" Sorry, but I think the form of Government outweighs the issues. History and the Constitution outweighs your argument. As long as the Mayor Commissioner form of Government is our legal form of Government we should work to improve it and not cater to a shadow government contrary to the will of the people. If Gilmore wants to be mayor of Mattoon he should have to run for the office. I have no problem with him as long as he is elected. The pay for Mayor should be such that it would attract persons of his abilities. Commissioners should also be paid better. But they should be expected to do more than show up for pictures with little kids at the pony ride. Why not downsize Wortman's job and distribute the money to the commissioner's elected positions. It might attract more serious minded persons to those positions and four people could oversee the departments much better.
It is both illegal and expensive to install a shadow government over an elected one. "

" There is a site that lists many cities in Illinois, with online city ordinances.

Illinois Municipal League legal department.

It lists towns as small as 400 some. Charleston's aren't there yet. Mattoon's goes so far as to spell out in their punishments section, city workers aren't accountable for code violations, unless a code specifically says they are. I looked for obvious violations that could apply. If its in the rules, that only rules that specifically stipulate they apply to the city, can be punished, I can venture a guess what the number of probabilities might be. I didn't read the entire thing, it is there, and current up to May 08 it claims.

Evidently this article is stating the minimal interest, in election ballot issues is people from each side haven't come to them to run their ads. It is very haphazardly written, but from reading it a third time, it seems they are comparing two forms of city government. This was written with the fluidity of fine legal print. I might agree with some of the possibly good points, but it lacks context and connectivity throughout.

They didn't want to be specific, and name names.

Two variations of city government are on ballots. Home rule, is possibly more important than buying another chair and name plate for city hall caucuses, pre pre caucuses and council meetings. Both in my opinion are bad ideas. Home rule has increase taxation available, and lots more issues. Even consideing a chang ein format, while the currentlo, who would make the selection, is entrenched and consumed by its own set agendas, is a terible option. "

" There are important changes that could be implemented at City Hall to improve how our elected leaders reflect the will of the people, without having to change our form of government.

The first change: Hold all Council meetings in the Council Chamber - not a caucus room.

The second change: Before qualifying for public funding of any type, require all non-public entities who receive taxpayer funds (such as Coles Together) to conform to the requirements of the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

The third change: Attach strict Performance Bonding requirements to all taxpayer funding of private enterprise (such as the Mattoon Mall) so that if the joint venture of public/private money fails, the taxpayers are automatically reimbursed 100% of their investment. Government funds should never be treated as at-risk capital. Thats the role of venture capitalists.

The fourth change: Require the City Administrator and the City Attorney/Treasurer to stand for a publically-debated (inviting citizen input) vote of confidence held by the City Council every two years. "

" Couldn't agree more Tom. Conflict of interest should also have some daylight shined on it. Should Mattoon's City Treasurer give legal advise to himself? Should legal advise and financial advice come to the Council from the same man?
Should a local realtor be allowed to effectively recomend action to the City Council from his position on the Planning Commission when he regularly buys, sells, and trades property with them? Even the appearance of incompatability erodes public trust. I am not saying anything illegal is going on but these types of arrangements lend themselves to abuse and have no place in Governments. "

" Aren't the councils duties outlined and detailed in the individual jobs these people run for office in? Don't candidates get job duties, when they pick up petitions to run for office? Doesn't the city code, go into detail what these duties are, and that council members are to be assigned areas to oversee, not become a consortium of five, as they please bosses, including the mayor.

Adding the administrator, was supposed to solve issues, in this very area. Sometime since, they have rewritten their duty mandates, let hired help run the city, and all of them interpret their own duties to their office as they see fit. The Mayor is supposed to guide the body, and ultimately be responsible for all of them. All or any responsible for city functions, not being held to the proper standard, is the responsibility of the mayor, to correct and keep on track.

This administration has been beyond a disfunctional romper room free for all, for longer than the interim mayors apointment, but no needed change has come under his guidance either.

City code, needs to have no confidence referendums, added to taxpayer protections. We need a city taxpayers bill of rights, that is part of the code all city functions are performed under.

The 10M bonds for the mall, drainage ponds, TIF land sidewalks and skatepark, should be required to be balloted on a binding refferendum. Tax kickers, and new levy's need to face voter approval and repeal. Streets, Parks, sidewalks, and assets need to be propely maintained, before one single new item of responsibility is added if it is not vitaly imperitive to do so.

TIF needs complete accounting and open records. How did approving one district get to become 4 and business districts? Completely inept use of Taxpayers money, has gone into increasingly less fiscally responsible decisions of ever increasing size.

These power hungry irresponsible individuals, have it written in their code, rules they inforce on taxpayers and citizens don't apply to them, unless the ordinance specificly states it does. We are under some semblance of a monarchy system, and have nothing resembling a representative form of government. City code needs re written to not allow this, and require binding voter approval, to remove any taxpayer protections or rights. "