Politics & Policy Play in Peoria
By Sara Browning | 28th October 2008
City taxpayers will receive a small break thanks to one candidate’s willingness to foot the bill.
The Peoria City Council is tallying up the costs of the private fundraiser held at Weaver Angus Farms this summer on July 25 when President George W. Bush made his second visit to Peoria, this time to stump for 18th District congressional candidate Aaron Schock. The city council called on Schock to pay a $38,252 tab to cover the cost of overtime for thirty-eight police officers, seven sergeants, and two lieutenants as well as firefighters and thirty city trucks used for security. Schock announced September 30th that he planned to pay whatever sum was required to reimburse the city—an action he deemed “unprecedented” in campaign history.
The Schock campaign declined further comment on the matter.
Although Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis supports Schock in his decision, Ardis believes it should never have come to this, citing that the city does not have a policy that specifically addresses a situation when a sitting president comes to endorse a candidate during a fundraiser.
City Councilman-at-Large Gary Sandberg, however, says the matter is covered in City Ordinance Section 2-336: City employees shall not intentionally misappropriate any city property or resources by engaging in any prohibited political activity for the benefit of any campaign for elective office or any political organization.
“(The ordinance) was adopted on May 18, 2004,” says Sandberg. “I sent every member (of the city council) a copy.”
The city councilman claimed he acted in routine fashion with regard to the timing of his request for payment, waiting for invoices and other records to be processed. “Why did I wait a month? Because I had to get the timesheets in,” he says.
Ardis claims the ordinance does not apply and argues that requiring candidates to pay for high-profile politicians could impair Peoria’s ability to draw such leaders in the future.
The Peoria city staff is currently researching whether or not other communities have billed campaigns for police, fire, or public works in the past. President Bill Clinton’s visit to Knox College in Galesburg last year did not incur any reimbursements to the city nor did President Ronald Reagan’s visits to Eureka College in the early 1980s and in 1992, during which times the city never requested to be paid.
Records from the Peoria City County Clerk’s office have been scanty at best, and city employees do not remember any occasion when the city invoiced a campaign for supplying security for a sitting president.
The one question no one seems to be asking is exactly how much city taxpayers would be hurting without Schock’s check. The answer? Not much. According to records from the City Assessor’s office at the Township of the City of Peoria, there are 47,814 parcels within the City of Peoria district and 41,873 within the city’s township. Divide that by roughly $38,000, and each taxpayer would be responsible for a measly 80 cents.
Sheldon Schafer, Schock’s opponent in the race for the 18th congressional district, does not believe Schock’s initial decision was a reflection on his ethics. “I think in general he is a very ethical person, and I was pretty sure all along he would eventually do the right thing,” says Schafer.
Congressional candidate Colleen Callahan admits Schock did the right thing but says he could have come to the correct decision on his own without influence from community residents.