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...

"They had my back up against a wall..."

It's been a busy summer in Highland Park.  Between work and the week without electricity (spread between three outages in June and July), there has been precious little time to keep up with the blog.  Still, the community outreach continues.

Last week we wrote to the first series of residents coerced into paying for the unnecessary "repairs" to their lateral sanitary sewer line. This week we began to hear from them.  To a person, each one has said that they paid for these "repairs" because they were forced to do so by the City.  Some even used the word “threatened.” No one knew the reason for why the repairs were required - all had asked the City.  Some people specifically referred to poor treatment received from David Limardi's office and Mary Anderson, director of Public Works. Some highlights of what some said:

“Your note reminded me that I had explicitly asked for information on what was the nature of the defect, why the video results necessitated the work done, etc., etc. I was pretty much ignored and upon threats of greater charges I selected the payment option.”

“Hopefully the new Mayor will be more responsive.”

“What could I do?  They had my back up against the wall.  I was selling the house and they were demanding payment. I had to pay.”

“Ravinia wasn’t the only neighborhood that protested.  We protested in the Highlands.  We had meetings in our homes…we even had a lawyer who joined us.  And we met with the City. No matter what we said, they didn’t listen!”

“Over the past three years, I’ve called the City to find out the status of this program.  They tell me it is on vacation because the economy is bad.  Well, the economy was bad three years ago to, but they made me pay.  Why should I pay when no one else has to?”

Really.  Quite a sad story.  Welcome to Highland Park.  The place where City Manager David Limardi ignores your questions and complaints and, worse, yet, threatens you with liens and higher payments for the same service. 

And, one more thing.  We were quite shocked to learn that there was a group of residents in the Highlands who protested the Sewer Program before Ravinia did. Hadn't heard this before.  Also, as readers may recall, we requested documents from the City of Highland Park pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act demand concerning any correspondence from the residents about the Sewer Program.  Did the City improperly withhold information?  We’ll have to explore that question together.

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