All to pay for sewer lining when home is sold? Outrageous!!

Again, trying to keep everyone up to date, following is the response received from Steve Mandel to the previous correspondence. Perhaps the most important thing to note is that Councilman Mandel continues to put your savings at the core of repairing City of Highland Park infrastructure.  Highlighted below, you'll see that one of Steve's "solutions" to our complaints is that the residents be forced to pay for sewer lining upon sale of their homes.  Pay now, or pay later.  You'll be paying, and, most likely when you're most vulnerable, needing to sell.  And, imagine the impact on our already depressed real estate market.   Friends, neighbors, you've got to speak up, now!

Please remember that for most of us, there is nothing wrong with our sanitary lateral lines -- our plumbers come out and rod them from time to time to remove tree roots.  They don't suggest replacing, repairing, lining, because they know that no liner will ever withstand a tree root -- and, believe me, your plumber would love to tell you that you need an expensive repair, if you really needed it for your household or if your sanitary line was invading a neighbor's property.  That simply isn't the case and I've discussed this with my plumber.

This is an HP infrastructure problem, a matter of how HP storm sewers function and impact on our property and, yes, interface with the sanitary lateral lines.  Councilman Mandel and the rest of City Council need to focus on managing the HP budget to take care of infrastructure issues and not pawn them off on residents who already pay high taxes specifically for such things. 

And, to anticipate Steve's response that everyone won't have to pay for sewer lining, just the homes with "broken" sanitary sewer lines, just remember, the City's definition of broken is whether the line as ever been invaded by tree roots.  In HP, as a Tree City, almost everyone has had tree roots at one time or another.  Open that checkbook! 

June 23, 2011 

Steve Mandel to Debra Rade

e-mail

Debra,

Again, the work that was done on the sanitary sewer program was with unprecedented subsidies, a low interest loan provided, and the a negotiated price with one contractor offered to everybody through the fine work of our staff. 

While many other residents through out the city have repaired or had to install brand new sewers on their private property over the past 20 years, none of them had the costs reduced and subsidized as we did in this program. We went the extra mile to help you comply with the law. 

The fact that we could change policies and laws in the future does not mean that old policies were bad or I'll conceived, it just means that we might try a different approach and change the policy.

As you know, I had proposed we change our policy in Ravinia and look for other ways to accomplish our goals... That does not mean that people with broken sewers would not be required to fix them. It could mean they are required to fix them upon sale. It could mean more or less participation from the city....  There could be new technology to change outcomes that could facilitate a change in policy.

The bottom line here Debra is that the city council made the decision they did with the communities best interest in mind and it was not a mistake. Policies and laws have changed quite often over the years but I have never recalled us refunding money for private repairs due to policy change. 

Economics have hurt all of us over the past 3 years and the idea to not stress our residents at this point in time was a change in policy that was generated by the change in Economics. I would be very surprised to see any current or future City Council refund public money to you for work on your private property. As a matter of fact it could be illegal and I would think extremely unlikely.

You can share my words with whomever you wish... As a matter of fact I will probably write about this matter in my blog and send it to the 1000 people on my list for their feedback. I don't fault you for your advocacy but I am troubled by the tone of your past rhetoric and claims of some wrong done to you by our city. 

We will continue on refining our policies and laws to fit the time, technology, and our priorities. Our consideration of our residents individually and as a whole will always be foremost on our minds......  

Steve

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.

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!