Allegretti’s Selective Recollection:  Monday night’s City Council meeting provided yet another glimpse into the parallel universe inhabited by 4th Ward Ald. Jim Allegretti.  The alderman was quick to criticize Mayor Dave Schmidt’s formal announcement of his selection of Joe Sweeney as his 1st Ward aldermanic replacement, contending that the vetting of Sweeney was “markedly different” from the vetting process he went through in 2005 as the handpicked choice of then newly-elected Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark.  But that contention was promptly challenged by 2nd Ward Ald. Rich DiPietro, who questioned Allegretti’s recollection of his own process.

We also question Allegretti’s recollection, although we can point to one significant difference between Frimark’s appointment of Allegretti and Schmidt’s appointment of Sweeney: Schmidt pro-actively disclosed that Sweeney had contributed $150 to Schmidt’s mayoral campaign fund, while Frimark – and Allegretti himself – stayed stone-cold silent about Allegretti’s $300 contribution to Frimark’s campaign, which he then followed up with a $200 contribution just a few weeks after his appointment.  Can you even spell “transparency,” Jimbo?

Smile, Mr. Carey…You’re on Council Camera: Mayor Dave Schmidt has stated that he is willing to forego his first year’s mayoral salary ($12,000) because of the City’s financial woes.  To date, however, the City has been unable to figure out the legalities of how not to pay him, so he just received his first $1,000 payment – some of which he announced he was using to purchase a video camera with which to tape Council meetings for uploading to the Internet and (hopefully) linkage to the City’s website, at no cost to the City.

But leave it to the City Council spendthrifts to find fault with the City getting something for free.  Ald. Tom Carey (6th Ward) complained about it being a unilateral decision by Schmidt, although City Atty. Everette “Buzz” Hill noted that under state law anybody can videotape or record Council meetings.  And Alds. Don “Air Marshall” Bach (3rd Ward) and Allegretti raised concerns about the cost for the person running the camera, web site maintenance, etc.  Schmidt responded that he already has volunteers lined up to run the camera and put the video on a web site to which the City’s website could link for free.

No wonder the Alderdunces don’t get Schmidt: The only “volunteers” they understand are the ones who keep demanding tens of thousands of our tax dollars.

Veto! Mayor Schmidt also announced at Monday night’s meeting what may be the first-ever mayoral veto of a City Council decision: The Council’s recent vote to increase the already $2 million 2009-10 budget deficit by an additional $39,000, thereby giving a variety of private local organizations a total of $271,000 instead of the budgeted $232,000.  Schmidt’s veto will come before the Council for a vote at the June 15th meeting, at which time the Council will need four votes to over-ride it.

PublicWatchdog applauds Mayor Schmidt for being the “adult” trying to stop the “children” from further raiding the “cookie jar.”  And we also give a wag of the tail to Ald. DiPietro for his suggestion that, instead of going over-budget, the Council reallocate the budgeted amount so as to increase funding to those “social service” organizations (e.g., The Center of Concern) while reducing funding to those other, non-social service organizations (e.g., The Kalo Foundation, Brickton Art Center, the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra).

We still think using tax dollars to fund private organizations is bad public policy, but DiPietro’s idea appears to make the best out of a bad situation.