Remembering Tim Davlin
Monday, Dec 20, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Springfield mayors hold a unique position in Illinois. As the mayor of the state’s capital city, they have access to more state leaders more often and more intimately than just about any other local leader except for maybe Chicago’s mayor.
Tim Davlin took advantage of that position better than most mayors his city has ever had.
Davlin was a regular at state events and built surprisingly strong relationships in the General Assembly and among statewide officials far beyond what an outsider might have thought possible when Davlin was first elected without any previous governmental experience.
He was also quite popular among his fellow Illinois mayors. Active for years in the Illinois Municipal League, Davlin was eventually elected its president. By chance, I happened to be staying at the same Chicago hotel as the Illinois Municipal League meeting the day Davlin was elected the group’s president. He was fully in his element, and his new position made it even more plausible that he might succeed one day at fulfilling his dream of higher office.
Davlin’s greatest challenge leading the Municipal League was pushing an initially reluctant General Assembly to reform the pension systems for police and firefighters during the recent fall veto session. The Legislature refused to touch pensions for first responders during the spring session partly because police and firefighters are so well-respected and because everyone knew that they couldn’t impose the same retirement ages and other restrictions on them. Nobody wants a 67 year-old firefighter showing up at their door when their house is ablaze.
It was a very difficult and controversial issue, but Davlin insisted that it be tackled. The unions representing the first-responders weren’t happy with being forced to give back hard-won gains, and they initially fought hard. Davlin kept his cool, never let the discussions turn personal, and firmly insisted on a fair outcome for everyone.
What resulted was something of a surprising rarity for Statehouse politics. Unlike the state employee and teacher pension bill, which was quickly jammed through the General Assembly last spring while enraged state worker and teachers’ unions were cut out of the process entirely, the first responders bill wasn’t really hated by anyone. Davlin even attended a function for a police union a few weeks after the bill passed. He was warmly received.
That’s just the way he was. The man actually persuaded the Sierra Club to sign off on a so-called “clean coal” electricity generation plant for his city. That was no simple feat. The Sierra Club hates coal, clean or not. The group has even locked arms this year with Exelon, which produces tons of pollution at its decades old coal-fired plants, to stop construction of a new clean coal plant near downstate Taylorville.
Davlin certainly wasn’t a saint. He made his share of governmental mistakes and he had his share of enemies in the city of Springfield, like any mayor would. But I do not know of a single enemy that Tim Davlin ever made at the Statehouse. In an environment where you are defined as much by your enemies as by your friends, Davlin literally had no enemies.
Some serious personal financial problems helped derail Mayor Davlin’s political career this fall. Davlin abruptly announced that he wasn’t running for reelection after the news stories broke. We’re still not sure how extensive his problems were, but he assured all who would listen that he would get everything back on track. He had such an easygoing manner and such a long record of success that it was difficult not to believe him. Davlin stopped by an annual holiday celebration of Statehouse lobbyists in Chicago a couple of weeks ago. Friends said he was as upbeat as always and genuinely relieved that he would no longer have to struggle with his city’s tough budget problems.
Sadly, that all ended when Mayor Davlin apparently took his own life last week. Some have speculated that maybe his troubles were worse than everyone thought. But, in reality, nobody really knows why he did it. Actually, it’s impossible to ever know why almost anyone would commit suicide, even if they leave a note. Suicide is an irrational act. Rational minds can never even begin to comprehend what a suicide victim is thinking.
I, for one, will choose to remember Tim Davlin for how he lived. His successor truly has gigantic shoes to fill, not only in Springfield, but throughout Illinois.
* Meanwhile, new details have emerged about former Chicago School Board President Michael Scott’s financial situation before he committed suicide…
† About two weeks before Scott’s suicide, a development company that had been paying him $10,000 a month “for consultation in regards to future projects involving the possible Olympic Games in Chicago” canceled his contract, according to new details from the Chicago Police Department that officials previously had refused to release. Scott lost that lucrative part-time job because the city failed to land the 2016 Games, according to an unredacted police report on his suicide obtained by the Better Government Association.
† Two downtown fast-food restaurants Scott co-owned — part of a franchise called Salad Creations — had gone out of business shortly before his death, and a third closed shortly thereafter, according to Phil Gershman, Scott’s partner in those eateries. Scott had been negotiating to build a fourth Salad Creations, this one at Midway Airport, but that deal didn’t materialize, Gershman says.
† Lenders are now seeking a total of about $1.2 million from Scott’s estate, probate records show. Nearly $1 million of that stems from a pair of loans that Scott and Gershman obtained for their restaurants in 2007 from First Chicago Bank & Trust. First Chicago also wants $182,025 from the estate to pay off a loan it gave Scott in 2005. American Express also has gone to probate court seeking $46,633 — the apparent unpaid balance on a Scott credit card.
Is that the “reason” he killed himself? We’ll never really know. As I wrote above, suicide is not a rational act. Rational minds simply cannot understand it.
* Related…
* A final farewell for Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin
* Springfield residents say goodbye to mayor
* Our community needs time to mourn
- Anon 7 - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 10:40 am:
Rich - Great piece on Mayor Davlin. I never knew the man, but your column makes me wish I did. You are right about suicide. It is so tragic, and we can’t really understand.
R.I.P.
- Excessively Rabid - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 10:41 am:
Nicely written, although “personal financial problems” may be a euphemism for what seems to have occurred in the Davlin case. Also, the SJ-R apparently has decided to impose a news blackout and censorship of reader comments about facts bearing on the late Mayor’s situation. The paper’s sources are at least as good as mine - I don’t expect them to report rumors, but I do expect them to investigate rumors and report the facts. That’s their job. Running a memorial guest book is the funeral home’s job.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 10:45 am:
===censorship of reader comments===
I heartily applaud that. And it’s not called “censorship” if the government isn’t doing it. It’s called “editing.” Nobody has a right to post anything on somebody else’s website. Period.
The SJ-R has a right to do whatever they want with those comments. They should’ve started doing it long ago, frankly.
- Secret Square - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 11:25 am:
Good work as usual Rich.
If “Excessively Rabid” were to view some of the crass comments made at out of town sites such as the Peoria Journal Star, FOX News, Daily Herald, etc. regarding Davlin’s death, then he/she might understand why the SJ-R didn’t want to take the chance of comments like that showing up on THEIR site — particularly before the man was even decently buried, in a forum where his family would be very likely to see them.
- just sayin' - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 11:30 am:
Sad. So unfair to the family left behind. Hard to imagine they could even stay in that house.
- Wensicia - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 11:35 am:
I have often felt suicide to be the ultimate form of escape. For whatever the reason, I feel deep sympathy for the families of these victims, these incidents are truly tragic.
- Secret Square - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 11:47 am:
I guess this quote (from the SJ-R story on Davlin’s funeral) pretty well sums up what surviving family members of suicides go through:
“(Fr. David) Hoefler (in the homily/sermon at Davlin’s funeral) said he’s heard a range of emotions from family and friends this week.
“Heartache. Shock. Even anger.
“He better be in heaven because he left us in hell,” Hoefler recalled someone saying.”
- Give Me A Break - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 12:34 pm:
Rich you are spot on about the fact the SJR should have starting limiting comments a long time ago.
They have let the comment section turn the paper into the National Enquirer. 99.9 percent of those commenting have no clue what they are talking about and can’t through one statement, no matter the subject without bashing Chicago or Obama. I live in the “Patch” and the SJR allowing their readers to comment on issues is an embarrassment.
- Christine Kaplan - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 2:01 pm:
Rich,
I appreciate your words, and even though I will disagree with the belief that Tim Davlin was a “great” Mayor, I do respect your opinion.
As for the SJ-R. I sent several emails to the online editor inquiring as to why the paper had turned off reader comments, and Mr. Piscia has yet to respond. Apparently the same standards by which they hold others, they themselves do not need to meet.
There are as varying opinions in this town on Davlin as there are individuals, and any attempt to make the discussion completely one sided is just flat wrong.
Rich does not always agree with commenters on here but he does try to give them the benefit of the doubt, even when they step ever so gingerly across the line.
The comments I have seen on the SJ-R do not always bash Chicago or Obama, I have seen an equal number taking the opposite. If you think the SJ-R is bad, try reading the comments on the USATODAY site, or worse, MSNBC. I would have included Fox, but I do not read that site so I have no clue.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 2:05 pm:
Christine, the SJ-R’s comment section is horrid. If they’ve finally realized that, so much the better.
So if you want a platform to spread bile about whomever, I’d suggest you start your own website. You have absolutely no right to demand to express an opinion on a private website owned by someone else. That would be truly unAmerican because it would require government intervention to enforce such a mandate.
- Secret Square - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 3:05 pm:
The SJ-R several years ago stopped allowing comments on stories involving crimes, violent/non-natural deaths, and accidents in which local people were involved. Since most posts on those topics tend to be either expressions of concern and sympathy for the victim/family (for which there are other suitable outlets), or speculative rants about who or what was to blame — neither of which tends to advance public discourse or understanding of an issue — I thought that was a wise move. Their treatment of Mayor Davlin’s death is, so far, consistent with that policy.
- Excessively Rabid - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 3:10 pm:
Rich, no argument about the general need to do something about the nasty content in the SJ-R comments. I just thought it was funny they never showed any restraint at all and then with this story eliminated online discussion altogether.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 3:31 pm:
===and then with this story eliminated online discussion altogether. ===
Could be they did open comments and had to close them. But considering all the trouble they’ve had over there, I think it was probably prudent. You will recall that I didn’t open up comments on my first Davlin post, either.
- Responsa - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 4:08 pm:
I did not know Mayor Davlin and had met Michael Scott a few times. I am stuck by the similar descriptions and apparent outward traits of these two larger than life personalities who seemingly never met a stranger:
-always smiling
-had a good word for everybody
-always decent, upbeat and positive
-wanted to help improve society
-competent and trustworthy
-could get things done
-extraordinarily popular and active in civic life
-respected by even those with whom they disagreed
Yet, ironically, this combination of very esteemed traits may have made it all the more difficult for them to come to grips with, and to endure the personal embarrassment and hit to their own self esteem- and even moreso to their public image- which occurred when these two gentlemen got into some serious financial trouble that was being exposed. Suicide has horrible, troubling consequences for living friends and family. But any psychologist will candidly admit that the need to “escape” from what seems like an untenable personal situation is a profound and very powerful human response to danger.
- Christine Kaplan - Monday, Dec 20, 10 @ 4:08 pm:
Who said anything about spreading bile? I do not recall that I even remotely hinted at that Rich. What I find interesting is that the same paper that demands their questions answered refused to answer mine.
I have never questioned that they have the right to limit comments, however, it is the same media group that owns the Peoria Journal and the Rockford Star and both of them still allowed comments; that I found interesting.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Dec 21, 10 @ 9:11 am:
=== There are as varying opinions in this town on Davlin as there are individuals, and any attempt to make the discussion completely one sided is just flat wrong. ===
@Christine -
If the comments are closed, how is the discussion one-sided?
If you want to express condolences, grief…post it on your Facebook page. Ditto if you’ve got something else to say.