By now you have undoubtedly heard that North Dirksen Parkway is poised to become Springfield’s next retail mecca, thanks to City Council’s Tuesday night passage of a special incentive for developers.
The Council voted 6-5 to designate a 62-acre tract on the west side of Dirksen as a tax-increment financing district, or TIF. This perk is designed to entice some developer to extend Walton Drive — the road leading to Wal-Mart and Lowe’s on the east — across Dirksen into the “blighted” area on the west, thus opening a vast tract that can accommodate a major retailer.
That decision was preceded by a 5-5 vote on another kind of tiff — the City’s two-year wrangle with developer David Maulding. The council again refused to approve Maulding’s warehouse project, thereby almost guaranteeing another lawsuit against the city.
In his speech to the council, Maulding used the key legal terms “arbitrary and capricious” purposefully and repeatedly. Mayor Tim Davlin, who has cast several tie-breaking votes at recent meetings, kept his finger off the button on this one.
In the après-agenda melee of miscellany, Ward 3’s Frank McNeil reported that his ordinance establishing a citizen police review board is still in the Public Affairs committee gathering amendments. These amendments are the result of talks with the highest-ranking members of the police department, the police union and the city’s corporation counsel, facilitated by the mayor’s executive assistant.
Who knows — if all these key players keep talking to each other like this, peace and harmony could break out just in time for the holidays.
Among the remaining sticking points are budget and background checks. There’s never an easy answer to the money question, but the buzz about background checks points to the scenario raised weeks ago in Illinois Times by police union president Bob Markovic, who said that without checks, “You could have a convicted felon scrutinizing police officers.”
The “convicted felon” deemed by observers most likely to be seated on the review board is Mike Williams, founder of the activist group Unity for Our Community. Williams, who helped McNeil draft the ordinance, has never tried to hide his colorful past, which qualifies him as both a “convicted felon” and an amazing success story.
But he denies any interest in serving on any police review board. “I don’t want to be on that board. I just want the board to happen,” Williams says.
Another small question floated at the end of the council meeting presents an interesting math problem regarding the Springfield Fire Department. Over the past few months, the council has approved two funding shifts for SFD to buy new radio equipment. To wring the necessary dollars out of his budget, Chief Ron Hasara demoted division chief Greg Bestudik twice, down to his civil service rank of captain.
Meanwhile, Hasara promoted another captain, Dave DeFraties, up to a division chief slot vacated by Dan Kerhlikar, who has been out on sick leave since June due to injuries sustained when he wrecked his motorcycle. Kerhlikar retired last week, during his “premium cycle,” which entitled him to a 5 percent salary increase. Back in September, he had also received the 1.5 percent merit raise. Not bad for a guy who hurt himself driving drunk while on call as acting fire chief.
So here’s the math problem: If you’re paying Kerhlikar and DeFraties to do the same job at the same time, how do you save money by twice demoting Bestudik?
Bestudik happens to be a Republican precinct committeeman. DeFraties and his
wife, Dawn, have contributed $1,500 to Democratic candidates in the past few
years.
This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2003.
