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Editorials
Host of challenges confront local agencies : Editorials : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisHost of challenges confront local agencies
| 1/3/2013
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Local governmental agencies are dealing with a host of important issues as we begin the new year. Here are some thoughts and, hopefully, helpful suggestions from our editorial staff on just a few of those issues:
Oswego School District: New
teachers' contract first task
The first order of businesses for the Oswego School District Board in the new year should be to adopt the new contract recently negotiated between the board and the Oswego Education Association (OEA). The school district's teachers have been working without a contract since last July 1. As we reported last week, the two sides have reached a tentative agreement on a new, three year contract. Adoption of the contract will enable the board, teachers and administrators to focus on Job No. 1: the education of the district's students.
Moving forward, we would like also like to see contractors for the school district complete the additions to Oswego East and Oswego High School this summer as previously scheduled and within budget.
In addition, the school board can do much to improve its credibility with the taxpayers it serves by avoiding further violations of the Illinois Open Meetings Act. That means making sure that all closed sessions are recorded as required by law. Board members also need to learn that just because the act may permit them to close a meeting to the public they are in no way obligated to do so.
Oswego Village Board: New
department needs effective leader
A top priority for the village should be the hiring of a new economic development director to oversee the village's still fledgling economic development department. The board took a big gamble in April 2011 when it severed its ties with the Oswego Economic Development Corporation in favor of setting up its own in-house economic development department. That controversial move upset many in the local business community and left the village to pay the full cost for local business retention and attraction efforts. It's time village taxpayers started to see some tangible results from the village's economic development department.
Montgomery Village Board: TIF,
Boulder Hill projects should proceed
Village officials need to proceed with their effort to establish a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district along Orchard Road. Creation of a TIF will help the village lure job and tax revenue producing businesses to the hundreds of developable acres of land adjoining Orchard and Aucutt roads. At the same time, the board should take a pass on a pending request to install a garish LED billboard sign along Orchard Road. A prior village board took a major step towards beautifying the village eight years ago when they outlawed billboard signs. The current board should stand by that decision. We doubt the vast majority of village residents want to see more billboard signs along roads and highways in the community.
The village board should be applauded for finally voting last month to proceed with the long-planned replacement of about three miles of defective water mains in the unincorporated Boulder Hill Subdivision. The board and village staff now need to secure financing for the project and see to it that all work is done correctly and at the lowest possible cost to Boulder Hill water customers.
Oswego and Montgomery:
infrastructure funds needed
The village boards in both communities received recommendations from their professional staffs over the past year that they need to budget funds for long-term capital improvements like street maintenance in the years ahead. We agree with those recommendation, but at issue is where will the money come from? Currently, both municipalities receive annual allotments of MFT (Motor Fuel Tax) revenues from the state. However, the amount they receive is nowhere near enough to pay for the necessary street repairs in the years ahead. In Montgomery, board members have discussed but have yet to take action on a 2011 staff recommendation to seek voter approval of a sales tax increase to provide the necessary funds. As a Home Rule community, Oswego already has considerably more flexibility to impose an infrastructure tax. To rely solely on unstable and inadequate revenues from new growth or annual sales tax revenue increases to pay for long-term maintenance costs would be irresponsible.
Yes, it's easy for the boards in both villages to adopt the Grover Norquist philosophy of just saying no to any tax or fee increases now, but if they continue to do so they'll be leaving future generations of local residents a very hefty bill to pay to rebuild streets and storm sewers.
Oswego Fire Protection District:
time to elect agency's board
Among the local agencies listed here, the fire protection district is the only one not governed by an elected board. Instead, the chairman of the Kendall County Board appoints the board. We continue to believe that in view of the millions of tax dollars the fire district spends each year, the taxpayers' best watchdog would be an elected board. It's time for concerned fire district residents to begin the effort to secure passage of a referendum that would allow them to choose who serves on the fire district's board.
Sheriff's Department
needs a culture change
As we reported a few weeks ago, two former Kendall County Sheriff's Department employees have filed lawsuits in federal court against the department alleging sexual harassment by male supervisors and co-workers.
One of the former employees worked as a sheriff's deputy, while the other served as a corrections officer. The lawsuits continue a troubling pattern of sexual harassment allegations against sheriff's department personnel. (Back in 2010 the county board voted to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit against then Chief Deputy Terry Tichava at a cost to taxpayers of $380,000)
Sheriff Richard Randall needs to immediately take positive action to change the culture in the sheriff's department so that his own employees are no longer harassment targets and taxpayers are spared the expenses of any more lawsuits.
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