Let's Try Spamguard

Gonna turn the word verification on and see if it will get rid of some of this Spam Sh*t that gets posted.

Place your bets.....

Proposal Review Committee recommending approval and enter into formal written agreement with Environmental Management Corporation, O’Fallon, MO, for the management of the city’s waste water treatment plant and biosolid disposal operations based upon a five-year contract price of: Year No. 1, $717,000; Year No. 2, $734,925; Year No. 3, $753,298; Year No. 4, $772,131; and Year No. 5, $791,434.

State of Quincy

I bet NOBODY can guess what he will talk about...

Were gonna cut spending right after a word from our sponsor....

Taxpayers to Fork Out $2.5 Million for Single Census Ad During Super Bowl


Amazing.



Just Amazing.


They just don't get it.

Wind 1, Hydro 0

Global Winds Harvest of Schenectady, N.Y., in partnership with Acciona Energy North America, is considering installing up to 100 generators, or possibly more in Adams County.


If a wind farm were to get off the ground, it could have a big economic impact on the county. Zellman said a wind farm would create 200 or more construction jobs and 15 to 20 permanent jobs upon completion. These would be high-paying jobs offering between $50,000 and $70,000 a year.

An array of wind turbines would generate significant property tax revenue for local schools and other governmental entities.

Where does this private company get off by NOT spending MILLIONS of taxpayer money investing in something that might work?

Why are there not MILLIONS of taxpayer dollars being spent on studies and engineering fees?

Create 200 or more construction jobs and 15 to 20 permanent jobs upon completion?

Glad it will create tax revenue for our governmental entities so we can piss more money away on our Hydro project.......



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Deep Freeze Wild Fire

Al Gore:

KISS MY ASS !

Happy New Rear !!

Feel this?




It's the Local Dem machine feeling around for that last dime of yours from just voting for a tax increase.





Finish This:




City Alderman and the Mayor will save the taxpayers money by....
















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Irony

Mayor John Spring said he was disappointed to see the council shoot down the proposal without even looking at the study.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Spring said after the meeting. “All we were asking for was permission to hold a public hearing.”

He said aldermen were willing to hire Teska to conduct a study, “but then you don’t want to hear the results of the study? It seems a little backwards to me.”


Kinda like when the taxpaying citizens elect aldermen and a mayor and then when in office do not want to hear from the people who elected them..

Yeah. That is kinda backwards.




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Ethics Watch 12.19.09

A Quincy public schools bus driver has resigned after a four year old girl was left on a school bus earlier this week.


We spoke to Superintendent Lonny Lemon about the incident.

He says the driver was a good district employee, and this is the first time in 19 years this happened but the situation could not be overlooked.

Read it here.


Quincy Transit Lines authorities are investigating why an elderly woman was left on a city bus for a short time Friday morning.

Director Marty Stegeman confirmed the woman was left on the bus as it was parked inside the city's bus garage on Jennifer Lane. Stegeman said she was left on the bus "for a very short time."

"It's something that should not happen," said Stegeman, noting that bus drivers are supposed to check for passengers when they leave the bus. "They should look and determine if anybody is still there .... We are investigating and trying to get to the bottom of this."




Read it here.



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Riding the Fence

“I’m against reducing public safety,” Spring said in an interview. “I don’t think that is a reasonable way to reduce obligations. I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the community to reduce the number of police or fire personnel. Public safety is, to me, the most important thing for our community.”

John Spring QHW 12.15.09

Guess the "attempted" firing of the three firefighters on 10.31.07 and the $400,000 legal bills don't count as public safety.

2010 City Budget Item

The Union Difference

A dedicated Machinists Lodge union worker was attending a convention in Quincy and decided to check out the local brothels nearby.

When he got to the first one, he asked the madam, "Is this a union house?"

"No," she replied, "I'm sorry it isn't."

"Well, if I pay you $100, what cut do the girls get?"

"The house gets $80 and the girls get $20." She says.

Mightily offended at such unfair dealings, the man stomped off down the street in search of a more equitable, hopefully unionized shop.

His search continued until finally he reached a brothel where the madam happily responded, "Why yes sir, this IS A UNION HOUSE!"

The man asked, "And if I pay you $100, what cut do the girls get?"

"The Girls get $80 and the house gets $20."

"That's more like it!" the diehard union man said.

He looked around the room and pointed to a stunningly young, thin, busty, attractive blonde.

"I'd like her for the night."

"I'm sure you would, sir," said the madam, then, gesturing to an obese, gray haired sixty-three year old woman in the corner, "but Pearl here has seniority."

That's the "Union Difference"

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Conflict of Interest?

Even tho Quincy Pundit , QNO and UDN beat me to the blogs on last nights city council meeting, I did a search for what I thought was a conflict of interest of Duesterhaus voting 12-1 to establish a private corporation with his brother, Joe Duesterhaus, being brought in to handle the legal work of forming the corporation.

Didn't take 5 minutes to find this:

In order to understand what a conflict of interest means, it may help to examine what we mean by 'interest'. Almost all of us have personal or professional interests, whether it be a hobby, an investment in a business or a desire to help our friends and family members succeed in their own interests. Sometimes we base our decisions on whether or not they will ultimately benefit one or more of these interests. Most of us would not face a conflict of interest situation because our hobbies rarely interfere or intersect with our professional responsibilities.

But people placed in positions of judgement or power must take extra steps to insure that their private interests do not compete with their professional duties. A conflict of interest may arise, for example, if a city councilman awards a lucrative contract to a company owned by his brother. It would not be illegal to award such a contract to the best qualified company, even if that company were indeed owned by a relative, but the councilman himself could not be part of the decision making process. There would be an obvious conflict of interest, because the councilman's own family would benefit financially from his position of power.

I swear, you can read it here or click the Title.

Funny how Lovelace abstained from voting to approve Gomez-Lovelace's hiring in October by a 3-1 vote.

Seems it's not a problem at City Hall.

* Also seems it's funny how the City Hall Gazette failed to mention that Joe Duesterhaus is the brother of Alderman Steve Duesterhaus (D-2nd Ward)

Slight oversight I'm sure....

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Wild Fire: Deer Season Edition

Deer Hunting Season open...

Bud. Bud Light. Air Bud.

Bar Pours

Three city of Quincy workers will face disciplinary action after using city equipment to pour new concrete on the north parking lot of the Spring Street Bar, 1631 Spring, during the week of November 1 for a private, for-hire construction job they did on their personal time.

Other Bars that have lined up for this service are:

Barney's
Kelly's
Backwaters
Instant Replay
Abbey
North End



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For all you do....This Bud should be Through !!!

Really? Getting up and walking out of a school board meeting when your the president of the board?



The school boards function is to help the school district and the children, not act like one !!




Didn't Bud take an Oath when he was sworn in as a school board member? He should have, it's now law. Copy is here.




It says:






Although most school boards traditionally marked the seating of new members with some form of ceremony, there was no official oath of office required for school board members until Public Act 94-0881 was enacted into law in 2006. This law requires that school board members, before taking their seats on the board, take an official oath that is in substantially the form presented below.

"I, (name of member or successful candidate) , do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of the Board of Education (or Board of School Directors) of ( name of school district ), in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and the laws of the State of Illinois, to the best of my ability.

"I further swear (or affirm) that:

"I shall respect taxpayer interests by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets;

100% on this one here. You have voted "NO" more times even when it benefits the school system. NEVER heard any hint of a suggestion of a solution....Just "NO"

"I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board, while respecting the privacy of students and employees;

Fail. Fail, Fail. You fail to recognize any other opinions except yours. And on the latest QNO story you mention the hiring process of an employee that offended you. Nice respect of the employees. Wonder why they think so less of you?

"I shall recognize that a board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a public board meeting; and

More Failure here. You seem to be drunk with authority and think as board president you can have unlimited power.

"I shall abide by majority decisions of the board, while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels."

Here's one you need to make into a label and tape it to your makeshift gavel claw hammer. Walking out of a meeting does not fall into the "ethical and constructive channels"

Grow up Bud, It for the children of the School District. You and your clan have an underlying agenda and have done less than Obama has for this country.

Time to grow up or get out.





Next time Bud walks out, Lock the door behind him !!

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It's called Pick and Choose....

Quincy's property tax rate is among the lowest of 15 Illinois cities of comparable size, according to a survey compiled from data collected by the state comptroller's office.

The survey compares Quincy with 14 other cities in the areas of tax rates, tax levies, public safety expenditures and general revenue, based on comprehensive annual financial reports for the year 2008.

A copy of the survey, provided by city officials, shows Quincy's property tax rate of 0.98803 in the 2008 tax year was significantly below the 15-city average of 1.717.

More propaganda provided by the City Hall Gazette....

Only Algonquin, with an estimated 2008 population of 30,482 compared to Quincy's 39,983, had a lower tax rate, 0.48.

Kankakee (population 26,608) had the highest tax rate at 4.0 while North Chicago (35,918) was second with 2.491 and Galesburg (31,738) third with 2.3607.

"I think it's interesting to see the comparisons when it comes to the revenue stream," Mayor John Spring said. "One of the reasons Quincy is so attractive to people, and affordable to people, is we don't have near the multitude of additional taxes in our community to produce revenue for city services."

Wonder where the ex-mayor will be when the bills from the Hydo project will roll in ???

....and did the "revenue stream" include seat belt tickets, speeding and DUI fines??

Quincy is the only city among the 15 that doesn't charge a telecommunications tax on telephone or Internet services. All of the other communities charge a tax ranging from 2 to 6 percent.

Hint #1 for further revenue stream....

In addition, 10 of the 15 communities charge a gas utilities tax, nine charge an electric utilities tax, seven charge a food and beverage tax, five charge a water utilities tax and two charge a liquor tax.

Hints #2,3,4 & 5

Quincy charges none of these taxes.

Not yet......

"We take pride in providing great city services* without additional burden on the taxpayers by some of these additional taxes," Spring said.

* see # of city employees down further....

Gary Sparks, the city's director of administrative services, said the survey shows Quincy's equalized assessed valuation (EAV) of $517 million "is very compatible with other communities our size."

The EAV combines with the city's tax rate to help determine the local tax extension, which is smaller than many other cites of comparable size. The survey shows Quincy's total extension of $5.1 million was well below the 15-city average of $7.3 million.

Sparks noted that the city's total General Fund expenditures of $17.2 million in 2008 also was well below the 15-city average of $23.7 million. Only four communities spent less from their General Funds.

In the area of public safety expenditures, Quincy's total of $12.8 million came in below the 15-city average of $13.1 million. While eight cities spent more on public safety, Quincy was at or near the top in the number of firefighters and police officers.

Quincy's total of 66 firefighters exceeded the 15-city average of 46.6, and its 72 police officers exceeded the average of 60. But Sparks said the average may be misleading because of the way some communities reported figures.

OK...this is misleading but the previous is not???

Three of the largest communities listed in the survey -- Champaign, Galesburg and Pekin -- were all shown to have zero firefighters and zero police officers. Algonquin, meanwhile, was shown to have zero firefighters but 51 police officers, while Rantoul was shown to have zero firefighters and 31 police officers.

Sparks doesn't know why there are disparities in the statistics. He said some communities may contract for emergency services and report their numbers differently. He said some cities, such as Quincy, may have more firefighters because the community's geographic size may call for having more outlying fire stations to improve response times, but the survey didn't provide any data on geographic size.

The survey indicated Quincy had 369 full-time employees in 2008, which is well above the 15-city average of 265. Sparks couldn't say why Quincy's number was so high. "It may depend on how they submitted the information," he said.

HELLO !!! CAN YOU SAY NEPOTISM ????

Sparks said the employee count for Quincy is skewed somewhat. Sparks said Quincy's full-time employment number is actually 346 now, which is down several positions from where it would have been last year.

Maybe family members with the same last name should all be counted as one?

Quincy Comptroller Ann Scott said the city doesn't typically count the 21 employees at the Quincy/Adams County 911 center as city employees because those workers are employed by both the city and the county. But on this particular report, she said, "they probably were" counted.

...and that makes a BIG difference of 104 MORE than average ???

Sparks noted that some communities in the survey have an unusually high number of part-time employees. The 15-city average for part-timer positions was 145 -- more than double Quincy's total of 61.

Part timers don't get full ride from city coffers....Here aldermen's families get the full ride !!!

Normal, a community of 52,495 residents, was listed as having 364 full-time employees and 627 part-time employees. Galesburg, with a population of 31,738, was listed as having 264 full-time employees and 425 part-timers.

• Nothing says "Good News" like handing the media a fluff piece.



• Nothing says "Good News" like the writer not asking questions.

Propaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda.







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Freedom of the whaaa ???

.......campaign's strategy to make media cover only what they wanted.......

Glad we don't have that problem here !!!

Decisions..Decisions...

Let's see.....

Back up water supply for the city of Quincy....

vs.

A 2 million dollar A/C unit for the QPL.

No brainer.

U would think.......

Get one for your car today!

"For hire shall mean and include an acceptance of any consideration of any kind".

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