There has been much talk around Freeport City Hall regarding something being called a RISE grant from the State of Illinois and how it will be used in Freeport. The City hosted two public "open houses" on February 15, regading a "Freeport Economic Revovery Plan" to be "Funded by the RISE Grant" according to the open house announcement.
Looking down the consent agenda for tonight's Freeport City Council meeting I ran across a payment to Fehr-Graham in the amount of $15,000 attributable to the DCEO RISE GRANT DWT with the acccount number 205-268-6315. Below is picture of this page of tonight's consent agenda with this item underlined.
So using the account number, I went back to the appropriations ordinance, approved by the City Council last December, to look at the corresponding fund this payment was being pulled from.
What I found has only led to more questions. Below is a picture of the appropriations ordinance regarding this RISE grant.
What I find troubling is that the account shows a negative $22,500 for last year. What's the explanation for this number being there? I'm no CPA but I know numbers in an appropriation ordinance mean something. I also suspect, although I am no CPA that somewhere within the appropriations ordinance this negative $22,500 should show up as a postive in the same amount lest the city council approved layout is not balanced. The public and council should know if the appropriations ordinance was written unbalanced.
How much of this $75,000 grant is left? What has it been used for thus far? What percentage of these grants actually go into projects and what percentage in engineering fees?
Any member of the Freeport City Council can ask for an item to be removed from the consent agenda for full council discussion. I would like to see that happen in the case illustrated here. That negative $22,500 needs explanation and the public, as well as the city council, need to know exactly what they've gotten for the $15,000 Fehr-Graham is billing us for in regards to this grant.
Surely, Mayor Miller or City Manager Boyer should be able to explain both of these issues to the satisfaction of the City Council withou too much effort or time.
As always, yours in honesty,
John Samuel Cook
2024
tutty.baker@gmail.com
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