Is Freeport's Mayor An Honest Advocate for Voting?

Tutty about choked on his coffee Sunday morning reading the column written by Freeport Mayor Jodi Miller and appearing in The Journal Standard.

Mayor Miller wrote that "Voting provides us with a voice in building the city, state and the country we want to live in..." The mayor continued from her sanctioned soap box, "I believe that every eligible resident has the opportunity to participate and make your voice heard through your vote."

If our mayor feels this way, why does she sit back and say nothing when the city manager proposes using home rule authority to bypass referendum requirements on tax and spend issues?

Since 1992, if you take an honest look, the City of Freeport (mayors, city council members, city managers; collectively known "the corporate authority) have taken dozens of actions that if Freeport were not home rule would have required referendum approval.  There would of had to have been at least one referendum thus far in 2021 if not more.

In the mayor's defense, and it's not a good defense, like most members of the corporate authority she probably has very little understanding when an action is dependent upon home rule powers and when it is not. Just this past Monday they did a deed transfer that would have been illegal for a non-home rule unit of local government. Tutty surmises that not one city council member understands why, this type of naivety makes the council ripe for city manager manipulation.

None, zero, nada, of Freeport's corporate authority over the last thirty years has shown Tutty an ability to govern without home rule.  Need a new tax or couple million dollars?  No problem.  "We're home rule, we'll just borrow millions of dollars and then create a new tax to pay for it all and the best thing is, we don't even have to provide the governed with official notice."

There was a time during one of the terms of the administration of Mayor Jim Gitz wherein the city council passed a budget that included raising Freeport's sales tax, an action that would require referendum approval in a non-home rule community.  Mayor Gitz vetoed the budget, suggesting cuts in spending and claiming that he thought using home rule to raise the sales tax without a referendum was an improper use of this broad power.  The council, some of whom don't even live in Freeport anymore, overrode the mayor's veto and raised Freeport's sales tax.

Freeport's purported city "leaders" are always quick to talk about the benefits of home rule yet none, zero, nada, ever talk about how home rule has been used as a club over the head of Freeport citizens for three decades now.  The message coming from the corporate authority has always been "we're going to do this and you're going to pay for it, like it or not."

Another problem, home rule has effectively alienated rank and file residents.  If Freeport had arrived at this point, huge amounts of public debt and a plethora of taxes to cover the same, by referendums rather than by a vote of the city council, don't you think residents would have more ownership in the problems we face?  As it stands now everything is in the lap of the corporate authority and today's city council, mayor and city manager are as responsible as all those who have come before.  That's the law for a public body operating under perpetual succession. 

I guess Tutty would really like to know if Mayor Jodi Miller is a true advocate for voting rights and honestly believes that "The right to vote freely and fairly is sacred to our nation's character." 

How about it Mayor Miller?  How has excluding Freeport voters from every tax and spend issue of the last thirty years affected Freeport's character and is that affect positive or negative?

As always, yours in honesty, Tutty Baker tutty.baker@gmail.com

Proper Use of COVID Relief Funds?

For Tutty, the saddest part of the Stephenson County Board's proposal to build water and sewer for a public utility owned by the City of Freeport is knowing how many more things this money could be used for that would actually benefit residents of Stephenson County and Freeport rather than spending millions of dollars on something just not necessary.

Tutty is somewhat familiar with the rules regarding this federal money coming courtesy of the American Rescue Plan Act, known as ARPA funding.  There are 36-pages of triple-column text regarding how this funding may be used.

Using this money for a speculative economic development project is clearly not what these funds were designed to provide.

How many lead water service lines are there yet in Stephenson County?  This money could be used to assess the water systems throughout Stephenson County and upgrade the places found to be most problematic.  How many problems within Stephenson County communities could be addressed with this funding rather than funding a project that's just not necessary?  Replacing lead service lines is constantly cited as a priority in the rules mentioned above.  This issue, because of the inherent public health risks for children,  should rank far above an unnecessary and speculative economic development project.

The City of Freeport itself has no business building out a water and sewer system that is constantly under duress.  How can you fight a major fire in the Arcade neighborhood with four-inch water mains?  Our water and sewer system in Tutty's Town has needs that will not be addressed by making the system larger.  Especially in an area where there are so very few potential new users.

The money could be used to expand broad band internet across our rural county, do some things that are an actual benefit for our friends and neighbors.  Just do a few Google searches and see what other counties in Illinois are doing with ARPA funds to benefit their residents.

It's so sad, before any county board members or city council member even had a chance to look around their neighborhoods and assess their local needs, the Greater Freeport Partnership hijacked any potential talk of using this money for anything more than a pie-in-the-sky economic development project.

They've been holding secret meetings closed to members of the Stephenson County Board and Freeport City Council, much less the general public.  There are no meeting minutes or official calculations to review of how they arrived at their $6 million figure.  Tutty believes that figure has no basis in any actual calculation of cost, that number was simply used to induce an affirmative vote from the Stephenson County Board and now the Freeport City Council.

Basically, the Greater Freeport Partnership is being used as end run around Illinois statutes that require openness of government, while the county board and city council, shrug their shoulders.

Other communities in Stephenson County should be as much the beneficiaries of these funds, they could be better used to upgrade the water and sewer systems in Stephenson County that currently exist.  Surely there are some areas that are under duress and could use some attention.  The existing population needs their necessities much more than an unnecessary build out of Freeport water and sewer lines.

Can you imagine that?  A Stephenson County Board and a Freeport City Council that actually put their constituents in front of the Greater Freeport Partnership and what is nothing more than a speculative (at best) project that could very easily do more to shovel another scoop of dirt on top of Freeport than remedy any current problem.  And that is terribly sad in Tutty's opinion.

As always, yours in honesty, Tutty Baker, tutty.baker@gmail.com