Politics & Government
The Rundown: Palos Hills Finances Get Thumbs Up
Palos Hills passes police pay raise, announces some awards, issues a raffle license and amends liquor ordinance.
Fit Finances: For the 22nd year in a row, Palos Hills was awarded The Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) of the U.S. and Canada for the comprehensive annual financial report.
GFOA is a nonprofit professional association with offices in Chicago and Washington D.C.
Palos Hills Treasurer Kenneth Nolan said that not every taxing district or municipality is in GFOA, but it “has pretty substantial membership in the state of Illinois.”
Find out what's happening in Paloswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Taxing districts send their annual audit to GFOA each year to see if it is up the their standards, and the association presents an award to government agencies that demonstrate a “spirit of full disclosure” and transparency regarding their finances.
Mayor Gerald Bennett also announced that Palos Hills received an A credit rating from Standard & Poor's again this year. He also pointed out that the Village has no General Obligation (GO) Bonds, which are municipal bonds backed by tax payers.
Find out what's happening in Paloswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Bennett said there are not a lot of taxing districts in the area that can say they contribute zero dollars of the property tax levy to such bonds. The city's debt ratio overall is around 2.9 percent.
Although AAA is the highest S&P rating, an A rating is the highest a government entity can receive when it is not a home rule community.
Police Contract: It was announced a few weeks ago that the council had come to an agreement on a new The council unanimously approved the new contract at Thursday's meeting, but not without adding one change. The council entered executive session and agreed to also extend a one percent, retroactive raise for the 2010-2011 fiscal year to part-time, non-union police employees.
Ordinances: After passing an requiring any group in Palos Hills holding a raffle to register with the city, the council also has to vote to waive or enforce a $50 licensing fee before the clerk's office can issue the license. The council unanimously voted to waive the fee for the Palos Life and Casualty Company, which will be holding a raffle on behalf of the Alzheimer's Association Greater Illinois Chapter.
The council also voted to approve an H-1 liquor license for Pantry Plus, located at 103rd Street and Roberts Road, allowing the establishment to serve packaged liquor until 2 a.m., under a recent. Ald. Marty Kleefisch (1st Ward) was the lone nay vote.
