The Carbondale Observer

The Carbondale city council, acting in its capacity as the liquor control commission, granted Kevin Kirkwood a class A-2 liquor license for his Icebox Bar and Grill at last night’s meeting. The license was controversial because a party held last year at the former Spotlight Grill, which operated at the same address, ended in a fight in which a Carbondale resident was murdered.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Carbondale Police Department has released more information about Saturday’s mob action and murder, including pictures of the suspects. From the news release:

The City of Carbondale Police Department Investigation Bureau conducted an investigation into this incident throughout the weekend. During the course of the investigation, officers arrested Trevis Thompson and Patrick Greene and charged them with Aggravated Battery, Mob Action and Murder. Both were incarcerated in the Jackson County Jail. The investigation revealed this incident was a result of a personal dispute between acquaintances.

And the photos: Read the rest of this entry »

The Southern Illinoisan had an article Tuesday on George Maroney’s official announcement for mayor. From the article:

The first-time political candidate said he would work to improve the city’s business climate, lead the discussion on consolidating elementary school districts to save money and attract young families, and more closely follow Carbondale’s city manager form of government.

I’m guessing the talk about consolidating school districts refers to District 95 (elementary) and District 165 (high school). Or maybe he’s talking about consolidating the various elementary school buildings into one. I assume he’s not talking about consolidating with the Unity Point and Giant City districts.  Consolidating 95 and 165 would be a great idea, but I wouldn’t want to see the elementary school buildings consolidated.

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t like the talk of a restoration of the council-manager form of government.  An active mayor is an important source of political leadership. The functions of a mayor and city manager are different, and both are important.

But I’m not sure Maroney intends to be a weak mayor:

Maroney said he believes Carbondale’s city government has strayed from its original design and he would act as a CEO, delegating authority to its proper recipients.

Castle Perilous owner and blogger Scott Thorne had a post on the Carbondaze Gazette commenting about this:

Delegating authority to proper recipients is much easier when you are the ultimate authority, as Maroney was during his tenure at Memorial Hospital. The mayor, first, has to respond to a number of different publics and, second, has to convince the rest of the city council to agree with any initiatives he wishes to implement.

Exactly.  I would add that under the council manager system, the mayor is not the CEO. Title 1, Chapter 2, Article A of the city code (navigation on the left) addresses this. The mayor is head of the city for legal purposes in relationship to the Governor and presides over city council meetings.  Title 1, Chapter 3, Article A assigns most executive functions to the city manager.

As Brad Cole has shown, there is room in the council-manager form of government for an active mayor providing political leadership. If people don’t like the direction in which Cole led the city, they should elect someone who will lead in a different direction. We shouldn’t just decide that leadership itself is the problem. I hope voters will make this an issue in the 2011 election.

I’m wondering if a clear Cole successor candidate will emerge.  I also wonder if Cole will endorse anyone.

Comments are welcome.

Last week I wrote a post about Lance Jack’s resignation from city council and I promised to follow up.  This morning I wrote one post looking at local liquor law, and a second post looking at state liquor law. This is part 3, in which I am critical of Mary Pohlmann’s remarks about Lance Jack in May of 2009.

Last year, when Fat Patties was denied a liquor license for the second time the Southern Illinoisan ran an article about the denial.  It contained a couple of paragraphs about Mary Pohlman’s remarks  that I’d like to quote and comment on:

Tuesday’s votes came after Pohlmann criticized the legal standing of Jack’s appeal and his competence to hold a license.

The state, Pohlmann said, used language that applied to the Illinois’ other communities, each of which leaves the granting of liquor licenses to the mayor and not a full commission, she said.

Citing Jack’s conviction of DUI in 1994 and “other behavior” she said she’s observed, Pohlmann said she was concerned that Jack was “not of good character and reputation in the community in which he resides.” Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I wrote a post about Lance Jack’s resignation from city council and I promised to follow up with more information.  This morning I wrote a post looking at whether granting Jack a liquor license violated local law.  This is part two, in which I look at state law.

Before we get into state law, let’s start with a quote from city councilman and mayoral candidate Joel Fritzler in the original Southern Illinoisan article about the Fat Patties liquor license and Jack’s resignation:

“My feeling before was, if I were to vote for it, I would be an accessory to violating state and local law,” Fritzler said.

Now we’ll take a look at state law.  Read the rest of this entry »

In last week’s post about Lance Jack’s resignation from the city council, I promised to do some more research and write a follow up. I’ve spent some time wading through state and local liquor laws and I have some additional information to report.

It is going to take a lot of space to cover this, so I am going to split this into multiple posts.  This is part one, in which I look at local law.

Before we get into the law, let’s start with a quote from city councilman and mayoral candidate Joel Fritzler in the original Southern Illinoisan article about the Fat Patties liquor license and Jack’s resignation:

“My feeling before was, if I were to vote for it, I would be an accessory to violating state and local law,” Fritzler said.

This is somewhat complicated, so I’ll go through it step by step.  First, Carbondale is unique among Illinois cities in that all members of the city council are also members of the local liquor control commission. In comparable cities, the mayor is the sole liquor commissioner.

A few years ago Brad Cole and Lance Jack tried to amend the local liquor ordinance to bring it in line with state law, but the angry reaction of some townspeople resulted in the measure being withdrawn.  If the change had passed, the entire Fat Patties liquor license controversy could have been avoided.

The change did not pass, however, so Jack was a member of both the city council and the liquor control commission when he applied for his liquor license for Fat Patties.  Both the city code and state law address this situation.  Read the rest of this entry »