In March and April of 2003, DevCorp North along with Gina Carruso held two public Special Service Area #24 tax increase meetings. One at the Heartland Cafe and one and at the Campechee restaurant.
Very few people from the general public attended these two meetings. I was one of a dozen. The rest in attendance all had a financial stake in taking "other peoples hard earned money".
For a selling tool, the sales pitch sort of speak, at both 2003 meetings, Special Service Area pitch-woman Gina Caruso and her SSA partner Kimmy Bares kept repeating to the sparse crowd, over and over like a broken record, comments like these....
"People, who were in the know, would be who controls the funds"....
"A group of commissioners who knows what's going on"....
"Property owners WITH-IN the district were going to be responsible for the decision making....
All these nice catch phrases. Easy sound bites to please the gullible listeners who attended the public meetings. I didn't believe it. Even back then.
Now, in the real world, fast forward to the January 2006 Special Service Area tax #24 commissioners meeting.
One commissioner who wasn't in attendance, who didn't show up for the meeting, did join in via speaker phone, asked about getting a copy of a promotional SSA item sent out to everyone in the 60626 zip code.
Mary Ann, the commissioner on the phone asked a question, " How can a commissioner who doesn't ( did not) live in the boundaries of the Special Service Area, see this promotional item sent out " to ALL the Rogers Park residents?
So, were the people lied to by Kimmy Bares and Gina Carruso at the March and April 2003 pre-SSA meetings?
It appears so. These Special Service Area #24 commissioners don't know what the hell is going on.
Not only are the SSA #24 commissioners clueless, this commissioner doesn't follow the Special Service Area rules. Mary Ann does not even live in the Special Service Area #24 boundaries, by Mary Ann's own admission via speaker phone!
10 comments:
Lot's of comments. We touched a nerve on this subject. I like the question about promoting the SSA itself. I will talk about that in the future. As that was talked about in the meeting.
Here is a quick link to the commssioners. When you read Charlie Dickrickson cheerleading comment, understand Charlie gets paid by the Special Service Area #24 to promote this tax boon-doggle. I count $950 in checks paid to rogersparkdotcom employees in 2005. $150 directly in Charlie's name. He is on the SSA pay-olla scam.
One commsion not listed on Hugh's list is Ora Harris.
Commissioners who attended the January '06 SSA #24 meeting.
Matthew Bowker
Ora Harris
Katy Hogan
Alan Goldberg
Gloria ????
Paid attendees
Kimmy Bares
Mark Semon
Rene Carmego
Lisa ????(the note taker)
Craiger said: When you read Charlie Dickrickson cheerleading comment, understand Charlie gets paid by the Special Service Area #24 to promote this tax boon-doggle. I count $950 in checks paid to rogersparkdotcom employees in 2005. $150 directly in Charlie's name. He is on the SSA pay-olla scam.
Oh Shit......now you have gone and uncovered my Ghost Payrolling scam......wonder what I did for that kinda $$
Damn I better pack my bags and hit the road..... I'm FUCKED!
Hey Tom......I think I need some legal advice. Call me on the HOTLINE!
The Lt. (oh how I love a man in uniform) piped up and said:
Charlie Didrickson asks if I want to know what he did for that money. If it involved bending over and K-Y jelly, no I don't Charlie.
That is some great progress Lt. Openly talking about your sexuality and fantasies can lead to a much happier and fulfilling life.
Next week let's work on your anger.......
Being honest with yourself is an extremely liberating response to all those pent up feelings rolling around in your head.
XOXO
Tom - See my comment in a previous thread. I'm already trying to set-up a meeting. I hope that many of you DevCorp critics will attend so we can stop bitching and attempt to create some accountability.
Surely, you all can give an hour of your time...
I need two more people to attend and then we'll get the ball rolling...
Here it is reposted from a previous thread:
So how many of you have contacted Jackie Leavy of the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group, at jleavy (at) ncbg (dot) org?
According to the gentlemen who was kind enough to offer us the information, she is leading a new Accountable Development Task Force to help bring some oversight to SSA's. This could be the chance to bring some accountability to DevCorp and the SSA's.
GF? Craig? Toni? Hugh? RogersParker? Nico's Mom? Are you people down with this?
Here's your chance to really push DevCorp into some accountability.
If you are honestly concerned about this issue, surely you can dedicate an hour of your time to this for a meeting, right? If you have time to post here, you should have time to send her an email.
At the very least, it something to write/blog about, correct?
I know everyone is busy, but maybe some of you could set aside one hour sometime within the next two weeks to meet with her?
I would be willing to set-up the meeting and attend if some of you that are constantly attacking DevCorp and SSA's would be willing to discuss it in a civil tone with someone from the NCGB. We could ask her how to get ahold of the budget (as MM would like), and what we can do to make sure the SSA meets its intended goals.
How 'bout it?
Anyone willing to set aside an hour to put your money where you keyboard is?
# posted by dan2 : 9:52 AM
DevCorp North staffs their SSA commissions from their membership, and many of their members are not from the area, so it's easy to see how this could happen.
You don't have to be both a property owner and resident. Obviously Mary Ann is neither so that's wrong. But you don't have to live there.
She owned the Cobblers Mall when she became a commisioner.
> Mary Ann does not even live in the Special Service Area #24 boundaries, by Mary Ann's own admission via speaker phone!
Isn't that especially awkward considering she is not just any Commissioner but the Chairman of the Commission?
Craig,
Was Chairman Carrero running the meeting over the phone? If not, who was?
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