Sheila's drive for bigger and more intrusive government - Code Enforcement.

She is a Senator's daughter after all, bigger and more expensive government is the family business.

From her plan -

2. Build code enforcement into an effective, efficient system, one that responds to needs of the entire community. Pay for the system, in part, through a small inspection fee.

This is just genius! Hire a small army of code inspection people, go door to door and let the people pay for it! I'm wondering how many houses in my 1960 era neighborhood could pass this kind of inspection? :) This is exactly the reputation that Carbondale needs, we are already a place that is way more expensive to do business then anywhere else in Southern Illinois and now we can go even further down the path of unreasonableness.

In the real world, that everyone who wasn't born with a silver spoon in their mouth lives in, code enforcement on buildings is a tricky thing. Honest people know the building codes exist for a reason and follow them. Sometimes this costs more money, but how much does having your house burn down cost? The problems is there are always a few people who want to cut corners, make a few extra short term bucks and ignore our fairly common sense laws. In the last 20 years, the biggest example of this is a company called Home Rentals, owned by Henry Fisher.

We all know about Henry's story and his current location. We also know that Home Rentals has been nothing short of a juggernaut of property purchasing. A partial list of what they own - building next to 710 (that houses Attitude Designs), Corner Dinner building, Walk the Line building, Booby's Subs, old Papa C's building on College, office building next to it on College, all the big apartments on College between University and Popular, all the houses behind the DQ, check out their ads for what if for rent in the student papers in a few months.

Home Rentals also used to own the "American Tap" building on Illinois avenue. Since the city's purchase of the American Tap building is Sheila's only hope of winning this election, it should be called out. Yes, you can expect a whole series of posts about Sheila's BS about "the Tap" purchase. Isn't it amazing how someone running on a platform of ethics can throw mud at the same time? Guess it would be impossible for her to win on merit. Daddy's name and mud are her game.

The problems with enforcement on Home Rentals (in the old days) and the like is they just don't follow the rules very well. Since all the city can do is write them up and fine them, maybe try to keep people from being in the building, it is fairly easy to ignore what the city wants. This is one of the downside of one of the most important rights of US citizens, our strong rights of property owners. If you need examples of how to do this, feel free to challenge this idea in the comments and I'll explain it there.

If the city were to put through a law like this, it might have the good result of cleaning up a few rental units, but at what cost? The market forces are working on fixing this problem already. New apartments are going up all over and houses that in bad shape are sitting empty. As usual, market forces in student housing are powerful in Carbondale. Of course, if SIU had 25,000 students again, people would be living in basements, on dirt floors like the old days.

Does the city really need a tax increase and more city employees? Does the city need to become the city of crazy code inspection and draconian anti-business laws? A clear difference between Brad and Sheila, Sheila puts forward plans that just will not work in the real world, because she doesn't understand the real world (IMHO). The unintended consequences of this plan would more then negate any positives.

Your comments are always welcome.

Sheila's plan to convert rental units of owner occupied housing?

Here we have yet another one of Brad's good ideas and Sheila trying to make it her own by adding something stupid to it. Like many of Sheila's ideas it would be super-d- duper if there was a fantasy world where it might work, but on this earth they are going to work.

Here is the lowdown. Brad figured out that Carbondale needed more houses built and he figured out the reason they weren't being built was it cost more to build in Carbondale then just outside of town. Brad came up with a cheap tax break to help cover the cost difference. I think the numbers are there have been more houses built in Carbondale in the last 4 years then in the previous 20. This is a home run success for Brad and his simple and smart ways to improve Carbondale.

Sheila's stupid add-on to Brad's successful plan is to make the incentive apply to rental housing in Carbondale. I guess there might be someone out there who is willing to convert rental housing to single family, but let's run over how it might work. As I have written in this blog before, the houses in Carbondale are small, have very few garage spaces and are old.

In the 1990 US Census, Carbondale has the smallest houses, with the fewest garage spaces of any small city in the USA. It turns out our small houses, that are a little trashed, are worth a whole lot more as rentals in Carbondale. A guess would be that converting the rentals on Cherry Street from R-4 to R-1 would lower their value by 50%. In other areas it would be more.

As you know, the average house being built in Southern Illinois is around twice the square footage of the average rental house in Carbondale. The normal house being built has a 2 car garage. Bottom line, families don't want to live in a house that is 1,200 or 1,500 square feet with no garage space. A big house with a garage is the current American dream.

To fix up a house that has been rented for many years requires a massive fixup and resurfacing. New carpet, new floors, new kitchen cabinets, new paint, new roof, new gutters, replacement windows. I bought, fixed up and sold a house around the corner from my house last year, spent well over $50k on it (we wanted to use the house for a while, but also we wanted to make it nice enough so it wouldn't become a rental). For many of the rental houses in Carbondale, you are looking at more then $50k to make them right.

There is a market for these old and worn houses as student rentals. There is a large contingent of students who want to live in a house and howl at the moon. They pay their damage deposit and beat it up. Part of owning these houses is fixing them up every summer.

It turns out that capitalism is taking care of many of the problem houses. When they get to a really bad state, someone buys the bunch of them and puts up student apartments. We saw this around the old Lincoln Junior High building and Home Rentals is doing the same on College Street in the form of those lovely, formerly blue barracks. That you don't like the way it looks or the building owners really doesn't matter, when there isn't enough housing for students, someone will build it without the City of Carbondale needing to give them money.

Who are those nice folks on Cherry Street that are buying houses and fixing them up and renting them out? Jane Adams and D. Gordon (sp?) isn't it? I wonder if they are going to convert their houses to R-1 and kill the resale value? They don't need the city to do it, they can just write it into the contracts. That would be a real service to the city wouldn't it? Have to think about that one.

In a Senator's daughter view of the world, I guess spending government money on everything makes sense. On the Earth the rest of us live in, Carbondale doesn't need to do anything about rental housing. The capitalist market is doing fine without them in this area.

Sheila's economic development plan is really, really stupid.

Here are her goals, taken directly from her campaign document -

1. Budget for a full time city employee who has the sole mission of business development and advocacy.

2. Establish a program of recognition and appreciation of businesses that have stayed in Carbondale and helped build our community.

3. In cooperation with organizations that recruit and support businesses, establish a program of regular assessment of the needs of local businesses.

4. Work with major employers to encourage their employees to live in Carbondale.

5. Establish a pilot program of microcredit, very small loans, for area youth who have a desire to build their own small businesses.

Let's see, Brad cleaned up the mess that was Carbondale Business Development Corporation that was left for him and budgeted and hired a city employee to do the work. So number 1 is Brad's plan, but he already did all the work. I guess there is some issue about if we should be adding headcount to city hall or if we should be cutting fat. Brad seems to be interested in doing more with less and Sheila in spending more taxpayer money (a clear difference between them).

Establish a "program of recognition" for business? Everyone and their mother already does this. Maybe Sheila has never heard of the Chamber of Commerce? It would be better to leave city politics out of this sort of thing. The good news is she is stealing this idea from someone beside Brad for a change.

Assess the needs of local businesses? Since almost everything in town is a service business that makes money off students, people who serve students or shoppers from neighboring communities, let me save everyone time and effort. What local business that exist today need is 25,000 students on campus and the City of Carbondale government to continue the current pro-business movement that has been in place since Brad became mayor. Otherwise, the city should keep their attention to running their business and let the business people run their businesses without interference from a petty bureaucrats.

Sheila thinks that employers are going to get their employees to live in Carbondale? What a stupid idea. Two thoughts for Sheila - District 95 test scores and house size. If you believe school test scores are important and you have (or plan to have) children, then you are obligated to live out of town. If you want the average sized (or much bigger, if you are doctor) house that Americans are building today, you are going to have to live out of town. Even given that, why would an employer risk their relationship with their employees to back such a stupid plan?

The microcredit idea is interesting, but is unlikely to work. I guess I'm for this one, even if it is a long shot. But if you only have time to do a few things, this sure feels like something that should be priority 20 and not priority 5 on your list.

I have written about business development in Southern Illinois extensively in this blog and I don't feel like doing it again, in painful detail right now. Quickly, what Carbondale needs is for SIU to stop messing up and for a couple of businesses to emerge that export something beyond a 50 mile area. They also need the city to continue to be pro-business, instead of returning to the anti-business city hall of the Neil Dillard era.

Since Sheila isn't clearly calling for a pro-business city hall, I assume she doesn't want one. Last election, Brad quoted someone, "that business goes where it is wanted and stays where it is appreciated." At the end of his term, Brad is going to have the best business development record of any Carbondale mayor in my lifetime. Sheila is going to stink in comparison if she is elected.

For the city government of Carbondale supporting business (and really not be obstructionist) is critically important. This issue is clearly Brad's strength and Sheila at best clueless on these issues.

One of the problems with SIU having an politician president

This is the pubic letter that the president of ISU sent to the state about ISU employees taking the ethics test to quickly. This is what the "leaders" of SIU should have done, but this kind of letter requires real backbone and not just political mind games.

The new goal of the SIU administrators should be to understand why writing letters like this is an important skill for a true leader and start doing it.

--------------------------------------

Dear Executive Inspector General Wright:

Recently, hundreds of Illinois State University employees received a letter from your office notifying them that their governmental ethics training certificates of completion were invalidated on the grounds that they completed the training in an inappropriately fast period of time.

As a result, my staff and I have received numerous complaints from university personnel regarding the tone of the notice as well as the poorly communicated provision that the testing time was monitored. I, along with employees of this academic community, am offended that one would be penalized for the ability to read and comprehend information quickly when these same skills are a necessity to succeed in an environment of higher learning.

The only failure is that the Inspector General's office exhibited an alarming lack of judgment and common sense. In my 28 years as a professor, I have never given a failing grade to a student for taking an exam too quickly. It is groundless and insulting to accuse employees of cheating simply because they finished the exam in less than 10 minutes.

Please note that while disappointed in how some aspects of this training have been administered, I recognize the importance of the training and appreciate all good-faith efforts to educate the Illinois State University community on the provisions of the State Employees Ethics Act. As a University, we will continue our work to ensure compliance with the Act.

Sincerely,
Al Bowman
President

Tipping point at the University Mall - tax break to "The Gap?"

The University Mall is doing pretty well these days. Granted that the food court is a disaster, but we don't really need more fast food in Carbondale anyway. Like downtown back then, it looked much different when I moved back to town 5.5 years ago. Everything was pretty empty and something like the Marion Mall looks today.

I think that giving the tax break to "The Gap" store and getting Old Navy in the bargain was the tipping point that turned the Mall around. At the time, I didn't like it. The results sure look good now.

What do you think, was the city giving The Gap a tax break a good idea? Would the Mall have rebounded and be doing this well without it?

Your comments are always welcome.

Bush vs. Obama

I have been of the opinion that "W" will go down as the worst foreign policy president in US history and depending on who write the history books maybe the worst president ever. I have thought that one of the unintended side effects of "Scrub's" policies was going the be the spread of nuclear weapons across the world, because it is the only way to be sure the US will not invade your country. The president of Russia just pointed this out the spread of nuclear weapons can be credited to "W" yesterday.

It is interesting to look at Bush 2 and realize he is a perfect candidate for about half of American voters. Country club raised with a silver spoon, rich because he is lucky, drug user (in his younger days), born again Christian, son of a major political player, educated at the best schools, war dodger and anti-intellectual. He represents the best and worst of the groups that make up the Republican party. Isn't it amazing we managed to elect an idiot like this to be our president, not once, but twice?

Now we see the Anti-Bush running for president, Barack Obama. From a mixed background of limited wealth, educated at the best schools, intellectual and super smart, inclusive and charismatic. Obama was incredibly lucky to be elected senator in the last election, when every opponent fell on their own sword. His wife seems smart too and not to be a huge liability (like John Kerry's wife, I wonder if he would have won if she wasn't such a negitive). What an American success story.

I don't know if Obama will win, but I'm for the self made man over the man made by his daddy (or granddaddy). I like smarts over family connections. Merit over political ties. Intelligent and reasonable plans over political sound bites. I'm not sure that Obama represents the perfect Democratic candidate for the constituency groups the way that Bush does for his, but maybe he can run on merit and ideas instead?

We can't be rid of Bush and the Bush family support team fast enough IMHO. Hopefully the next president will bring more reasonable plans and more for sight to the job.

Now back to the Carbondale and SIU content.

Should the city of Carbondale work to help Downtown/"The Strip" do better?

Clearly, the big box stores and the students not walking has really hurt the downtown businesses on "The Strip". Should the city do some of those city kind of things to make it a better place to conduct business? Should they work to reroute 51 around Illinois Ave in the downtown to make a pedestrian mall? Should they offer an incentive to fix up some of the old buildings or build new ones? Tear down the Varsity and make a parking lot? There must be something else they could do?

What do you think, should the revitalization of the Downtown/Illinois Ave./Strip be a civic priority or should we just let all the business go out to the mall area and the big boxes?

Your comments are welcome.

How fat is SIU? A good comment and link.

Before I started working on Carbondale politics, there was a thread about SIU and the DE's editorials. Way down in that thread, about comment 20 I think, there is this link to the SIU fact book. The person who wrote in said, "I fully expect Peter to freak when he sees the increases." Total employment at SIU has gone from 4,993 in Fall of 1997 to 5,305 in Fall of 2006. I have to admit that I don't understand the numbers listed, so maybe one of you can explain it?

This seems to support the idea that SIU is doing less with more. I guess you might be able to justify everything except the growth of AP and CS staff by calling it normal ebb and flow of the hiring cycle? Why are there so many more AP and CS staff people around now?

Your comments are always welcome.

Rules for comments on this blog

If you are just going to attack someone and give absolutely no data, facts or information, your comment is going into the bit bucket.

Now, back to the political discussion.

Interesting what you can learn reading the Bytelife blog - Carbondale goes green.

After my last post about how stupid it would be to put solar electric systems on city buildings, I read about something smart and green. Bob Pauls wrote about Carbondale Signs US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement over on the Bytelife blog.

My feeling is that the difference in results we can expect from Brad as Mayor or Sheila, Neil Dillard or Maggie as mayor can be found here. Sheila put forward a really optimistic plan to make Carbondale green, but it can't really work as she wrote it. Brad went out and researched what other people are doing and found a movement to join that had a smart and reasonable solution. It sure looks like Carbondale can go do things on the Climate Protection Agreement and I'm convinced it would be silly to do solar electric.

This is a good example of why Brad as been our best mayor in many years. It isn't wizzy, it is just hard work and clear thinking that works.

Sheila's solar power plan - good we get to talk technology.

As you go through Sheila's plan, at some point you run into the solar power stuff. I'm pretty interested in this and I'm going to do a full solar electric generation system on my next house. It is great for a "fat cat" like me to install a solar system, but it will not pencil out. For those of you who don't do business, not penciling out means that you can't justify the cost with the return. When dealing with solar power, you just can't justify the expense right now if you are in business because you will lose lots of money. I guess you can get a grant and waste the money, but I'm not sure that is ethical either.

The good news is that it looks like we will lick the solar power issues in the next 10 to 20 years. There is an interesting article in this month's issue of Inc. Magazine written by Ray Kurzweil (your know, one of the great technology inventors of our time) that is worth reviewing on this issue. Kurzweil claims in this article that we are only 10 years away from solar systems that pencil out, based on nano technology.

As a supporter of solar technology, I think Sheila's idea of having the city use renewable energy to be admirable. The problem is that it is a really stupid idea for the next 10 or more years, because the technology you install today will be obsolete almost immediately, even on a 20 year horizon you will cost the tax payers money and it will prevent you from installing the right system in 10 or 15 years.

Once it pencils out, everyone will be installing it and it will no longer be innovative or stupid. That day isn't now and will not be coming in the next decade.

Integrity and accusing your opponent of illegal or unethical acts.

I notice that in addition to the $50 shell game that the Sheila Simon platform and campaign tactics are going to be based on accusing Brad Cole of illegal or unethical acts. This is a pretty standard political tactic when you have no accomplishments and your opponent does. You use attack, innuendo and deception to get ahead. If your primary campaign tactics are the standard Illinois rough house BS, does that give you the high ground on having integrity?

As I read the Sheila Simon campaign platform, the specific items seem to be divided into three categories - Brad's accomplishments and ideas, Brad's ideas with maybe a small twist, and really stupid ideas that can't work in the real world. Yes, I'm going to go through them one by one.

It is an interesting way to build up your accomplishments by stealing your opponents ideas and accomplishments, while smearing him on the side. Kind of cute, but not very ethical.

I understand the problem Sheila has though, how do you run against the best mayor a city has had in 20 or 40 years? You had better attack, there no chance she can win based on merit.

I'm wondering about the ethics of a $50 campaign limit.

I promised I would look at Sheila Simon's platform document for mayor and thought we could start right at the top "Integrity in campaigning". Here is the first post in this thread. Sorry for the delay, I'm working hard at BoundlessGallery.com these days and have other issues that are distracting me from amusing the blog readers.

I read the DE a couple of days ago and noticed that Sheila has raised $9800 or so thus far. It looks like her platform document calls for a $50 limit and publication of the names of all givers. That got me thinking.

When Chuck Grace ran for judge a couple of years ago, he ran against a Murphysboro based lawyer who also claimed to have a $50 limit. At the time, I felt Grace's opponent did it as a campaign marketing device. He knew about how much he was going to spend, he could afford it, so maybe claiming a limit might be a tactic that would work. The Green Party does this too, but my feeling is that is part of their culture. The Greens like being poor as church mice, it make them more righteous or something.

My question about the Carbondale mayor's race is this, it is more ethical to take money from a bunch of local business people or from the State of Illinois Democratic Party? I have no doubt that I would rather have my politicians beholden to local people then the Illinois Republicans or Democrats (for the record, I have been a Democrat when I lived on the West Coast, but please don't lump me in with the Illinois Democrats).

When Sheila claims a campaign limit and calls it Integrity, then turns around and uses the Illinois Democratic machine to raise $10k, is that ethical? If everyone followed her rules, wouldn't that give the Demo's that much more power and make them that much more corrupt? Please don't ask me "How corrupt are they? We will save that until after Blogo is arrested."

I have written in this blog before about corruption in Illinois and how campaign limits are important. But, I don't think $50 is the right number for that limit. A better number would be $1000 or $5000 per person and no corporate gifts. A $50 limit means that the creatures of the political parties would have a huge advantage.

I don't know if Sheila is trying to lever her $50 limit into some huge advantage. My feeling from reading her plan is that she views the world, from her position of privilege, through very rosy glasses. More about that in the next few entries.

Your comments are welcome.

Today's DE's editorials had me rolling my eyes

First we have Poshard talking about cutting budgets from the colleges on the front page. That is where all the work goes one isn't it? I guess that if Morris Library is $9M over budget that it isn't on time and under budget then is it?

We have the Guest Column by LeNie Adolphson about the "Democratic Party: Failing on Iraq". I guess if you don't understand that only having enough votes (which is 60 in the US Senate) can the Demo's push through anything they want? Before you write a letter like this, shouldn't you have to know something about what your talking about? Not in the DE maybe.

Next we have a letter from John Kaufman about his big problems about parking if there is a SIU basketball game. Poor guy needs to review with Mr./Ms. (?) Adolphson the rules, I don't think there is a rule about deserving a parking place. Yes, it is popular to think you deserve a parking place right now among students, but generations of people have managed to attend college without a car. It just isn't that far to walk, suck it up.

Then we have a letter from Eugene Timpe - Emeritus faculity about "Two very different commitees". He claims that "The credibility of a committee is derived from its membership." What a pile of crap. Every group derives credibility by its actions. Great members don't make for great groups by default, and at SIU the results of committee's work is often the worst possible outcome. I find the anonymous plagiarism committee at SIU have among the best results of any group at SIU don't you? They are enacting real change and consequences for people acting unethically, this is a rare thing in the SIU community.

I will not get into the "Our word" business about the lack of post superbowl rioting from Bear fans, that was just a waste of space.

The ironic thing is that there was also a column about "Please cover the real issues". Here we have a student calling correctly for the media to cover the real issues and stop pushing yellow journalism. Here is a quote -

As a public who strongly relies on the media for essential information, we should set a higher standard for the news that is delivered to us.

To the DE editorial group - just because people send these stupid editorials in, doesn't mean you have to publish them if they are just off the mark. My feeling is that the quality of the DE has been pretty good this school year, but remember you will be judged by the company you keep. Publishing silly letters to the editor really isn't the way to build the quality of the paper. Today there were to many poor examples of this, you can do better.

Sheila's plans - I'm going to analyze them.

I have found that Sheila Simon has published a plan or really a platform for her campaign for mayor. It is quite a document and I'm going to start stepping through it. It is pretty short and simple, so reading it is easy. The hard thing is figuring out what she is really saying or implying in there.

You might read it yourself so you can tell me I'm wrong more effectively.

SIU - will it get worse or get better? About low standards.

I think the discussion about low standards, not just in teaching and student performance, but in all things is worth having at SIU. One of the most interesting things about walking through an SIU building is the sea of professor's doors that are shut, empty and locked. Is it low standards if you work 20 hours a week? The physical plant workers who are on break for half of everyday, is that low standards? Students who don't take notes, estimated to be over half of all students by many sources, is that low standards? Alumni who give large gifts don't get promised reports, is that low standards?

SIU doesn't advertise and doesn't really recruit, but that has been identified as a problem. Good work there by SIU's management. I think that was identified as a really important area that wasn't measuring up and management is moving to fix it.

You wonder how long it will take for SIU to realize that allowing low standards in all things is killing the university? Is this like a 12 step recovery program, the first step is admitting you have a problem?

I'm on record predicting a 10% drop in students over the next 5 years at SIUC. That was before Poshard decided to try and fix SIUC's PR and recruiting, so maybe it will not be that bad. Yes, I know they can pad the numbers with US Military, stupid tricks with graduate students taking 1 hour and the like, but we are talking about real students. I don't see how the real numbers can go up anytime soon.

What do you think? Are SIU's low standards killing the golden goose? Will enrollment go up or down? What should SIU do about people just not doing the work and still being rewarded?

One more thing about that silly photo - The Student Story.

I wrote about this a couple of days ago, but one more thought about the silly photo that the DE found on the SIU webpage.

It was OK that the photographer took the shot. They take lots of pictures and throw away almost all of them looking for the one great shot in the bunch.

It wasn't OK that it was choosen as a good picture. It wasn't OK that it was put on the SIU webpage.

It was a good thing that the DE saw the picture and wrote a story about it. They really got the idea and wrote a constructive story about how SIU needs to improve. Good work.

The point that has been missed until now is why no one has called out the students on their complete lack of skills learning the material of the class. When you look at the students, no one is taking notes. As some of you know, when you take notes a different part of your brain is being used and you learn in a much improved way to passive listening. Of the 11 students we can see in that almost famous shot, only one looks to be taking notes. Students who don't take notes in math classes don't generally pass.

If I had to pick the one key point of SIU's downward slide, it would have to be the low academic achievement of students that SIU has allowed in these last years. The students aren't being challenged, grades are being given to students who have not learned the material and done the work, degrees are being awarded to some students who simply do not deserve them.

Should SIU give away results like the local junior colleges? Should SIU cheapen their degrees to the point that employers no longer expect a minimum level of achievement from SIU graduates? Should a SIU graduate's first manager in the real world be the first to demand reasonable effort and results? I think this has been the management message at SIUC over the last few years.

The students and SIU need to get it together and figure out how to teach the students to learn. To demand the students learn and to fail student who don't. The place is full of smart kids who need to be asked to jump a higher bar and the university is failing them. Of course, this generation of students is very happy to slide by.

The reputation that should really worry SIU is if people believe that the students who go to U of I get good jobs and the students who come to SIU move back into their parent's house and become assistant managers at Subway. Doesn't matter if you do good research then, SIU will be on the road to heck.

DE says Poshard had a bad year? I just can't agree.

I didn't capture the link, but found it on Dave's Shawnee Net News collector. Here is "Our Word" from the DE. It would be really nice if there was a date to separate the issues, but Dave has created a really cool tool.

Bottom line, the DE's staff doesn't see what Poshard has done well in his first year in power. What I see he has done is fire the biggest problem people in positions of power at SIUC (he has canned my top 3 and hopefully will move on to the next few soon). He has kept the faculty union contact discussions from being front and center in the press. He has put water on the "gang of 9" suspension problem. But mostly, he had started to analysis SIUC and started to try to move it in the right direction.

I have talked to a couple his consultants and they are doing exactly the right thing. They are looking at the structures of administration and trying to figure out how to fix them. They are backing away from Southern at 150 and Saluki Way in a reasonable and orderly fashion (note, when you need to raise a whole bunch of money and you haven't raised about half when you announce it, you aren't going to raise that money).

I think Poshard's only big misstep is his need to be "KING!" of SIU. Where it might have worked for Morris, this is a new age. His handling of the Joan Friedenberg discussions and his public attacks on her were really stupid (whistle blower lawsuit anyone?). I suspect that this high handed behavior, based on ego, is going to make it harder to do what he needs to do. If you weren't driven by ego, maybe you wouldn't be dumb enough to take the SIU President's job?

One of the big problems that Poshard has is analyzing and replacing the losers who hold so many jobs in all levels of SIU. Because of the contracts and tenure, the replacement cycle at SIU is very slow. In the private sectors, SIU would be having a massive layoff to flush the losers and then rehire to the right level. I suspect that you are looking at a 20 year fight to reload the university with the right kind of people.

Moving SIUC forward is going to be a many year cycle. This isn't like dropping a class, writing a research paper or changing majors. Poshard is going to have to figure out what to do and start to do it, the results are likely to be years down the line. That is the way it works when you are managing large systems. The good news is that someone has started, has recruited expert help and that person isn't as clueless as Wendler.

Hopefully, we are going to see many more "retirements" and other management movement at SIUC. Hopefully, the university will figure out how to stop the feather bedding and waste in their ranks. I suspect that Poshard ties to unions will prevent much of this and derail the SIUC turnaround, but time will tell.

In summary, I think Poshard has had about as good a year as anyone could expect. It could be better, but there are glimmers of movement, hope and intelligence that bode well for the future.

Poshard has taken a hard job and I wish him luck, but man does he have challenges.

Moe's is pretty marginal - new restaurant review.

As a real Mexican food fan, I was excited about the possibility of a good chain coming to town. After eating a Moe's a few times, I think we can call them an OK restaurant, but nothing special.

The first thing I have noticed is that beef is much worst then chicken. Everything at Moe's is better with Chicken. Everything is on a flour tortilla and they are like wonder bread. Since all they do with the tortilla is steam them, they just don't taste very good.

The mild salsa is pretty good, but the medium and hot are just bad. All the hotter spices are just pepper, there is no real complexity to them. The hot sauce at Taco Bell is better.

As long as we are talking about spices, Moe's puts no spice in their food, none! You can add salsa yourself after the food is made, but that salsa really isn't very good.

Bottom line, Moe's isn't bad. If you compare it to Mexican chains that are direct competitors, it is at the bottom of the pack. Best chain I have been to is Cafe Rio in Utah. Baja Fresh has many outlets and is way better then Moe's. It is better then Taco Bell. Still a welcome addition to Carbondale, but I don't think they are better then Don Taco.

Sometimes you read something and you think you have contributed.

Our Word: SIUC's marketing strategy a snooze - Our Word

BoundlessGallery.com had a really great marketing professional, Stan Hansen a couple of years ago. He left us to chase his GF (now Wife?) up to Chicago. I'm on the road and likely would have missed this one if he hadn't sent me the link.

I feel like I have made a little contribution to SIU through this blog, look the DE gets it! Marketing and PR are one of the drivers that SIU is failing. The Dean of Business said something about how marketing is both the message and the product. I think that if SIU gets the marketing story together, they still have a product problem. One step at a time.

It is interesting how many good people we have lost at BoundlessGallery.com because their GF/BF/Wife/Husband/True Love/whatever couldn't find work in Southern Illinois.

No, this is not the beginning of this blog being active again.