Franklin Park missing $8.7 million in village funds

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Interested wrote:

Pedersen talks about how he can cut cost, has anyone every counted how many village employee's take home a village car? With the cost of maintenance, insurance, and GAS this could be the first cut.
Second cut, people doing useless jobs like full time program planner.
People this is our TAX MONEY pay attention on how it is being spent.
Did you see the line out the door and down the street with people that received tickest, this is Pedersen's plan for making money for the village.
So......let's pay taxes and tickets!
Good job village board.

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Money and Power wrote:

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And is it not good that you can go to a laundromat?
We are free to go where we want.
Do you expect our local government to provide buildings and then assign what kind of business should occupy those buildings?
What happened to free enterprise?
Will a person be happy if forced to marry? Would you be happy if you were told where to live?
The problem started about fifteen years ago when our local government decided to go into the business of real estate and town building.
It is easy to take taxpayers money as a Mayor or Trustee and build condominiums or stores. As a mayor you have lots of taxpayers money and TIFs. What risk is a mayor or trustee taking when it is not their money? None.
An individual or corporation will take a close look at any investment and what kind or return will be had on that investment (ROI).
What if fifteen years ago there was no Trustee named Barrett Pedersen that introduced the TIF to Franklin Park? Stores would either upgrade or they would sell at market value. Which means the property would go down in value until someone bought the property. Market forces at work. Simple.
Franklin Park took taxpayers money to force development at a great cost. Today the storefronts remain vacant because private investors do not see those stores as a good investment at the current prices.
Dan Pritchett, only near the end of his career started to see what Republicanism and Conservatism is all about. A true Republican would not buy up property with a citizens board that played town developer. If you are aware of the town's history, that citizens planning board was finally aborted.
Several months before election it was announced by Joe that new development on Franklin Avenue would be halted immediately.
This was good news to the residents of Franklin Park. Mayor Pritchett made a good decision to halt new condominium development on Franklin Avenue.
Six months ago, during the campaign, Pedersen had a meeting. Anyone could attend.
At that meeting Trustee Johnson stated that, "We must move ahead in constructing the second condominium."
And he never gave any evidence of why. He did have a plan to fill the storefronts with business. His plan was simple. Instead of an individual paying 7000 per month rent. He would subsidizes half of the money so business could move in at 3500 a month. That's 3500 dollars of your tax money,per month, per store. Has Johnson changed his mind since six month ago? Ask him.
As I stated before, it is easy to spend others money when it is not yours. Johnson does not think about your hard earned money. He will take your money without batting an eyelash and give your money to others so they can make money. You will never see a check in your mail as a return to that investment. You will see a higher tax bill though.
Why do you think there was a rift between Pritchett and Johnson?
Eight point Seven missing?
Mayor Pritchett had only the interests of Franklin Park in mind, both the residents and the town. He made some mistakes along the way. I think he came a long way from when he started and was a very good Mayor. What if he was re-elected? I think if he was, the next for years would have been stellar. That is only a what if. I base that deduction on the fact that Pritchett did not want to be anything except a mayor and a good one.

entertainer wrote:

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As I said, I voted for Ruhl. Read everything before you let your anger take over. I actual agree with much of what you say. Prichett made this town what it is and deserves what ever he gets. Its a shame pedersen won, and we are now stuck with him. Being completely negative is not the answer. I think Petersen is in way over his head and had no plans beyond the election. If he didnt know the shape our town was in finacially shame on him for not doing a small amount of home work or just being niave. Do I want him to fall on his face? On one hand i would love to say I told you so!, but on the other hand how much more can our town take? AS I said before, like it or not we are STUCK with him for four years. Although I doubt it will happen, FOR THE GOOD OF THE TOWN, I hope he dosent do too bad. You got a reasonable suggustion on how to fix this before than I am more than happy to hear you.

entertainer wrote:

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if you really beleive that prichett was that great than I got a great deal for you! I have an Underpass on grand Ave. I would like to sell you. He brought this town to the low level it is now. While FP was buying property and forcing businesses to move out of town other towns were doing their best to bring businesses into there communitys. I an not talking about cutsy shops so much as light industry. I shutter to think what our town would look like if we had four more years of prichett. Of course I shutter to think what its going to look like in 4 years under Pedersen.

u are clueless wrote:

<quoted text>Very few employees take their car home, you should get your facts straight. If you weren't parking illegally this shouldn't be an issue. They are cracking down this shouldn't be an issue for anyone.Don't tell me... you were one of the dumbasses standing in line with a ticket?

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over his head wrote:

<quoted text> If you say Pedersen is in over his head, it is safe to say Ruhl would have no business being mayor. The comptroller had to get fired to uncover the mess. There is no way Ruhl could have figured any of this out.

resident wrote:

I'm not one of the leaders, just a resident stating the the obvious. Very few cars go home compared to the previous administration. Usually the department heads need them because they are on call

Clueless wrote:

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Nice to read what the leaders of this town think of our residents,
DUMBASSES??
How many village cars go home - please, let us know.

resident wrote:

is that alot of cars?

joe wrote:

speaking of cars and perks. someone said a crossing guard had a car.. I rememeber this old man crossing guard on Rose and Chestnut by the schools.. I remember him driving a squad car. Not sure.. if that is true.. that does seem a bit extravagant. I do not see that old man any more . there are young ladies crossing kids now and they have their own cars.

joe wrote:

what about all those building inspectors.. do they get to keep those cars... or only use during business hours. I was not aware of all the cars being used.
I see those inspection dept cars parked around in odd places.