Taxes in Carbondale? The bone heads are at work.

I'm catching the bone headed comments from Carbondale about Brad's sales tax increase and giving $20M to SIU's football stadium, thought I would throw in my 2 cents from far afield.

There seem to be 3 issues here -
Should Carbondale raise taxes
Should the tax increase be from sales taxes or property taxes
Should Carbondale give that money to SIU for a football stadium

I think the general idea for raising taxes in Carbondale should be no, unless there is a good reason.

Sales taxes are the new method of sharing the pain with people who use the city's services, without paying for them. This is clearly the winner in the best practices in other cities. The people who are claiming that raising property taxes would be better are bone heads. Sure there is a chance that the entire American/Western Civilization will fall apart and people will stop buying things, but that chance is fairly small. Carbondale is just beginning to see the results of not having the highest property taxes around, with the return of families moving back into town. It would be stupid to raise property taxes now. The argument that Henry Fisher and the like are getting fat on the property tax cut is stupid too.

In the real bone headed things to do, Brad's proposing to give $20M to SIU for a football stadium is just plain dumb. Maybe it is the right thing to do, but we sure can't understand why from the information given.

So, stupid to raise taxes for any reason, stupid to suggest property tax increase and stupid to fund a football stadium. Seems like a clean sweep of stupid on this issue. But maybe some commenter's could raise the stupid level even higher?

From the Left Coast, your loyal subject reporting.

Where will you be in 20 years?

I was talking to a person I really liked the other day and asked them if they had their goals written down. They asked me what I was talking about. I'm sure you all know that if you write your goals down, you are much more likely to accomplish them.

We all have dreams . . . We all want to believe deep down in our souls that we have a special gift, that we can make a difference, that we can touch others in a special way, and that we can make the world a better place.

So begins Tony Robbins in "Awaken the Giant Within," his best selling book. If you haven't read it yet...

I learned a question worth asking when giving a guess lecture for a student group a few years ago. I asked them, given a choice of becoming really good at video games, not world class mind you, just very good, or starting a company and making $20M, which would you choose? Then I asked them, what are they doing to make that dream come true? The real answer for most students is nothing.

One of the sad things about living in Carbondale, is so many people are planning to be worse off in 20 years then they are today. So many people's lives were capped when they reached their last college graduation. Few are striving to be great, few are striving at all. We know the janitors, working civil service at SIU, have given up. They aren't learning, they aren't striving, they are filling their slot, until they retire and then they are going to die. Ask them if they want to live to 100 and they say, "what for?" OK for them, but I don't want to be that way. Do you?

It is sad to see SIU's administrators, not working hard to become better managers, hiding behind layers of secretaries, ducking out the back and not working hard. It is sad to see SIU's professors not doing research, not pushing for new knowledge, not working to become better teachers. It is sad to see SIU's students not working to learn the knowledge offered up in their classes and from their professors, and instead worrying about their video games, cell phones, beer bongs, $7/hour jobs and paying for their personalized license plates. SIU is a place that needs an overhaul, it needs to become an organization of striver's again. I can see some movement on the very top, but so many people will have to be fired to make it come true, I don't see it happening.

I have been here for six years, trying to do service for my hometown. Some things turn out well and some didn't. I have 5 or 6 friends I'm leaving behind, that I'm not sure I will be able to replace. I have hundreds of acquiescences, that are great people too. But, I don't want to be here, in a town where a majority think being smart and having no life goals is a good choice. Mediocrity is such a bad life choice. If you have to choose between having a great potential and a PhD or having less potential and making more of it, always choose to work harder.

The questions I leave you with now, where will you be in 20 years? Shouldn't you be doing more, both for yourself and your society?

Carbondale City Coucil acts for more worthless meetings

When dealing with the most well regulated, supervised, taxed, and followed issue in the city, our city council, decided that religious groups, drunks, heath inspectors, tax collectors, state officials, liquor company sales people, and normal clients weren't enough. Carbondale needs several layers of worthless meetings, before it can do, what the state laws says it must. On the other hand, aren't there more important issues for Carbondale to be working on?

I was impressed that Joel got a pine cone up his rear and actually did something. Now, wouldn't be good if he did something positive for the city, instead of championing a continuation of worthless city bureaucracy?

Just imagine if the people on the Liquor Advisory Committee and the City Council spent the time wasted talking about liquor issues and did something worthwhile with that time? We could get into what a pain it is for the business owners to have to educate 15 people on what they are doing, instead of 1 (like everywhere else), but we all know that Carbondale is supposed to be the hardest place to do business in Illinois. I was thinking neighborhood watch or picking up trash would both be a better use of City Council time?

SIU's future just got brighter? DE goes around the bend

I was going to write a little something, but had to make fun of Kyle and Joel first. Came across this editorial in the DE and had to comment. Athletic Directors don't make the sun come out at a university, they are more like a cherry on a milk shake (you still have a milk shake if the cherry isn't very good). Who cares if Mario stays or goes? He is a nice guy, he maybe good at his job, but we will not know that for 10 years, but he has very little to do with anything going on at SIU right now.

I know compared to approval of $14M more for Morris Library, this is good news, says the DE, "although the BOT has approved the new budget, the University has not found a source for the money." I liked their "There is a light at the end of Morris tunnel," passage too. I guess, approving money, you already spent, but don't have, is now light at the end of the tunnel?

I get the idea that when the BOT meets, the circus is back in town. The DE editorial staff seems to be the kids in the front row, believing the clown's magic tricks.

Underaged students scheming to get beer - News flash!

Fresh off the presses, it appears that some underaged students from SIU are planning to go to a bar and try to get beer! Apparently, they found out there was a party and they think that they can crash it and get a beer without being carded. The reason this is worth of note, this is the first time that underaged SIU students have ever tried to be served in a Carbondale bar. Informed sources say that the party organizers will be publicly chastised, if the bar allows underaged drinking (or even if they don't).

Big SI news? More Illinois corruption

Anyone else think it is interesting when you start to look at the big news in Illinois this summer and it is all based on corruption in the state government. Electrical rates, budget, selling the lottery, big subsidies for Chicago mass transit, anti-smoking laws not being signed (to give the casinos a chance to buy some votes), etc, etc.

Here is Southern Illinois, our big news is the new baseball team in Marion. Of course, that deal is all about political payoffs, state paybacks to campaign contributors, and honest business people having to complete with a state backed competitor. If you take a step back, it should turn your stomach.

I have heard the rationalization, we got ours, they do stuff like this in Chicago all the time, and I don't think about it. But in the end, when you support the Miner's, you are giving your approval to a fellow who gave $1M+ to the Gov. and other Dems. in campaign funds. The money is from tort lawsuits from the Metro East area, then funneled in to campaign funds, then given back with interest in grants. Without the campaign contributions, it would just be lucky pork barrel, but I guess no one gets that lucky.

Illinois, the "Land of Corruption" strikes again. Another day, another dirty deal. The next day, the people of Illinois just forget or realize that this level of dirt is normal here.

A few thoughts

Kyle responded to the last post, he says he heard from a guy, that a girl heard from another girl, that if you voted for Brad, that maybe there were free drinks at the victory party. The fellow Kyle was talking to assumed that meant there would be underaged drinking. Kyle didn't follow up and find out what really happened. Kyle is also claiming that he only started this rumor after election night, but I have was hearing it for months. Kyle has written the rumor into the comments to this blog, at least twice before the election was held. So Kyle is lying and/or stupid (I guess if he doesn't know he is lying, he is stupid?). Tracing it back to the source isn't hard, the finger points to "Mr. Dirty Tricks" himself, Tom Redmond. Kyle, you are an idiot, but maybe you will grow out of it? Tom, if this is true, you really need to get a life. Try working a compaign on merit, instead of Nixon dirty tricks. The citizens of Carbondale are pretty smart, even if they are pretty lazy, and are hard to fool with BS.

The new College of Education dean was hired, his key work is "Schooling for Good Rebels: Socialist Education for Children in the United States." Good grief, he did a book on the education for 10,000 students between 1900 and 1920? The short description doesn't say, did it work? Did the students go on and do something with their lives? Lots of pithy thoughts, but I hope the new Dean can find the backbone to raise standards to a reasonable level in the college. The days of handing out degrees (in particular graduate degrees) like their are 6 packs of beer, should be ended.

My daughter just completed her freshman year of high school. She has been home schooled and played in the CCHS Band in Fall (made all District, but freshmen can't make all state band). She received her first recruiting information from U of I today. We can assume that SIU will never, never send her anything, can't we? Lots of work to do for SIU, I wonder if they will ever get it right?

I'm packing my shop on to pallets and getting ready to move. Ironically, I was called for jury duty on the days we are moving. I have a couple of goodbye things in me, so expect a couple more items here in the next 10 or 14 days.

Hope you are having a great Summer.

Kyle Raccio and Anonymous have been called as liars

One of the problems with having a blog or commenting under your real name is that when you are wrong or lying, people can call you on it. In the last couple of days, I received some comments that are worth pulling out and shining a light on.

From my pointer to Dave's Date the Mayor work, I received this comment from the Democratic religious zealot, Kyle Raccio,

You have to admit buying beers for underage women isn't very mayorly. Nor is it legal.

Last night another comment came in from a different anonymous source

1) I've occasionally heard the comment "anonymous" describes. Wanting to secure facts, I often ask, "Have you seen it? Have you actually witnessed it?" The usual reply goes something like this, "well, no...but a friend said that..."

AND

2) In what way is it wrong for a 35 year old, single guy to go to a bar on his time-off? You know, I've actually witnessed other members of his own species practicing the same behavior. Some of them have even been older than 35! Can you believe that?! How dare they? It turns out it's a common thing among them.

This rings true to me. I have gone and looked for the source of this rumor myself and I can't find anyone who is even one generation removed from it (a person who has talked to a person who actually saw it). I have concluded that Brad's buying drinks for underaged women is an urban legend and nothing more.

Since Kyle does know or should know that this underaged drinking thing, is just a campaign to slander a public figure, I'm going to go on record and call Kyle a liar. I have already called him a fool several times, so make it a liar and a fool.

It is time for Kyle and Anonymous to go back to their caves and reemerge with a positive mindset. The mayor's race is over, and the voters have clearly spoken. Even a year of campaigning, a famous man's political heir, hundreds of lies, pounding on ever door in town multiple times, thousands of street signs, dirty tricks and back bitting, doesn't change the fundamental truths of Carbondale's performance in the last 4 years. There is nothing new here, just another of Sheila's supporters pedaling lies and rumors, instead of trying to improve the city.

Good bye Kyle, I hope you grow up someday.

Big Date happens in the Marry the Mayor contest

Check out Dave's blog for all the action.

NCAA hates bloggers

The NCAA has a new rule, no blogging from the stands. Guess they are worried about their TV money. Should be interesting to see how it plays out.

Nightlife - Wissmann's open letter to SIU's new Chancellor

Go pick up this week's Nightlife and read Chris Wissmann's open letter to SIU's Fernando Trevino. I thought his analysis of the "storm of Argersinger's firing" was interesting. I have wondered, is it the damage done by the firing or is it the management culture that allowed her firing to take place, that is worse?

What I suggest to our new Chancellor is that he take this opportunity to realize that he needs to replace most of the management at SIUC. You can't do it on day 1, but realize that a majority of department chairmen need to be replaced. Several of the Chancellor's direct reports need to go sooner. A new management culture needs to be put in place. Please go read "Good to Great" and "Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great," then start to follow what Collins suggests. A new management culture needs to be put in place at SIU and only by changing out the management will this be achieved.

I think Chris is correct, that Trevino is lucky that there is a light on the horizon with Poshard running SIU. If he makes just a few correct moves, he will get SIU back on the way up and become a local hero. Great success can be achieved. Of course, he could follow the Wendler path, and alienate the staff and fail too.

Good work Chris. As long as you are picking up the "Nightlife," read the ads and support their advertisers.

--- Thanks to our anonymous commenter, I added the link to the article above ----

Dave breaks out - finally shows the video from Marry the Mayor contest

The video had me cracking up and Dave revealed that Brad has finally ended his affair with a married woman.

Great work Dave.

The Beer Philosopher goes ecommerce

Our buddy Shawn the Beer Philosopher has opened an ecommerce site based on his "lovin the beer" blog. I don't drink, but I hear that the Beer Philosopher is in the forefront of beer based volunteerism and quality control, from people in the know.

Check out his items and see if there is something you really need for a loved one or yourself. Here is an example of a must have item, for those of you who can identify the head on the shirt. I thought it was Paul Allen at first, but realized it was someone else.

NYC, Corvallis, Panera - what do they have that Carbondale doesn't?

The Mrs. and I were on the West Coast a couple of weeks ago and were in Corvallis, OR on a Friday night. Corvallis still has an old fashioned downtown, having kept the big boxes and malls out of town mostly (no sale tax in Oregon, so no tax loss for the city. The new Home Depot is packed though.), that is away from the university and off the state highway. The downtown was packed with people. They were riding bikes, walking, eating on tables outside the restaurants, having a beer. The mix of people seemed to be about 70% adults and 30% college students. It was a pleasant scene.

I was asking myself, why Carbondale isn't like this? A friend of mine has been telling me for years, that what Carbondale needs is tables on the sidewalks, to generate a reason to walk around. Give the downtown a feeling, like you should be there and not at the mall.

I was at Panera the other day and realized that they have the right idea. They have enough parking nearby, tables to sit outside if the weather is nice, no smoking inside, and a menu that isn't just the same boring stuff I can cook at home. Going to Panera is like walking down 2nd Street in Corvallis, except Corvallis has 20 places like Panera, all in a few blocks.

I have already written about the unfortunate placement of Carbondale's main business districts on the state highways, often mixed with small lots, railroad tracks and student housing. It turns out that the state laws governing what you can do on the sidewalks near a state highway, doesn't allow most Carbondale businesses to take over the sidewalks. For that matter, who wants to eat a nice dinner, 10 feet from large numbers of trucks going by at 40 MPH?

Glenn Poshard's master plan for SIU had an idea for taking over Popular St. in years past, between 13 and SIU for a new shopping district. This seems like a really nice idea, get a place to do business that isn't on the main drag and build a street scene for walkers and pleasant commerce.

I see an opportunity to do a nice mixed use shopping and living area, on the old high school sport fields that has been in the news lately. The owners of that property, have intelligently bought a couple of abandoned buildings on Hwy 13, and now have access to 8 acres of R-8 zoned land from the main drag. My suggestion is that they build a nice strip mall on that land in front, with outdoor seating, a latte shop, an ice cream (gelato would be better) shop, a place that sells a Cuban sandwich and other fancy fare, a nice bar and a few other places with class. Build a second floor (or even third) on that building for condos or rentals, then build the back with a neighborhood of closely packed houses. Just imagine, that could be nice. To do it right, there would need to be a zoning change, capturing some of the residential land and converting it into business, but it would be nice for everyone if it was done well.

My suggestion is that the citizens of Carbondale start to decide how they want the city to look and working changing their city for the better. I know the zoning rules just took the world as it was in 1974 and don't allow anything to change, but maybe it is time to reexamine zoning in Carbondale in the modern world? Everyone else is doing it, why not Carbondale too? This is too important to trust to random luck.

If this hits the fan, I'll be down eating a slice and having a gelato on 2nd Street in Corvallis. Maybe after a few years, I might even know someone while I do it?

Of course, your comments are welcome.

Have Carbondale and SIU hit bottom? SIU vs. Ford

A friend of mine, recently told me that he feels that both Carbondale and SIU have hit bottom. In other words, they will only go up from here.

When thinking about Carbondale, clearly things are better then they were 4 years ago. Not perfect, but better. Hopefully, Carbondale will look back and see the absolute bottom of the long and slow slide to meritocracy, as the day before Brad Cole took office. I don't know if the city will continue to improve, but clearly Brad has added some much needed discipline to the city government. The results show everyday.

I was reading about Ford's new CEO yesterday in Business Week and was thinking how much his task resembles Poshard's task at SIU. In the article they are going over the new CEO's review of the Ford Focus,

When Mulally was reviewing the company's 2008 product line last September, for example, he was told that Ford loses close to $3,000 every time a customer buys a Focus compact, according to one executive. "Why haven't you figured out a way to make a profit?" he asked. Executives explained that Ford needed the high sales volume to maintain the company's CAFE, or corporate average fuel economy, rating and that the plant that makes the car is a high-cost UAW factory in Michigan. "That's not what I asked," he shot back. "I want to know why no one figured out a way to build this car at a profit, whether it has to be built in Michigan or China or India, if that's what it takes." Nobody had a good answer.

This sounds just like the way the bureaucracy at SIU tries to defend their problems. Is CAFE at Ford, equal to minority recruitment at SIU? Sometimes, just because you have always done things a certain way, isn't good enough.

Another selection from the BW article,

Just eight months into the job, Mulally is working hard to change institutional work habits that took years to develop. He wants managers to think more about customers than their own careers. He has made it a top priority to encourage his team to admit mistakes, to share more information, and to cooperate across divisions. He's holding everybody's feet to the fire with tough operational oversight and harsh warnings about Ford's predicament. "We have been going out of business for 40 years," Mulally told a group of 100 information technology staffers at a "town meeting" in February. He has repeated the message to every employee group that he has addressed.

I really think that SIU needs to look at the phase from this section carefully, "We have been going out of business for 40 years." Have all the mechanisms of SIU's bureaucracy been built on layers of a downward spiral like at Ford? Has SIU been going out of business since the end of the Morris Golden Age?

I don't know if SIU has turned around, but I can see Glenn Poshard, trying to make the right moves, to get it going the right direction. I can also see he is fighting the layers of incompetence and sloth that make up SIU's management layers and workers.

The good news for Ford is that it will go out of business very soon, if they don't fix things. The good news for SIU is that it will die a slow and painful death if they don't fix things. As we see SIU's enrollment and revenues go down, when will the people working at SIU realize they are facing a crisis? At Ford,

After losing $12.7 billion last year, it had to endure the indignity of pledging its factories, headquarters, and the rights to the iconic blue oval logo to the banks and bondholders just to get enough money to finance its turnaround plan. Those were all tough steps. But these are tough times for the U.S. auto industry.

You wonder, when it will hit SIU, it is fighting for its continued existence? Will it be the first layoff of tenured faculty? Clearly, the layoffs of massive numbers of instructors this Summer hasn't even make the local papers, so it can't be very important. Kind of reminds me of the old poem,

First they came for the Socialists, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left

to speak up for me.

Where I think that SIU has the best President they could have right now, I don't think this has to be the bottom, things can get much worse. Hopefully, this is the bottom and things will get better from here, but turning around Carbondale is a much smaller task. When you are saying your prayers at night, you might include a word for Glenn Poshard on his quest, your job might be riding on it.

I'm almost done here in Carbondale, but I thought I would leave you with this happy thought. If you work at SIU, it can get worse. It might be time to start to care and take part in the solution.

Of course, your comments are welcome.

GOP support for Cole draws criticism? Those staffers were smart

I got a kick out of Caleb Hale's piece on the front page of today's SI. He listed the people that staffed Brad's office as Jayme Siemer from the Illinois State GOP and Paul Sorenson, who took leave from Dennis Hastert's office to come work for Brad. I don't know if you had a chance to talk with them, but the two GOP staffers were really smart. It was impressive, how good they seemed.

The article goes on and says that Brad got support and no one else did in the local races in April. Two ideas to consider, if the Dem's had succeeded in running a sub-par candidate and supporting them with their statewide officials (as they tried to do for Sheila), wouldn't that become their strategy in key local races? Seems like a good thing for the Pubs to stop early, if they could. Second, is this a statement about how much work Brad does outside of Carbondale for the GOP, more then any other factor? If you do a lot of work for an organization, shouldn't you expect the support of that organization, when you need it?

I really liked the headline too, "fellow Republican" who works for a "think tank" that criticizes Republicans for a living? Important to know what side that Bunny Bread is buttered on, before you decide what an article means.

Isn't it great that Carbondale is important enough to attract statewide interests in our elections? Maybe not?

How NASA screwed up and then applying it to SIU

There is a great little article in Wired Magazine this month about "How NASA Screwed Up (And Four Ways To Fix It)" by Gregg Easterbrook. What I really like about the article is the little lists of what NASA's objectives should be and what they really are. The article says -

Here is a set of rational priorities for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in descending order of importance: (1) Conduct research, particularly environmental research, on Earth, the sun, and Venus, the most Earth-like planet. (2) Locate asteroids and comets that might strike Earth, and devise a practical means of deflecting them. (3) Increase humanity's store of knowledge by studying the distant universe. (4) Figure out a way to replace today's chemical rockets with a much cheaper way to reach Earth orbit.

Then -

Here are NASA's apparent current priorities: (1) Maintain a pointless space station. (2) Build a pointless Motel 6 on the moon. (3) Increase humanity's store of knowledge by studying the distant universe. (4) Keep money flowing to favored aerospace contractors and congressional districts.

I think this is an interesting way to look at SIUC too.

A set of rational priorities for SIUC might be 1) Graduate excellent students that will contribute to society in a positive way. 2) Generate original research at the quality and quantity of a world class research university. 3) Recruit more and excellent students through the use of direct recruitment and PR. 4) Preserve the quality of facilities on campus, for future generations.

What SIUC's real priorities seem to be 1) Use upper management positions to create and maintain powerful empires. 2) Build expensive buildings that don't have much to do with the mission of the university. 3) Pander to students by pressuring teachers to give away unearned grades. 4) Preserve management stability, even it is bad for the university in the short, medium and long term.

This is just off the top of my head. Anyone have a better list of the objectives SIU should pursue or the real objectives of the last 10 years?

Aren't the professors who speak up more valuable?

Every once in a while, someone comments here or writes a letter to the editor of the paper, that states that professors should shut up and do as they are told. Personally, I wish that more professors would stop hiding in their offices and care enough to speak up.

The question for the day, are professors who speak up about the problems more valuable? Should they shut up and hide in their offices? Which has worked better so far?

"Good to Great" and the social sector

I have written about "Good To Great" in this blog many times and have been surprised that no one has complained about applying business concepts to SIU (much) or the rest of the "public/social sector." Turns out that Collins has written a best selling extension to "Good to Great," called "Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great."

I know that this is far beyond most professor's learning "interests" and that SIU administrators are so busy exercising their "power" to learn anything new, but maybe learning something over the summer about how to keep your employer from crash and burning would be a good idea?

Don't you guys learn anything? It is about management!

Twice I have systematically thrown the professors of SIUC under the bus, for university wide management decisions, that they have very little control over. The first time I did it was to prove the point that management was really important, and killing SIUC. Then you could talk about stupid management decisions and everyone is on the same page.

I was just busy slamming the faculty and staff again and no one pointed out all the problems were management decisions, that the employees were just carrying out what their management was asking them to do. What is wrong with you people? Don't you learn?

This is about management boys and girls. When management gives raises based on giving better grades and sends out memos on retention, GPA goes up. When there is no reward for working harder, work ethic goes down. Etc.

Management doesn't have complete control, but they can take a good situation and turn it into a bad one fairly easily. If you learn nothing else this year, learn respect for the power of management.