Peoria Pundit

Is 3rd District City Council member Bob Manning running for higher office? Just a few days ago, he announced he’s not going to run for re-election. He wants to spend more time with his family.

So what does he do at last night’s Peoria City Council meeting? He delivers a speech that would have gotten him my vote for any office.

He laid down a well-deserved smack on the people who are trying to convince the world that Peoria County taxpayers need to start paying an additional quarter-cent sales tax to help fund the construction of a new downtown museum on the former Sears block in downtown Peoria.

He spoke out during discussion on whether the city should extend its lease agreement with Lakeview museum. It is the third such extension, as backers have been unable to raise the money they need. The winning line, and I’m paraphrasing here, was “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times .. well there’s no saying for that.”

His complaints: All previous funding sources that backers assured the council were forthcoming have failed to materialize. They claimed that the federal government was going to come up with some special form of revenue. Never happened. They said they could raise money by way of donations. Never happened.

He criticized designers for refusing to include retail space in the project. He blasted planners for taking an all of nothing approach and not having alternative plans. He ridiculed the idea that there’s no room to expand the current museum site.

He warned voters of an impending marketing campaign to convince them to vote for the sales tax increase. He likened it to a snow storm greater than any that have closed Peoria’s streets.

Risk and uncertainly are plentiful and abundant in this project, he said, adding that he has “no confidence” this museum project will be self-sustaining. He said after the meeting that he thinks if this tax in approved, it will never go away even after the museum is built, and will instead be used for operational costs.

He ridiculed “business leaders” who predict economic disaster if the city considers similar-sized tax increases do fund city services, or to remove unpopular taxes like the the garbage fee, yet are campaigning for the sales tax increase to fund a museum project no constituent tells him they want.

The people have already “voted,” by declining to donate money to the project, he said.

And finally, he derided the idea that Caterpillar is going to move its world headquarters if this doesn’t pass. This is not an idea being promoted by Caterpillar, but others involved in the Build a Block campaign. No Caterpillar executive has suggested this is a possibility, Manning says. He suggested that the city might instead make a sweet-heart deal with Caterpillar and let them have the Sears block, then it it go on the tax roles. This would help grow Caterpillar’s “roots” in the community.

Bravo, councilman.

Manning said what needed to be said. No doubt the powers-that-be were furious at him. But it needed to be done. The Manning said nothing about this that isn’t already being said. But these words aren’t coming from official sources (and they certainly aren’t coming from the media).

No, Manning is NOT running for mayor. He and current Mayor Jim Ardis are buds, after all. But I think if he were, that speech could have gotten him more than a few votes from folks who are sick of paying for the movers-and-shakers pet projects.

Manning is going to be on the Peoria City Council for another six months. Look for more blunt common sense.

From a press release:

Councilman Bob Manning announced tonight that he will not seek re-election for his 3rd District seat. “I appreciated the opportunity to represent the 3rd District and I am thankful for the strong support that my constituents provided. I enjoyed working on their behalf and achieving solutions to many of the issues and challenges that we faced,” Councilman Manning said. He added, “My decision comes after weeks of deliberation and after discussion with family members. At the end of the day, I simply want more time to spend with my wife and children.”

My two cents: I usually print these verbatim, but this required comment. Almost instantly after taking office, Manning earned the respect from colleagues and constituents for his willingness to address concerns, reach compromise and to apply his professional skills to the issues brought before the council. I don’t blame him, though, for wanting to spend more time with his wife and two beautiful, young daughters.

UPDATED: Mr. Manning send me the following brief email:

5 years ago I would never had imagined that I’d be on the City Council. Never thought about and never gave much consideration to politics. But instead of sitting around complaining about various issues and our city leaders, I took it upon myself to do something about it. Beating an 8-year incumbent by almost a 2 to 1 margin (64% to 36%) and carrying every precinct was quite enjoyable, to say the least. The fact that I was not the establishment’s candidate made it even sweeter. I certainly don’t consider myself a politician. More like the Citizen Legislator that our founding fathers envisioned. Step up to the plate when it’s your turn, do the job to the best of your abilities, remember who you represent, and don’t stay too long.

UPDATE 2: HOINews got a post up on it’s Web site.

Per the Journal Star and the Peoria Times-Observer, we have learned that five of the six people arrested in a drug bust Wednesday in the East Bluff were allowed to leave jail after the Peoria County State’s Attorney’s Office issued notices to appear.

My two cents: Let that sink in for a moment folks. The elected official who’s job it is to put those he believes are criminals in jail let these people charged with a crime to walk out without posting bond. This includes 22-year-old Justin Rodgers. He faces six felony drug and weapons, according to HOINews.

Rodgers is convicted felon.

Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis and City Councilman Bob Manning held a press conference Sunday to ask publicly why these people were released.

And then Lyons held his own conference:

In response to Ardis’ questions, Lyons said Rodgers was released from jail because he planned to use Rodgers’ arrest this week against him at his Dec. 4 hearing to revoke his probation for previous Tazewell County drug charges. Lyons said his decision is Rodgers’ “quickest and most direct way to the prison door.”

And exactly what is wrong with letting this knucklehead stew in a jail cell waiting for Dec. 4 hearing that Lyons is oh-so-sure will send him away? That way, the good people of the East Bluff would have an extra month without having to suffer his presence.

Lyons also said that he wasn’t quite ready to decide by Friday exactly what to charge the people who were arrested on Wednesday, and because he can’t hold people without charges for longer than 48 hours, he cut ‘em loose. And it was Friday.

Seems to me that solution would have been to — hold onto your hats folks — actually charge them with something. Police has this joint up for two weeks. If we had a state’s attorney actually capable of working well with police, Lyons might have been in a better position to know exactly what to charge these them.

Lyons is right about one thing. He says politics was the motivation for the press conference.

Absolutely. GOOD politics. The kind of politics that’s all about trying to put the needs of the public above the needs of hack career bureaucrats like Catch-And-Release Kevin Lyons.

Kudos to Ardis and Manning.

Lyons also complained that all the attention on this cases puts the prosecution at risk. Lyons said this at his own press conference.

I came to the conclusion years ago that Peoria would never fully get a handle on the crime problems driving families away from the city and out of our schools. I don’t think that the election of Darin LaHood will be the cure for crime. But it’s a start to making things better.