Antonio Z. Andrews will be sentenced on April Fool’s Day for his night-time Story Hill neighborhood crime wave this fall, according to court records.
The sentencing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. before Circuit Judge Richard Sankovitz.
Andrews pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to one count of burglary. He still faces misdemeanor charges in two other cases.
The Common Council voted yesterday to have the city pay for replacing sidewalk slabs damaged by roots from city-owned trees — but only if residents complain about it.
Residents who do not complain will still be assessed 50% of the cost of replacing the damaged sidewalk if the replacement is done as part of a larger project, such as the sidewalk replacement project in Story Hill last fall.
Aldermen Michael Murphy and Joe Dudzik voted against the measure, sponsored by Ald. Robert Bauman.
Murphy, who represents the Story Hill neighborhood on the Common Council, said the ordinance could cause “huge financial problems for the city.”
The city estimates the measure will cost a maximum of $50,000, but Murphy was skeptical of that figure.
“There’s going to be a lot of unfairness in the system,” Murphy said in an interview. Some residents will be unaware of the ordinance and won’t request that their sidewalks be replaced. Homeowners hit with a special assessment for a sidewalk replacement project probably won’t be particularly happy if their neighbors did not have to pay for similar work simply because they complained.
Residents who notice city sidewalk slabs damaged by the roots of city-owned trees may be able to avoid future special assessments of several hundred dollars (depending on the number of slabs damaged) by contacting the Department of Public Works and requesting a slab replacement.
The federal government is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to get us out of this recession, and promises to keep strict track of where it is going and how it is spent.
It’s just all those other trillions that the feds can’t fully explain.
Government bookkeeping is so bad that the Government Accountability Office can’t determine just exactly what our national fiscal condition is.
“Certain material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work resulted in conditions that prevented us from expressing an opinion on the fiscal year 2009 and 2008 financial statements other than the Statements of Social Insurance,” Acting Comptroller Gene L. Dodaro reported last week, adding that “Material weaknesses resulted in ineffective internal control over financial reporting (including safeguarding of assets).”
Makes you feel happy about paying those federal income taxes, doesn’t it?
Reading Dodaro’s statement makes you wonder why some of these people have jobs. The GAO, Dodaro said, can’t render an opinion on the government’s financial statements for three big reasons:
(1) serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense (DOD) that have prevented DOD’s financial statements from being auditable, (2) the federal government’s inability to adequately account for and reconcile intragovernmental activity and balances between federal agencies, and (3) the federal government’s ineffective
process for preparing the consolidated financial statements. In addition, the financial statements of the Department of Homeland Security and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for fiscal years 2009 and 2008 were not auditable or were not subjected to audit by agency auditors.
The federal government could not determine exactly how much in “improper payments” it was making, although the amount is estimated at $98 billion, nor could the government ”reasonably assure” that appropriate action is being taken to stop them.
The government also could not identify and resolve information security control deficencies or — ready for this one? — “effectively manage its tax collection activities.”
The GAO sounds a very loud warning that both parties in Congress have thus far elected to ignore:
Looking ahead, the federal government will need to determine the most expeditious manner in which to bring closure to its financial stabilization initiatives while optimizing its investment returns. In addition to managing these actions, problems in the nation’s financial sector have exposed serious weaknesses in the current U.S. financial regulatory system, which, if not effectively addressed, may cause the system to fail to prevent similar or even worse crises in the future. The current system, which was put into place over the past 150 years, is fragmented and complex and simply has not kept pace with the major financial structures, innovations, and products that emerged during the years leading up to the recent financial crisis. Consequently, meaningful financial regulatory reform is of utmost concern.
All this is really scary stuff, brought to the country by one of the most credible sources there is. Anybody in Washington listening?
A Common Council committee on Thursday recommended, 3-1, that the city pay for sidewalk replacements damaged by city-owned trees, but only in the isolated instances when property owners complain about the damage.
Property owners are now billed for 50% of the cost of all sidewalk slab replacements.
Ald. Joe Dudzik voted agains the measure.
Property owners still would be assessed for replacing city tree-damaged sidewalks if the replacement was part of an area sidewalk maintenance and repair project, as occurred in Story Hill last fall, or if it was part of a paving project, under the recommendation of the Public Works Committee.
Ald. Robert Bauman originally proposed that the city replace any sidewalk slab that was damaged by a city-owned tree — such damage usually occurs when tree roots dislodge or raise a sidewalk slab.
Bauman, though, added language sharply limiting the potential city-paid sidewalk slab replacements after colleagues questioned where the $25,000 to $50,000 estimated annual cost of the measure.
If the full Common Council approves the measure, property owners would best off if they complain to the city as soon as they notice that sidewalk slabs adjoining their properties are affected by city tree roots. Waiting until the city schedules a sidewalk replacement project would only expose property owners to a special assessment.
In the neighborhood: Hank Aaron Trail featured
Thursday, March 18th, 2010The Hank Aaron State Trail is featured in a Rails to Trails magazine story written by Story Hill resident Mike Brady, who also manages to plug Story Hill.
Way to go, Mike.
That’s him in the picture, misidentified.
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