Mayor overstepping role
Collinsville Mayor John Miller again fails to understand that his role in a council/ manager form of government differs from the role of the village of Maryville Mayor (President) Larry Gulledge in his village/ trustees form. Basically Collinsville operates under a weak-mayor form unlike Maryville, and Miller simply has one of five votes with only three votes needed for adoption. Mayor Miller is "largely a glorified City Council member."
Collinsville Area Recreation District receiving TIF (tax increment financing) funds was on the agenda for the city special meeting on Feb. 13. To set the stage for Mayor Miller's abuse of power we should realize that Rick Robbins, CARD interim director, was appointed to fill in the duties of top administrator Mark Badasch who just resigned at year's end due to the monstrous debt CARD had accumulated. Mary Ann Bitzer is CARD president, sharing the similar power of the Maryville mayor and more power than our Collinsville mayor. Ironically City Manager Bob Knabel was fired last November and former Chief of Police Scott Williams is acting as interim city manager for Collinsville.
CARD receiving over $100,000 of city TIF money was on the agenda for the special meeting. Manager Williams started off the discussion with the other four council members stating their views. Then Mayor Miller said, "In the discussion I had with Rick and numerous other people, including Senator Haine and Maryville Mayor Gulledge and one of his board members and his village attorney and recovering their debt and what they are going to do. We understand what's happening with CARD and are willing to sit down with their board and discuss what's happening there. Because we have got a lot more at stake than Maryville does or the portions outside the city that are part of CARD."
The mayor should not have had any of those discussion regardless of the inexperience of the new city manager particularly since the CARD director is also new and their president was rightfully standing back. Our director of operations, who is quite knowledgeable and directly responsible to Williams, could have assisted in talking to the Maryville mayor and his board member while our mayor stood back.
It is CARD and the Village of Maryville that have the problem and the Collinsville taxpayers should not pour any more money down the Miner's Theater black hole. Mayor John Miller should not have prejudiced himself and when the subject comes to the floor at our council/ manager regular meeting under the weak-mayor form, he should announce that he will abstain immediately after the clerk announces the TIF payment to CARD.
Miller previously abused his power on Feb. 25, 2010, by acting on his own volition to oppose Glen Carbon issuing star bonds. The Sept. 27, 2010, city video shows the weak-mayor form was brought to Miller's attention the first time.
TIF District One, once known as the good, bad and ugly, that goes down Main Street through Johnson Hill Road down Route 157 past the convention center and Eastport Plaza, has too much money and too little accountability. TIF robs our total assessed valuation and when the city levies the tax for all of Collinsville property owners the rate is higher for each of us. Some of the employees that administer TIF do not live in the city so there is no incentive for them to eliminate TIF making their jobs at stake. The Planning Commission has been operating under the radar and are content to keep finding ways to spend the bundle of cash that TIF has in reserves.
Our Joint Review Board consisting of the Township, Unit 10 and others should be activated to study the postponement of TIF District One and the too many paid TIF administrators. Council member Mike Tognarelli has officially said he would vote no on giving CARD any more money for the Miner's Theater. Since the mayor should abstain the remaining three should take notice. One more could take a positive stand for the taxpayers since another "no" vote would defeat the motion
Bob DesPain
Collinsville
