I found you on blogivists but see now email address. I am looking to connect with some conservative bloggers for a project I’m doing on my site, Culture11.com. I hope you can shoot me an email to connect for this. Thanks much!

Ericka Andersen
Culture11.com
Ericka@culture11.com

Where on http://www.forthegoodofillinois.org are the above-mentioned check registers that you got through FOIA?

btw, I think plenty of people would do the same job for 50% more money. Their salaries are certainly lower than the local teachers’ salaries (they can’t strike like teachers can).

I have a lot of respect for our troops in Iraq Chicago police on the South Side and the ATF agents who infiltrated that Mongol biker gang. Our MG police are doing a fine job, however MG is far safer than Evanston, Skokie or Des Plaines.
What’s our biggest crime that you know isn’t reported by the, admittedly sleepy, Champion?

I enjoyed your discussion with Ed and Bob on your blog. All three of you are very knowledgeable and level-minded.

Please consider the possibility that we have been conditioned by the school system into a powerless way of thinking about the school priorities.

Let’s stop assuming that the district can simply discard a program to cut the
budget. Let’s create a vision that art and music classes have the
same priority as sports and regular classes. Let’s also create a vision that the district cannot simply fire teachers to save money.

The district might cut across the board.
Teacher salary schedules have a rigid “step-down” system that rewards seniority and a masters degree.
Teacher health plans are always exceptionally generous to the teachers, with a token premium and a token deductible.
Our plan has 92% utilization by the teachers. 92% of insurance company’s income goes right back to the teachers.
The company is stuck with 8% gross margin. No wonder it bumps the premium by 12% for next year.
Add up the salaries, health payouts, pension payouts of a 15-year high school teacher.
15 years of experience (seniority) is average for teachers. The district could easily pay out $120-$130K a year.

Imagine you’re a VP of iPod product line in Apple.
Recession is here and Apple’s income is down.
Steve Jobs throws out an idea to cancel iPod and focus only on iPhone and Mac. But you know that iPod is just as important to Apple as the iPhone and the Mac.
Are you going to appeal to his sympathy for your about-to-go-hungry family or are you going to stand for what you know is right?
If you stand up for yourself you will prove to Steve why iPod belongs in company’s portfolio.

It might be uncomfortable, but you must get the district to bring those expenses down from $120K to $110K a year.
The teachers certainly are wonderful and they wouldn’t like it , but it’s also tough to manage a lot of other jobs for far less money.

The union wants you to think only about this year’s art and music.
Don’t let them set these parameters for you.
You gotta stand up, not only as one mother of one student, as also as an owner of the district.

You’re not the only one.
Once you stand up, others will too.
Please stand up!

Mike

There is an old saying that where there’s smoke, there’s fire, unfortunately based on what we were treated to on Monday, it’s impossible to figure out exactly what is burning.

The FOP attorney did little good for the cause of the disgruntled patrol officers with the tiptoeing around the bush non-accusation accusations. If there is wrongdoing by the Chief of Police it should be fully aired and he should go. If this was part of a negotiating ploy on the part of the union it was short-sighted and stupid.

But wait, as they say in the late-night infomercials, there’s more. The board and mayor met with the FOP in executive session before the public meeting on Monday and the mayor met with the FOP almost two weeks ago. So the only folks surprised by this charade were the public in the audience. Every one of the major players knew what this little dance was all about… but they are not telling us, the residents.

Does anybody REALLY believe that the mayor’s indignant response to the FOP was hastily scribbled on the back of a McDonald’s napkin? If nobody knew the excrement was about to meet with the air-oscillation device why was the command and control structure in full attendance, (command performance perhaps)? In his “crocodile tears” performance, Chief Tasch says he just found out about this. Really? Weren’t you summoned back from vacation by the mayor’s ” heads up?

The non-indictment indictment by the FOP attorney, the impassioned non-responsive response by the mayor and the non-endorsement endorsement by the sergeants and command staff, (given a big, visible “thumbs-up” by the former deputy building commissioner and political crony of the mayor) was more jabberwocky than anything Lewis Carroll ever put on paper. And was I the only one who caught Trustee Marcus’ statement that this should have been handled quietly behind closed doors while the mayor nodded with sagacity in his reclining executive chair? What happened to open and transparent government. Only cockroaches love the dark.

The chief of police, like all department heads, serves at the pleasure of the mayor. Perhaps a little digging into the relationship between this mayor and the chief prior to the chief’s appointment would be enlightening.

Morton Grove is pictured as a sleepy little community with no crime. Do some research before you come to that conclusion. Just because our puppy-dog local news media doesn’t report it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

Cops do a job that most of us wouldn’t do for 20 times what the police are paid. If there is dissension in the ranks it will be the residents that suffer. If there is substance to questioning the qualifications and behavior of the Chief of Police bring it out into the open.

The residents of Morton Grove were poorly served last Monday by the rank and file police, by the FOP, by the command and control staff of the police department, by the chief of police, by the Village Board and by the mayor… there is more than enough garbage to go around.

As that well-known philosopher Elmer Fudd would say; “There’s sumpthin’ Screwey goin’ on around here!”

My only recourse here is to send her to private school. I know you are going to say run for the board, but that won’t help my daughter for school next year.

Lisa’s last blog post..Lands End Exclusive Deal!