* Illinois Department of Corrections chief Donald Stolworthy wrote a recent memo to Gov. Rauner outlining some problems with union work rules…
Back in February, more than 1,000 state prison workers decided they’d rather spend their Sunday night watching Russell Wilson and Tom Brady play football.
Using rules outlined in their collective bargaining agreement, the employees told their bosses they wouldn’t be working their shifts that day, triggering a Super Bowl shuffle for overtime that officials say ended up costing Illinois taxpayers an additional $325,000 in wages.
* OK, let’s stop right there. The Super Bowl was February 1st. Do you know what else happened that day? A gigantic freaking blizzard…
A slow-moving winter storm blanketed a large swath of the Plains and Midwest in snow Sunday, forcing the cancellation of thousands of flights, making roads treacherous and forcing some people to rethink their plans to attend Super Bowl parties. […]
Forecasters also said the storm was moving unusually slowly, meaning accumulations of between 10 to 16 inches of snow are possible for parts of northern Illinois, Indiana and northwest Ohio. Similar amounts of snow are expected for the Northeast later Sunday and throughout Monday.
“It’s not wise to travel, unless you have an emergency,” said David Beachler a National Weather Service meteorologist in the Chicago area.
Along with the Super Bowl example, the state’s master contract allows overtime to be assigned by seniority.
“More expensive workers get more work,” the document notes.
The memo also says corrections officers are paid overtime for the 15-minute roll call that occurs at the beginning of their shifts. The administration said the price tag for that alone was $22 million last year.
* AFSCME’s response…
AFSCME has worked for years to address IDOC’s overtime problem caused by a chronic understaffing: The department has fewer than 11,000 employees where a decade ago it had 17,000, while the prison population has actually increased. The union has long urged IDOC to hire adequate staff to improve safety and reduce overtime costs, and to work together with the union to improve operations.
We are always willing to discuss ways to operate correctional facilities better and more safely, but we believe that prison employees who put themselves at risk to keep all citizens safe earn their pay and deserve to be fairly compensated.
When looking at overtime, taking any single day out of context misses the point that the department is systematically short-staffed. Poor management exacerbates this systemic problem. If the department anticipates staffing challenges on a specific date, for example, it can run a ‘holiday’ schedule whereby it seeks volunteers to work the time well in advance.
Specifically with respect to Feb. 1, much of the state was hit by a significant blizzard on that date which made roads impassable in many cases. A foot of snow had been forecast; the Chicago region was socked with more than 19 inches, the rest of northern Illinois 12 inches and central Illinois 8 inches, plus 45 mph winds. Such conditions are just one factor – some foreseeable, some not – that can lead to overtime but could be largely mitigated by (1) having adequate staff on hand to begin with and (2) better management.
Regarding seniority, the department’s statements are misleading. Overtime is first offered to employees in descending order of seniority to ensure that factors such as favoritism are not improperly wielded by management. Then, the union contract actually provides for a system that bases overtime distribution on who has worked the least amount of overtime, regardless of seniority. This method helps to foster workplace safety by minimizing the risk of employees working two straight shifts or working 20 or more hours of overtime in the same week. Finally, if there is no other option, mandatory overtime can be compelled in *reverse* seniority order, meaning that the lowest-cost employee ends up working the time.
Finally, on roll call, it is voluntary and takes place outside employees’ scheduled hours. And there is no requirement in the union contract that management hold roll call. Yet it is critically important to safety, because it provides an opportunity for the committed, professional staff of DOC to get vital information and training essential to their dangerous work. Employees should be fairly paid for their participation.
Nominations are needed for the 7th annual Illinoisan of the Day program. The Illinois State Fair Museum Foundation is seeking individuals to spotlight during the 2015 Illinois State Fair. The Illinoisan of the Day program looks to honor individuals who exemplify the qualities and characteristics associated with the Land of Lincoln: integrity, dependability, sense of community, and strong ethics.
Illinoisan of the Day nominees must be a resident of Illinois and at least 25 years old. Nominees should be involved in service activities, educational projects, and /or youth programs, and have an affiliation with state and/or county fairs in Illinois. Nominees must also have shown their true Illinois spirit through continued volunteerism and community service.
Illinoisan of the Daywinners will receive honors on their special day during this year’s Illinois State Fair, which takes place August 13 - 23.
Tony Smith, 48, a RiverForest resident and executive director of the Oak Park-based W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation, has been appointed as the state’s new state school superintendent.
Smith replaces outgoing superintendent Christopher Koch, who served in the position for eight years. With more than two million students, Illinois’s K-12 school system is among the largest in the nation.
The Illinois Board of Education voted unanimously to approve Smith’s contract, which will take effect on May 1. He will be paid a starting salary of $225,000, according to a Chicago Tribune report. Smith has ties with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. Last year, he was appointed to Rauner’s transition committee for education policy. […]
But the unanimous vote and laudatory statements from [State Board of Education Chairman James Meeks] doesn’t necessarily translate into the state board’s complete equanimity with the decision. Board member Steven Gilford told the Tribune that he was “very disappointed that Dr. Koch is going to leave the agency” and that “I don’t think it’s really the right decision for this agency.”
A key member of the Illinois State Board of Education has formally resigned over concerns about the way new state Superintendent Tony Smith was hired.
The Chicago Tribune reported that resigning board member James Baumann said there was no national search and only one candidate for the state’s top schools position.
Smith was appointed by the board of education last week and takes over May 1. He is the former head of Oakland, California, schools and has ties to Gov. Bruce Rauner.
He also was Rauner’s recommendation to the board. The Republican governor recently appointed five new board members to the nine-person board.
A law aimed at curbing late-career pay raises for educators continues to sting some suburban school districts with six-figure costs.
And now a new proposal from Gov. Bruce Rauner raises the prospect of more penalty costs to school districts if pay for teachers or administrators nearing retirement rises above the rate of inflation.
Under a law approved last decade, school districts have to pay the additional pension costs that result from giving teachers or administrators end-of-career pay raises of more than 6 percent a year. The law is aimed at preventing big pay bumps that drive up pension costs for the state. Pension benefits are based in part on employees’ salaries in the final years of their careers. […]
Rauner, a Winnetka Republican, proposes abandoning the 6 percent threshold. Instead, the governor wants school districts to pay for pension costs generated by teacher pay raises that are higher than the Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation.
For 2014, the index was at about 1.5 percent, and it’s hovered around there in recent years, peaking at 3.2 percent in 2011, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
* Related…
* ADDED: IFT Press Release: Governor Rauner to give keynote on “economics of education” after slashing crucial programs, threatening 32% cut to higher education
* Hopes dim for school funding formula overhaul’s passage: Despite a revamp to ease partisan and regional opposition, Illinois lawmakers now see little chance of passing legislation this session that would overhaul the state’s outdated school funding formula for the first time in two decades.
* Rauner’s dangerous talk of Chicago schools bankruptcy: Does he understand that scaring unions to the table may be good and effective theater, but actually pushing CPS or other governmental units into bankruptcy might blow up with lots of collateral damage? No one seems to know. One source familiar with Rauner’s ways likens him to the “Animal House” character who has a devil perched on one shoulder and an angel on the other, each urging him to take different steps. Rauner’s dislike of unions is so deep he may have lost objectivity.
Gov. Bruce Rauner says bills are ready. “We will introduce those when the leaders say we should introduce ‘em,” he said at a recent editorial board appearance.
But it’s unclear who — or when — the bills will get the go-ahead.
Senate President John Cullerton, a Democrat, says “we haven’t seen any language. We haven’t seen any bills of any of his other Turnaround proposals.”
It’s the same for other leaders, according to sources and spokespeople.
It may seem like a technicality, or inside baseball, and Rauner supporters say even without legislation, the leaders can negotiate with the governor on the broad terms of his agenda. But without actual bills, the legislature can’t take any action. And Rauner says he won’t contemplate a tax hike, or reverse course on his proposed budget cuts, until his Turnaround package is passed.
* The governor said the same thing to Fox Chicago’s Mike Flannery last week. Flannery caught up to House Speaker Michael Madigan shortly afterward…
FLANNERY: Are there any parts of his agenda that you could support?
MJM: Well, again, we need to know the details of what he’s talking about. I know he’s talked a lot about generalities. I know that, and that’s fine.
FLANNERY: But he’s said that he’s already drafted six bills that have his agenda there and he says, and I said ‘Well, could I have the bills?’ and he said ‘As soon as the General Assembly says it’s OK.’
MJM [looking puzzled]: Those bills haven’t been filed. So, I don’t, you don’t know what you’re, you’re, I’m not being nasty, but nobody knows what he’s talking about until we see the bills as filed.
FLANNERY: He says he’s already drafted the language.
MJM: But they haven’t been, they haven’t been given to us and they haven’t been filed.
FLANNERY: So you can’t really talk about it until you see specific bills?
MJM: Right, yeah, yeah. […]
FLANNERY [in studio]: The governor, though, appears determined not to introduce those bills any time soon. It would, of course, give the Democratic super-majorities who control both chambers in the General Assembly a chance to very quickly vote down Rauner’s proposals. His reluctance to get into the, take things onto the floor of the General Assembly certainly does increase the odds that this spring session will miss the May 31st deadline and go into overtime. And that means any eventual deal on the 2016 budget and the governor’s agenda will require a super majority to pass it in June or July or December.
* Some commenters were flabbergasted when Makanda’s village board unanimously passed Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda” resolution earlier this month. The tiny village is a very liberal town and the former residence of US Sen. Paul Simon.
Makanda’s village president said the board did not mean to endorse Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed local right-to-work zones where he seeks to allow voters to decide whether to disband closed union shops in the communities where they live.
Village President Tina Shingleton said board members thought they were simply signaling the village’s desire for more local control and autonomy from the state when it passed a two-page resolution supporting Rauner’s so-called “Turnaround Agenda.”
She said the board had no intention of making a political statement about collective bargaining when the April 6 vote made Makanda one of 19 local governments to have endorsed the resolution. It is the first community to sign off on the resolution in heavily unionized Southern Illinois, where even many conservatives are proud union members of, for example, the coal mines, steel mills, state prisons and public schools. […]
“None of us are anti-union and we don’t want to see jobs taken away from anybody,” she said, noting that she is currently in the process of determining whether a vote to revoke support of the resolution in whole or part is in order.
But how could they miss this language?…
Whereas voters in our community should be allowed to decide via referendum whether or not employees should be forced to join a union or pay dues as a condition of employment…
Sheesh. And some believe state legislators are lazy.
Effingham County (Effingham)
Monday, April 20 at 4:00 p.m.
101 North 4th Street
Mt. Zion (Macon County)
From Mayor Robinson: Gov. Rauner’s Turnaround Agenda has been removed from the Village Board’s agenda for this Monday (4/20/15) and will not be discussed.
Naperville (DuPage County)
Tuesday, April 21 at 7:00 p.m.
400 S. Eagle St.
Campton Hills (Kane County)
Tuesday, April 21 at 6:30 p.m.
5N082 Old LaFox Roedl
Vernon Hills (Lake County)
Tuesday, April 21 at 7:00 p.m.
290 Evergreen Drive, Vernon Hills
Wauconda (Lake County)
Tuesday, April 21 at 7:00 p.m.
101 N. Main Street, Wauconda
*** UPDATE *** I asked the Northwest Municipal Conference if they’d taken a position on the governor’s draft resolution…
Rich:
The topic of the turnaround agenda was placed on the Northwest Municipal Conference Board’s April 8 agenda for discussion. There was no call from our members to advance a supporting resolution.
Larry Bury
Deputy Director
Northwest Municipal Conference
Not what the governor’s office wanted to hear, I imagine.
We live in a state of extremes, from brutal summer days to wicked winters. Luckily, Illinois’ nuclear energy plants keep the lights on and the power flowing, day in and day out, with no carbon emissions. Now, some of these plants may have to shut down because of outdated energy policies. Costing up to 8,000 lost Illinois jobs. $1.8 billion in lost economic activity every year. $500 million a year in higher energy costs statewide. And a lot less clean air. If we lose these plants, things could get really uncomfortable. around here. Members of the Illinois General Assembly: Vote YES on House Bill 3293 and Senate Bill 1585 to keep our nuclear plants open.
* But before you rate it, you might wanna check out this recent poll taken by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates and Public Opinion Strategies for the NRDC…
You’ll recall that the Exelon bill would freeze out alternative energy providers from tapping into the $300 million the company wants for its nuke plants.
Seven in ten strongly favor increased energy efficiency as a way to meet Illinois’s future needs, and majorities back increased use of a number of renewable sources, including solar and wind.
In contrast, fewer than one in five strongly back increasing the use of coal and nuclear power.
* Finally, Alvarez stops acting like a conviction-hungry prosecutor and starts behaving more like a state’s attorney…
People busted repeatedly with minor amounts of marijuana could face treatment rather than prosecution under a set of “sweeping” reforms Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez is set to announce on Monday.
The county’s top prosecutor will announce the “first of its kind alternative prosecution program” during a press conference at her office Monday morning, according to a news release.
The program is designed for nonviolent individuals charged with Class 4 felony drug possession and intends to link repeat offenders with social service agencies “for treatment rather than pursuing criminal penalties,” according to the release. Its goal is to begin addressing chronic drug use as a public health issue. […]
Alvarez spokeswoman Sally Daly said the state’s attorney intends, in most cases, not to prosecute misdemeanor marijuana charges brought against people with no significant history of violence. Individuals with three or more arrests or citations for misdemeanor marijuana possession will instead be referred to drug school, she added.
Alvarez’ office says Class 4 felony drug possession cases accounted for 25 percent of all felony cases in Cook County last year. On top of that, there were 15,000 misdemeanor cases for possession of small amounts of cannabis.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey…
“While today’s announcement by Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez is a welcome departure from past practices in her office, more needs to be done at the local and state level to address the inequities of our criminal justice system.
I appreciate that States Attorney Alvarez is finally moving in the right direction by reforming low-level drug possession laws that have not made practical or economic sense for decades. But seven years in office is a long time to finally recognize that our criminal justice system operates unjustly and without accomplishing its stated goals. That is why I have been arguing for, and obtaining, changes in our law for several years.
During her tenure in office, tens of thousands of Cook County residents, disproportionately minorities, have been victim to our outdated drug laws, subjecting them to unnecessary arrest records while costing County taxpayers countless millions of dollars for charges that were ultimately dismissed.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** From Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle…
I am pleased to see that the State’s Attorney has finally recognized what many of us have been saying for years – that our failed drug policies are resulting in the unnecessary detention and incarceration of thousands of people, primarily young men of color, who are accused of non-violent low-level drug offenses each year.
That’s why I have spent the last four years leading a collaborative effort with all of the public safety stakeholders in Cook County, as well as the Illinois Supreme Court, to lower the population of the Cook County Jail by implementing systemic reform throughout our system. Today, as a result of our hard work, the population of the jail is just over 7,800 – the lowest it’s been for more than two decades.
While I hope that the State’s Attorney’s policy changes will result in fewer people in our jail and courts, the fact is that we cannot rely on policies that are subject to change based on public pressure or who is in office. Instead we must change our laws to ensure that reforms are permanent and not subject to the discretion of one actor in a complicated system.
I will continue to work with all of our partners at the state level to change drug laws and policies so that we treat addiction as a public health issue rather than a public safety issue by keeping non-violent addicts out of our jails and prisons and placing them into community-based programs. I hope the State’s Attorney will join me in supporting these legislative efforts in the Illinois General Assembly.
These are not “Rauner’s cuts.” They are called “consequences.” The hostility aimed at Rauner seems to suggest his budget cuts are motive driven. They’re not. They’re math driven.
Cuts to a program for autistic children are the consequence of an underfunded budget that the Democrats deliberately approved last year. They knowingly left Springfield with the state’s checkbook in the red. State agencies, including those that deal with vulnerable populations, would not have enough money to get through the fiscal year. Rather than staying in Springfield beyond their May 31 adjournment to figure out how to pass a balanced budget, lawmakers hit the campaign trail last year. They spent the summer and fall at political fundraisers and golf outings and receptions.
When Rauner won in November, they knew exactly what he would be facing.
And sure enough, Rauner is portrayed as the cruel Ebenezer Scrooge, picking on disabled children.
She’s right about the Democrats screwing up this fiscal year’s budget. It was a disaster.
However, the FY 15 deal with Rauner to close the budget gap fully funded programs like autism. He made the choice to cut them. Those cuts are now on him.
Rauner now says he wants to sweep more money from special funds in order to stave off at least some of the recent cuts — an option he says Democrats weren’t open to when they negotiated the original budget fix last month.
“We in our administration had actually advocated more sweeping and fewer cuts, and we said to them if they would consider looking at the sweeps again,” Rauner said Friday during a stop in tornado-ravaged Fairdale. “Some of those (special funds) could be swept and potentially some of the cuts could be restored, or some of the necessary cuts could be reduced in size.”
* But let’s get back to the Democratic budget that was passed last year. Remember when Fox Chicago’s Mike Flannery righteously slammed the Dems?…
“I can’t recall seeing as irresponsible budget as was just approved… You’d think that the whole General Assembly was on medical marijuana when they were passing this thing. It’s grotesquely out of balance… They emptied their whole dirty bag of tricks to make it look balanced.”
As we all know, the Democrats deliberately underfunded the budget to the tune of $1.6 billion. The governor’s proposed FY 16 budget, however, has a much bigger hole in it, including a $2.2 billion savings from pension reform even though there’s almost no way that the governor’s legislation will clear the courts during the upcoming fiscal year.
“We are recommending doing a constitutional referendum. So, we’ll change the language so we’re not in court for years. We’ll make it clear in the Constitution what we can and can’t change.
(a) Amendments to this Constitution may be initiated in either house of the General Assembly. Amendments shall be read in full on three different days in each house and reproduced before the vote is taken on final passage. Amendments approved by the vote of three-fifths of the members elected to each house shall be submitted to the electors at the general election next occurring at least six months after such legislative approval
Now, perhaps the governor could also call for a special general election this fall to take up the matter, but I’m not sure if the attorney general and the courts would agree with that. I’ve asked the AG’s people for their thoughts on this particular matter, and I’ll let you know what they say.
Obviously, if they wait until the next regularly scheduled general election, they can’t possibly draw down any savings this fiscal year. And even if they attempt to push through a special election, the courts could still hold up the pension reform law, meaning no savings this fiscal year.
Many moons ago, the Daily Southtown moved my weekly newspaper column to Sundays. I was pleased with the development because it meant more readers, but House Speaker Michael Madigan registered a mild complaint.
Madigan said Sunday was his “family day.” He didn’t read newspapers on Sundays because he focused on his wife and children during a traditional day of rest. Now he would have to read a Sunday paper.
I have to admit feeling a little flattered by that revelation. But I also remember being puzzled why Madigan avoided Sunday newspapers. Back in those days, just about every informed person read the Sunday papers. How could he not read them?
And then I met Bruce Rauner.
From the first time I met him in 2014, Rauner has bragged that he…
Gov. Bruce Rauner devised a new way to reward his friends and punish his enemies on April 16th when he created a campaign committee called “Illinois Turnaround.”
Illinois Turnaround is an independent expenditure committee, meaning contributions to it and by it are not capped by law. The committee’s officially stated purpose is to “support state legislative candidates who support Gov. Rauner’s bold and needed reforms, and to oppose those who stand in the way.”
According to Rauner insiders, the new committee will be given $4-5 million within days of its founding. That’s in addition to the $20 million the governor has in his own personal campaign account, which won’t be touched for this particular effort.
Spending on advertising is expected to begin soon after the money comes in.
The governor’s campaign also released a polling memo which purports to show that the public backs his agenda. While his job approval rating is just 38 percent, his disapproval rating is five points below at 33 percent and his favorable rating is 42 percent, versus 34 who view him unfavorably.
By contrast, the General Assembly’s job approval rating is a mere 20 percent, with 57 percent disapproving. House Speaker Michael Madigan’s favorables are just 24 percent, with 51 percent viewing him unfavorably.
The poll also found that 57 percent agree with: “Bruce Rauner is trying to shake things up in Springfield, but the career politicians are standing in his way,” and 56 percent agree that the governor is “working to find bipartisan solutions that will help fix Illinois’s budget mess and improve the struggling state economy.”
“Every time they attack us,” a Rauner insider said about the Democrats, “they are reinforcing that they are insiders and the governor is the outsider - he’s the one trying to change things.”
The issue questions are interesting because they provide a roadmap of how the money will be spent and what the governor intends to do at the Statehouse in the coming weeks.
For instance, “Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for a State Representative who voted to raise the Illinois income tax rate without any property tax freeze and without any significant economic or budget reforms to help our economy grow?” 56 percent said they’d be “less likely” to vote for that legislator, while just 15 percent said “more likely.” The governor is obviously preparing to “go to the mattresses.”
Another question asked whether voters supported higher taxes, without which “major budget cuts… will hurt education, health care, and other state services,” or if they backed lower spending, “even if that means major spending cuts will be required.”
53 percent said they wanted lower spending while 39 percent said they backed higher taxes. The Rauner folks have extrapolated from this question that voters back the governor’s spending cuts. We’ll see.
And they claim that the state Senate hearings around the state which are focusing on the governor’s recent and proposed cuts are doing the Democrats no good. “The bottom line is if the legislature chooses to ignore his reforms and we are forced to go the austere budget - politically - the governor will be fine and the legislature will be in even worse shape,” a Rauner insider e-mailed me.
The “austere budget” is being talked up by Rauner insiders as a way of forcing Democrats to cave on things like local “right to work” zones. They firmly believe that if they refuse to back any additional revenues for next fiscal year, Democrats will eventually have to recognize reality and give the governor what he wants.
The issue questions are clearly loaded. For instance, check out part of the “right to work” question: “Under current Illinois law, workers are often required to join a labor union and pay union dues as a condition of their employment. In other words, the worker cannot take a job unless he or she joins the union.”
Not mentioned is that Rauner wants to allow employees who receive all the benefits of union membership to not have to pay for those valuable union services. It’s like passing a law that lets newspaper advertisers off the hook for paying for their ads.
But when you essentially have unlimited resources and the other side doesn’t, as is the case with Rauner versus the Democrats, you can frame an advocacy campaign pretty much any way you want.
We’ve entered an entirely new world, campers.
* And the AP takes a look at Rauner’s longed-for mega-deal, which would be based on the threat of an “austere budget”…
Seizing on Illinois’ budget crisis as a political opportunity, Republican businessman-turned-governor Bruce Rauner is trying to broker a master deal to advance his pro-business priorities through the Legislature in exchange for new revenue to save programs near and dear to the Democrats.
Democratic leaders who control the General Assembly say they’re willing to negotiate, and talks with Republicans could begin in the next week. But they caution that some of Rauner’s proposals are non-starters. […]
“Crisis creates opportunity for change, and we have a crisis. … We’ve got to take advantage of that,” Rauner told attendees at an Illinois Chamber of Commerce event. “A lot people are saying ‘Bruce, just balance the budget and worry about other stuff later. We’ll talk to you later about reform.’ No, no, no. … If we do only that, they’ll never talk about reform. It’ll never happen.” […]
But [Rikeesha Phelon, a spokeswoman for Democratic Senate President John Cullerton] said the Senate will not consider Rauner’s proposal to create right to work zones, which unions strongly oppose and she says wouldn’t make Illinois more competitive. She said Senate Democrats also have differences of opinion with Rauner on what changes are needed to programs like workers’ compensation.
