Emanuel to Springfield: “Get in gear”
Friday, Oct 12, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Mayor Emanuel continued his public push for municipal pension reform…
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he will expend as much political capital as necessary to push for pension reforms, but that lawmakers in Springfield need to “get in gear.”
In a meeting with reporters at Bloomberg offices Thursday, Emanuel said he is holding hearings, talking with unions and collaborating with suburban mayors on the issue.
He says now it’s time for the General Assembly to “pick up the game.”
* And, as you probably know by now, Brizard is out of a job...
Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s premier hires, is out by “mutual agreement” with City Hall after just 17 months on the job, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Brizard was Emanuel’s pick to lead CPS and push through the mayor’s aggressive education agenda. But with the city’s first teachers strike in 25 years in the rearview mirror and a new contract to be implemented, Emanuel said it’s “time for a clean break.” […]
“The questions about J.C. became a distraction from what we had to do. We had a mutual agreement [that the distraction was] not helpful. . . . I didn’t have to come to that conclusion myself. We both agreed together. It kept on becoming about the static and noise about J.C. He said, ‘Look, getting the schools right is more important than me,’ ” the mayor told the Chicago Sun-Times. […]
“In all my experience working for two presidents, when you get to a certain point, you’ve got to have a fresh start,” said Emanuel, who served under presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. “Usually, you’ve got to tell the person that. “J.C. came to that understanding. . . . He didn’t have to be persuaded of that. He appreciated that. He didn’t want to become a distraction from the mission. I can’t underscore how different that is.”
- Ravenswood Right Winger - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 9:50 am:
Rahm needed a scapegoat for the CTU strike, so he found one. Gerry McCarthy will be the scapegoat for the spike in the homicide rate, should be a goner by early next year, I predict.
- Fair Share - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 9:54 am:
So,I guess the quess the questions about Chicago Police Superintendent McCarthy’s crime reduction strategies’ effectiveness are NOT a distraction. But then again, the brusing police contract negotiations are net yet over and he needs to be kept around for future sacrifice.
- RNUG - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 9:56 am:
Sounds like Rahm is setting the stage to ask for a State bailout so he won’t have to raise the property taxes. Don’t know where he thinks the State is going to get the money. Maybe someone should introduce a bill that raises the State income tax just in Cook County …
- Stalemate - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 10:01 am:
I won’t be surprised if the Mayor’s comments about something happening in January after the November elections don’t show up in downstate TV and mailers, especially since the leaders have suggested they won’t do a lameduck pension deal in January (Quincy Herald Whig).
- wordslinger - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 10:04 am:
–“In all my experience working for two presidents, when you get to a certain point, you’ve got to have a fresh start,” said Emanuel, who served under presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.–
Translation: I left the White House both times before they could push me out.
- dang - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 10:04 am:
that sun times article is brutal. Why doesn’t it just say it was written by city hall. The unnamed source that has about 6 paragraphs worth of quotes is a joke. It was probably rahm himself. Lol. Then his alderman lackey seals the deal at the end of the article. These hit jobs of his are so transparent. My favorite though is the quote from the unnamed source that it was brizzard that leaked a story before the strike to “shore up” support w the mayor. How does the sun times print this garbage? Anything for a scoop I guess
- Shore - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 10:13 am:
those first 2 paragraphs basically sum his entire term as mayor so far which is to say mostly focused on his own pr, lecturing others, and outsourcing responsibility for his own work. I’m usually pretty critical of springfield but I really hope they play tough with him.
I give the chicago teachers union credit here, they really stood their ground and got a scalp.
- Carl Nyberg - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 11:05 am:
Emanuel’s critics have taken to calling him Mayor 1% because he’s a lackey for the financial sector.
Here’s a test for Mayor Emanuel, is he serious enough about fixing pensions that he’s willing to tax option contracts?
By taxing the buyer $1 and the seller $1 per contract, Illinois could raise $6 billion per year. These contracts are all over $30,000. And there’s already a transaction fee to the house of $8-95 per contract. So, the tax is minor compared to fees the speculators have already agree to.
I did a slightly more detailed write-up on my blog.
In a choice between (fixing the broke pension system and imposing a small tax on the capital class) and (not fixing the pension mess), which will Emanuel choose?
- Wensicia - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 11:07 am:
Fire you CEO of schools and shove responsibility of your salary/pension problems on Springfield.
Way to go, Rahm!
- wert - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 11:24 am:
“Maybe someone should introduce a bill that raises the State income tax just in Cook County …” Umm, isn’t that the practical impact of the teacher’s pension situation? We pay twice for teacher pensions and the rest of the state pays once?
- Sideliner - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 11:55 am:
The Mutual Agreement:
Rahm: “You’re fired.”
Brizard: “I’m fired.”
- Emily Booth - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 12:33 pm:
Chicago used to be the City that Works. Now, it’s the City that Can’t Get Its Act Together Because the Mayor Has To Keep Reminding Us About His Former White House Career.
- Loop Lady - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 1:39 pm:
To Shore: Woot Woot!
- belmont cragin - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 2:14 pm:
What political capital does he actually have? I think he’s already overdrawn.
- Anon - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 2:34 pm:
I am sorry Mayor- you and your suburban mayors can not speak for remainder of the 75% of the state. Let’s get some rural areas into these talks!
- Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 2:34 pm:
===for remainder of the 75% of the state===
Farmland doesn’t vote.
- RNUG - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 3:06 pm:
wert @ 11:24,
actually, under the school aid formula deal that was cut when CPS took over their teacher’s pensions, CPS gets much more per student than the rest of the state … so you’re getting the pension money, just under a different label
- RNUG - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 3:08 pm:
wert @ 11:24,
should have added, the original comment at 9:56 was at least 1/2 snark …
- wordslinger - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 4:31 pm:
–What political capital does he actually have?.–
Oogots.
He had to get out of the White House before he got fired.
Where’s he going from here? There’s no way this guy wants to have this job for another four years. Raising property taxes, killing rats, picking up trash, dealing with gangs, getting pounded by coppers and firemen.
He thought he was going to be the national Bloomberg. There’s already one of those, and it ain’t selling, anyway, except with Kathie Lee and the lovely, wine-drinking Hoda from Channel 8 in Moline on the Today Show.
He’s going to lurk around for Durbin or Quinn’s job, and if he can’t get those, he might try to push out Quigley.
But I don’t see any of those as slam-bang winners.
So sad. But Goldman Sachs will be a great comfort, I’m sure.
- Sue - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 4:34 pm:
Rahm- here is a trade for the Local School Districts picking up “their share”of pension costs- lets start giving the downstate and suburban schools an equal distribution of State Education funding so they are on par with what Springfield provides to CPS- Maybe the Mayor should stop complaining about the so called Chicago double pension taxation because the schools throughout illinois get much less money then CPS receives on a per student basis- those subsidies come out of taxes paid by the same suburban and downstate residents Rahm claims are getting a pass on pensions
- cermak_rd - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 5:05 pm:
Brizard isn’t just out as a scapegoat. He’s also out because he couldn’t and didn’t play anything near a constructive role during negotiations. He was useless. If the mayor’s office winds up doing all the work anyway, why bother with a Ed CEO?
- cassandra - Friday, Oct 12, 12 @ 5:49 pm:
I think Mayor Rahm made a hiring mistake in Brizard, a charming and articulate young man who simply didn’t have the experience and knowledge to manage CPS, probably among the more difficult govt jobs in the country. Because of the good sense of one or both of them, at least Brizard didn’t drag it out. Let’s hope Mayor Rahm learned something here. In the end, it’s the Mayor’s failure, not Brizard’s.