A judge injected some much-needed sanity today into the Kafkaesque case of Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey..
A Sangamon County judge on Wednesday halted an administrative hearing on whether two fired state employees should get their jobs back.
Circuit Judge Patrick Kelley suspended a Civil Service Commission hearing in the 14-month-old case of Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey, scheduled to continue Friday. Kelley said he wants to study whether the commission lost authority over the matter by not deciding the pair’s fate quickly enough. […]
Draper argued his clients should return to work with back pay because the commission violated state law requiring a decision within 60 days of the end of their hearing before the administrative law judge. That deadline was Monday, Draper said.
A lawyer representing Blagojevich said commission rules allow it to keep a case open until it makes a ‘‘final decision.'’ ‘‘It just can’t let the case sit,'’ Matthew Bilinsky said.
Kelley said the law clearly requires a decision within 60 days, and the administrative rule allowing a case to remain open until a final decision is made should have been written to align with the statute.
The finding and decision of the Commission, or the approval by the Commission of the finding and decision of the officer or board appointed by it to conduct such investigation, shall be rendered within 60 days after the receipt of the transcript of the proceedings. If the finding and decision is not rendered within 60 days after receipt of the transcript of the proceedings, the employee shall be considered to be reinstated and shall receive full compensation for the period for which he was suspended.
As Judge Kelley noted, administrative rules do not override state laws.
The law is in place to prevent the Illinois Civil Service Commission from doing exactly what it was trying to do with the DeFraties/Casey case - keep it going indefinitely, possibly because the Blagojevich family babysitter and her cohorts on the commission wanted to force a different outcome.
The commission had 60 days. They blew the deadline. DeFraties and Casey should be immediately reinstated with full compensation.
*** I couldn’t figure out why nobody had commented on this post. Then someone called shortly after one o’clock asking why I hadn’t posted one of the stories listed here. Turns out, I accidentally hit the “private” button when I published the post, so only I could see it. Oops. I’ve bumped it to the top for discussion purposes. Sorry about that, campers. ***
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* As I told Capitol Fax subscribers this morning, this was the hottest topic of discussion at the Statehouse yesterday…
Senate President Emil Jones took a whack Tuesday at a state senator tight with House Speaker Michael Madigan in apparent retaliation for opposing Gov. Blagojevich’s playbook on gambling, health care and a big tax on businesses.
Jones (D-Chicago) told Sen. Louis Viverito, an assistant majority leader, he was not “welcome” in a closed-door Senate Democratic leadership meeting. The unprecedented move sent reverberations through the Statehouse, where feuding Democrats have been unable to pass a state budget or provide utility rate relief.
Stuff like that doesn’t usually make it into the mainstream press. When three of the four Senate Latinos revolted earlier this year, it barely rated a mention. So, why was Viverito dumped? Here’s part of the reason…
Viverito (D-Burbank) voted against the Senate president and Blagojevich on a major gambling expansion bill, on the governor’s cherished-but-floundering universal health care plan and the governor’s failed $7.6 billion gross receipts tax on businesses. […]
Also Tuesday, Viverito was replaced on the Senate Rules Committee, a key legislative panel controlled by Jones that determines what gets voted on and what dies.
Viverito is Madigan’s Senator, and there’s much more to the back story, but you’ll have to subscribe to find out what that is. “Democratic disarray” has become a hot topic ever since the session flopped into overtime. So, we may see more stories like that one.
* The Sun-Times story above has a little more of what it’s like to be a member of Jones’ caucus and so does the Tribune’s blog. Yesterday, Sen. Todd Sieben presented Sen. Mike Jacobs with some boxing gloves on the Senate floor, in honor of Jacobs’ feud with Gov. Blagojevich…
Sen. Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago) tried on the boxing gloves and started throwing a few playful punches toward Jacobs. Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) sternly called her name from a few desks away. When they locked eyes, Jones shook his head “no.” Hunter then put the gloves down.
* Meanwhile, the overtime session’s first leadership negotiations began with a whole lot of posturing, with Emil Jones blaming Mike Madigan for the overtime session, Madigan saying that Jones ought to pass the House-approved budget, which Jones derided as inadequate, the Republicans blaming Democrats for having to be in town in the first place, and Gov. Blagojevich demanding that legislators work five days a week until the deal is cut. Here are a few tastes of the day’s activities…
Republican legislative leaders joined state budget talks for the first time Tuesday, but the results were the same as when the Democrats kept the party to themselves.
The roughly 90-minute meeting produced a lot of talk and little in the way of a solution to the impasse that has sent the General Assembly into overtime for the second time since 2004.
“I’d say we’re far apart. There was listening but there was also a lot of posturing,” said House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego. […]
“Everyone in America works five days a week and is expected to put in full-time work in order to complete their jobs,” said Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff. She would not answer any questions.
Jones said the Senate would meet at least five days a week, and he said lawmakers failed to adjourn on time “because of lack of concern in the House basically.”
Madigan argued that rate relief for consumers hit by skyrocketing electric rates would open the door for budget action. Jones has been reluctant to approve rate relief that would apply to customers of both Ameren and ComEd.
In the state’s latest finger-pointing battle, more than 40 newly empowered Republicans took Gov. Rod Blagojevich to task Tuesday for his spotty Springfield presence. They supported a resolution that asks him to remain in Springfield while lawmakers finish state business.
We briefly touched on this topic yesterday, and Carol Marin made it the subject of today’s column…
Is Barack Obama out of the loop when it comes to his home state of Illinois?
That was the question posed Monday by my NBC5 colleague, political reporter Mary Ann Ahern, after trying hard to get the senator’s views on a variety of newsy topics in Chicago. Obama, who showed up at Monday’s Operation PUSH convention, stopped for a very brief Q-and-A with waiting reporters. Getting Obama to set aside time to talk to the local press back home has been nothing short of a major challenge for many months now.
What about the state budget funding crisis and casinos? asked Ahern.
‘’I haven’t been following the negotiations closely enough to know what’s taking place,'’ Obama said.
How has his political mentor, Senate President Emil Jones, the recipient of major ComEd campaign cash, handled the utility rate freeze issue?
‘’I apologize, guys, but I really have not followed closely what’s been happening in Springfield, I had a little bit of other stuff to do,'’ the senator said with a smile.
As Marin points out, Sen. Durbin seems well-versed in recent Statehouse happenings, while Obama feigns cluelessness.
Question: Should Obama be expected to answer questions like this about what’s happening in the capital of his own state, or should he be excused because he’s running for president? Explain.
I can sympathize with CTA/RTA riders who are upset at the proposed fare incresaes and service cuts…
CTA riders expressed anger and frustration Tuesday night during a public hearing on Chicago’s South Side about possible fare increases and service cuts that officials said they might need to eliminate a $110 million deficit.
The proposed changes, which CTA officials said would go into effect if the agency does not get more money from the state, include boosting fares to as much as $3.25 on trains during peak travel hours and suspending service on 63 bus routes and on the Yellow and Purple Line/Evanston Express rail lines.
But, really, there just isn’t enough money to magically bail out the CTA right now. Personally, I’d rather the state try to save most of the lines that are on the chopping block and allow the fare hikes to go ahead. Chicagoans who use the routes ought to help bail out the system.
And passing the buck to Springfield for a situation largely of the CTA’s own making probably won’t endear CTA President Ron Huberman with lawmakers….
CTA President Ron Huberman, who took office May 1, opened the hearing by saying that he hopes state lawmakers come through with extra funding so the changes won’t have to be made.
“We don’t want to raise fares by a penny,” he told the group. “We don’t want to cut one single bus route.”
Yeah, well, too bad. The pension system is a freaking mess and they’ve dumped way too much money into glitzy renovations instead of shoring up the tracks. Chicago created this disaster, it’s up to Chicago to help solve it.
Chicago and suburban legislators are desperate to find money to help ease the pain and I certainly can’t fault them for that. They’re also upset that the governor hasn’t made the CTA/RTA issue a priority. They’re getting angry calls from their constituents (last weekend was reportedly pretty intense for many) and they’re starting to get worried.
The Chicago region needs a solid transportation network and public transport is vital to the area. The state should take a role. But if legislators want action, then they need to get a whole lot more vocal than they have been.
A campaign volunteer for 35th Ward aldermanic candidate Vilma Colom was arrested Tuesday for allegedly phoning a bomb threat to Colom’s campaign headquarters in March. […]
Authorities said that in a call to Colom’s cell phone, Wood claimed a bomb had been left in Colom’s campaign office. After a search of the office turned up no bomb, police reviewed Colom’s telephone records and discovered that the threatening call came from Wood’s phone, a source said.
According to law enforcement sources, a few weeks before that runoff, Wood [the pastor of the Fourth Congregational Church of Chicago] dined with Colom and two others at a Mexican restaurant on Lincoln Avenue. At one point during the meal, Wood allegedly called Colom’s cell phone from his cell phone and told her a bomb had been planted at her Diversey Avenue campaign headquarters.
Colom called the police, who went to the campaign office but found no explosives, sources said. An investigation revealed the call had come from Wood’s phone.
[Emphasis added.]
What the heck? More from the CS-T…
One source said Wood might have placed the call to gain publicity for Colom’s campaign. It was not clear whether Colom knew Wood placed the call, but the source said the matter was “still under investigation.”
I can’t find any mention of the bomb threat in the local papers, so if they wanted publicity they didn’t get it. Calling in a bomb threat, or even bombing your own office, is one of the oldest political tricks in the book, and some of the people who worked on Colom’s campaign are tricksters from way back (she was supported by Ald. Dick Mell’s organization).
It apparently didn’t take much for the coppers to trace the call to Wood, who has been an “outspoken advocate against violence in his neighborhood,” according to the Sun-Times.
What are your all-time favorite dirty tricks? One of the funniest I’ve ever heard of was when legendary trickster Dick Tuck hired a bunch of pregnant women to show up at Richard Nixon campaign events carrying signs that read: “Nixon’s the one.” More on Tuck here and here.
Major opponents of the measure — including the Illinois Municipal League (which represents most cities and suburbs) and Comcast (the largest cable provider in the state) — have withdrawn their opposition to the bill, sponsored by state Rep. Jim Brosnahan (D-Evergreen Park).
Over Stroger’s objection, commissioners sidelined a proposal to outsource janitorial services at Oak Forest Hospital and lay off 96 workers. The plan is slated to save $1.5 million annually.
* 1:34pm - The leaders meeting had been scheduled for 2 pm. Check back later for updates and audio.
* The Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association just released this joint statement which more than just implies their continued support of an income tax hike…
…There are proposals before the legislature, including those that increase the income tax. We believe that the General Assembly should consider any proposal on its merits, regardless of the political promises of any one elected official. Lawmakers need to find the courage to step up and vote for a proposal that truly provides education funding reform. The General Assembly has the power to make this happen.
When the new legislature was sworn in on January 10, 2007, Senate President Emil Jones said “We should be the leaders in doing the right thing. We must bring about real change to the outrageous, inequitable system that funds our schools.” On that same day House Speaker Michael Madigan spoke about making tough choices. More recently he said, Before we finish our budget in May or June, Illinois is going to see a tax increase.
Political infighting is not an excuse to ignore the school funding needs in Illinois. The time for change is now.
Tony Rezko appeared in federal court Tuesday morning on new criminal charges related to the Blagojevich administration. Rezko, a friend of the governor, is charged with three counts of wire fraud. His co-defendant, Ali Ata, is the former executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority. Ata, who was appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to his six-figure position, is charged with aiding and abetting.
This doesn’t start out as Illinois-related, but we’ll get there in a moment…
Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), the target of a 14-month public corruption probe, was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from a Northern Virginia investor who was wearing an FBI wire, according to a search warrant affidavit…
A few days later, on Aug. 3, 2005, FBI agents raided Jefferson’s home in Northeast Washington and found $90,000 of the cash in the freezer, in $10,000 increments wrapped in aluminum foil and stuffed inside frozen-food containers, the document said.
The 83-page affidavit, used to raid Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office on Saturday night, portrays him as a money-hungry man who freely solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, discussed payoffs to African officials, had a history of involvement in numerous bribery schemes and used his family to hide his interest in high-tech business ventures he promoted in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria.
Through it all, much of the Congressional Black Caucus has stood by Jefferson and against the Democratic leadership. And yesterday, Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), a veteran caucus member, said it would be “as supportive of our colleague as possible, in terms of saying a person in America is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.”
The hugely trafficked Daily Kos blog, which is about as Democratic as one can get, has long been pushing for Jefferson’s ouster, and today Kos himself had this to say about Davis’ remarks…
Yes, in a court of law, there is a presumption of innocence. In Congress, our elected officials must be held to a higher standard. If Jefferson is acquitted of those charges, he can always run again and take back this seat. It’s clear his constituents have no problem voting for him even after finding out about his $90,000-stuffed freezer.
Kos does post this caveat from the above article…
Senior leadership aides cautioned that a quick resignation under pressure could set a dangerous precedent, suggesting that a politicized Justice Department could target troublesome lawmakers with specious indictments.
But then he mostly dismisses it…
(I)n this case, this wouldn’t be a “quick resignation” — this issue has festered for over a year — and the 16-count indictment is as solid a case as can ever be made for public corruption.
I’m curious what you think of Congressman Davis’ reaction. Should congressmen stick up for their fellows even when they’re busted with ninety large in the Frigidaire?
By the way, I’ve called Congressmen Rush and Jackson to see if they agree with Davis. I’ll let you know what they say if and or when they call back.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Congressman Jackson, who last year supported Nancy Pelosi’s bid to oust Jefferson from the Ways & Means Committee, just called. Here’s what he had to say…
“[There is a] presumption of innocence, and Rep. Jefferson is entitled to that presumption. That notwithstanding, these charges and allegations are serious and if proven have very real consequences for Mr. Jefferson and his life. Members of Congress and public officials should [hold] themselves to the highest possible ethical standard and that standard I believe is the ‘appearance of impropriety.’ The evidence that has been detailed in the indictment by the Justice Dept. suggests that the line for appearance [in this case] crossed that chasm a long time ago.”
[Should he resign?] “That’s a matter for Congressman Jefferson to decide. The question is, with these enormous charges confronting him how effective can he be as a member of Congress? The people of New Orleans who have been ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and at this hour are dispersed across many states in the union need a full-time representative who is not preoccupied with personal matters.”
[On the impact on Democrats and the institution of Congress] …”This is an embarrassment to the institution of Congress and the 434 other members of Congress who are trying to earn and maintain the trust of the American people. A bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.”
Propose your ideas for a billion dollars in state spending cuts. Be as specific as possible. And if you can’t come up with a billion dollars in total, real cuts, don’t bother posting.
Two fired Blagojevich administration employees filed a lawsuit Monday to get their jobs back.
The Illinois Civil Service Commission is already reviewing whether Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey should be rehired, but the two claim in Sangamon County court that the commission missed its deadline for deciding the case. […]
The claim contends that according to state law, the commission lost jurisdiction over the matter by failing to make a decision within two months after the end of a hearing on the terminations. That date was June 2.
Instead, the commission is seeking more evidence in the case, and an administrative law judge has set another hearing for Friday.
“If the finding and decision is not rendered within 60 days after receipt of the transcript of the proceedings, the employee shall be considered to be reinstated and shall receive full compensation for the period for which he was suspended,” the personnel code says.
The 60-day deadline passed on Saturday, Draper said in the suit filed Monday. […]
The case has dragged on for more than a year. The hearing before Dos Santos began Jan. 29 and lasted until March 23, when the state rested its case.
This entire case has been a sham from the get-go. DeFraties was deliberately made a scapegoat by the governor’s campaign last year. They used her as an “example” of the corruption that they supposedly unearthed while they were diligently presiding over an honest government.
Doug Finke was absolutely right when he referred to this case as “Kafkaesque.” Everything, from the initial allegations, to the neverending hearings, to the campaign scapegoating by an allegedly corrupt administration, to the blatant misuse of their case by a supposedly fair and impartial Inspector General on the state employee ethics exam, to the appointment of the governor’s babysitter to the Civil Service Commission has screamed Kafkaesque…
[Kafkaesque] can also describe an intentional distortion of reality by powerful but anonymous bureaucrats. “Lack of evidence is treated as a pesky inconvenience, to be circumvented by such Kafkaesque means as depositing unproven allegations into sealed files …” Another definition would be an existentialist state of ever-elusive freedom while existing under unmitigatable control.
It’s time to end this disgusting nightmare once and for all.
* Newspaper blogs are often used as dumping grounds for quotes and items that don’t make it into the print version. I tend to enjoy those online items more than the resulting stories. Here’s one from the Trib’s blog quoting the governor’s spokesperson about his demand that legislators meet five days a week during June. The grilling is exquisite…
Rebecca Rausch, the governor’s spokeswoman, said Blagojevich spent the weekend in “countless meetings” about the budget in Chicago and was in Chicago again Monday. She brushed aside questions about why Blagojevich was not at Monday’s announcement, saying, “Well, he’s working. He’s got a lot of things he’s got to do. He is governor.”
When pressed on whether the governor would be in Springfield five days a week during the budget crisis, Rausch said: “Again, I can’t speak to the governor’s whereabouts for the next 30 days.”
Asked whether the governor would call a special session to keep lawmakers in Springfield until a budget is worked out, Rausch said: “I think all options are on the table. But, you know, lawmakers come back to town tomorrow. So we’ll just see how it goes.”
* None of those priceless quotes made it into the Trib’s dead tree version, which focused instead on the Republicans’ newfound Statehouse influence…
House Republican leader Tom Cross will enter budget negotiations Tuesday facing Democrats who didn’t want him in the room, and he will carry the agenda of a party that has been entirely shut out of the last two state spending plans. […]
The GOP wish list that Cross carries is most heavily focused on what Republicans don’t want. His top concerns are blocking tax hike proposals and resisting expensive new programs like Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s health-care initiative.
* The Daily Herald went with an AP version of yesterday’s Blagojevich staff announcement for their newsprint edititioned, but managed to get this tasty little tidbit into their bloggy type thing late yesterday…
Obama, until the end of 2004 a state senator, was asked about the overtime session in Springfield, where his party controls the House, Senate and governor’s mansion yet still couldn’t get a budget passed on time. And Obama was asked about his political patron, Senate President Emil Jones, and how he handled ComEd electric rate hike relief. Here’s Obama’s response to the latter question:
“I apologize, guys, but I really have not followed closely what’s been happening in Springfield. I’ve had a little bit of other stuff to do,” Obama said.
* So, how did spokeshumans for the Democratic legislative leaders react to the governor’s announcement? Not exactly positive…
House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, didn’t commit to attending the governor’s proposed meetings. His spokesman, Steve Brown, said last week’s confrontation between Blagojevich and Sen. Mike Jacobs would make it more difficult to resolve the budget impasse.
“The conduct of the administration has kind of a chilling effect on people sitting down for talks, obviously,” Brown said.
Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, had no comment on the governor’s proposed meetings, a spokeswoman said.
* And Zorn makes some good points about the Jacobs-Blagojevich blow-up in today’s column, entitled “Who’s afraid of governor? Well, no one,” including this one…
The headline here is not that Blagojevich got frustrated in the wake of last week’s legislative impasses and cartoonishly lost his cool in private — if, indeed, he did.
It’s that Jacobs feels so comfortable in relating his tale to the world and in taunting his party’s top elected official with raw, deeply personal insults.
It’s that Blagojevich is so enfeebled he can’t rise even to this challenge.
I had Paul post this in Morning Shorts today, but it immediately received several comments so I figured it deserved its own thread. Ladies and gentlemen, Revenge of the Blago…
“What you saw here was an attempt to cover up a pile of manure with some flowers,” said the Republican from Mattoon. “It looks OK from a distance, but when you get close to it, it really stinks.”
A key provision of the bill is the doubling of financial penalties for doctors or clinics that violate patients’ rights, said David Munar, associate director of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. Breaches such as unauthorized disclosure of a person’s HIV status or testing without consent would carry a fine of up to $10,000.
