The huge financial burden unfairly placed on Highland Park's older residents...

This blog isn't just about the Master Plan for Storm and Sanitary Sewers. We're talking about real people here -- the residents of Highland Park, adversely impacted by it.  It's about our neighbors, friends, parents, our greater family.  It is about about doing the right thing, and making changes in Highland Park that are good for everyone -- fair for everyone. It's about achieving equitable solutions for the community.  So, let's look at the 46-50 families targeted by the City as the first victims of the Sewer Program (merely on “hiatus”).  If you're new to this blog, this is an inequitable program that put the economic burden on individual residents to pay for improvements to the City of Highland Park's infrastructure -- while other communities, like Downers Grove and Naperville paid for similar programs from their city's coffers (see the AECOM report).

As you may recall, the City of Highland Park (in response to a FOIA request) provided us with an Invoice List of all the residents who were charged and paid HP for “repairs” to their sanitary lateral line in 2008 (the only year that the City actively implemented the Sewer Program). In trying to contact these people and confirm their addresses, we turned to www.whitepages.com.  This site delivers more information than most of us would like – it provided an age range for each search.  So, some informal demographics were gathered in this process, based on limited available information.

Approximately 50% of the people who have paid to date are or were 60 years of age or older.  Indeed, nearly 25% of them were over 70, and, we're sad to report at least two of them, aged 85+ years of age, have died since, leaving widows. 81% of them are older than 50 years of age.  So, let's just say that the targeted residents are in, or are rapidly approaching, their retirement years.  Everyone really needs the money they were forced to part with...and it remains insensitive for Mayor Belsky to claim that the program was put "on hiatus" because the economy took a bad turn.  Talk to any of the people who paid in 2008 and they will tell you the economy was bad when when they paid -- and nobody at City Hall cared.

It further appears that more than 15% of the people moved since paying the City, with two of them formal foreclosures, perhaps precipitated by being forced to pay the City of HP for “repairs” on their private property that they did not need. 

Several people called to thank me for my efforts, the stories they told painted a sad portrait of residents dealing with an unresponsive City Hall that refused to listen to the residents and demanded payments, claiming that the City Code required them to pay for this.  As reported in this blog previously, one of the residents told me distinctly, “They had my back up against a wall, what could I do, but pay?  But I didn’t think it was right.” 

 

A woman called and said she was a "late-in-life" mother, sending two children to college.  The $5000+ she paid is much needed.

Of course, there is the one individual (and you have to read through all the comments on the linked page to identify him) who believes the program is good, thinks he should have paid, thinks you should pay in the future, but (oh, by the way) wants his money back if the City agrees to reimbursement.  To him, we say, if you like paying for repairs to City infrastructure in the thousands of dollars, as opposed to paying a few dollars a year on your taxes, we should just let you remain happy! 

For the everyone else, the face of HP’s City Hall is that of a bully pushing around senior citizen residents, forcing them to pay for something they don’t need, and with money they do need in their retirement years.  “The Code requires you pay, or we will file an enforceable lien against your property.” What can the average resident do when City Hall is telling them this?

I've news for Ctiy Hall.   “The Code” does not require that residents use proprietary technology.  “The Code” does not require residents to use the contractor you select (and we’ll probably never know how Mr. Limardi’s office selected a single source provider, Performance Pipelining, over every other plumbing company in Highland Park, nor why this very same contractor ceased to do the work...).  Further, “the Code” does not require residents to sign an indemnification to protect the City's contractor or the City for the work done at your direction, or your neighbor for the work done by the City's contractor, and it doesn’t require you to fix a sanitary lateral line that isn’t broken and is functioning.  Of course, if City Hall would care to post on this blog "The Code" that requires this, go right ahead...go on record and try to justify the poor decisions of the past.

These residents were bullied and pushed around by City Hall.  City Hall needs to pays them back now, and if they don’t do it soon, with interest.   And, for those of you who haven’t faced this treatment yet, don't assume it isn't your problem. It’s in your personal interest to ensure that the program is taken off of “hiatus” immediately and put down.  If revived, don’t think they passed you by, just because you weren’t in the first wave.  Every house in HP has its sanitary lateral lines rodded from time to time.  They will be waiving “the Code” at you soon enough…

Councilman Mandel: Sewer Program a "Huge Success"

Haven't heard back from Mayor Rotering yet, although am confident she will reply in due course with her considered response.  I remain hopeful that she will live up to her campaign stances.

Meanwhile, Councilman Mandel responded promptly, on June 22, copied to City Hall and the others on my initial list.  His response is provided in full, without comment. Wishing to avoid you having to read too much in any one sitting, my response to this e-mail will be provided later today.  

In the meantime, please provide your comments directly to the Mayor and your City Council representatives, hopefully sharing your comments with us on the blog.  If necessary, the blog will publish comments anonymously, but only if you provide us with your name and address and we can verify you are a "real resident" here.  There may be some who fear commenting on this issue publicly, especially from the many who do, or wish to do, business with the City.  Nonetheless, their voices should be heard...

E-MAIL FROM COUNCILMAN STEVE MANDEL TO DEBRA RADE, 6/22/2011

"Thank you Debra for representing my position of why I am opposed to funding…NOT! My parents are not the only folks over the years that have been made to pay for public improvements. There have been thousands of residents that helped build the PUBLIC streets that we all drive on.  I do resent your tone on suggesting that my logic is based on a personal matter and find it extremely offensive. You could not be more incorrect. I spent countless hours on this issue working for resolution and you have a lot of nerve writing off my opinion on a personal note….

Now, YOU’RE not even asking for reimbursement of a public improvement that is owned by the City of Highland Park. You are asking for reimbursement of a PRIVATE line that was leaking and causing back up in other people’s homes because of massive water infiltration that was overloading the lines from broken pipes like yours. And many folks in Sherwood forest (many more that 45) spent money on their laterals and private lines due to flooding issues without the city subsidy that you received.

Even though I personally requested we put the program on hold and asked that we look at changing our policy, the policy which caused you to fix your broken sewer line was the opinion of the entire council without one no vote. This decision was based on factual data presented by the staff and was enacted to protect the citizens that had basements that were flooding. The City has also spent millions of dollars of all of our taxpayer money in your and other effected neighborhoods. We instituted a master plan to address these matters across the city and continue to have a robust spending policy to deal with flooding.

Finally the program was not a failure, and quite the contrary a huge success since many that were having water issues are now without flooded basements. Sorry you’re so upset but please do not represent my thoughts for me. If you want to change city policy, run for office and see how well your rant is accepted by the voters.

Steve"

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.