Monday, January 21, 2013
Spoiler alert! They didn't both star in beloved '60s sitcoms.
No one reminds me of that unctuous Leave it to Beaver ne’er do well Eddie Haskell more than Geneva developer Kent Shodeen. Just like Eddie easily bamboozled clueless 1960s parents with his hyper-smarmy ministrations, Kent uses political clout to get away with same kind of murder. Though he’s not generally known for it, Kent’s largesse to local politicians is legendary. All it takes is few quick keystrokes on the Illinois State Board of Elections website to reveal he’s doled out almost $100,000 since 1997. And when it comes to contributing to political coffers, Kent is utterly non-denominational. From Karen McConnaughay to Tom Weisner and Ken Ramsey to Pat Quinn, one might say our overeager real estate mogul likes to hedge his bets. Sure! …
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
These negotiations may be a chess game, but one bad move can haunt you for years.
All right! Now that we’ve dispensed with the District 304 contract negotiation basics, it’s time to talk about a teachers strike. And we’ll be discussing the long-term ramifications here because everybody knows what the immediate consequences are. But before we depart, we need to apply an appropriate framework so that we’re all on the same page. Taking a cue from military history, we’ll break this conflict down into three separate, but eminently interrelated parts. The first is the “tactical,” or what’s happening right here, right now. It’s a small slice of the big picture. You can win a tactical engagement, but lose the battle and vice versa. Then there’s the “operational,” which means the battle as a whole. It’s the sum of the tactical …
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
It's time to ignore all the shriekers and think long term.
- OPINION
- Jeff Ward
-
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
On Monday, we finished discussing the equal and opposite reaction that holds true for everything in this Earthbound existence. To wit, the TaxFACTS people have been pummeling District 304 teachers and their salaries for years, so finally fed up, those educators appeared en masse at last week’s board meeting to make a point. A green “United We Teach” T-shirt—eight bucks. Watching the FACTS folks stunned reaction to 200 teachers wearing ‘em—priceless. But while I loved that measured TaxFACTS smackdown, I’m not quite as enamored of the logic the teachers used in their quest for an new contract with greater compensation. But before we continue, since young purseless women, aldermen, crazy chicken ladies (and all her friends), mayors, bloggers…
Monday, September 3, 2012
If you back people into a corner often enough, they're bound to come out fighting!
- GOVERNMENT
- Jeff Ward
-
Monday, September 3, 2012
After being accused of some intemperate columns lately (who me?), instead of issuing my trademark “I told you so,” I’ll simply echo Sheldon Cooper’s milder Big Bang Theory refrain, “I told you thusly.” Though I have to say that wasn’t nearly as much fun. Because if there’s one thing I’ve tried to teach you people, as even fictional physicists will attest, for every action in this life, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Unless, of course, you write a column about high school purses or backyard chickens, in which case some reactions are more equal than others. And it’s this very regard that I’ve tried to warn y’all about the TaxFACTS group. While they certainly performed a valuable service by sounding the runaway School District …
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
It ain't the size of the class, it's the class of the parents!
That’s right! I’m gonna lay the blame for this latest bout of depression squarely at your feet. You had to bring up District 304 class size, didn’t you! So in order to perform my typical due diligence, I retrieved my dusty Evanston Township High School year book, which holds that hidden St. Nick’s Class of ‘72 graduation photograph. It’s been 40 years! But what amazes even more than the relentless passage of time is, though I often forget who I called after dialing the phone, I remember so much of St. Nick’s as if it were yesterday. What that picture did was confirm my recollection that our classes contained 25 kids. I guess I didn’t need to brave the basement and depression after all. Not only that, but when the classroom hit 90 degrees, …
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Isn't it amazing how Shakespeare still applies!
Here we go again! Another non-scandal at the hands of the completely cartoonish TaxFACTS group that’s going to rock Geneva to it’s very core. Or not! As if we needed further proof of these folks' lack of imagination, they’re calling this particular kerfuffle, “enrollmentgate.” And they had to go all the way back to 2006 to dig it up. Where’s John Ehrlichman when you really need him?” Apparently, some people have way too much time on their hands. Also apparently, back in 2006, a District 304 consultant laid out what he believed to be the lowest, expected, and highest potential enrollment numbers for the next five years. But instead of using his 6,412 student 2012 estimate, District 304 used a 7,472 number when pushing the April 2007 …
41.89081
-88.31847
School District 304 Coultrap Facility
1113 Peyton St, Geneva, IL
/articles/facts-full-of-sound-and-fury-signifying-nothing
1760139
/locations/6819834
Monday, September 12, 2011
And, it's National Chocolate Milkshake Day.
Being unemployed can be stressful for many reasons, but Tri-City Unemployment Group is a helpful organization aiming to aid area citizens during a tough time. Their meeting tonight will cover interviewing skills and includes a networking session And, District 304's School Board will meet tonight to discuss important policy revisions. Here are five things happening today, Monday, Sept. 12: 1. The city of Geneva will have a Committee of the Whole meeting at 7 p.m. inside City Council Chambers. Tonight's topics of discussion include a request from The Dam Bar & Grill requesting use of a public parking lot for a Breast Cancer Awareness Motorcycle Run on Sept. 24, and an update on the Emerald Ash Borer infestation in Geneva. A copy of the …
Jeff Ward
4:32 pm on Thursday, January 24, 2013
Kurt, Maybe this is hindsight, but the other caveat in the column is TIFs tend to go to generous friends. And then they tend to fall flat on their face. And remember, nature abhors a vacuum. As one reader pointed out, if the market could bear that development, it would already be there. In the end, municipalities really need to stop participating in this insane competition for businesses because … more ›