TO: State Agency Directors
FROM: Dan Hynes, Deputy Governor
DATE: November 22, 2019
RE: Merit Compensation
Our employees are integral to ensuring that state government meets the needs of those we serve. Day in and day out, state workers provide vital services to people, businesses, and communities across Illinois. We have a responsibility to ensure that we attract the best talent to these roles and fairly compensate the public servants who make our state run.
To that end, shortly after taking office, Governor Pritzker asked me to evaluate the pay structure for merit compensation employees. These employees have not received a cost of living adjustment in more than a decade (since July 1, 2009). Over that same period, inflation has increased the cost of living by 19.5 percent. This disparity has operationally hamstrung state agencies, with some managers unfairly penalized in their compensation and in some cases, paid less than those they supervise. This undermines the state’s ability to recruit and retain managers and devalues the work of those overseeing critical work within state government.
In order to begin to address these issues, we are moving forward with a two-year merit compensation plan. The plan includes the following:
Fiscal Year 2020
• Rebuild salaries for bargaining unit employees who left their bargaining unit position to take a merit compensation position. Employees with a current salary less than what it would have been with the step increases will receive an increase to match the value of the post-step adjustment level. This level will be determined by what the level would have been when the employee left to take the merit compensation position. Adjusted salaries will be effective retroactive to September 1, 2019.
• Issue a one-time stipend for all eligible merit compensation employees. To be eligible, a merit compensation employee must have been in active status as of December 31, 2018, and not had a special salary adjustment in the last 12 months (since November 1, 2018). The stipend will be pro-rated based on years of service as of November 1, 2019 ($2,500 for four or more years of service; $1875 for more than 3 years of service; $1,250 for more than 2 years of service; $625 for more than 1 year of service).
• Provide a cost of living adjustment of 1.5 percent effective January 1, 2020 for eligible merit compensation employees (in line with the 1.5 percent cost of living adjustment that AFSCME employees will receive). To be eligible, merit compensation employees must have been in active status as of December 31, 2018.
Fiscal Year 2021
• Provide a cost of living adjustment of 2.1 percent effective July 1, 2020 for all merit compensation employees (in line with the 2.1 percent cost of living adjustment that AFSCME employees will receive).
• Begin to align salary ranges for merit compensation position classifications with salary ranges for identical bargaining unit position classifications. Employees in these merit compensation positions who are earning less than the minimum salary of the corresponding bargaining salary range will receive salary increases to a new minimum salary over the next three years. Salaries for merit compensation Public Service Administrators who make less than the bargaining unit minimum will begin to be addressed over five years.
Looking ahead, I have also directed the Department of Central Management Services (CMS) to put together a proposal for a permanent merit compensation pay structure for FY22 and beyond.
In the coming days, CMS and the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget will send further guidance to state agencies to ensure proper implementation of this plan.
We sincerely value the hard work of our merit compensation employees, and we hope that this plan will provide long overdue relief and stability to state workers.
Back in the day, when the state had money to spend because it wasn’t making its full pension payments, merit comp workers would receive the same raises as union employees. The lack of raises is a big reason why so many employees have clamored to join a union.
* Oscar was born on Thanksgiving Day in 2012, so today is his 7th birthday. Here he is after a long celebratory walk…
* From earlier this week…
According to archived posts, I found out on this day 10 years ago I would be moving to Springfield to intern for @capitolfax. Of course, nothing significant happened afterwards. /s
The operator of a Summit bar that’s come under scrutiny as part of a political corruption investigation in the southwest suburbs is an associate of a top political operative for Ald. Edward Burke and state Sen. Martin Sandoval, both facing their own problems with federal investigators.
Mariano “Mario” Martinez — who runs Mars Bar, 6030 S. Harlem Ave. — has personal and professional connections to Rudy Acosta Sr., a Burke precinct captain and Sandoval pal, according to records and interviews.
Martinez, 50, was charged earlier this year with possessing and distributing a kilo of heroin.
Court papers filed in March by his lawyer identify Acosta’s nephew as the “cooperating witness” who helped federal authorities ensnare Martinez.
Martinez’s name surfaced after federal agents visited Summit on Sept. 26 as part of the ongoing corruption probe and questioned Mayor Sergio Rodriguez on matters including whether political pressure was applied to get Mars Bar a late-hours liquor license, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Thursday said she’s not sure whether she’ll call for Commissioner Jeff Tobolski to resign from his elected position, despite his absence from three important board meetings.
Preckwinkle, who is chair of the Cook County Democratic Party, recently called on Tobolski, who is also mayor in McCook, to step down from his committee leadership posts.
“I’m not sure how this is going to play out. I don’t want to speculate now on what actions I may take in the future,” she said. “I think it was clear to me anyway that we needed to make some changes in leadership as a result of his continued absence, and we’re in the process of doing that. We’ll have some recommendations for the December meeting.”
A south suburban developer is in the early stages of a deal that could bring horse racing back to Balmoral Park near south suburban Crete as part of a project that would include casino-style gambling. […]
But before Goldberg’s plan for Balmoral can be realized, state lawmakers would have to amend the gambling expansion bill Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law this summer. The law permitted a horse track and casino to operate in any of six south suburban Cook County townships, and Balmoral is in Will County. […]
A proposal for a new “racino” in Tinley Park was derailed after Pritzker stepped in to quash a sale of state land for the project. The governor’s action came after the Tribune reported the developer’s longstanding business ties to a banking family with reputed mob connections.
A former vice chancellor at City Colleges of Chicago and seven others have been indicted on federal charges alleging they ran a $350,000 kickback scheme that awarded college contracts to a series of companies with ties to the administrator’s relatives and associates.
In some cases, no work was even performed, the charges alleged.
Sharod Gordon, 45, of Oak Park, was charged in an indictment made public Wednesday with 16 counts of wire fraud. At the time of the alleged scheme, Gordon served as City Colleges’ associate vice chancellor for community relations and recruitment and later the vice chancellor of legislative and community affairs.
Also charged was Gordon’s ex-wife, Angelique Orr, 49, and two former employees of City Colleges who worked under Gordon, Krystal Stokes, 39, and Marva Smith 37. Katheryn Hayes, a spokeswoman for City Colleges, said Stokes worked as a project director and Smith as a liaison for local government agencies, both since November 2011. Stokes left in February 2018, while Smith’s last day was Wednesday, she said.
Stefanik has been a breakout star for the Republicans at these hearings. This impeachment proceeding is awash with partisan rancor — but not between Stefanik and Krishnamoorthi.
Krishnamoorthi, as a new member of the committee, has always been the last of 22 members to get his five-minute turn to quiz a witness. That means he shows up with a lot of potential questions and needs to keep juggling because he may need to be reacting to some testimony or that his questions have been asked.
When Stefanik approached, “I was in the middle of my preparation,” Krishnamoorthi said. “I think she came over and she may have just said, ‘Hello, how long is the break?’ or something like that. And then she walked away, and I was focused on my work.” […]
Krishnamoorthi said he told her, “I don’t know what happened. I didn’t intend anything.”
Stefanik told me, “We were chitchatting about our coffee or our water. It was general chitchat. I consider Raja a friend.”
Job growth in metropolitan Chicago suddenly has come to a dead halt, according to newly released state data, raising questions about how Illinois as a whole can thrive if its economic engine is idling.
The data is from the latest edition of Where Workers Work, a publication of the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Unlike most jobs numbers, it is based not on surveys and estimates but on an actual hard count of private-sector jobs covered by unemployment insurance that is considered highly reliable.
According to the report, the total number of jobs in the six-county metro area in the year ended March 31 grew just 1,361, to 3,598,232. That’s not even a tenth of a percent, and far and away is the lowest annual rise since the city and state began recovering from the subprime mortgage recession a decade ago. […]
[Thomas Walstrum, senior business economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said via email] “My best explanation is that this slowdown in jobs growth in Chicago appears to be in line with a slowdown in jobs growth in the Midwest and U.S. as a whole. . . .Because Chicago and the Midwest have been growing slower than the country throughout the recovery from the Great Recession, a slowdown in jobs growth everywhere looks worse here. I wouldn’t interpret these numbers as a sign that the Chicago economy is tanking while everywhere is doing well, but as a reflection of the fact that Chicago is the economic capital of a slow-growing region.”
A long-awaited review of the state’s troubled child abuse hotline has found the 24-hour call center needs to hire more staff, revamp its online reporting system and overhaul other procedures so people trying to report maltreatment of a minor don’t have to leave a message and wait for a callback.
The report, released Thursday by the state Department of Children and Family Services, examined hotlines in seven other states and found that Illinois had the only one that could not handle its call volume. During busy periods, callers to the Illinois hotline must leave a message with a worker, and it can take hours, and in some cases days, to receive a response from DCFS.
In the new report, researchers from the University of Illinois’ School of Social Work concluded that “inefficient processes and insufficient technology have limited the ability of Hotline staff to handle the high volume of calls that they receive. … Given the critical importance of the Hotline in protecting the safety of children in Illinois, fixing the identified problems must be considered a high priority and the Department should be given adequate resources to implement potential solutions.” […]
The hotline, which is based in Springfield, is considered the “front door” of DCFS because it’s where all child abuse and neglect investigations begin — with call takers who receive the initial report, assess the allegation and send the information to a local field office for follow-up. During peak times, the hotline receives more than 100 calls an hour and it handled a total of 268,406 calls in the last fiscal year. With call volume rising in recent years, hotline staff has resorted to taking more messages and is struggling to promptly respond to all reports.
Though the review was initially called an “audit,” internal emails between DCFS officials and U of I researchers obtained by The Daily Line show that during the months the report was being researched, written and prepared for release, the terminology switched to “report” and “review.” Additionally, top officials at DCFS and Gov. JB Pritzker’s office were able to review and make edits to the review before it was published — something that would not have been done to an official audit. […]
DCFS officials knew about the results of the report for nearly two months before it was released to certain lawmakers Wednesday and released to the public Thursday. [DCFS Director Marc Smith] himself was copied on several emails in a 213-page packet of emails obtained by The Daily Line between DCFS top brass and the U of I researchers conducting the hotline review.
The emails begin in early June when the partnership between the Children and Family Research Center and the agency was just underway, and conclude a few weeks ago. While the emails show the report was supposed to have been published in early October, the date was pushed back so that DCFS and the governor’s office could provide feedback, including edits.
“These emails say to me that DCFS put a very heavy thumb on the scale,” said Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert. […]
“If DCFS got to edit in rewrites, and the PR people at DCFS was involved, and the Governor’s office got to edit, it was not independent,” Golbert said.
“It makes it seem like they had a lot more influence on it than they should have, which again, I think they should have had nothing to do with the process,” said Leyda Garcia Greenawalt.
Greenawalt leads the Foster Care Alumni Network in Illinois. She said the big loser when government removes independent investigators are the kids who rely on that hotline.
Pritzker spokesperson Jordan Abudayyeh told The Daily Line that the governor’s office was involved in asking for edits to the report throughout the fall with the explicit goal of getting more specific recommendations from researchers.
“The administration sought specific, actionable feedback through the audit. Requests focused on getting an additional level of specificity about auditors’ recommendations, particularly in regard to staffing,” Abudayyeh said. “The Governor is working diligently with leadership at DCFS to improve frontline processes in order to better serve the state’s most vulnerable children…The department will work to implement all 11 recommendations and will continue to engage with stakeholders to ensure vulnerable children across the state are getting the services they deserve.”
And then there’s the issue of America’s longest-serving Speaker of a State legislator, Michael Madigan.
“I’ve got a good relationship with the Speaker. I actually respect him as a legislator. He’s done an amazing job over what 40 years or more? You can’t take it away from him, he’s a political genius,” Lightford said. “But that doesn’t intimidate me. It allows me an opportunity to work with the speaker. I have excellent negotiation skills and I would love to shake up the table a little bit. … Power is in the imagination. It’s what you give him. I’ll have power too as the Senate president so we can balance our power out. “
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** Some of the “thoughts” in comments are clearly lacking on this topic. A legislator pal just texted me this: He has the power you allow him to have over you. Operate from there.
That’s at the heart of what Lightford said, not your own fantasy worlds.
Madigan gets into peoples’ heads. Look at Bruce Rauner, who let Madigan reside rent free in his cranium for four long years.
The best way to deal with Madigan is, first and foremost, not let him get into your head.
Of all the new tax programs Pritzker is using to balance his budget, Fitch noted that “the most significant” one is the nearly $400 million from a new assessment fee levied on managed care organizations, or MCOs.
Pritzker called it an “insurance tax” in his budget address last week. His administration has projected it will bring in $390 million.
Davesurance.com insurance broker David Castillo said consumers can expect to pay more if the tax is implemented.
Earlier this year, credit rating agency Fitch said the proposed insurance tax is “the most significant” recurring revenue stream proposed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, which could bring in $400 million. Pritzker’s administration earlier this year said it would bring in $390 million.
Davesurance.com insurance broker Dave Castillo said consumers can expect to pay more if such a tax passes, but that money will be matched dollar for dollar by the federal government.
“So I think it might be a reliable source of revenue,” Castillo said. “I don’t think it’s enough to cause major discontent in the marketplace.”
However, questions about how the tax on managed care organizations will work remain. MCOs are organizations that handle both taxpayer-funded Medicaid and traditional insurance claims. Lawmakers approved a tiered tax on MCOs beginning in 2020 as part of the budget that was passed with bipartisan support in the final days of the legislative session last month. That revenue would then be matched by federal funding as a way to pay the state’s Medicaid bills.
Davesurance.com insurance broker Dave Castillo said it’s like using the same tax dollar twice.
Asked Tuesday if the Medicaid buy-in plan in one expansion he’s eyeing, the governor said: “that’s one area to do it, yeah.”
Davesurance.com insurance broker Dave Castillo said although he doesn’t know the details of the possible plan, he sees some problems, including putting more stress on an already stressed Medicaid system.
When asked this summer if the Medicaid buy-in plan is one expansion he’s eyeing, the governor said: “That’s one area to do it, yeah.”
Davesurance.com insurance broker Dave Castillo said although he doesn’t know the details of the possible plan, he sees some problems, including putting more stress on an already stressed Medicaid system.
Davesurance.com insurance broker Dave Castillo said a proposal could come up during the 2020 election cycle as some presidential candidates have proposed Medicaid-for-all programs. Castillo said a state-specific Medicaid buy-in program could have unintended consequences, such as specialist rationing or higher costs for other insurance plans.
Davesurance.com insurance broker Dave Castillo said there’s no question the high cost of insulin has hurt many with diabetes. But capping the price could have some unintended consequences.
That priority to medical marijuana dispensaries means the first waves of Chicago’s pot shops are all white-owned, according to Black Caucus Chairman Ald. Jason Ervin.
“We are concerned about the lack of African American participation, which stands currently at zero. And we’ve not heard any plan from the state or from anyone to change that … so I think as a city that is a majority minority, to see that a half a billion dollar industry has no participation from two of the city’s largest communities I just think is wrong,” Ervin said. “The reality is that today I think that the state should create a system that would ensure African American ownership from the start … They want us to participate in the consumption but don’t want us to participate in the growing and the distribution of it.”
Ron Holmes and Kareem Kenyatta established their business, The Majority-Minority Group, to help applicants navigate the complicated – and expensive – process.
“Social equity kind of a buzzword that’s floating all over the country. Everyone’s going to have a different definition. For me it just means that the black corner boy can have the same opportunity that the white VC guy with the corner office can have,” Holmes said. “We want to make sure that we’re providing not just an equal amount of licenses to folks but also trying to repair and restore communities that have been disproportionally impacted by the war on drugs.”
Two social equity groups are pushing to get minority business owners involved in recreational marijuana sales in Illinois.
Neffer-Oduntunde Kerr is one of 30 people chosen Sunday as part of a 6 weeks’ long training process sponsored by two organizations aiming to add diversity to the upcoming Illinois’ marijuana industry.
Kerr is a single mother currently working multiple jobs while attending graduate school. She said this new opportunity presents promise and equity that she hasn’t seen very much of in her own community. […]
The [people] chosen on Sunday will now move on to the competitive process to apply for state-issued adult-use licenses, with both 4th MVMT and Majority-Minority helping them along the way.
Holmes and Kenyatta could’ve just submitted their own applications and cashed in. Instead, they’re doing this. And, yes, they’re getting paid, but they’re also doing some real good work.
Illinois’ highest court ruled Thursday that it is unconstitutional to ban convicted sex offenders from social media sites.
Conrad Allen Morger was convicted of sexually abusing a minor and sentenced to four years of probation by a court in McLean County. That came with a binding condition he not use specific internet sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
During oral arguments, held in September in Godfrey, Morger’s representative said the ban is a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment fundamental right to freedom of speech. […]
The justices analyzed Illinois’ law by considering whether the mandatory social media ban is “reasonably related” to the goal of probation — which is rehabilitation.
In Packingham, defendant, a registered sex offender who had completed his sentence, was convicted for violating a North Carolina law that barred registered sex offenders from gaining access to commercial social networking websites. The Supreme Court concluded the North Carolina statute impermissibly restricted lawful speech in violation of the first amendment.
* Crain’s takes a look at Senate President hopeful Kimberly Lightford’s history with ComEd and Exelon. Exerpt…
Among those bills was ComEd’s most recent major initiative—a 10-year extension of the generous formula rate that enables it to change rates each year, at a locked-in profit, with little scrutiny from state regulators. Lightford was a chief co-sponsor of that bill when it was introduced last spring. ComEd lobbied hard for the measure before the May adjournment, but uncharacteristically failed to win approval. It later came to light that contract lobbyists for the company had had their homes raided by federal investigators in that month.
Lightford was the primary Senate sponsor of ComEd-backed legislation in 2015 that for the first time allowed the utility to profit on the increasing amounts it invests in promoting energy efficiency, financed through a surcharge on customers’ monthly electric bills. The legislation, as introduced, would have authorized six ComEd-built “microgrids”—dedicated power generators and lines serving discrete areas. ComEd’s bill was rolled into the broader Future Energy Jobs Act, enacted in late 2016, which also bailed out two nuclear plants parent company Exelon had threatened to close, and in the final product authorized just one microgrid, serving the Bronzeville neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.
According to the Center for Illinois Politics, Lightford raised the sixth most in the Senate from ComEd and Exelon. Senate President Cullerton and Sens. Tony Munoz, Bill Brady, Sue Rezin and Terry Link raised more. Sen. Don Harmon, who is also bidding to replace John Cullerton, raised the eleventh most. Among just ComEd recipients, Lightford ranked third in the Senate behind Senate President Cullerton and Sen. Tony Munoz.
Asked about how fellow senators might view the ComEd issue in light of her bid, she said they don’t want “a leader who was not engaged” in major issues. She’s made stronger ethics rules a key plank of her campaign, which some might view as hard to square with a record of staunch support for ComEd and Exelon’s priorities. But, she said, “I don’t know that Edison has any direct relationship to us changing the ethical things we need to change.”
I think I know what she may have meant to say there, but it surely didn’t come out that way. She’s going to talk herself out of the top job if she isn’t careful.
State Rep. Curtis Tarver II (D-Chicago) was arrested Monday night in the Woodlawn section of Chicago and charged with carrying a weapon with an invalid concealed carry license (CCL), according to Chicago police.
Replying to an inquiry from Chicago City Wire, the CPD Office of Communications said that at approximately 8:32 p.m. on November 18 officers on patrol in the 6500 block of South Stony Island Avenue stopped a vehicle with a broken headlight. They asked the driver, whom they identified as Curtis Tarver, 38, if there were weapons in the vehicle.
“The driver handed officers a weapon that was in the vehicle, as well as a concealed carry license,” a CPD communications officer wrote in an email. “Further investigation revealed the license was revoked. The subject was taken into custody and charged accordingly.”
Tarver was charged with a misdemeanor for the invalid license. He was also cited for the faulty headlight. He was issued an I-bond (a no-cash bond) and released. A court appearance is set for December 27 at 727 E. 111th St., Chicago.
And then it delves into speculation about why his carry license had been revoked.
* From Rep. Tarver…
On November 18, I was the subject of a routine traffic stop, at which time what appears to have been a clerical error regarding my concealed carry license resulted in my arrest. The facts are clear and supported by documents which I have shared with the Chicago Police Department: In August 2019, my concealed carry permit was renewed through August 2024. Upon receiving notice that concealed carry license was revoked because my Firearm Owners Identification Card (FOID) had expired I immediately renewed my FOID. The renewal was effective as of November 16. While I had no way of knowing, this renewal purportedly was not yet reflected in Chicago Police Department records. The department acknowledged that my FOID was valid as of November 16. This was two days prior to the traffic stop, indicating that the concealed carry license should also be valid. I fully expect this case will be resolved quickly and without incident.
Like many people in Chicago, I applied for a concealed carry license in order to keep myself and my daughter safe. I take considerable efforts to ensure that I am always in compliance with our state’s laws and following safe practices for handling a firearm. This commitment to stronger gun laws that promote responsible ownership is why I recently voted for the Fix the FOID Act, which cracks down on illegal gun sales, strengthens background checks and closes unnecessary loopholes. I look forward to continuing this work on behalf of our community and focusing efforts to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands.
Reached Friday morning, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the misdemeanor charge was due to an expired CCL license and that it was “likely a paperwork issue.”
