Bruce and Christina Alderson had a lot going for them: Legal precedent, supportive
neighbors, folders full of color photos, not to mention plain logic. But when
it came time for the Springfield City Council to vote on the Aldersons’ request,
it turned out that they persuaded only three aldermen. As they left the council
chamber in defeat — supportive neighbors tagging along behind them — the Aldersons
were followed by a herd of mic-waving reporters. And that’s when I knew this
particular council meeting was going to be extra-specially boring.
The Aldersons, see, wanted permission to park their RV in their front yard.
Exciting, no? It’s easy to see why the issue is dear to them. It’s just a bit
harder to understand the media stampede. But indeed, RV parking turned out to
be the biggest controversy of the night. Like I said, this was one of those
extra-specially boring meetings.
Luckily, the tedium was short-lived, thanks in part of Mayor Tim Davlin’s
talent at fast-talking. He blazed through the agenda like an auctioneer. It
was going, going, gone long before 7:30.
The meeting next Thursday night (Jan. 29) should be much meatier. As the grand
finale to the first round of “budget workshops” (aldermen are already talking
about having “recap” sessions), it will focus on City Water, Light and Power,
capital spending, and the mayor’s budget for his own office.
Under Karen Hasara’s administration, the mayor’s office budget could be printed
on one page. It consisted of fewer than 10 employees — the mayor, chief of staff,
two secretaries, a director of communications, and a couple of audio visual
technicians. Davlin’s office budget brings several other divisions under his
purview, including corporation counsel, risk management, inspector general,
and homeland security. Some aldermen have pledged to scrutinize new positions,
especially the job of director of homeland security, currently a part-time job
for a police officer rather than a full-time cabinet-level post.
Davlin’s proposal also contains something truly rare in this budget — a significant
raise for at least one employee. Ernie Slottag, director of communications,
will get a salary increase of more than $15,000 per year, from $53,248 up to
$68,635.
Slottag, who has held this post since May 1, 1995 and who contributed some
$500 to Davlin’s campaign, says he deserves this nearly 30-percent raise because
he’s doing more work under Davlin than he did under Hasara. “I’ve been assigned
some special projects, a lot of dealing with the public on day-to-day issues,
and they’ve put the print shop under me,” he says. “Also we’re here quite a
few nights and weekends.”
Most of the “special projects” aren’t ready to be announced, Slottag says,
but he has made the City of Springfield’s Web site more interactive.
Such a raise, however, may be a tough sell while the City is being forced
to make “Draconian” cuts, to quote the mayor himself. In his speech to council
at the first budget workshop, Davlin described his budget as so utterly “catastrophic”
— especially in the corporate fund — that he had no choice but to recommend
laying off police officers, firefighters, and snow plow drivers. “There is just
no other way to get around it,” he said.
How is this raise going to play with aldermen? Ward 1 Alderman Frank Edwards,
a former fire department chief, questions not just the raise but the job itself.
“When times are tight, do we really need a guy earning $68,000 to be a spokesman
for the mayor? Is he going to save somebody’s life? Is he going to save somebody
from being shot?” Edwards asks. “I mean, I don’t mean to pick on Ernie. But
to me it’s a legitimate question.”
Slottag isn’t the only one getting a salary boost. The mayor pays his support
staff almost $20,000 more than Hasara paid her two secretaries. The current
budget (inherited from Hasara) shows only one secretary, because one resigned
and Hasara didn’t re-fill the position. But when she had two executive secretaries,
in 2002, their salaries totaled $66,474, according to the fiscal year 2003 budget.
Davlin’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2005 shows an administrative secretary
making $39,743 and an administrative assistant making $46,195, for a total of
$85,938 in clerical support.
Ward 3 Alderman Frank Kunz has his eye on other jobs in Davlin’s budget. Kunz
endorses Letitia Dewith-Anderson’s proposal to eliminate the job of chief of
staff or executive assistant to mayor. Dewith-Anderson resigned from that job
last week, telling Illinois Times she didn’t want to take taxpayers’
money for a job that had no real duties or responsibilities.
“I don’t think you need a chief of staff either,” Kunz says. “To me, it’s
always been a position to make sure political side of things is taken care of.
I agree with her. I’d always planned to do away with the job he created for
her.”
It’s no secret that Kunz also won’t vote to fund a homeland security director
as a separate department. He plans to make an amendment that would move that
position — and the grant money that funds it — back into the police department.
Kunz predicts Davlin will argue that the funds are earmarked only for stand-alone
departments. But the man who used to be in charge of homeland security doesn’t
believe it.
“That sounds like BS to me,” says Jim Cimarossa, who coordinated homeland
security up until he was fired by Davlin, shortly after the new mayor took office.
The proposed budget lists the salary for a homeland security dirctor at $80,600,
which is just about equal to the salary Cimarossa made as an assistant chief
of police, handling homeland security part-time. “I can’t see where it would
justify a full-time position,” he says.
According to Kunz, both homeland security and executive assistant are simply
plums to reward political cronies for their loyalty. “Friends from both parties
are sitting in jobs that do not enhance the quality of life in Springfield,
yet we won’t do away with the jobs,” he says. “I see a bureaucracy that keeps
perpetuating itself.”
There is apparently an unexpected opening on the Enterprise Community Coordinating
Council. The vice-chair of that council is Antonio Dwan Davis, who was featured
in a press conference and numerous media reports last week as one of Crime Stoppers’
“Ten Most Wanted” fugitives.
Keith Ushman, the SPD officer who coordinates Crime Stoppers for Sangamon
and Menard Counties, says Davis (also known as Tony Davis or the alias Wendell
Wilcox) was stopped on July 17 because he matched the description of a suspect
who had committed an armed robbery at Home Town Pantry at the corner of 11th
and Stanford. During a frisk, officers discovered Davis was carrying a handgun
and arrested him for unlawful use of a weapon. Though cleared on the robbery,
Davis still faced a weapons charge. His failure to show up for his court date
on that charge is what landed him on Ushman’s most wanted list.
However, as it turns out, Davis is already incarcerated in the Cook County
jail. “I don’t have a clue why he’s there. I didn’t ask,” Ushman says.
But it does solve one mystery. Says one city staffer, “I guess that explains
why he hasn’t shown up at the last few [Enterprise Community Coordinating Council]
meetings.”
Budget hearings
Here’s the revised schedule of remaining City Council
budget workshops:
• Saturday, Jan. 24, at 10 a.m.: Human Resources, Budget & Management,
Economic Development.
• Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 5 p.m.: Health Department, Convention & Visitors
Bureau.
• Thursday, Jan. 29, at 5 p.m., City Water, Light & Power, Office of the
Mayor, capital spending.
All hearings are in city council chambers, Municipal Center West.
This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2004.
