Lisle Park District - Doing Less With More

Source:Lisle Park District

If this is a contest between Broda and his cronies and the Lisle Park District to see who can be more wasteful and inefficient, would someone please pick the "winner" so we can put a tourniquet on the spending???

From 2000 to 2009:

• 17% DECREASE in the number of acres of property owned by LPD from 476 to 397

 

• 15% DECREASE in the number of parks from 42 to 36

 

• 22% DECREASE in the number of baseball fields from 22 to 18

 

• 30% DECREASE in the number of soccer fields from 10 to 7

 

• 50% INCREASE in the number of regular employees

 

• 50% INCREASE in the number of seasonal/part time employees

 

• 52% INCREASE in the property tax levy from $3,327,724 to $5,067,074

 
 

Broda Taking Names

re: http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/news/3892685-418/subdivision-may-look-to-leave-lisle-park-district.html?print=true
Here's what we've learned about this:
As the article states, the group of homeowners in question petitioned to disconnect from the Park District for several reasons, including the fact that their children attend Naperville schools, they live much closer to Wheaton parks than Lisle parks, and they are adjacent to a subdivision that successfully disconnected from the Lisle Library District last year.  Absolutely nothing in the petition mentioned anything about Navistar.  The Village of Lisle and Broda have nothing to do with this petition -- it is strictly between these homeowners and the Lisle Park District.

So let's review:

1. a group of taxpayers sent a petition to the Park District Board, respectfully providing a logical and compelling argument for disconnection
2. Broda and Lisle trustees have no jurisdiction in this matter - by law, it is strictly between the petitioners and the Park District Board
3. Broda reviews the list of petitioner's names
4. Broda tells the newspaper that he and his trustee cronies are "concerned" and that several names on the petition are people who opposed the Navistar industrial diesel engine testing facility

We all know that Broda was embarrassed when the truth came out about the tactics he used to hide his actions on the Navistar TIF from Lisle residents.  Now it's becoming clear that he can't get past it - he's on a vendetta against anyone who disagreed with the Navistar industrial diesel testing and the TIF that Broda wanted to use to enable it.  How sad for Lisle that we have a person like this in a position of responsibility.

A Few Unpleasant Facts About Lisle's Direction

PDF
YouTube

On The Road To Perdition

PDF

Working Hard To Keep You In The Dark, Covered With Dung

You've probably heard of "mushroom management" - keeping staff in the dark, covering them with dung, and when they've grown big enough, canning them. You might have also heard of the Freedom Of Information Act - here's what the Supreme Court said about it:
"The basic purpose of FOIA is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.”
                                             United States Supreme Court in NLRB v. Robbins Tire Co.
                                             437 U.S. 214, 242 (1978)

Did you know that several governmental agencies, including the Village of Lisle and the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, are using your tax dollars to pay lawyers and lobbyists to attempt to change the state's FOIA law so that they can restrict access to public documents?  They claim that complying with the FOIA law is too expensive.  Here are the facts, per FOIA logs and Village records (which we would not have access to if the FOIA is changed):

•  60% of all FOIA requests submitted to Lisle in 2010 were from people outside of Lisle
• 42% of all FOIA requests submitted to Lisle in 2010 were for copies of police reports
• Time spent in 2010 responding to FOIA requests amounted to 0.3% of the total employee time.

So what's the real reason your public officials want to keep you in the dark? In the case of the Forest Preserve District, it could be just to avoid embarrassment.  In the case of Lisle, however, the reasons are much more serious.

If you're outraged by this, go to the meetings of the Village Board and Forest Preserve District Board and tell them so -- then vote accordingly when election time comes.  If you're not outraged by this, you must enjoy being a mushroom.

Lisle's Illegal T.I.F.

Pay To Play In Lisle

Ancel Glink - the law firm providing ongoing legal services to the Village of Lisle - gives a $1500.00 political contribution to "Citizens for Broda" on 4/7/2009 (deposited on same day as the election)

Broda won the election by 233 votes.  

 

Should elected officials accept political contributions from attorneys that seek to benefit with a contract from the public body?

 

From the Village of Lisle's Statement of Policy and Code of Ethics:

 

"Public employees must conduct themselves in such a manner as to foster public confidence in the integrity of the Village of Lisle's procurement practice."

 

"Never discriminate unfairly by the dispensing of special favors or privileges to anyone, whether as payment for services or not; and never accept for himself or herself or for family members, favors or benefits under circumstances which might be construed by reasonable persons as influencing the performance of governmental duties."

 

"Avoid the intent and appearance of unethical or compromising practice in relationships, actions and communications."

 

A Question Of Priorities

February 7, 2011

ATTORNEY GENERAL MADIGAN FILES SUIT TO TERMINATE PENSION OF FORMER CHICAGO POLICE CMDR. JON BURGE

Understanding that the Illinois AG has limited resources, is it really more important to file suit to terminate one man's pension than to file suit to stop an illegal Tax Increment Financing scheme? 

Is it more important to file suit to terminate one pension than to file suit to stop an attempt to take away citizen's rights to free speech?

Spending Beyond Lisle's "Means"

To spend more than you take in for 8 consecutive years, you need to spend even more than what was spent on Lisle's "Taj Mahal" and "Downtown Money Pit" - here are some of the other ways you achieve the dubious distinction of Lisle Trustees' 8 year record:

• The Village paid 941.95 to Vidtech for "2011 State of the Village"  (a presentation that looks like it was prepared by middle school students - apparently none of the 117 full time employees of the Village knows PowerPoint)
• The VIllage paid 274.00 for a subscription to the Daily Herald  (maybe their browsers don't let them get to the free online version)
• 134,277.07 to the Lisle Visitors and Convention Bureau (you just can't make this stuff up)

Springfield's Mubarak?

At a time when people in Egypt are risking their lives to have freedom of speech, two Illinois legislators are working to take the right to free speech away from their constituents! In a thinly disguised attempt to "get back at" opponents of Navistar's planned heavy industrial engine testing facility in Lisle, these two scoundrels are repaying Navistar's contributions to their political campaigns. To call this shameful and disgusting is far too kind
.

Lisle 2011 SOV: Spin & Truth

PDF    Youtube