Candidates tackle budget gap

TIsdahl Is Responsible For The Budget Gap, Admit It!
Ald. Tisdahl is the only mayoral candidate with an aldermanic record, unfortunately Ald. Tisdahl, like Mayor Daley, is not willing to be held accountable for what has happened on her watch. The police and fire pension liability is her fault! She was under no gag order while the City was sued by the Trustees of the Police Pension Board ( as claimed in all of her mayoral stump speeches) and the suit was settled in 2005. Julia Carroll brought the issue to the forefront, not Ald. Tisdahl. The old actuary stated the liability was 99 million in 2007, the new actuary stated that it was 145 million later in 2007. What the heck is the difference? Either way it’s an enormous amount of money, that Ald. Tisdahl and her fellow Council members chose to consciously ignore. Where was Ald. Tisdahl in 2003 ( since her appointment ), 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 on the growing pension liabilities? This only became public, closer to her mayoral run. As for the insane water contract that was signed in 1985 for 40 years of our piped water to the Northwest Water Commision for 43 cents per 1000 gallons, where was Ald. Tisdahl’s outrage and sounding of the alarm from 2003-2007? Ald. Tisdahl waited till her mayoral run to say how helpless this situation is, but she’ll try and break the contract now. What was stopping her from doing this after being appointed in 2003? Where was Ald. Tisdahl in cutting the City’s budget substantially since 2003 to deal with these ticking financial time bombs? What kind of investment analyst ( Ald. Tisdahl’s stated job) would do this to their clients? What’s important here is, the “investment analyst” analogy, that even as 7th Ward Alderman Ald. Tisdahl failed to deliver for her constituents in the 7th Ward or for the City of Evanston in general, given her “experience” in analysis of finance-investments. I would point out that the returns on investments held in the police and fire pensions are subpar given the comparables in the Blue RIbbon Report. Where was Ald. Tisdahl since 2003 on that issue? Nowhere, that her record indicates! It is very frustrating, as I have run for 7th Ward alderman, that neither Ald. Tisdahl will admit to her accountability for the financial mess the City is in nor will Jane Grover, my fellow candidate for 7th ward alderman, when asked about Ald. Tisdahl’s failures and successes during her aldermanic tenure at the LWVE forum. Jane Grover, an attorney, plead the 5th and declined to answer that question. It’s ironic that Jane called me last December about making this a campaign of ideas, all that we’ve seen from Tisdahl/Grover on Tisdahl’s aldermanic record is revisionist history, silence or denial. If Tisdahl is not responsible for our difficult financial position, who is? Why is it so hard to talk about Tisdahl’s poor record, it’s there for all to research and see. I can’t believe with a do-nothing record other than free beach tokens and a vote for the Climate Action Plan (Tisdahl’s own campaign literature) that anyone would seriously vote for Tisdahl based on her lack of acceptable performance as an alderman. An honest review of the issues by all Evanston voters, along with Ald. Tisdahl’s record of non-leadership (except in writing campaign checks totaling 45k plus) across all areas of City government during her tenure will result in a finding of her unfitness for mayor. As for the 7th ward, where Ald. Tisdahl is allegedly still my alderman, I’m still waiting for a response to my e-mail I sent you on Feb. 20th regarding developer damage to Isabella Ave. after our tax dollars were spent repaving it. Your classic outsourcing line, Ald. Tisdahl: ” I’ll have City staff, check in to it. “, well, Alderman I’m still waiting for your response. I talked to 2 City staff regarding the issue and both said you’d never contacted them. Perhaps, Ald. Tisdahl you’ve already become Mayor in your mind, but as a tax paying citizen (who happens to be a candidate) don’t I have a claim on some type of service from you. Your 7th ward record, Ald. Tisdahl, I guess is something for Jane Grover and you to run away from however,if we are to fix our ward and City problems, don’t we have to first define them? I define the problem as you, Ald. Tisdahl, based on your own record. Jane Grover, will be our future problem if elected, since she can’t find anything good or bad to say about your aldermanic record. I think Jane Grover will bring more of your same poor record, more denials, more revisionist history, more lack of accountability, more fiscal mismangement, more lack of openess and transparency and more poor judgement (taking the firefighters union endorsement, money amd manpower- a clear conflict of interest)! Ald. Tisdahl & her hand picked candidate for the 7th Ward Jane Grover should release all questions the union asked them and their responses to them. I would let the voters know the questions, but the firefighters never interviewed me. So much for the lie of picking the best candidate as the union has stated. The fix was in from the beginning, let’s follow the endorsement logic: Firefighters for Tisdahl, Tisdahl for Grover, therefore Firefighters for Grover. What did Tisdahl promise the Firefighters Union? Is she going to use her first name access to elected officials in Springfield ( purchased with over 45k in campaign cash) to benefit the taxpayers of Evanston or benefit her endorsers, campaign workers, and $500.00 campaign donaters: our own Evanston Firefighter’s Union? Once again, all voters should read the Blue Ribbon Report on pensions (available on the City’s website) for the history and Ald. Tisdahl’s accountability since 2003. Ultimately, we are all responsible for not vetting Ald. Tisdahl’s record: the journalists who haven’t dug deep enough (if at all) into Ald. Tisdahl’s accountability for the state of the City, voters who aren’t voting in this election and Ald. Tisdahl’s fellow elected officials, who have the annoying habit of rubber stamping each others decisions and most importantly covering their own political fannies continually. We deserve better, a lot better than what we’ve gotten. Where’s the outrage? Channel your anger into your votes, my fellow citizens!

Kevin O’Connor
7th Ward Aldermanic Candidate
http://www.rebootev.com