Tue Nov 14, 2006

Let's go BACK to the position papers, from LarryBoy........."Job Creation, Technology, Tourism, & Economic Development"........ " The problem today is that we have lost a lot of locally owned businesses that have been sold to outside interests or simply close down. To improve, rather than wait for a magic bullet solution or get in a bidding game to lure in an outside company, our first efforts must be to support and invest in the many local capitalists and small businesses that are still here. Whether a baseball team or a manufacturing plant, the Mayor’s office must lead this community through difficult decisions.".........Gee, LarryBoy, this REALLY doesn't jive with your treatment of the Icehogs owners........you complained that the Riverhawks move to Loves Park, that I get, but you use some "eminent domain-type" crap to take the ICEHOGS name from the local owners so you can get in bed with some Chicago-connected money..........acting like a spoilt brat, again, LarryBoy.........announcing BEFORE they agree??????? AND to top it off.... "If we have extra money to spend, we might consider some of those options, but not while we have glaring deficiencies in our fundamentals. A convention center for out-of-town visitors will not be a facility contributing to the quality of life of our local people. It will not help the local medical community or a locally owned manufacturing company to improve its bottom line. In fact, those options could have the opposite impact.".........DO YOU EVER MEAN ANYTHING YOU SAY???????????LarryBoy???????? And this is the SAME guy that wanted to fund our road improvements with increased sales taxes NOT bonds because we shouldn't pay interest on bonds.............but it's ok with$23 million in bonds to appease some Chicago Carpetbaggers schemes???????????? ROCKFORD'S RISING!!!!!!!!!!

Sat Nov 11, 2006

Well, looks like the threats of Patrick "Tight-Suit" Hayes worked, the AFSCME union caved in on their contract talks. Gotta wonder WHAT( if anything) the union leadership was thinking, acting as TOOLS of this anti-worker administration.... Most of the Executive Board were HUGE cheerleaders for LarryBoy, then disappointed by him AFTER he got in office........except ONE member of the negociating team, heck, in the midst of these contentious talks, he cooked for the LarryBoy fundraiser in October. Hey, ANY union leaders, NOTE TO SELF, When your candidate(LarryBoy) has a relative that owns a temporary worker service, and he receives campaign contributions from the other big temp. agencies, well maybe regardless of his lying promises, HE DON'T LIKE WORKERS!!! DUH!!!!!!!!!
shootfromthelip sez..."i am not sure it is fair to say that larryboy doesn't like workers since i am doubtful he even knows any real workers"...unmanager sez.."TRUE DAT!!!"....

Mon Nov 06, 2006

This seems long ago............."Consultant proposal Ryan noted a proposal to pay Rockford Consulting & Brokerage $78,000 for benefits consulting work was far less than what the Rockford School District paid for its health-care consultant." Published: August 2, 2006 And then there's TODAY......"The Morrissey administration will ask aldermen tonight to approve changes to health insurance benefits for nonunion workers."..."He said he would ask aldermen to suspend council rules and push the measure through in one night." What's the hurry, LarryBoy???????The consultant contributed to your campaign, right??????? By passing the measure this week, he said, the council would strengthen the city’s position at upcoming arbitration hearings with the police and firefighters unions. Morrissey complained bitterly that his administration had had “its legs cut out from under us” by aldermen who were afraid of angering the unions. But in reality, he said, they had little to fear. “Fifty-eight percent of the cops don’t live in the city,” he said. “How effective are they going to be in a campaign against you?”..........Oh, that's a great reason..........Don't care about the employees unless they can help you get re-elected.......EXCELLENCE EVERYWHERE........if you contribute to his campaign and vote the way you want........ Unity: Communication & Trust: To accomplish great things we must have a unified team. Unfortunately, moral among City employees, as with the City as a whole, has been down. This stems from leadership that has not communicated with and involved its people in a real sense. Everyone in the City needs to know that we are one City and our fates are tied together. We must know that we are building toward the same goal. We must staff for success and direct the many organizations both public and private that look to the City for leadership. Hey, LarryBoy, ever READ YOUR OWN POSITION PAPERS??????????????? http://www.morrisseyformayor.com/files/Leadership_Position_Paper.PDFOh, by the way...........I sure hope that consultant lives in Rockford...........an awful lotta people from out-of-town contributed to LarryBoy's campaign......... http://www.elections.state.il.us./CampaignDisclosure/ItemizedContrib.aspx Don't need their VOTES if you got their MONEY!!!!!!!!!! EXCELLENCE EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!! (and remember, LarryBoy is NOT responsible for payment of property taxes.........gotta love those Limited Liability Corporations)

Thu Nov 02, 2006

gtob sez..."Run for office......... "
I sez..."You know, I HAVE toyed with the idea...........but LarryBoy really raised the bar with the last election.................what did he spend?..........$380,000 for a what? $90.000 a year position?????? Too much "payback" on campaign contributions , and in fact, I believe that's whats going on NOW.............. Sorry that people find this SOOO negative........I really just view myself as SOME sort of journalist/observer...........I have tried to have both the RRStar and the Rock River Times look into or report some of these FACTS, but they are both far from being "objective".........sooooo....all those upset, angry, fed-up, with my discourses, DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE MESSAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I do invite you to find any distortions or outright lies in any of my posts.........I will apologize and retract when necessary........."

Mon Oct 23, 2006 /Thu Nov 02, 2006

Here he goes again!!!! Published: October 23, 2006 Local News: Rockford Morrissey questions aldermen’s loyalties By Bob Schaper ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR ROCKFORD — Mayor Larry Morrissey said last week that he’s facing a tough vote at tonight’s City Council meeting and suggested that some aldermen want the city to lose an upcoming labor arbitration fight..........“You have to wonder if they want us to win,” he said, referring to those who opposed his plan........ Gee, LarryBoy, you think MAYBE the aldermen might want something out of the TWO Legal Directors you still have on staff....to the tune of $220,000 a year........maybe they care about the ballooning legal costs your administration keeps putting out for contract................you think MAYBE the aldermen CARE about city employees more than you do, especially the police and fire personnel that acted so unselfishly during the Labor Day flooding, (they really made you look good, LarryBoy)......maybe they VALUE people more than you would ever understand.........
You know, just can't get enough of LarryBoy's WORDS colliding with his ACTIONS..... like....."Unity: Communication & Trust: To accomplish great things we must have a unified team. Unfortunately, moral among City employees, as with the City as a whole, has been down. This stems from leadership that has not communicated with and involved its people in a real sense. From:http://www.morrisseyformayor.com/files/Leadership_Position_Paper.PDF You can just see the JOY among all the city employees now that LarryBoy has shown his concern for them.........of course Jim Ryan, he got about a 25% raise ($23,000) , HE'S been INVOLVED...........his MORALE is great.......LarryBoy, your a real weiner........

Thu Oct 19, 2006

OMIGOSH!!!!!!!!!!! HERE WE ARE SIX YEARS LATE...........but SOMETHING has finally been done at Garrison School!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, it's DEMOLITION but it's a start(I guess)............ Realize SIX years ago, LarryBoy kicked out a valid small business(a daycare) because of his "Excellence Everywhere" condo project..........just SOOOO passionate about this project............... NOW MAYBE something can be done to clean up the neighborhood this EYESORE helped RUIN................. Maybe this is why employees' cannot get a fair contract...............too much money earmarked for pet projects to enrich LarryBoy's family and supporters.............. At this rate, I would not be surprised to see the "RIVERWALK" sometime, O, about 2012...........probably have minimum-wage temp. agency workers patching our crumbling roads ,too............
I WAS SHOCKED!!!!!!!!!! As I also said, I just question some of the financial shenanigans.......... As I also said, he "sold" this project to the Signal Hill Neighborhood Association as important to him and his family, just like the Riverwalk, so DON'T hold your breath watching for progress on that........... As I also said, I gave LarryBoy praise for his attention to the flood victims......... But you know, there's a fancy clock and plaque on the eighth floor of city hall that says." It's Time To Expect More!" Larry Morrissey..........well, I EXPECT MORE.......... Feel free to use this thread to give LarryBoy credit WHEN credit is due, Z.........I'd love to know positive things he's done for citizens and employees of the city of Rockford...........
Oh by the way, word is Patrick "Tight Suit" Hayes was hired as a favor to Davey Syverson for his support getting LarryBoy into office........don't that surprise no one..........

Mon Sep 25, 2006 /Tue Oct 17, 2006

From the "Labor Pains" bits and pieces in last weeks paper........."Arbitration can also be costly because of legal fees. One estimate put a price tag of $185,000 on the city’s expense for each union that requires arbitration. Morrissey would say only that the cost would be “six figures.” "............let's NOT forget, we are PAYING TWO, yes, TWO ! legal directors as it is..........and LarryBoy has the audacity to claim "“To me, it’s a matter of having financial accountability to our taxpayers.”
So, I'm OURAGED...........and I would HOPE anyother city taxpayers would be too.......... As I've mentioned before, the city is paying TWO legal directors (to the tune of around $220,000).........NOW LarryBoy wants to HIRE another outside law firm for arbitration.........AT $275 AN HOUR!!!!!!!!!! Let's not forget the outside law firm re-writing the building codes.......... So we elect a "successful"(?) lawyer as mayor, and ALL WE DO IS HIRE MORE LAWYERS!!!!!!!!!!!

Wed Sep 13, 2006 /Fri Sep 15, 2006

Opinion Columnists
Business urges mayor and council to modernize city’s health insurance
Special to the Register Star
............"The city’s plan operates like an open checkbook with no deductible and no co-pays. This may seem great to the plan participants, but in the long run it hurts all." That's my favorite line, I believe LarryBoy said it first about three weeks ago at a news conference at EIGERLAB........Best Part?......It's a LIE.........call your local fire station and ask anyone there if they had absolutely NO out-of-pocket health expenses since the first of the year.........ask any police officer or any other ciy employee.........PROPAGANDA......wonder if "As business owners, managers, and as taxpayers," they are also on the "Re-ELECT LARRYBOY " campaign bandwagon..........HMMMMMMMMMMM
I did a little digging around and found that the author/contact person of that "Opinion" commentary was a Cathy McDermott.......so I thought, what type of "business leader" was she?????? and then I find campaign disclosure information about "Citizens for Morrissey" and she's some type of campaign publicity worker, just trying to get LarryBoy's message across.......

Sun Sep 03, 2006 6:06 pm

"All looks cool with booze rule"
By Dustin J. Seibert ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR
..."Slafkosky attributes the change to the “Morrissey Effect,” referring to Mayor Larry Morrissey’s vision on the importance of local businesses. “There’s a change of attitude in City Hall; that difference is as important, if not more important than (focusing on) nonprofits,” he said. “Larry has this thing that you can’t build a city on pity.” so I've been trying to understand this since I read it several hours ago.........the story mentions Octane, and Kryptonite, ( and Slafkosky owns J. R. Kortman's).....three businesses located on the downtown mall.........patrons of these establishments park in municipal parking lots,( landscaped, maintained, plowed and salted after snows by city workers) and have entrances on the mall, (landscaped, maintained, plowed and salted after snows by city workers)........so I guess "if you can't build a city on pity", WHO is the PITYEE(?) and WHO is the PITIER?????????? I would venture to guess "The Olympic", "Elixur", "Oscar's", etc. would like the city to take care of their parking lots........pity.........how about if one of the downtown businesses have an event that draws people downtown, the "non-profits" be allowed to set up vendor booths on the mall..........pity.........I think I pity the city with a "Morrissey Effect".......

Wed Aug 30, 2006

ROCKFORD — With only days remaining before a ballot deadline, Mayor Larry Morrissey on Monday declined to give his views on a proposed sales-tax referendum for this fall. Morrissey said he “very likely” will hold a news conference later in the week to speak his mind. He would not hint at what his opinion is, or even what day the conference will be. “We’re five months after the last referendum failed, and the mayor has not told the community what his plan is to fix the roads,” Holt said. “That’s why you’ve seen the aldermen put up their own proposals.” Ald. Dan Conness, D-14, proposed a 0.75 percentage point increase on July 10. The money generated by the hike would be used to fund road improvements and pay down existing road bonds. Let's look at his position paper " Urban Planning, Transportation, Energy & The Environment" "We can and must design our community so owning an automobile is a luxury instead of a necessity."...............who needs roads repaired, I guess they are a luxury, too.................

Thu Aug 24, 2006

" Morrissey wants to hire Rockford Consulting and Brokerage to help with the contract consulting. But some alderman worry the company was selected over others, only because they contributed to Morrissey's campaign. Alderman John Beck says, "People are maybe thinking that the other firm didn't quite get the same opportunity to present their abilities to the city council." Morrissey says, "No one should be selected simply because they support an individual candidate for a mayors race or aldermanic race likewise someone shouldn't be deselected or not selected simply because they support they support a certain candidate." Morrissey says under this contract they are not required by law to go with the lowest bidder. The questions forced alderman to send it back to committee. Now they'll focus on union negotiations.
But what did Campaigner LarryBoy say????
"When the administration is perceived as playing favorites and having an unfair playing field for developers and businesses, we discourage many other developers and businesses from doing business in Rockford. That is extremely damaging to this community.".........http://www.morrisseyformayor.com

Aug 18 2006

Let's look at this ......." Mayor Larry Morrissey countered Cassaro’s assertion, saying the average AFSCME worker makes more than the average Rockford worker." from Tuesday paper...............BUT LOOK!!!......ASSISTANT CITY ADMINISTRATOR ...... Starting Salary: $63 - 96K commensurate with experience!!!!!!!!!! AND the City Administrator.............from the city budget......$23,000 increase!!!!!!!!!!!! more money + assistant= less work,more pay....... EMPLOYEES — THE CITY’S MOST IMPORTANT ASSET The City, like most local governmental units, provides services and can therefore be classified as a labor-intensive organization. Any organization that provides services can expect a substantial portion of its budget to be allocated for personnel costs. To help contain personnel costs, the City has taken several steps in the past to economize its use of personnel while maintaining service quality. These steps include: • eliminating inefficient or ineffective services; • improving the method of delivery for certain services; • contracting certain specialized and/or seasonal services to private contractors; and • adding certain key positions. This is straight out of the budget.......do you see where they plan to screw employees on benefits to "contain costs"????????? No? me either........ How does "the average worker " in Rockford feel about the pay in the Mayor's office??????????? average pay.........$85,000...... http://www.ci.rockford.il.us/uploadedFiles/government/Finance/Divisions/CentralServices/Mayor(2).pdf

Tue Aug 15, 2006 10:40 am Fri Aug 18, 2006 10:54 am

"Mayor Larry Morrissey countered Cassaro’s assertion, saying the average AFSCME

worker makes more than the average Rockford worker. As proof, he said, city job
openings normally generate many applicants."

Don't you remember your rhetoric, LarryBoy???????

"Rockford needs jobs; but there are no magic bullets or formulas to create
jobs."

Maybe people APPLY for jobs because they NEED jobs, ya think??????? The personal injury lawyer,raised in an exclusive subdivision.......handing out $23,000 RAISE to his buddy, the City Administrator, (plus there's an opening for an assistant, at LEAST $62,000 a year) I would LOVE to be one of LARRYBOY'S "average" Rockford worker.........I hear he's looking for a DEPUTY MAYOR, also........I'm getting in line NOW!!!!!!!!!!

........BUT LOOK!!!......

ASSISTANT CITY ADMINISTRATOR ...... Starting Salary: $63 - 96K commensurate with
experience!!!!!!!!!!

AND the City Administrator.............from the city budget......$23,000 increase!!!!!!!!!!!! more money + assistant= less work,more pay.......

EMPLOYEES — THE CITY’S MOST IMPORTANT ASSET The City, like most local
governmental units, provides services and can therefore be classified as a
labor-intensive organization. Any organization that provides services can expect
a substantial portion of its budget to be allocated for personnel costs. To help
contain personnel costs, the City has taken several steps in the past to
economize its use of personnel while maintaining service quality. These steps
include: • eliminating inefficient or ineffective services; • improving the
method of delivery for certain services; • contracting certain specialized
and/or seasonal services to private contractors; and • adding certain key
positions.

This is straight out of the budget.......do you see where they plan to screw employees on benefits to "contain costs"????????? No? me either........ How does "the average worker " in Rockford feel about the pay in the Mayor's office??????????? average pay.........$85,000...... http://www.ci.rockford.il.us/uploadedFiles/government/Finance/Divisions/CentralServices/Mayor(2).pdf

Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:29 am

Ok, here's one from the campaign rhetoric........

"If we have extra money to spend, we might consider some of those options,
but not while we have glaring deficiencies in our fundamentals."

And here's one from the paper..........

"The cost to hire outside lawyers to represent the city during possible
labor-arbitration hearings could be significantly higher than previously
reported. Hayes originally said an outside firm, which might be used if the city
enters arbitration with its police and firefighters unions, would cost $65,000
to $75,000. On Monday, Hayes said the cost could be higher, but he would not
speculate on a price tag. However, one alderman said the estimate was $190,000 a
union. If both the police and firefighters go to arbitration, the cost would be
$380,000, according to that estimate."

I would just remind folks, we STILL have "FORMER" Legal Director, Ron Schultz on the payroll............."our fundamentals" MIGHT be the money we spend on LAWYER FEES..................

Fri Jul 28, 2006 3:55 pm Sun Jul 30, 2006 6:38 pm

......."Patrick Hayes, legal director for the city, said there seems to be more homeless people downtown than in the past." and "Hayes said homeless people are migrating to Rockford from the greater Chicago area. “They come here because we have many social services available,” he said. “Folks flock to this community. We need to get a handle on it.”
(from this morning's paper,)
Stopping pushy panhandlers

Officials try to crack down on aggressive beggars in Rockford

This is the guy that assured aldermen their combined caucases at Cliffbreakers last Sat. was legal.........now he,s an expert on homelessness...... And I wish I coulda seen the caravan of "migrant" homeless, panhandling their way down I-90 from Chicago to Rockford
Laws aim for cleaner Rockford
Some residents say excellence everywhere is just a nuisance. By Bob Schaper

...But some say the changes are coming too fast.......... the
appearance of a well-run city,........Excellence everywhere is
something we all want to see, but the reality is some people don’t have the
resources to comply with utopia..........“I ran on a campaign that
focused on a broken windows approach,” Morrissey said. “Everybody’s held
accountable. We’re trying to awaken people to notice things that are screwed
up.”

HEY LARRYBOY, ever heard of "living in glass houses and stones!!!!!!!" I invite, no, ENCOURAGE EVERYONE to drive around the 1100 block of North Court Street and view the building and grounds of the old Garrison School which has been owned by him and his father for the past 6 or 7 years..........EVERYBODY'S HELD ACCOUNTABLE?????? MY FOOT!!!!!!!!!!

Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:17 pm

So, not only do we have a Mon. nite circus, now LarryBoy brings you Sat. morning cartoons......... Tune into Cliffbreakers to see the Boy Blunder tussle with aldermen and citizens.......... It could be funny if it wasn't all too true......
Mayor, aldermen spar over health-plan chat By Bob Schaper ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR

...The meeting — advertised all week as a joint caucus between Democrats
and Republicans — was intended as a way for all aldermen to informally discuss a
controversial health insurance proposal offered by Morrissey’s administration.
“I wish we had known about this before quarter to 8 in the morning,” Mark said,
adding that he coordinated the event with the city’s legal department and had
been told the meeting was proper. “We’ve been very specific all week.” Holt said
Morrissey had always been welcome to sit in on the meeting, but the mayor’s
desire to be chairman was political “grandstanding.” He said the council should
hire its own lawyer in the future. “The legal department apparently didn’t give
us good advice,” he told Morrissey. “They work for us, too. They don’t just work
for you.” Eventually, the council yielded to Morrissey, and he called the
meeting to order. Immediately, residents were forced out of the room while the
council went into executive session....

Just hope LarryBoy got some GOOOOD advice on this move.......If they discussed the health insurance plan for ALL employees,[not just the Unions'] HE WAS IN VIOLATION OF THE STATE OPEN-MEETINGS ACT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.rockrivertimes.com/
....City Council tries to exclude mayor and legal director from meeting ...Ald. Doug Mark (R-3), Republican caucus chairman, said the meeting was posted on the City Council’s weekly “date of call” list by Thursday—more than 48 hours prior to the meeting. City Clerk Diane Reed e-mailed the “date of call” list at 7:30 a.m. July 19 to the media and other interested parties. Mark said “nobody questioned (Morrissey’s) ability to be there.” But he said Hayes and the Legal Department never let on holding a meeting without him would be a problem. According to Mark, Morrissey informed them he was required to lead the meeting when he arrived. He said neither Hayes nor the Legal Department has offered an explanation regarding the allegedly faulty advice."

Sat Jul 22, 2006 6:56 pm

Published: July 22, 2006 Local News:

Morrissey crashes aldermen’s party this morning By Bob Schaper ROCKFORD
REGISTER STAR What
was to be a relaxed, informal conversation among aldermen turned into an
early-morning showdown today when Mayor Larry Morrissey unexpectedly arrived at
Cliffbreakers to announce he was chairing the meeting. After a tense 15-minute
discussion — in which one aldermen was heard muttering, “We didn’t come here to
eat crap” — aldermen relented, and Morrissey called the meeting to order.
Immediately, dozens of citizens were forced out of the room while the council
went into executive session to discuss collective bargaining issues.

Now, what's up with that......... http://www.morrisseyformayor.com/files/Leadership_Position_Paper.PDF

Unity: Communication & Trust: To accomplish great things we must have a
unified team. Unfortunately, moral among City employees, as with the City as a
whole, has been down. This stems from leadership that has not communicated with
and involved its people in a real sense. Everyone in the City needs to know that
we are one City and our fates are tied together. We must know that we are
building toward the same goal. We must staff for success and direct the many
organizations both public and private that look to the City for leadership. To
build unity, public comment must be welcome.......... The basic steps of
leadership involve clarity, unity, accountability, and action.

THAT'S some action!!!!!!!!!!!! [But maybe not very unifying]

Wed Jul 19, 2006 12:04 am

So, I'm watching the Mon. nite circus, Mayor LarryBoy and his silly council, and the topic of putting the 3/4% sales tax on the November ballot, and how it might hurt the school board request to EXTEND an existing tax rate, and Larryboy is like, "we all want good neighborhood schools, but we can't get to them on crappy neighborhood roads," and I'm like, "shouldn't the city be MORE concerned about roads, and LarryBoy is like, " blah, blah, blah,...whitewater raft park........" and I'm like , "isn't that why we pay taxes to the PARK district-TO TAKE CARE OF PARKS!!!!!!!!!!" and I'm like, "why do we have a mayor that can't get the roads fixed but he's ready to fix the schools and parks?????????" Where, O, Where is he gonna stick his nose next????????

The essential three R’s of Rockford’s infrastructure: Roads, Rail and
River.
Action: It’s Time for Action: Moving Beyond the Studies and Task Forces.
Rockford has been studied, planned, and task forced to death.

Just on 6:00 WTVO news.........Rockford's ready to spend $3 million on a transit study to connect Rockford and Elgin, NOT NECCESARILY A TRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! $3 million but let's NOT fix our roads...........

Sun Jul 16, 2006 9:57 pm

Reasonable investments in core infrastructure: Morrissey reiterated the
essential three R’s of Rockford’s infrastructure: Roads, Rail and River.
“Internally, through great planning and great community building, Rockford’s
roads and pathways and our public transportation need to connect us internally
and externally,” he said.

GREAT PLANNING= HOME RULE, NO WAIT, 1% SALES TAX, NO WAIT........... GREAT COMMUNITY BUILDING= STICKING IT TO EMPLOYEES WITH HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS, NO WAIT, HIRING MORE LAYERS OF BUREACRACY........

Fri Jul 07, 2006 1:16 am

My point; why "comp" road improvements for Walmart jobs??Is that what Rockford NEEDS????

The public and private sector in this community look to the City to provide
leadership. Where does the City expect growth? What types of growth does the
City want? The City demonstrates leadership that directs home and job growth by
setting strong land use and zoning plans, by coordinating capital investments in
roads, paths, and rail lines, and by focusing its job recruitment and retention
efforts.

http://www.morrisseyformayor.com/files/Leadership_Position_Paper.PDF Below is the image in its original context on the page: www.morrisseyformayor.com/ (In 1999, Larry was the recipient of the Sam Walton Business Leader Award.)

Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:10 am

Q: What will you do to reduce blight in residential and commercial areas? A: Rockford is one city. Unfortunately, we have not acted like "one city." Instead, decades of gross inequality in infrastructure investments has resulted in "sprawl" and blight and decay on the west side and throughout Rockford's urban core. We will reduce blight and increase development on the west side by setting the right priorities and having the right approach. We must do the following: 1. Invest in critical infrastructure improvements on the west side. 2. Institute better land use and zoning guidelines. 3. Institute better development tools and marketing efforts. Our approach must be aggressive
Is this why Perryville and I-90 get the new outlet mall?....LarryBoy made a LOTTA noise of how the downtown Main St. mall strangled downtown traffic flow.........it WAS an IMMEDIATE step he would take=ripping it out....... with the U.S. 20 bypass, and the Harrison/Springfield extension, the westside of Rockford is easily accessible from the Interstate......LarryBoy's own words he would AGGRESSIVELY develop business-How many tax incentives did he SURRENDER for this prime location-He coulda offered even MORE to move if he truly wanted to encourage west-side growth..........why offer concessions to Wal-Mart,richest corp. in the world, to locate off U.S.20?[at alpine] Why not southWEST?? IF HE TRULY MEAN'T ENCOURAGE WEST-SIDE DEVELOPMENT?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!

Tue Jun 27, 2006 10:18 pm

... a "vision" of Rockford SHOULD be in the world according to LarryBoy...... "Q: How should the pedestrian mall be developed? A: My view is that is should be torn out ... on a day-to-day basis, it's a (two-lane) road that will be an interior road, local traffic road. It makes sense to have it open. When you want to close it, I think there's ways to allow hydraulic barriers to come up. Hey, you want to close it down, you got something going on, a street festival, whatever. And build it in such a way that it may have a brick or cobble stone look to it, so it's not going to be a thoroughfare, flying people through there. But it gives you a chance to bring back what we once had in terms of the arteries being open in the main core of downtown. " Now, how hard is it to open up those TWO blocks of Main St.? Does it take 1 1/2 years? Has there been ANY more talk about it? More LarryTalk, less substance..........

Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:19 am

Unity: Communication & Trust: To accomplish great things we must have a unified team. Unfortunately, moral among City employees, as with the City as a whole, has been down. This stems from leadership that has not communicated with and involved its people in a real sense. From:http://www.morrisseyformayor.com/files/Leadership_Position_Paper.PDF Is this the new insurance plan, a well-communicated morale-booster?

Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:44 am

Post subject: http://www.morrisseyformayor.com/files/Morrissey%20-%20Leade -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MORRISSEY OFFERS INSIGHT INTO HIS LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION FORMULA “We must stop planning in secret and start leading in public,” he said. “The City will thrive when we take bold steps and the people of the community, which are the engine of this community, trust and follow the direction the City is taking.” Is this like the employees and their insurance increase? Morrissey also noted that the City must do a better job of managing and coordinating public and private resources. “The City must be accountable for all operations where public money is spent. Under a Morrissey administration, we will be accountable for leading in these areas and achieving results,” he said. Is this like paying debt on the Garrison TIF?? “Rockford has been studied, planned, and task forced to death,” Morrissey said. “To get past the studies and start getting things done, we must have focused, direct, and accountable leadership. We will get beyond the studies and start making positives moves for our future.” Is this like the rail service study, riverwalk study????