* The president says states should decide when to reopen. In some states, counties that want to reopen even faster say they should decide. In some counties, mayors who that want to reopen faster say they should decide and not counties or states. And in some towns, individuals who think they should be allowed to reopen are doing so in defiance of their city, county and state. Here’s Phil Luciano…
A Peoria businessman is suing Gov. JB Prtizker, alleging the state’s stay-at-home order is unconstitutional and therefore does not apply to his business.
Further, Adam White, owner of RC Outfitters (formerly Running Central) is requesting a temporary restraining order to block enforcement of the order at his business. Meanwhile, in defiance of the stay-at-home order, White has reopened the store, 311 SW Water St. […]
The Attorney General’s Office is requesting a change of venue from Peoria County to Sangamon County, the seat of which is Springfield. Its claim: because the governor’s office is in Springfield, the case should be heard there.
White’s attorney, Drew Cassidy of Peoria, counters the case should proceed in Peoria, where White’s business has suffered financial harm because of the order.
* Also Phil Luciano…
Mayor Jim Edwards says Goodfield is open for business.
Edwards on Thursday announced guidelines “to be followed by any business either when a business decides to open or when the governor’s shelter-in-place order is lifted.”
The village, which has about 860 residents, is in Woodford County.
“Look on this as a fragile opportunity and treat it as such, because nothing could be worse than to see a dramatic surge in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths,” Edwards said. “None of us are bullet-proof, so let’s all be cautious out there.”
Restaurants can open starting May 15 to 50 percent of the posted building capacity. They can open June 1 at 75 percent capacity.
Clark County, in southeastern Illinois, is about to implement the same sort of plan. Click here.
* And at least one suburban mayor is trying to take matters into his own hands…
Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau has called for his community to reopen faster than is outlined as part of Governor JB Pritzker’s plan.
He says it just can’t wait. […]
Mayor Pekau posted video on social media Thursday. The village said that it may lose $2.7 million this year in sales tax revenue because of COVID-19 restrictions, so it has laid out its own plan to reopen businesses at a faster pace.
* But this approach is creating a lot of local confusion…
East Peoria appears to be bucking the Illinois governor in allowing some businesses to reopen before statewide coronavirus-inspired restrictions are lifted.
For now, at least, it appears Peoria won’t be joining its eastern neighbor.
City legal representatives suggest municipal officials can’t override Gov. JB Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis said earlier this week.
“Even though the community has done a good job and our hospital capacity is in a decent place, we want to be respectful of the governor,” Ardis said. “He’s the governor, right?
“In a nutshell, that’s why we haven’t done anything. We don’t see we have the authority to do that.”
* And it’s being fueled in part by the behavior of surrounding states. For instance, this is from the Quad City Times…
Friday marks the reopening of parts of the economy in Scott and Muscatine counties. It doubles as a sign of hope for business owners in the Iowa Quad-Cities.
“Finally there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. We’re not through it completely, but there’s some hope to get back to a new sense of normal,” said Amy DeFauw, owner of Katsch Boutique.
DeFauw is reopening her Davenport boutique store, 5619 Utica Ridge, at 10 a.m. Friday, while the Geneseo location remains closed for the time being. Eight stores at North Park Mall, such as Von Maur, also plan to reopen to in-store customers Friday.
Scott County is right across the river from Rock Island County. Whether or not you agree with them, it’s gotta be hugely tough for Illinois business owners to see that happening just a bridge away.
* Former Gov. Jim Edgar talked to the Tribune about his advice for the current governor…
[Edgar] told the governor that, from his own experience in responding to the first days and weeks of a crisis, “what you’ve been through is kind of the easy part. Now’s the tough part — you know you’ve got to decide how to open up. If you do it too soon, you’ll kill people. If you do it too long, people go broke and they’re all going to get to grumbling, and that’s just going to happen anyway.” […]
“Listen to scientists, you’ve got to listen to the experts — and you may have to realize you might have to take a few chances,” Edgar told The Spin, noting that some of the states that are now opening up their economies will be a good barometer of how to proceed.
“When I was governor, one of the things I always said was, ‘I never wanted to be first on anything other than on election night,’” he said with a laugh. He said it underscored his approach in the office: When solving a problem or planning a new initiative, look at how other states handled something similar.
“But you know in the end you have to do what’s right, but you’ve got to … have public support to make it work, too,” Edgar said. “My definition of leadership is convincing folks to go where they don’t want to go. You can’t sit around and wait for polls — you’ve got to act but you’ve got to make sure you’re bringing the folks along with you as you do this.”
Good advice. Your own thoughts on this?
- Cheryl44 - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 10:59 am:
Does anyone honestly think the governor *doesn’t* want to let us all go back to work?
- Just Me 2 - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:00 am:
For those saying we just can’t wait to re-open, I’d like to ask if they’re going to volunteer to dig the ditches for those that die, or help those who end up with reduced lung capacity for the rest of their lives.
- efudd - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:00 am:
“what you’ve been through is kind of the easy part”
No, Edgar, it hasn’t.
Your tenure as governor during one of the most prosperous decades in this nation’s history was the easy part.
Despite that, you gave us the Edgar Ramp. The gift that keeps on giving.
Take a nap.
- efudd - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:02 am:
Daily briefings reporting the deaths of citizens from something completely out of your control, “kind of the easy part”
Edgar, man……….
- TheInvisibleMan - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:03 am:
=== Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis===
It really should be a clue when even this guy is being a rational voice.
Remember when he used the swat team to raid the home of the owner of a twitter parody account making fun of him?
Yet he still supports an evidence based approach, and is acknowledging reality.
- Boone's is Back - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:06 am:
This is the problem with not having a national plan. This is a worldwide pandemic and a national crisis. What a massive failure of leadership…
- Stritz - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:12 am:
If we have this many objectors today….think about 2 or 3 more weeks. The pressure is just beginning to mount.
- Grandson of Man - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:12 am:
Great thoughts by Edgar, a type of person the state desperately needs now: a moderate Republican. The vacuum is huge in the ILGOP and is being filled by extremist elements.
The president’s leadership has been abysmal. He’s not only wasted time downplaying the pandemic and taking no responsibility, he’s giving mixed messages with his reopening guidelines and support for reopening soon. He viciously attacks more than half of the country. How can we MAGA with such dysfunction from a national leader?
- 90s Fan - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:12 am:
O, long ago were the days of such perennial leadership. Anyone else think maybe Edgar should be a more active figure in Illinois policy (not poly-ticks); always has sort of offered a more tepid voice of reason and sanity.
- DuPage Saint - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:12 am:
If I had a business in a town that said I could open against the E O, if I decided to open I would first ask the city to sign a hold harmless agreement and also agree to indemnify me for any liability resulting from ignoring the E O. Perhaps including making the mayor and city counsel personally liable.
- PeoriaDem - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:17 am:
Adam White of Running Central has a history of demanding tax breaks for his business ventures and even wanted Peoria’s massively underfunded school district to gift him a large parcel of land and property at one time. He’s all for government interventions that benefit his pocketbook.
- Jocko - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:19 am:
Like JM said, are the mayors of Orland Park and elsewhere ready to deal with the fallout…other than saying, “I thought it was a good idea at the time.”
- Keyrock - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:20 am:
Gov. Pritzker has had to deal with the massive failures of management and leadership by the federal government and the president, GOP extremists have fanned the flames of “reopening.” But the virus doesn’t care what people want, or what the president says. And the governor has to anticipate - and respond to - what the virus does.
In the end, the governor can’t single-handedly enforce a shelter-in-place, lockdown, or quarantine across the state. I wonder whether the Governor needs an Illinois Supreme Court decision, and/or a legislative session and vote, to reinforce his message (even though he already has sufficient legal authority).
- DougChicago - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:24 am:
I wouldn’t listen to much Jim Edgar has to say about anything other than hair care products.
He — along that wretched creature from DuPage County, Pate Philip — set up with their “ramp” the present catastrophe.
But if kicking the can down the road is what you want your legacy to be then by all means listen to the bard of Coles County.
- P-town Cynic - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:31 am:
I am not really sure who is going out to go shopping right now. I work and live in Peoria and many people I know are not going to East Peoria or Woodford County because of the cavalier attitude of their elected officials. Business owners and local governments want cash flow, but you have to have consumers. Right now, consumer demand is not there. This is the time to lobby congressional reps and plead your case for federal assistance, not reopen and lose lives.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:31 am:
As an aside…
Y’all dinging on “The Edgar Ramp”… then later, or if I look back, “because Madigan”… welcome to the realization lots of things got us where we were… “before the pandemic”
To Edgar,
With Edgar. All day.
What did he say that’s not right?
=== “Listen to scientists, you’ve got to listen to the experts — and you may have to realize you might have to take a few chances,” Edgar told The Spin, noting that some of the states that are now opening up their economies will be a good barometer of how to proceed.
“When I was governor, one of the things I always said was, ‘I never wanted to be first on anything other than on election night,’” he said with a laugh. He said it underscored his approach in the office: When solving a problem or planning a new initiative, look at how other states handled something similar.===
The “chances”… still measured with science… and being first… yeah… “you first”…
…there’s no bonus to inventing a wheel, there’s reward in governing perfecting that wheel.
=== “But you know in the end you have to do what’s right, but you’ve got to … have public support to make it work, too,” Edgar said. “My definition of leadership is convincing folks to go where they don’t want to go. You can’t sit around and wait for polls — you’ve got to act but you’ve got to make sure you’re bringing the folks along with you as you do this.”===
This is the real, raw, honest politics the former GOP, now Raunerites, or Eastern Bloc… or Ms. Bryant or Mr. Cabello, or Ms. Bourne keep missing;
Read the room, know the long term, lead by bringing folks along, not giving ultimatum type… choices.
- efudd - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:53 am:
OW, my problem with Edgar’s statement was that what Pritzker has dealt with is “kind of the easy part”
That’s as asinine a comment as anyone can make.
Coming from St. Jim of Edgar doesn’t make it less asinine.
And yes, taking any type of advice from the father of the Edgar Ramp, which still haunts us today, is hazardous at best.
Edgar didn’t deal with a tenth of what Pritzker has in the last 60 days.
- TinyDancer(FKASue) - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:07 pm:
The science is telling us that we need to remain locked down. It is what is it is.
To reopen early is just denying reality. It might seem OK in some areas, but asymptomatic transmission plus inadequate testing could prove tragic.
To quote Thomas Friedman:
“If you jump off the top of an 80-story building, for 79 floors you can think you’re flying. It’s the sudden stop at the end that tells you you’re not.’
- Oswego Willy - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:09 pm:
=== Edgar didn’t deal with a tenth of what Pritzker has in the last 60 days.====
There’s no doubt.
Any governor since 1917-1919 hadn’t dealt with anything like this. Agree.
I’m not going to speak for a sitting Governor, and that will include not speaking for a former Governor too.
I’ve looked at “today” the snapshots of these days now…
The easy decisions in this global pandemic crisis for any governor now… are long gone.
No more “easy” questions or easy decisions. None.
Now is the hard part. Every day, every question, seemingly harder than the last.
Gary Mack can speak for former Governor Edgar, I’m looking at the governing, even discussed here; the easy questions to this are over. There are no easy questions or answers to them anymore.
With respect.
- dbk - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:21 pm:
To summarize:
1) This demonstrates one problem with the absence of a national strategy - the states are not individual nations, they’re part of a larger entity - and ditto for towns and cities and counties - they’re part of a large entity as well, and it’s called a state.
2) In absence of 1), governors were forced to assume responsibility for managing the virus’s impacts on the health and welfare and economies of their individual states.
3) Local law enforcement and health departments were tasked with enforcement of state EOs.
What’s the legal basis for East Peoria’s re-opening? Or any small city or town, for that matter? Does East Peoria think it’s exempt from the plan for restoration? Or does it imagine it’s already in Phase 4)?
I was pleasantly surprised that Jim Ardis actually agreed with the Governor … but then, I think I saw somewhere he’s running for another term.
- Hard D - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:26 pm:
Some of these Mayors just don’t get it. The Mayor of Orland Park is the highest paid PART TIME MAYOR in the state he makes 150,000$ a year plus more for being the liquor commissioner. He has a full time media staff and just hired a firm called Reputation Defenders for 50k a year. Now he’s complaining about losing 2.7 million in taxes from village sales. One month ago he wouldn’t even consider financial help in his village for the business community. Now he’s trying to be the hero and take on JB Pritzker. This guy is why the Republican Party is in shambles and a joke.
Mr Mayor quit taking your salary of 150k for a part time job if your going to attack the Governor about your village surviving.
- Tynie - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:39 pm:
DBK: According to this, he is.
https://www.peoriapublicradio.org/post/ardis-says-he-plans-running-another-term-now
- Fighter of Foo - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 1:16 pm:
OW You are 100% on it. No easy decisions now. The more pictures of these open states in restaurants etc are going to blow this plan apart. The people asking for a Federal plan are the same ones that screamed when he wrongly said, he decides. Like it or not it’s up to our Gov. He is going to round up cats now after his plan has us behind New York. People are done.
- Anonamuse - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 1:51 pm:
Cheryl44:
I’ve seen plenty of folks online thinking just that, often with the seemingly-requisite misspelled and/or grammatically incorrect sign.
- Sue - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 1:59 pm:
JB at the moment has the luxury of hiding in the crowd. : months from now when other states see improving UE numbers, he won’t look very good if Illinois is alone in the mid teens. BTW in an article in yesterday’s WSJ bond buyers are being advised to steer clear of Illinois so JB might find he has no ability to sell debt even at a 6 percent bond rate. Years of bad policy decisions are going to be highlighted by this recent health mess
- Oswego Willy - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 2:03 pm:
=== when other states see improving UE numbers, he won’t look very good if Illinois is alone in the mid teens.===
Texas’ Governor already is concerned he’s going too fast for his state.
Not my thoughts, his, on a recording.
I know you’re not cheering for our governor to fail.
Truly only a sad individual would cheer, during a global pandemic, for our state and Governor to not meet the challenge… because politics.
- Froganon - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 2:45 pm:
- Sue - Sue isn’t only cheering for Illinois and JB to fail, she is fevently praying for it. Keeping the ideological bubble intact is hard. Reality keeps intruding.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 4:39 pm:
== Years of bad policy decisions are going to be highlighted by this recent health mess==
lol, I’m old enough to remember when you spent four straight years here at Capfax wholeheartedly supporting these “bad policy decisions”, while denigrating anyone who disagreed. That was right before the current “my contribution will be to post snide comments about JB’s weight” era
- Donp - Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 4:23 pm:
The Governor wants a federal bailout for a poorly run state. If you don’t think that, you have drank the Kool-Aide
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, May 13, 20 @ 4:33 pm:
=== The Governor wants a federal bailout for a poorly run state. If you don’t think that, you have drank the Kool-Aid===
Your beef is with Gov. Cuomo, Gov. Hogan and the National Governors Association.
Thanks.