Ward Eight News: JOHN GIESEKE St. Charles Councilman Ward 8
First I want to wish everyone in the Ward a very Happy New Year. There will be a lot of activity in the Ward in 2005 with the first residents of New Town slated to move in early this spring. New Town has been a tremendous catalyst for development in the Fountain Lakes area. Bob Cissell is breaking ground on another commercial development that will house many of the services all of us have been missing. Bulldozers are moving dirt at the corner of Elm Point and Elm for the new home of Chuck-A-Burger and Doozles, both will bring a local flavor to the area. Two new strip malls have footings poured and are ready to come out of the ground at Fountain Lakes Blvd. Rookies Sports Bar and Grill will be open in time for most of next years baseball season and the other mall is filling quickly. Companies like Gateway Medical and Craftsman have invested heavily in the Ward by expanding their businesses. NEWCO has relocated to Fountain Lakes and Pump It Up has located at the corner of New Town Blvd and Fountain Lakes Blvd. I want to thank the owners for believing in the vision and investing. Lou Carriff of Shockley Realtors is developing a small business park that can house startup businesses or businesses that don’t need the large box look. When you get right down to it, the people of Ward 8 are graciously hosting many construction projects and the workers who are building our future.
The City Council has made a few procedural changes to help make our City Council meetings run smoother and to help educate the Council before a bill makes it to the Council floor. First we created subcommittees for public works and streets. These subcommitte meetings allow our City Staff to present the projects and the reasoning behind them prior to Council meetings. This decreases the time staff has to spend explaining projects on the Council floor. In the past staff was often placed on the spot in the council meetings. This subcommittee system is the way the City used to operate, and after speaking with a former Mayor and former Councilmen, I pushed to get this system reinstituted.
The second change goes hand in hand with the first. No bill can be assigned a sponsor without contacting the Councilperson first. In the past we would receive a packet on Friday for a Tuesday meeting with numerous bills that had our names on them and we had no idea why, when, or where the bill came from. This was a direct violation of the separation of powers. The executive branch of government is not there to produce legislation; this is the job of the legislative branch. This change also forces a Councilperson to know the subject and content of the bill so they, rather than the city staff, can answer any questions. The results of these changes are subtle to the residents but they do provide for a more informed Council, and I hope, will result in a decrease in wasteful spending.
Since re-election in April the City has been in a great deal of “perceived” turmoil. Special interest groups have hired public relation firms to coordinate attacks on the Council for their clients. Let me say, we have made changes that have ruffled many feathers but let’s face it, the City needs change from the way we have conducted business in the past. I used to joke if you had the right last name you could get anything from the City, the problem is, the majority of us don’t have that “right” last name. In an effort to make the needed changes the Council voted to hire the Mayor’s choice for City Administrator Allan Williams. I think Williams has his hands full with many in the City who have not been held accountable for their actions or lack thereof.
This is the first of many newsletters I will be sending out to let you know what is happening in our City. St. Charles has so much to offer and should be on the front end of development, housing, infrastructure, public safety, and most of all customer service. The St. Charles City Council is made up of a very diverse group with the City’s best interests at heart. We may have different ideas of how to accomplish many of the goals we set, but we all want to see St. Charles thrive.
JOHN GIESEKE St. Charles Councilman Ward Eight
