LaSalle Insider

To begin with I am not a big fan of Mexican restaurants or their featured dishes.  I will admit to enjoying a margarita now and then.  That enjoyment led me to meet Alex.  He was the bartender at a friend of mines Mexican restaurant. He seemed like a hardworking guy just trying to make a place for his family and himself.  He was  the preferred mixologist when it came to what I believe  was the best margarita in the area.  Over about fifteen years I came to enjoy the conversations Alex and I had concerning baseball, family, and even possible real estate deals that he was considering.  His boss came to trust him enough to let him run the place on the days he took off.  You could say Alex was just like the rest of us, just trying to make it in this competitive world.

On tuesday of last week Alex was arrested and charged with five felony charges stemming from the drug raids in Peru.  If prosecutors seek back to back terms of all counts Alex will be in jail the rest of his natural life.

Alex, who’s full name is Alejandro Arteaga, changed the way I look at people from that point forward. I am not talking about anyone’s views on legalizing drugs or making the penalties more severe, I am talking about not believing my gut when it comes to how you look at people you think you know.  Most of us feel that given a period of time on this earth we gain the ability to determine a person’s character after we have known them for a little while  Alex seemed like a great guy who you would love to have live next door to you.  At no time did he resemble Al Pacino as Tony Montana in “Scarface” yet here he is referred to as the leader of this group recently arrested.

I don’t think I will ever trust my instincts fully when it comes to really thinking I know somebody.  My only hope is that the  “Alex” I knew is still there but just got caught up in something he couldn’t control.  I feel sorry for his wife and children that if convicted, their lives will never be the same.  Understand that if it comes out that he was just “playing” everybody than he deserves any punishment he gets……yet its hard to believe that my internal radar didn’t pick up on this over the last  fifteen  years……Oh well live and learn…

I was so pleased to see former Mayor Art Washkowiak set the record straight with the News Tribune in March 11th’s edition of that paper.  On page A4 Matt  Baker printed Art’s response to the column written by Craig Sterrett earlier in the week.  Mr Sterrett suggested that investors and the city officials were fooled by the Frontier Lodge developers and implied the whole thing was a scam from inception.  He also stated  that the city ran water and sewer across Rt 80 specifically for this project.  Mayor Art explained that the city had run the water and sewer to that area much earlier under a grant in 1999.  I was on the council at that time and recall the conversations  concerning that project.  We wanted to be ready for expansion and have the infrastructure in place to help draw development to that area.

Mr Sterrett once again showed his inability or refusal to do the research before he writes his column.  Facts apparently get in the way of a good story where Mr Sterrett is concerned.  At least Matt Baker had the decency to correct the history involved.  I guess it would have been too much to expect an apology from Craig after he painted city officials as simpletons when it comes to doing our due diligence.

I stated that Craig once again showed his inability to do the research because he wrote a column about me regarding a city road project that was also lacking facts.  It was in regards to replacing a street in the northern section of town.  It ’s in my fourth ward and Mr Sterrett suggested my support was do the the “fact” that I had a business on that street.

He wrote the column without even checking with me as to whether I did in fact have a business there.  I DID NOT. When I called him he told me he thought I had a business there and that someone told him I had one there.  I explained that all he had to do prior to the story was to make a phone call to verify.  But if he had done that it would have changed the story and changed his angle which was to put me in a bad light as a city official.  His apology which appeared days later in the back of the paper stated that the paper wanted to report an error.  But instead of stating the paper was wrong and I did not have a business on that street they merely printed that I denied having a business located there.  Some apology.

If Craig had any class he would write a column of apology  and not leave it to Matt Baker to correct ”his errors”.  As News Editor of the paper isn’t it his job to check the accuracy of those news stories?  Maybe its time to give that position to Matt Baker….what do you think?

So let me see if I got this right….the mayor meets a former alderman/friend in a bar and between them they decide to create a handshake deal to rent a building to store expensive city equipment and the mayor thinks no written agreement needs to be created.  He then has no discussion with the council about this arrangement and instructs his comptroller to issue checks to Terry Mack with no explanation on the billing.

This “deal” goes on from October until April and no one on the council is made aware of it by anyone within the city operations.  The only reason  anyone finds out about this is because I was told by the former alderman that this deal took place.  Is there anyone out there who thinks this is the proper way to run city government?  If there is than you must be related to the Mayor or expect something from him for your support.  If this story was coming from the city of Chicago instead of LaSalle the Chicago papers would be demanding an investigation….

Let me clear up some errors in reporting this story by the local press and also statements made at last night’s council meeting that were incorrect…

The issue as I see it was never whether we needed additional heated rental space but the fact that the Mayor thinks he has full authority to make spending decisions without council consent .

The only time this is acceptable is if it is an emergency situation and even then most Mayors would at least try to reach the finance chairman and inform him.  Am I the only one who finds it strange that Mayor Grove did not discuss this with any alderman and it lasted six months?

The statement made that this bill(s) were approved by the council is less than honest.  These checks appeared  on internal forms only accessible to the finance committee.  They are on a list which would list bills already paid by the city.  The mistake is that all other bills on that list would have been previously approved for payment by the council at earlier meetings with the exception of the checks issued to Terry Mack. These payments were made without first being approved by the Council.

The Mayor suggested last night that this has been the policy for the last 15-20 years as far as the handling of bills.  I have been on the council for over eleven years and have never seen a time when a payment was buried in this fashion so as not to raise any questions by the council.  He went so far as to accuse the former Mayor of this type of activity but presented no evidence to back up  his claim.

Bottom line Mr. Mayor is this…if this was such a  good idea why did you feel the need to hide it from the Council?   And more importantly are there other deals you have made that the Council doesn’t know about?

Remember its the people’s money…not yours…and there are rules you need to follow.

PS -If the equipment had been vandalized or damaged in a fire do you think our insurance company would pay?    You would be wrong.  The absence of a written agreement and the building owner not naming us as an additional insured on his policy would leave us with an uninsured loss.  I believe that equipment is valued in the hundreds of thousands (sewer Vac).  If this had been discussed by the council this information would have been brought to the floor and the risk would not have been there….