Despite unanimous approval, Mount Prospect spending plan has critics
Despite winning unanimous approval earlier this week, Mount Prospect's plan for spending more than $7 million in federal coronavirus relief funds is facing criticism from several of the village trustees who voted for it.
Trustee Terri Gens said she hoped the village would have invested more in the community's mental health needs.
"I think we can all agree that the pandemic has really impacted probably everyone's mental health," she said.
She said she also would like to see funding used to address the impacts of extreme weather.
"I was glad to see that there was some help in there for green initiatives," Gens said. "But you know, we're going to have increasing frequency and intensity of storm events, and that's going to cost us money."
Trustee Peggy Pissarreck criticized the community development department's Job Recruitment & Retention program. The program will use $200,000 from the American Rescue Plan to provide $1,000 paycheck incentives for employees hired by new retail businesses, including a planned Caputo's grocery store downtown.
"Staffing shortages is the new normal right now. And I'm not certain that offering a $1,000 bonus ... is the right thing for the village to do, especially for $200,000," she said. "I do feel like the employers should bear that cost and not the village."
Community Development Director Bill Cooney said two of the new businesses that might benefit, Caputo's and the restaurant at 20 West, could bring in potentially 80 jobs.
In spite of their critiques, Gens and Pissarreck said they ultimately endorsed the plan because they agree with the great majority of it.
Village Manager Michael Cassady said he met with a Caputo's representative, who told him that six months after opening a store in Orland Park, it is only 50% staffed.
"So that makes him very leery of making this investment right now," he said. "We're trying to encourage him to move now."
Caputo's is a critical project in the downtown, making this a necessary incentive, he added.
Trustee Richard Rogers expressed skepticism about another aspect of the plan, the Dial-a-Bus service.
"Wouldn't it be easier to somehow work that out with the two townships (Wheeling and Elk Grove, which already provide a service), rather than have a third system to do basically the same job?" he asked. "It's going to be expensive, and once you get it started, it goes on forever."