Elgin Sustainability Commission September 2024 Meeting: The Mystery Surrounding A Former Commissioner

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The Elgin Sustainability Commission met on Tuesday, September 10th at the Edward Schock Centre in downtown Elgin.
   
Tia and Erik unpack the run-of-the-mill agenda items. It did not seem as if there was very many new topics being discussed this month.

Until . . .

Tia and Erik accidentally stumbled upon the agenda topic of the East Side Neighborhood Garden workday. It was during this discussion, they discovered a potential city hall cover-up. (Or maybe it was just city hall incompetence, which seems to always be the answer)

Is your curiosity piqued? Good . . . more on this in moment. First, let's run through a list of issues discussed on this episode:

• Elgin's Climate Action Plan (CAP) process
• Resignation of a commissioner
• The city's new "bronze status" as part of the EV Ready program
• City council's decision to enter into negotiations with a new waster hauler
• Videography project focusing on documenting CAP project and other miscellaneous sustainability topics
• East Side Neighborhood Garden project, community work project, and recognition of organizations and businesses that made it all possible
• Commission's recommendation to city council to remove the Kimball Street dam of the Fox River
• Commission priorities and budget process for the upcoming fiscal year 2025

It is possible that Tia and Erik might be listening to too many crime drama podcasts. However, they ended up revisiting an old discussion topic from last season -- the fate of former commissioner Chris Flaherty. 

Tia and Erik stumbled into this conversation because of the resignation of commissioner Katie Gronke and the discussion about the East Side Neighborhood Garden workday, which is where Flaherty's name came up a few times. 

And like TV character Adrian Monk, Tia and Erik pondered lots of questions and even tried to unpack some of the evidence -- both for and against -- behind the reasons Flaherty is no long on the Elgin Sustainability Commission.

• What happened to former commissioner Chris Flaherty? 
• Did he get screwed? 
• Who had it in for him? 
• Was the law broken?
• Now that there is a vacancy again on the commission, will city council members do the right thing and ask him to serve again?
• Will this deep-dive topic inspire the commission to put more relevant and interesting items on future agendas in an effort to keep Tia and Erik focused on important local sustainability issues?

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