City of Peoria YouTube
Originally published on February 10, 2021 6:51 pm
When it comes to the Peoria area s wishlist for state legislators, there s a lot of needs from road repairs to renewing tax credits. But one item clearly comes in as the top priority. Our number one item that has to be addressed. It needs to be in the largest font on that piece of paper. And it needs to be bold. And it needs to be underlined. And it needs to be, Help us address the pension, said Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis.
Public safety pensions remain the city s largest unfunded liability. City Manager Patrick Urich said in 2008, pension payments accounted for 11 percent of the city s operating budget. That s now ballooned to 20 percent with those obligations continuing to mount in the years to come.
PEORIA The former owners of the Hotel Pere Marquette were indicted this week on charges of money laundering and mail fraud.
A 26-page indictment, returned late Tuesday, accuses Gary Matthews and Monte Brannan of diverting $750,000 of hotel funds to themselves after the hotel went into foreclosure. They are accused of taking approximately $1.6 million away from the hotel s bank accounts and putting it into their own.
The charges allege the two men caused $13.8 million to be moved from a hotel management account into an account they controlled.
The project has become an albatross around City Hall s neck after the project was foreclosed upon, leaving taxpayers on the hook for between $7 to $8 million.
Dana Vollmer / WCBU
Peoria Police Chief Loren Marion III is retiring next month.
Marion has been with the Peoria Police Department for 26 years. Law enforcement careers are a family tradition. His grandfather, Frank Smith, was the Bellevue police chief. And Marion s father was a Peoria patrolman for three decades before his 2009 retirement from the department.
“I feel the Department is moving in the right direction. We are ahead of many agencies throughout the country in our policies/procedures, technology and training, said Marion in a prepared statement on Monday.
During Marion s tenure, the Peoria Police Department rolled out body cameras, an officer wellness program, and expanded the resident officer program.
PEORIA Local state s attorneys say they can t comment on hypothetical cases involving COVID-19 enforcement but agree they will apply the law as it fits.
Both Peoria County State s Attorney Jodi Hoos and her Tazewell County counterpart, Stewart Umholtz, say they take things on a case-by-case basis, and that they will act appropriately. Umholtz, whose office has received no complaints at all, said he will not comment on hypotheticals.
Umholtz works in a county where the top lawman, Sheriff Jeff Lower, has repeatedly said he will not enforce the governor s executive orders as he doesn t feel they are rooted in law. But Umholtz said that s not a factor to him.