Carbondale Bytelife

Public Comments

Dr. Linz Brown

September 18, 2007 Council Meeting

On Tuesday, August 21, 2007, The City Council passed a resolution to “authorize the Mayor to execute . . . an intergovernmental agreement with Southern Illinois University Carbondale that will commit the City of Carbondale to pay the University $1 million annually for twenty years . . . .”

One week later, August 28, 2007, I sent the following letter to the mayor:

Read Letter

To date, I have not had a response to this letter.

This disclosure issue raises the following five questions:

1. Why was the intergovernmental agreement not disclosed at the public hearing or at the Council meeting? As mentioned in my letter to the mayor, this would be consistent with previous practice of attaching contracts, intergovernmental agreements, and other documents to proposals and resolutions placed on agenda. (I reviewed several recent intergovernmental agreements in the City Clerk’s Office.)

2. Why is it that other villages and municipalities in Illinois disclose their intergovernmental agreements before a vote and Carbondale did not with the SIU agreement? See Exhibits 1 and 2.

3. Why did the mayor and other council members feel that the people of Carbondale did not need to see or should not see the proposed agreement?

4. Did the majority of councilpersons who voted for the tax increase package realize that they denied other Council members their rights and responsibilities? The single vote of four members of the Council on the sales tax increase proposal and two resolutions as a package had the effect of denying the other three members of the Council the right and opportunity to exercise their responsibility to review and act upon a final document because the resolution authorized the mayor to execute the agreement.

5. Why did four Council members negate their responsibilities to act in the best interests of the public on this unprecedented commitment by deferring to one person to execute the intergovernmental agreement without review or oversight by the total elected body.

Also, in reviewing the intergovernmental agreements file, why is the mayor authorized to execute an agreement in a few instances and the city manager in most others. Do we sometimes have a city manager type government and at other times a mayoral type government? Is “executing” an intergovernmental agreement a policy function or an administrative function?

In conclusion, I repeat the request mentioned in my letter, i.e. that the agreement be available for public review and comment and that it be returned to the full council before signing. To ignore full disclosure is not in the best interests of the Council or the public.

Labels: City council, siu, taxes

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