Townhall Monday Roundup – Premiere Edition

I’m starting a new column here on DeKalb County Online. It’s called Townhall Monday Roundup. Local government sans rose-colored glasses.

The DeKalb County Board perhaps smarting but still in denial of their pitiful grade on transparency is contemplating televising their meetings. That would be a good thing. The few who pay attention to what the board is up to would be better enabled to get the word out when others probably ought to be aware of the goings on. But how would the County broadcast their meetings?

They could upload recorded videos to their website, even stream the meetings live, but that would require a sizable investment that would have to grow along with accessibility and usage volume. A less expensive alternative would be to seek intergovernmental cooperation with the City of DeKalb to live broadcast the County Board meetings on their cable access channel. That way the majority of the county’s population could watch the meetings on cable TV reducing the bandwidth required for web based broadcasting.

To get some of the local watchdogs paying attention to someone other than them the DeKalb city council might welcome county board meetings, school board meetings, library meetings, etc., etc., etc. If the schedule got too full the council would probably step right up and offer to cut their meetings from the line-up.

Speaking of televised meetings, Tom Teresinski and Brendon Gallagher both shocked me on the police station debt bond vote. I was all set to write a glowing review for the council, led by those two aldermen, for holding the appointed staff’s feet to the fire on the $12 million cap for bond debt for financing the police station. The council rather meticulously decided on the cap based on an amount that would put the least strain on the operating budget (for repayment) but would still get the project done.

The appointed staff tried to up the $12 million to address some other issues like the intersection at Rt 38 and Peace Road and some renovations at two of DeKalb’s fire houses plus some soft costs, of course. The council rejected those recommendations telling staff to stay within the $12 million cap. So staff came back with another attempt to raise the limit this time sans the intersection work.

Staff had Liz Hennessey from William Blair explain the particulars. At a certain point in her presentation I was able to predict her words before they came out of her mouth. That’s because Liz darn near said the same thing to the school board and the public during workshops pre-referendum approval of the $110 million debt bonds for school construction. “Just because you approve the authorization of the sale of [$12.7/$110 million] in bonds doesn’t mean you have to spend [$12.7/$110 million]. Remember you are approving up to [$12.7/$110 million].”

I thought Teresinski and Gallagher remembered that from the school referendum issue. They both made it plain they knew what staff was up to in their comments prior to voting. But Gallagher moved and Teresinski seconded a motion to approve Option 2 of staff’s recommendation for exceeding the $12 million debt and everyone but Dave Jacobson voted yes.

I’ll make this bold prediction: The $12.7 million approved will be spent and then some. Futile words of advice: If you are going to employ Guaranteed Maximum Price for construction method the owner sets the price, not the contractor. And set the price early otherwise you’re missing the point and value of Guaranteed Maximum Pricing.

Robert Albanese, a former NIU administrator who resigned in July over separate misconduct allegations, was paid $45,000 to depart. (Northern Illinois University photo / March 9, 2006)

Heard any NIU rumors over a cup of coffee lately? If so… who paid for the coffee? Now we know Northern Illinois University officials have closed a “secret” bank account reported to have channeled thousands of dollars to university employees. The alleged non-NIU account contained about $2,100 when closed which was then deposited into NIU’s general fund. University officials say four employees have been placed on paid leave for a month.

Although alleged to be unrelated two former top Northern Illinois University administrators were handed a total of nearly $80,000 of taxpayer funds and were under an independent misconduct investigation by a contracted Sycamore law firm when they resigned for reported personal reasons. Robert Albanese, former associate vice president of the Division of Finance, Facilities and Operations, and John Gordon, former director of the Convocation Center were on paid leave status from the time they submitted signed letters of resignation July 19 and July 20, respectively until July 31.

An employee of DeKalb Iron and Metal Company alerted the Daily Chronicle to details of The Coffee Fund. An NIU employee blew the whistle to the Chicago Tribune about a custodian at the Convocation Center cleaning Gordon’s house at least four times in the last year. He allegedly had NIU property, including a snowblower and a vacuum cleaner, at his home as well.

John Gordon, a former NIU administrator, got about $33,000 and six months of health insurance coverage as part of his resignation agreement. (Northern Illinois University photo / April 15, 2006)

According to agreements, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the Daily Chronicle, the university agreed to stop the administrative process of “prospective dismissal from service for cause” against Albanese and Gordon “for reasons directly associated with serious and substantial allegations of misconduct.”

All parties agreed to remain silent regarding the matter involving public funds and public trust. (Remind anyone of Steve Kapitan’s deal with the City of DeKalb?)

Hopefully a real independent investigation by either Clay Campbell, DeKalb County States Attorney and/or the Illinois State Police is truly ongoing. So far the newstips offered by mostly former NIU employees or vendors appear more accurate than answers provided by NIU. Public funds. Public trust. No contracted silence.

Rumor has it a Facebook page is forming by students and alumni of NIU calling for a full investigation and perhaps even the firing of Dr. John Peters and Dr. Eddie Williams. Twenty years the Coffee Fund has been going on under the noses of the administration. I’d be angry, too, considering the price of enrollment.

A huge tip-of-the-hat to Clay Campbell and his team at the DeKalb County States Attorney office. Maria Ridulph was kidnapped and murdered in 1957. Since that time county prosecutors had their suspicions of who committed the crime but lacked the political courage to risk a trial. Campbell risked it and got the conviction. That may or may not help Campbell in his bid for re-election but hopefully it brings peace, comfort and a sense of justice served for the family of Maria Ridulph.

I know it would please the late Mayor Red Johnson of Sycamore. He once told me during an interview that the Ridulph case was easily the worst experience of his long tenure as mayor. His voice cracked as he recounted the story at that time more than 30 years later.