For those of you who may have missed out on the recent rallies, you get another chance. This afternoon and evening, several of Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner's biggest fears will all converge at once.
The Aurora Police Union (APPO) with hundreds of officers will rise again to voice their concerns of an ongoing labor dispute that goes back to Weisner's battle with the police union and his political vindictiveness for their support of his opponent in 2005.
For our new viewers, APPO represents the rank-n-file police officers, not the "management" or upper levels of the police force that has received criticism from both sides of the Planned Parenthood controversy for various actions or non-actions to micromanage the protesters and situation at Ground Zero.
>Watch "Ground Zero Aurora"
Pro-life supporters will be holding a rally as well and are going to have plenty of questions for Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, including questions about integrity. Pro-choice supporters are also expected to appear. The City Council meeting will be another standing-room only discussion.
We expect Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner and his so-called corporation counsel to make it clear to the public exactly when they knew about the possibility of the clinic coming to Aurora because the truth is going to come out.
One of the agenda items includes cosmetic luxury office expenses for Tom Weisner. Desk, chair, carpeting, faux painting, multimedia "display" area, etc...all for $127,000 of your taxpayer funds.
>Protecting taxpayer's priorities: Priceless
We urge the citizens of Aurora to ask the City Council to REJECT this waste of money and mixed up set of priorities. Just because it was in the budget doesn't mean it must be spent and wasted.
Not at the same time Tom Weisner is proposing to skyrocket taxpayer debt next year by 61% or over NINETY-TWO MILLION DOLLARS.
Not when Tom Weisner wants to add another staff member to his office at $135,000 or not when so-called corporation counsel Alayne Weingartz is saying she can't handle the legal issues and needs another assistant for $141,000 next year after outsourcing the legal department to an outside law firm at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
When Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner wants to spend FOUR HUNDRED THIRTEEN MILLION DOLLARS ($412,801,659.00) in 2008 of your money next year on everything from the police palace, park, contracts for his cronies and donations to his friends, not including the blank check for the Shodeen project, emergency infrastructure expenditures, the legal consequences of the mishandling the Planned Parenthood controversy from the start and a DECLINE in sales tax revenue thanks to reverse economic development, it would be fiscally irresponsible to approve ANY cosmetic upgrades to the Weisner's office at this time.
Even without the cosmetic upgrades, Weisner wants Mr. & Mrs. Taxpayer to spend close to a MILLION DOLLARS just to run his office, including "important" expenses such as bottled water (what's wrong with city water?), coffee, a mysterious leased car and magazine subscriptions.
With the Planned Parenthood controversy and expected ongoing law enforcement issues, increased high-density housing developments, crime reduction and a growing population, how much is Tom Weisner planning to spend on expanding Aurora's police force next year?
Just two people. Let's put that in perspective. Weisner wants to spend more money on his luxury office that already has functional furniture, another assistant for himself, another assistant for Alayne Weingartz than for increased police protection of all the people, properties and businesses of the second largest city in Illinois.
Like we said, the faux painting can wait, but as a courtesy to Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner and so he doesn't think this is personal, we don't want him to go without fresh paint, even if the mayor's office will need to be completely cleaned out during the spring of 2009.
OpenlineBlog.com will arrange the painting for FREE (i.e. no charge to taxpayers). We will call upon our network of volunteers to help paint the mayor's office. We already have both pro-life and pro-choice supporters willing to work together on this. Even some of our city council members will help.
...just don't expect the Beconfused (fishwrap) staff to help since they are busy delivering papers in the morning due to their operations crisis. Maybe they can donate some of their furniture to the mayor since they will soon be moving out of downtown Aurora.
> RALLIES START AT 5pm | map
> CITY COUNCIL MEETING at 6pm | agenda
> Sign-up to speak at 630.844.3615
Note: We urge Mr. Weisner and Ms. Weingartz not to violate the Open Meetings Act tonight, which is criminal offense...hope there aren't any police around. The City of Aurora has had plenty of opportunity to make convenient arrangements for everyone who wants to observe or speak to attend tonight's PUBLIC meeting.
Don't have $127,000 to spend on upgrading your office like Tom Weisner? Save money on these clearance items, including everything the mayor needs, from our friends at Office Depot:
The Aurora Police Union (APPO) with hundreds of officers will rise again to voice their concerns of an ongoing labor dispute that goes back to Weisner's battle with the police union and his political vindictiveness for their support of his opponent in 2005.
For our new viewers, APPO represents the rank-n-file police officers, not the "management" or upper levels of the police force that has received criticism from both sides of the Planned Parenthood controversy for various actions or non-actions to micromanage the protesters and situation at Ground Zero.
>Watch "Ground Zero Aurora"
Pro-life supporters will be holding a rally as well and are going to have plenty of questions for Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, including questions about integrity. Pro-choice supporters are also expected to appear. The City Council meeting will be another standing-room only discussion.
We expect Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner and his so-called corporation counsel to make it clear to the public exactly when they knew about the possibility of the clinic coming to Aurora because the truth is going to come out.
One of the agenda items includes cosmetic luxury office expenses for Tom Weisner. Desk, chair, carpeting, faux painting, multimedia "display" area, etc...all for $127,000 of your taxpayer funds.
>Protecting taxpayer's priorities: Priceless
We urge the citizens of Aurora to ask the City Council to REJECT this waste of money and mixed up set of priorities. Just because it was in the budget doesn't mean it must be spent and wasted.
Not at the same time Tom Weisner is proposing to skyrocket taxpayer debt next year by 61% or over NINETY-TWO MILLION DOLLARS.
Not when Tom Weisner wants to add another staff member to his office at $135,000 or not when so-called corporation counsel Alayne Weingartz is saying she can't handle the legal issues and needs another assistant for $141,000 next year after outsourcing the legal department to an outside law firm at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
When Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner wants to spend FOUR HUNDRED THIRTEEN MILLION DOLLARS ($412,801,659.00) in 2008 of your money next year on everything from the police palace, park, contracts for his cronies and donations to his friends, not including the blank check for the Shodeen project, emergency infrastructure expenditures, the legal consequences of the mishandling the Planned Parenthood controversy from the start and a DECLINE in sales tax revenue thanks to reverse economic development, it would be fiscally irresponsible to approve ANY cosmetic upgrades to the Weisner's office at this time.
Even without the cosmetic upgrades, Weisner wants Mr. & Mrs. Taxpayer to spend close to a MILLION DOLLARS just to run his office, including "important" expenses such as bottled water (what's wrong with city water?), coffee, a mysterious leased car and magazine subscriptions.
With the Planned Parenthood controversy and expected ongoing law enforcement issues, increased high-density housing developments, crime reduction and a growing population, how much is Tom Weisner planning to spend on expanding Aurora's police force next year?
Just two people. Let's put that in perspective. Weisner wants to spend more money on his luxury office that already has functional furniture, another assistant for himself, another assistant for Alayne Weingartz than for increased police protection of all the people, properties and businesses of the second largest city in Illinois.
Like we said, the faux painting can wait, but as a courtesy to Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner and so he doesn't think this is personal, we don't want him to go without fresh paint, even if the mayor's office will need to be completely cleaned out during the spring of 2009.
OpenlineBlog.com will arrange the painting for FREE (i.e. no charge to taxpayers). We will call upon our network of volunteers to help paint the mayor's office. We already have both pro-life and pro-choice supporters willing to work together on this. Even some of our city council members will help.
...just don't expect the Beconfused (fishwrap) staff to help since they are busy delivering papers in the morning due to their operations crisis. Maybe they can donate some of their furniture to the mayor since they will soon be moving out of downtown Aurora.
> RALLIES START AT 5pm | map
> CITY COUNCIL MEETING at 6pm | agenda
> Sign-up to speak at 630.844.3615
Note: We urge Mr. Weisner and Ms. Weingartz not to violate the Open Meetings Act tonight, which is criminal offense...hope there aren't any police around. The City of Aurora has had plenty of opportunity to make convenient arrangements for everyone who wants to observe or speak to attend tonight's PUBLIC meeting.
Don't have $127,000 to spend on upgrading your office like Tom Weisner? Save money on these clearance items, including everything the mayor needs, from our friends at Office Depot:
44 comments:
Hope Weisner doesn't get "sick" again today.
This is getting fun. By the time Weisner gets kicked out of the mayor's office, we are going to have to hold city council meetings in stadiums thanks to all of the mistakes.
Questions for the mayor on the PP controversy:
* Why did the mayor announce his decision to let PP open before
anyone in the community got to see the investigation reports?
* Why weren't the aldermen consulted at all before this decision
was announced?
* Why were the aldermen included in the process of launching the
investigation if they were only to be ignored in the end?
* Why was Richard Martens told to complete his report after he
had been replaced at the request of several aldermen?
* Why was the Martens report used to defend the mayor's action
despite aldermen's conflict-of-interest concerns?
* Why wasn't Martens given the authority to interview anyone on
staff or at PP or Gemini?
* Why were there so many things that Martens wasn't able to
answer, such what those who filled out Gemini's permits knew?
* Why was Kane County States Attorney John Barsanti asked to
look for criminal fraud when none was ever alleged?
* Were the Martens and Barsanti reports really just intended to
pad the mayor's case that Planned Parenthood should open?
* Why was the press given a redline draft of the Luetkehans
report? How can we have confidence in a report like that?
* Why didn't Luetkehans respond to attorney Vincent Tessitori's
9/28 memo on PP's need for a special use permit?
* Why hasn't anyone in the city responded to Tessitori's 9/28
memo laying out the special use permit question?
* Why was the mayor so eager to agree with Luetkehans' that the
zoning laws are "ambiguous" about not-for-profit clinics?
* Doesn't the mayor have a duty to defend the laws of Aurora,
rather than agree that they're "ambiguous" or "not specific"?
* Why was the mayor in such a big hurry to call a press
conference last Monday announcing that PP could open?
* Why didn't the mayor take the time to let the council and
public see the reports? What would that have hurt?
* Was the mayor afraid of lawsuits from Planned Parenthood, or
is there some other reason he wanted them to open so much?
* Why didn't the city issue an immediate stay on the occupancy
permit when an appeal was filed with the zoning board on 10/2?
* Why hasn't anyone in the city responded to the appeal to the
zoning board of the issuance of the occupancy permit?
* When will the zoning board of appeals respond to the arguments
laid out in the appeal filed on 10/2?
* Will residents be forced to sue the city in state court to get
a straight answer to questions about the special use permit?
* Did the mayor lie when he said that he learned about Planned
Parenthood in the paper in July? Why should we believe him?
* Will our aldermen ever stand up to this mayor, or will they
always step aside and let him do as he pleases?
* Will anyone in Aurora ever be able to trust any promise that
Mayor Weisner makes again, about anything?
If you read the reports, it is obvious that staff knew. Even Leukians report said so. Tom Weisner is full of lies.
I can't believe after all that spending we are only getting 2 more police officers. Weisner is really losing his mind. I didn't vote for him and now I am proud of that.
Great perspective 7:05 I hope you go to the meeting tonight and ask many of them. Tom Weisner has proven over and over he is not a man of his word and cannot be trusted. What goes around comes around, Tom.
Tom Weisner MUST be clear about when he knew about PP possibily coming to Aurora. Not when he was "sure" they were coming or any other weasel way out of telling the truth.
This is about basic honesty and integrity. If Tom knew before the media broke the story on July 27th, then he's toast. But, if he knew and doesn't come clean about it tonight, he might as well resign.
That's how serious this. Both sides have been in federal court, there are legal battles ahead and our entire community has been put into this situation by the incompetence of this administration.
This also goes for Weingartz. If she can't be honest about when SHE knew, she might as well kiss her law license goodbye.
If any of the city council members are reading this, I hope that luxury office stuff is seriously voted down.
That is outrageous that we can spend $127,000 on faux painting and furniture for Weisner's office, but we can't pay for police? We have some really good police officers and some not so good ones, too, but everyone agrees crime is Aurora's #1 problem, not faux painting!
yeahsure 8:14am, like abby schuler, leroy keith, & bob oconner are ever going to vote against tom weisner.
>Why weren't the aldermen consulted at all before this decision
was announced?
Answer: Some aldermen may have been consulted like the incompetent ones like Whity or Leeroy.
When it comes to doing things based upon who's who instead of what's right, Aurora is second to none.
Leroy loves to spend taxpayer money so you can count on him to make the wrong choice tonight.
I will offer to help Tom paint his office. Tom and I can knock it out over a weekend. I won't charge him anything. In fact it would be better if Stephanie, Leroy, Tom and I do it together. What an example that would be for the city. We probably could use it as a fund raiser for the the schools. People like Wally Mundy could get contractors to donate money for each hour we work together. I pledge to stay until we finish.
Leroy would say you guys can only work for 3 hours, it seems to be his limit.
Why is there no sidewalk along the frontage road in front of this building? This has been brought up before on this blog, but has anyone heard an answer from the city of aurora? How can this be?
I live in the 6th Ward. I don't wish Saville bad, but I hope he's not able to come to the city council so he can't vote to dump $127,000 into Weisner's office.
This is our money. Let Tom Weisner suffer with the furniture he currently has and count me in to help paint Weisner's office.
Maybe we can paint "INTEGRITY" on the wall since Tom seems to have lost that with everything from the drive-in theater to this PP situation.
David vs. Goliath
The city calculated that they will have less exposure from a lawsuit if they shun the little guy rather than the huge organization known as Planned Parenthood. I think that will be a huge mistake.
As for sidewalk, if we had competent city staff or competent P&D committee (Elmore, Whitey and Saville), shouldn't they have asked about the sidewalk? This city has extremely incompetent people running it.
Even at the BEST-CASE scenario with Weisner that he never knew about PP, it means his staff and administration completely screwed up, including Bill Wiet.
I talked a lawyer friend who knows about appellate law and he says the city is headed for a collision course in court no matter what happens.
Even if the city somehow escapes the zoning question in the 16th circuit, it's going to get appealed.
PP shouldn't be getting too comfortable in their clinic from what I was told. They could easily be subject to an injunction.
TO: 10/9/07 8:20 AM
3 hours is not Leroy's limit, that's Irvin's limit
Q: Why was Kane County States Attorney John Barsanti asked to
look for criminal fraud when none was ever alleged?
A: This has puzzled me since Barsanti endorsed Irvin, but here's one theory that some of you may understand if you know the parties involved.
Barsanti endorsed Irvin, but the reality is Barssanti's best buddies are David Camic, Gary Johnson, Tom McCullouch and Vic Puscas, all of the law firm Camic, Johnson, Wilson & McCullough. They employed Barsanti during his stint in private practice and did everything in their power to get Barsanti elected.
CJWM also employed Irvin at one time, but supported Weisner for mayor. Why? Because Vic Puscas is the city's housing code officer and makes a ton of money sitting at the kangaroo court listening to Alayne.
Yes, I am implying that the idea to get Barsanti involved was via CJWM and I am also saying CJWM is crafty enough to push this issue behind the scenes.
I heard the CJWM theory last night from someone who knows all the parties. Makes sense to me. I know had speculated the Shodeen connection but this is more likely.
I think Puscas gets paid about $50K per year to sit for a couple hours a week at the kangaroo court.
What IS the excuse of the city to not move the meeting to a bigger place?
That would be hilarious to see Alayne and Tom arrested for violating the Open Meetings Act and then get prosecuted by Barsanti! How ironic!
Not sure which Tom is going to be more freaked out about today, the police or PP issue, but I think it's awesome they are both going to be happening on the same night his $127,000 in wasteful spending will be up for a vote.
OLB rocks! Great video!
On the agenda tonight, there's $23,000 to move three utility poles for the police palace. Aren't Weisner's crony buddies at Cordogan Clark or Wegman making enough to just cover that?
No one has the balls to question anything the mayor does. those aldermen are a joke. Did anyone attend the finance meeting that OLB talked about to see exactly what is in that budget? It is obvious that OLB has done its homework. Good job.
Looking over consent agendas of city hall meetings usually turns up cronies of Weisner. Take PD07.190 George Galanis, aka"PAPA G's" owner. Galanis already got Weisner to eliminate left turns, northbound on Lake St.to a city street existing for decades,so he could garner extra parking spaces for his greasy spoon patrons. See for yourself, big no enter signs, but left turn lane has not been eliminated by IDOT,controller
of state highway changes/ modifications. Huge liabilty exist over this mixed message.
OLB seems to have a better grip on the finances of this city than the mayor or the finance committee.
Why are we taxpayers paying for a car to be leased to Weisner???
I just re-read Openline's post.
We are expecting a DECLINE in sales tax revenue? For a city that is booming in population, what's the excuse for that?
Openline ain't kidding when thy say reverse economic development. We have a serious problem in this town if we are generating less sales tax than a year ago.
I have better idea on Alayne's assistant for $141,000. How about hire the assistant and FIRE Alayne?
Weisner lied about the drive-in theater and land donation, so he will lie again.
Planned Parenthood should be very concerned about Weisner because his habit of deception is going to cause them problems if this goes to court again.
OLB's featured song for today is perfect for Weisner!
Heck, raise taxes. Do anything that will drive the dirty peasants out of Aurora.
If taxes were a realistic method to cause a migration of people then I suggest that no one would be living in the City of Chicago.
Just those that can afford it, increasingly. They aren't building much affordable housing down there these days, just luxury condos.
We're getting a fair amount of the "displaced".
How would you like to be some of the poor people who invested in a home in that nice neighborhood only to have their home value destroyed by that pink death hole across from them, want to buy a house cheap? what about their rights!
As I see it now that I have read this blog for a long time is that they throw alot of stuff out there but with all of that nothing gets done. So much about all the laws that have been broken but nothing has come out of it just alot of talk on this blog and no action. If you all think that so much is going on legal then why hasn't anyone gone to someone who can do something about it. By the way a very bad accident happened on Downer and River I bet that will get more press than this except for the police contract they need to settle that.
I should of said so much going on that is illegal not legal. So all you arm chair lawyers out there do something.
I would, but I'm only half way through this bag of Doritos.
Sticks and stones can break Weisner's bones but words will never hurt him. You all are a bunch of whineing babies.
Folks -- I'm "live blogging" the City Council meeting at this very minute. Good stuff. Weisner is in true form.
Here's the link:
http://fvfapp.org/blog/2007/1009/council/
Check it out.
-- Eric Scheidler
In his spare time, Weisner runs a little barber shop next to Rosati's Pizza at Rt.34 (Ogden) & Long Grove.
People really should stop in some time and say hi, or ask him "how's it going?".
Awww, I don't wanna have to cut and paste the link. Can't someone do it for me?
Don't bother i was just there.
It is all religion and they are confused. They seem to believe the Supreme Court is the City Council of Aurora.
Eric is taking a perceived zoning issue, which at best amounts to a fine all the way to the Supreme Court with money from some rich donator. Who pays them. They have no regards for the truth which is known. It was to protect the contractors. The lesson to be learned is to not be nice.
They want to filibuster and prevent the Council from ever sleeping. Lawrence and Scheidler are connected at the hip.
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