The Community Word

Much like baseball managers, city managers are hired to be fired. But unlike baseball managers, who often lose their jobs when expensive free agents hired by the owners, city managers are dismissed for reasons that often are not apparent. If the team’s losing and their play is stinking up the place, there’s no hiding that fact. In city government, however, there are conflicts behind the scenes that sometimes don’t play out on the public access cameras. This is the case here in Peoria. Peoria City Manager Randy Oliver has tendered his resignation, but is going to stick around a month to provide some guidance to the interim city manager, whoever that is. As of this writing, the council took a straw vote in an executive session and decided to make an offer to someone who is, apparently, outside city government. The name of this person will be revealed only after details of the contract are agreed upon by all parties. The council will have to schedule a vote in an special meeting before it’s official.

There’s been some squawking on blogs and the Journal Star Website about why Oliver is getting about $132.000 in severance pay. Apparently, this is appropriate under his contract, which says he’s due severance if he resigns after being asked to by a majority of the council.
Did that happen?

I do not know. And THAT is what makes this an unusual event. Officially, employment decisions are supposed to be kept confidential. But in the recent past, these discussions usually showed up in the media a day later. One of the council members — or perhaps a city employee — would go the media and try to derail consensus decisions with their one-sided account of events. It is a testament to this current council under Mayor Jim Ardis’ leadership that this isn’t happening.

Because of this silence, I have no idea which six or more of the eleven council members no longer support him. It needs to be stated that the city manager of a city the size of Peoria is essentially the CEO of a multi-million corporation with hundreds of employees. This is NOT a 9-5 job, and anyone willing to take the job without protection in the form of a decent severance package is no one you would want to hire anyway.

I’ve heard comments comparing Oliver to Kay Royster, who continued to collect her $184,800 annual salary for the 11 months remaining on her contract after she was ousted as superintendent of Peoria School District 150. For one thing, Oliver’s severance is spelled out in his contract. Oliver didn’t openly disrespect board members by encouraging members of the community to disrupt city council meetings. Oliver isn’t leaving the city in financial tatters. If anything, he argued most recently for less spending that the council ended up putting in the budget. And Royster waited out all 11 months on her contract before she took a new job. Oliver is a finalist for a county administrator job in Florida, and if he doesn’t get that job, I’m willing to bet it won’t take him 11 months to find a new one. And he’s not going to sue the city for discrimination.
I’ve always found Randy Oliver to be a very personable man who did his job in a very professional manner. Unlike with previous managers, I never got the idea that the fix was in, namely that items were brought before the council with knowledge beforehand that there were six votes in favor. Oliver presented the council with what he or his staff thought the best course of action. While he argued in favor of that action, he presented multiple sides to issues, and adapted as best as possible when directed to do otherwise. From his pained facial expressions, I sometimes got the idea he wished council members would just hush up and take his advice. I have sometimes shared that sentiment.

He was a fast learner. I was often impressed with the knowledge the non-Illinois native had about policies and policies and procedures here in Illinois.
On a personal level, I’ll miss having him around. Oliver went out of his way to make sure I and other “citizen journalists” got the answers to the questions we asked. When a suggestion was made that wireless Internet access in the council chambers would help all members of the press file our stories, Oliver took charge and made sure access was available.

One knock against Oliver is that he didn’t direct staff very well, and was slow to recognize problems with their work. The recent health insurance contracts are examples. Most members of the council were shocked that staff recommended contracts that would have cost the city $1.2 million a year over the next three years. Council members had to pry bits and pieces of information from Parsons and a consultant to get the figures that essentially confirmed their suspicions that the staff was overlooking key details so that the council would approve the health plan the employees preferred, not the one that saved taxpayers the most money. Parsons resigned under pressure, and there were those on the council grumbling that Oliver bore some of the blame.

I think whatever community ends up hiring Oliver will be glad they did. But that’s not to say I’m critical of the decision to ask him to leave. It’s the job of the city manager to live up to the expectations of the city council. If that wasn’t happening, it was time for Randy Oliver to leave. As a professional public servant, Oliver knows this very well.

Victory on the East Bluff

Peoria School District 150 will build a new East Bluff “birth-through-8th-grade” school on the site of the current Glen Oak School. The exact configuration has not been determined.

It is, obviously, a huge victory for the people who live in and near the East Bluff who fought for this outcome from the very instant years ago when District 150 announced it had made a deals with the Peoria Park District and the Peoria Housing Authority that would lead to building this school inside Glen Oak Park.

Residents correctly recognized that by moving the neighborhood school onto the other side of Prospect and essentially out of the neighborhood, the entire East Bluff would be destabilized. It would create vacant shell of a building in the heart of the East Bluff, to both symbolize and perpetuate the decay.

Instead, the East Bluff is getting a brand new school that can serve as a center of activity for everyone.

I’m waiting to find out how much the City of Peoria had to kick in to sweeten the pot for District 150 to make what should have been a no-brainer of a decision. It matters not. Whether it’s federal dollars or city-generated property taxes, it’s ALL taxpayer money, and building a school is as essential a government service as it gets.

But the East Bluff residents cannot let up on District 150. The exact design of this new site has not been determined. Vigilance is needed to ensure that accommodations are made within the design to make sure this is building is available for use by the community year round and after classes are dismissed. Policies MUST be put into place to make sure the doors are not locked when neighbors want to use the facilities for events that promote healthy neighborhoods. Vague assurances and good intentions are NOT enough.

Moving on up

I’m the Peoria Pundit again. Actually, “Peoria Pundit” is the name of my blog, not me. And there were those who questioned my right to use that name when I moved out of the city several years ago. My defense was that I still had a Peoria mailing address and that I was a still a resident of Peoria County. The words were hollow to me even then. I knew that I lost the moral right to complain about the state if the city was I wasn’t a resident. But I put on a straight face and kept at it.

Well, I’m back. I’ve rented a nice apartment in a historic home on North East Randolph. Not only am I a resident of the city, I’m a resident of the West Bluff, and even more specifically, I’m a resident of what is one of the most politically active neighborhoods in Peoria. Technically, as a renter, I do not quality for membership in the Randolph-Roanoke Residential Association, And even if I did qualify, I probably couldn’t afford the dues. But I’ve been told that I am welcome at meetings, as long as I understand my role would be to “work” on behalf of the neighborhood.

Yeah. Sure. Considering some of the legendary posts I’ve made about some of my new neighbors, I wonder how welcome I would be.

I already have a few gripes. I have to pay $10 per year for the right to park on my own street. I gather this is to keep the riff-raff out and make sure that only the people who live here have access to limited parking spaces. It also puts the kibosh on the bacchania I had planned for ever other Saturday (NOTE TO LANDLORD: Just kidding).

Tags: randy, oliver,, glen, oak, school