City of Morris looks to schoolchildren to pay for Community Landfill cleanup

The City of Morris has scheduled a public meeting for September 22, 2008 to consider an amendment to the Morris TIF District Redevelopment Plan.

The City is seeking to add five parcels to the TIF District, including the Community Landfill property. We can expect that the city will then use some or all of the $9,000,000+ that it has accumulated from TIF to pay for the cleanup of the Community Landfill.

Perhaps anticipating the public's disapproval, the Notice contains additional political commentary unnecessary to the purpose of the notice, making the patently false claim that "TIF DOES NOT raise property taxes"

The city's commentary goes on to explain that..."TIF is used merely to reallocate" increased property tax revenues..."

Indeed TIF reallocates tax revenues - taking the money from schools and other taxing bodies, and giving that money to the city. The tax revenue that would have otherwise gone to the schools must be made up - in the form of over $3,000,000 annually in higher property taxes for everyone.

Community Landfill

There has been little discussion lately about the liability facing the City of Morris as a result of its involvment with Community Landfill, Inc.

The Illinois Pollution Control Board has ruled that the city of Morris partnered with Community Landfill, Inc. to operate the city dump and that the city failed to provide the required "adequate financial assurances" for proper closure of the landfill.

The adverse IPCB ruling results from the actions of former mayor Bob Feeney and current mayor Dick Kopczick. The city co-signed performance bonds for Community Landfill, Inc. and submitted the bonds to the State of Illinois in order to maintain licensing for the landfill.

Why? Because Community Landfill, Inc. could not obtain proper bonding on its own.

Community Landfill, Inc. was operated by convicted felons, a fact known to both mayors when the bonds were signed.

Moreover, the bonds were issued by a bonding company which had been removed from the list of approved bonding companies in 2000. Another fact that was known to the city and its engineers and attorneys.

Predictably, the bond is worthless and Community Landfill, Inc. is unable to pay the costs. The IEPA is now looking to the taxpayers of Morris to do the environmental cleanup at the landfill.

The Illinois Pollution Control Board has already determined that the City is liable. Only the amount of the penalty to be imposed is yet to be determined.

Read the IPCB opinion finding against Morris here.

City of Morris exposed to civil liability?

Morris is not the first city to make creative use of sales tax rebate agreements.

The village of Lisle entered into a questionable sales tax rebate agreement and soon found itself named as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by the other municipality.

After years of litigation, a cash settlement was reached, as reported in this recent Chicago Tribune article.

Read the complete appellate court ruling in Village of Itasca vs. Village of Lisle.

Minority Development?

According the City of Morris Treasurer's Report, one of the city's largest vendors is a company called Minority Development Co. Last fiscal year, the city paid Minority Development $639,604.

With the name Minority Development, someone skimming the Treasurer's Report might assume that this is a minority-owned construction company hired for a large public works project. That is not the case.

Actually, this company occupies a sparsely furnished one-room office in the Franklin Building, where it does "paperwork" for a large suburban car dealership.

What is really going on here?

It appears that the arrangement goes something like this:

The car dealership claims that millions of dollars of vehicles are sold in the tiny office in Morris. Using a sales tax rebate agreement, the city then rebates a large portion of the city's sales tax revenue back to the dealership, keeping a small percentage for the city. Minority Development acts as the conduit. No cars, customers or salesmen are physically present in Morris.

The dealership manages to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales tax. The suburban village where the car dealership is actually located is similarly deprived of hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales tax revenue. All courtesy of the City of Morris.


Municipality sued over sales tax rebate agreement


Village of Itasca vs. Village of Lisle

City engineer cashes in

"City officials in Wilmington have grumbled for years about how much the city pays each year for professional services, but this year's payments to the city engineers has led to discussions about creating an in-house engineering position." This according to a recent article in the Free Press newspapers.

It seems the City of Wilmington paid engineers over $221,000 last year. The city council is so upset by the expense that it is considering moving engineering services in-house.

Morris should be so lucky.

According to the City of Morris Treasurer's Report published in the Morris Daily Herald, the city of Morris paid Chamlin & Associates engineers a whopping $826,972 last fiscal year.

Payments to Chamlin ballooned 39% percent over the previous year, when the city of Morris paid Chamlin $593,346.

To put this in perspective, if we allow for weekends and holidays, the city of Morris paid Chamlin $3,269 per day, for each and every working day of the year.

Mike Farrell advocates ending TIF

Mike Farrell has written an opinion piece suggesting that it is time to end the Morris TIF.

The Morris TIF district will expire in 2009, unless the school boards agree to an extension.

City officials are actively lobbying school superintendents for an extension.

Mr. Farrell's analysis recognizes the fact that TIF diverts money from our schools. Each year, according to Farrell, over $3,000,000 is diverted from other taxing districts into city coffers. The other taxing districts don't go without; the shortfall is simply made up in the form of higher taxes for every property owner in the district.

By refusing to extend TIF, school boards can improve the financial condition of their districts and bring about much needed tax relief.


Oak Park School Boards Demand Return of TIF Money

Lawsuit by Seneca school board halts TIF abuse

City raises taxes 11%

The Morris City Council has approved an 11% increase in city property taxes, as reported in this Morris Daily Herald article. City property taxes will increase by $187,589 to $1,961,500 - an 11% increase over the previous year.

(This isn't including the city's TIF tax, which adds $3,000,000 annually in hidden property taxes.)

City officials chant the misleading mantra that the tax rate has remained level, while imposing double-digit tax hikes on residents year after year.

According to alderman Jeff Paulson,

Your taxes (paid to the city) are going up because the value of your property has gone up,”

Really? Has the value of your home gone up by 11 percent over last year?

Well get out your wallet, because city property taxes just did.

City of Morris jeopardizes 20 union jobs

A company called Houston Roof Curbs and Sheet Metal wants to relocate its business to Morris. (Mike Farrell misspells the company name as Huston)

According to a Morris Daily Herald article, the company recently appeared before the Morris Development Review Committee seeking approval to construct a new metal building on Spruce Street behind Third avenue along the railroad tracks, on property properly zoned for manufacturing.

Houston would employ 20 union sheet metal workers at its proposed Morris facility.

You would think that Morris would welcome 20 new union jobs with open arms - maybe even offer incentives to lure them to our community. Instead, the city has subjected this company to the costly and useless process of begging for approval from the city's "Development Review Committee."

The Development Review Committee missed the opportunity to approve this proposal because "the M-1 ordinance requires new buildings to be constructed of brick or masonry" but the company budget only allows construction of a metal building.

Additionally, "several members of the Development Review Committee said they would like to see different colors and features of the exterior walls."

This is the same committee that dictated to Menards what sort of flowers should be planted at the new Morris store. Prospective developers of all sizes are required to pay the city $3,000 for the privilege of being subjected to this sort of spurious drivel from the committee.

Let's hope that it is not too late, and this company doesn't decide to instead move to Coal City, Seneca, or some other locality that does not subject prospective employers to the whims of this improvident and destructive committee.



Web site for Houston Roof Curbs and Sheet Metal, Inc.

Joliet Herald article

Treasurer's Report

The City of Morris Annual Treasurer's Report was published in tonight's Morris Daily Herald. It is not available online.

Be sure to clip-n-save the report, as we may be referring to it in upcoming postings.

Lights out for Senreq?

The electric meter appears to have been pulled from Senreq's demonstration facility, which is located on property rented from the City of Morris for $1,200 per year. Click on the photo to zoom in.

Why was the meter pulled? Is Senreq so successful at generating energy from garbage that it no longer needs to buy electricity?

Thank you to the alert reader who e-mailed this photo.

Kopczick's Corn Festival Legacy

The Antique Gas Engine Show is absent from the Grundy County Corn Festival this year. The event had been a fixture of Corn Festivals for decades. Antique gas engine enthusiasts travelled from far and near to proudly display their machinery.

Last year, Mayor Dick Kopczick issued a controversial mayoral edict ordering the engine operators to immediately remove their vehicles from the lawn at Chapin Park. The operators tried to explain that they must stay near their machines to keep them running safely. Mayor Kopczick refused to reconsider. Instead, he enlisted the assistance of police to carry out his command and swiftly emptied the park. The engine owners group vowed not to return to Morris.

You might think that the mayor would take steps to make amends and encourage the group to return. If the park lawn had suddenly become an overriding concern, surely there must be some other suitable location.

These out of town guests who volunteered their time, money and energy to make Corn Festival more enjoyable for all, are now left with a negative perception of our community, festival goers are deprived of an enjoyable experience, and a Corn Festival tradition has been destroyed.

City of Morris violates Open Meetings Act?

The City of Morris does not post agendas for city council meetings on it's website.

This omission seems to be in violation of the Open Meetings Act, Sec. 2.02(a), which provides that:

"A public body that has a website that the full‑time staff of the public body maintains shall also post on its website the agenda of any regular meetings of the governing body of that public body."

And, according to the Better Government Association, the City of Morris also has trouble complying with the Freedom of Information Act. Read their report here.

City attorney squelches alderman

The Morris Daily Herald has published an article by Mike Farrell entitled "Extra alderman's involvement could violate law." The article is not available online.

In the article, Farrell explains why Alderman Don Matteson was not permitted to speak when he attended a meeting of a committee of which he is not a member.

Unbelievable? Yes, according to Mike Farrell, our city attorney has recommended that aldermen not be permitted to speak at committee meetings!

The explanation given by our pricey city attorney is that a fourth alderman would make a "majority of a quorum and could be a violation of the Open Meetings Act."

The Open Meetings Act, according to guidelines published by Attorney General Lisa Madigan, is intended "to ensure that the actions of public bodies be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly."

The Act, with few exceptions, requires that "all meetings of public bodies shall be open to the public." A "meeting" is defined as "any gathering of a majority of a quorum of the members of a public body held for the purpose of discussing public business."

Most, if not all, Morris city council committees consist of three alderman members. Thus, two committee members would constitute a majority of a quorum. This simply triggers the requirement (which the city complies with) that the meeting be open to the public, and that there must be public notice of the meeting.

Nothing in the Open Meetings Act remotely suggests that any individual, alderman or private citizen, is prohibited from speaking at a public meeting.


Attorney General Lisa Madigan's Open Meetings Act website

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