Bob Marshall vies for city manager job

The city needs to looks at a group of applicants for this job and not just go with Mr. Marshall because he is currently doing the job. I have sent several emails to mayor and city council regarding where the city was at in looking for an applicant. I was told by one of the councilman that the mayor is supposed to be forming a committee for the job search. I sent an email to the mayor regarding this with no response. My take on this is that we are not looking for any applicants and Mr Marshall is going to get the job.

I think he would be great for the job. He just made a good call pulling back the red-light cameras before they turned into a fiasco.

Good, so long as he gets rid of that roller disco in downtown. It's not a kosher environment for Naperville.

The axiom in the private sector is that a company is no better than its Executive.

This is because the Executive sets policies. The Board intervenes only when there is a crises or company make/break decision.

In Naperville, the City Council sets the policies; and the Executive, City Manager, implements them.

Whether it is Mr. Marshall, or a fresh face, Naperville's next City Manager will have little impact on the major policy decisions. If the Council does not like the City Manager's recommendations, they will ignore them.

Why waste more of the City's valuable time and money on a search?

Given that Mr. Marshall already knows his way around Naperville and City Hall, he should be given a shot at the job.

As a man of integrity, it is my hope that Mr. Marshall will retain the option of resigning if City Council sets policies that he is not comfortable implementing or asks him to retroactively support failed policies of the past.

-Carillon (Moser Memorial)

-Furstenau prosecution

-Understated legal fees in Napergate

-Parking subsidies

-Favorite charity funding with tax money

-Declaring Water Street an Economically Depressed area that gets special zoning.

-Appointing the least qualified and most junior applicant to City Council.

The only thing that remains after you are dead is your name and reputation.

It would be a injustice to the citizens of Napeville if a national advertisement and search for the best possible candidate is not undertaken. Considering the sour note the last city manager left on we must be absolutely certain that the person hired not only has the necessary credentials and experience for a city this size, but that they also possess the correct temperament.

In this day and age I am not willing to accept that there simply are no qualified women, blacks, or other candidates other than another white male which implies extreme prejudice on part of the city council if they do not even interview any qualified minorities.

We should also be very, very concerned and wary about appointing a former police officer to a position as sensitive as this. The police department is under fire right now for a lot of reasons. Having a former police officer on city council and serving as mayor already stacks the deck in favor of the police department and against impartiality and fairness to all city departments. To appoint another former police officer to the city manager position would not help improve the impartiality needed nor will it be a step in the right direction to restore citizen confidence in our police department.

Quite frankly, we also have several department heads in other city departments who are doing an excellent job managing things like our finances, utility systems, our roadways, building construction and infrastructure projects. These other department heads are responsible for managing people, money, records, equipment, materials, specifications, bids, etc. which are not only a lot more complex, but also require a much deeper skill set than what is found in the police department. I would expect that every single one of these other department heads will be given an opportunity to interview for the position.

If Mr. Marshall has credentials that beat out competition on a national basis then, and only then should he be hired. Until we know who the competition is for this position it is premature to speculate at to whether or not Mr. Marshall is even a viable candidate.

CREDENTIALS OF PRO TEM CITY MANAGER ARE LACKING.

1. I would like to agree with Anonymous who stated having a Mayor, City Manager and Police Chief who are all police officers has to many conflicts of interest at this time.

2. A City Manager who worked for Chief David Dial for 20 years is unlikely to pressure his former boss. He may even be unlikely to know what is wrong with the Police Dept. since he was part of it for 30 years.

3. A man who spent 30 years as a police officer does not have the proper credentials to run a city as large as Naperville experiencing very serious problems at the moment.

4.A man who made a statement to the Naperville Sun that the Napergate Trials cost 5k to 10k for outside legal help that was blatantly false does not understand credibilty. He has had over 3 months to apologize for his false statement and he has not by choice.

5.If Mr. Marshall made such a statement to an FBI agent investigating city corruption and cronyism, he would be looking at 5 years jail time for obstucion of justice or perjury.

6.If he made a false statement to an IRS agent auditing him he would also be looking at 5 years of jail time for obstruction of justice and perjury.

7. I am guessing Mr. Marsahll is collecting over $75,000 dollars from a Naperville Police Pension Fund. As a City Manager I suspect he is getting a nice salary above and beyond that pension. In essence we are paying him twice. Is that fair? Should he not give up his $75,000 police pension salary if he wants to be gainfully employed with the City of Naperville? Maybe I am wrong and someone can explain this to me!

8. What many residents don't know is that the City of Naperville portion of our Dupage real estate tax bills is 13.08%. That compares very unfavorably with the average of other Dupage Cities where the average is only 9.79% of their real estate tax bills. This shows below par performance by our former city manager. Mr. Marshall who learned from Mr. Burchard may have had a very bad mentor. I obtained my figures straight from Dupage County.

9. The City of Naperville Pension fund which includes the police dept. was 40.65% of our total property bill last year as it pertains to the City of Naperville.

In comparison these other entities below had a much smaller portions of their specfic part of their Dupage property tax bill devoted to pension costs.

The Park District of Naperville was only 6.44%.

The Forest Preserve of Dupage was only 6.54%

Lisle Township was only 2.33%

District 203 was only 3.54%

College of Dupage was only 1.55%

One needs to ask why 40.65% of our Naperville City Property Bill goes towards financing employee pensions. This seems ridiculous. It seems every employee in the City of Naperville is getting a huge pension. Corporate America stopped pensions as they are no longer affordable. Why do we Napervillians and Napergatians tolerate these pensions? They should be eliminated. This could be one reason why we are paying 40.65% of our city real estate tax bill towards pensions while the average seems to be 4.08% for other governmental entities in Dupage!

Is it fair that pro tem City Manager Bob Marshall may be getting paid twice by us taxpayers? Do any of us get paid twice by our employers? Is he going to attack the inflated pension that may be subdizing his retirment at taxpayer expense while he is still gainfully employed by us taxpayers? I think not!

10. I can go on and on. I think if the Naperville Sun continues to give the Napergatians a forum, we will continue to expose what is wrong with our City. We are willing to do it. We are willing to do the research. We just want exposure to publicize to our fellow citizens and ask that they join us to the polls!

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All citizens in Naperville will prosper if the Naperville Sun opens the floodgates to the Napergatians. We would soon be paying 9.79% of our total real estate tax bill to our City like our fellow Dupage Cities instead of this ridiculous 13.08% which rose from 12.37% last year.

We are obviously going in the wrong direction under the leadership of pro-tem City Manager Bob Marshall.

We need to give the power to an outsider to clean the cronyism and corruption that is rampant in City Hall. The way taxpayer money is siphoned from taxpayers through a 1% cultural fund and given to police in horrendous OT charges through a charity is a perfect example of probable corruption and cronyism.

I think the City of Naperville and City Council needs to clean this mess before the FBI and and US Attorney comes knocking on our door.

The City Council stopped accepting contributions from the Brestal Law Firm and in return rubber stamping his projects after the Napergate Man discovered the connection after reviewing election records. We avoided FBI agents and the USA Attorney as we took the suggestion of the Napergate Man and decided it was wrong.

I hope the City Council as a first step can take the suggestion of the Napergatians regarding this improper police OT that we are paying for in these Charity Festivals. It is improper and let us stop it immediately.

It beats having the FBI arresting our City Council Members, City Manager and Police Chief for such a blatant impropriety. Let us be wise. This is the internet age. We are communicating to our City Officials through this blog site. We know they read it. There is no need to drag 300 people as the Napergate Man did to City Hall in the Napergate Era. There are 500 of us on Jim's and Ted's Blog Site sending you a polite message.

You either listen and shape up or face the consequences accompanied by the music.

It is your choice! Do as you please!!!

A fresh set of eye's and ears would be a good thing for this city right now. I don't agree with everything Realtor Ryan says in his last post, but he does make some good points that gives you something to think about.

This guy is double dipping? You have got to be kidding us? He retires from one city department and collects a pension and then goes to work for another city department and collects a pension and a new salary?

How GD corrupt is our city government? This would never happen in the corporate world. You are employed by the same organization and take a transfer from one department to another they would never, ever let you collect a pension and a salary. Please tell us they at least restarted the clock for vacation and sick time since he is technically a new employee?

In the bigger picture the city should abolish all government pensions. Pensions in the corporate world disappeared a long time ago. It is an insult to every resident and taxpayer in this city who does not have a pension to force them to contribute to someone else's retirement plan. Let these government workers fund their own retirement plans just like we do. I'll even go for the city putting in matching funds on the first few percent like most private employers. Anything beyond that is over the top and simply extravagant and wasteful in these tough economic times. Private sector employees have had to suffer loss of benefits, loss of pensions, pay cuts, layoffs and mergers, and a whole host of other things like resizing and right sizing. So far government workers have not gone through any of these exercises. No wonder none of them know how to tell fat from muscle when they look at a budget.

Maybe it is time a lot of the techniques used in the private sector for the last twenty years or so were started to be applied to the government sector. Illinois has long been defined as the one state in the entire country that has the most units of local government. We are long overdue in reducing and eliminating many of these units of local government. Look how much we could save just in the reduction of duplicate overhead and administrative cost.

Lets merge School District 203 and 204. Now all we need is one set of administration. The other becomes redundant and gets sent packing. Next lets merge Naperville and Lisle. One city council, one city manager, one police chief, one fire chief, etc. All the others become redundant and get sacked.

The potential savings are huge. Can we afford to continue to think of local government as we have in the past? Or is it time we retool government to make it lean and productive and ready and better able to serve the needs of the future?

I read these posts and am astounded at how some of you can run circles around the facts, manipulate statistics and dwell in the "land of what if" just to drive your personal agenda. I hope you have wallpapered your homes with tinfoil to prevent "the man" from sending you evil signals in your sleep!

Realtor Ryan, you honestly believe that there are 500 Napergatians blogging in your favor...even that is inflated.

You blame tax increases on the City Manager Pro Tem in THIS economy!! I suppose the price of gas is his fault too. Just to refresh your memory, the City Manager cannot approve any contract over $50,000 without the permission of the City Council (including Furstenau). And we all know how he likes to delve into the minute details of City Operations. Isn't that why you all elected him? So,if you chose to ignore the recession, a drop in multiple tax revenues, etc. blame the Council for your woes with taxes.

Yeah, Marshall totally misspoke about the cost of Napergate, but I hardly think he has time to read these blogs and really does not owe you an apology. Prove damages. Your points 5 and 6 are ridiculous hyperbole because the man was not under oath when he gave the figures to the Naperville Sun.

And I would be happy to explain number 7. The Police and Fire Pension, by law, is a separate fund from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. If Mr. Marshall worked for a private sector business for 30 years, contributing his fair share to that pension fund, then took a job with another pension source, should he not collect from the original? If you contribute to both a 401k and IRA's are they mutually exclusive?

And although I could go on and on disputing your spin, the fact that you arrived at a bizarre conclusion that 40.65% of your City of Naperville taxes go to POLICE PENSIONS speaks for itself.

I for one, am pretty happy to have lived in this award winning town for over 30 years. I hope that the Council will carefully evaluate ALL candidates for City Manager and select the best, whether it is Marshall or not. Just be aware that sometimes those "nationwide searches" result in a Fire Chief who does not perform up to standards and has an anger management problem at home. So, be careful what you wish for.

Finally, Realtor Ryan, you of all bloggers must know that there are plenty of homes for sale around DuPage County, in communities with your favorable tax rate and I bet you can even get a really good deal now. Your tax savings will keep you in tinfoil.

And although I could go on and on disputing your spin, the fact that you arrived at a bizarre conclusion that 40.65% of your City of Naperville taxes go to POLICE PENSIONS speaks for itself.

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Mark F.,

Sorry, but you are the one spinning.

This is my direct quote from my post.

"One needs to ask why 40.65% of our Naperville City Property Bill goes towards financing employee pensions."

I was specifically speakinng of taxes billed on the Propery Bill...you spun it to say City of Naperville taxes...not me! I was talking about all employee pensions. You spun it to say POLICE PENSIONS. Napervillians can read our 2 posts and see who is spinng. They can review their real estate tax bills and see who is spinning. Keep opening big cracks for us to go thru like Host Ted once said the City of Naperville did for the Napergate Man. You are doing the same for us Napergatian bloggers.

I have not yet received my 2007 tax bill but this is what my 2006 Dupage Real Estate Tax Bill states.

City of Naperville $612.05

Pension Fund $248.79

248.79/612.05 = .4065 = 40.65%

So if we expose corruption and cronyism in our town, we are suppose to leave town and buy a house elsewhere. Sorry, Mark F., but I was born in Naperville and I intend to fix it rather leave it. I love my town.

I once met the Napergate Man when I ran into him accidentally at his plaza and asked him if he was interested in selling his plaza and would like a listing. He indicated he had no interest in selling anything he owns in Naperville and also loves Naperville.

I can assure you Napergatians love Naperville. That is why we want to end the rampant corrutpion and cronyism in town.

Hopefully, in due time we will succeed. Once the corruption is rampant through out town as it is now and becomes increasing worse, people wake up and vote.

In some sense, our city officials are doing us a favor. I hope they keep their behavior up and we can expose them in the 2009 election.

Mark F.,

The facts do support Realtor Ryan that something has gone wrong in our town.

I got my Dupage County Real Estate Tax Bill yesterday.

I found 19 line items from City to County to Towship to Forest to School Disctrict.

The City of Naperville was up a whopping 15.57% from 2006 to 2007.

The remaining 18 governmental bodies on my Dupage Real Estate Tax Bill were only up an average of 3.58% from 2006 to 2007.

The City of Naperville taxes are rising at a rate of 4.35 times the rest of the governmental bodies.

This would never have happened with the Napergate Man watching in the old days. It is really shocking.

I hope the Naperville Sun reviews someone's real estate tax bill assuming none of the Sun Officials live in Naperville and start asking our City Officials hard questions.

Maybe if Mark F. would review his, he would be praising Realtor Ryan and the Napergatians for wanting to fix this town instead of asking them to leave!

Mark F.,

I am a little disturbed with City Manager collecting 75,000 dollars from a pension fund subsidized by the Naperville Taxpayers and having him return to work in a full time capacity to the City he retired from for a full time salary. I believe he is receiving the maximum pension amount allowable by law since he retired over the age of 50 with 30 years of service.

It really is like we, the same taxpayers, are paying him twice.

Plus it seems connections to City Hall got him his job as opposed to qualifications. By that I mean his job in the City Manager's officer before his pro tem Status as City Manager.

Where does a 30 year veteran of the police dept. get the sudden "know how" to be a CITY MANAGER! How many city depts. did he work in to get some experience? Just one!

Running a city is much more complex than running a police dept.

I think Mr. Marshall should have applied for Police Chief in another city where I am sure he would be very qualified to do an excellent job.

But we do have conflicts of interest here including 3 former or current police officers holding the top 3 spots in the City of Naperville...it smacks of the perception of a police city. No wonder we are laundering money for police OT though cultural and charity funds and no one is stopping it. Everyone seems in cohoots and buddies from the old days!

And Realtor Ryan is right when he says that Mr. Marshall would be in the awkward position of bossing his boss of 20 years. No one feels comfortable doing that. And since the greatest problems in our wonderful city seem to be in the police dept. this is no time to have a former police officer running the city in the capacity of City Manager.

Please do an investigation Mr. Lynch, as you have to at some point believe that the Napergate Man may truly be retired.

NOTE from Naperville Sun editors: Who can prove with any degree of fact that Marshall collects a $75,000 pension? This is one of those statements that someone earlier said "I'm guessing Marshall gets a $75,000 pension..." then it gets repeated over and over and accepted as fact. No additional posts that say Marshall collects a $75,000 pension will be published.

9. The City of Naperville Pension fund which includes the police dept. was 40.65% of our total property bill last year as it pertains to the City of Naperville.

In comparison these other entities below had a much smaller portions of their specfic part of their Dupage property tax bill devoted to pension costs.

The Park District of Naperville was only 6.44%.

The Forest Preserve of Dupage was only 6.54%

Lisle Township was only 2.33%

District 203 was only 3.54%

College of Dupage was only 1.55%

One needs to ask why 40.65% of our Naperville City Property Bill goes towards financing employee pensions. This seems ridiculous. It seems every employee in the City of Naperville is getting a huge pension. Corporate America stopped pensions as they are no longer affordable. Why do we Napervillians and Napergatians tolerate these pensions? They should be eliminated. This could be one reason why we are paying 40.65% of our city real estate tax bill towards pensions while the average seems to be 4.08% for other governmental entities in Dupage!

Is it fair that pro tem City Manager Bob Marshall may be getting paid twice by us taxpayers? Do any of us get paid twice by our employers? Is he going to attack the inflated pension that may be subdizing his retirment at taxpayer expense while he is still gainfully employed by us taxpayers? I think not!

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This line item from Realtor Ryan really caught my eye.

I am not a mathmetician but I got my tax bill yesterday and I noticed the City of Naperville was up $100 dollars alone on my tax bill. I live in a little larger than average home...not much though!

This is only one of about 20 items on the tax bill. The rest were up but not in any proportion to the City of Naperville. Not even one fifth as much.

I can not believe we gave Peter Burchard a balloom payment on the way out.

It was obviously not for his performance. More likey it was for keeping him quiet regarding the Furstenau Suit. Or for his willingness to return and testify against Furstenau when the time comes!

I doubt Mr. Marshall can pull us out of the mess PB put us in. He does not have the experience or qualifications. Where did he get his training in City Management? What is his background in college?
What courses did he take? What degree did he get?

Let us get all this information, Jim and Ted, and not worry about how fast he can run the marathon. What does that have to do with his ability to run City Hall?

Realtor Ryan and others make some good points.

Mr. Marshall will definitely face some significant challenges if he is appointed City Manager.

-Getting Pensions under control

-Returning the City to affordability, taxes are considered by most to be out of control. Read any blog on any topic and this comes out.

-Will he be able to command his old manager and former colleagues? The Chief of Police and the Mayor are two examples.

-How well does he understand the operations and sensitivities of the departments that will be reporting to him? Will he be at the mercy of his subordinates or City Council members when evaluating dept. level performance?

Furstenau has a long history running purchasing for a fortune 100 company, this is why he is so able to smell the rats.

These are all legitimate questions that deserve answers; unfortunately, it is unlikely that City Council will ask them. How did we end up with the least qualified candidate being appointed to City Council? Something stinks in Denmark.

While I don't know him, I suspect that Mr. Marshall is a competent, honest and sincere person that should be given a fair shot at the job. For the reasons stated above, it does make sense to interview others as part of the process.

I have no problem with Mr. Marshall drawing his pension while working a job after retirement. He earned his pension. If the pension system needs reform, that is a separate issue. Is he the one to reform Napeville pensions if it needs doing?

While Mr. Marshall has apparently put himself forward as a candidate for City Manager of Naperville, he should also be applying for City Manager and Police Chief of other Cities. He may in fact find the grass is greener somewhere else and he won't be roped into supporting a lot of policies and people that he might not otherwise support.

Either way, I wish him the best.

OK Realtor Ryan, I admit I misread your quote to include only Police pensions when in fact you were referring to all employee pensions. So...there are around 1,000 City of Naperville employees. If you send me your address, I will personally send you the 25 cents you contributed toward Mr. Marshall's pension last year. So, your tax bill goes up as the economy tanks and other tax revenue sources dry up and a councilman choses to sue you...get over it. No one wants this to happen, but to blame the City Manager is forgetting that the Council is ultimately responsible for the state of our local government.

Ryan, James, Jenny and all the others of the same mindset, I do not understand how you all cannot get over the issue that the City contributed toward Marshall's police pension (as he did also), he retired. If he became a Chief somewhere else as was suggested, the City of Naperville Police and Fire Pension fund would still be paying him. Your tax dollars no longer contribute on his behalf, that was paid, invested and is now paying him the pension he legitimately earned...you know, like pensions are supposed to do. Now he is earning a salary and contributing to IMRF, for the legitimate work he is performing. They would be paying someone else to do it if he didn't, so how is it any skin off the taxpayer's back. He is not double dipping. The cost is the same to us and frankly, we retain the benefit of his years in OUR city government. Now maybe you are jealous or just cop haters like most of the Napergatians.

Realtor Ryan, your calculations are off. You need to divide the SUM of the Naperville figure and the pension figure by the pension figure in order to get the correct percentage:

City of Naperville $612.05

Pension Fund $248.79

248.79/(612.05 + 248.79)= 28.9%

I just got my real estate bill and you could say I am also pi$$ed!

The City of Naperville portion went from $1204.10 to $1391.52.

That is a 15.66% increase! Holy Toledo!

And that $1391.52 does not even include the City of Naperville Pension cost of $529.36.

Why is everyone bashing Realtor Ryan for pointing out the facts to us???

He just happens to know how to read these bills better than most taxpayers.

Nothing else went up nearly as much on the items on my Real Estate Tax Bill. Everything else seems to be in the 3% to 5% range.

The facts speak loud and clear.

Good riddens, Mr. Bob Marshall. Enjoy your pension!

I am sick and tired of the milking of the taxpayers such as in this charity/culture slush fund to benefit the police in expensive OT.

We should not be paying for this security in the first place. Secondly, the good people at the charities should be able to hire their own private security just like they do at the Bulls or Bears games for 20% of the cost with a few Naperville Police Officers available in case an arrest becomes necessary. No one is overly emotional at a charity event so there is no need for police officers making 75 dollars on my back. Enough of this bullsh*t!

I say get rid of all the council members who approved this sham.

Nothing is wrong with the Napergatian calculator. Something is wrong with the brains of our City Officials! Very wrong!!!

If Marshall is such a great candidate for the city manager position can someone please explain why in 30 years with the police department he never was promoted beyond captain?

As for being a really, really good city manager I would expect to see some qualified candidates with a masters degree in finance or government administration, possibly even an MBA. I do not believe Marshall even possesses a bachelors degree in anything relevant to managing a city government.

At the very least every citizen of Naperville should demand that our next city manager at least be certified by the American Academy of Certified Public Managers. The complex nature of the city manager position this day simply requires us to expect that the person has been independently certified to provide us with a basic level of competence. We can not afford another mistake like our last city manager and we most certainly can not afford back-to-back mistakes.

From city manager, to fire chief, to school district superintendent, to park district executive the elected officials in the Naperville area have made one glaring mistake after another. They simply do not know what they are doing when it comes to human resources and they need to consult with some experts and do an effective nation-wide search for the best possible candidate who is certified and has a proven 5-10 year track record leading another city at least the size of Naperville.

This is neither the time not the city to be gambling on whether or not one of your golf buddies will be able to learn on the job and make the cut.

To June: We cannot approve your post. See above comment about pension.
To all: No comments saying Bob Marshall collects a pension will be posted until we can verify whether that is in fact the case. We simply cannot allow such an important point to be accepted as fact when no one knows. We will inquire from the city about Marshall's current compensation and whether he collects a pension and relay that information as soon as we find out.

By John Q. Public on May 3, 2008 1:14 PM
Realtor Ryan, your calculations are off. You need to divide the SUM of the Naperville figure and the pension figure by the pension figure in order to get the correct percentage:
City of Naperville $612.05
Pension Fund $248.79
248.79/(612.05 + 248.79)= 28.9%

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Mr. Public,
I love your name by the way. Realtor Ryan's Calculations were accurate mathematically.

He was just trying to show us what percentage of the Pension Fund was to other City of Naperville taxes that excluded the pension tax.

He used the same formula across the board for all the other pensions in Dupage so he was using apples and apples for his comparison. I checked out his math on my real estate tax bill and it checks out perfectly.

There is nothing wrong with your method either. You are just showing pension taxes as a % of both pension taxes and other City of Naperville taxes.

To make a fair comparison, however you have to adjust all the other computations made by Realtor Ryan for the other governmental agencies so you can have apples to apples as he got apples to apples.

The percentage of how much more the City of Naperville spends on pension money compared to that spent by other governmental bodies will be exactly the same using his method or your method. It will be more than 10 times as much using both of your methods. So let us not worry about the math that is accurate in both of your computations but let us worry about why we spend 10 times as much. That is frightening! Very frightening!!

Both of you are accurate and you will both take different roads but still end up in Rome.

He did not explain himself very well verbally but he explained himself very well mathematically so we knew exactly what he was doing and what he meant.

I know you have a serious case on your hands with Joe. I agree with your calcualtions regarding Joe. Good luck helping that guy out.

But as far as Realtor Ryan his math is very accurate. He may not have verbalized exactly what he did mathematically. But he was very ACCURATE and showed us exactly what he did mathematically.

For what it is worth, in 2004 the "City of Naperville" portion of my tax bill shows it was taxed at a rate of .4987, in 2005 it was .4674, in 2006 it was .4617, and for 2007 it shows .4887 on my new tax bill. Even though the 2007 rate is a bit higher than 2006, it is still less than the 2004 rate.

Maybe Realtor Ryan can explain that.

Ernie,

I based my post only on the information contained in RR's post about his Naperville taxes. In that post, he quoted himself from an earlier post:

"One needs to ask why 40.65% of our Naperville City Property Bill goes towards financing employee pensions."

You are correct that RR's figures are meaningful for purposes of comparison with other cities. But the figure he computed is not actually the percentage of total city property tax that goes to pensions, so the statement I quoted above is not accurate.

I'm not trying to give RR (or you!) a hard time. It's just that little inaccuracies like this tend to balloon out of proportion on these threads as they get repeatedly referenced by other bloggers.

-JQP

P.s. I think Joe is a bright guy, but he has a tendency to be stubborn. I don't want to be too critical of him, though, as my wife would tell you that she's married to a guy like that.

If we want to commit financial and political suicide, Mr. Bob Marshall would be the best candidate I can think of, off the top of my head!

No disrespect intended Mr. Public.

But I do not feel Joe is a bright guy.

How could you say that when you know he does not understand 3rd grade math even though you repeatedly explained it to him?

Please talk straight next time!

He is stubborly unbrilliant!

I am against Mr. Marshall simply because he made that erroneous statement about the Napergate Trials and refused to retract it or correct it. Let alone apolopgize for it.

If he was a MAN, he would have admitted his error that Host Ted bravely called him on.

He does not appear to be the MAN we need in that very important post.

PS. I am also disappointed that no WOMAN is being considered for that important post. Have we ever had a female City Manager or is this a closed Boys Club for only former policemen that are affiliated with the Establishment Powers!

Moderator,

I totally agree with all that was said by Realtor Ryan. He seems to be on the ball and aware of the inner workings of our town as the Napergate Man was aware.

I hope the Naperville Sun gets to the bottom of this City Fiasco.

It just seems that the Sun interview with Marshall was about his personal life instead of his qualifications to be the top man at City Hall.

Let us have a second interview about his qualifications so we could express our opinion by e-mail or calling our council members.

Thank You!

Host Ted,
My husband and I recently got our real estate tax bill. It was shocking. We were expecting a tax decrease instead of a tax increase since the value of our home went down by roughly a 100k the last year or two according to our realtor.

We called the assessors office to complain.

They said it was mostly based on 2 things.

1. That the assessment was based on Jan 1, 2007 for the prior 3 year period before the decline of values had taken place.

2. They noted that the Naperville Property portion of our tax had gone up from 896.97 dollars to 1036.58.

That did not inclued pensions, library or park district. Just city of Naperville alone. Everything else went up a little but not over 15% like the Naperville portion. What the hell is going on, Host Ted?

Yes, it does appear based on the numbers that don't lie that our City Officials have lost control of the purse strings of this city.

How dare they funnel our tax money into police OT when private security guards could do a wonderful job just as they do at Bulls, Cubs, and Bears games when people are emotional and supporting different teams....sometimes ready to fight and actually fighting.

For Heavens Sake, this is a charity? We are suppose to spend a 100,000 in police OT for the one in a billion chance we will have a Columbine. And no one is saying not to have security...just more reasonably priced security. Columbine had no security! We are not say no security...but cheaper and qualified security that can get the job done!

I can not support Mr. Marshall for City Manager because he seems to be part of the problem rather than the solution we are all seeking!

Host Ted and Moderator Jim,

This three headed police city state is becoming very annoying to me and many friends and relatives.

Cronyism appears rampant. You have police checking on police.

Since police are taught the virtues of Professional Courtesy in our very own NPD, do you thnk Marshall, Pradel and Dial will ever check on each other or rat each other out.

We have something similar to the Brestal Rubber Stamping connection that the Napergate Man sniffied out, re-infecting us all over again. History does repeat itself as we have learned!

How can the Sun not holler and scream on their opinion page against this corruption?

Does anyone in the Naperville Sun even live in town anymore?

Can anyone even relate to us residents at Sun Headquarters?

Maybe none of you guys can afford to live in this town, as our city officials made it unaffordable to live in Naperville once a very affordable city.

I am on the verge of moving out. My last tax bill was the most shocking ever coming on the heels of this sub prime mortgage collapse and ever rising gas and food prices.

Corporate America is not giving 15% raises to keep up with City Expenses going up 15% at City Hall. Last year we got no raises due to budgetary pressure at our Company.

It is time City Hall cut back even if it means no raises. How do they expect us to afford their raises, their penisons and their ballon payments on the way out when our companies ask us to cut back.

I work for United. About 7 years ago we were required to take a 20% pay cut. We had no choice! Our stock crumbled to less than a dollar and we were facing bankruptcy due to the recession of 2000-2001 after the bubble burst on the stock market.

Why is it so wrong to ask our overpaid City Employees to take a pay cut before hitting us with a 15% plus tax increase?

Well, I promise you, I will be voting for anyone outside of this estbalishment pary. I think the establishment party has over served its time. Good Bye and Good Riddens to their incompetent running of our beautiful city!

Margaret,

Thank you for reporting what the assessor's office had to say about calculating based upon the last 3 years. I recently learned my own house had lost over $100K in value and was wondering about my own tax bill.

What that does mean is that all of our tax bills will be going down next year and for at least the next three years since the assessor bases his calculations on a three year average. And it will stay down until for 3 years after our home value returns back to where it was, whenever that may be.

Better pass this news on to all of our family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, really anyone who lives in Naperville as we will all need to be ready to challenge next years tax bill. There is a magic date we need to do that by each year and I will look that up and post back for everyone to keep that in mind.

I sure hope the city of Naperville is already planning on what they intend to cut from the budget... full time positions, raises, capital projects, major expenses, etc. etc. because once the full scope of reassessed property values is understood coupled with the limit on how much the city can raise property tax in one year they are going to be faced with a monumental shortfall andd deficit even larger than what DuPage County just went through.

For all practical purposes I don't think we will have to worry about $3.3 million in police overtime next year because the city simply won't have the money to give away. I guess all the police officers will be scrambling to line up off-time work with private security firms. Oh.... shuuuussh! wink, wink, they aren't supposed to do that, right?

JQP's calculation is correct. But, it's more fun to complain about the pension contributions to be 40% than 28%. Isn't that the point about all these blogs?

By I agree with JQP on May 7, 2008 12:46 PM
JQP's calculation is correct. But, it's more fun to complain about the pension contributions to be 40% than 28%. Isn't that the point about all these blogs?

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I think you are missing the point. A calculation was done for comparative reasons. It was done to compare our police pension funds to other pensions funds in Du Page County. It was determined that the NPD pension costs were 10 times higher than others in the county.

John Q. Public's calculations are very misleading. He recalculated one without calculating the others that Realtor Ryan calculated to create the apple to apple comparisons which was the point of all these calculations.

Unless, John Q. Public computes the below in the same exact way, his calculations are wrong and misleading for comparative purposes.

The below must be recalculated by JQP or there will be no level playing field. They will all be substantially lower. I am sure JQP knows what I am talking about.

====================================================================

The Park District of Naperville was only 6.44%.

The Forest Preserve of Dupage was only 6.54%

Lisle Township was only 2.33%

District 203 was only 3.54%

College of Dupage was only 1.55%

===================================================================

The above would be much lower if JQP would have done a complete overhaul to Ryan Realtor. He only did a partial overhaul possibly in an attempt to make the city police pension look better which in my opinion was very deceptive on the part of JQP.

If JQP was being honest he would admit that Realtor Ryan was correct when he stated the NPD pension was 10 tmes more expensive than other pensions in the county.

He distorted the calculations of Ryan's by only partially doing them in an attempt to make the police pension not look so bad.

Realtor Ryan was very consistent and his caluculations show an increasingly skyrocketing Naperville police pension fund compared to other pensions in Du Page County!

It was very black and white. JQP did nothing but muddy the waters with his incomplete calculations....he made everthing rather grayish!

This Bob Marshall has a very nice name....a lawman type name! I will hand him that. He is a great marathon runner. I will hand him that. He is good looking. I will hand him that.

But he seems to know little to nothing about budgets. Neither did this Peter Burchard gentleman who left town before our real estate tax bills came in.

Yes, PB and BM are jointly responsible for a whopping 15.565% increase in the City Of Naperville property bill portion of my Dupage Real Estate Tax Bill. This was really inexcusable.

With all the multi-million mansions and new businesses coming into our tax base, I thought I would see a tax decrease this year. To see a price increase of this magnitude was unexpected and utterly shocking!

Someone has to take responsibility. The guy at the top is Bob Marshall so in my opinion he should step aside and let a a real pro take over.

This is what cronyism does. You install your friends in high positions that they are not qualified to handle and we crumble.

Who can envision Mr. Marshall demanding his former long term boss and mentor, Chief Dial, control costs or face the exit door. Chief Dial knows that Mr. Marshall would never fire him. Thus he is not going to push as hard in eliminating waste as in the case of an outsider riding his back who he knows will fire him, if he does not perform to levels of taxpayer satisfaction.

Let us get the most qualified City Manager in the country. Giving the position to Mr. Marshall because he is part of the Establishment will not serve the best interest of the community.

It is pretty much a foregone conclusion that Pradel will support Marshall since both are retired cops.

Wherli will likely support Marshall as well. Wherli thinks he is going to be mayor after Pradel. He follows Pradel around like a puppy dog, kissing ass, and trying to earn points in the "good old boy" network.

So it really boils down to how the rest of the council votes. Hopefully they will stop and take the time to measure the pulse of what the majority of Naperville want to see for credentials and qualifications of our next city manager.

Or maybe the city council will determine that the City of Naperville has grown too large for a city manager form of government to be effective any longer. Maybe it is time to make the Mayor position a real, full-time job. That will end the finger pointing and lack of accountability since the mayor will have to answer to the voters.

It has been discussed at City Council meetings, and it is quite apparent by reviewing the city's website, that the City of Naperville works to maintain "transparency".

A wealth of information is available, to anyone interested enough to learn about it, on the City of Naperville's website. It includes all kinds of info including the job description for the City Manager, and other positions. It also includes videos of city council meetings, police department statistics in comparison to other comparable police departments around the country, ordinances, budgets, financials, and alot of other important information to give residents a good understanding of how our city, and our city government works. It even gives explanations, like what constitutes "Culture" in reference to the new Culture Fund (yes, Ribfest counts).

I recommend reading this information to gain knowledge about many topics of interest to residents, and information pertinent to some of the comments posted on these blogs. It's always good to have educated viewpoints based upon facts instead of speculation.

It's easy to second guess just about anything. There's always a different way to do things. Everyone has a right to their opinions, but misdirected anger and blame toward many of our current city officials, police department, and city employees for percieved problems, especially things beyond the scope of their job responsibilities, is flat out wrong.

I believe our city officials will narrow the search for the new City Manager to the top qualified, and experienced applicants. Hopefully Mr. Bob Marshall will be one of them, as 30 years experience serving the city should count for something. He deserves to be given fair consideration, without being unjustly targeted by another Napergatian-style character assassination that is typical on these blogs.

Facts, facts, who needs facts. Before you start trashing Bob Marshall's qualifications find out what they are. He never moved above the rank of Captain in the Police Department because at that time that was the number 2 position in the department. This man is also well educated, not only does he have a Bachelor's Degree, he holds a Masters degree in Public Administration. If you don't like him fine, if you don't like his policies, even better. But please at least make your arguments based on fact, not what you dream, wish or heard from Dick..

Is there some reason Realtor Ryan did not include the County of Du Page and the County Health Dept. and their respective pension funds in his calculations? As long as we are talking tax bills, lets look at all the areas with high percentages.

By Southwest Naperville Taxpayer on May 8, 2008 11:55 PM
It has been discussed at City Council meetings, and it is quite apparent by reviewing the city's website, that the City of Naperville works to maintain "transparency".

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SNT,

Transparency has to cut both ways. Both good news and bad news.

City of Naperville only maintains transparency on good news.

Both Napergate Kangaroo Trials cost our city and residents a large fortune. There has never been transparency to show the bad news of the huge costs and defeat of the City of Naperville.

If there was true transparency, then the City of Naperville will show the costs of these trials in a truthful and honorable way and let the chips fall where they may.

What we have is orchestrated and controlled transparency. Call it third world transparency. In third world countries they censor the press and call it freedom of the press. Jordan, Syria and Egypt think they have free press even though it is government controlled.

Saying the City of Naperville has transparency does not make it so.

Actions of officials speak much louder than words.

There is no Napergatian-style character assasinaton on anyone. They are being assassinated by their own actions, words, and comments.

Do I need to remind you that Mr. Bob Marshall is the one who said the entire second series of Napergate Trials only cost the City of Naperville 5-10k for outide attorneys.

Host Ted knew he was not telling the truth as well as most Napervillians and Napergatians.

And you call this transparency, SWT!

Transparency is not patting yourself on the back when you do good things as Chief David Dial does in his Sun Colunmn.

Transparency is having the courage to give us the bad news and the good news in an honest way without distorting or covering up the facts!

You really should know better, SWT!

I think you are making a fool of yourself on these blog sites as the facts clearly dispute your claims that the City of Naperville has TRANSPARENCY! That is a figment of your imaginiation!

Let us try to be more factual in your next post and gain some credibility with your fellow bloggers by attempting to be honest!

Megan,

You, and many Napergatians on these blogs keep dredging up situations that transpired YEARS ago, as far back as the 1980's and 1990's, and you present them as relevant to the city today. The goal for transparency is TODAY, NOT 1993!!! Those past events do not define the City of Naperville. That's just one of many reasons I take issue with many Napergatians who insist on living in their dreams of the past.

We can all agree that Bob Marshall was clearly not privy to knowing the actual legal expenses associated with the Napergate situation years ago. Considering the previous administrations claimed the total costs were unknown as well, how do you expect anyone in the current administration to KNOW the costs as facts? Least of all Bob Marshall who had only been in the temporary City Manager's position for a few months when the question was asked of him. Anyone answering that question would have to just estimate it, and any answer would be inaccurate.

Why don't you contact one of our four Napergate endorsed city council members to see if they have the answer to that question for you. If there is any chance the total expense figure is known within the current administration, they will be able to tell you, and prove it to you with existing documentation. If not, go ahead and ask them how much they think it actually cost, and their answer will be wrong too.

By marcus aurelius on May 9, 2008 9:08 AM

Facts, facts, who needs facts. Before you start trashing Bob Marshall's qualifications find out what they are. He never moved above the rank of Captain in the Police Department because at that time that was the number 2 position in the department.
________________________

In the real world in which most Naperville taxpayers live... if you are No.2 and you do well you move up to No.1 and if you do well you move up to City Manager.

In the real world you simply do not get passed over for No. 1 and then get to be No. 1's boss.

In 30 years of trying he never made it to the top. Well congratulations to Marshall for trying, but if he never had the right stuff to be Police Chief then there is no way anyone is going to believe he now has the right stuff to be the Police Chief's boss.

Not only is that a major problem for Marshall, the reality is that 95+% of his city experience is limited to the police department. His skill set simply is not mature enough to account for all of the different city departments and their complex nature.

The city council, for a city the size and complexity of Naperville, should be looking for a qualified candidate who has been a city manager for somewhere between 10 and 20 years. This is no different than the expectations what we look for at the park district or for superintendent of schoools. We simply need a tested, proven candidate who has the maturity and seasoning to do an outstanding job. At this time, at this place, the City of Naperville should not be hiring a rookie and providing them with on-the-job-training.

Now, if Marshall thinks he can compete seasoned, mature candidates with 10-20 years of experience managing similar sized cities, then I wish him the best during the interview process.

The truth is Burchard originally hired Marshall because he didn't want anyone to outshine him. Burchard was a star in the small world of city administration and worried about anyone taking away his accolades.

Marshall is a paranoid, control freak, who has ZERO vision. Since he took the Asst. post, Marshall has worked to distance or remove anyone who had EXPERIENCED how unqualified he was for the job.

Burchard announced his resignation 6 months ago and Marshall has purposely stalled the hiring process so he could get more experience.

Naperville city government is not that different from high school. People get promoted based on their popularity vs. acheivement. Translation: If you don't wear trendy clothes, smoke cigars, swear like a sailor and down shots after night meetings, don't expect to get promoted. If your not willing to leave your spouse and children at home and carroon around town and on "staff retreats" like love lorn teens, then move on.

How do I know, because I've been there. And yes, the stories I could tell would SHOCK this community. It is no wonder a laundry list of top level staff have abandoned ship in the last couple of years. The people with integrity have left. Some others are holding on because retirement is right around the corner.

When will the Naperville City Council get their heads out of the clouds and take a good look at their employees. Oh, that is right, half of them are in the in-crowd and enjoying the popular life, so they won't.