Since the beginning of this year, the PADS homeless shelter has been the “black hole” issue that seems to have sucked up more hours of City and citizen time and effort than any other. We consider that a good thing from the perspective that it got a lot of people to start paying attention to – and start participating in – their local government, although it’s unfortunate that such a benefit has been achieved at the price of distracting the community from more important issues.
That being said, the PADS end-game is now in sight, starting with tonight’s City Council meeting in the auditorium of Washington School (7:30 p.m.) which is scheduled to include a vote on both the zoning ordinance text amendment and a licensing ordinance for the PADS homeless shelter.
Per the “Agenda Cover Memorandum” [pdf] by Acting Community Preservation & Development Director Carrie Davis, it appears that certain unidentified “changes” to those regulations are going to be discussed, although we can’t tell from Davis’ memo exactly what those are; and the minutes of the October 6 Committee of the Whole meeting (unlike the minutes of the “Regular” Council meeting of that date) are neither “attached” to her memo nor otherwise appear on the City’s website.
We also can’t tell from either Davis’ memorandum or from the meeting’s Agenda whether the Council will take up Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark’s suggestion that the PADS shelter be located at the City’s Public Works Service Center, as was announced in a press release dated October 16, 2008 [pdf].
If that ends up being the plan, however, then there would appear to be no reason for the Council to modify the zoning ordinance text amendment language from what was recommended by the City’s Planning & Zoning Commission back on September 8th. And if, as Frimark’s press release states, the City is going to be a co-applicant for the necessary special use permit, we trust that the other required “co-applicant” will be PADS to Hope, Inc. (“PADS Inc.”), for whose benefit this entire sideshow and both of these ordinances have been specially designed.
But now that it looks as if the City is going to be the shelter host – a move which we find far superior to locating the shelter in the St. Paul of the Cross School gymnasium (a/k/a, the “Morello Parish Life Center”) – the taxpayers deserve the right to weigh in on whether and how their tax dollars will be used to subsidize this PADS Inc. franchise.
This point is important because while Frimark and the City Council have been fiddling with this PADS issue, they haven’t been addressing the City’s $1.7 million deficit from last year or the similar deficit being anticipated for this year – thanks to make-them-up-as-you-go revenue numbers from former City Mgr. Tim Schuenke and the mindless rubber-stamping of those numbers by Frimark’s downsized Council.
And if that kind of budget deficit isn’t bad enough, the Woodstock Institute (a Chicago-based policy group that tracks home foreclosures in the Chicago area) is reporting [pdf] a whopping 61 foreclosures filed against Park Ridge properties during the first half of 2008 (Jan. 1 through June 30), up from 25 for the equivalent period of 2007. That’s a 144% increase, which is the fifth highest increase among the 100 largest Chicago suburbs. And all the “For Sale” signs popping up around town like mushrooms suggest that first-half 2008 foreclosure total may end up looking good compared to the second-half numbers.
We’re also hearing that a lot of those condo units in the “flagship” Uptown development project that were supposed to be owner occupied are turning into rentals, while some buyers are not even able to afford to close on their purchases and are walking away. We also note that the City hasn’t been tooting its own horn about the success (as measured at least in part by the amount of sales tax generated) of what little actual “retail” has opened up in that development.
So where will the money come from that is needed to fix our roads, add relief sewers and/or more pumping stations to combat the flooding, improve our electrical power grid, and provide for those other infrastructure needs that have been neglected?
We’ll give you one guess…it’s not from PADS Inc., the Park Ridge Ministerial Association, or the 20-30 non-Park Ridge homeless who have consumed the lion’s share of the public’s attention for the past nine months.
17 comments so far
You got that right about all of this homeless stuff being tailor made for PADS. If that wasn’t the case, the city could have been looking at the Public Works building or other non-churchs/schools from the beginning, which would have avoided all the hard feelings and wastes of time battling about this.
But there’s got to be an angle that Frimark, PRMA or PADS is going to try to play. Otherwise, this is just too easy to believe.
The public works building looks like it was built out of leftover material from some prison project. Alot of those homeless folks should feel right at home there. I’m just sorry the city workers could now have to deal with the health risks because their building has that ventilation problem that there isn’t money enough to fix properly. No money for the things we are supposed to get paid for by our taxes and now Frimark wants to spend even more money helping the ministerial association carry out their fondests wishes. Under Frimark this city has become one big fubar mess.
Enough with PADS! It is truly a black hole, although it will look like a white dwarf after we all get our minds around the budget issue you so beautifully described. Prediction: Howard will use the budget situation as a major justification for bringing CVS to the Napleton property, even though such a deal would mainly be a bailout for Napleton, not the taxpayers of Park Ridge.
frimark will try to use the prma as his own local version of the national evangelical political movement in his campaign to get re-elected; and the prma will do its best to persuade its member congregations to deliver for him, notwithstanding the insider deals and other favoritism frimark has engaged in.
E.E. Your comment shows brilliant clarity in understanding the PADS campaign.
I wish Howard was meeting about the budget as much as he has been meeting behind closed doors with the ministers association. I can only imagine what was coming out of his mouth during those behind closed doors sessions. It is more of the same keeping secrets that I have come to expect in this town now. It is why the summary of the aldermens discussion isn’t available for reading except to the aldermen. God forbid the public get to see what they have talked about.
I certainly hope that everybody who has become involved in the PADS issue – either pro or con – remains interested and involved in city government AFTER the PADS issue is resolved. Because there’s a lot of stuff coming down the pike, and you can be sure that Frimark and his pawns will do their best to rig it for their buddies.
I suppose there is a logical explanation for why the second portion of the committee of the whole minutes aren’t available for public review, though Ms. Davis’ memo indicates they have been prepared…but neither the city manager nor any of the aldermen seem able to explain it.
I also suppose there is a logical explanation for why the two agenda items dealing with the temporary overnight shelter ordinances are listed under the city manager’s report, instead of under the P&Z Commission report, where they should normally be.
Fubar AND snafu.
so fishy. sentiment 20 to 1 that
something’s definitely up with frimark. trust your gut, folks, it’s 99% right.
all we need is just one U.S. attorney out there willing to take up the cause…..
While we would just love for the U.S. Attorney to go through Park Ridge – especially Park Ridge government for the past few years – with a fine tooth comb, there’s too much corruption in Chicago, Crook County and the State of Illinois for the Feds to focus much attention on our sleepy little town, at least until something really juicy hits the front page.
That’s why we need to clean out this barn ourselves, folks. And the first thing that needs to be done is for people who care about this community to start/keep paying attention and start/keep getting all over their alderpuppets to do what’s right for the whole city, not just for the special interests like PADS, the PRMA, or Frimark and his cronies.
As Edmund Burke wrote: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
So we should all take a lesson from the NIMBYs around St. Mary’s, the Concerned St. Paul parents, the Cumberland Patriot, and the rest of those grass roots people who have stepped up and fought the fight because they aren’t willing to hand our government and our city over to those who are more concerned about what they can get out of Park Ridge than what they can contribute to it.
The way PADS keeps getting its way makes me wonder whether somebody in Palatine has “pictures” of Frimark, Allegretti, Ryan, etc.
Anyone know when the meeting ended last night?
I left a little bit after 10.
something is reallyreally fishy, and it looks like the smell is coming from frimark
The meeting lasted until approx. 12:20 a.m. , as I recall.
WhoKnew:
Frimark’s a kink, as he proved when he was setting up those deals with Adreani, Napleton, etc. And a kink has a hard time even doing a straight deal. And if those PADS people were straight shooters, they wouldn’t be hiding since July and sending the PRMA to plead their case for them. So it sure looks like their in bed with Frimark.
And speaking of Frimark again, I thought it was hilarious that all he could say, over and over again, when asked about whether the homeless would be barred from Mass at St. Paul was that they would have to “leave the premises” without having the foggiest notion of exactly what “the premises” were or where the church figured into the deal.
I have been away for a few days and am just now catching up on the blog updates on the meetings.
It would appear that now we want to not allow the homeless to attend mass. Is this true?!?!?! Now that is an interesting concept.
I won’t be there anyway as I am not a catholic, but what exactly is the danger about homeless attending mass? This can’t be about protecting the children. Most children attend (or in some cases are dragged) to mass by their parents. No??
to anonymous @ 1:35// everyone knows that the homeless have every right to attend mass. However the current wording of the zoning ammendment now reads that the homeless need to leave 60 minutes before school starts. The argument is that the adoration chapel’s outside entrance (just feet from the elementary building entrance) opens at 6:00am which is on school grounds, ALSO the daily 6:25 am mass, 8:00am confession and 8:30am mass at the church is also on the spc campus and cannot be off limits to the homeless.
Kindergarten CLASS attends 8:30 am mass WITHOUT their parents. The homeless will be able to walk back and forth to the adoration chapel (in the old convent next to the elementary school) through the playground and over to church. Who can stop them from “worshipping” in the heated church and chapel until the library opens on a winter day? That is what you heard when a parent asked incredulously if the city attorney and mayor birthmark were serious when they said the homeless had to leave the premises within 60 minutes of children, which obviously is impossible to enforce.
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