Garage Sales (and signs) in Woodstock

Looking for a garage sale in Woodstock?

There is now a new way to find a garage sale. But, first, there is still the old way. Just drive around and look for a Garage Sale sign planted in the right-of-way. The sign to the right is one of the illegal signs in Woodstock.

Why is it "illegal"? It has no City-issued sticker ; it is planted blocks away from the sale; it is placed in the right-of-way of a State highway.

But now there is a second way to find garage sales in Woodstock. Go to the City's website at http://www.woodstockil.gov/ and click on "Garage Sales" in the upper left corner of the homepage.

I am going to be picky about the wording on the Garage Sales webpage. It is not the City's role to publicize or advertise garage sales. Especially not for a $5.00 permit. At the very most, the listing of addresses should be identified only as addresses for which permits were issued.

But should the City even be devoting resources (employee time and City website space) to any garage sale permits issued?

How does the person wishing to hold a garage sale learn of the rules pertaining to sales and signing? Not too easily. But if you are persistent, you can search in the City Code and find the following in Title 3, Chapter 7:

"3.7.3: PERMIT REQUIRED:
"Prior to the start of a garage sale, a permit must be applied for and obtained from the department of community and economic development. An application form for applying for such a permit can be obtained from the department of community and economic development. The fee for a garage sale permit shall be five dollars ($5.00) for each garage sale event. Upon issuance, the garage sale permit shall be visibly posted on the premises. (Ord. 08-0-70, 11-18-2008, eff. 1-1-2009)"

There is more to it, but I couldn't find Ordinance 08-O-70. A link could be added right on the above webpage to take a viewer to these rules. If you have a lot of time and great patience, perhaps you will be be lucky enough to find the ordinance itself.

It seems to me that the person wanting to hold a garage sale must go in person to City Hall and pay his $5.00. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to download a form, mail in your $5.00 and get the permit by mail, along with the stickers that must be affixed to each Garage Sale sign? Or even complete it online and pay by PayPal?

You can't put signs blocks (or miles) from your driveway.

If you are going to have a garage sale, call City Hall and ask for Community Development. You might want to ask about the fine for blowing off the permit. I don't know what the fine is for violating the Garage Sale rules, but you can bet there is one. If you get a ticket after Woodstock's Administrative Adjudication Court is up and running, that's where you can go to contest it. Before that, it's off to the County Courthouse, if you decide to contest it.

If you are willing to risk $150.00 in court costs at the courthouse to fight a garage sale violation, go for it. Let me know what happens.

OMA and electronic communications

With the continuing improvements and availability of electronic communications, what is the risk to the public during open meetings that some communications will not be open and public?

When you attend a city council meeting, a village board meeting, a commission or board meeting of a local government, you expect communications to be open and public. And it wouldn't hurt that they be loud enough to be heard throughout the meeting room.

With the increasing use of laptop computers (it saves paper, don't you know?) there is also a possibility that members of the "public body" could use them for private conversations during the meeting, which doesn't fit well with the Open Meetings Act.

Doing that would be akin to leaning to your neighbor on the board/communication/council and covering your lips as you whisper something about the matter under consideration. Somewhere, no doubt, a member of such a public body is sending a text message with his cell phone, sending an IM or sending an email to communicate with other members of the "public body".

Anyone, attending a public meeting anywhere, who gets a whiff of such an action, should immediately challenge it - right then and there.

If any member of a public body receives such a message, even if private on his BlackBerry or cell phone and if he gives attention to it during the public meeting, he should disclose to the public that he has received a text-message on his cell phone that, for example, his house is on fire and he'll have to leave as soon as the meeting is over. Then the public will know that he wasn't getting a message from a colleague on the board/commission/council asking/telling him to vote a certain way.

Busting those scams

Every day crafty, sly scammers are trying to steal your identity and get your money into their pockets.

A website worth knowing about is www.scambusters.org

Most internet users have seen authentic-appearing emails from banks and credit card companies, warning you of scams and then asking you to verify your identify, which they then steal.

Go to www.scambusters.org and sign up for the free e-newsletter. If you don't trust this link (oh, you sly one, you), do your own search on Google for "Scambusters". After you sign up, expect an email asking you to opt-in. Then you'll get see one advertising offer for their book, and you're in.

Trust me... (heh-heh).

"Now I'm going to tell you the truth." Don't you just love it when people say that? Your question to them has to be, "So what have you been telling me so far?"

Pleasant St. Water - not too pleasant

The City of Woodstock has posted the following notice on its homepage at www.woodstockil.gov regarding Tuesday's hydrant flushing.

"EMERGENCY FIRE HYDRANT FLUSH

"Due to a chronic discoloration problem in the water system on Pleasant Street, the Sewer and Water Maintenance Division will be flushing the fire hydrant at the end of Pleasant on Tuesday, May 19 at 9:30 a.m. Some loss of pressure may occur in some homes in this area, however, this condition will not present any health hazard and will only be temporary. Due to this flushing, residents are urged to check their water quality prior to doing laundry. Questions regarding this flushing can be directed to Public Works at 815.338.6118 or pwdept@woodstockil.gov"

Is anyone on Pleasant Street drinking the water?

A Happy Ending

Sometimes people ask me, "Where is all the good news?"

OK, here it is...

A Blind Dog & His Handicapped Owner are Reunited

Last week a business owner in Pacific, Mo. saw a Golden Retriever get hit by a car on a major road. Thankfully, the dog was not badly hurt, but the man quickly realized that the older dog was blind. The dog had no tags, no collar and appeared to be disoriented.

He called Dirks Fund-Golden Retriever Rescue and they took the dog to have him physically checked out.

Click on Dirk's Fund web site link below and watch the heart-warming video about the dog and his owner.

I received this from a former classmate in St. Louis, who sends the reminder that most Missouri folks are kind-hearted. His own Golden Retriever was purchased from this group.

www.dirksfund.com/ Watch the video.

OMA Violations in Woodstock

OMA? The Illinois Open Meetings Act. It sets up rules and procedures (not Roberts Rules of Order) for how meetings of public bodies in Illinois are to be conducted. Last night a workshop was presented by the Office of the McHenry County State's Attorney.

In this article I'll comment on something I have observed at open meetings of two of Woodstock's commissions, the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners (BOFPC) and the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC).

First, the HPC. Last October the HPC held a public hearing to kick off the consideration of the request by a Woodstock resident for Landmark designation of Grace Hall.

In the City Council chambers where the meeting was being held and before the start of the meeting, all the Commissioners of the HPC gathered at the front of the room behind the official desks of the City Council members. Then an attorney from the Office of the City Attorney arrived and joined them. I was immediately suspicious and considered stepping forward to listen in on their discussion, but I didn't.

The meeting opened, and the attorney for WCLS made a motion to continue the public hearing. The Commissioners quickly agreed. On a different evening it was revealed at a City Council meeting that the City Attorney had directed his young associate to advise the Commissioners to agree to the WCLS request to continue the meeting.

Was the discussion at the front of the room illegal? Under the Open Meetings Act it was. And the impropriety of it was confirmed in an answer to my question at last night's workshop.

Two of the members could have had a conversation. As soon as a third joined in and the conversation was about public business, it became a "gathering" as defined in the Open Meetings Act and subject to the Act. Their conversation was obviously in private and not for those in the room for the public meeting. You can't do that.

And the BOFPC? Without going back and re-hashing earlier meetings, the same thing happened on Wednesday, May 13, when the three Commissioners huddled with the attorney for the BOFPC at the front of the meeting room just before the 5:00PM starting time.

They were in the public meeting place, and they obviously were not deciding where to go for dinner after the meeting. In fact, all of them had better not be going out for dinner, unless they hold steadfast to the rule NOT to discuss any public business while the three of them are dining.

But the three Commissioners and the attorney seemed, to me, to be discussing the public business of the meeting. Their conversation could not be heard. Again, I considered stepping forward to listen in. I can just imagine the scene, as I'm sure they would have ordered me out of their hearing.

That "gathering" constituted a public meeting, even though the public meeting had not been convened yet. Next time? I'll be sure to step forward and listen to their conversation.

If they want to have a "private" conversation about the public's business, then they are going to have to go into Executive Session after the public, open portion of the meeting starts. And that closed session will have to be recorded.

Speaking of recording, my question to the BOFPC is, was your Executive Session recorded on May 13? Attorneys seemed to enter and leave the Executive Session, while the rest of us waited in the Council chambers. There is no problem with that, so long as the entrances and exits were noted on the recording and in the Minutes of the Executive Session.

How quickly lives can change

I don't know any of the parties involved in the fight at Emricson Park a week ago on Thursday night or who were at the ballfield on Friday night, but yesterday I was thinking how quickly lives have changed. Irrevocably changed.

Kids think they are "bullet-proof"; i.e., nothing serious will happen to them. Or they don't think, which is probably more often the case.

Certainly the lives of the family of the young man who died following a bodily collision during a softball game have changed in ways most of us will never be able to imagine. One day he was running around; the next, a funeral is being planned. The details of that Friday, the day after the beating and before the ballgame, will emerge. Careful investigation by medical and police personnel will uncover whether Bill Vahldieck complained of injury(ies) during the day.

And the lives of Steven Vasquez-Gomez and Michael Dunn, Jr. have changed irrevocably. The details of Thursday night's fight at Emricson Park will be examined under a microscope. As I understand it, there were many witnesses. Perhaps as many as 15. When these kids are separated and grilled on the fine points, a story of what actually happened will become clearer. Maybe not clear, but clearer.

Beating up a young man who dies a day later should produce a life-long question of whether the Thursday night beating had anything to do with his death, regardless of any findings by the Coroner or other medical examiner.

This isn't a matter of a few stop sign tickets or some tickets for a loud sound system in a car. Being involved in a serious fight, regardless of how it started, is a matter for serious self-exploration. Apparently, a verbal exchange occurred and, a short time later, the parties met at Emricson Park to "settle" it. That night will now be burned into their memories - forever.

In our schools, are kids taught to consider the importance of their words and actions? At home, are they taught that? Not very well.

And yet, how important is this?

It's called Conflict Resolution. The schools know who needs to learn it. It starts with small matters and escalates. Do the schools, which have charge of our kids for more hours than most parents see their kids, take a pro-active stand in meeting these issues head-on? Or do they handle them one-at-a-time, put them aside and move on to the next?

Who tracks the problem kid? Who says, if we don't get this stopped now, this kid is going to have, and to be, a huge problem.

Even though these incidents happened off school grounds, District personnel had better be taking a close look at them.