DeKalb has placed its building supervisor and two inspectors on paid administrative leave. At least that’s what the Daily Chronicle was told.
City leaders continue their long standing tradition of insisting of only answering just the right question.
Response to FOIA request filed May 1, 2014:
The above is a screen shot image of the FOIA response. The City chooses to use an image as opposed to text format. An image can’t be searched for words and phrases or to be indexed by search engines making research more difficult. The rest of their FOIA response included 68 pages of image-converted agendas. Repeated in every meeting agenda:
So my guess is the administration, mayor and city council have been talking about outsourcing the department in closed session. That’s really, really, really stretching the 5 ILCS 140/7(p) exemption in the Illinois Open Meetings Act. But, this is Illinois and any good attorney in this state will tell any deep pocketed client when asked what the law says, “What do you want the law to say?”
Collectively, DeKalb taxpayers have deep pockets. Median income? Not so much.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, if a DeKalb resident or a contractor doing business in the Barb City needs a permit, they are told they must wait, maybe a week, to get a permit or an inspection. That delay will be hard to take knowing the building inspectors are on paid leave while City leaders hash out whether or not to outsource the service.
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7 Comments
Maybe that’s why student enrollment has declined. Why study hard to be a doctor or lawyer when you can be ‘Code Enforcement Officer’ and make 100k per year with near two months vacation. Sheesh. Hats off to city council for taking a step in the right direction on this issue. Thank you.
Actually my understanding has always been that a state licensed plumber really doesn’t need to be inspected. If he screws up he is apt to lose his state license which takes a lot of time and work to get.
Way to screw local contractors.
City Codes, Statutes, Police, limited to City owned land.
wn 1 of 2 carwashes in DeKalb. With the rejection of tif money on 4th st. That killed my business. Taxes I can’t afford. Another business filing for bankruptcy main reason because dekalb does not care about 4th Street. They only care about NIU and that area. We need help on 4th Streetyou need thanks that will help the local businesses.
Typical bullshit from city hall. They, city hall, require permits for various items of repair such as a water heater for example. What does a person do without a water heater for a week while while “city hall” has their pants at their ankles while playing with themselves?
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It would be interesting to know the total dollar amount it would cost to fix the problems identified by the departing Code Enforcement people. Basically, would it be more cost-effective to just send people out to fix the problems rather than pay hundreds of thousands per year on inspections with nothing in return. Helping hand versus heavy hand approach.