Rockford passes new legislation to combat already-illegal activity

Reckless driving, disobeying traffic laws, property damage, drinking and driving, drugs, nuisance noise, uninsured and unlicensed drivers. Yep, there were already laws against these, but in a highly-publicized dog-and-pony show/witch hunt orchestrated by out-of-touch aldermen, the Rockford City Council added one more law to the books in short order Monday.
When hundreds of these spiffed-up cars gather late at night for mobile soirees, police could break up the party for any number of reasons. Apparently, only seizure of participants' vehicles is enough of an incentive for officers to uphold the law, however.

Yes, you read that correctly. Not "impound," but SEIZE. So far, local media haven't made this distinction, and it's an important one that gives police just a little more power to ruin your day. If you don't think it could possibly apply to you, you're a fool and a dullard.

When I visited the special hearing on the subject at City Hall last week, Ald. Wasco wondered whether the proposed ordinance, which deals specifically with fines and impounding, could allow police to seize these ne'er-do-wells' rides as well. The short answer is, the new law doesn't provide for this, but there's more to the story.

Because the "hood ryders" naturally speed off in every direction when cops arrive, the state's attorney can authorize seizure of the vehicles under an aggravated fleeing statute, assuming that cops manage to accurately scribble down their tag numbers.

Lesson learned by hood ryders: Remove or obscure your license plates while breaking the law.

Why the need for the impound ordinance? Mini-chief Michael Booker said that once a vehicle is impounded for involvement in hood ryder activity, the registered owner (not necessarily the driver) would be made to sign a form acknowledging the car has been used for illegal activity, agreeing that any subsequent violation of a similar nature would result in full seizure. If the owner doesn't agree, the police will not relinquish the car from impound. Raises some interesting constitutional questions, doesn't it?

How this affects you: If you have kids who drive your vehicles, you're at risk of having your wheels permanently commandeered by the RPD should your offspring get caught up in this. And let's face it - if you happen to be a minority, it's just one more way the cops are gonna fuck with you.

So, because police, for whatever reason, have not nipped this shit in the bud before now, the city has basically legislated a new form of racism. Instead, how 'bout we cut money from the PD's budget for every time they failed to enforce existing laws? And just to keep them honest, any proceeds derived from the hood ryder vehicle seizures, fines and impound fees should amount to that much less money the city has to give to the department's budget.

Law enforcement is supposed to be about serving and protecting, but cops have decided it makes more sense to turn a profit, and that ought to piss off every taxpayer. Demand that these gumshoes do the jobs they're paid very well to perform, and without the need for new laws.

On a completely unrelated note, Ald. Mark was not at the council meeting Monday night. That makes me wonder if he wasn't taking Harris Bank executives out to titty bars instead.

The recent failure of Amcore Bank, which has since been bought by Harris, is undoubtedly viewed as a huge opportunity for Mark and his Metrocentre keepers.

As you'll recall, Mark was given a cushy, sweetheart job selling corporate suites for the big, orange problem child as a way to convince him not to run against Larry Morrissey in the last mayoral election. Meanwhile, however, he hasn't been delivering sales particularly well.

Harris, owned by hockey-loving Canucks, is a major sponsor of the Chicago Blackhawks, whose farm team is none other than the Rockford Icehogs. See where this is headed?

If Mark can't sell "Harris Center" naming rights to take some of the weight of the Icehogs pork off the taxpayers' backs, he needs to be fired. Doug, in this case, we actually wish ye well.

Threatened with a tantrum, council succombs to demand for raise in allowance

Trying to save face in front of an enraged citizenry, aldermen perpetrated the oldest confidence game in the book Monday night, with taxpayers as the mark (no pun intended).

Despite quick hands, the council gave the Metrocentre exactly what it requested.

Completely unreliable sources tell me Andres Sammul and Corey Pearson exchanged briefcases in an elevator after the meeting. The briefcase Pearson walked away with allegedly had $250,000 cash, while Sammul's case only had a crudely scribbled note on a strip club napkin that read, 'Thanks, Pops."

The council decided: "Aw, shucks. OK, we'll 'loan' you some more money for old times sake, but we can't keep doing this. I mean, what if my wife finds out?"

Well, the bitches (that is, we the taxpayers) did find out, but I'll bet a good number of folks around the horseshoe are glad to have kept it under wraps until after the elections.

There were whispers, just prior to the April 7 election, that the Metrocentre wouldn't last through June. Doug Block's camp was talking about it, but they never pushed it beyond the rumor stage.

Then again, it wasn't only Morrissey who'd stand to lose if Block brought it to the forefront. Plenty of Block's fellow Democrats share the blame with Larry, and that's my best guess as to why Block backed off.

So, what will we get to show for the latest $600,000 we'll never see again? Two new appointed committees adding more layers to the bureaucratic kangaroo court of city government. If all goes well, they may even get budgets of their own.

One committee will focus specifically on the Metrocentre, making sure the big orange problem child behaves while the city dangles the remaining $350,000 like a carrot on a stick.

The other committee will make sure the whip is cracked on the asses of the Coronado, On the Waterfront and others. Essentially, the city is pretending to be strict disciplinarians when it comes to taxpayer dollars, but their unwillingness once again to teach the Metrocentre Authority a hard lesson only proves they are pushovers.

Let 'em shut down for the rest of the year if they can't learn to run the place like a business. The only way to burn money that fast is on strippers and blow. The Metrocentre made lofty promises they did not deliver, and I've yet to hear any council member question the leadership over there.

I suspect that's because the MC board is led by the police chief's wife. Still, Pearson has always come across as a real punk and I suspect his salary far outweighs his actual contributions to the cause. I'll be curious to see what the new committee will have to say about the MC officers and command staff, if anything at all.

I finally got around to watching my tape from Thursday's county board meeting. When Karen Elyea announced it would be her last meeting, colleagues responded with a standing ovation.

After having conducted an unscientific, anonynous poll, Rockford Rhetoric learned most board members just seemed glad to see her go.

I'd wager Tuffy Quinonez is demanding the appointment as reparation after being scorned by Elyea in the Democratic primary for the 11th Ward city council seat, but my money's against him.

Jim Hughes has an especially heavy pimp-hand in the 11th Ward, and I suspect Tuffy is not on the Irishman's short list of flunkies to finish Elyea's term. I can't wait to see who he digs up.

Speaking of Hughes, a little bird told me an interesting story that this blog's Site Meter data appears to corroborate after I physically verified locations of several interesting publicly-funded IP addresses frequenting this site.

I'll save that for another day.

Aldermen getting cold feet over ambulance rates

After realizing how truly absurd and potentially tragic it would be to begin charging more than double the current rate for ambulance service, councilmen started going limp on the idea this week.

God knows there are people in other communities, like Cherry Valley, who pay less taxes and get their ambulance service for free. That's what a mall can do for ya', and Rockford missed the boat there. Oh well.

Kudos to Pat Curran, however, for trying to do something about it. At last week's city council meeting, Curran encouraged colleagues to participate in a budget discussion during a special committee meeting, set for two hours before Monday's council meeting so as not to interfere with other committee schedules.

Nancy Johnson was the only other Finance & Personnel Committee member to show up on time, so hats off to her as well. I would be remiss if I didn't throw Carl Wasco, Frank Beach and Jeff Holt high-fives for giving a shit, too, but their interest was in vain.

Unfortunately, according to my sources, Curran and Johnson's presence wasn't enough to constitute a quorum, so these aldermen, along with interested citizens, the press and about a dozen staffers and administrators (who are paid by taxpayers for their time), sat twiddling their thumbs for an hour before Doug Mark graced everyone with his presence so the party could begin.

I guess his employer, the Metrocentre, doesn't feel the city's millions in contributions warrant letting an alderman work on city business. By the time Mark arrived, the non-F&P members had to leave for their own committee meetings, so the whole purpose of meeting at 4 was a complete wash. I'll bet Curran was pissed, and rightly so. But hey, at least Mark showed up.

From what I've been told, Vic Bell and Linda McNeely (also F&P Committee members) apparently had better things to do than discuss how they're gonna get out of the $8,000,000 mess they helped put the city in. No kudos or high-fives for these two, only bitch-slaps. McNeely is only around to be a pain in Larry's ass (probably on behalf of Doug Scott and/or Charles Box), and Bell is a short-timer, so what do they care? They apparently don't.

By the way, Ann Thompson didn't even set foot in city hall Monday. Probably a bad eyebrow day. Jesus, what a horror show.

Anyway, not surprisingly, I'm guessing little or nothing was accomplished during the committee meeting, because nothing was accomplished at city council either.

I'm getting the feeling most aldermen would rather keep putting this off and go to their little caucus-orgies on Monday nights instead. After Mr. Sammul prattled on forever about the dry nuances of ambulance costs, councilmen seemed to have had enough for one night.

Two weeks before the drop-dead date to pass a budget, none of them felt like talking about it, so they just put it off for yet another week. They claimed they wanted more time to review the "new" information, but they really just needed a fucking drink.

For that, I can't blame them, but maybe Patrick Hayes should draft a new council rule to allow bar service in chambers. I'm not sure that even tea-totaler Beach could resist the thought of Julia Valdez reaching blackout-point, taking on her true black widow persona in some sort of ritualistic dance on the mayor's desk. I won't even get into the Tijuana performance I imagine her putting on with the gavel. You don't wanna know.

At any rate, Curran was the only alderman with the balls to essentially say, "Hey, doubling ambulance charges just isn't right if all we're gonna get is happy fire fighters and a few re-elected aldermen."

By the time the council is done with them, IAFF local 413 may realize they have a premature ejaculation problem once aldermen come to the realization they just don't have the luxury of putting four brave souls on every engine right now. Now the union is stuck with Doug Block.

Even if the city were to solve the budget crunch and wind up with some huge hypothetical surplus, you'd better believe Morrissey will cut crews now, no matter what. Why? 'Cause it makes more sense to spend the money on something we truly need. Oh yeah, and I suppose going against Larry didn't help their cause either. Block may have peaked too early as well, but we'll see.

I love, respect and admire our men and women who rush to our aid on our blackest days, but c'mon...We do NOT need 4 of you on every fire truck when multiple companies can readily respond. Regardless of EJ Dilonardo's propaganda, 3 fire fighters is the norm. Do your research. I did. The only people who buy into this 4-man nonsense are the ones who've never been outside of Rockford.

Between having to shitcan his buddy Adam Smith and having fire fighters endorse Block, Larry had a hard week, but I expect he'll bounce back before election day. Block has a clear edge at the moment, and plenty more opportunities to criticize the administration, but three weeks is an eternity during a campaign. Anything can happen.

C'mon, people, this is gonna be fun to watch, one way or another! Pour some scotch, spark a fattie and watch the show.

With their boy Block posing a serious threat now, I suspect Democrats will dig their heels in on the 4-man issue, but I think Republicans (who don't really have a dog in the fight) will side with Morrissey. Afterall, to them, an independent is better than a Democrat.

P.S.
Your prayers for Jim Powers and his family would be appreciated. Lord knows I haven't always agreed with him, but I've never doubted his integrity or his love for the Forest City. Thanks for your service, Colonel. It is appreciated. God bless.