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.

How would you like a new signal tower in your front yard?

Down the Drain in HP was started as blog to address the Master Plan for Storm and Sanitary Sewers and the serious lack of professionalism, consideration and responsiveness from the City Manager and his office, as well as City Council, to residents and their complaints. In a future blog, I will return to the status of the Master Sanitary Sewer Plan, specifically that the City has not taken one step to correct its mistake and to reimburse individual residents for the thousands of dollars they were coerced to pay for that ill-conceived, unnecessary and inequitable plan.

Today, there is another issue of relevance to HP residents, including the Ravinia and Braeside neighborhoods. Here, again, is another instance of residents complaining to the City Manager’s office and being treated with disregard leaving the concerned residents with no choice but to appeal to City Council.

For the last several months, at least since spring, there has been a construction mess at underpass at Cherokee Road, where so many families go to access the Ravinia Festival or Braeside School, or the Green Bay Road Trail. (Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo right now.) Throughout the spring and summer, there has been standing water to the north and south of the sidewalk as a result of some blockage of water flow. (It looks so bad, even my thirsty dog won't try to drink that water.) There is gravel and other construction material strewn about the area. It has been an eyesore and, most likely, a public health issue for months.

Adair and Harold “Happy” Fell and Tina and Rick Fishhaut live closest to this construction and have also complained to the City Manager about the Northwestern/Metra constructing a large tower at this prominent location. It appears their initial complaints fell on deaf ears, as they needed to escalate this to the City Council. Thanks to the Fells and Fishhauts, nine neighbors went to the last City Hall meeting to share their concerns and appeal for the City to oppose this construction. Turns out there will be a concrete base (in place now) with a metal shed, fencing and a signal pole to be placed on the top in the coming weeks. The concrete base is sitting at the sidewalk level adjacent to the underpass. A wire fence will enclose the upper portion. The shed on top of the base will make the overall structure 15’ high (not including the light pole) and 17’ wide. It will not be missed and, most likely, cannot be hidden by landscaping.

As Adair points out, this will be an eyesore and a potential safety hazard for curious children. It will likely have a negative impact on the neighborhood and property values. Shouldn’t the City Manager’s office have been concerned about this construction even without residents complaining? Isn't this what we expect from the City and its professional management?

Yet, it is apparent from the information distributed by these neighbors that their initial complaints to Mr. Limardi were ignored. Why does it take the mobilization of 9 neighbors to stand before City Council before the City Manager’s office does the right thing for our neighborhoods? Adair advises that Mayor Belsky asked for the Corporation Counsel to research ways to deal with the railroad on the issue. Surely this is not the first time the City of HP has had discussions and negotiations with the railroad. Why don't they just make a call first? The Council asked Mr. Limardi to contact a high level railroad official, and make it clear that this issue is relevant to the Council. Couldn’t Mr. Limardi have done this when the Fells first contacted him? Did he have an opportunity to complain about this construction from the outset? It's my understanding that no construction takes place in this city without first notifying Public Works, even for the railroad easments. Clearly this construction spilled over onto HP property.

According to Adair, Mr. Limardi’s response at the City Hall meeting was that he suggested that since the base for the structure was already in place, the best they might hope for is landscaping. Aren't you underwhelmed at Mr. Limardi’s lack of zealous representation of HP? Does he think a few trees might adequately hide a 15' by 17' structure? Is he not concerned about the children passing through this underpass every day? Perhaps Mr. Limardi could do a better job if he were the one living in this construction mess for months, and if it were his property being devalued by a large signal tower in his front yard. It’s really time for the HP residents to step up and say that it is unacceptable to have a City Manager who doesn’t care about your front yard and your property values. When will City Council act to change this situation and ensure that we have a City Manager who cares about and is responsive to residents?

Let’s thank Adair and Happy, and Tina and Rick, for being vigilant about their neighborhood. If you’d like to learn more about this issue and how you can help, you can contact Adair at fell.adair@gmail.com. Let’s look forward to an appropriate resolution of this matter – preferably a signal tower that is placed in an area that will not be an attractive nuisance to children or an eyesore, and perhaps not in HP at all.

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?

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.

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...