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Public Safety:o At the February 2013 City Council meeting, funding for an additional 5 officers was

approved, potentially bringing the police officer staffing level up to 49 from 45, which isstill only half of what is recommended based on just coverage area or size of the city (99)by the US Attorneys office in August of 2012;

o Because of the declining murder rate, we feel comfortable not demanding the 173 FTOthat were recommended based upon city size and crime rate;

o The Civic Alliance covers each meeting from beginning to end and often has someonerespond and/or report in Citizens Comments;

o At the 4/4 meeting, we plan to demand that a Public Safety is funded instead of adevelopment budget where TIF is dialed out, and public safety funding is increased tosupport hiring another 50 officers and 28 firemen;

Education:o Superintendant Culver is much more open to community feedback and has instituted a

quarterly public meeting called Key Personnel Meeting;o Budget issues seem to be normalizing as State kicked in Emergency Funding to account

for lost grants and programs pursuant to the State takeover which in principle the CivicAlliance supports;

o We will report ISAT results when made available by the State Board of Education in Aprilor so;

o We believe that Supt. Culver is making the right cuts as it regards to purging politicalhires and contractors;

o The elected school board filed an injunction and it seems that the State has been insettlement talks with them since July of 2012;

o I have gotten involved in the Officer PTA where my 2 sons attend elementary school andthe staff seem much more invested;

o Culver has agreed to institute a Basic Legal Education class that seeks to preventincarceration and promote legal compliance;

o We believe that residency has to be a part of any long term financial solution for thedistrict

o Eventually, we want to use 11th grade SAT scores as our measure of progress for learningand education.

Public Housing:o After talking with several members of the St. Clair County Housing Authority, it seems

that there is consensus on that Board to support the transfer of the East St. LouisHousing Authority to the same;

o Of course, we support this strategy because we believe that poor residents will get amuch healthier, safer, and consistent living experience;

o Currently, there is a vacancy issue as evidenced by the advertising the Housing Authorityhas been doing in newspapers and digital display signs for the John DeShields, the JohnRobinson complexes

o For us, this suggests to us that there may be an opportunity to reduce the number ofunits in East St. Louis, especially the older ones near downtown, and this would have a

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profoundly positive impact on the capacity and will to develop a sustainable downtowneconomy;

o Lastly, the Metro Police Commission has elected officers and is now meeting and we planto cover these meetings on a monthly basis;

City Election Commission:o On April 1, the municipal anniversary for East St. Louis, we will file an injunction seeking

to purge the voting records of at least 6,000 persons we know to have not voted since2008 which should be removed by law but in fact are retained;

o This has led to a voter registration (22,000) that EXCEEDS the voting age population(19,000) by at least 3,000 people!

o Once we have purged the voter registration records, we plan to place the City ElectionLaw back on the ballot

o A poor city like East St. Louis with too few police and firemen can hardly justify paying fora city election commission when the County provides the same service for no additionalcharge;

o Because we cover the monthly meetings, we can report that the Commission continues toignore our concerns regarding over-registration and that they have never reported a votefraud claim despite numerous federal convictions;

FOIA Requests & Investigations:o I have submitted FOIA requests to ascertain the exact state of the programs and/or

agencies below and will report out once those have been satisfied or not: Tax Increment Finance: routinely used to funnel money to political friends and

used to make blatant political hires that are often unqualified and/or not present; CDBGs Neighborhood Stabilization Program: $2.5M spent to develop 16

properties, with 4 of them being new construction, and 12 being single familyhomes for a per property cost to taxpayers of $156K where local norms are closerto $25K for a gut rehab;

City Council: seek to get annual and monthly public safety reports for local distribution

so we can get a better sense of what is actually happening in the world ofcrime in East St. Louis;

seek to also get minutes from the TIF Commission and Joint ReviewBoards meetings;

we suspect that there are no minutes because neither group has met asrequired by law;

Other Municipal Issues:o Nonprofit Registration Fee: the City of East St. Louis has recently instituted a nonprofit

organization fee that we believe to be illegal and that we will work with other nonprofitsto oppose this new tax

o Alarm Fees and Electrical Permits: we oppose the unsubstantiated fees that are beingcreated to generate revenue without any service involved like requiring persons who geta plug in alarm system to pay for an electrical permit as though there were wiringchanges!

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o Chamber of Commerce: we would like the Senators support of our efforts to create aviable Chamber of Commerce which will organize and galvanize the local economy and itsresidents;

o Rare Earth Metals: please let me know what this project was all about and how we canhelp bring it to fruition

Solar Power Plant Developmento We have identified several locations large enough to handle the acreage required and we

need to know how to proceed