Public Works Building

The previous council borrowed $6 million for several capital projects; skate park, south side drainage, sidewalk replacement, and a new public works building. While I have mixed feelings about borrowing the money, I decided I would not oppose these projects since funding was secured by the previous council and I didn’t run to undo things started by previous councils.

Let me step back a moment and explain that this money is borrowed money and is already deposited in the capital fund. An often misunderstood factor about the city budget is there are several funds that have specific laws and requirements. Only certain expenses qualify for many of the funds. It is illegal to use money from the capital fund for salaries of employees not working on capital projects. We cannot use this money to pay for police salaries. We cannot loan this money to the ailing general fund.

The money was already borrowed prior to me being elected. I want to make sure these projects get done as economically as possible. I want to make sure these projects are completed and money spent in the best interest of the community. This is why I have argued for sidewalk projects to be completed by city crews instead of contracting them out. Capital funds would qualify for these crews’ salaries while they are working on sidewalk projects. This would have relieved some pressure on the general fund.

Now that the skate park and sidewalk projects have been settled, the Public Works building will soon be brought to the front.

The Public Works department is scattered in several buildings all around town. These buildings were not built for their current use which leads them to be inefficient. Many currently need hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of repairs and upgrades. Some need torn down altogether. The city lacks proper storage for its equipment and is losing its storage space for its winter salt. The engineering department is housed in the old water department building and lacks phone or internet access.

The thought is by centralizing the department; it will run more efficiently by not having crews driving all over town to retrieve the necessary equipment to complete a job. The city would save money on energy efficient building rather than heating several 100 year old buildings. And the city would save on maintenance and longevity of equipment by being able to store them away from the elements.

I have asked to see a feasibility study on this project. The reasons listed above sound plausible, but is a new building the best solution for the problems? How much maintenance would have to be put into existing buildings? Could they be used more efficiently? Is there other office space where the engineering crew could work from? Could equipment be stored in a three sided shed? Can we estimate savings on utilities, productivity improvements, and equipment replacement? Is there grant money available?

I’d like to see a list of goals the city wishes to achieve and find the most cost effective way to meet those goals. If that is building a new public works building, then lets get on with it. But if the money could be spent more wisely and achieve most of the same goals, we should consider other alternatives.

ALS Ambulance Service

By state law, a municipality is responsible for the ambulatory care of their community. Mattoon mostly handles this by licensing and regulating private ambulance companies. In recent years, the Mattoon Fire Department has been operating as a backup with a Basic Life Support ambulance, and recently upgraded that ambulance to Advanced Life Support.

The city’s ambulance service should be used for emergency care only. Non-emergency transfers should, and will be left to the private firms. As long as there are two private companies in town, I have reservations on whether the city should enter the rotation. I can’t think of anytime where there have been three companies in rotating coverage.

My position on this is the same as it was during the election. If the City of Mattoon goes into the ambulance business, three conditions must be met.
1. It must improve public safety.
2. It won’t lose the city money.
3. It won’t put existing companies out of business.

Before the second ambulance company came to town, Mattoon was relying on Charleston for backup ambulance service. They were called 4-5 times per week. They were usually cancelled in route as another ambulance was freed up, but there shouldn’t be such a gap in service. There are many emergencies where minutes count. It can take up to 20 minutes for Charleston to get here. That is a long time to a heart attack patient.

The city has worked with the union to train six more paramedics. This would give MFD enough trained personnel to staff two ALS ambulances. The decision to purchase a second ambulance has not been made. But if one of the existing companies closes, the gap must be able to be filled immediately. It takes two years to train paramedics. We cannot rely on Charleston for two years.

It is the city’s responsibility to make sure we are covered with adequate ambulance service. Communities across the state and nation are increasingly running ambulance services in conjunction with their fire departments. As long as there are two companies in town, I don’t believe the city should or will enter the rotation of regular ambulance service.

Pre Annexation Agreements

The city requires water customers from outside the city to file a “Petition to Annex” when the city notifies them or face water shutoff within 30 days.

I have no problem with requiring water customers to annex in return for water service. What I have a problem with is the system that has been put in place to accomplish this. The clause at the bottom of the water agreement isn’t explained to the customer and many either are not reading it or not understanding it.

I agree, there is a responsibility for the home owner to read and understand the form they are signing. But there is a greater responsibility for the city to make sure they do so. It is not right for the city to not explain the agreement in hopes that they sign it without questions, and then play gotcha when we are ready to annex them.

It is also not right for the city to wait years after the properties qualify for annexation to act on them. Some of these properties have qualified for three years. There should be an automatic trigger that forces these to be acted on as they become available. It is not right for the city to sit on their hands for years until it becomes convenient for them to annex. Whether that convenience is the census or a city official needing their property within the city limits.

I would be in favor of the city adopting a system of “pre-annexations agreements”. These agreements would be separate documents from the water service agreements and acted on by the council. They would state that in return for water, the city will annex your property once it qualifies. Once the council approves the “pre-annexation agreement” it becomes a binding contract between the city and the home owner. If the city fails to pass the annexation once the property qualifies, they would be in breach of that contract.

This system takes away the human element of the process. Certain steps are required at certain times from the parties involved. Everyone is aware and involved every step of the way so nothing appears to be taking place behind close doors. There are no surprises, and no perceived bully tactics.

Once you take feelings and people out of the decision, is about what is best for the city. Is it better for the city to gain the tax revenue from the newly annexed properties? Or is it better to fight against a system that gives the impression of sneaky tactics and leads to good ole boy politics? I am not comfortable putting my name on a system that I feel is broken.

Pray for our leaders

Before I start with my positions, I wanted to ask something from all of you. Will you please pray for the City Council? Pray that we seek God's guidance in our decisions. Pray for wisdom, strength and clarity. Pray that the decisions and actions made are God's will. Pray for patience, peace and understanding in the community. Maybe put in a prayer request at your church for the same?

The decisions we are making go far beyond who is going to pave sidewalks, or if we are going to mow the grass at the lakes, or a recycling program. There have been some unpopular decisions made, and likely more to come. These decisions don't come lightly, and at least for me, there has been a lot of personal anguish in having to make them.

I don’t speak much about my spirituality, perhaps I should more. Those close to me know how important it is to me. I don’t know how I would have survived the last couple of years without my personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I understand the importance of a strong prayer life and often seek God’s guidance for my position on the council. The more prayers for the City leaders, the better the likelihood they will be answered. The need to pray for our leaders in spelled out in the Bible:

1 Timothy 2:1-3
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

I have received a card from one church in town stating the regularly pray for the leaders of the city. It would be wonderful to know all the churches in town are doing the same. Thank you all for your prayers and God bless.

Chris Rankin
Mattoon City Commissioner

Bringing things back to Street Level

It’s been well over a year since I posted in my blog. It started as an electronic version of my column printed in the Coles County Leader. After the Leader went out of print, contributions greatly dwindled. Once I ran for council, I stopped altogether.

It would be impossible to resurrect Street Level to its former level. As a sitting member of the Mattoon City Council, it would be counter productive to attack the other members on the council who disagree with my positions. I don’t think such actions would bring me closer to achieving my goals. This is a position I wrote about in November of 2007 (http://stlevel.blogspot.com/2007/11/working-with-city-not-against.html)

I do however feel the need to explain my positions and accept feedback. In the year that I have served on the council, one of the most frustrating things is getting my voice heard. I don’t want to say the press has been unfair as much as it has been incomplete. There have been important debates at council meetings that have not gotten one word of print.

One goal the city is working on is to start a newsletter; a form of media that the city controls and can include much more information than what gets printed in the paper. I have received requests to post my positions and reach out to the community as well. And since my ideas often differ than those of the majority, it is probably a good idea to release my own information. For now, I choose this format over the youtube video suggested.

I ran on open government and thus far, have no achieved that goal. I have found this harder than I imagined.  Hopefully, this column in conjunction with a Facebook group will help in attaining that objective.

One thing that concerns me about starting this is the sheer lack of time I have to keep it up. Like many other of my projects, I fear this will dwindle or perhaps never really get started again. Well, no one will probably be reading it anyway.

Chris Rankin

Mattoon City Commissioner

The two percent advantage

The public works advisory board proposed an ordinance giving local contractors a two percent advantage over out of town bidders on City contracts. This is a bad deal on many levels.
1. Passing an ordinance that forces the city to spend more money at a time when we are budgeting paperclips.

2. At least some local contractors are against said ordinance. They want an even field. They get their advantage on local jobs by saving on mobilization.

3. Ordinance will discourage out of town contractors from bidding jobs. It takes a lot of time and money to prepare a bid and when coming in at a 2% disadvantage, they are liable to not bid at all. Even though they may have beaten the locals by 10%. We would never know the true cost of this.

4. Local contractors may pad their bid. They know they have a 2% advantage and may inflate their bid knowing if they are less then 2%, they are actually leaving money on the table.

5. If out of town contractors don’t pull plans because they can’t/won’t compete with this disadvantage, local contractors may inflate their bids when they see they don’t have any competition.

6. Could actually put local contractors at a disadvantage when bidding out of town jobs. When they bid in another contractors home town, the competing contractor may bid extra hard to keep them out since they have an advantage here.

After making these points to the City Council tonight, they withdrew the motion from the agenda. The two percent advantage is off the table for now.

The council showed they are willing to listen to their constituents and should be commended on this. I think this proposal was a very bad idea and the City is better off without it.

A few words on the Cumberland Presbyterian Church

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was constructed at 1321 Broadway in 1859. Mattoon was an exchange point for soldiers on their way to and from the war front. Many injured and sick passed through town and a hospital was needed to care for them. In 1863, the basement Presbyterian Church was fitted to serve as a hospital.

Not only did the building serve as a hospital during the war, but also a jail. 26 prisoners known as “copperheads” (a northerner sympathetic to the southern cause) from the famous Charleston riot were held at the church for several days until they were transferred into federal custody.

The original building was replaced in 1895, but elements from that building were used for the new one. There have been several alterations to the building over the years, including an addition on the north side that covers one of the stained glass windows.

The Presbyterian’s moved out and the Lutheran’s moved in. Broadway Christian Church later occupied the building. In 1977, the First Alliance Church began holding services here. They moved out in 2003 and since 2006 the church was used for Apostolic Assembly Church.

Now the fate of the church has been sealed. It will be demolished for a new CVS Pharmacy. As regrettable as it is to lose another historic building, this one probably makes the most sense of all previous demolitions.

Unlike other demolitions, this one has a definite plan for the site. The 1700 block of Broadway was demolished with no plans for replacement. And the site where the Big Four depot once sat has been barren for almost five years now. This site will have a productive business on it, generating revenue and providing jobs.

A church in the middle of a business district does little for economic growth. The traffic generated by the church comes at a time downtown businesses are closed. No revenue is created at a church. And the land the church sits is tax exempt in what should be a prime real estate district. Redevelopment of a church into a successful business is rare.

A CVS pharmacy will put people in the heart of downtown at all hours of the day all days of the week. A smart entrepreneur will be able to capitalize on this traffic and draw it into adjacent businesses. And the project will take a desolate block of downtown and revitalize it back to life. It will take two properties currently tax exempt, and put them on the tax rolls. And it addresses three vacant buildings that are beginning to show signs of neglect.

Historic preservation is still important to me, but it is obvious it will not be a platform for economic development in Mattoon. Over 20 buildings have been razed since early 2004. Even if every remaining building was renovated, it won’t be enough to sustain downtown. It is time to seriously look at infill development. This project is a step in that direction.

The greased chute of government

“The only thing worse then gridlock it the greased chute of government.” –Henry Hyde

When one like minded group controls government, there agenda gets passed unchecked. This is a dangerous formula that often results in trouble. Times the same political party controls Congress and the presidency include the 1930’s through the great depression, the 1970’s through double digit inflation and unemployment, and during the Bush administration, where the federal deficit skyrocketed to unbelievable measures.

Opposite that, times often referred to as good prosperous times have seen the branches of government being held by opposite parties. The 1950’s and 1980’s had republican presidents and democrat congress and the 1990’s had a democrat president with republican congress.

This is not a new position for me. I started making this argument in the 2005 local elections.

“I used to think it was best to have a group of like-minded individuals on a board or council to be able to make some changes and get things done. They would be able to move their agenda and set policies to how they saw best. I no longer believe this is the greatest idea.

While they can make some accomplishments, the lack of opposition can lead to some unwise decisions and missed opportunities. Without debate, many ideas are not considered. A vocal opposition can either change ones mind or reinforce their original opinion. Either way, both sides are being considered. And as taxpayers, we deserve that from our elected officials,” was how I put it then.

The Mattoon City Council has only seen one”no” vote in almost four years. Motions are passed 5-0 with no discussion. Any opposition voiced from the public falls on deaf ears. Fiscal responsibility has been thrown out the window. This is the greased chute of government in action.

It will be interesting what the next two or four years bring at both the national and local level. Will the democrat agenda get passed unchecked? Will that lead to trouble? Will the next city elections bring more debate to local government? Will our leaders slide down the greased chute of government?