* Recent Daily Herald editorial…
“What’s going on at the tollway?” seems to be a perennial concern in Illinois politics. Perhaps a Senate hearing scheduled for Dec. 7 will help provide some new insights into management of the agency.
It was natural to hope in 2019 that a sweeping shakeup of the tollway Board of Directors following years of questionable spending and contracts would produce a settling of affairs at the agency. But we have not exactly seen anything like what one might call “a new era” in tollway management.
Although the then-new board quickly went to work revising the tollway’s ethics rules, things got off to a rocky start when it was discovered that freshly appointed Chairman Will Evans voted on a proposed contract involving a previous employer. Evans called the lapse an “inadvertent” mistake and promised to do better in the future.
Certainly, no similar controversies have erupted as his tenure continued, but there have been opportunities to question leadership at the tollway. The most recent, and the one prompting the Dec. 7 hearing, is an Oct. 21 management directive in which the tollway board gave Evans authority to reorganize the agency’s leadership structure. Evans promptly brought the chief financial officer directly under his wing, instead of reporting solely to Executive Director Jose Alvarez, and he shifted supervision of two key offices from Alvarez to the CFO.
* Marni Pyke has two stories today. Here’s part of one…
Illinois tollway Chairman Will Evans’ assertion during a Senate hearing Tuesday that he’s the top dog at the agency has some lawmakers wondering if that aligns with state law and where it leaves Executive Director José Alvarez. […]
The executive director is paid more than $220,000 a year to run the day-to-day operations of the agency, but Evans made the chief financial officer report to him as well as Alvarez. Evans also shifted the procurement department from Alvarez to the CFO and fired two of Alvarez’s top executives, giving rise to concerns about a power struggle.
As chairman, “my responsibility is to have general supervision over all power, duties, obligations and functions of the authority,” Evans testified, referring to the Tollway Highway Act.
He also said tollway bylaws state the chairman shall be the chief executive officer, allowing him to combine both roles. Such combinations aren’t that unusual in corporate America, Evans said, referencing his credentials as a former president of People’s Gas.
Democratic Sen. Celina Villanueva of Chicago disagreed. She said the situation “has left some of us scratching our heads to understand exactly what happened.”
* The other one…
A letter from two former tollway executives warns of what they describe as a power grab at the agency by Chairman Will Evans that is undermining Executive Director José Alvarez and raising concerns about conflicts of interest.
The letter obtained by the Daily Herald Monday was sent to tollway board directors from former Chief Administrative Officer Kimberly Ross and former Chief Procurement Compliance Officer Dee Brookens in November after they were dismissed in late October. It describes “continuous inappropriate conduct, overreaching authority and abuse of power” by Evans.
On Tuesday, the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee met to ask Evans about his reorganization of tollway leadership that removed certain responsibilities from Alvarez, including the procurement department. The changes were approved by the tollway board.
The shift creates conflicts of interest because Evans “gave himself the authority to direct procurements, then vote on and approve those same procurements as the chairman of the board,” Ross and Brookens wrote.
Evans, when asked by senators about the letter, testified that there were no conflicts of interest and that state law gives him supervisory authority over “all powers, duties, obligations and functions” of the tollway authority.
- Tom Keane - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 11:01 am:
Huge $ , been that way for 50 years . My combine friends always need to wet their beak
- Sue - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 11:13 am:
As someone with significant experience with State Agencies- Evans’ assertions absent legislative authorities affording him authority are plain BS. Evans has no more authority then any other Board member that being one vote. The aTollway Board appoints an Executive Director to run day to day operations. The EX is responsible to the Board but it’s his agency to run. Pritzker vould step in and remove Evans to avoid him causing the Governor a headache
- DuPage Saint - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 11:14 am:
I really hope he did not refer to himself as the top dog. If I were a legislator I would find that so braggadocio I would want to let him know he works for people of the state of Illinois and they are top dog
- Pizza Man - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 11:19 am:
I see a volcano erupting by the Latino Caucus and though ‘allowed’ by the bylaws, Chairman Evans should not be overreaching as needs to vote on on procurement/financial matters. A power grab.
Let’s see Mr. Chairman: If you already put your hand in the cookie jar–when you were not supposed to (his initial ‘inadvertent mistake’), for example, then you are not allowed to have oversight or control over the cook jar either.
- Annonin' - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 11:19 am:
Two quick points
1. someone tell the GOMERS tollways are hard roads that require you to pay extra (but you can get your own channel changer to pay without digging for $$$)
2. Looks like another Tollway S******w is about to erupt. Yikes
- Pizza Man - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 11:22 am:
Guv: time to get a new chairman and let E.D. Alvarez do his job. He is not to be symbolic puppet of the Tollway.
So Mr. Evans, in closing, “get I-Pass and get going!”
- Droppin gs - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 11:23 am:
“I’m the top dog” typically precedes “I’m the hog with the big nuts.” Not good.
- Teddy Salad - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 11:56 am:
Legislature should take a look at E.D. Alvarez hiring and contract awarding changes before they start making him out to be a victim.
Check all the Rutan protected positions filled by his hack friends from Chicago Housing Authority. Look at salaries he gave to his “all-star management team” he brought in with him. He needs to answer why almost every senior manager resigned or was walked out by his team.
- Chisox - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 12:07 pm:
ED Alvarez hacks at CHA went to Tollway and now defending him after they got let go? Shocking. This ED was a joke at CHA with Hooker and has taken his ineptitude over to the Tollway. Another terrible appointment by the Governors office recommended by…..Hooker.
- vern - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 12:19 pm:
I didn’t catch the hearing, but the coverage doesn’t leave me feeling like they got to the bottom of anything, or really like we have much additional information at all.
This kind of open war between a chair and an executive director is unseemly and counterproductive. The Governor needed to step in a long time ago to either force these guys to work together or push one of them out. But much like the Chapa la Via situation at Veterans Affairs, it seems the Governor’s office is content to let problems fester at agencies until they blow up in front of legislative committees.
- Ares - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 12:25 pm:
Where are the bondholders amidst all of this?
- Dlotto - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 12:28 pm:
It is far past time to close the Tollway authority and have their highways managed by professional civil servants at IDOT. IDOT does a reasonably good job with the rest of the interstate system in Illinois and can handle the tollways too.
- Lincoln Lad - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 12:37 pm:
First - both Evans and Alvarez need to go. They have both handled this in a childish way. And if a $220,000 salary to lead a State agency makes you a victim - after nearly all credible leaders with years of experience left the agency… and you replaced them with unqualified friends at salaries never seen before at the Tollway… then I’d like to be similarly victimized.
- Phineas Gurley - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 12:39 pm:
Sue, where in the statute to you find this?
>>”Evans’ assertions absent legislative authorities affording him authority are plain BS.”
By my count, the chairman is listed 10X more than the executive director, whose explicit legislative authority appears to be limited to receiving reports and waiving fines. Anything else is derived from the board.
- Long Time Independent - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 12:42 pm:
After listening to the whole audio yesterday I can honestly say that Evans got caught lying about Dep Gov Christian Mitchell’s knowledge of this power grab. He also threw the whole board under the bus saying they supported this. He then backed down on that after more questions. Also a little tid bit that nobody hit on was the roll of Paulka Brown the assistant AG at the tollway. Under questioning she admitted that she never consulted the AG or Governors office when drawing up the resolution.
One more item it’s intersection to note that Brown did legal work for Evans at Peoples Gas, seems like a conflict to me.
Wonder what JB thinks now about how he reconstituted the tollway board to clean things up? Maybe time for the Broom again
- Um, no - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 1:59 pm:
@Dlotto - extolling the virtues of the cracker jack team at IDOT is not the most persuasive case her.
- DuPage - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 2:20 pm:
@- Dlotto - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 12:28 pm:
===It is far past time to close the Tollway authority and have their highways managed by professional civil servants at IDOT. IDOT does a reasonably good job with the rest of the interstate system in Illinois and can handle the tollways too.===
I don’t know about any tollway bridges in danger of falling down like the interstate bridges by Joliet.
- Scooter - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 3:02 pm:
@ Dlotto
IDOT is far too Springfield-Centric to be managing tollways which primarily exist around the Chicago area. Call the governing body whatever you want, but its administration needs to be based in northeastern IL. Pipe dream would be to have it fall under the authority of the Chicago RTA, but good luck reconciling the RTA’s six-county extent vs. where the tollways go.
- Drake Mallard - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 3:03 pm:
Dlotto- drive any IDOT road and look at the busted up guard rails, graffiti and garbage everywhere.
Go on a Tollway road and notice the difference.
That is why so many senior managers left under Alvarez. They took pride in how well the Tollway was running and saw Alvarez only interested in how many hack friends he could employ regardless of if they had a clue about how to keep things running, who got the contracts, no matter if they could do the job.
On short, turn the Tollway into IDOT. All patronage- no pride.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 4:41 pm:
===Pipe dream would be to have it fall under the authority of the Chicago RTA=== An agency that doesn’t have any direct control of the service boards under its purview and is primarily a financial and sometimes-planning agency. I fail to see the case for improvement.
- North Park - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 5:08 pm:
==Go on a Tollway road and notice the difference.==
We’ll see how long that lasts. Political pressure from the asphalt lobby arm-wrestled Tollway engineers out of their positions to make the switch from concrete paving to their black gold.
Nothing like changing from a 30-year pavement to something that needs to be resurfaced every seven, especially with that kind of truck volume.
- Amalia - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 5:42 pm:
Evans’ LinkedIn page says he is Chairman and CEO of the Tollway Authority. um…..
- Chisox - Wednesday, Dec 8, 21 @ 10:26 pm:
Pizza Man— ED Alvarez is not a symbolic puppet….he brought his puppets with him from the CHA—he was awful there and it was only a matter of time before his incompetence and arrogance caught up with him.
- DMC - Thursday, Dec 9, 21 @ 3:19 pm:
And we thought the last tollway chairman was overreaching. He is probably kicking himself for not going full throttle like Evans………….