Macon County Shared Vision

Water Supply Issues: A Letter from former Mayor Howley

[This was written by former Mayor Howley to the City Council.]

Tonight's the Decatur City Council will begin an important study session which promises to attain a long-range solution to Decatur's water supply issue. The following facts are pertinent to the Council’s decision-making process and hopefully will be considered:

• Water supply has been at the top of this city's priority list since the lake was built in 1920 due to the concentration of large industrial users in the city,
• There have been dozens of studies completed since the 1940's about increasing the capacity of our lake,
• There have been dozens of studies completed since the 1940's about decreasing the amount of silt entering into Lake Decatur from the Sangamon River watershed,
• Most of these studies, paid for with taxpayer dollars, are sitting on shelves in the Public Works library and have never been fully implemented,
• Decatur makes enough water daily for a city of approx 300,000 population (approximately 38 million gallons per day “MGPD”),
• Our water supply currently is replenished from the Sangamon River, Big Creek, and Sand Creek and other small streams that feed into our lake. In total over 960 square miles provide water to Lake Decatur,
• Normal daily inflow from the Sangamon River averages 225 MGPD, at present that is down to about 5 MGPD (according to Jon Smith of the City),
• The Decatur Sanitary District processes approximately 30-32 MGPD of waste water through their system every day of the year,
• After processing this treated discharge daily, the sanitary district of Decatur discharges a similar amount down the Sangamon River.

Perhaps one of the most important and least discussed alternatives is:

Can this processed water from the city be recycled back to ADM, SWTP or the Lake on a daily basis rather than discharged downstream?

Is this not one of the most logical steps towards preserving this precious water resource so vital to our community? The city and county have sponsored a re-cycling program for several years dealing with newspaper, aluminum, plastic and glass containers. Yet we have not exhausted the possibility of recycling our water. We have all heard that the water supply is not the problem in Macon County. It is the management of those resources that is in question. There is plenty of water here. Our challenge is not to store more water but to ask that it be managed correctly by those entities who make and treat it on a daily basis.

Water Supply Issues; A Letter to the Mayor

Dear Mayor Osborne and Council Members,

Macon County Shared Vision tries to promote an informed and constructive dialogue about pro-growth policies in our community. Maintaining adequate water supplies for citizens is a primary responsibility of city government. We all must accept our collective responsibility for a robust water supply. The Decatur City Council’s consideration of options for meeting the water needs of our community may lead to the most important decisions over three to four decades.

Simply the intent of this correspondence is to encourage you

• be open with the citizens of Decatur,
• consider adverse consequences of funding options,
• examine all options for water supplies,
• exhaust all funding alternatives, and,
• carefully monitor all cost estimates.

School After School - Policies Make a Difference

A series of important news stories have highlighted that policies and leadership can have a big impact in local government and in particular in Decatur's public schools. A vigorous discussion of policies that work and don't work can enable our community to support efforts that will make a genuine difference to Decatur and its competitive appeal to families and businesses that may want to be located here.

From today's Herald & Review -

"Shortly, students will be back to kick off the first day of what Decatur Superintendent Gloria Davis has dubbed "school after school," tutoring, a meal and recreation for students in Thomas Jefferson and Stephen Decatur middle schools and Eisenhower and MacArthur high schools. The program is paid for by a federal 21st Century grant."

In another article today -

"The Decatur School Board on Tuesday approved the district's continued participation in the Midstate Students Support for Teaching partnership agreement sponsored by the University of Illinois at Springfield. The program is a "grow your own" effort to encourage and assist students in Decatur schools who are interested in becoming teachers.

Under the agreement, said Priscilla Palmer, director of human resources, high school students with grade point averages of at least 2.75 on a 4-point scale who have good attendance, good character and two letters of reference will receive $2,000 per semester to attend first Richland Community College and then the University of Illinois at Springfield. Those students ideally will perform their student teaching in Decatur schools, and if they pass with an A or a B and a position is open, will be hired to work in Decatur schools."

Both of these articles demonstrate important new initiatives that will likely have a demonstrative and favorable impact on educational achievement in our schools. It is important that these ideas have been tested and proved in locales throughout the US and if carried out effectively, they will have an impact here along with may others that Superintendent Gloria Davis is implementing.

Update on Hotel - Analysis

The Council found its way to a better (not best) outcome. In general, we are not critical of the current arrangement that the city is working on with Mr. Horve. In a more perfect world, we would always prefer giving more genuine consideration to both lease/management alternatives (Ritchfield & Horve), but there was no political consensus for keeping Ritchfield as an alternative.

As described in the news article linked below, the City has decided to focus on entering a lease/management contract with Mr. Steve Horve to operate the hotel for a period of time. This will provide Mr. Horve the best opportunity to determine if he will buy and operate the hotel. As the Council has come to understand, the hotel must be sold or leased in this kind of arrangement due to liquor license restrictions on the city's control of the hotel.

The pending lease/management agreement with Mr. Horve is not a purchase. It is better described as a master lease with elements of a hotel management agreement. Horve may purchase it in the future, and this arrangement may provide the best way to encourage him to do that.

A significant change was the removal of Horve’s option and right of first refusal. Mr. Horve volunteered that. The removal of this provision and issue significantly changes the character of the deal and gives taxpayers a chance to participate in the possible upside. Some will complain about Mr. Horve's 50% profit share of the gain on sale. Such an incentive creates a meaningful reward for Mr. Horve to improve financial performance and promote the sale of the hotel.  This is good for the city. We should not overlook the significant risk associated with this hotel, for the City, Mr. Horve and any possible purchaser. These incentives help the city reduce those risks. (Mr. Horve said it would take $2 to $7 million for rehab of the hotel and to get a national franchise agreement – not $500,000.)

For the Herald & Review article << click here.

Can Incentive Pay Close the Acheivement Gap - ABC News

MCSV has advocated policy discussions that might have broad sweeping favorable effects on the challenges and opportunities in Decatur & Macon County. Adoption of effective education policies can lead to substantial better education success for kids in Decatur Schools. Superintendent Gloria Davis has effectively pursued many effective and broad sweeping policies. This is also an area of opportunity for the City of Decatur to play a strong partner role in assisting public education in Decatur. (So far the city has not figued out any way to help.)

Tonight (9/30/2007) on ABC news, financial incentives were showcased as a tool to reward teachers for educational achievements (ABC's written summary is below). To watch the video news cast click here. We have previously written about cities experimenting with incentives. We believe that this concept should be tried in Decatur. We achnowledge that many teachers are not primarily motivated by pay, but we believe that incentives would have a favorable effect on focus and retaining good teachers. Also see our previous posts:

• Do Teacher Incentives Work - Redux?
• Will Teacher Incentives Make a Difference?
• Teacher Pay for Performance
• Teacher Incentives Can Work

Here is an excerpt from the ABC article:

In Chicago, once described as having the worst public schools in the nation, they are trying something new. Veronica Griffin, who colleagues consider to be an exceptional teacher, was going to leave her job in a struggling inner city school for a higher-paying one. To keep her, the city of Chicago did something a business might do: They offered her a $15,000 bonus. It may be common sense in other businesses: If someone's performing well, pay them a little extra. But it's a radical shift in America's public schools. For decades, teachers have been paid solely by seniority and by how much higher education they've accumulated.

Chicago Tribune Editorial - NCLB

In yesterday's Chicago Tribune, Gerald J. Roper, President and CEO | Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, wrote an editorial in favor of NCLB ("No Child Left Behind"). We thought it was an important opinion that deserves to be heard. We encourage everyone to get involved in supporting the success of Decatur Public Schools as (a reason we need more algebra):

DPS 61 Success = Decatur's Success

Decatur's Sucess = DPS 61 Success

All hands need to be on deck as the Chicago Chamber of Commerce understands.

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By: Gerald J. Roper, President and CEO | Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce 9/20/2007

As children head back to classrooms this fall, the business community stands to gain by helping to nurture education reform. Establishing and maintaining quality education programs for all of our youth is critical to ensuring that Illinois has a trained, qualified workforce that can help our companies and our economy grow.

The No Child Left Behind Act is working to raise academic expectations for all students. The law has spurred schools across the country to focus on the qualifications and training of teachers, to use data to drive instruction and to emphasize results. Testing students to prove their proficiency and making those results public brings needed accountability to America's classrooms.

Hotel Purchase - Time to Revisit the Decision & Process

In mid-August, the city manager proposed, and the Mayor and three Council members agreed (Laegeler, McElroy & Stockard), to have the Decatur buy the former Holiday Inn Hotel for $6.5 million. The transaction was negotiated by the city manager and agreed to by the "four-block" (affectionately referred to) prior to the long-planned auction that had been advertised nationally. The city believed that there would be no "appropriate" buyers at the auction. According to the Herald & Review:

Mayor Paul Osborne conceded the plan "sounds crazy at first." But he quickly added that the hotel and conference center is "critical" to the success of the community.

What We Think - We Agree it is "Crazy"

1. While many of us feel that the hotel is an important amenity for our community, the city should not be in the hotel ownership business.
2. Council members should not make decisions that are "gambles" or not using better judgment.
3. It is not the role of government, nor is the city competent to operate a struggling business in a very difficult and complex industry.
4. The purchase and decision was unnecessarily rushed and unknown throughout the community.
5. Adequate due diligence was not done. Serious economic issues were not addressed.
6. There were a number of viable alternatives for the city to support the continued operation of the hotel that were either ignored or pre-empted by the rush to enter into this transaction. These unknowns include whether or not other buyers would have presented themselves at the auction to make a legitimate offer to buy.
7. The City would better meet the needs of the community by promptly placing this property in private hands either by selling it out-right or organizing a public-private partnership to operate the hotel with private capital and limited taxpayer risk and resources.

The purchase has been highly controversial in the community and within the Council.

The Council was split 3 to 3 with the Mayor voting in favor of buying the hotel. The three opposing votes were strongly opposed. One Council member voting in favor said he "felt it was a gamble" and another voted in favor "against his better judgment" all said publicly during the meeting that votes were cast. The possible purchase was announced to the community two days before the vote and only a portion of the community knew about it when the Council voted. The Chamber of Commerce president supported the decision even though we have heard from numerous members of the the Chamber that they opposed the decision.

See Our Talking Points at right >> or click here.

Hotels - Another Point of View

The following letter to the editor was on the Herald & Review's Blog and deserves attention. It was written by Terry Howley and asks our community to confront our priorities. For the post on the Herald & Review website - click here.

We would want to remind our readers that ill-conceived city decisions contribute to the high tax burden in the Decatur community.

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A recent guest editorial described the City of Decatur's hotel purchase as "a centerpiece for future economic development and provides a large amount of revenue for local taxing bodies".  While this hotel is “nice to have” for Decatur, a fair minded person comes to a different answer. There are several key facts:

·         Tax revenues from this property are only 20 percent more than the interest only cost to the city.

·         Needed hotel renovations, will likely cost taxpayers several million over the next few years.

·         Thirty percent occupancy rates show the limited demand for this hotel (successful hotels operate at 60% or higher).

·         Total “room-nights” from both Farm Progress Show and State Republican Convention only represent 2% of annual possible room-night sales for this hotel.

·         There is, and has been, little development interest in adjacent land.

·         The City does not emphasize job preservation in city supported commercial ventures.

The City did not try to purchase K's, Intermet and other Decatur businesses. Would the Council buy other struggling businesses with employee residents? In fact, recent City financed developments did not require job increases or retention.

On the day after this purchase, newspaper headlines announced two new hotels in Forsyth. To investors, are these new hotels more viable due to traffic, shopping, restaurants and entertainment? The lack of interest from savvy investors is a red flag.

A city official stated that the storm sewers need rebuilding, while others call for a new lake, dredging and police space needs. Our community needs to set better priorities. The city manager also said: “… this isn't just about the money…”  When using taxpayers funds to compete with Decatur businesses, it is only about the money. Taxpayers buying this hotel, simply doesn’t make sense.

Uh OH They are BAAACCKKK! ChangeDecatur

Today our friends at ChangeDecatur announced that they are initiating a  petition drive to give voters a chance to vote on changing the form of City of Decatur government. While many of us work on both projects, these are seperate groups with seperate people. We do wish them success and hope that those with a Shared Vision of a better Decatur, seriously consider the benefits of a more representative city council and a strong mayor.

There are many important issues to consider, but simply put, is our current system working to meet the goals, hopes and needs of our community? If not, perhaps we should change the form of government. Go check out their website and ideas. Lets us know what you think. The idea of "Better City Government - Of the People, By the People and For the People" has a catchy ring.

Also, their press release can be found here << click on link.

Well Said; Bricks & Mortar? or Feet on the Street

We want to tip the hat to the Herald & Review for another well said editorial that should be fully weighted in our community. The key elements called for a more reasoned process to address police space needs, after, first developing a vision and consensus around the crime issues in our community, the force needs of the police department and only then the space needs.

Some key comments from the article (<< click here for link to entire article):

"The Decatur City Council is struggling to come up with a solution for the space what it wants the police department to look like in the future.....

......It's a fact that the situation in the police department isn't desirable. The department needs more room and a more convenient evidence storage area........

.........While the desires of the police department need to be taken into consideration, the council's job is to balance those desires with what's best for the taxpayers. It's also hard to logically understand why the department would favor a remodeled 95-year-old building over a new structure that could be built to the city's specifications and include new communications wiring and new heating and cooling equipment.......

.....The council is struggling with this decision for several reasons, but primarily because no clear vision for the future of public safety in Decatur has been articulated.......

.....Many residents of Decatur feel there is a public safety issue in Decatur. Outside of the city, the city has a reputation as a high-crime area. That makes it difficult to get new residents inside the city. The perception isn't totally accurate, but it's an issue......"

We beleive that it is time to set aside the Regions building due to obvious problems and go back to the drawing board. This great building deserves the city's affection but not the police department. We instead should look for creative ways to assist in the redevelopment and increased occupancy of the building (no Mr. G that doesn't mean the city should buy another building over the weekend.)

The police should carefully reconsider their space needs and approach this like many businesses have approached space needs for the last several decades. Determine the genuine needs and then evaluate the alternatives that best and most efficiently meet the needs. See our prior posts on this topic.

We are disappointed that a professional city manager would have so little ability to guide this process effectively. Well established best practices could have identified and quantified the challenges in the current space. Then alternatives could be presented and evaluated. The deficient approach used repeatedly by the Council leads directly to disdain and bad/expensive decisions.

This city government insists in putting square pegs in round holes. We wonder why. Tell us if your know. In the meantime, we think more would be gained from more feet on the street and not bricks and mortar.