Layoffs an opportunity to learn what we can do without
The City of Peoria isn’t any different than any other.
Seriously.
Half the town thinks we’re the cultural center of the Universe, or ought to be regardless of the cost. The other thinks we’re an urban dystopia and cannot wait until they can emigrate to the northern hinterlands or across the river.
The reality is that we’re just another dopey mid-sized Midwestern city being run by mostly well-meaning Chamber of Commerce types doing favors for each other.
And we are in sorry financial shape. Granted, we’ve made a bunch of mistakes during the past couple of decades, starting with the white elephant located next to Peoria City Hall.
But we didn’t cause the recession that caused a decline in corporate taxes. That’s mostly what’s responsible for all the talk about layoffs of city employees.
We can all sit around and moan and groan about it, pointing fingers about all the lost services. And there are people in office who need to have fingers pointed at them. But I prefer to look at the bright side.
Folks, this is a wonderful opportunity.
City payrolls swell when times are good and wallets are fat. But that isn’t the case now, and the city is cutting spending. And they are talking layoffs.
I offer this humble proposal. Instead of doing what governments usually do in this situation — try to spread the pain evenly across all departments — the council ought to instead target departments and programs that don’t really provide services that are essential. A recent Journal Star article stated that one cutback on the table is to cut back on seal coating.
Really? If seal coating streets is so unnecessary what we can do without it on SOME streets, but not others, why do we have it at all?
Instead of cutting back on services that make streets better, why not eliminate services that seem to provide nothing but an excuse to earn a paycheck?
Consider the fact that when the grocery store chain Hy Vee decided it wanted to invest in Peoria, they had to run through a gauntlet of bureaucracy at City Hall. The Planning and Development Department decided that IT — not the company — was in the best position to say exactly where the store’s doors should be located, the front or rear parking lot.
Really? I wasn’t aware that anyone employed by this department was an expert on the grocery store business. But God-knows how many on-the-clock hours were spent telling Hy Vee what do to and how to do it.
So I propose that if there are city departments that have so little real work — as opposed to make-work — to do, that the city ought to target these departments for the majority of layoffs.
In fact, the city ought to use this budget crisis to determine if there are entire departments and/or programs that we can do without. And how can we do that? By eliminating entire departments, of course. None of this namby-pamby counting paper clip nonsense. Lay waste to entire levels of bureaucracy and send government workers to the unemployment for a taste of what the governed class endures when the economy talks.
Consider the liquor commission. Do we really need it? It certainly seems to be casting about for things to do. Consider that Deputy Liquor Commission Eric Turner found himself with so much time on his hands he could insert himself and the commission into a controversy. Turner sent a letter to a West Main Street bar to complain about the sign an employee briefly put up — as an inside joke apparently — stating it was not a gay bar. In fact, some of the bar’s many gay customers appeared in reports saying that it was just a joke. No harm no foul, right?
But Turner warned the bar to not discriminate on account of sexual orientation.
Really? As far as I know, Turner didn’t send a letter to the notorious downtown establishment that was refusing entry to black people because of the “gang clothes” they were wearing. I believe who got arrested for trespassing was wearing a polo shirt and khaki pants. And this happened amid loud and public complaints by many black people that these dress codes were being used as an excuse to keep black people out of bars in the city’s 4 a.m. liquor license zone, so as not to scare away white people attending Peoria Civic Center events.
And here’s the problem with sending a letter (in addition to it being as case of government making work for itself): The Peoria Liquor Commission is a quasi judicial body. For Turner to decide, without any case brought before him, to send a letter to the Elbo Room warning them to not discriminate, is sort of like a Peoria County circuit court judge reading a crime story in the Peoria Journal Star and sending a letter to a unarrested and uncharged suspect saying he better watch his step. What is Turner going to do the next time the Elbo Room DOES have business before the liquor commission?
If there is so little for the liquor commission to do that Turner has to drum up business, why not disband it and just let the city council decide on its own, without the dog-and-pony show hearings?
And then there’s all the workers involved in zoning, code enforcement, inspections, etc. If there’s one thing I hear from people who do business in the city, it’s how much trouble it is to get a straight answer from these people about anything. Often, it depends on who you talk to. I say that if need for a particular zoning regulation is not so self-evident that people who work in the department full-time cannot even remember them, then maybe these rules are aren’t really needed.
Think about it people. We’re told that all would be chaos without zoning. After all, it’s only zoning rules that keep someone from building a pig farm next door to your nice home in Edgewild.
Really? How many pig farmers are looking to do that?
They say we cannot do without all this regulation. I say I’d like to give it a try and see what happens. Oh, yeah, some people will complain because suddenly they don’t have the ability to use the law to harass their neighbors. But it might get a lot easier to live in and do business in Peoria.
Once the recession is over, we have the option of re-regulating ourselves. Or not.
It certainly would make Peoria unique: A unit of government using the crappy economy as an excuse to reduce the interference of government into our affairs, rather than to increase it.
It’s time to move on
“Build the Block” beat “Block the Block.” I’m sad, but not surprised. I take pleasure in the fact that we put up a good fight.
I was rooting for Beth Akeson in the 3rd District. When the votes were counted, she was down by 16 votes. I didn’t want Tim Riggenbach to win because of his enthusiastic support for the tax increase referendum was all I needed to know about his support for essential services first.
I continued to support Barbara Van Auken, not because I agreed with all her votes, because I didn’t and she knows which votes I’m talking about. But she is a friend, she’s supported me when others did not. And I think those who backed Curphy Smith because Van Auken didn’t give them the 9-2 vote they wanted (as opposed to the 10-1 we sometimes get) were fooling themselves. In the end, her large margin of victory is a sign that her constituents agreed with me and weren’t distracted by side issues.
I didn’t have a favorite in the race for city treasurer. Half of one is the same as a half dozen of the other.
It’s for the best that Jim Ardis won as mayor. I’ve been POd a bit at some of his votes. But on balance, he’s the best mayor we’ve had since I first attended a council meeting back in 1980.
And as for the fifth district race … I really don’t give a rat’s butt. Almost none of the people who live up there give a rat’s butt about people who live south of War Memorial Drive, and I’m just returning the favor. OK, that’s a gross over-generalization. But it felt good saying it.
It’s done. Done. Over. We have to move on and rebuild our relationships with each other. This election has turned friends into enemies. It is important that we ALL grow the Hell up a bit and realize that politics is not anything worth losing friendships over.
And speaking of moving on, I have moved my blog to http://peoriapundit.com.
