Former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is taking on a new role as a University of Illinois trustee.
Gov. Pat Quinn announced Friday that he appointed Chicago’s former top federal prosecutor and corruption buster to the university’s board that oversees the three-campus university system.
* Behind the move, however, was the reappointment of Trustee James Montgomery, who defied Quinn in 2009 by refusing to resign from the board after the university’s “admissions scandal.” From the Mikva Commission Report, which investigated the affair…
:
In an email to (UIUC Chancellor Richard) Herman dated April 16, 2009, Trustee James Montgomery advocated for a rejected applicant. Montgomery explained that he emailed Herman at the behest of his daughter, who was dating a relative of the applicant. Montgomery stated that he emailed Herman because he wanted to determine if it was “too late” for the applicant, whom he acknowledged had been rejected, to be accepted by the University….
An April 1, 2009 email to (Chancellor Richard Herman’s secretary Phyllis) Mischo, (Associate Provost Keith) Marshall indicated the University will admit a substandard student sponsored by Trustee Carroll as late as possible because she has terrible credentials at a “good school.”
* Montgomery adamantly refused to step down back then. From Chicago Tonight…
I think what has happened here is that both the governor and the commission has painted all the trustees with one broad brush of taint and that isn’t fair. And I don’t intend of course to submit a resignation under the assumption that I have done something inappropriate on a personal basis. ..(If I am fired I will) fight like hell. whatever is necessary to defend any action that they seek to take to prove me in any way guilty of malfeasance of office or any other alleged offense I don’t think they have a prayer…. There is no legal basis for me to be fired. I don’t want to put anybody down but I was appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate and Governor Quinn is a governor largely by happenstance, not a governor who’s been elected by the people. And to be very candid with you I’m not inclined to agree with his notion that he should follow the so-called public opinion as he reads it in the Tribune and other media
Montgomery was close to former Senate President Emil Jones. Quinn eventually backed off, and then reappointed Montgomery last week while burying it under the Fitzgerald move.
Taxpayers haven’t warmed to the idea of helping to pay for the improvements, though. The Ricketts family, which bought the team in 2009, now says it is prepared to pay for the renovations — if the city will get out of the way.
To make the investment work, the owners say they need some flexibility on zoning and landmark restrictions. They want to be able to close streets on game days and to have more night games, including some on Saturdays. They’d like to hold more concerts and special events at the stadium. And they want to install more and bigger signs in the outfield.
“Just give us some relief on some of these restrictions and then we’ll take care of Wrigley Field,” owner Tom Ricketts said.
The project includes a structural overhaul of the 99-year-old stadium, including new restaurants, expanded concourses and a left field fan deck. Players would get a new clubhouse and underground batting cages. The owners also plan to build a boutique hotel across the street, where a McDonald’s now stands.
The team’s only requirement is that the city lift restrictions on outfield signs and night games and open Sheffield for street fairs on game days. […]
[Ald. Tom Tunney] said he’s willing to help the Cubs with additional night games “sooner than required,” noting that an agreement that caps the number of night games at 30-per-season expires in 2016. He refused to offer a specific number.
But, he said, “I’m not a supporter of putting up signs that block the view of rooftops into the ballpark.” […]
Tunney drew the line on the illuminated Toyota sign in left field that obscured the view of a Horseshoe Casino sign on the rooftop of a building owned by Tom Gramatis.
Tunney initially argued that the see-through sign was “not in keeping with the character of the neighborhood or the spirit of the landmarks” designation, then agreed to it in exchange for a four-year moratorium on additional outfield signs that expires in 2014.
Opposition from Tunney and area merchants also blocked the Cubs’ plan to close down a blocklong stretch of Sheffield for nine days to make way for street fairs during sold-out series against the Yankees, Cardinals and White Sox.
* The Quad City Times ran an editorial on Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady’s recent troubles…
Brady broke ranks with most of his party’s legislative team when he came out in support of an Illinois gay marriage law. That brings him around to where we’ve been on marriage issues: A personal lifelong commitment between two consenting adults is their business, not government’s.
That runs counter to the state GOP platform that insists it is government’s business to dictate whom Illinoisans may or may not be attracted to.
Almost immediately, the Bloomington native’s home county Republican Party called for his resignation “due to his promotion of issues contrary to the Republican Party platform.”
Platform hasn’t been a litmus test for Republican leadership in the past. In fact, Illinois Republicans amended their platform last June specifically to “welcome Republicans who may not agree with specific planks.”
* But that’s not exactly what the state GOP platform plank says…
The views expressed in this Platform, when accepted by the majority of the convention, should be the policy standard for candidates running as a Republicans in Illinois. While we welcome Republicans that may not agree with specific planks, anyone elected as a Republican should strive to self-direct their activities and policy positions to uphold these principles as the unifying basis for the Illinois Republican Party.
In other words - the Platform matters. It should guide policy decisions and activities. The Platform unifies a diverse array of opinions and should never be shrugged off or ignored.
* The Question: Do conservative Republicans have a valid point, or do they put too much emphasis on their platform? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* As I told subscribers a couple weeks ago, George Ryan will be released from prison by January 30th. Phil Rogers takes a look at the former governor’s new reality…
For the last six years, the former governor has been a federal prisoner. When he leaves the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute next week, he will be travelling not to Kankakee but to a halfway house in Chicago.
And he has nothing to pack. Someone will have to bring him the clothes he wears out of the prison gate.
“It will be the first time he’s worn his own clothes in six years,” Ryan’s former chief of staff, Scott Fawell, said Monday.
Fawell provides a unique perspective. Not only was he Ryan’s closest advisor, but he also did more than four years himself for Ryan-related crimes. And he occupied that same Salvation Army halfway house on Chicago’s west side.
“It’s dingy. It’s dark. It’s dirty,” Fawell said. “It’s an old facility.”
And ironically, said Fawell, it will be the place where Ryan will most likely mingle with the hardest criminals he will see during his entire stay with the Bureau of Prisons.
“You can be in the same room with guys who have done 20 or 30 years in prison, where he’s used to a little different clientele,” Fawell explained.
Ryan will be required to take mandatory classes on such mundane skills as opening a bank account, writing a check, and making out a resume. It sounds ridiculous for a former governor but is par for the course in the Bureau of Prisons’, one-size-fits-all approach to corrections.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Bill Cellini reports to prison today…
A judge earlier this month set Tuesday as the reporting date for Cellini, 78. Once known as the “King of Clout,” Cellini was initially supposed to report on Jan. 4 but was granted an extension.
Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke says Cellini hasn’t yet reported. He’s required to report by 2 p.m.
Burke says he can’t identify Cellini’s prison until he arrives. Cellini had requested a Montgomery, Ala., prison.
Springfield businessman Bill Cellini reported this afternoon to the same prison where former Illinois Gov. George Ryan is completing his corruption sentence.
Chris Burke, spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said that it is likely that Ryan and Cellini would see each other at the institution.
“It’s a more open facility,” he said.Burke said Cellini is at the minimum security portion of the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex.
Plenty of Illinois politicians are gathered in Washington DC for the inauguration.
There is speculation abound in the nation’s capital about who will run for governor of Illinois in 2014.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan elevated the status of her possible candidacy.
“I think there’s a lot of people who are considering what they want to do in the future and if they can be of greater service to the people of the state. I am among those people,” she said.
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column also talks about Madigan, even though the piece is about Bill Daley…
Bill Daley called the other day. We estimated that it had been about three or four years since we last had spoken, which is par for the course.
Going back to at least 2001, Daley, the brother and son of former Chicago mayors, has mulled a bid for governor. The last time was in 2009, when he publicly thought about challenging Pat Quinn in the Democratic primary election.
And now he’s talking about it again.
Before I returned Daley’s call, I wanted to check around and see what might be different this time. I was told that there are two major differences between now and before.
First of all, Rich Daley is no longer mayor. Hizzoner simply didn’t want his brother running statewide.
A gubernatorial bid could shine too much of a spotlight on the mayor, and there was real fear that a statewide run could upset the mayor’s delicately balanced coalition, meaning black voters. Bill Daley is now free to do what he wants.
The other consideration also has to do with family. Daley was divorced in 2001. Now, he has a supportive spouse who will back him all the way.
Daley confirmed those points when we finally connected. But he hasn’t been raising money, he hasn’t been traveling the state and he flatly denied a newspaper report that he had commissioned a poll.
Instead, he has been reaching out to old friends, including former President Bill Clinton, who encouraged him to run. At 64, this could be his last opportunity to conduct a strenuous statewide campaign.
Daley said if he does run, it will only be for a term or maybe two, just to straighten things out and move along.
My big question was what he could bring to the table that Dan Hynes couldn’t in 2010, when he narrowly lost to Quinn in the Democratic primary. Like Hynes, Daley is a white, Irish, South Side Chicagoan. What votes would he get that Hynes could not?
While he wouldn’t come right out and say it (most of the conversation was off the record), I think he believes that Hynes made some late mistakes and that enough voters are ready to move beyond Quinn that he has a legitimate shot.
The power of a sitting governor should never be underestimated in a primary election. Even in the “new era” of reform, governors have jobs, contracts and other favors they can hand out to key constituencies. Quinn doled out million-dollar grants like they were candy in 2010.
Besides that, Quinn is one of the best closers I’ve ever seen. After leading for months, Quinn began slipping against Hynes in 2010. By the last weekend, even some of the governor’s top aides were thinking about finding new jobs after primary day.
And Quinn rallied again that fall, when most people had written him off against state Sen. Bill Brady.
But back to Daley. Will he do it? Well, he sounds more like a candidate than he ever has, but until he starts raising money and doing some traveling round Illinois we shouldn’t take him that seriously.
Can he beat Quinn? In 2010, enough people were willing to give the “accidental governor” a chance that he was able to achieve wins by small margins in both the primary and general elections.
This time around, Quinn will have had nearly six years in the office, and if things don’t turn around soon, he’s not going to get the benefit of the doubt.
Another Daley consideration has to be whether Attorney General Lisa Madigan decides to run. After years of dismissing the prospect, Madigan seemed almost eager to take on the challenge when we spoke on Election Night in November.
She flatly denied any interest in a state Supreme Court bid, saying such a job would be too boring. She seemed steamed at Chicago reporters, who had asked her whether she could be a governor and raise her young children.
And she pointed to her huge campaign fund, which currently contains about $3.6 million. And one early poll had Madigan leading Quinn 64 percent to 20 percent.
The Daley people say they aren’t factoring Madigan into the equation just yet. If she runs, she runs. But now they aren’t worrying too much about it. We’ll see.
Illinois’ top fiscal officer urged lawmakers Monday to transfer more than $1 billion from financially sound state programs to agencies that are in danger of running out of money, including some that serve seniors, children and the disabled.
Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka said the supplemental funds are needed so the agencies can pay for services through this fiscal year, which ends in June.
“We need to end the denial and address those budget shortfalls before they jeopardize critical services that our residents depend on,” said Topinka, a Republican.
She said a health insurance fund for state workers faces a $900 million shortfall. The Department of Aging needs an estimated $200 million for a program that helps seniors and people with disabilities in home-based settings; workers compensation has requested an additional $82 million; and the Department of Children and Family Services needs about $25 million to avoid laying off child-welfare workers, she said.
She suggested that other state agencies be required to set aside a portion of their appropriation in reserve, money that could be switched to the social-service providers.
The comptroller said the donating agencies and programs would have to be “financially sound.” Asked who might fit that definition, she pointed to Gov. Pat Quinn, saying that all of the agencies “report to the governor” and that he is “in the best position” to determine who can do without.
Ms. Topinka said she’s willing to set aside 12 percent of her budget, about $3 million, for that purpose. […]
Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, chairman of the House Human Services Appropriations Committee, says it “is correct” that more money is needed and vendors need to be paid, but Ms. Topinka needs to put some skin in the game herself with specifics. “If she has identified additional reserves,” Ms. Feigenholtz said in an email, “she should present a detailed plan and we will gladly review it.”
Despite repeated failures, Democrats again are considering a multibillion-dollar loan to pay down the state’s backlog of past-due bills, now hovering at a near-record $9 billion.
Republicans, led by State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, continue to resist the short-term loan idea as a way for Illinois to pay down stacks of invoices overdue by as much as four months to businesses, charities and local governments performing some of the state’s most essential services.
But an influential Senate Democrat, John Sullivan, is working on a borrowing proposal to re-introduce in this spring’s legislative session. A House budget leader, Rep. Frank Mautino, said a loan would mean “tremendous” savings and should be part of upcoming budget negotiations with Gov. Pat Quinn.
Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said Topinka’s vociferous testimony against the measure during last fall’s session had “a chilling effect” because borrowing is “the kind of thing that needs a bipartisan coalition.”
Translation: Without bipartisan support, Madigan probably won’t move ahead with this.
* Related…
* Deadbeat Illinois: Ambulance services suffer as state delays payments
* Bruce Rauner had some harsh words for Congressman Aaron Schock when he talked to Bernie Schoenburg recently. “I do not think he’s the right person or qualified to be governor — not even close,” Rauner said.
“I find that interesting,” Schock told me this week, “coming from someone who four years ago met with me and encouraged me to run for governor … and said that he and his friends would raise me all the money I ever needed.”
Schock said Rauner had “asked to meet with me” back then.
* Schock also had this to say about the upcoming primary…
“I think I can make the case to my primary voters that maybe we need to be thinking about who can actually win the general election,” he said. “Because at the end of the day, being the nominee isn’t worth anything if you can’t win the general election.”
Rauner told me that creating wealth in Illinois and improving schools are among his passions. He said Indiana Gov. MITCH DANIELS is “sort of my hero.”
“It’s amazing that the worst-run state in the country (Illinois) is right next door to the best one,” he said. “They’re cleaning our clock, taking our jobs.” He also said their schools are “much better than ours.”
He described himself as a “free-market, conservative Republican,” but also said his wife, DIANA MENDLEY RAUNER, is a Democrat.
A worker shouldn’t be under a union boss’ thumb any more than under a business boss’ thumb. Increasingly, employers are relocating to these pro-employment freedom states, and are only looking at those states when considering job expansion decisions.
These labor issues, along with high taxes, restrictive regulations and high litigation costs have pushed more and more employers out of Illinois for years. We used to lead the nation in manufacturing employment; now, we’ve declined to merely the national average. As employers and jobs leave, our tax burden is spread over fewer taxpayers, increasing the costs for all of us who choose to remain in Illinois.
The result is a long-term death spiral that can only be reversed by becoming much more attractive to businesses and their investors and much more pro-job creation for workers.
Illinois need not adopt the exact reforms found in Wisconsin, Indiana, or Michigan. But we sure need to move in that direction if we are going to compete for jobs.
One creative solution is available to us that has not been tried elsewhere. Under federal labor law, states may authorize their local communities to decide for themselves whether to embrace right-to-work.
Why not empower Sangamon County, or Effingham County, or any of our other local governments, to decide for themselves if they would like to compete for the jobs that come with new manufacturing plants or transportation facilities built by the many hundreds of companies that will only consider expanding in flexible work areas?
A 2011 study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute found that workers in states with right-to-work laws earned, on average, $1,500 less annually than workers in closed-shop states.
The wage discrepancy is even higher for women and minorities. The rate of employer-sponsored health insurance and pensions is also lower in right-to-work states. It is not a coincidence that eight of the top 10 poorest states are so called right-to-work.
While out-of-state corporations and venture capitalists would benefit by paying significantly lower wages and virtually no benefits, the very fabric keeping our communities together today would unravel. The “race to the bottom” would hasten the decline and harm working families who are investing their time and efforts to make their communities better places to live. Responsible job creation for all throughout Illinois is the key to rebuilding our economy, not selling out working families.
* Related…
* Jim Dey: Beleaguered GOP looks to avoid family fight
