Toughest town around

Mayor Schock told us at the recent forum that Elgin is doing everything legally possible to curb the presence of illegal aliens in town. He challenged us to name any town that is doing MORE.

Well, let’s give you a little chronology on immigration enforcement in Elgin.

May 2006

Here’s where the enforcement strategy comes in. On May 10, 2006 I received an E-mail response from Lt. Cecil Smith of the Elgin Police. My question was regarding the immigration status of people booked at the jail. Lt. Smith replied, “We do not determine the legal or illegal status of any person being processed. Therefore to asnwer (sic) your question”what do you do next?”. The processing/booking of the person would continue. They would be charge (sic) with the appropriate offense and he/she is either allowed to post bail and released or taken to bond call before a judge. We do not handle immigration issues.”

June 2006

On June 14, 2006 I spoke at the Elgin city council meeting and presented each council member with a binder of data and a list of recommendations to improve our cooperation with federal agencies regarding illegal alien enforcement. My recommendations included:

• Fraudulent document training
  
• Enforcement of Fraudulent ID laws
• Instructions about the Mexican Drivers License
• Use of the ICE database to screen people booked
• Notification of ICE when an illegal alien is in the city lock up
• Assisting ICE with transport of illegal aliens to ICE facilities
• Becoming a 287g agency.

My request was ignored, so I came back and spoke again…and again…and again…

July 2006

On July 26, 2006 Elgin Police Chief Lisa Womack presented her recommendation to the city council: Do nothing beyond what is already being done. She said they had a good working relationship with ICE and saw no need to do more.

The council members did not engage her in discussion, but simply accepted the report.

I continued to speak at council meetings for several weeks in a row.

(Note: In June of 2006 Elgin could have applied for a 287g partnership. The waiting list was short and they were processing applications around the country. The waiting list later grew to hundreds of police departments requesting 287g training.)

January 2008 (A YEAR AND A HALF LATER)

The city issues its “Four Initiatives” press release. Item #1 was applying for ICE ACCESS.

ICE ACCESS isn’t really a program per se. It is more like a menu of services. It is a list of the various programs available from the federal government that may be of use to a local law enforcement agency.

ICE ACCESS was nothing more than a request to sit down with ICE, look at the programs together and sign an agreement for one or more of those programs.

We waited. Nothing happened.

January 2009 (Another YEAR gone by)

I made a Freedom of Information request to the city on January 26, 2009 in an attempt to determine what efforts had been made on ICE ACCESS and what results had been achieved. On February 2, 2009 the city attorney’s office responded that they had made a handful of phone calls and requests for an ICE ACCESS meeting. But no meeting was ever held.

February 2010 (Yet another YEAR gone by)

Police Chief Lisa Womack continues to hold to her position that the city and the police department are doing all that they can.

On February 24, 2010 Womack is talking on a conference call with other police chiefs regarding immigration enforcement. Here’s what the Daily Herald reported:

"If there was a local solution to this issue, and this goes back to my Texas roots, the border states would have already figured it out," said Womack, who was police chief in Sugarland, Texas, before coming to Elgin in 2005. "In my opinion, there is not a local solution."

…and "Immigration law and enforcement is a federal law enforcement matter ... We have no one voice on this issue and it has been polarizing at times for this community."

source: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20100226/news/302269953/#ixzz1GxoBEPWi

April 2010

Lisa Womack is released from her duties as Elgin Police Chief

Do you see any leadership or aggressive pursuit of federal help on the part of Mayor Ed Schock? From June 2006 to April of 2010, the only success story on immigration enforcement in Elgin is the 100% screening that AFLA called for.

And the screening is a disappointment because they never DID ANYTHING with the data. Here they had specific detail they could have used to put pressure on Springfield and Washington, and all they did was sit on it.

When Jeff Swoboda takes over as chief of police things begin to happen. Here’s a couple of articles on the subject.

April 29, 2010, on the heels of an ICE sweep:

Elgin Police Chief Jeff Swoboda said the sweep was a good example of how his department is working with ICE.

"The Elgin Police Department will work with any federal agency that will help us in ridding the city of gang members and reducing crime," he said.

(Daily Herald)

On October 26, 2010 the Daily Herald ran this story:

Elgin has a new means to root out gang members, but the city's police chief warns it's not a cure-all by any means.

The department has assigned a detective to be a member of the Public Safety/Gang Unit task force the operates under the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office, or ICE.

“We're the first local agency to have an officer in the unit. It's another tool in our toolbox,” said Police Chief Jeff Swoboda. “

Their No. 1 charge is going after gang members.”

Swoboda also said the department also has an officer that works with ICE's Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force, which investigates stolen social security numbers and fake cards.

Remember when I went to the city council in June of 2006 asking for more involvement in the fraudulent ID problem? Well, we finally get something FOUR YEARS LATER!

And then on January 24, 2011 the Herald reported:

A two-day initiative dubbed “Operation Clean Sweep” allowed Elgin police officers to make 87 warrant arrests in cooperation with almost 20 federal, state, county and local agencies. The effort was one of the largest the city has ever initiated and one the Elgin Police Department is calling a tremendous success.

About 250 law enforcement personnel worked Friday and about 150 worked Saturday in a targeted sweep to reconcile outstanding warrants. Out of the 4,200 total warrants, Elgin chose to go after 225 people, apprehending about 40 percent of them.

In conclusion, it appears to me that after two years of fighting us on immigration enforcement, Ed Schock should not step out in front of Chief Swoboda’s parade and call it his own leadership. That’s just not right.

Pass the Dramamine

At the forum Wednesday night (March 16, 2011), Ed Schock was spinning us around pretty good. I had hoped that Dave Kaptain would seize the moment, but he didn't. I had hoped the newspaper reporters would do a little fact-checking, but they didn't.

So, we're going to try to set the record straight.

When questioned about the lack of success in the downtown area renovation projects, Mayor Schock claimed that the public money spent there WAS productive. "Property values are up," he said.

And I wondered how he could say that. Restaurants have closed, condos are empty, office space is vacant...even the cowboy hat store/Mexican bus depot has closed.

Then I figured out where he's getting his numbers. It dawned on me that he was reading the tax bills.

He should know better than to do that. We showed the Kimball Street row house listed at $120,000, down from $400,000 per unit during the initial offering. Most of those units were never sold. But if you looked at the tax bills, you'd think things were just fine.

Here's an example of what I mean. 692 Summit Street.
Here's a chart of the taxes paid on the home:Everything looks prosperous and successful, right?
And here's what the tax man says the house is worth (Assessed Value x 3):Wow! This home is worth 33% more than it was six years ago, according to the tax rolls.

But the REALITY is that the home is worth far less. And here's a chart showing the estimated market value of the home:

But it gets WORSE. Here's the ACTUAL home value according to the real estate transactions and past offering prices:


The REALITY is that the home won't even sell for $59,900 and yet the property value on the book at Kane County shows the home worth $182,541.

So, here's the charitable view of what he told us about downtown Elgin: Ed Schock is living in a bureaucrat's world of tax assessment, oblivious to the reality of vacancies and distressed properties.

And here's a less charitable view of what he said: He's spinning the truth at the forums.

More to come on other topics he told us about.

Kaptain and Schock face off!

AFLA is sponsoring a forum for the position of Mayor of Elgin.
Date: March 16th, 2011
Time: 7:00 pm
Place: American Legion Hall
820 North Liberty
Elgin 60120

Got a question for them?
E-mail it to: dwhite9845@aol.com

Save the date. Bring a friend.

Elgin Elections Coming Up

No doubt you are aware of elections for mayor and city council in April.
We will be posting information here about the candidates and their positions.
We've also got a candidate forum in the works for the mayor.
Stay tuned...

Back in Business

After a little R & R, AFLA is getting back to work.

Be sure to take a peek at the website here:
http://sites.google.com/site/aflaelgin/

And send us your comments here:
http://sites.google.com/site/aflaelgin/home/contact-us

There are some real stinkers on the ballot in November (Noland, Dalton, Perez) so we need to get ready for them. And the threat of amnesty for illegal aliens is poised ready to be rammed through congress.

Join the cause. Stay informed.

The not-so-merry-go-'round

The City of Elgin is selling the idea of a traffic circle at Dundee and Summit on the east side. Price tag: $3 million, but 75% of it is free money(federal). At least that's how the city fathers see it. Taxpayers see it as us paying all of it one way or another.

In these parts the only comparison is the Golf Road/Wolf Road roundabout in Des Plaines. The locals call it "the suicide circle." And it moves a great deal of traffic during the day. But at rush hour it clogs up because of the signal a third of a mile south on Wolf.

And when it clogs up, it blocks all the other spokes on the wheel. That's what traffic circles do.

This circle is different than the one proposed in Elgin. For instance, look at the curbed median planted in grass. The Des Plaines circle has that feature on three of the spokes. It serves to keep traffic moving by preventing left turns.

Another difference in Des Plaines is the nature of the surrounding area. It is almost entirely homes. There are a couple of light commercial establishments (doctors offices) and a long stretch of the back of an industrial site. The rest of the area is homes.

Now, the Elgin project.

A circle works because people want to get out of it as quickly as possible. The secret is that they need to have somewhere to go when they exit the circle. Those streets need to keep moving or the circle clogs up.

The Elgin circle has a number of busy retail distractions just as people are trying to get off the circle. McDonald's, the BP gas station, CVS pharmacy, Dunkin' Donuts (if it ever re-opens). Imagine rush hour as people are trying to get to work. They get in the circle and back-ups are created by people stopping for gas, coffee, a donut, their dry cleaning.

The second issue is eastbound travel on Summit. They have created a double bottleneck in the design. They narrow it to one lane and they insert this point in the circle. Has anyone told the fire department about this?

The third issue is that some people will avoid the circle, turning off into neighborhoods instead. Two of those neighborhoods contain schools and a youth center. Sheridan Elementary and the Boys' Club are located in one neighborhood. And Larsen Middle School is in the other.

Anyone familiar with the area knows that the streets are already narrow and have about all the traffic they can handle already. Do we really want people cutting through those neighborhoods?

I just don't understand this project. The big problem is people turning left into businesses located at or near the corner. The circle ignores that problem and creates three new ones. But don't worry, folks. The circle is designed to make them low-speed accidents.

The OTHER Elgin House Walk

What a great day for the Elgin House Walk. Perfect weather to look at the pastel colors of the painted ladies, gew-gaw dripping from the eaves. Inside, a beautiful array of rugs, oak trim, and stained glass.

But here's a tour of the other Elgin.

A matress ready for adding an apartment in the basement.

You can't really call it an apartment without a stove.

And here we have some moldy paneling, 2x4s, and a door.

All of the above items pulled out of the house next door as the neighbors moved away.

Former owners had installed a nice patio, complete with the gas grill and furniture. After a couple of years of parking cars on it, and with weeds taking over, it's not so nice now.

But the patio matches the rest of the landscape now. It hasn't been mowed for a couple of months now.

Look at the cool mini-blinds. Maybe the space heater was set a little too high. It doesn't add much to the curb appeal.

But there's plenty of free parking in back. Three cars in the driveway PLUS two SUVs in the garage.

Call now! This one won't last.

Now, here's a little pedigree of the place. (Source: Kane County Recorder -parcel # 06-12-479-019

JT owned it for years and years. He lived alone. Didn't invest much in the place but he kept the lawn mowed and didn't put much wear-and-tear on the place.

Then JT sold it to Steve and Debbie in March of 2001. They owned two dogs and cat but weren't any trouble at all. They fixed up the place. She planted flowers and hedges. He installed the patio. And inside it was nice as well.

In January of 2006 Steve and Debbie had a house built out in Gilberts and moved away. The new owners were Raymond Ruiz, a single man, and Rodrigo Vargas, a single man. But one of them never lived there.

In February of 2007 Felipe Reyes bought the place.

In August of 2008 a foreclosure was filed.

All that time, until Labor Day 2009 the house was occupied. Sometimes by five adults and sometimes by only two. But someone has always lived there and they all went somewhere during the day, presumably to work.

A couple of months ago they took to leaving the windows wide open day and night. I'm guessing our wet summer got inside the house and made it smell like a locker room.

The for sale sign has been up for well over a year now. Who knows if it is even inhabitable at this point.

I keep thinking I should call it in to the city to at least get someone over to cut the grass. Then again, if they can catch me parking on gravel with six inches of snow on the ground, I'm sure they'll notice the weeds. Or will they?