We all understand that Morton Grove is hurting for income. Between the loss of Lohmanns and Dominicks sales tax numbers are down while overtime and pension outlays are up. Needless to say, something needs to be done.
One way is to increase fines and fees, which leads me to a personal story.
In late December I rented a UHall truck to take a load of furniture down to what will soon be my new home in Missouri. If you will remember, the weather at that time was rainy and miserable, so to make loading the truck a bit easier, and to keep the furniture somewhat dry, we parked it "the wrong way" at the curb. After loading the truck, we were beat and tired, so we left the truck parked that way until morning.
Come morning, when we were ready to leave, we discovered that one of Morton Grove's finest had left us with a bit of a going away present... a parking citation with a $30 cost.
O.K. Overzealous perhaps, picky perhaps, but we had violated the ordinance, so upon our arrival back in Morton Grove in early January, (1-4-14), I wrote the check and paid the ticket.
Today I was informed by UHall that they had charged my credit card for $45, (the cost of the ticket & a late charge). It turns out that the Village sent out a past-due notice on 1-2-14, (a scant 2 weeks after the citation was written).
In checking with the village, I was informed that it was police department procedure to send out late notices after two weeks. REALLY? TWO WEEKS? Even the most hardened juice loan mob guy gives you a month to pay the vigorish!
This smells an awful lot like double dipping and resident abuse, (maybe they figured since it was a moving van that it was an easy way to make a buck from someone not coming back to town.)
A great place to raise a family? Indeed!
