Is the new boss, the same as the old boss?

As readers know, on June 22, 2011, I wrote to Mayor Rotering and every City Councilman concerning repeated requests to reimburse approximately 45 residents for payments made for unnecessary repairs to their private property.  These residents paid the City under coercion, for a Sewer Program that is likely to be entirely revamped and/or discarded and which was very inequitably applied to these unlucky residents to their great financial distress.

While I would prefer to see more comments posted on this blog, and the ones posted, even this week, can be a bit difficult to find based on the Google template, you may be interested to know that more than several people have written and/or called the Mayor's office in the last several weeks to request reimbursement and to express their frustration at how they have been treated by the City.  I am starting to receive phone calls from these people who leave messages at my home complaining that no one at the City responds to them.  Not our new mayor, and none of our new and current councilmen.

So, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that nearly two months later I also haven't had a reply yet from anyone (unless an e-mail or letter has gone missing). Nor a phone call.  This should be very disappointing to all, not just me.  Resident raises serious and complicated issue to City Hall and nearly two full months pass with no response, no inquiry to learn more.   

Kinda looks like the old City Council.  In the words of Pete Townsend, “meet the new boss, same as the old boss”?  Hope not.  Wasn’t this last HP election about CHANGE?!

In fairness to Mayor Belsky, he always replied, eventually -- probably the amount of time it took Dave Limardi to consider it worthy of his time and to put it on his desk for reply (or to assign it to someone, followed by his and corporation counsel’s review). Then you'd get the "big official letter."  There was never any dialogue.  To actually pick up the phone and talk with a resident about a challenging and complicated issue -- well, that would be, let's just say, too personal for that administration.  And, evidently, it is the same for this one.  

Actually, I wasn’t hoping for a big official letter response.  With so many new people on City Council, I was hoping for a call – something along the lines of “I'm a new councilman and don’t know much about this issue but would like to get your perspective.”  I must have been dreaming…

So, today, I wrote everyone on City Council and requested a meeting with each, excluding Steve Mandel because it appears his mind is absolutely shut on this issue and no one likes to waste her time.  If the invitees agree to these meetings, it will be very time consuming for me, but when it comes to trying to right a wrong, sometimes one just has to make the time. LET'S NOT FORGET THAT VERY REAL PEOPLE WERE HARMED BY THE CITY ACTIONS.  Perhaps these meetings can be bundled, with more than one City Councilman at a time.  (I believe up to three members of City Council can be in the same room at the same time without triggering an official meeting, but they know these responsibilities better than I.)

My first response was extremely prompt and from Councilman JamesKirsch, whom I just now learned goes by “Jimmy.”  I really appreciated him responding so quickly to the direct request and we’re already scheduled to have a phone conference later this week.   Thank you, Jimmy!

We’ll see about the rest – I look forward to reporting on this endeavor further.  In spite of all, I remain hopeful that the current City Council might actually look at this issue anew. 

A new city manager for a new mayor...

So, Dave Limardi has resigned. The Highland Park Patch reports that his resignation is effective January 1 as stated in his letter to Mayor Nancy Rotering and City Council.  He has held the position for more than 18 years and everyone will acknowledge that he has been a strong manager.  Some might say, too strong, although others might say that certain mayors and city councilmen were just too weak.  His leaving will make many glad (no more "Limardi-goo" as some have called his approach to working with the City) and some will miss him.  He has helped some, ignored and harmed others. We each have our own perspective, all of which is credible.  How we ultimately view his term in HP depends on how much contact we had and what the outcome was.

Praises, genuine and disingenuous, have been and will be heaped on Mr. Limardi.  It is likely that both former Mayor Mike Belsky and Councilman Jim Kirsch's praises are sincere.  They worked closely with Dave for more than a decade and relied on him -- far too much, which is one of the reasons that the Master Neighborhood Storm and Sanitary Sewer program was accepted and, ultimately, repetitively defended, by City Council.   It cost one exceptionally fine councilman -- Mike Brenner -- his re-election, and Terri Olian her election in the recent mayoral race, although even Terri may not recognize this.

Steve Elrod's praises in the Patch?  Dave's been authorizing the checks to Steve and his law firm, Holland & Knight, for a long time, so Steve's praise is likely genuine. Most of us like the people who have ensured our success.

What about Mayor Rotering's praise? “Dave Limardi has served our city very well during his 18 years on the job...His professionalism and thoroughness as well as his creativity have given us a tremendous foundation and continuity.”

Shall we chalk this up to Mayor Rotering's good political behavior? Sensitivity to Mr. Limardi's feelings? Legal concerns? There must be hundreds of us who opened our doors to Nancy when she running for councilman and, later, mayor, who heard her voice her opinion that Mr. Limardi was a big problem in working with the City of HP and had to go.  Shall we now think that Mayor Rotering has lived up to one of her campaign promises, or did Dave Limardi just decide he didn't want to work with her and resigned, or was it just time for him to pursue new opportunities?  Is it important to know the reality?

It only matters if you're interested in seeing Mayor Rotering live up to another one of her earliest promises -- to terminate the Master Neighborhood Storm and Sanitary Sewer Program as we know it. More than two years after becoming a councilman, and several weeks after my letter to her to request reimbursement to residents who paid (it now appears more than) $250,000 (in the aggregate), we've yet to hear Nancy Rotering officially confirm that, as Mayor, she supports the elimination of the program (as designed by Dave Limardi) and will work to effect a reimbursement to the residents who were treated so poorly and inequitably by the City of Highland Park.  As you see, David Limardi's exit is meaningful to 47+ families who paid substantial sums for that ill-conceived program, who complained to him throughout the process, and whose complaints fell on completely deaf ears.  It should be meaningful to the thousands of other residents who will be subject to the sewer program and who are at risk of having to pay $4,000-$20,000.   We still are waiting to learn if Mayor Rotering is listening and responsive. I remain hopeful...

We are judged by many measures.  David Limardi will leave the City of HP in sound fiscal shape, at least based on the recent publication of the City's budget.  This is no small feat and, while the Mayor and City Council sets the budgets, Mr. Limardi has proposed them and carried them out.  In this economy, that's good, if not great.  A well done for that net result, and a hearty pat on the back. Thank you, David Limardi, for that.

However, in my family, we will remember Dave Limardi more for times when he and his staff showed complete disregard for our complaints and concerns.  Regardless of any organizational charts that he would frequently share with commissioners in which he'd show the City Manager reporting up to the residents, David Limardi managed in a way that the residents had to report to him, and he was up on high...

As reported last week, we have to explore the intricacies of sanitary sewer programs once again. Not because most of us are particularly interested in such sewer repair, nor do we have time for it, but because the Mayor, City Councilmen and the City Manager have not been doing their job of looking out for us on the Sewer Program.

So, as we get into the muck once again, let’s see what's new since we met at the Public Works building in 2008...

It shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that Highland Park isn't the only city to have an aging infrastructure. We asked for information about this at the meeting at the Public Works but no one could provide an answer then about comparisons with other communities. According to a report submitted to City Management in JULY 2009 by AECOM:

"many municipalities in Northern Illinois and the rest of the county are reducing inflow and infiltration (I/I) by implementing programs to repair sanitary laterals along with sanitary sewer mains. These programs vary from I/I identification only to full repair programs on private property. Determining factors for implementing a program includes lateral ownership and funding sources."

So let's look at Downer's Grove, today's example of how another community handles the sanitary lateral line infrastructure needs per the AECOM report:

"property owner owns sanitary lateral up to the mainline sewer. The Village targets selective neighborhoods for lateral inspections and repair if necessary. The Village then pays for any lateral repairs…”

Hmmm. Downers Grove Village management knows where to place the financial burden for infrastructure. The City of Highland Park doesn’t. Amazing!

AECOM provided other examples of communities who pay for repairs to laterals or who develop other funding mechanisms for it. Yes, they also point out other communities that require individual residents to pay for sanitary lateral line repairs, but let's just say for now that if you want to move to a community that forces individual residents to pay for repairs, you can move to Austin, Texas.

A couple of other thoughts today…

• The AECOM report was issued to the City in July 2009. Why is the Sewer Program "on hiatus" until an undetermined time in 2011 for budget discussions? There is enough in this report to know that many other communities do NOT require individual residents to pay. How much time does it take for the City Council to say "we'll fix the sewers but without targeting individual residents to pay"? That’s a 15 minute agenda item, especially when so many HP Councilman sought our votes based on their opposition to the Sewer Program. It is is nearly two years later and they have done nothing but put the program on a hiatus!!!
  

o City Council can leave the budget discussions to 2011 to determine how the CITY is going to budget for these improvements, but the Councilmen should go on record now and vote to eliminate the provision requiring individual residents to pay and to reimburse the residents who were previously coerced into paying.

• If the City had the AECOM report in July 2009, why didn't they provide it directly to residents who had complained? Even if they didn't know everyone who attended the SRO only meetings at the Public Works building, they certainly should have provided this info, in a timely way, to the people whom they knew and who were easily accessible and we could shared with others.
  

Finally, this blog allows for comments. The Mayor (who had previously posted a comment prior to this second round on the Sanitary Sewer Program - thank you, Mayor Mike!), Councilmen, and City management are especially encouraged to provide comments and go on record with where you stand. All readers, whether you agree or disagree are encouraged to join in the dialogue.

Withhold Your Support for a New Mayor Until...

Did you know that we’re still down the drain in HP? News to you?

Many of us, especially those in the Ravinia neighborhood, believed that the “Neighborhood Sanitary Sewer Repair Program (‘the Sewer Program’)”was D-E-A-D. Seems we were misinformed, misled. It is very much alive and Mayor Belsky has reinforced that the program has “merit and benefit” to the City. He has indicated that the Sewer program is merely on “hiatus during the economic downturn” and that is will be “discussed in the 2011 budget workshops.” Not dead at all. Alive, kicking and waiting to impolitely knock on your door to demand $5,000-$20,000 of your own savings. If you don’t have any savings, you can either get a loan for it (assuming you are credit worthy in this fine economy) or the City will place an enforceable lien on your property. If you just bought your house in HP, or are just about to sell it, that doesn’t matter (except you better disclose this liability as a seller). That’s the way it is going to be, for sure, if you don’t take action now to stop it.

We now have a unique and strategic opportunity to make things right and conclusively. Mayor Michael Belsky has decided not to run for mayor of HP again. I’m sure we’d all like to thank Mike for his dedication throughout his years of service to this community and some of the extraordinary achievements of the City during his leadership – but this would not include his continued support of the Sewer Program.

With Mayor Belsky’s decision not to run for re-election, we have an opportunity to draw a line in the sand and to tell our mayoral and City Council candidates that we will simply not support or vote for any candidate unless he or she takes a firm and vocal stand against the Sewer Program in its present form that requires individual residents to pay (in any proportion, in whole or in part) for work on their own private property sanitary lines to correct and/or compensate for HP infrastructure problems.

This City must find another way to pay for the infrastructure improvements. The burden simply should not have been placed directly on certain individual residents. From the outset, this was an awful recommendation by the City Manager in complete and total disregard of the impact on the individual residents. It was inexplicably adopted by City Council compounding the error in judgment.

Additionally, you should require your candidate to officially support and deliver reimbursement to the HP residents who have been treated so inequitably by the City and the Program and who have already been coerced to pay sums of approximately $5000-$20,000 during the worst economic environment most can recall.

By the way, if you have ever had your sanitary sewer line rodded, that is considered by the City to be prima facie evidence that you will be liable to pay for “repair” of the line under this Sewer Program (and don’t you think you need to disclose this to any home buyers?). They will knock on your door.

If you haven’t been already, you’ll be contacted soon by candidates to seek support. Don’t give it until you receive a firm commitment to correct this problem and terminate the Sewer Program with regard to individual resident payments. So far, according to the Pioneer Press, the only declared candidates are already in City Council, so require them to take action now. No need to ask for commitments and wait for the election. Seeing is believing. Tell them to put the matter to a vote now. See who votes, how they vote, and what their leadership talents are. Let’s not forget that in the last City Council election certain candidates represented to us that they were opposed the Sewer Program – and you know who they are. What action have they taken? None. Zip. Zero. Remember this for future elections.

Indeed, only former City Councilman Michael Brenner responded diligently, respectfully and with interest to my brother’s complaints to City Hall from the outset. Virtually all of the other City Councilmen ignored my brother’s complaints to City Council about the Sewer Program in 2007 and to date. We don’t even know how many other resident complaints they ignored as well. It was unfortunate that Councilman Brenner lost the last election, especially in light of the fact of the unfounded claims made by other candidates. Still, it is not too late for everyone on City Council to step up and do the right thing now, before the election, to prove their good faith. And we need to encourage them and to keep them focused on getting it done.

Please join me in drawing a line in the sand, No support, no vote for any candidate that does not fix the Sewer Program by terminating the requirement that it be paid for by individual residents. No support, no vote for any candidate that does not immediately call for the reimbursement to HP residents for the considerable sums they paid for work on their own private property to address a City of HP infrastructure problem.

Questions? Comments?

PS Please subscribe to this blog. I don’t have time to write much or often but I will be providing additional information on this issue from time to time. Please stay in touch!

A City of HP eyesore...why does it need federal assistance?

"When one has to go to a U.S. Congressman to seek relief from something going on in one's own backyard, it tells you something is really wrong with our fair town, HP."

This response to my blog and the extraordinary efforts of Adair and Happy Fell says it all.

Our City manager didn't take up the issue in the first place, and now our Mayor assures the neighbors that he'll place a call to Congressman Kirk, or that David Limardi will. I know that Congressman Kirk is always responsive to our local needs, but he has an important job to do at another level. Shouldn't HP be able to handle this on its own? Where is the strength of the City?

Yes, the railroad has certain federal rights but cooperating with the neighbors is nothing new for them. The City worked with the railroad to move the train station south. The City worked with the railroad to improve the station at Braeside. Why now is the City so perplexed about how to take care of this inappropriate,unsightly and potentially dangerous signal tower at the underpass on Cherokee road? The answer rests at the door of the City Manager upon whom the Mayor and the City Council rely so heavily.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so the first of a series of photos of the construction site is included today. (How would you like that mess facing you for the last several months? How disrespectful of the Metra to the neighborhood!) Just imagine, atop this very poorly constructed and unsightly concrete base, a metal signal tower, chain link fence, etc., towering over residential property and beckoning to the children who pass by to conquer it. And our City Manager thinks this can be resolved with a little landscaping...?

BTW, Adair informs me that former councilman Mike Brenner stopped by and will see what he can do to help. Still responsive to and working on behalf of residents -- that's Mike.

For those of you writing letters of support that Adair can send to "the powers that be"...please be sure to note that just south of Lake Cook Road is non-residential property much better suited for a signal tower (assuming a signal tower is really needed).

In case you haven't noticed, there is a voting poll opportunity on this blog. Please take the time to place your vote on this poll, if you're a HP resident. Also, comments are welcome. You can find the link for comments just below the end of this entry.