition was circulated by three people going door to door collecting signatures. (If you'd like a copy of the petition, please send the blog a request.) According to them, they didn't find one person in favor of the Master Plan. Not a surprise. They also found only a small number of people who had experienced flooded basements. From our perspective, there is more flooding going on in Highland Park than people want to acknowledge, most likely because they fear it will depreciate their home upon sale if flooding is admitted. We know and have been told by the City about the various sewers that are undersized.

In circulating the petition, they report finding that some neighbors were, in general, a little perplexed about the difference between storm sewers and sanitary sewers, especially with regard to flooding. We can explore these questions further but, in essence, if your basement floods with sanitary sewer water it smells a lot different than when it floods with storm water. Neither is appealing, both need disinfectant post flooding, but the sanitary sewers are really nasty because they are designed for human waste and to send water for treatment. The confusion between these two systems is exacerbated by our City Manager and the Mayor telling you that your sanitary sewers are flooding your next door neighbor's home, especially when you know that just isn't so.

It is reported that one neighbor who had experienced sewer flooding purchased a $10 valve from the hardware store which solved his basement sewer flooding issue. "Imagine that - no consultants needed!"

Great minds thinking alike, we just installed a check valve and a standpipe in our basement for a lot more than $10 yet for a very small fraction of the cost associated with the City Hall's Master Plan. Please note, this was not to repair a sanitary sewer problem, because it doesn't exist. We paid for this installation in an effort to protect our home from the City's undersized storm sewers. It is assumed that the proud owner of a $10 check valve was doing the same. (We're not recommending the check valve or the standpipe from either of the hyperlinked sites. They hyperlinks are provided as a convenience only and we've no experience with these products. Also, in our house, there hasn't been enough experience to know if it will work when needed.)

The anonymous commenter concluded: "I agree that despite the City's approach to take a year off to 'convince us' that this is the right thing to do, we need to continue to be a unified voice in the community." Well said!

Again, thanks for reading the blog and all of your comments!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Ravinia Neighbors, Bravo!

On Tuesday, I received an important call from Councilman Mike Brenner who provided me with a brief update on the status of the Master Plan for Storm and Sanitary Sewers.

By way of background, Councilman Brenner is the only member of City Council who responded directly and immediately last year to my brother in response to his letters, on behalf of all HP residents, to the Mayor and the full City Council protesting the fairness and soundness of the Master Plan. For those of us who attended the December 4 meeting at the Public Works building, you may recall that the Mayor indicated a level of surprise about the issues raised by the Ravinia residents. Yet most of those complaints and questions were clearly articulated in my brother's letters to the Mayor and City Council more than a year ago. (Those letters will be posted as soon.)

So, no other City Councilman called my brother to discuss the issues with him, or wrote him a response. The Mayor sent a letter to support the Master Plan in every respect. He did not call to further inquire about the facts or to engage in a discussion. He did remind my brother that the City would place a lien on his home for failure to comply. Except for Councilman Brenner, they all remained staunchly confident that the Master Plan should move forward "as is."

So, we send our thanks to Councilman Brenner who got involved in this subject and was responsive when no others were, and who didn’t need to wait until there were 100 angry residents to see some of the flaws in the Master Plan as illuminated by my brother’s letters. This is what we expect from our Councilmen, regardless of agreement or outcome. Responsiveness and accountability.

This week Councilman Brenner informed me that, at last Monday’s City Council Meeting, the Council decided to place the Master Plan on hold and reassess the issues. He indicated that everyone is now on board (at least they seem to be). We’ll look forward to reviewing the minutes of the meeting. Perhaps those of you who watched and/or attended the meeting would like to share what you heard by adding a comment. Councilmen are welcome, as this blog is for everyone interested in good City governance.

Councilman Brenner also indicated that the City will look into whether to reimburse the citizens who already paid with their personal checks under the Master Plan and what the mechanisms for paying them back might be. Let’s hope that the citizens in the Highlands and Sunset Park - the people who were coerced to pay for City Council's ill conceived scheme - will become active and let their voices be heard.

The City Council’s decision is all because of you – our neighbors in Ravinia. You vociferously objected to a wrong and made yourselves heard about your rights. Bravo, Ravinia neighbors, bravo! You have made a huge difference in the future of our community.

Just don’t stop now…and stay involved, active and vigilant because the Master Plan isn’t exactly dead. You heard at the Public Works meeting last week that the City was returning to Earth Tech to seek answers to the simple questions you asked. Tell the City it is unacceptable to pay this same company to review their own work, especially when it seems that their first report was so lacking in the answers to the questions any homeowner would ask - at least we can base this perspective on inability of the City Manager to answer the questions based on the existing Earth Tech report. The City should hire an independent consultant and not one chosen by our City Manager, David Limardi, who was the major proponent and implementer of this poorly designed and mismanaged Master Plan. The new consultant should be chosen among several viable bidders to review the work done to date and help assess the future with your review and input. (We can note here that we've been told that Performance Pipeline was the only bidder to meet the City Manager's specifications for doing the sewer repairs. Certainly one would expect at least 3 bids for any City project, unless the bid has been designed for a single provider.)

Now that we're not in the crisis mode of homeowners having to shell out $3,500-25,000+ from their personal savings or obtain a new loan, the challenge for us is to not sit back and forget about the Master Plan. Our City Manager and City Hall ignored the voices of many individual homeowners and ignored their valid objections. It seems they listen only when there is an organized group of citizens with enough people to vote as a block against them. Tell the City Manager, the Mayor and our Councilmen that you expect nothing less of them than fundamental respect for HP residents and responsiveness when they have a complaint. Respect and Accountability in the City where character counts!

We also should recognize that stepping back from the Master Plan for Storm and Sanitary Sewers is a big, if not historic, step for the Mayor and City Council. While it is difficult to understand how they decided to adopt this plan that was so unsupportable in the first place, and how they managed to ignore the various individual citizens who complained about its inherent unfairness and baseless technical justification, we should acknowledge that they were good enough to stop and think now, and we can thank them for being willing to set another, and hopefully, better course. Thank you to our Mayor and City Council - we look forward to working with you in a constructive manner.

It is a learning experience for all of us.

The Mayor and City Council should confine itself to developing budgets that spend tax dollars, and not your savings.

We, the citizens and residents, need to speak up when something is inherently wrong. We can, and do, make a difference.

And one more thing we should all know by now. The City needs new management. The Mayor and the Councilmen need to be supported by an administration that cares about and respects the residents. Time to speak up. Time for change!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

The Big, Dirty, Open Secret

It's the big, dirty, and open secret in Highland Park that our City Hall has flown under the radar. Yes, the topic has been on agendas. Yes, the City's plan has been published. Yet, you just didn't know to pay attention because it was never presented to you with the most salient information. And, you can’t afford not to know about it, unless, of course, you have a spare $10,000 or more and you're eager to contribute it to the City’s infrastructure.

It's the "Master Plan for Storm and Sanitary Sewers" and if you didn't know about it until now, you'd surely find out much later -- and, unfortunately, when it may be too late to right the wrong, when you'll need to write a check, get a loan or have a lien placed against your home by the City of Highland Park. Sadly for some, they may need to sell their homes as a result of being forced out of Highland Park by the Master Plan.

Still, the issue remains under the radar, even though there was a big meeting about it on December 3, 2008, and, again, on December 4, at the Public Works Building, with about 100+ upset residents there. You haven't heard about it in the Highland Park News, dedicated to publishing all news that City Hall provides. Yet, on one day in mid-November, it made a brief appearance in the Chicago Tribune. We send our thanks to Janice McLeran for "raising a stink" about this.

Among those of us who are now in the know, we were introduced to the Master Plan scheme by opening a shocking letter from the City demanding we write a check and make undefined and unnecessary repairs to our lateral sanitary sewers. We're the people in the Highlands, Sunset Park, and Ravinia neighorhoods. Each neighborhood was hit separately at different times. Divide and conquer. You're next...

Yes, the big surprise of the “Master Plan for Storm and Sanitary Sewers” is that you get the bill – a direct invoice to your home. That’s right -- we’re not talking about your taxes paying for improvements to the City of Highland Park’s sewer system. We’re talking about you, personally. You get to open your checkbook twice -- your tax dollars will pay for 20% of the expense of repairing the lateral sanitary lines on your home. You then open the checkbook again to pay the remaining 80% from your savings, the proceeds of a loan, or the City places a lien on your home which could cause the sale of your home, along with your future. City Hall doesn't care where the payment comes from, as long as you're responsible for it.

If you’re thinking there isn't anything wrong with your lateral sanitary line, you're probably wrong. If you ever have your line rodded, the mere existence of those tree roots confirms that your sanitary lateral needs to be lined by a City of HP designated contractor. At least that is what our Public Works Department told us. Like most HP residents living in the Tree City, our home's sanitary line is rodded routinely. The result: we were coerced into paying nearly $5000 after being threatened with the placement of a lien on our home, possibly for 100% of the cost (far more than $5000) unless we agreed to sign various City documents which, at the time, included a requirement to indemnify the contractor and the City for any harm to our property arising from the construction (and we were unable at that time to get requested information about interest or possible foreclosure terms on that lien).

It seems that our City Manager, David Limardi, our Mayor and a majority of City Council came to the conclusion that the City isn’t responsible for its own infrastructure. The fact that the City has grown in density while the storm sewers haven’t been appropriately sized and improved seems to be your personal problem as a homeowner. Clearly, these expenses have not been paid by the developers who have reaped a mighty profit by replacing single family homes with extensive multiple family housing in our fair City.

These expenses fall on you even though your lateral sanitary line may be working fine. City Hall would tell you that your lateral is flooding the City's storm sewers and harming your neighbor. Yet, you know that your lateral isn't flooding anyone. It works fine and services your home. In reality, the perpetrator is the City's storm sewers and the City hasn't even made a dent on its own work in upgrading the storm sewers first.

We know there is a problem with storm sewer management. And, it may be possible that if all of our lateral sanitary lines were repaired there would be less flooding or, at least, less flooding impacted by the sanitary lines (although this assertion remains unclear and unproven by the City). The primary assertion of this blog is that the City should be paying for any infrastructure improvements through the taxes we pay, and from grants, bonds and/or other public funds -- not your checkbook. After all, this is a community-wide issue and the community as a whole needs to be responsible for it. That's why we pay taxes.

It seems that our City leadership is so removed from the realities of living on the North Shore that, not only do they mistakenly think you are supposed to pay for these infrastructure improvements, they think you have this money stashed in your checkbook and are ready to deliver it on demand. The Mayor is proud that, if you can't pay for this from your savings, he has arranged for you take another loan on your property. Consider the effect of taking out another loan on your credit ratings in this rocky or any other economy. Consider what you will not be able to buy for your family. And, for those who can't take on another loan, the Mayor offers another untenable solution -- the City can place a lien on your property. He seems to assume that your mortgage holder won’t mind, that the City won’t charge you interest, and that no foreclosure will ever take place, that you can keep that lien on your property for 50 years. Let's ask Corporation Counsel to share a copy of the City's lien and its terms.

We're working on gathering examples of letters shared between HP residents and the City with regard to the Master Plan.

This first blog entry is to provide some notice of the issues. The Master Plan deserves critical examination in a constructive manner. We hope you will share it with your neighbors. We hope the City will take advantage of the blog to present their point of you. The blog can be a place to start the dialogue. Free and open discourse is an important part of our City's values and our sense of community.

We need to remember that City's Organization Chart places the Citizens of Highland Park at the top of the chart, with Mayor and City Council reporting to us, and the City Manager reporting to the Mayor. As we know with all businesses, it is important to set the proper tone at the top.

To be continued...