* Beth Hundsdorfer at Capitol News Illinois…

Gov. J.B. Pritzker yanked the appointment of two appointees to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board on Tuesday, the same morning a Senate committee was scheduled to consider them. It was the second time Pritzker pulled the appointments of Aurthur Mae Perkins, 83, of Peoria, and Joseph Ruggiero, 62, of Wheaton, for the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.

The two, both appointees originally made by Republican former Gov. Bruce Rauner, have served on the Prisoner Review Board without Senate confirmation for nearly three years each. “Between the two of them, I think they have served a combined six years on the Prisoner Review Board, raking in approximately a half-million dollars in taxpayer funded salary,” said Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville. […]

Senate rules allow the governor to withdraw an appointment and reappoint an individual if the Senate fails to vote on a nominee within 60 session days of the governor’s filing of the appointment. This practice has been used by previous governors. Plummer filed a bill, Senate Bill 3670, that would require the Senate to confirm or deny PRB members within 30 session days or 90 calendar days after appointment, whichever comes first. The bill would also prohibit reappointing a person to the PRB for two years after their appointment is withdrawn.

As noted in the story, Sen. Plummer has no co-sponsors on his bill.

…Adding… Plummer actually filed a different bill which has several co-sponsors.

* Basically what’s happening here is the Senate Democrats are spooked because the Republicans are using Prisoner Review Board release decisions to make political hay. For instance, this is from Richard Irvin’s Monday night speech…

Under JB Pritzker, crime has exploded on his watch. Every day there’s violent crime and kids are murdered but JB Pritzker does nothing. Police officers are murdered, and JB Pritzker does nothing. He let seven convicted murderers out of prison early, including a woman who shot her own two month old, two year old child in the head and killed him. A man a murderer, got out of prison early and beat his five month old baby to death. JB Pritzker, he supports no cash bond to let these same violent criminals out of jail and back into the streets. He has a handpicked parole board vote to let cop killers out of jail and back into our communities.

Irvin made it sound like the man beat his baby to death after he was released from prison and there was an audible gasp in the audience, but that’s not the case. Irvin got it backwards.

* So, it should be no surprise that some SDems have no desire whatsoever to touch any of these PRB appointments. The governor doesn’t want to reappoint either of the two Rauner appointees mentioned above, but his only option at the moment is to continue withdrawing and reappointing, although the two PRB members have not yet been reappointed. So, there are now technically five vacancies on the board.

* And the issue with Ruggiero and Perkins is not new. This is from a press release sent to me almost a year ago…

For the Prisoner Review Board to be able to undertake its difficult and complex mission, members must be able to make parole determinations entirely independently. Subjecting members to political grandstanding sets a new and dangerous precedent for this constitutional function.

The members’ appointments and votes are transparent, and their meetings are open to the public. Additionally, the Senate Executive Appointments Committee sets the schedule for confirming gubernatorial appointees, and it is routine practice for appointees to be withdrawn so that the Senate has more time to consider the appointments.

BACKGROUND

The Prisoner Review Board considers the age and length of time served when making parole determinations.

Appointments

• Joe Ruggiero was appointed by Governor Rauner in July of 2018, but was not confirmed prior to his term’s expiration in early 2021, at which point Governor Pritzker re-appointed him to a new term, similarly only a few days prior to the March hearing.
• Aurthur Mae Perkins was confirmed unanimously by the Senate after her appointment by Rauner in March of 2015, and had a term expire at the start of 2021, which resulted in a re-appointment by Governor Pritzker a few days prior to the originally-scheduled hearing in March of this year.

*** UPDATE *** The governor was asked today why the PRB appointments have been withdrawn…

Because they don’t get taken up by the committee that’s supposed to take those up. So, you know, we’re at the whim of the Senate and their decision about whether to take up and when to take up proposed members.