* 3:43 pm - Legislators and others have been grumbling about former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s executive order last August which barred the state from handing out contracts to contractors which contributed to legislative campaigns, and campaigns for those seeking statewide offices. The EO was roundly derided as unconstitutional, but nobody had the stones to challenge it in court. Here’s some background.
On Friday, without any notice that I’m aware of, Gov. Quinn issued Executive Order 9 which repealed the Blagojevich EO…
WHEREAS, the Illinois General Assembly passed HB 824 on May 31, 2008 and sent this bill to the former Governor for his signature on June 30, 2008; and
WHEREAS, HB 824 amended the Illinois Election Code to provide new requirements for business entities (and affiliated entities and persons) receiving or bidding for certain State contracts to register with the State Board of Elections and amended the Illinois Procurement Code to include limitations on the campaign contributions of such business (and affiliated entities and persons) to State officeholders responsible for awarding these contracts; and
WHEREAS, on August 25, 2008, the former Governor issued Executive Order Number 3 (2008), which addressed certain of the same subjects as HB 824, and then issued an amendatory veto of HB 824 one day later; and
WHEREAS, the General Assembly overrode this amendatory veto on September 22, 2008, thereby enacting HB 824 into law as Public Act 095-0971; and
WHEREAS, Public Act 095-0971 and Executive Order Number 3 each had an effective date of January 1, 2009; and
WHEREAS, since January 1, 2009, there has been uncertainty and confusion regarding the scope of Executive Order Number 3 and its relationship to Public Act 095-0971; and
WHEREAS, the Illinois Reform Commission has proposed a number of legislative changes addressing the subjects of campaign finance and procurement reform and is planning further initiatives; and
WHEREAS, the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Government Reform is similarly considering campaign finance and procurement reforms; and
WHEREAS, in light of these pending reform initiatives, the context in which Executive Order Number 3 was issued, and the uncertainty of its scope, it would be appropriate to rescind Executive Order Number 3 (2008):
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Pat Quinn, as Governor of the State of Illinois, do hereby order that Executive Order Number 3 (2008) be revoked and rescinded, effective as of this date of issuance.
A judge has ruled state officials can’t force pharmacists to dispense the so-called “morning-after” pill.
Two Illinois pharmacists won the temporary restraining order in Sangamon County Circuit Court on Friday.
They claim a 2005 order from former Gov. Rod Blagojevich that they must dispense such pills violates state law prohibiting enforcement of health care decisions over religious objections.
* I was in such a hurry to get out the door this morning that I didn’t notice the password was different in the e-mail and fax versions.
Oops.
I’ve decided to use the faxed version of the password. The word should be used in its singular form, not plural. So, just take off the “S” at the end of the word.
* The SJ-R creates a straw man and then breathlessly sets it ablaze…
“Rod Blagojevich was such a freak of nature,” the argument goes, “that no law would have impeded his crazed pursuit of money and power.”
Therefore, the argument continues, Illinois doesn’t need limits on campaign contributions or new laws on who can and can’t donate to political campaigns. After all, we’re not going to see another Rod Blagojevich in office, right?
How about if we just argue the issue of campaign finance reform on its own merits instead of tainting people with arguments like this? Sheesh.
I mean, it would be easy to write a snippy blog post about how perhaps members of a small group of well-known reformers want us to forget that they stood with and heaped praise upon Rod Blagojevich when he unveiled some reform ideas back in the day, despite very specific warnings from myself and others that they would live to regret it. Or, one could write about the various editorial boards which backed this or that Blagojevich reform without realizing - duh - that he was taking them all for a ride.
But, I won’t do that… not today, at least.
That said, it is imperative to recognize that Rod Blagojevich was an old school gangster, evidenced by his alleged 2002 plot to use the governor’s office to personally enrich himself. Notice how the above editorial makes no mention of that blockbuster revelation. New laws can’t prevent gangsters from doing what they do.
Blagojevich has certainly given us a road map to reform on many issues, and we should learn some valuable lessons from him. But as the old saying goes, locks are designed to keep honest people out of your house. The same goes for reforms.
My weekly syndicated newspaper column looks at some specific reform ideas, and I’ll run that tomorrow.
Promoting contribution limits under the guise of reform, Collins does so against the backdrop of Lisa Madigan sitting with $3.5 million in her campaign account, Dan Hynes with nearly $2 million, and Alexi Giannoulias with more than $1 million.
It is terribly convenient for Collins to propose shackling Republicans with contribution limits after his Democrat buddies have stockpiled cash under the current system.
Is it really necessary to impugn somebody’s integrity just because that person might be from the other party? The points about those three Democrats having a fundraising lead are valid, but there are plenty of Republicans pushing for contribution caps, so the conclusion just doesn’t fly. Collins’ arguments ought to rise or fall on their own merits without this sort of hyperbole.
* Carol Marin e-mailed the top state officials and asked “Do you personally support the Illinois Reform Commission’s limits on campaign contributions?” Here are their replies…
Gov. Quinn: Yes
State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias: Yes
Secretary of State Jesse White: Yes, support the idea.
Secretary of State [sic] Lisa Madigan: Yes, but as proposed in a different bill sponsored by Rep. Harry Osterman, which allows state party political committees to kick in $125,000 vs. Collins’ limit of $50,000.
State Comptroller Dan Hynes: Yes, but must be accompanied by other reforms so wealthy candidates don’t have an unfair edge.
Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno: Yes, but “$2400 cap is too low. $10,000 more realistic.”
House Speaker [sic] Tom Cross: Yes, but only with other reforms like moving the primary and banning lobbyist and labor union contributions.
Senate President John Cullerton: Not yet. “I believe contribution limits are inevitable” but have to deal with the “overwhelming influence of self-funders.”
House Speaker Mike Madigan: Not yet. “Limits could spur a growth in the number of self-financed, wealthy candidates. This harms the diversity of the legislature.”
* TIME Magazine has Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on its finalist list for the 100 most influential people of 2008. You can vote here…
PRO: Dart became a renters’ rights icon last fall when he announced that he would no longer evict tenants from foreclosed buildings. And he recently filed suit against Craigslist, claiming the website is a major source of prostitution.
CON: His jurisdiction is not exactly huge.
It may not be “exactly huge,” but we learned during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential race that the Cook County Sheriff oversees more employees than the Arkansas governor.
* The Tribune claims that Dart may be looking at running for state treasurer again in a story about Lisa Madigan…
So far, she’s been guarded when asked about issues in a potential governor’s race, such as Quinn’s push for an income-tax hike. On Friday, she told the Tribune’s editorial board: “Only as an absolute last resort in this economy can you add a tax onto working families.” But when asked whether the state could cut its way out of a projected deficit of up to $12.4 billion, Madigan said: “I don’t know at this point. I said cut and make significant reforms, and all of that has to be looked at.”
She also revealed a sense of exasperation when asked whether state workers should pay more toward their health insurance and pensions.
“I’m not in the middle of those negotiations,” she said. “Be fair. I’m not currently running for governor so even though most of you probably believe that I am, but I am not right now. I’m still your attorney general.”
That’s one very good reason for not declaring for governor until after the spring session concludes. As soon as you announce, you have to respond to every little thing the incumbent does. I’m not saying she’s running, by the way, I’m just saying.
* Gov. Blagojevich’s indictment last week was actually included in a superseding indictment of Bill Cellini. The Daily Herald explains what this means…
First, said DePaul law professor Len Cavise, it effectively steers the trial of Blagojevich to U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel, who was already assigned to the Cellini case. […]
But had prosecutors started fresh, the case would have been assigned to a judge at random, with possibly disastrous consequences. In Zagel, they have a known, stable quantity. If a guilty verdict is obtained, they can be fairly certain of prison time. Contrast that with the monster surprise prosecutors faced just last month when Judge Milton I. Shadur let former Chicago Alderman Edward Vrdolyak walk free even though he had pleaded guilty to his role in a crooked real estate deal.
Zagel, a Reagan appointee who has served almost 22 years on the federal bench, is widely respected but is seen by many attorneys as generally pro-government.
The second thing the maneuver does is make Cellini sit with Blagojevich while he defends himself. That’s something defense attorneys hate, particularly when there’s much less evidence against their client, or their client is much less well-known than another defendant. Both situations are true in Cellini’s case when compared to Blagojevich. […]
“The toxicity on him (Blagojevich) is going to spill over on anybody who has to sit next to him,” said an attorney involved in the case, who asked that he not be named. “The Cellini defense just got a whole lot worse.”
The move had another immediate impact: Terence Gillespie dropped out Friday as Blagojevich’s lead attorney because he once helped represent Cellini.
Clever. But is it fair to everyone involved?
* Related…
* The president of the Illinois Education Association is calling for the immediate resignation or removal of Jon Bauman, executive director of the scandal-plagued Teachers’ Retirement System.
* For months, the House Democrats have claimed that the House Republicans signed memoranda of understanding with Rod Blagojevich on the capital bill last year. The MOUs were reportedly promises to connect votes for the capital plan to support for the governor’s gaming expansion bill Lottery sale.
Turns out, the only people who signed MOUs were the Senate Republicans (as a group) and six House Democrats…
A handful of state lawmakers say they were looking out for their districts and nothing more when they signed agreements with then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich last year offering to support his $34 billion, gambling-financed construction spending plan if he committed to local projects.
Those projects never happened as the spending spree stalled, but documents recently turned over to the Daily Herald by now-Gov. Pat Quinn’s office offer a rare glimpse behind the scenes of last year’s contentious power struggles at the Capitol as Blagojevich sought to shore up votes and wary lawmakers pondered their moves.
“At some point you’re here to represent your district and however you can … excuse me for lack of a better term … take the bacon home, you do that. That’s the way the process was going at the time. That’s what I was doing. Trying to take things back to Rockford,” said Rockford Democratic state Rep. Chuck Jefferson. “Maybe it wasn’t as wise as what I thought it was, but, I mean, that’s the way it goes.”
Last July, as Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan waged an almost daily political battle over construction spending, Jefferson signed a memorandum of understanding with Blagojevich in which he agreed to the gambling and lottery plans and the governor agreed to include millions of dollars in Rockford-area road projects.
Jefferson was one of a half-dozen House Democrats to sign such memos with Blagojevich last year. The others were Waukegan state Rep. Eddie Washington, Quad-Cities area state Reps. Mike Boland and Patrick Vershoore, Homewood state Rep. Will Davis and Morris state Rep. Careen Gordon. Then-Senate GOP leader Frank Watson of downstate Greenville had previously signed similar memos on behalf of the Senate Republicans.
Rep. Gordon was a loud critic of Blagojevich, so that MOU is quite surprising.
…Adding… John Patterson expands at his story on his blog…
It had the spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan wondering if there’d been some “shredding.” Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesman, said House Republicans taunted Democrats last year over how much they were going to get in the $34 billion deal that Madigan was opposing. […]
House Republican leader Tom Cross said there never were any agreements, in large part because there never was any final agreement on the overall spending plan.
* Speaking of House Democrats, Gov. Quinn let loose on former Rep. Kurt Granberg’s pension bump over the weekend…
A “furious” Gov. Quinn wants to undo a $40,000-a-year pension windfall for a former lawmaker who qualified for the deal after serving only three weeks as Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s state parks director.
The State Employees Retirement System decided last month to grant a $113,305 annual pension to former Rep. Kurt Granberg (D-Carlyle), who served briefly as head of the Department of Natural Resources. […]
“I’m furious,” Quinn said. “For him now to seek a huge increase in his pension, I think, is an insult to the people of Illinois. “And I’d say to Mr. Granberg, ‘Have you no decency to take over a million dollars . . . in additional money from the people of Illinois?’ ” Quinn said.
Back in 1965, lobbyists were secretly recorded talking about which legislators were on the take. […]
In the ‘60s, embarrassed lawmakers responded to the scandal by making it illegal to secretly tape conversations without a court order, Bill O”Connell, a retired statehouse reporter for Peoria Journal Star, recalls.
Illinois is one of only 12 states where in most circumstances everyone participating in a conversation must consent to being recorded.
A gubernatorial commission created in the wake of the Blagojevich scandal has an idea for reform: allow secret recordings.
The logic is that once you can clandestinely record without a court order informants would crop up throughout government to better document corruption.
State employees could better document illegal orders from bosses and business executives could demonstrate when they are being shaken down by politicians. Lobbyists could again be recorded talking about who in the Legislature is on the take.
* The Question: Do you support this change in state law? Explain fully, please.
* The General Assembly is taking two weeks off, but we’ll be blogging and publishing most of that time. This morning, however, I need to get to the oral surgeon for a consult about having a wisdom tooth removed later this week [insert joke here].
I’ll be back as soon as I can. But blogging will be nonexistent until at least 10:45 am or so. Sorry about that. I’ll post a Question of the Day in a few minutes to whet your whistles, and I’ve opened comments on Saturday’s weekend update.
There’s a lot going on with much to be discussed, so just be patient and we’ll get around to it later this morning and through the afternoon.
Illinois’s rating on $19.4 billion of general obligation debt was cut by Moody’s Investors Service [Friday] in part because of “narrow operating fund liquidity,” Moody’s said in a press release.
In February, nearly 45,000 Winnebago County residents were receiving food stamp assistance. With Boone and Ogle counties added, 54,336 were receiving the assistance, for a total of $6.8 million paid in benefits.
Sun-Times Media Group Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection this week, may stop daily publication of some of its suburban newspapers as part of a push to return to profitability and boost the company’s appeal to a potential buyer.
“Everything is on the table, including frequency of publications,” CEO Jeremy Halbreich said in a Friday interview. “I’m hard-pressed to think of any other place with suburban dailies…It’s something we need to think about.”
Sun-Times is making other cost-cutting moves, including slashing compensation costs, which last year ran to about $100 million, by 15% through layoffs, pay cuts, benefit reductions and furloughs, including a five-day furlough required of all employees during the next two months.
A city contractor — Castle Construction Corp. of Markham — pulled a bait-and-switch on the construction of the firehouse, according to the lawsuit and other records. Castle promised city officials it would subcontract all of the masonry work on the job to a minority-owned company, for $1.5 million.
Instead, records show Castle hired a white-owned masonry company — for $550,000 less.
After investing more than $10 million in a program that has attracted only a few hundred students, University of Illinois trustees are considering whether to shut down the university’s 2-year-old online campus.
But the most expensive item on the city’s wish list is the West Loop Transportation Center. The multilevel station by itself would cost “only” $2 billion. But new transit lines running to and fro goose the tab: $3 billion for a new Clinton Street subway to run from the Red Line’s North/Clybourn station to Chinatown; $1 billion for below-grade busways, including “legs” underneath Monroe and Clinton Streets that meet at Union Station.
* 2016 Olympics: Chicago proposal would include restrictions on recreational use of lakefront
Plans for the proposed 2016 Olympic Village and lakefront sports venues would force cyclists, runners and walkers to divert from long stretches of the paths east of Lake Shore Drive during virtually all of July and August 2016.
“It’s definitely going to happen,” Rush spokeswoman Barbara Holt said. “Sometimes these things take years to come to fruition. In this case, there is going to be a happy ending.”
* Rod Blagojevich is apparently losing yet another attorney. Terry Gillespie is reportedly abandoning ship because of a conflict of interest. Gillespie also represents Bill Cellni, who was indicted with Blagojevich last week. Hence, the conflict. Gillespie’s law partner, Ed Genson, bailed out weeks ago.
* The Tribune claims that former Deputy Gov. Bob Greenlee is cooperating with the feds and Lon Monk may start cooperating, which is no big surprise. The Daily Herald has an “experts say” piece on why Patti Blagojevich may not have been indicted.
“I think this is a highlight, but this indictment is by no means the end of this,” said former prosecutor Ronald Safer, now a defense lawyer who once fielded federal subpoenas on behalf of the governor’s office.
“There’s a whole infrastructure in state government that supported what’s in these allegations, and I think prosecutors will continue to investigate that,” he said.
One of Chicago’s worst pothole-scarred streets was selected as the backdrop Saturday for Gov. Pat Quinn and Mayor Richard Daley to outline nearly $200 million for city road repairs and other improvements included in a new statewide construction package. […]
“This money alone will fund 100 miles of (street and bridge) repairs and traffic signs,” Daley said at the event also attended by U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Chicago), Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and several other lawmakers and aldermen. [emphasis added]
Meanwhile, Gov. Quinn tiptoed around questions about more purges of Blagojevich holdovers with ties to Thursday’s indictment.
Blagojevich’s former budget chief, John Filan, was a lead architect of a $10 billion borrowing plan in 2003 that federal investigators indicated was designed to provide kickbacks to Blagojevich and others.
Filan, who now heads the Illinois Finance Authority, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Quinn also was asked about the future of Julie Cellini, chairwoman of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency board and wife of Springfield businessman William Cellini, who also was indicted Thursday.
Sidestepping questions about both, Quinn said, “Every person should be evaluated on their own. I think if they’re honest [and] they’re doing a good job, they have nothing to fear.”
Considering the disasterous Quinn budget proposal that Filan helped concoct, is he really “doing a good job,” governor?
* Finally, I wonder if WLS Radio will be so eager to have Rod Blagojevich on the station now that we know Blagojevich was allegedly scheming as far back as the 2002 campaign to pad his own personal bank account with ill-gotten gains.
The 50,000-watt clear channel station has eagerly helped Blagojevich spread his outrageous lie that his impeachment and removal from office was about tax hikes and not his own extreme venality.
Beginning in 2002 and continuing after Blagojevich was first elected governor, Blagojevich and Monk, along with Kelly and previously convicted co-schemer Antoin “Tony” Rezko, agreed that they would use the offices of governor and chief of staff for financial gain, which would be divided among them with the understanding that the money would be distributed after Blagojevich left public office
He was a bad guy from the get-go. And now he’s looking at 325 years behind bars. Keep him off the air, please.
* Another week, another set of crushing indictments. Will it ever end? I sure wish there was an easy answer here, but I’m getting so tired of this merry go-round that I’ve spent the better part of today seriously rethinking some of my own preconceptions and attempting to sort things through. Your comments definitely helped today, so thanks much for that. I’ll have more next week because I want this blog to help Illinois come up with some real solutions that will make real changes.
Also, I’d like to send a message to the small handful of reformers out there who are claiming that I am somehow part of the problem: Where were you last year when I and others were screaming almost every day for a constitutional convention in the hope that radical changes could be made to our political system? Do I have to make a list of all the reform ideas I’ve backed over the years? Refusing to automatically praise your every word, questioning some of your reform proposals and pointing out the reasons behind the Statehouse hostility to y’all does not make me or anyone else evil. You’re almost Rodlike with your simplistic black and white world and your overreactions. Bite me.
* The video quality is poor, but the song rocks and it’s appropriate on so many different levels this crazy week…
* This question may seem odd since he was just indicted yesterday and he’s pretty much universally reviled, but what is your fondest memory of Rod Blagojevich?
Try your very best to avoid snark and save your hate for other posts. Thanks.
On Oct. 8, 2008, defendant Blagojevich advised Lobbyist A that he intended to take official action that would provide additional state money to Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and that Blagojevich wanted to get $50,000 in campaign contributions from the hospital’s chief executive officer.
On Oct. 17, 2008, Blagojevich called the hospital’s CEO to tell him of his intent to increase the Illinois Medicaid reimbursement rate for speciality-care pediatric physicians. Shortly before this, Blagojevich had directed Deputy Governor A to initiate such an increase, which Illinois providers of pediatric healthcare, including Children’s Memorial Hospital, had actively supported for years.
On Oct. 22, 2008, Blagojevich spoke with the Children’s CEO and asked him to arrange to raise $25,000 for Blagojevich prior to Jan. 1, 2009. On Nov. 12, 2008, after the Children’s CEO had not returned additional phone calls from Robert Blagojevich and no political contributions from the Children’s CEO or other persons associated with the hospital had been received, Blagojevich spoke to Deputy Governor A about the increase in the Medicaid reimbursement rates for specialty-care pediatric physicians, asking whether “we could pull it back if we needed to. . . .”
I told subscribers about what happened next, but the feds didn’t reveal it until yesterday…
As a result of this conversation, Deputy Governor A instructed the Department of Healthcare Services to stop its work on increasing the reimbursement for specialty-care pediatric physicians.
So, you’ve got the alleged order and the alleged execution of that order. Bingo.
The lawyer for Springfield businessman William F. Cellini said Thursday that Cellini will try to have his case tried separately from that of former governor Rod Blagojevich.
Cellini, Blagojevich and four Blagojevich associates were all included in a single indictment filed in Chicago federal court Thursday.
Cellini was accused five months ago of essentially the same package of charges, but the fact that he was linked via Thursday’s indictment to the alleged misdeeds of the former governor could complicate Cellini’s defense, a University of Illinois law professor said Thursday.”
Cellini’s alleged misdeeds…
In both indictments, the basic allegations involving Cellini center on Capri Capital, a real estate investment firm that wanted to manage $220 million in Teachers’ Retirement System funds. Cellini allegedly participated in a scheme to deny Capri the TRS business unless one of Capri’s co-owners, Thomas Rosenberg, came up with “significant political contributions for Blagojevich.”
Plus this one…
Cellini and Kelly also are accused of proposing to transfer Jon Bauman, the executive director of TRS, to a job with a different state agency to ensure that he would not cooperate with law enforcement.
* Rep. Bill Black (R-Danville) was the lone House voted against a pension “reform” bill this week. The bill essentially fired all state pension system board members, plus Jon Bauman, the executive director of the Teachers Retirement System mentioned above…
Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, said that is unfair to Bauman, who has not been accused of wrongdoing.
“By our action today, his career is effectively over. His reputation is effectively ruined,” Black said.
“Mr. Bauman was on deck before, during and after the scandal perpetrated by Stuart Levine at TRS, and he only became a whistleblower when the FBI appeared at his office,” [Speaker Madigan] said. Levine, who pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges, was accused of illegally manipulating who got in pension investments.
Bauman, contacted after the vote, said no one from the Quinn administration has met anyone from the teacher pension system or is in position to evaluate the fund’s positive actions. Bauman, who held office before Blagojevich took office, declined further comment.
* I don’t think for a minute that Blagojevich will plead guilty, but the second part of this quote ought to chill him to the bone…
“I think a plea agreement is probably going to be the outcome of this,” Hall said. “But who knows, Blagojevich could push it to a trial. But if he goes to trial and loses on even one of the counts, his sentencing likely is going to be on the higher end.”
* I don’t really understand this passage from the Chicago Tribune editorial…
But it was only a matter of time before something like this happened: Prior scandals haven’t goaded Illinois pols to pass laws that would seriously curb their own broad influence.
What state ethics laws, exactly, would’ve prevented Rod Blagojevich’s crime spree? The man is apparently a criminal through and through.
* The Sun-Times thinks that our lax laws made his life easier…
The governor is charged with shaking down people for political contributions in return for government contracts or jobs.
He did this so easily — if the charges are true — because our campaign finance system is broken.
We have no limits on how much anyone can contribute to a politician.
It says a lot about Blagojevich that a document as breathtaking as the 75-page indictment probably will elicit little more in Illinois than knowing shrugs.
It contained few surprises. Most of it we had heard before either in the trials of Antoin “Tony” Rezko and Stuart Levine, or in the criminal complaint filed when Blagojevich was arrested at his home early Dec. 9.
I hate to burst their little bubble, but the allegations that Blagojevich set out to use the governor’s office as his own personal piggy bank was “new.” And it had nothing to do with campaign contributions.
Among the most startling information in the indictment is the claim that Blagojevich and others specifically set out to illegally profit through his new administration as early as 2002 — the year he was first elected — with detailed plans to divide the money after he left office.
“In a series of conversations that began in 2002 and continued after defendant Rod Blagojevich was elected governor in November 2002, defendants Blagojevich (and others) … agreed that they would use (his) position as governor … for financial gain, which would be divided among them, with the understanding that the money would be distributed after Rod Blagojevich left public office,” the indictment alleges.
So, Rezko was supposed to bank his ill-gotten gains and then share it with the guv. If true, that’s an amazing story.
* The indictment continues…
In 2003, Blagojevich, Monk, Kelly, Rezko and other co-schemers implemented this agreement by directing lucrative state business relating to the refinancing of billions of dollars in State of Illinois Pension Obligation Bonds to a company whose lobbyist agreed to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to Rezko out of the fee the lobbyist would collect, and Rezko in turn agreed to split the money with Blagojevich, Monk and Kelly
The greed was apparently rampant.
And what’s that about giving the money to Rezko? It wasn’t a loan? From the archives…
…prosecutors allege that Kjellander served as a straw man for Rezko in the bond deal. Rezko, the ruling suggested, directed the investment bank Bear Stearns to give the fee to Kjellander, who then transferred $600,000 of the $809,000 fee to Joseph Aramanda, a Rezko business associate. Aramanda then allegedly turned over $450,000 to four other people designated by Rezko.
In an interview… Kjellander said he made a “loan” to Aramanda “because I got a very favorable interest rate. That loan was repaid before the due date, and I made a very nice profit on the interest.”
“I did nothing improper,” he said. But Kjellander also emphasized he had “no knowledge of what” Aramanda did with the money.
The former North Side congressman, picked by Obama in November as his top staff member, was allegedly the subject of extortion in 2006 after he inquired about a $2 million state grant to benefit a school in his district. Prosecutors say Blagojevich instructed a top aide to block the release of the money, even though it had been included in the state’s budget.
Blagojevich also allegedly told a high-ranking state official that Emanuel’s brother needed to host a fundraiser for him. The indictment does not say which of two brothers was mentioned, but the White House aide said it was Ari Emanuel, a high-powered Hollywood agent active in political fundraising.
Prosecutors said a fundraiser was never held. The aide would not say whether Emanuel ever actually learned of the request.
The aide said the school is the Chicago Academy and Chicago Academy High School on the Northwest Side. In 2005, Emanuel announced he had secured $2 million in funding by working with Blagojevich and it would be used for school grounds and a sports field.
In 2005, then-Congressman Emanuel joined with Chicago and state education officials in announcing a $2 million grant for The Chicago Academy and Chicago Academy High School in the city’s Portage Park neighborhood. Emanuel said at the time that he worked closely with the governor to secure the $2 million.
A local school official confirmed Thursday that there had been delays getting the money but knew nothing of the possible politics at play.
* Is Patti Blagojevich next? The Sun-Times has the story…
The state’s former first lady has not been charged with any crimes.
“This is certainly a good sign for her, and I’m sure this is of some relief to the family,” said Mrs. Blagojevich’s lawyer, Raymond Pijon.
Pijon, however, did not rule out possible future charges against his client, a mother of two. “It would not be realistic of me to dismiss that possibility,” he said.
Truer words were never said.
Background…
Rezko directed a $14,396 commission to Mrs. Blagojevich “even though she had done no work to earn that commission,” the indictment states. Rezko also hired Mrs. Blagojevich as “an employee of Rezko’s real estate business at a salary of approximately $12,000 per month” between October 2003 and May 2004 “and supplemented her salary by directing another real estate commission to her in the amount of approximately $40,000, even though she had done little or no work to earn that commission.”
It is my understanding these new revelations are coming from Rezko,” Pijon said. “It is important to understand that it is possible for individuals to be used as a conduit in a scheme without being involved in it.”
Asked about allegations his client took money she did not earn, Pijon said it is common in real estate transactions for brokers to collect fees for little work. “Sometimes you don’t do very much and you get a commission,” he said.
* The totals…
All told, the Tribune uncovered political connections in more than $500,000 in real estate commissions to River Realty since Blagojevich began running for governor in 2000. They include a $32,500 commission from a roads contractor who won three no-bid state contracts worth $10 million; $9,438 from her husband’s then chief of staff, Alonzo “Lon” Monk, who also was indicted Thursday; and $113,875 from a Chicago banker and his wife, who operated a drug testing firm with a long-standing state contract.
* From the indictment…
After Blagojevich’s wife’s real estate business became the subject of critical media coverage, Blagojevich directed Harris to try to find a paid state board appointment or position for her. During several conversations in early 2008, Blagojevich informed Harris that he wanted his wife put on the Pollution Control Board, which pays salaries to its board members. When Harris told Blagojevich that his wife was not qualified for the position, Blagojevich told him to find other employment for his wife.
In the spring of 2008, around the time that Blagojevich’s wife passed a licensing exam that allowed her to sell financial securities, Blagojevich asked Harris and others to set up informational or networking meetings for his wife with financial institutions that had business with the state in hopes that those businesses would assist in getting his wife a job. Harris later arranged meetings between Blagojevich’s wife and officials at two financial institutions that had business with the state. When Blagojevich concluded that officials at these institutions were unhelpful in finding his wife a job, he told Harris that he did not want the institutions receiving further business from the state.
So when the former police chief was accused last year of operating a bogus prostitution sting and pocketing some $400,000, the locals started talking. And when the chief’s brother was later appointed to take over for him, the chatter picked up.
Of the cases filed, prosecutors dismissed DUI charges against two plaintiffs, and a jury found another not guilty of DUI. In another case, a judge ruled the officer had no grounds to arrest the plaintiff for DUI, Erickson said.
* Illinois wind turbines: Florida company wants to build 133 in DeKalb County, 18 in Lee County
Boeing Co. said Thursday it received orders for just six passenger and freight jets in March, down sharply from the same month a year earlier, as the global economic slowdown keeps battering aircraft demand.
During the same month last year, Boeing booked orders for 99 jetliners, according to figures posted on the company’s Web site.
Last September, Ryan said he reached out to Blagojevich after former Mayor Nicholas Blase stepped down in the face of a federal corruption indictment he later pled guilty to. Ryan said he decided not to seek Blase’s endorsement after his guilty plea. Ryan explained that he worked for Blagojevich’s campaign in both his first and second runs for governor performing work as a private investigator and as a general campaign volunteer. He also contributed to Blagojevich’s campaign fund.
“The crimes he did don’t look good for him now. Any politician should be serving the people not themselves.” said Ryan about Blagojevich. “Fifty-two percent of Illinois was duped by him, he duped me twice.”
Ryan denied he participated in pay to play politics. “I applied for a job with the state fire marshal for 10 years. If I had done it I would have gotten the job,” said Ryan.
The Cook County Board on Thursday approved borrowing more than $251 million for construction, building improvements and computer equipment, after slashing Board President Todd Stroger’s original borrowing proposal.
Commissioners eliminated or delayed dozens of projects that would have required borrowing another $73 million. Earlier this year, they also rejected Stroger’s proposal to borrow another $364 million to cover yearly operating costs.
By the time the paring was complete, Commissioner Forrest Claypool (D-Chicago), a Stroger critic, said money was being borrowed only for projects that “are necessary and important for the functioning of our county.”
But that hasn’t stopped vandals from venting their frustrations on the beleaguered machines. Last month, a man was taken into police custody after he repeatedly pounded a meter with a concrete bock. Other meters have been wrapped with tape, doused with paint, jammed with pennies, sabotaged with super glue, filled with expanding foam and, in one case, set on fire.
The city doesn’t track the issue. But LAZ Parking—the subcontractor that took over meter maintenance in February—says incidents are up. Company officials declined to elaborate because, as LAZ Chief Operating Officer Mike Kuziak put it, they don’t want to give people “any ideas.”
“Call it civil disobedience,” said Mike, a local blogger who runs theexpiredmeter.com and asked that his last name be withheld because his site explains how to beat tickets. “It seems to be a concerted effort to strike back in a really wired way. It’s crazy.”
