As most of you know the council in our last meeting agreed to extend our economic director position for three more years. Only Alderman Green and myself voted against the extension. My reasons were lack of money and no real results after one year in the position. When I asked for some criteria that we could use to measure the success or failure of the position I was met with…”he’s a nice guy” and “he has answered all my questions when asked”
I guess for some that’s enough…I mean after all its a government position and we all have come to expect little in return for our tax dollars. Is it any wonder why the government jobs unemployment rate is 3% while the private sector is in double digits! As our ex governor would say..” this job is golden!”
Spring Valley has seen growth recently thanks to their part-time Director and Oglesby has used an hourly person (not to exceed 20 hours a week) while Peru just hired a volunteer to be their economic director. Somehow our Mayor and the majority of the council still feel we know better and have a full time director in this economy. If you add up all the moneys spent on this position we are looking at an annual payout of almost $80,000.00
No other city our size is doing that! We have never received a report stating number of new businesses or vacant buildings now occupied versus businesses lost or new empty sites from our director. Gee I wonder why?
Maybe its not going as well as we thought…
Well we are all paying for it, so next time you wonder why we can’t fill your pothole or why your street will just have to wait, remember we are spending 80K on economic growth….so I guess you will just have to call our Mayor and ask him if the trade off is worth it…you tell me.
Oh, by the way, Don still lives in Peru, he has a business in Peru and his wife works in Peru….and his job is to sell LaSalle….anybody else find this a little funny?
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I totally agree with you. I would like to know more of what this person has done for us, the tax payers. While it is understandable that some details of possible development can’t be reveled until the first shovel of dirt is turned, there has to be some kind of report that can be made public. I hope we receive more information in the next 3 years.
Please correct my facts…as I understand it, none of the City workers have received a raise this year (police, fire dept, and city workers) but yet the city has $80,000 to fork over hand over to this guy? Is there anything we as tax payers can do to get some answers on Don’s activities, results, or lack there of?
Thanks for your time and the continued updates.
I guess you could press city hall for some stats about Don’s performance but I doubt if they could give you any. You may try calling him direct at City Hall and quiz him yourself. As far as raises, currently no city contract reflects any raise. Remember our fiscal year ends April 30th. We are currently negotiating the AFSME contract (covers city workers not police or fire) and that hasn’t been resolved. They did take a one year freeze which expires 4/30. To be fair the $80,000.00 reflects total appropriated for this current fiscal year and includes our payment to IVAC which is around $13,000. Remember our surrounding communities don’t exceed $26,000 for pay to their economic directors (excludes IVAC payment) but our city didn’t even entertain the idea of a part time position for this post. Don’s number is 488-4442 and city hall is 223-3755. Thanks for your comment