Prologue
This post contains information (administrative expenditures to actual
services ratio) I was not allowed to include in a Springfield Journal-Register (SJ-R) letter to the
Editor published (after 26 days of publication delay
because someone did not like the publicly documented information
on file at the Illinois Comptroller’s Office, particularly the
administrative costs to services ratio of which I was only allowed to
include a conservative calculation which did not include the 20%
Township error omitting $374,925 in General Assistance
administrative cost despite my documenting the error amount as an
administrative expense from FY 2016 and FY2017 reports on file) on
September 1, 2018, and two letters submitted on October 16, 2018, which where rejected
for publication within two minutes of sending. A
requested hyperlink documenting the information source (see the link
below) to be published with the letter, which I immediately sent when
the published letter was first submitted in early August, was never
used on the SJ-R website.
Two letters, containing much of the information below, submitted on October 16, 2018, were rejected
for publication within two minutes of sending.
It is as if someone high up (not the
Letters editor) does not want the public information on file at the
Illinois Comptroller’s Office discussed publicly in the media.
Whatever the motives and reasons, the bottom line is the public
discussion of this proposed merger of Capital Township with Sangamon
County has been inadequate, truncated, and seemingly suppressed.
I
have since learned that the Con op-ed was written as an unpublished
letter to the editor a month prior as a protest of the City Council
vote to table a City petition to merge Capital Township with the City
and later pushed by the SJ-R as the op-ed piece with imposed
significant data changes and denied the author a review of the Pro
op-ed and the ability to respond to the actual Pro op-ed. This
speaks directly to the intentional informational manipulation and suppression of informed public
discussion on this issue by the SJ-R.
CAPITAL
TOWNSHIP’S INCONVENIENT FINANCIAL NUMBERS
The
Pro and Con Op-Ed articles on the proposed absorption of Capital
Township, which is entirely within the City of Springfield, by the
Sangamon County Board were very disappointing with the “pro’s”
self-serving twists and blarney and the “con’s” overly
conservative and way too politely constrained attempt. The people of
Capital Township (the City of Springfield) deserve a more rigorous
discussion than has appeared in local media.
While
townships can provide a variety of services, such as roads, cemetery,
parks, and general assistance, Capital Township provides only one
service (General Assistance) in the FY2017 amount of $755,533 at
a direct program administrative cost of $374,925 (just salaries?)
while the total Township salaries are $906,779, central Township
administrative costs are $851,449 for total Township FY2017
expenditure of $1,981,907.
It
is misleadingly convenient to characterize Capital Township
efficiency as a single service program (General Assistance) within
Capital Township rather than the operation of the whole Township.
Because a government exists solely to serve the needs of the people,
the ratio of total administrative expenditures to total
actual services is how a governmental unit is efficiency
evaluated and Capital Township at $162.32 for each $100 of
services is excessively higher and more grossly inefficient than
any other Sangamon County Township government. Chatham Township,
which provides road, cemetery, recreation/parks, General Assistance,
and community building services has an expenditure to services ratio
of $44.49 for every $100 of services. It is purposefully misleading
to try to pose Capital Township solely on its welfare expenses to
welfare services ratio. Capital
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