Elgin mayor ponders dog licenses

Elgin Mayor Ed Schock said he does not "contemplate" the city council considering any breed-specific laws for dogs this year, but he does favor a dog licensing program that will charge residents a "modest fee."

The mayor's remarks came during a brief state of the city address Thursday night and a question-and-answer session with residents who submitted queries over the city's website, cityofelgin.org.

Last March, city council members backed off a special set of laws that applied only to pit bulls and their owners, but some council members warned another serious attack would prompt them to revisit the issue.

Schock said a dog licensing program can help police return loose dogs to their owners, paint a better picture of what types of dogs live in the city and possibly provide funds for the police department to hire another animal control officer.

"For a city our size to only have one animal control officer, it's not efficient," he said. "We need people who support a license to come forward."

Unemployment, the economy and downtown development were topics.

Schock said the city has made a lot of progress with attracting new businesses, especially high-tech manufacturers and those that make goods in demand from the green movement, such as gearboxes for wind turbines.

Schock also outlined steps the city took to reduce costs by 6 percent, the most significant being cutting payroll.

"People were laid off. Positions were not filled. We have 80 fewer employees at this time than we did last year," he said.

The chat followed the same format as Schock's first-ever Web chat in March 2009, except the venue changed from the Gail Borden Public Library to the Centre of Elgin's atrium.

The acoustics made it somewhat difficult to hear all of what Schock was saying, but it didn't affect the dozen questions he received from online questioners at cityofelgin.org.

City spokeswoman Sue Olafson said the city will plan future question-and-answer sessions, perhaps with city departments heads who can answer technical questions.