EAST PEORIA, Ill. — The City of East Peoria is projecting, due to lost revenue, a shortfall of $5.4 million for fiscal year 2020.
This was announced among changes to the budget to combat the shortfall at Tuesday night’s East Peoria City Council meeting.
East Peoria City Mayor John Kahl announced that among the changes will be lay-offs in the police staff.
“We have two positions that weren’t filled — a total of four that will be laid off indefinitely,” said Kahl. “My hope was to gain some concessions from the police union. I was informed that will not take place.”
Three of the layoffs were newly-elected officers at an academy that was cancelling among the COVID-19 pandemic. Since they did not graduate, they were not considered to be manpower, according to Kahl.
The two positions that are not being filled have been vacated due to one retiree and one officer moving to Pekin.
Mayor Kahl and other commissioners on the board also expressed their hope to reopen downstate Illinois to some extent in the near future.
“We had the entire economy shut down like we’ve never seen it before,” said Kahl. “I think that we could reopen business through reduced occupancy with social distancing guidelines in place.”
Kahl also said that he reached out to Gov. J.B. Pritzker to discuss reopening, and he is still awaiting a return call to discuss the possibility.
“It comes to people having individual responsibilities to do the right thing,” said Kahl. “I’m hopeful to have that conversation, and we’ll keep everybody posted.”
Commissioners on the East Peoria City Council said that downstate Illinois does not have near the number of cases as the Chicago area, and they were hopeful that businesses could soon reopen with some restrictions.
