Father, I mean, Manning Knows Best. What will it cost to prove the voters wrong?

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I want to send a sincere, non sarcastic, "thank you" to councilman Bob Manning who has volunteered to voyage into Illinois American's books to see if we are making a huge mistake by not spending a bunch of more money we don't have to possibly buy the water company voters don't want. Councilman Grayeb thinks we are "allergic to money." Chuck, perhaps 82% of voters have philosophical opposition to buying a private company that you - and the rest of the council - should respect.

For the price of a tank of gas, a cheap hotel, and a food allowance, we will find out once and for all whether or not the Council is foolish to not buy the water company that the voters don't want to own. Hey Bob, there has been a lot controversy involving the travel of politicians these days. My advice: bring a tuna fish sandwich and sleep in your car.

Bill Dennis of the Peoria Pundit points out that Manning's experience as a financial guru/C.P.A. is already paying off. Funny, I thought we employed a professional staff for just this sort of thing. The City of Peoria Finance Department has a yearly budget of $1,357,932.00. $751,234 of that goes to pay personnel. Another $415,659 of that goes to employee benefits. So you would think the city would have a C.P.A. or two qualified to look at Illinois American's books.

Ah... yes, we do! His name is James R. Scroggins, C.P.A., Finance Director and Comtroller extraordinaire for the City of Peoria. Mr. Scroggins prepares the annual budget for the City, which is not a line item budget, despite Council's repeated requests for one. We have at least one more C.P.A. on staff, Mr. Charles R. Oliver, who the citizens of Peoria pay over a hundred grand every year. The whole idea behind having a professional staff is that employed but non voting professionals are more likely to study data and present objective findings to the Council. This also explains why we pay consultants to do common sense thinking for the council as well.

I admire Manning's resolve, but I will question the results. Manning has gone on record as saying that the water company would be a good thing for Peoria, if we can afford it.

"Affordable" in this modern era is subjective, to say the least.
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