A special town hall meeting called by Mayor John Rey revealed an array of facts, challenges, ideas, hopes and fears for the future of DeKalb and NIU. Those who attended the meeting or watched it on Comcast cable channel 14 also saw a commitment to a cooperative town and gown relationship between Douglas Baker, Bill Nicklas and John Rey.
The NIU campus in DeKalb will change.
NIU has experienced four consecutive years of declining enrollment. The university is facing unprecedented turnover in staff due to early retirements in light of the pension crisis in Illinois. Competition for the Millenials — the new generation of college students — is increasing while financial assistance from the state is declining and iffy.
As goes NIU so goes DeKalb. That was a consensus among the town hall meeting attendants. There were more questions than consensus on NIU’s Bold Initiatives and DeKalb’s City Center plans, however. But at this stage of throwing ideas out there that’s to be expected.
To remain a viable institution of higher education NIU must reverse the trend of declining enrollment. The university cannot afford to remain status quo. Doing so would jeopardize its survival.
The NIU contingent was as forthcoming as many have ever seen the university be. Audience members repeatedly talked about a mistrust of the NIU administration from mistakes of the past. Bill Nicklas acknowledged there was justification for those feelings. In his brief tenure the university has replaced its Vice President, Police Chief and several top administrators. Those are BIG changes.
The flow of information from NIU has dramatically improved since Doug Baker took the helm. In the past a media inquiry was often rerouted and response often delayed. It was common to receive limited answers to questions making it a challenge to get the information sought. Brad Hoey and Paul Palian deserve credit here but since Baker came on board answers seem much easier to come by.
Proof of the new NIU? Baker attended a neighborhood meeting and the town hall meeting. NIU admits enrollment is declining.
There were some great exchanges at the town hall meeting during the Q&A sessions. Marie Humes (DeKalb) asked the $64 (million?) question: Who Is Going To Pay for the City Improvements needed for the NIU Bold Ideas initiative? A question of how much would be premature but the answer to who is paying for what is really the point of these discussions.
The idea floated for the core and spine of campus makes sense. It turns a weakness (parking, inconvenience) into a strength (walkability, shuttle trams) by collecting the college community within pedestrian distance of Lucinda. Transforming Lucinda into a pedestrian friendly multi-modal Campus Main Street would have marketing appeal to the student-resident NIU and DeKalb covets. The Millennials like an urban setting and prefer walking or riding a bike over the traffic congestion of the Big City. Offering a tram service from the center of campus to the Convocation Center would be a boon to attendance at events.
The eyebrows began rising when the discussion turned to the eastern part of NIU’s plans where the DeKalb City Center Plan takes shape. Where the tram buses turn east to downtown.
A reconfiguration of streets could bring the NIU spine and its tram buses to the Frank Van Buer Multipurpose Parking Lot. The student homes on the west side of John Street and some on College Avenue could be removed and replaced by mixed-use residential/commercial that accentuates the assets of the Kishwaukee River.
Those who doubt the marketing magneticism the Kish has over NIU-type folks need a history lesson on how NIU came to DeKalb. Back in time when DeKalb was competing with other northern Illinois communities including Rockford and Ottawa (politically connected cities with the natural amenities of a major river) much of the town did without water and the river dammed so when the site selectors crossed the bridge to Joseph Glidden’s 72 acres upon which the original campus was later built they would see a river that was bigger and more powerful than it really is.
President Baker has put together a team to identify funding sources (public and private donors) but it’s way too early to drill down to specifics or probabilities. Grants are not automatic and a consequence of a poor economy is heightened competition for available funds.
In another exchange Rich Rice (DeKalb) warned of consequences of the marketing trend towards building a “communiversity” designed to keep students in DeKalb. His posit was NIU was a “commuterversity” so the convenient location that enabled frequent trips home to friends, families and higher paying jobs was the more sensible and effective marketing strategy.
Glen Roby (DeKalb) noted that an item promoted in NIU’s presentation called for affordable residential development on the old “North Forty” ideally priced and suited for staff. He reminded those in attendance that those were the goals of University Village when built.
DeKalb will change, too.
Whether the City of DeKalb likes or agrees with what NIU does with its campus and its vision it must provide its public services to the students, staff and retirees living here.
For his part Mayor Rey offered that the Central TIF District extension has six years remaining and the city has access to Community Development Block Grant funds. He talked of his vision of building a communiversity and a cooperative spirit between town and gown.
But he, too, had to acknowledge that there was a feeling of mistrust in the community.
Here’s a reflection of some of that mistrust, sent in a Contact Us form:
From: A Reader (name redacted)
Subject: City Center planMessage Body:
Hey Mac,
The city ordinance that 13-45 (City Center Plan) had no public comment period. The first reading happened June 24 by an omnibus vote – no discussion. The second reading and vote happened on July 8 no discussion. I don’t think the city council read any of it. Rey pushed it through on the QT. I still stand by my statement that this is an old fashion land grab by the two most influential banks in our town.—
This mail is sent via contact form on DeKalb County Online
Editor’s note: I think the city council members have much more knowledge and understanding of the DeKalb City Center plan than they are willing to discuss in public session. Omnibus votes on the consent agenda does not mean the topic has not been discussed. DeKalb is very transparent in flaunting their way around the intent and spirit of the Open Meetings Act.
At a recent city council meeting City Manager Anne Marie Gaura told the council the fiscal 2015 $35.2 million general fund is covering $4 million costs in other fund accounts. The city faces a general fund deficit expected to reach about $600,000 for FY2015.
Those fund accounts include the public safety building, fleet and equipment replacement, retiree health insurance, deferred compensation contributions, along with airport and general fund debt obligations.
The $600,000 deficit is about equal to the balloon payment due for debt incurred to build hangars at the airport. Part of the airport is located in the City’s Central Area Tax Increment Finance (TIF) District, which may be able to provide financing for site improvements and infrastructure for public and private development. But there is not an earmark to make the balloon payment with available TIF dollars. That earmark would compete with those of the DeKalb City Center Plan.
The city council increased Home Rule sales tax on gasoline in July 2011 earmarking that revenue to the public safety building debt. A subsequent administrative tow ordinance was passed and funds collected from fines were used to cover non-budgeted expenses and some fleet replacement.
Gaura cited the public (with redactions) EPI study, which recommends a property tax increase to fund the city’s debt related to buildings and other assets, such as the police department. She also warns that the practice of using $571,000 from the general fund to cover the pension and FICA obligation shortfall for FY2015 is unsustainable.
Assessed property values in DeKalb for the current tax year are $485 million or about 9 percent lower than last tax year. To maintain status quo taxpayers must pay the same amount even though their real property net worth and borrowing power were reduced. To take on more pension/FICA or property tax funded capital debt mean taxpayers must pay even more with less.
Gaura has proven in rather short order that she is not a member of the status quo. Upon her review of and recommendations for the always troublesome City Manager Fund Account Lisa Pisarcik signed a voluntary separation agreement and resigned as finance director. She steered non-budgeted spending back on a public course. She eliminated three building inspector positions, suddenly, by placing them on paid administrative leave quickly replacing them with paid contractors while the council considers outsourcing as an option. She wants to bring in her own economic development director in house as opposed to outsourcing.
But the DeKalb City Center Plan is for the future which is rapidly unfolding in a new direction for NIU, the county’s largest employer and a huge local economic contributor. That’s the stuff that makes any comprehensive plan in DeKalb County obsolete and that’s scary to residents and irrelevant to speculative investors.
It is the use of TIF for publicly financed investment in DeKalb that has city council members discussing building a new city hall and focusing even more public investment on the other downtown traffic generators — the library and the Egyptian Theatre — while replacing the maintenance deferred properties of John Street and surrounds with a curvilinear connection to the new Campus Main Street on Lucinda.
TIF does strange things to the way some people think. It can lead to deliberately blighting a neighborhood, as is the case on the south side of Lincoln Highway in the Pearl Street area, to make a project more TIF’able. Because it’s an ad valor-em tax on the property values within the district it can capture referendum debt obligation funds created by District 428 to build new schools instead as an increment for use in the TIF district and for unencumbered revenue sharing.
It is through TIF combined with the City Manager’s Account Fund that an outside TIF attorney is hired without public approval for the expense to recommend exciting new ideas for how the council can spend it. Been there. Done that.
TIF money is not included in the city’s general fund. Not only does that make it easier to spend it makes selling debt bonds more reasonable. Within the soft costs of TIF are hundreds of thousands of dollars for expert consultants. Among recent experts is GovTemps USA, a temp service that specializes in local government staffing, to provide financial assistance. News to aldermen from them was that $8.4 million in TIF money could be available for use in the district instead of the $5.5 million they thought they had to use for city hall renovation.
But before aldermen rush to decisions about city hall staff recommended spending about $40,000 on a study comparing renovation costs with new construction, and another $60,000 to complete a study that would lay out how much space would be needed in a new facility. The studies would of course be funded using TIF funds.
Rey has appointed Rudy Espiritu, DeKalb’s assistant city manager; Rachel Xidis, Ellwood House Association board of directors; Mark Smirz, president of the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce; Tim Lehan, Lehan Drugs and Medical Supplies; Michael Cullen, National Bank & Trust Company; Frank Roberts, Castle Bank; Jerry Blakemore, NIU legal counsel; Jennifer Groce, NIU Center for Governmental Studies; Bill Nicklas, NIU Community Affairs; and Sandra Polanco, NIU Affirmative Action, to the steering committee of the DeKalb City Center Plan. He recently added Clark Neher, DeKalb Public Library board president.
While the quality and contributions of the individuals on this committee is impressive it simply is not inclusive enough to dispel those lingering notions of mistrust acknowledged by Dr. Baker and Mayor Rey.
With the changes NIU faces it would probably bode well for every local unit of government in DeKalb County to revisit their comprehensive plan. Perhaps then all could share in the costs and benefits such a change will bring. But don’t do it behind closed curtains and limit participation to “stakeholders.”
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6 Comments


Hold on to your wallets, here comes the corporate welfare machine again!
“All over America cities are facing the reality of bankruptcy brought on by the mistaken belief the people and their property could be taxed without limit. The new reality every municipality must face is the fact that the Declaration of Independence had it right – that taxation required informed consent.” – Ed Rivera
NIU and the City of Dekalb have zero control over the macroeconomic factors driving the decline in student enrollment and retention. Not yet anyway …
publicbankinginstitute.org
@Ivan Krpan – Fear not Ivan, our children and grandchildren will be smarter than their parents could ever hope to be.

Trust them–have they offered you the kool aid yet?
Baker and pals are only out for themselves. The “visits” to the neighborhood were made only after he finally realized the homeowners in the surrounding neighborhoods wouldn’t just roll over and play dead as Baker expected. And, in his own opinion, what Baker wants, Baker should have.
What the new “leaders” of NIU have done has not improved the university. They are flaunting state rules every time they turn around and the state will take notice. The backgrounds of some of the consultants-excuse me, “temporary employees”-that were hired without full employment background checks further demonstrates Baker’s poor leadership. He is lavishly spending tax payers’ money to “pretty up” the campus without any proof that it will help enrollment and retention. But, he has succeeded in one area-he has totally succeeded in creating an atmosphere of fear and mistrust within the university.

There appears to be a lot of people only out for themselves in these times we’re living in. Far too many complain of injustice only when and not until their ox is gored.
Before this economy can turn around status quo has got to go. I am inspired by the accounts of Baker’s unpopularity among some circles on campus because change is seldom readily accepted.
The book of the Baker Era at NIU hasn’t been written but people allegedly smarter than I am think he’s right man for the job needed.
Change is needed. Change is happening and every ox at NIU and in DeKalb better pay attention. Those with better ideas need to speak up.

First, I am not in “one of the circles” at NIU. I am not, nor ever have been an NIU employee. However, I do know many staff and students at NIU and I listen to learn. Many of these have been fighting for intelligent change for a long time, but these are the ones most hurt by Baker’s inept “leadership”.
Intelligent change is good. Change, just for change’s sake, can be detrimental. In general, the campus is good, the staff is good, and the faculty is good (some highly ranked). The problem is student quality. Although there are many good students at NIU (and I do have one of my degrees from NIU, which I entered with a test score in the top 1%), there are too many that are not prepared or qualified. Recruitment is key. But improving recruitment does not give the flashy/pound on my chest/look at me recognition that Baker seeks.
Now, if you need change, maybe the state laws that Baker has violated or circumvented should be changed. Until then, IMO, he is no better than any other law breaker.

I have no idea who you are but with a top 1% test score I’ll accept your pseudonym as a matter of fact. There’s a name tag on my whistle and I blow it about as loud as anyone if I believe it to be necessary. Perhaps you would provide specific instances where the law was violated and I will certainly report it to the proper authorities. Madigan’s and Shapiro’s offices are easy to contact but they want facts and just the facts. And, from experience, I’ll caution that here, in Illinois, the law is quite often interpreted or should I say custom fitted to the desires of the client who pays the most for their attorney.
I’d change that if I could.
Change is taking place whether we like it or not. Whether or not we adapt wisely is precisely the need for the discussions taking place. That is made more difficult when there are those who can contribute unwilling or unable to participate.
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Ivan Krpan, in a word or two, my guess is…Developer Partnerships.