Find it interesting, the Register Star editorial board has joined the City Council in getting a bit fed up with LarryRule....
"...If these four aldermen along with the others who signed the letter to the editor follow through with nurturing their new-found leadership, it’s likely to mean confrontations between the council and the mayor over who is in charge.
Mayor Morrissey has come a long way over the past couple years in managing his instinctive “my way or highway, and I don’t suffer fools well” approach to things. But he lets his frustrations at the slow political processes make him crazy and he’ll still say things that demean those who don’t move or think as fast or as smartly as he would like them to.
It won’t be an easy relationship, this new model of Rockford government in which the aldermen demand a controlling role. Not with a mayor as focused and headstrong as this one...."
AND...
"...We understand Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey is frustrated. But frustration is not a luxury he — or the city of Rockford — can afford right now. He needs to dial back his resentment and drop his opposition to taking a 5 percent pay cut.It’s the first chapter in the CEO playbook: He needs to lead by example.At a City Council meeting last week, Morrissey announced it was the unions’ job to reopen their contracts and make a sacrifice first. He said Rockford was in the pickle it was in because the city conceded to the unions with too-generous contracts, year after year.“If I’m them, I see us make all of these unilateral cuts to ourselves without them having to do anything. It’s laughable. It’s management by martyrdom, and that’s no way to run an organization....

See, only thing I would add is blaming the unions is a crock o' LarryCrap...

The reality can be found in the CAFR's...

Comparing 2004 thru 2009, we find LarryBoy's Empire went thru almost $10million in unreserved general fund monies and increased long-term bond debt at least $65million...TIF's, hockey team,TIF's, mall removal, TIF's, Riverwalk....
There's the problem folks, plain,simple,TRUE!!!!!!!!

Well,shaping up to be a laborious week for LarryBoy...Ted Biondo wrote a series of blog posts explaining the ins&outs of TIF districts and illustrates(whether intentionally or not) that fully HALF of the projected deficit for the upcoming year is traceable to LarryBoy's unbridled enthusiasm for this "redevelopment" tool.

One thing I found very interesting is the entry University of Illinois study finds that municipalities without TIFs grow faster...
"...The study found, that after accounting for many variables which might have affected growth, the 81 TIF municipalities’ growth stayed about the same before and after TIF was adopted, and the 154 municipalities without TIF grew faster than those who used it...."

(see,I posted this same info 4-5 years ago on the previous life of this commentary,"LarryBoy, in his own words(for what it's worth)" NOW all of a sudden people see it as an issue??)

It just makes one question LarryBoy's fondness for TIF's...5-6 when he took office...30 NOW!!!

So I really needed time to digest/forget last Mon. Circus Council....group of out-there speakers, last minute antics with TIF funds, and ending with the Council gauntlet laid down over the obscene raise proposed for LarryBoy's GoldenGirl, JuliahyphenatedValdez ....


WAIT ONE MINUTE!!! (started this last week,my, things happen quickly when one procrastinates,huh?)

THIS week's meeting was one for the DVR,kids...LarryBoy's on vacation, his bestest LarryBotBenitaScurvy named mayor pro-tem...and she showed her impatience with any threats to Allegiance to the LarryBoy Empire...
Check it out, there was(IS) a MAJORITY of the Council that have a REAL PROBLEM with all the dire budget news and accepting the proposed(?) $34,000-a-year RAISE for Julia and, through a series of motions and amendments, voted her an interim position/salary bump....
( Parliamentarian "TightSuit"Hayes had his work set out for him, stumbling,mumbling,cautioning under the questions and pressures)

In the end(despite Scurvey's play of the GENDER CARD), Council(AND TAXPAYERS!!) won out with the lesser pay increase...

BUT "...Morrissey, who was on vacation and didn’t attend the council meeting, said that his designee for the position of HR director remains Julia Scott Valdez, even though the council did not approve her appointment....Monday night, Morrissey said Valdez is doing the job and got the raise he negotiated with her, and he has no plans to proceed any differently...."

See folks, it is no wonder we have a 'budget crisis' when we have King LarryBoy ignoring the Council and spending as HE SEES FIT(remember the Adam Smith$41,000hush-hush raise?)

It's Good to Be KING!!!!

So I was watching an old "Family Guy" the other night, and I was struck by the situational similarities of the plight of the citizens of Quahog and Rockford.

See, Quahog's mayor is Adam West and he's arrogant,self-centered,and really doesn't care about the citizens' needs. He spends the entire budget(and adds DEBT) on a solid gold statue of the Honey Smacks' mascot, Dig'Em in the city's center.(Rockford's 'Dig'Em statue'??? the MetroCentre?removing the downtown mall??? YOU DECIDE)

So there's a frame in the show showing taxpayers picketing around the statue with signs like 'Don't Cut Basic Services'...ironically real....so the mayor figures he needs to distract the people and proposes a bill to outlaw gay marriage(OK,so not gonna go THERE, )but in Rockford the distraction is Firefighter Pensions...(LarryBoy made contemptous remarks in last Council's 'Officers' Report' then the AdamWesthead admits nothing can be done with the CURRENT firefighters' and retirees' pensions....what a maroon....

LarryBoy says,"... “we can’t spend more than we take in. We’ve been doing that, unfortunately..." No foolin'
He spends so much time pointing fingers at the Fire Union, nobody bothers looking into his empire's 'inner sanctum'....
http://www.ci.rockford.il.us/uploadedFiles/government/Finance/FinancialInformation/CAFR/Rockford%202007%20CAFR%20FINAL.pdf

II. EXCESS OF ACTUAL EXPENDITURES OVER BUDGET
For the year ended December 31, 2007, the General Fund and Major Special Revenue funds had an excess of actual
expenditures and financing uses over budget at the legal level of budgetary control (department level) as follows:
MAJOR FUNDS:
General Fund
Mayor's office $ ( 49,191)
City Council ( 10,653)
Board of fire and police commission ( 3,660)
Board of election ( 98,235)
Police department ( 1,003,259)
Fire department ( 639,744)
Building department ( 13,999)
Public works - Street and sewer ( 1,547,622)
Community Development Fund ( 16,445)

http://www.ci.rockford.il.us/uploadedFiles/government/Finance/FinancialInformation/CAFR/Rockford%20CAFR%201208.pdf

(newer PDF,can't seem to copy, but)...Board of Elections was OVERBUDGET...$1,255,969!!!!
WTF????

http://www.ci.rockford.il.us/uploadedFiles/government/Finance/Divisions/CentralServices/Mayor.pdf
Here you see LarryBoy's office budget grew 30% in 2 YEARS!!! AND STILL WENT OVERBUDGET....sheeesh,buddy get a grip....


Oh, then the comments on that web story babble idiotically"...Do not use the motor gas tax money for anything other than what it is intended for. "....so I sez(WITH documentation...) "MFT is being used for stuff likeRIVERWALK, http://www.ci.rockford.il.us/uploadedFiles/government/PublicWorks/Reports/2009-2013%20CIP%20Book%20Final%20Version.pdf DOWNTOWN ONE-WAY PAIR FEASIBILITY STUDY (PH II), WEST STATE STREET - LAND ACQUISITION

LarryBoy sure got some pinhead followers...

It's been a given that the Rockford Register Star has a DEFINITE PRO-LarryBoy bias....

That being accepted, I just was floored by this recent fable they published...
http://www.rrstar.com/carousel/x1849220981/Depth-of-Rockford-jobs-cuts-varies-by-division

"...Some, such as the planning division under community development, have shrunk from 15 employees to 5.3...."

Now, as I commented on their site, it took me all of SEVEN MINUTES to find that was a plain simple LIE!!!!

Look HERE...http://www.ci.rockford.il.us/uploadedFiles/government/Finance/Divisions/CentralServices/CD%20Plan(5).pdf

"...The decline is a result of the creation of the new Construction and Development Services Division budget unit, of which five staff came out of the Planning Division. The balance of the staff changes occurred with the reallocation of staff, between divisions within the department...."

(Gee, I can remember when there were REPORTERS that checked FACTS and ISSUED CORRECTIONS when 'mistakes'(?) were brought to their attention....)

Matter of fact,this smoke and mirror bullcrap starts with the 2007-2009 arbitrary time line in this LarryBoy ADVERTISEMENT....
See, way I see it, need to compare BL(before LarryBoy) with AL(after Larryboy)...
And according to the most recent CAFR....http://www.ci.rockford.il.us/uploadedFiles/government/Finance/FinancialInformation/CAFR/Rockford%20CAFR%201208.pdf

one finds MOST departments within City Hall saw increased staffing AND new positions CREATED since LarryBoy's election(notable exceptions,Police Officers and Pubic Works)[the guys on the streets,not the office/administration/engineer-types that merely sit in offices and call contractors to adminstrate,engineer,etc.]

In REALITY, fire personnel HAS stayed consistent, BUT even with the two-year personnel 'cuts' touted by LarryBoy are STILL ABOVE 2005 levels!!!

So FIRST off...
I gotta highly recommend this guy(if you haven't found him already)....
RockfordRhetoric...

We've been somewhat discussing Venita Hervey,5th Ward alderman...I gotta add my observations of her LarryBotic-SchizoBabble I heard last week on WNTA and then her impassioned rantings on Council floor Mon. nite.

See,the City(LarryBoy,'TightSuit'Hayes,etc) TWICE has been spanked by an arbitrator, and the firefighters' contract specifies 4 on a Truck! Well, LarryBoy just CAN'T STAND LOSING, heck he went to SPRINGFIELD crying to state law makers.
So anyway, Venita McCarthy(amazing can't see Larry's lips move when she talks) was
on the radio, she was touting this 'they're not volunteers, they would be unpaid firefighters-in-training'.... explaining the vision she has of CIRCUMVENTING the contractual language.
(God, I can't stand lawyers-turned-politicians)

Well I had to watch her meltdown at council TWICE...and still not able to understand much of anything she said....first she says she's probably the one person there most likely to have a heart attack and she HAD a health scare and drove herself to the hospital and her wards full of crime and blight and there's no way she will back down on the Morgan St. bridge and if we gotta get rid of cops and fire stations that's OK she won't let the ward down with that bridge and those unpaid fiefighters (sounds to me like she's advocating slavery or indentured servitude), well they should be minorities cuz they don't have hope cuz of crime and blight and this bridge is the ONLY future southwest Rockford can even dream of anymore.......sheeeesh

See, FIRST off, I just don't get why it's a fire station or the bridge. WHO EVEN SUGGESTED THAT?? Nowhere I can find anybody suggest that idea....must be a lawyer thought floating around the 7th/8th floor of cityhall.

Secondly, West State and South Main reconstruction ARE priorities...the West Side HAS been neglected for decades, but near as I can tell,despite McHervey and Ann Mortimer Thompson-Snerd blind allegiance to LarryBoy, I think it's STILL going on....and from what I hear that bridge woulda been DONE BY NOW if LarryBoy hadn't had it redesigned into a mini-Golden Gate and I suspect some bunch of insiders needed time to buy up all that crappy surrounding property so they can sell it at top-tax-dollar when demolition gets really underway.


And the final straw in all these baskets is LarryBoy's CIP mantra is all about 'leveraging' city funds against state funds. Ah, HHEEELLLLLOOOOO, McFly,anybody home??? THE STATE IS BROKE!!!