Arguing that Governor Pat Quinn’s push to close several state prisons is worsening dangerous overcrowding and that inappropriate inmate transfers pose a safety risk to prison workers, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 filed suit today in Alexander County in far Southern Illinois.
The union is seeking an injunction to halt the threatened closure of prisons at Dwight and Tamms, adult transition centers in Carbondale, Chicago and Decatur, and youth centers in Joliet and Murphysboro. Governor Quinn is pushing to close the facilities despite opposition from prison employees, a legislative oversight commission and lawmakers who provided adequate funding to keep them open. The closure push comes even as the adult correctional system is overflowing with more than 48,000 inmates in facilities built for just 33,000.
The lawsuit details grievances filed by the union over the threat to employee safety posed by rushed transfer of inmates to other prisons ill-equipped to cope. While the state has refused to resolve the grievances, it is rushing to transfer inmates and hasten closing facilities.
“Inmates are being sent to prisons that are too crowded, too short of staff or lacking appropriate security features to safely incarcerate them,” AFSCME Council 31 executive director Henry Bayer said. “We’re asking the court for an injunction to prevent the state from moving forward with any closure until the related grievances have been resolved.”
“Plaintiff brings this lawsuit to protect its members that are at risk of injury and death due to the decisions of the Governor of the State, the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice to close multiple correctional facilities and to absorb the inmates at those facilities into an already overcrowded and overburdened correctional system,” the filing explains. “[A]lmost 5,000 inmates and youth will be transferred due to these closings. Many of the inmates that will be moved are those who have been intentionally segregated in the correctional system because of the danger they pose to guards and to other inmates. … The insertion of these inmates into the overcrowded prisons of the State will inevitably foment unrest that will put employees, other inmates, and the general community at risk.”
Tamms Correctional Center is located in Alexander County. It is the state’s only C-max (closed-maximum-security) prison for inmates who have committed or instigated violent attacks on employees or fellow offenders while incarcerated. Since the closure of Tamms was announced, employees throughout the prison system have documented rising tensions, increased gang activity, a higher incidence of weapons inside the facilities and more assaults on staff.
The suit notes that, “maximum security inmates at Tamms will be transferred to the maximum security prison in Pontiac, Illinois, where they will be single-celled. This means that many prisoners at Pontiac will now be double-celled in order to make space. This domino effect will make Pontiac a much more dangerous place to work”.
The large-scale reclassification and transfer of inmates precipitated by the closures poses a threat to prison employees and the public in nearly every Illinois region. If Dwight is closed, its inmates will go to Logan, with Logan inmates going to Lincoln and Lincoln inmates distributed statewide. Tamms transfers to Pontiac are already causing secondary transfers to Stateville, Menard and elsewhere. Joliet’s maximum-security transfers will go primarily to medium-security St. Charles and Kewanee. Nearly all these prisons are already at or well above safe capacity.
The union’s filing comes amid intense media attention to volatility and violence in state prisons, employee criticism of the closures and the Quinn Administration’s retaliatory efforts to silence rank-and-file whistleblowers.
“The Quinn Administration is failing its duty to ensure a safe workplace for its employees. Instead, it is sending men and women to work each day in prisons that the state’s own actions are making more dangerous,” AFSCME director Bayer said. “We’re asking the court to put a stop to these actions until our members are assured that when they pass through those prison gates, they will be as safe as possible.”
* 2:30 pm - The text of AFSCME’s complaint is here.
Resurrecting messaging and policy positions that many would argue lost her an election against now-convicted Rod Blagojevich, State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka is barnstorming the state pimping poverty and big government solutions like a liberal Democrat.
Yesterday, while on her “Illinois Has Heart” tour, Topinka told the State Journal-Register that “Democrats and Republicans in the Illinois General Assembly should undo some funding cuts to social service programs that serve the needy… Just because we had a bipartisan budget agreement does not mean that it was good, does not mean that cuts could not be made but could not have been made better,” said Topinka, 68, a former state lawmaker, state treasurer, state GOP chair, and gubernatorial candidate.
“I don’t like bureaucracies,” Topinka told reporters, “but when you are dealing with the neediest of the needy, that’s where government kicks in — the old, the sick, the infirm, the children. … So if you’re going to make cuts, first look somewhere else.”
Topinka said she named her tour of social-service organizations “Illinois Has Heart” because Illinois should be known for more than corrupt politicians and pension-funding problems. Of course, until the state is cleaned up and the pension and budget problems fixed, there is no solution or ability to pay social-service organizations. Topinka was not queried about that fact.
* The Question: Do you agree with the Illinois Review or Comptroller Topinka? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Illinois employers will no longer be allowed to ask workers or job-seekers for their social media passwords.
Governor Pat Quinn has signed the so-called ‘Facebook law,’ which is intended to protect the online privacy of workers and people applying for jobs. The bill comes as a result of some hiring managers requesting passwords to log in to the accounts of prospective employees as a way to weed out applicants.
* The signing prompted a little editorializing from a Trib reporter…
It’s unclear how many companies in Illinois were asking workers or prospective employees for their social media passwords. As such, it’s difficult to determine whether the bill is the type of legislation coming out of Springfield that is a solution in search of a problem.
Some law enforcement authorities in the state have argued that they need the right to ask for social network passwords so they can get a complete picture of an applicant’s life.
But Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the Illinois branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, doesn’t buy that.
“There are all sorts of investigative devices that, of all people, law enforcement has to examine and think about the backgrounds of the people that they hire,” he said. “What they don’t need to know is what they think about politics or other things, which are often the kinds of things people post on their Facebook account.”
Lori Andrews, a professor at IIT’s Chicago-Kent College of Law, said research has shown that 75 percent of employers require their human resources departments to look at online profiles before offering an applicant a job, and that a third of employers have turned down applicants based on those searches.
“Some of this is very improper,” Andrews said at Wednesday’s event.
Andrews noted that online profiles can contain information about a person’s religious beliefs, political affiliations and sexual preference.
* The bill’s original sponsor, Rep. LaShawn Ford (D-Chicago) says the issue was brought to his attention by constituents…
Rep. LaShawn Ford, D-Chicago, said he decided to sponsor the legislation after hearing from several constituents who were asked to list their passwords on job applications. Ford said the measure will remove some of the barriers people face when looking for employment.
* And Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno was the chief Senate sponsor. From a press release…
“Employers certainly aren’t allowed to ask for the keys to an employee’s home to nose around there, and I believe that same expectation of personal privacy and personal space should be extended to a social networking account,” said Leader Radogno, who pointed out employers are not allowed to ask employees or job applicants about age, sex, race, or sexual orientation—all information that could be easily gleaned from a social networking site. “This law will not only protect employees’ reasonable rights to privacy on the Web, but will shield employers from unexpected legal action.”
* Employers will still be able to set usage standards for company computers and company time, and they won’t be stopped from looking at public Facebook and Twitter pages. From the statute…
Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit an employer from obtaining about a prospective employee or an employee information that is in the public domain or that is otherwise obtained in compliance with this amendatory Act of the 97th General Assembly.
* The House sponsor had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get this bill passed. The first version, filed in May of 2011, had no exceptions or definitions. The second version, filed in February of this year, expanded the exceptions and added definitions. The third version, filed in March, expanded those even further. The changes helped the bill zoom out of the House in late March on a vote of 78-30. It passed the Senate unanimously in May.
Ford did a good job of introducing a new concept and patiently shepherding it through the process. Ford also supported Dan Hynes against Quinn in the 2010 Democratic primary and there has been some lingering animosity between the two men. But Ford was invited to yesterday’s presser, so things must be better now.
Anybody out there ever post something on Facebook they’ve regretted?
* I’m not trying to single out Sen. Rezin here, but we have a recent quote so let’s use it. This has been the standard response to the Democratic push to shift employer pension costs away from the state and down to local school districts…
“It is not helping to stabilize pensions. It is purely shifting a cost that is in the state budget down to local budgets,” said state Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris).
The district still may terminate the agreement without notice if the state’s property tax extension law is passed or changes are made to the teacher pension law that would shift the burden of teacher pension payments to the school board. [Emphasis added.]
In other words, if the cost shift passes, teacher pay raises can be nullified without notice. Why would the district want to do that? To keep their own pension costs down. If they finally have skin in the game and can no longer make state taxpayers pay the costs, then they’ll likely nullify the pay raises.
So, for at least one district, the cost shift idea is already having an impact.
On Monday, Quinn advocated giving school districts 12 years to phase in their shares of pension costs.
Twelve years is, of course, a very long time for districts to absorb those costs.
* But there doesn’t seem to be any hurry by anyone on either side of the aisle to get this done right away…
“If it affects next fiscal year, then we should work on it and refine it and pass it in the next legislative session,” [Rep. Pam Roth (R-Morris)] said.
*** UPDATE *** I missed this one earlier. Speaking of delays…
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton renewed his call Wednesday for the House to take up pension changes affecting only state employees and state lawmakers.
The Chicago Democrat said acting on even a portion of the state’s pension funding dilemma should send a message to bond rating agencies that the state is addressing its financial problems, including underfunding of its pension plans.
“The rating agencies should look to the vote that we took in the Senate and hopefully the vote that they’ll take in the House and see we passed major, major pension reform,” Cullerton said.
* As we’ve discussed before, the National Conference of State Legislatures is holding its big annual meeting in Chicago next week. Check out this discussion on Thursday, called Balancing the Powers of Governors…
Legislatures often fare poorly when taking on the governor–the deck seems stacked in favor of the executive branch. Alan Rosenthal, the leading academic expert on state legislatures, advises legislative leaders on how to work with governors and play a consultative role in shaping their agendas. His new book, “The Best Job in Politics,” examines why governors are so successful at achieving their goals. He will be signing copies of his book, which will be available for purchase, right after the session.
I think Illinoisans can probably skip that one. Or maybe the governor could send a spy to see why other states have such powerful chief executives.
Staff, especially partisan and personal staff, often are working for the legislature by day and campaigning by night. Learn best practices on managing the state work/campaign work divide. Debate case studies demonstrating the ethical dilemmas inherent in serving in this dual role. Learn tips to help get you through the election and back through the capitol door.
* Facilitator: Peggy Kerns, NCSL
* Panelists: Patrick Fuller, Assembly Chief Clerk’s Office, Wisconsin Legislature * Tim Mapes, Office of the Speaker, Illinois General Assembly
* Naomi Miller, Texas House of Representatives
* Natalie O’Donnell Wood, NCSL
* As I’ve told you before, Lieutenant Gov. Sheila Simon agreed to appear at a Better Government Association fundraiser celebrating the return of The Onion headquarters to Chicago. Simon sang and played her banjo to the tune “We’re in the Jailhouse Now.” Check it out…
* Lyrics as supplied by LG Simon’s office…
We’ve had our share of governors who
Took some money from me and from you
They thought they were the smartest guys in town
They just could not hold in
Something f-in golden
Thanks to tapes we know exactly how
They’re in the jailhouse now
They’re in the jailhouse now
They had trials once or twice, and Colorado must be nice
They’re in the jailhouse now
Yodel…
We have a place named Dixon
Sure could use some fixin’
The city clerk there may have robbed the town
She has found her way
To have that city pay
To race her horses for a triple crown
She’s in the courthouse now
She’s in the courthouse now
She’s gambled once or twice, with public funds and loaded dice
She’s in the courthouse now
Yodel…
I see our state a different way
Work with my friends at the BGA
Think of better laws and write them down
The vote might be a squeaker
Did someone call the speaker?
I’ve heard he’s the sweetest guy around
We’re in the statehouse now
We’re in the statehouse now
We’ll try it once or twice, some real disclosure would be nice
We’re in the statehouse now
Heh.
Any lyrics you’d like to add? Maybe VanillaMan will return from his semi-retirement to help out.
* A few weeks ago, I visited a very good farmer friend of mine in rural Madison County. Rob and I, along with his niece and son, ventured out behind Rob’s farm house and shot his AR-15 rifle at an old washing machine. We used a 40-shot clip. His niece was the best shot among us.
I have to admit that I had a great time. I haven’t really shot guns much since I was a kid, growing up on a farm. We had some harmless fun, except maybe for my ear drums.
My former intern Owen Irwin knows Rob and recently called him “The most chill guy I’ve ever met.” That’s a pretty darned accurate description. Rob is the epitome of a law-abiding, upstanding citizen. He’s never been in trouble with the law. Not even a little bit.
I’m mostly an agnostic about guns. But Gov. Quinn said this week that the only reason for assault weapons was shooting at people. Rob’s never shot anybody.
And, indeed, Quinn’s proposed amendatory veto specifically exempts the possession of the big clips at Sparta’s World Shooting and Recreational Complex, at sanctioned Olympics events and for use “expressly permitted under the Wildlife Code.” Apparently, even the governor admits that there are more uses for these guns than just shooting people.
* So, for those of you who support the concept of an assault weapons ban and a ban on big bullet clips (if not the actual way the governor has gone about it), I’d like you to explain to me why Rob, specifically, should be prohibited by law from buying another rifle or clip like the ones he already has.
And I would appreciate it greatly if the pro-gunners would just lay back for a while and let the other side speak. Thanks.
*** UPDATE *** When I posted this story, I decided that I’d wait until it hit 15 comments to open the discussion up to everyone. That threshold has been met. Everyone can now jump into the fray.
Therefore, we will likely see more back-patting press releases like this one in the coming weeks…
KOTOWSKI TO REFUSE ANY PER DIEM FOR SPECIAL SESSION
Calls on Legislators to Forgo Per Diem and Get the Job Done
8/1/2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Senator Dan Kotowski (D- Park Ridge) announced today that he will refuse any per diem and mileage reimbursement for the special session on August 17 and called on his colleagues in the General Assembly to do the same.
“I will not take tax payer money to go to Springfield and solve a problem that politicians created through decades of mismanagement and inaction,” said Kotowski. “Legislators work for taxpayers, and if we couldn’t get the job done by May 31, then it’s our responsibility to pass pension reform on our own dime.That’s why I’m calling on every member of the General Assembly to do the right thing and not accept any taxpayer funded per diem for the special session.”
The projected per diem and mileage reimbursement cost for members of the General Assembly during the special session is $40,000 per day.
Kotowski is in a Tier One race, so this press release was definitely necessary.
* Meanwhile, an admission by the governor that he called the special session because of threats by jittery bond rating agencies, rather than out of abt belief that a deal was imminent, probably won’t calm any NY nerves…
The Democratic governor acknowledged that his call for lawmakers to return to Springfield was driven more by fear that the state’s credit rating could be shredded further, raising borrowing and construction costs, than by a belief that a deal was close at hand.
“We have to deal with the credit-rating agencies. They wear green eyeshades. The idea that we have plenty of time is not always the right way to look at it,” Quinn said late Monday after appearing on a special on Tribune Co.-owned CLTV about the state’s pension problem.
“Don’t be too skeptical here,” he cautioned a reporter. “I don’t think most people in politics are excited about this. That’s one reason to be there (in Springfield). We want to do the whole thing, and I think there are people who do want to do the whole thing and get it resolved once and for all.”
To do so will require a comprehensive deal involving both Democrats and Republicans that spreads any political fallout or blame. But recent examples of such a product involving a major issue out of politically polarized Springfield are few.
* Related and a partial roundup…
* Cross: Cost of underfunded pensions may be higher
* The Daily Herald surveyed 132 Republicans who were elected to or picked for the national party convention this month and received 49 responses. Here’s the first of the stories from the DH survey…
Of the responses, 42.9 percent preferred Rubio. Another 12.2 percent selected Portman. Christie and Ryan received 10 percent of votes, respectively. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was fifth, with 8.2 percent of votes.
State Rep. Dennis Reboletti of Elmhurst, a delegate, called each of the potential picks “outstanding individuals.” Reboletti described Christie and Ryan as “likable and genuine people,” but noted he feels the 41-year-old Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, “will be the choice because he can help carry Florida, reach out to the Latino community and court the younger vote. His story and upbringing are compelling.”
But delegate Bill Cadigan, of Winnetka, says he’s hoping for Chris Christie, because he thinks the boisterous governor “offers a personality contrast to Mitt Romney while embodying the fiscal conservative principles.”
Steve Kim, 10th District Romney delegate from Northbrook, said he’s curious to see what Romney does, adding that the question has been lobbed back and forth in most of his casual political discussions in recent weeks.
I’m told questions were also asked about the upcoming Republican gubernatorial primary (including potential candidates Sen. Matt Murphy, Sen. Dan Duffy Duffy, Treasurer Dan Rutherford, Sen. Kirk Dillard, and Congressman Aaron Schock), pension reform and gay marriage. Stay tuned.
* The State Journal-Register throws a much-needed jab at Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration for its recent excesses…
Unfortunately, his staff has began retaliating against those who criticize or ask questions about the administration’s decisions, an alarming, Nixonian display of pettiness. For example:
* The pattern started in June when the executive inspector general’s office went after two former parole agents who it believed leaked information to an Associated Press reporter who blew open the MGT-Push story. Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office found the inspector general’s conclusion that the whistleblowers weren’t truthful was baseless. Quinn’s office wouldn’t say whether someone in the governor’s office initiated the ethics complaint, but it certainly had the most interest in rooting out the identities of the now-retired whistleblowers who nearly cost Quinn his political career.
* At the end of June, the Belleville News Democrat began publishing an explosive series about how the Department of Human Services’ inspector general didn’t bother to investigate the deaths of physically and mentally disabled people who live outside state facilities, even after hospitals complained about their conditions. A DHS spokeswoman accused Belleville reporters of breaking state and federal privacy laws after they obtained private case files.
* Then last week, the Lee Enterprises Statehouse bureau reported the names of Department of Corrections inmates who are going to be moved out of state as a part of an interstate compact. That prompted a corrections official to write the reporter saying that if the names were disclosed, “the department will view your actions as attempting to promote disorder within the prison system.”
* And on Tuesday, the AP revealed that corrections officials ordered a “shakedown” of prison employees within minutes of union members from various state prisons holding a news conference to oppose Quinn’s shuttering of two prisons and two juvenile detention facilities because of safety concerns. The union said the unusual but legal searches of employees were a retaliation for the employees’ vocal opposition to Quinn’s plans, a charge denied by the governor’s office.
Perhaps these are coincidences and not an effort by the administration to clamp down on dissent and discourage those who would shed light on problems in state government from doing so.
But a pattern has emerged and a governor who is not shy about proclaiming his honesty, transparency and general goodness should be wary of it. Quinn should encourage his underlings to be more concerned about solving problems than burying them.
It’s also no coincidence that two of these cases involved inspectors general who abused or misused their powers of office. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, these tinhorn Barney Fife goofballs need to be reined in hard, legislatively if possible.
Either way, it’s time that the governor was pressed hard on these issues in public.
* Gov. Pat Quinn was asked by reporters at least twice during a press conference yesterday about whether he actually has the power to use an amendatory veto to drastically change a piece of legislation, as Quinn did yesterday with his assault weapons ban AV. Here’s the first reporter question…
Do you concede there are any limits on your AV power?
He didn’t.
* Second question…
Where is there in the Constitution that says the governor can add such substantive language on a different topic to a bill?
Quinn pointed to unnamed Illinois Supreme Court opinions and voter action.
The Governor may return a bill together with specific recommendations for change to the house in which it originated.
And that’s it.
* The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that the governor’s AV powers go beyond just correcting errors or making minor changes. From People ex rel Klingert v. Howlett…
Our examination of the records of the [Illinois Constitutional] Convention shows that the following terms were used to describe the kinds of “specific recommendations for change” that were contemplated: “corrections;” “precise corrections;” “technical flaws;” “simple deletions;” “to clean up the language.” In response to the following question put by Delegate Netsch, however, “Then was it the Committee’s thought that the conditional veto would be available only to correct technical errors?” a committee member answered, “No, Ma’am.”
The Illinois Supreme Court was confronted with Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie’s amendatory veto which amended the title of the bill and substituted a reworded proposal for all of the text after the enacting clause, although reiterating verbatum much of the language of the bill as originally passed. The court was obviously troubled that the scope of the governor’s authority in the new Constitution was not clearly stated nor could it be found in the committee reports or debates.
The justices did not attempt to delineate the exact kinds of changes that would fall within the power of the governor, but merely stated that “[It can be said with certainty, however, that the] substitution of complete new bills, as attempted in the present case, is not authorized [by the Constitution].” [Emphasis added, and added text from the original opinion can be found here]
* So, Gov. Quinn’s amendatory veto appears to go way beyond even what Gov. Ogilvie tried. The Court has been clear that while governors are part of the legislative process, they cannot erase an entire bill and substitute their own language. Ogilvie used much of the same text from the original bill in his new proposal and the Court still shot it down. Quinn didn’t even bother with that nicety. He just wiped out the underlying bill entirely and wrote his own, new bill.
It’s a moot point, of course. As I told you yesterday, there’s no way this AV is going anywhere. But this sure looks like a major constitutional overreach by Gov. Quinn.
