Peoria Pundit

There was a plethora of reporters, photographers and at least blogger covering tonight’s Peoria City Council meeting. You know, the one where the finally approved the sale of bonds for that nifty expansion/renovation plan.

You can wallow in the coverage here, here, here and here. I couldn’t get WMBD 1470 silly Web site to open, and WMBD 31’s site hadn’t been updated to include the story by 11:30 p.m. (you snooze, you lose). Of course, this doesn’t include the regular live coverage on public access television and on WCBU-FM public radio.

Since there’s more than enough mainstream media coverage, I figure I’ll just give a brief summery and then offer up some commentary:

The council and the library board reaches some sort of compromise last night. This happened after Mayor Jim Ardis and council liaison Bill Spears sat down with Library Board President Mike McKenzie and board member Doug Crew. Ardis let McKenzie know what needed to happen with the proposal for it to get enough votes on the council. McKenzie took it to individual board members.

In other words: The library board blinked first.

The result: A motion to approve $28 million in bonds. Both sides then exchanged platitudes. It all made me want to check my blood sugar readings. McKenzie said that he believes that the library can work with the money they will get.

It was at that point, I wrote in my notes: “which branch is is getting screwed? Lakeview? SouthSide?”

First-district council member Clyde Gulley, perhaps because he was kept out of the loop when the deals were being made, was the only member shameless enough to ask the question: ‘If there is $7 million less is going to be spent, out of what part of this plan is that $7 million going to come from?’

McKenzie wouldn’t come out and make a guarantee or a commitment, but he implied that cuts to the renovations at the Lincoln Branch would be the last thing he would like to see, and that major Lakeview branch renovations would probably be put on hold.

My two cents: I absolutely guarantee that even as those words were leaving McKenzie’s mouth, there were others in that audience who were thinking “We’ll see about that.” I’m even betting that out in the hall after the meeting was over, there was some lobbying underway for a fully-remodeled Lakeview Branch,.

I would never, ever question the motivation of any member of the Peoria Public Library Board. I know that every single one of them is motivated only by a pure love for unpaid public service. I know this, because I have been reminded of that fact every day for the past week. This was usually accompanied by a complaint that the council doesn’t believe in democracy and that anyone who didn’t approve of this $35 million plan hates libraries. Oh, and the mayor wants to poison people. Gee, it was almost as if there was some orchestrated champaign going on. These guys really stayed on message. It was remarkable. And it was amazing how easily so many otherwise smart people were manipulated by it.

Anyway, back to my main point … I would never suggest that Councilman Gully not trust the words of Mike McKenzie. But I would remind the councilman that funny things sometime happen between the day assurances are made on the council floor and when final plans are plopped before the council for final approval.

But then, all he has to do is ask his neighbors to the left and the right on the horseshoe what THAT feels like … that is, if he’s forgotten the last time it happened to him.

This entry was posted on June 25, 2008 at 1:12 am and is filed under Local . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed Both comments and pings are currently closed.