Lisle Watchdog

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Village of Lisle Violates State Law


Village of Lisle is in violation of State of Illinois Municipal Code ...

and has been in violation for years.


The Illinois Complied Statutes (also commonly referred to as the Laws of the State of IL) has an entire section devoted to IL Municipal Code - a section of State Law that outlines the authority, responsibility and duties of local government.

Illinois Municipal Code changes in 2002 (13 years ago):
(65 ILCS 5/1-2-3.1) 

    Sec. 1-2-3.1. Building codes. Beginning on the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 92nd General Assembly, any municipality with a population of less than 1,000,000 adopting a new building code or amending an existing building code must, at least 30 days before adopting the code or amendment, provide an identification of the code, by title and edition, or the amendment to the Illinois Building Commission for identification on the Internet. 

    For the purposes of this Section, "building code" means any ordinance, resolution, law, housing or building code, or zoning ordinance that establishes construction related activities applicable to structures in the municipality. 
(Source: P.A. 92-489, eff. 7-1-02.)

Not once since 2002 has the Village of Lisle complied with this law. 

Not once in the past 13 years has the Village of Lisle complied with this State Law. 

Lisle Watchdog spoke with the Illinois Building Commission on March 30, 2015 to verify the violation and failure to report building code adoptions and amendments. The State records show no reporting since the Village of Lisle adoption of the building code "BOCA 1996." BOCA ceased to exist in 2000 and was replaced by the International Building Code (IBC). The IBC Building Code was first issued in 1997 and has be updated and re-issued in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2015. Most municipalities in Illinois have adopted the 2012 or 2009 versions of the building code. 

The Village of Lisle Code states that the current building code enforced in Lisle is IBC 2003. The Village did not provide notification to the Illinois Building Commission 30 days prior to adopting that code back in 2007 (Ordinance 2007-4161). In fact, the Village still has not notified the IL Building Commission eight years later. 

The Village of Lisle Code also states that the code has been updated to include all Ordinances passed through August 2014:  

       "This code was last updated by ordinance 2014-4543 passed August 13, 2014."

Now let's look at Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8 of the Village of Lisle Code which states:  
4-1-8. Multiple Family Building Regulations: Each dwelling unit contained in a multiple-family residence building shall have a ceiling and floor and walls of a material with a minimum two (2) hour fire rating. All exterior walls of multiple-family residence buildings shall be of solid masonry construction except for "townhouse" and "row house" buildings as defined in this chapter. (Ord. 98-2977, 4-20-1998)

Back in April 2011, at the insistence of Opus Developers, the Village adopted Ordinance 2011-4381 to change the Village Code.  

The Village of Lisle did not provide a 30-day notice to the Illinois Building Commission. The Village of Lisle still has not notified the IL Building Commission of a 2011 building code change ordinance. The 2011 ordinance was not incorporated into Title 4, Chapter 1 of the Village of Lisle Building Code, which still states: 

4-1-8. Multiple Family Building Regulations: Each dwelling unit contained in a multiple-family residence building shall have a ceiling and floor and walls of a material with a minimum two (2) hour fire rating. All exterior walls of multiple-family residence buildings shall be of solid masonry construction except for "townhouse" and "row house" buildings as defined in this chapter. (Ord. 98-2977, 4-20-1998)


Ordinance 2011-4381 amended Title 5 of the Village Code, not Title 4:
 "Title 5 of the Village Code of the Village of Lisle is hereby amended...."
Title 5 is the Zoning Code and amendments to Title 5 require legal notice and a public hearing

The changes in Ordinance 2011-4381 do not appear in Title 5 of the Village Code as written the approved Ordinance. 

Changes were were made to Title 4, Chapter 5. 
There is, however, no record of Board approval of changes to Title 4, Chapter 5.  

The Village of Lisle has NEVER provided the State required 30-day notice to the IL Building Commission prior to the adoption of a Building Code, the amendment of the building code, nor adoption of an ordinance to modify the building code. 


The Village of Lisle has violated State Law since 2002.








Monday, March 30, 2015

LWFD Quietly Approves Major Reorganization Plan



Job Cuts Finally Hit the Fire Department. 


The Lisle-Woodridge Fire District Board of Trustees approved a major reorganization plan at their March 24, 2015 meeting that eliminates several jobs.

The reorganization plan was recently posted on the LWFD website and comes about 9 months after Moody's downgraded the District's financial rating due to underfunding its annual pension payments.

The reorganization plan calls for the elimination of company officer positions in order to free up sufficient funds to make required pension fund payments.

"In order to meet the fiscal demands... the rank of Captain shall be eliminated."


There are currently 5 officers holding the rank of "Captain" and those positions will be eliminated when the individuals who are currently holding the positions are "promoted, demoted, retire, resign, or otherwise terminated from service."

The reorganization Ordinance does not outline the cost savings from the elimination of positions. According to the posted compensation disclosure, (note: this is for 2013; current total compensation report has not been posted online) the position of "Captain" had a total compensation package of $144K - 155K per year. This could amount to a shift of about $750,000 per year from employee salaries/compensation to be used for pension funding. There were a total of 117 positions on the LWFD payroll in 2013 (not including paid trustees).

No long term financial plan has been publicly approved by the LWFD Board.


Background:




Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Taxpayers Fight Back

960 DuPage Taxpayers File Tax Complaint Against 74 Local Governments


Lisle Park District, Lisle Library District, Lisle-Woodridge Fire District, Lisle Township, and Lisle School District 202


In November 2014, 960 taxpayers filed a 533-page property tax rate objection complaint in DuPage County Court seeking a refund of  millions in "illegal property taxes" levied by 74 local governmental entities, including Lisle Park District, Lisle Library District, Lisle-Woodridge Fire District, Lisle Township and Lisle School District 202.   

Click image to enlarge copy of the complaint:






The Lisle area taxpayers who filed the complaint include: 

  • Commonwealth Edison
  • Country Villas Apartments
  • Courts of Williamsburg Apartments
  • DuPage Medical Group
  • Green Trails Apartments
  • Hidden Creek Investments 
  • Inland Group
  • Jewel Companies
  • JP Morgan Chase
  • Dr. Paul & Mary Kay Ladone 
  • Maple Terrace Management 
  • Marathon Oil Company
  • Public Storage
  • Snow Valley Property LLC
  • Stahelin Partners
  • The Alter Group
  • US Bank
  • West Suburban Bank


Detailed tax objection against the Lisle Park District, HERE.

Detailed tax objection against the Lisle Library District, HERE.

Detailed complaint against the Lisle-Woodridge Fire District, HERE.

Detailed complaint against Lisle Township, HERE.

Detailed complaint against Lisle School District 202. HERE.