Statewide Update—Jan. 26, 2011

• Peoria Journal Star—Agency Director: I was told to get rid of Republicans; Court testimony comes in lawsuit filed by 16 former IDOT workers, “The former director of the state Historic Preservation Agency testified Tuesday that representatives of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich told him in 2003 to “get rid of Republicans” in his agency.”

• Daily Herald—DuPage hires remap consultant, spikes confidentiality clause, “Schirott, Luetkehans and Garner, P.C. will be paid up to $125,000 to serve as a consultant to the county board committee charged with configuring the future legislative map.  However, the firm won’t need to comply with a confidentiality clause that had DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin raising concerns about lack of transparency.”

• Southtown Star—Quinn signs Medicaid reform into law, “Gov. Pat Quinn signed major reforms to Medicaid into Illinois law Tuesday, calling it a “landmark achievement” as he was flanked by a bipartisan group of state lawmakers who said the changes aim to reduce costs, pay bills sooner and target fraud.”

• (AP) State Journal-Register—Illinois Supreme Court will hear Rahm Emanuel appeal, “About the only thing abundantly clear after a chaotic and unprecedented day at the Chicago Board of Elections: Voters only get to vote once, even if their ballots are wrong.”

• The Southern—Overdue bills still an issue for Illinois, “The state’s stack of unpaid bills will soon double despite an income tax increase, according to state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.”

• Trib Local (Arlington Heights)—Taxpayers organize to influence politics, “Fed up with rising tax bills, residents have organized a watchdog group to  try and influence local politics and keep taxes down.”

• (AP) Peoria Journal Star—SEC reviewing Illinois pension predictions, “The Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing the Illinois pension systems and state officials’ statements about how much future savings the state will get from reforms enacted last spring, Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration said Tuesday.”

• Rockford Register Star—Sheffields savings ideas: Close 8 Rockford schools, reduce staff, “Eight schools will close, gifted and several other programs will relocate to other schools, and kindergarten will shrink to a half-day program if the Rockford School Board adopts cost-cutting recommendations from Superintendent LaVonne Sheffield.”

Statewide Update—Jan. 19, 2011

• Chicago Sun-Times—Preckwinkle warns: Cut Cook County budget—or I will, “Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle issued a warning Tuesday to Sheriff Tom Dart and State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez — and anyone else balking at the looming budget cuts: help her swing the budget ax, or she’ll propose the cuts herself.”

• Daily Herald—RTA awaits word on end of free rides for seniors, “The Regional Transportation Authority has had no word on whether Gov. Pat Quinn will sign a bill to limit free rides for senior citizens, but nevertheless is trying to calculate the revenue boost the agency would get if it does become law.”

• State Journal-Register—Private managers to take over Illinois Lottery in July, state says,  “The state has rejected two protests over the awarding of a private management contract for the Illinois Lottery, opening the way for the new manager to take control of the lottery this summer.”

• Bloomington Pantagraph—Nuckolls getting paid for being in county board while in jail, “Nuckolls has not attended a county board meeting since his September arrest and has been stripped of his committee assignments. He continues to receive his board salary of $4,460 a year.”

• Daily Herald—Des Plaines may update water meters, resulting in rate hike, “Des Plaines residents may see a rise in water rates starting next year if officials decide to eventually replace the city’s roughly 13,000 analog water meters with a new digital automated meter reading system.”

• Southtown Star—Kaupas names cousin deputy police chief, “Kaupas, who is the second cousin of Sheriff Paul Kaupas, was hired as the spokesman in December at a salary of $75,000. He said he will perform the duties of both positions, replacing two people who retired, at a net savings to the sheriff’s department.”

• Daily Herald—Pension reform tops Naperville’s state agenda, “For the second consecutive year, pension reform tops the list of fights the city wants its legislative leaders to tackle.”

Treasurer Pappas’ Budget Woes Signal More Trouble Ahead for Cook County

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas argues that ongoing security threats to her and her office require she have a full-time security detail. Given that ensuring the safety of our elected officials is a cost taxpayers are willing to bear, that’s a need many may see as legitimate.

The problem is that, in this case, taxpayers don’t see the security costs at all, according to a Better Government Association/CBS 2 investigation that revealed problems with Pappas’ hiring and budgeting practices.

Nothing in the Cook County budget indicates that Treasurer Pappas has a security detail. The so-called security person listed on Treasurer Pappas’ budget is defined as a “Project Leader”, and his job description indicates he deals with the development and implementation of highly sophisticated computer software applications.

In reality, his actual duties consist of driving the Treasurer to yoga practice, picking up her dry-cleaning, and dropping her off at work—all at a rate of $94,078 per year courtesy of Cook County taxpayers.

More troubling, when asked what qualifies this worker as “security”, Pappas responds that he speaks to her in Greek when things look sketchy. While being bilingual is an admirable skill, it takes much more than that to be a trained bodyguard.

And what does Treasurer Pappas say to explain the discrepancy between her so-called security person’s job title and job duties? She argues job titles are improperly labeled across the Cook County personnel roles, implying that since everyone else is doing it, it must be OK for her to do it too.

The decision to engage government waste and mismanagement is indefensible, especially with faulty logic like that to back it up.

Undeterred, Pappas proves her point of widespread personnel record discrepancies by pointing to another position in her office—that of an administrative assistant charged with evaluating and analyzing operational systems—who is actually tasked with cleaning Pappas’ office for $54,000 a year. Pappas argues that she doesn’t trust the janitorial staff provided by the Cook County Sherriff’s office.

It may well be that the Treasurer needs a 24/7 security detail. And maybe she correctly determined she could not trust the janitors assigned to her. But it was also determined through the budgeting process that the county needed a project leader and an administrative assistant—that’s what the $94,078 Pappas’ driver makes and the $54,000 her cleaning lady brings home was budgeted for.

Upon learning of the BGA’s findings, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced that she will be taking steps to ensure county departments are accurately listing their employees and the corresponding job titles and duties.

Preckwinkle’s decision to audit county jobs to fix discrepancies between job titles and job duties is right on target. If a security detail is important enough to the Treasurer that she thinks taxpayers should fund it, it’s important enough for taxpayers to know about it. When money goes to pay someone hidden on the books, taxpayers are being lied to, and are getting cheated out of the services that money was supposed to pay for.

The Office of the Independent Inspector General (OIIG) may also have a role in ending this practice. The OIIG is charged with detecting, deterring and preventing misconduct in the operation of Cook County, and they have full use of numerous criminal and civil remedies at their disposal.

OIIG should launch investigations and bring those who have chosen to hide and misuse county money to justice. Hiding chauffeurs and cleaning ladies in the books seems to be a fairly clear-cut example of that.

Another concern being raised is whether Pappas’ security person and cleaning lady were hired legally.

The Shakman Decree requires that all non-exempt county workers be hired based on objective criteria. Those criteria should relate to the publicly posted job title, and should lead, after the interview process, to a list of ranked candidates.

These safeguards were put in place to ensure the county does not allow unlawful political considerations to influence the hiring process. But in this case, without a real job title or description, it’s hard to imagine a legitimate application or interview process occurred with either of the positions in question.

If this is a countywide practice, as Pappas indicated, the Shakman compliance officer and the Office of the Inspector General should follow Preckwinkle’s lead by investigating these cases.

Taxpayers have a right to know how their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent.

So when it comes to the budget, what we see is what we should get.

Statewide Update—Jan. 13, 2011

• Southtown Star—Will lawmakers pay for tax hike? No way. “Voting in favor of the state’s largest income tax increase won’t make outgoing state Rep. Mike Carberry popular on his Oak Lawn block. But the vote was needed, he and other Southland Democrats said Wednesday, to avoid state insolvency.”

• Bloomington Pantagraph—Central Illinois debates income tax increases, “It was a debate taking place across Central Illinois on Wednesday after the General Assembly worked into the early morning to send Gov. Pat Quinn a controversial tax increase bill.”

• (AP) State Journal-Register—Cook County medical examiner double-bunked bodies, “The head of the Cook County medical examiner’s office says it was forced to store bodies two to a cooler tray for a short time.”

• State Journal-Register—Quinn: Will ‘follow my conscience’ on death penalty abolition, “Gov. Pat Quinn won’t say whether he will sign legislation abolishing the death penalty, but even if he does, it won’t empty death row, as then-Gov. George Ryan did before he left office in 2003.”

• Peoria Journal Star—Trial starts in IDOT suit; former state workers say they were laid off because of politics, “The trial got under way Wednesday in the federal lawsuit filed by 16 former state workers who claim they were sacked seven years ago because they were Republicans.”

• Daily Herald—West Chicago, Warrenville chambers merge, “The two chambers merged, effective Jan. 1, into the Western DuPage Chamber of Commerce. The new chamber will serve more than 400 members in the two communities.”

Statewide Update—Jan. 7, 2011

• (AP) State Journal-Register—Public using stronger open government laws, “Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Thursday that the state’s 2009 overhaul of its Freedom of Information and Open Meetings laws brought long-overdue transparency to Illinois government.”

• Bloomington Pantagraph—On 2^nd try, state House votes to abolish death penalty, “Illinois has not enforced the death penalty since then-Gov. George Ryan imposed a moratorium in 2000 after more than a dozen men on death row were exonerated. Just before leaving office in 2003, Ryan commuted the death sentences of 167 inmates to life in prison and pardoned four others.”

• Daily Herald—Kane finance committee to explore ethics of seeking financial advice, “The Kane County Board may have a new panel of financial experts chiming in with advice in 2011 as it tries to avoid another year of deficit spending.”

• State Journal-Register—Dems push income, cig tax increases, property tax break, “The plan calls for borrowing $8.75 billion to pay off old bills. And to prevent the state from sinking into a financial abyss again, lawmakers will be asked to approve bills limiting spending increases and imposing a prohibition on new programs for the next three years.”

• Southtown Star—Daley rips admission fee for Taste of Chicago, “During that the Taste of Chicago will ‘always be free,’ Mayor Richard Daley said Thursday he would oppose a lone bidder’s proposal to charge a $20 admission fee to the lakefront festival.”

• Daily Herald—DuPage seniors can defer property taxes, “A DuPage County program allows qualified seniors, 65 and older, to defer their property taxes until they sell their home.”

• State Journal-Register, Editorial—Clout carries the day vs. Tenaska, “As things stand now, it appears that the Tenaska clean coal power plant proposed for Taylorville is dead.”

Statewide Update—Jan. 6, 2011

• Chicago Sun-Times—Better Government Association sues Chicago Police Department, “The BGA, a not-for-profit corporation, claims the Chicago police refuses to release documents about the protection and transportation of Burke (14th) as requested in an Aug. 24, 2010, Freedom of Information Act request, according to the complaint filed in Cook County Circuit Court.”

• State Journal-Register—2 percentage point income tax hike on table for state leaders, “Legislative leaders and Gov. Pat Quinn will meet today to discuss boosting Illinois’ income tax rate from the current 3 percent to 5 percent as part of a package that also could include pension borrowing, a moratorium on new state programs, no new spending and property tax relief.”

• Bloomington Pantagraph—Illinois Senate approves Medicaid reform, “With the clock ticking on the lame-duck legislative session, the Illinois Senate unanimously approved a plan Wednesday to overhaul the state’s Medicaid program.”

• State Journal-Register—Tenaska bill falls short in Senate, “A bill authorizing construction of a $3.5 billion clean coal technology plant in Taylorville failed in a vote in the Illinois Senate Wednesday.”

• Belleville News Democrat—Insurance fraud investigators begin probe into workers’ comp claims at Menard, “State insurance fraud investigators have opened an official probe of the Menard Correctional Center, where hundreds of guards and others have filed for or received taxpayer-funded settlements for “repetitive trauma” they say was mainly caused by operating heavy cell locking mechanisms.”

• Southtown Star—U.S. House welcomes five from Illinois, “The Illinois congressional delegation has the biggest freshman class in more than a decade — five new House members and U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk were sworn in to full terms on Wednesday, all Republicans.”

• Daily Herald, Editorial—Kane County ethics laws, for the most part, require a do-over, “An opinion on the county’s ethics law from former State’s Attorney John Barsanti before he left office to become a circuit judge Dec. 1 deems several sections of the law unclear, not applicable and unenforceable.”

• Southtown Star, Editorial—Unfair election process taints suburban hearings, “Whenever suburban elections approach, dozens of poor slobs find themselves caught up in a process designed to stop outsiders from threatening the people in power.”

• Chicago Tribune, Editorial: Reform—or eyewash? “Springfield is buzzing with reform talk in the final frantic days of this brief, few-days conclusion to a 2010 legislative session.”

Statewide Update—Dec. 30, 2010

• Daily Herald—Glen Ellyn park director gets retirement pay bump: “Glen Ellyn Park District’s executive director will retire five days before the close of a one-year window that allows him to collect on an early retirement package he helped create.”

• Southtown Star—Muslim family sues Cook County: “The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) filed two complaints in Cook County Circuit Court on Wednesday, claiming employees at a park district pool discriminated against a Muslim family from Lyons based on their attire.”

• The News Gazette—Plan approved for 105^th district, including legislator for one day: “Residents of the 105th District are going to need a scorecard – and a calendar – to know who their state representative is in the coming days.”

• Bloomington Pantagraph—No applicants yet for Bloomington council seat: “So far the city of Bloomington has not received any applications for the Ward 3 alderman seat on the City Council.”

• Trib Local (Des Plaines)—City seeks energy upgrades: “Des Plaines is looking for energy-efficient upgrades on various buildings that would save money and reduce its carbon footprint.”

Statewide Update—Dec. 22, 2010

• Chicago Sun-Times—Cook County watchdogs warn: Don’t hire relatives: “Weeks after Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios drew criticism for putting his son and sister on the payroll, a report was sent out by two county watchdogs reminding of ethics rules against hiring kin.”

• (AP) Southtown Star—Judge upholds Ryan conviction: “The appeals court could grant Ryan bail as he awaits their decision, but Thompson noted every decision has gone against Ryan so far.”

• Peoria Journal Star—Census numbers show more poverty, less income: “Our kids are poorer. And all this is despite the fact more of us are getting a college education.”
  

• (AP) Bloomington Pantagraph—Census: Illinois loses 1 congressional seat: “While no one knows yet what the state’s congressional districts will look like, Illinois will definitely lose one U.S. House seat before the 2012 election.”

• Bloomington Pantagraph—Budget for new political map: $3.4 million: “From special ‘war rooms’ to sophisticated mapmaking software, costs for the once-per-decade exercise will be split among the state’s four legislative leaders.”

• Peoria Journal Star—Son joins father on East Peoria ballot: “‘Yes, my dad is the mayor and I think he’s done a good job, but I am my own person,’ Mingus said.”

• Southtown Star—Tax levy inches up in District 230: “An average owner of a single-family residence living within Consolidated High School District 230 can expect to pay about $12 more in property taxes next year.”