Batavia postpones talk on spending for retreat

Discussion on spending nearly $20,000 on a planning-and-visioning meeting for the Batavia City Council is on hold for now.

The Jan. 5 government services committee meeting, which was to be devoted to the topic, was canceled Monday night by Alderman Linnea Miller, the committee chairwoman.

She did so because the city administrator and committee are still gathering information about potentially less-expensive ways to conduct the planning retreat, she said.

Sikich LLP, an Aurora-based accounting and consulting firm, has submitted a proposal for $19,500. Sikich would interview Batavia's 14 aldermen and the mayor before the meeting, then use that information to plan topics for the meeting.

The retreat would take place over dinner on a Friday night and eight hours the next day.

Newspaper articles about the proposed retreat generated more than 140 anonymous online comments, many of which were critical of the proposal and city officials.

Mayor Jeff Schielke and Miller said they also had received e-mails, both anonymous and signed.

"I appreciate the concerns about the finances of it all, and we need to take true heed of that," Schielke said. But he also said the council was "in need of doing an exercise where we collectively get a vision and come up with some running orders for the next several years."

One of the less-expensive options being explored is to have Northern Illinois University's Center for Governmental Studies lead it. A proposal was requested from NIU in mid-December, but the city just received a reply Monday due to the Christmas holidays, City Administrator Bill McGrath said.

The last council planning retreat was in January 2007. It also was conducted on a Friday and Saturday, with the Friday-night portion held at a Batavia restaurant.

Former St. Charles City Administrator Larry Maholland is the director of local government management services for Sikich.

Sikich also recently did some consulting work with Batavia's Citizens Advisory Commission on Additional River Crossings, which submitted its report Monday about potential locations for a second local bridge over the Fox River.