News & Updates

The additional costs of a strong mayor form of government will be modest compared to our current city government. The primary sources of additional costs are i.) the fees paid to the city council members, and, ii.) the cost of a full time mayor as head of city government. The payment levels to the council members and mayor will be set by the current city council according to statute. (This info was previously posted in November.)

The annual increase in costs to oversee and direct city affairs will be less than $50,000 per year. That equates to $2.33 per citizen per year or an increase of only $.22 per resident per year for greater representation and accountability. With an annual budget of close to $100 million and countless thousands wasted on weak management and leadership, this is a worthwhile investment to improve our city.

One prominent Chamber Board member, opposed to ChangeDecatur, has stated that it would cost $500,000 per year more for a strong mayor (some critics have said $1 million per year more.). When asked to explain this statement he said "I just think so. I don't have to show you why I think so." These unsupportable estimates are examples of false assertions being made by the Chamber of Commerce to scare voters.             JUST VOTE NO

Continue reading "The Costs of City Government - Strong Mayor" »

Posted by SDD at 05:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Simple Facts and Simple Truth - Many..many boards and councils in Decatur have 20 or more people. We have any number of sites that could easily accomodate a larger council. In fact, it might well lead to more open government to have some of the council meetings held in facilities throughout the city so that citizens in neighborhoods can more easily observe their city government function. For all the active research going on in these blogs, has anyone inventoried the facilities in the civic center? How about the current auditorium as a place to hold council meetings? Simple truth.

Continue reading "Is a 20 Member City Council Too Big? NO!" »

Posted by SDD at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

One of our supporters wrote this letter to the editor for the Herald & Review.

ChangeDecatur is an opportunity for the citizens of Decatur to make a remarkable difference in the environment they live in. Next February, voters will take to issue a ballot referendum that potentially can change the landscape of Decatur politics for years to come.
For anyone inside or out-side the community, you will deal with one person who speaks clearly and efficiently for the city. That person is also held responsible for all actions of the city. Under a strong mayor form, you know who the leader is.

Continue reading "A Letter to the Editor - Clear Up Accountability" »

Posted by SDD at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by SDD at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This article was written by one of the supporters of ChangeDecatur. 

It really makes little difference if the Mayor has an “administrator” (in an strong mayor form of government). In our current system the City Manager has multiple assistant managers and department heads who know their areas. Why wouldn't the Mayor?

The difference to me is: Who is “the boss” of the city, its departments and the city workers? 

In the current form of city government, the City Manager is "the boss" that runs the city.  Problems or issues that are reported to the elected officials, the Mayor, or Council members are given to the City Manager to deal with.  The elected officials are left powerless except to fire him if they are unhappy.  [Ed - For those interested, we encourage them to click on this link to see a legal analysis of the authority of the Mayor, Council and City Manager.]It is an all or nothing choice that renders them somewhat powerless unless he is horrible enough to fire.  The elected Mayor or Council have no involvement in day to day operations.  That is what I want to see changed. 

Continue reading "Does the Responsibility of the City Manager & Mayor Matter? FAQ # 15" »

Posted by SDD at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

No! We are not endorsing anyone for Mayor but we do believe that he would be much more effective if he had the legal reins of government instead of only being a figurehead. Under our current form of city government the elected Mayor has nearly no authority over city government. He has nearly the same responsibility as city council-members. All the legal authority for city management is vested in an unelected (and typically unaccountable) city manager.

We would welcome Paul and many others to seek to serve as a full-time mayor. We also believe that many other citizens will offer to serve as leader and visionary of our community under a new form of government. Electing someone based on their vision, passion and ability to lead will result in a much brighter future for Decatur.

Continue reading "Paul For Mayor! Huh?" »

Posted by SDD at 02:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A recent blog post in the Herald & Review asked the question as to why the police space needs issue seems so hard to resolve. The Herald & Review wrote an excellent opinion piece on this topic a month or so ago. You can obtain it by clicking on the link or searching their archives.

In short, this decision has been impeded unnecessarily by a bureaucratic decision process that started with an answer and then tried to support it with a litany of flawed assumptions. We at ChangeDecatur believe that a mayor/alderman form of government would get a better decision much more promptly. A healthy tension would exist between the Mayor to run the city effectively, provide for the reasonable needs of the police and the need to persuade city alderman that his ideas were best. Without their support, the Mayor could be held accountable for not addressing a real problem in the city.

Continue reading "Can't we Make a Decision about Police Space Needs?" »

Posted by SDD at 02:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The US revolution in 1776 was based on a new idea called democracy. Prior to the independence of the US from England, we lived under a monarchy where the "king" had all power, had the only rights to free speech and made all the laws. Those that attack the idea, and/or supporters, of ChangeDecatur, have that right because our country's constitution (now over 220 years old). Our constituton gives everyone the right to say what they want, when they want and any way they want. We in ChangeDecatur think that the concepts of democracy and free speech are good things and should not be usurped by others.

Continue reading "Long Live the King? Democracy and Free Speech" »

Posted by SDD at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From the Decatur Herald & Review 9/23/2007

Decatur City Councilwoman Betsy Stockard drew praise Monday for her frequent travels to conferences and workshops around the country.  Stockard was criticized last year for her numerous publicly funded trips, which dramatically outpaced the travels of other council members. Brian Burcham, who advocates changing the form of Decatur city government, defended Stockard’s travels at last week’s council meeting.  Burcham urged more councilmen to follow Stockard’s example.

“In my business, and in any business, you’ve got to network,” Burcham said. “Betsy has been out networking, and you all got on her about it. “And, Mr. Mayor, you said something along the lines that your travel expenses were like 30 bucks. That’s just another reason why I think we need a strong mayor form of government. “We need somebody who will go out and network in the United States, find out what’s going on out there, and bring it back to Decatur. And Betsy, I thank you for what you have done.”

Stockard, in turn, thanked Burcham for his comments. The council last year changed its rules regarding reimbursing travel expenses. Now, the travels of a council member must be approved by the group before the trip.

Posted by SDD at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 This comment came in from a citizen and reader. We welcome perspectives on changing local government.-----------------------------------------------

I am originally from Davenport, IA and every few months I go home and notice rapid changes and expansions within the whole Quad City area. I have been in Decatur for 3 years now and the lack of shopping, restaurants and activities for children in this area forces my husband and I to take our money and kids elsewhere(Springfield, Bloomington, Champaign,etc).

The taxes in Macon county are through the roof, meanwhile our city leaders are spending 2.7 Million on a brick road down Main street that in my opinion was not a very thoughtout plan. I mean look how you have to drive down Main now, swerving back and forth, wasn't there even a motorcycle accident because of the medians in the middle of the road???

I think the city of Decatur deserves the chance to thrive and I believe a new form of Government and its leaders are the answer to making Decatur a great place to live and raise a family.

Posted by SDD at 06:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A frequent discussion topic is about the size of the Council when the Strong Mayor system is in place. While each of us may prefer a council of one size or another, the statute in Illinois(3) calls for and requires 20 with the change to a strong mayor form of government(1). We think the most important number is who represents you in the current and new system. Many have said "no one represents them". Currently, many citizens feel that their concerns don't have a voice in the city council. We call that "disconnected".

Many are troubled that only four "well-connected" council members can make major decisions for the entire community.

Under the new system, each person will have TWO people elected to represent them from their neighborhood with a total of ten neighborhoods in Decatur.

After the next census, that number will likely be reduced to 8 neighborhoods with 2 each because of our population has declined to 77,000 since 2000.

One of our supporter/members said:

We have much larger numbers both in the state legislator and in congress.  It isn't the number of people in any body that determines effectiveness, rather it is the strength of the leader of those bodies that will determine effectiveness.  Many have said, "Everything rises or falls based on leadership."

The new aldermanic council will have several ways available to modify the size of the council once it is seated in April 2009. See Note (2) below.

It is also interesting to note that most downstate city councils do use aldermanic representation or a hybrid of it. We only found one other downstate city that uses exclusively at large council representation.

It is time to ChangeDecatur.

Continue reading "Count 0, 3, 4, 6, 10, 14, 16, 20 - How many alderman?" »

Posted by SDD at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

In Decatur, the City Manager is unelected to his position and yet has the legal responsibility of "chief executive officer". The Mayor has virtually no legal authority to run the city government. Truly a figurehead. The six member Council is elected at large.

Are they effectively representing the interests of the community. Some say yes and some say no. What do you say.

The advocates of Decatur's current form of government and current leaders point to recent "successes":

• Rebuilding West Main Street
• Wabash Crossing & Hope Academy
• Mound Center
• Rebuilding The Transfer House
• Farm Progress Show
• The New Downtown Building at 300 North Water

The Critics that call for ChangeDecatur point to decades of flawed decisions including:

• Wabash Crossing & Hope Academy
• The New Building at 300 North Water
• Rebuilding West Main Street
• Rebuilding The Transfer House
• Population Declines
• Job Losses

Several recent issues are crystalizing concerns with the effectiveness of local government. One was the attempt and willingness of the City Council to propose raising water rates 59 PERCENT over two years and the decision to buy The Former Holiday Inn.

What do you think? Do you think a different form of government would make a difference. The city and its leaders need to hear from you. Write a letter to the editor or contact an elected official. Tell us what you think.

Do you want ChangeDecatur?

Posted by SDD at 07:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Putting Less Puff in Puff Pieces 

The Decatur Herald & Review provides an important service to the community in reporting important topics and issues. Unfortunately, not everyone reads the paper every day. Even more unfortunate, the H&R has to cover issues while balancing being tough on issues that may offend "leaders". (More on that topic later.)

Today's Herald & Review (Sunday 2/25/2007) published two important articles. One was on the difficulty of the petition process (we have experience with that). The second article discussed the role and performance of the City Manager for Decatur ("Guiding Vision"). We think everyone should read this article and consider several key issues that the paper did not address.

"Guiding Vision" demonstrates one disadvantage of the council/manager form of government. Within the four corners of this article are several examples of misinformation propagated by the city manager without a "check and balance". This article documents the major accomplishments of the city manager with concurrence from the Mayor.

In this article the context is left out. While we understand that the newspaper has to pull punches and not offend certain constituents, it is disappointing that the elected Mayor and some on the council view issues through the prism of "the city manager can do no wrong".

In each of the accomplishments, there is another side of the story. We will tell you what it is. In most cases, there are substantial policy challenges that should be made.

We need to remind the reader that ChangeDecatur is concerned with our form of government.... not the current city manager or elected representatives. It is up to each voter to decide for themselves who is doing an adequate job. We are concerned with the lack of accountability that this system provides. We are concerned that this structure permits elected councilmen to pretend they can't directly impact city government because the city manager is the "chief executive officer". And we are concerned that this system permits the city manager to feel no direct accountability to voters.

On rare occasions when councilmen challenge the information from the city manager, they are criticized for being negative or "wanting to fire him". This is an example of the failure of this system. This process marginalizes elected representatives for doing their job. It should be the job of councilmen to learn, gather information and question the recommendations given them by the city manager. Carrying out this duty should not be ridiculed, but should be respected. The Mayor's comments in the article emphasized the role of the council, yet he rarely publicly questions the recommendations or actions of the manager. The mayor and council frequently complain about the limitations of being "part-time".

In the council/manager form of government the voters cannot reprimand or fire a city manager. The Mayor/council are each quick to point that individually they have no legal authority over city government employees. Only a majority of the council can challenge the city manager and as long as four council member are unwilling to ask tough questions, no one can affect the actions of local government. In contrast, in Springfield voters say that they government may not be perfect but at least they can fire the Mayor (who is the chief executive) if they are unhappy.

So.. "Where's The Beef"?

Continue reading "Accountability; The Other Side of the Story" »

Posted by SDD at 07:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the posters from the H&R blog that is willing to share his comments with this blog is Mr. Steve Bean, the Macon County Clerk. His comments follow below:

I wish the change city government folks had started sooner and got the signatures to get this on the ballot. For the past thirty plus years there has been an "under-current" not happy with the way of city staffer conducts politics as usual. For a professional system, that has given out so many sweet-heart retirement deals to professionals and then rehired those same individuals for a pretty good salary (giving them another taxpayer pension) would make the late Mayor Richard Daley proud.

Continue reading "It is time for Voters to be more Involved in their Community" »

Posted by SDD at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

ChangeDecatur believes this forum can be a tool to debate the merits of a change in the form of local government in Decatur, IL. We welcome differing points of view. Previous posts in this blog have noted the "raging debate" (over 55 comments) occurring on the Herald and Review Letter to the Editor blog under the post "Alderman form of government would be preferable" by Mr. Joe Roundtree dated 2/14/2007.

We would welcome any and all posters over there to come over here or give us permission to reprint their comments. (Keep it civil folks.) 

Please email us at info@ChangeDecatur.com.

Posted by SDD at 06:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)