* Some folks were complaining in comments last week that the Illinois State Board of Elections hadn’t yet posted the 2024 election calendar. It’s now up and here’s some of it…
September 5, 2023
Petition Circulation Begins for General Primary Election
First day to circulate petitions for established party candidates seeking nomination in the 2024 General Primary Election. Note that this does not include candidates circulating for President, Delegate, or Alternate Delegate.
October 7, 2023
Petition Circulation Begins for President and Delegate Candidates
First day to circulate petitions for President, Delegate, and Alternate Delegate.
November 27, 2023
First Day to File Nominating Petitions for the General Primary Election
First day to file nominating petitions for established party candidates for the 2024 General Primary Election. Note that this does not include candidates for President, Delegate, or Alternate Delegate.
December 4, 2023
Last Day to File Nominating Petitions for the General Primary Election
Last day to file nominating petitions for established party candidates for the 2024 General Primary Election
December 11, 2023
Last Day to File Objections to Nomination Papers for General Primary Election
Last day to file objections to nomination papers of established party candidates.
December 18, 2023
Last Day to File Petitions for Questions of Public Policy for the General Primary Election
Last day to file petitions with the local election official for the submission of questions of public policy. Exceptions to this date apply for various binding questions or backdoor referenda. Please refer to the authorizing statute for the question to confirm the deadline.
If you’re keeping score at home, petition season will start 9 months and 28 days after the 2022 election ended.
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Afternoon roundup
Monday, Jul 24, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Yvette Shields Memorial Fund is within distance of reaching its fundraising goal. If you haven’t yet contributed, please click here if you can. Many thanks. Also, Fran Spielman wrote a great obit that you should read. And here’s one of Yvette’s last stories…
Harvey, Illinois, is targeting an August settlement date in its long-planned tender exchange offer on its defaulted general obligation bonds.
The exchange that launched this week would allow investors to shed the bonds’ default status, resolve investor litigation, and give the fiscally troubled Chicago suburb more time to repay its debt.
The city posted the exchange offer Tuesday after resolving a series of complicated issues, from a Cook County revenue intercept and use-of-funds-on-hand to efforts to reach all bondholders, which include institutional and retail investors. The deadline to offer bonds for exchange is Aug. 1 and the city aims for a settlement date of Aug. 22.
The proposed exchange — which extends the final maturity date by two decades but offers features like a tax levy with a direct intercept and trust estate — is the cornerstone of the consent agreement the city struck with a group of 2007 bondholders. […]
The tax base has long failed to support the city’s debts resulting in litigation from bondholders, pension funds and Chicago over delinquent payments for treated Lake Michigan water. Harvey also has been slapped in the past with Securities and Exchange Commission sanctions.
Nobody else covered that development. There’s a hole in The Force.
* Coming on the heels of the Black vs. Brown city council battle over asylum seekers, this fight could be epic. Greg Hinz…
A test of power of sorts between Black and Latino Democrats appears to be shaping up in Cook County over who the party will slate for a seat on the Illinois Supreme Court.
Some top Latino leaders are backing Appellate Court Justice Jesse Reyes for the post, arguing it’s time that a member of their community serves on the high court.
But that appears to be a tough ask because slating Ruiz would mean dumping Supreme Court Justice Joy Cunningham, a Black woman who was appointed to the court last year to replace the retiring Anne Burke. And Cunningham is now seeking a full term.
The push for Reyes is led by U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia. At a press conference last week, he and other leaders, including state Sen. Omar Aquino and Chicago Ald. Feliz Cardona, 31st, argued that Latinos have waited long enough for a member of their community to serve on the Supreme Court
* More fun with numbers…
Overall, Illinois ranked 45th, with its current 4.0% unemployment rate higher than all but four other states and Washington, D.C. Most other states are in the 2.8% to 3.8% range.
I just cannot get too excited about being two-tenths of one percent off the pace, especially since the error rate appears to be about a half a point each way at the state level.
* Press release…
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director John J. Kim today announced a total of $14 million in funding to the Village of Dixmoor. A $10 million grant, made available through Gov. Pritzker’s historic Rebuild Illinois Capital Plan, will provide for construction improvements to rehabilitate the water distribution system, and restore reliable potable water within the Village. An additional $4 million in funding is being provided to the Village for lead service line replacement through Illinois EPA’s State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan program.
“Every resident has a right to safe and reliable drinking water and functional infrastructure, and our Rebuild Illinois capital plan is investing across the State to correct those inequities,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Today, I am proud to announce a total of $14 million in funding that will bring updated and reliable infrastructure to the Village of Dixmoor and remove lead service lines from their distribution system.”
“The Village of Dixmoor has been faced with the costly challenge of repairing their aging and deteriorating drinking water infrastructure,” said Director Kim. “With no repayment required from the Village, these funds will allow for the rehabilitation of the existing water distribution system to provide a reliable drinking water source to residents and proactively remove the public health threat caused by lead service lines within the community.”
The $10 million in grant funding announced today will be used by the Village to install Phase 2 pump station improvements, improve the existing ground storage reservoir, constructing a 750,000-gallon elevated storage tank, complete a Village-wide water meter replacement program, replace approximately 40 water valves and 12 fire hydrants throughout the Village, and replace approximately 10,500 feet of 6” and 8” arterial water main with new 12” water main. These improvements will reduce the frequency and impact of watermain breaks experienced within the water distribution system.
* NRCC…
* Illinois governors can’t just lower or raise sales taxes on their own, WCIA…
With the start of the school year just around the corner, parents in Illinois may be wondering if the sales tax holiday on school supplies will offer some financial relief this fall.
Last year, Gov. JB Pritzker lowered the state sales tax on supplies, clothing, and shoes by 5% for 10 days in August 2022.
However, the sales tax holiday was only approved for 2022 and will not be returning in 2023, according to an Illinois Department of Revenue spokesperson.
Also, this isn’t an election year (no snark tag necessary).
* Kissiar is a former youth pastor…
Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced that a Vandalia, Illinois man prosecuted by his office was sentenced to 30 years in prison for possessing, reproducing and disseminating child pornography and indecent solicitation of an adult. The guilty plea and sentence are the result of an investigation Raoul’s office conducted into an alleged child pornography ring operating in Fayette County.
Ferrell Mason Kissiar, 47, pleaded guilty to one count of dissemination of child pornography, a Class X felony; one count of reproduction of child pornography, a Class X felony; two counts of possession of child pornography, a Class 2 felony; and one count of indecent solicitation of an adult, a Class 1 felony. Kissiar was sentenced to 30 years in prison by 4th District Circuit Judge Martin Siemer.
Two other defendants in the case pleaded guilty in May to charges stemming from their involvement in the alleged child pornography ring. Andrew Wehrle, 39, of Vandalia, and Amber Wehrle, 38, of Vandalia, will be sentenced on Aug. 8.
* Palate cleanser…
Go read Selena Fragassi’s story. It’ll transport you.
* Isabel’s afternoon roundup…
* WTTW | Chicago Spent $126.5M on Police Overtime in 6 Months, an Almost 50% Jump Over Last Year: Records: It took less than five months for CPD to exhaust the $100 million earmarked for police overtime set by the Chicago City Council as part of the city’s 2023 budget, according to data obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
* Journal Courier | Goal of $10 million Illinois program is to provide air purifiers for daycares: The program is intended to help reduce the spread of respiratory viruses, including COVID-19. Qualifying daycares will receive purifiers and a three-year supply of filters. Selection will be made from among those that apply online by July 31.
* WGEM | Pritzker’s Disaster Proclamation for derecho expands to more counties: Counties included in the proclamation are Coles, Cook, Edgar, Hancock, McDonough, Morgan, Sangamon, and Washington Counties and now includes Calhoun, Christian, Clark, Cumberland, DeWitt, Douglas, Logan, Macon, Monroe, Moultrie, Pike, Scott, and Vermillion.
* Sun-Times Editorial Board | Face it. Our private biometric information needs more protection, not less.: Privacy advocates and business interests spent much of the spring hammering out a revision of the law, and arrived at a deal privacy advocates weren’t thrilled with but felt protected the most important parts of the law. But then the business side walked away. Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, was so irked he said on public radio some business representatives had “punched us in the nose.”
* Center Square | Task force created to tell the tales of the Underground Railroad in Illinois: Not enough people know the history of the role Illinois played in the Underground Railroad to assist in relocating slaves to where they could be free, Tazewell County Clerk and genealogist John Ackerman said. […] Thanks to Ackerman’s advocacy and the lead sponsorship of state Sen. David Koehler, D-Peoria, the legislature passed Senate Bill 1623 to convene a 10 member statewide Underground Railroad Task Force to develop ideas about how to make this Illinois history better known. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the measure last month.
* NBC Chicago | Vice President Kamala Harris to visit Chicago Monday: According to White House officials, Vice President Harris will arrive at Chicago Midway International Airport and is scheduled to be a keynote speaker for the final day of the UnidosUS 2023 Annual Conference at McCormick Place.
* Tribune | Illinois saw cooler spring housing market as inventory remained tight and mortgage rates high: Illinois Realtors found that as of June, the median sales price of a home in the city limits was $355,000, up from $335,000 and $340,000 in May and April, respectively. It was $349,940 for the Chicago metro area and $291,946 statewide in June. That’s up from $330,000 and $275,000, respectively, in May, and $320,000 and $272,250, respectively, in April.
* AP | A UPS strike could be just around the corner. Here’s what you need to know: That leaves less than a week to come to an agreement before the current contract expires at the end of the day on July 31. The union has authorized a strike and Sean M. O’Brien, a fiery leader elected last year to lead the union, has vowed to do so if their demands aren’t met.
* Tribune | Former Northwestern football player files 4th lawsuit amid hazing allegations of physical, sexual and emotional abuse in school athletics: The hazing scandal that has rocked the school this month includes allegations of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. The plaintiff in Monday’s lawsuit, 26-year-old former Northwestern quarterback Lloyd Yates, recently told the Tribune in an exclusive interview he has been haunted by nightmares and anxiety since he joined the Wildcats in 2015 and graduated in 2018.
* WBEZ | President Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till: Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday to create the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi, according to the official. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity because the White House had not formally announced the president’s plans.
* NPR Illinois | UIS will offer some from Missouri, Iowa same tuition rate as Illinois residents: The pilot was approved Thursday by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. The aim of the move is to attract more out-of-state students, especially in higher-population areas that border Illinois. According to UIS officials, Spring enrollment was 4,107 – an increase of 363 students from Spring 2022. UIS total enrollment increased by 6.4 percent last fall to 4,198 students.
* NBC | Unions working at the 2024 Democratic convention promise no picket signs: It encompasses unions that do work around McCormick Place and the United Center, the sites of next year’s activities. Ten labor groups are signing the agreement, including the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, local unions for electrical workers, the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union.
* Tribune | ‘A judge’s judge:’ Longtime Cook County judge Michael Toomin dies: Toomin, 85, succumbed to cancer a little more than six months after he retired in December after a decadeslong career that began on 26th Street as a lawyer and then judge after he was first elected in 1980. As a judge, he cultivated a reputation as a conscientious decision-maker and earned the affectionate nickname of the “Toominator.” By his own estimation, he oversaw some 600 murder cases and 400 or more jury trials.
* Sun-Times | Beyoncé delivers a powerhouse, out-of-this-world experience at Soldier Field concert: Beyoncé is the wave of the future. Her Renaissance World Tour proved as much as it descended on Soldier Field Saturday night for the first of two sold-out weekend shows. The 21⁄2-hour extravaganza was pure escape into an otherworldly existence, perhaps the closest we mere mortals will get to going to the moon.
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Fun with numbers
Monday, Jul 24, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Center Square…
As the calls for raising the tipped minimum wage grow louder in Illinois, a new study reveals raising the tipped minimum wage has a significant negative impact on state tip percentages in full-service restaurants.
A new proposal would give restaurants two years to have all tipped workers increased to Chicago’s minimum wage, which is $15.80 an hour, plus any tips they earn. Tipped workers currently make $9 an hour plus tips, but employers are required to make up the difference if the combined amount of hourly pay and tips does not equal the full minimum wage.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has endorsed the One Fair Wage movement, saying workers who earn the so-called tipped minimum wage are more vulnerable to sexual harassment and abuse than other employees.
“This is about investing in people, Black women, brown women, heads of households, because by investing in people we strengthen the backbone of our economy,” Johnson said.
Rebekah Paxton, director of research at the nonprofit Employment Policies Institute, said one-flat-wage states see lower tips and some workers will most likely lose their jobs.
“American economists across the board agree that if you raise the minimum wage, jobs suffer, because obviously that raises labor costs for any business,” Paxton said.
The Illinois Restaurant Association has gone on record opposing the idea, saying it will reduce the workforce in bars and restaurants.
Paxton said there has been pushback from tipped restaurant employees, including servers and bartenders, who say it would result in lower tip income.
“They don’t want this to be changed because essentially it turns it into a flat wage job,” said Paxton. “A lot of people are attracted to the hospitality and restaurant industry because they can make tips and interact with customers, so a lot of servers are pretty opposed to this.”
The research shows that six out of seven states that have eliminated their tip credit are in the bottom half of all state tipping percentages.
The statewide minimum wage in Illinois increased to $13 on Jan. 1, and will increase to $14 Jan. 1, 2024. Tipped workers get 60% of the state’s minimum wage or $7.80 per hour for workers age 18 and older. A proposal to bring a minimum wage for tipped workers statewide never advanced at the Illinois Statehouse.
* Notice a couple of things missing? 1) Tips might fall, but there’s no mention of its impact on actual take-home pay for workers; 2) The “six out of seven states that have eliminated their tip credit are in the bottom half of all state tipping percentages” line doesn’t have any real context.
The chart they reference (click here) shows that most states, even if the state’s minimum is pegged to the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour, averages tips between a bit above 19 percent to a bit above 21 percent. Indiana, which is near the top of the tipping scale, mandates the $2.13 per hour federal tipped minimum wage. So, take-home for those workers is gonna be rotten regardless, unless they work at a relatively high-end restaurant.
Another reference used in the website is this list from March which shows that California is dead last, but it’s still at 17.5 percent, which is only about a point and half below the national average. Chicago, which is debating the tip proposal, is currently at 19.3 percent, and that’s right around the national average. The rate could very well drop, but could a close to $7 an hour raise make up for it? The article doesn’t say.
And, yeah, you can have a good night working for tips, but you can also have lots of horrible nights. It’s very difficult to plan. I’ve lived on tips in a past life. Didn’t care for it, even though I was pretty good at it. But some customers can be such jerks.
* The One Fair Wage group claims that shifting to a higher minimum wage would also help attract workers back to the industry. The Illinois Restaurant Association, despite its claims above that servers prefer living on tips, has frequently bemoaned a worker shortage over the past few years.
I dunno. I’d like to see more data on all of this.
But what I do know from experience is that a lot of people out there seem to relish the power that comes from tipping. You can really mess with somebody by withholding tips for any reason at all, and everyone involved knows it. You can also assure preferential service over others by regularly tipping well (and I am totally guilty of that). I lived in Germany for a couple of years as a young person, and I greatly preferred their no-tip system. Just pay everybody a decent wage and let management be responsible for disciplining staff.
In the meantime, though, let’s talk about what’s actually on the, um, table.
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Question of the day
Monday, Jul 24, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Your unsolicited advice to the White Sox, Cubs and/or Cardinals ahead of the August 1 trade deadline? Choose one, choose ‘em all, but put a little thought into it. Thanks.
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* Tribune…
[A]s the Midwest considers the health and safety issues raised by proposals to build massive new carbon dioxide pipeline projects, including Omaha-based Navigator CO2′s 1,350-mile network spanning Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota.
The projects aim to prevent planet-warming CO2 from entering the atmosphere by capturing it during industrial processes, compressing it into a fluid, transporting it in steel pipelines and injecting it deep underground into naturally occurring rock formations where it will be trapped — ideally for thousands of years.
Navigator says this can be done safely and points to thousands of miles of CO2 pipeline already in use in the United States, mostly by the oil industry, which uses carbon dioxide to boost production.
But opponents, including environmentalists and landowners, say a new generation of massive, climate-oriented CO2 pipeline projects such as Navigator’s should be put on hold until government officials can address “alarming” gaps in health and safety regulations.
Among the gaps:
- There is no state or federal limit on how close pipelines carrying a potentially suffocating gas can be placed to a home, school or hospital.
- There is no requirement that an odorant be added to the CO2 to alert the public to a leak, as is done with natural gas.
- There is no limit on the impurities that are allowed in the carbon dioxide, despite the potential for pipeline corrosion and health hazards in the event of a leak.
- There is no requirement that pipeline companies use a specific method to map potential accident hazard zones, although one standard approach — which failed in Mississippi — doesn’t take complex topography into account.
* A Carbon leak in Mississippi prompted federal focus on pipeline safety the AP reported in April…
Transportation regulators entered into a federal order with a carbon dioxide pipeline company three years after its pipeline ruptured in a lower Mississippi Delta town, prompting the evacuation of hundreds and sending dozens of people to the hospital.
Over 40 people received hospital treatment, and more than 300 were evacuated on Feb. 22, 2020, after Denbury Gulf Coast Pipelines’ 24-inch (61-centimeter) Delta Pipeline ruptured in Satartia, Mississippi. It released over 31,000 barrels of CO2. Residents who were sent to the hospital had symptoms of C02 poisoning and oxygen deprivation, according to a news release published by Pipeline Safety Trust, an advocacy group.
The Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration announced Thursday that it had entered into the order with Denbury, a Texas-based company.
The order will require the company to meet compliance requirements, such as communicating with all first responders who would be responsible for responding to a pipeline incident. Denbury has already paid a $2.8 million penalty, the release said.
“We hope that the consequences Denbury faces as a result of its failure to protect the public prevents devastating incidents like this one from occurring in the future,” said Kenneth Clarkson, communications director for Pipeline Safety Trust.
* Another story from the Tribune…
One day last fall, Sabrina and Ralph Jones spotted four wooden surveyor stakes in the farm field across the street, each one marked with a strip of orange plastic.
That, the Joneses say, was their only warning that Navigator CO2 — an Omaha-based company that wants to store millions of tons of carbon dioxide underground in central Illinois — was planning to drill a testing well just 500 feet from their front door.
There was no letter from Navigator, according to the Jones, who live on a quiet country road in Nokomis, 200 miles southwest of Chicago. There was no phone call or visit. But for more than two months, starting in early May, the drilling operation filled their leafy front yard with a dull industrial hum, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. […]
At a time when Navigator needs to cultivate the support of landowners and public bodies, some observers say the company doesn’t appear to be doing itself any favors. Running a 24-hour industrial operation near a residence is legal in Montgomery County, where Nokomis is located, because there are no zoning laws or noise ordinances, according to county board Chair Doug Donaldson. But opponents say it’s not the best way to win over your neighbors.
* State Journal-Register…
As a public meeting Monday evening revealed, finding common ground on a multi-state carbon dioxide pipeline running through Sangamon County remains a problem both figuratively and literally.
Coming to Springfield from Nebraska, Navigator Heartland Greenway LLC attempted to sell a standing room audience on its proposed pipeline running through 292 miles in the state. That task has proven difficult in preceding months and the meeting held by the county Zoning and Land Use Committee continued that trend.
Approximately 39 miles of pipeline collecting emissions from ethanol plants and storing them underground would run through the county, hitting portions of nine townships. Opponents are concerned a potential pipeline burst with this proximity to towns such as New Berlin and Glenarm could lead to a public health crisis exceeding what was seen earlier this year during the I-55 dust storm.
This fear, along with belief that existing state and federal regulations are inadequate, has caused several counties to issue moratoriums against CO2 pipeline construction. As of June, Navigator has also only received 13.4% of the right-of-way easement agreements statewide and 5.2% in the county according to its own data. […]
Most of Navigator’s presentation focused on its safety efforts for the pipeline, where in addition to 24/7 monitoring and a lockdown system that would prevent a burst from spreading further up or down the line, there will be bi-weekly air monitoring by plane or drone to check in for any weather disruptions.
* Journal Courier…
Sen. Steve McClure. R-Springfield, wants to suspend issuance of any new certificates of authority for building carbon dioxide pipelines as well as pause applications for the certificates for two years or until the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration revises federal safety standards for transporting carbon dioxide.
The two-year time limit on the bill is intended to give either the federal administration or the state enough time to enact their own regulations, McClure said. […]
Other state lawmakers from both political parties have expressed concern about carbon capture pipelines, McClure said, whose legislation is being co-sponsored by Sens. Sally J. Turner, R-Lincoln, and Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet.
“Something this massive … we’ve got to make sure it’s safe,” he said. “That’s a key concern for people across this state that are affected, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans.”
The bill failed to make it out of Senate Assignments during session.
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This isn’t going to get any easier, people
Monday, Jul 24, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WBEZ…
From July 2 to July 18, more than 12,000 basement flooding reports [in Chicago] were filed with 311, more than the number of basement flooding reports filed in all of 2021 and 2022 combined, according to a WBEZ analysis. […]
“We can expect to see more of this where you’re gonna see large precipitation events leading to floods,” said Donald Wuebbles, professor emeritus of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “It’s going to continue to get worse, and we need to plan for that.”
O’Connor said the MRWD is doing as much as it can to alleviate flooding, but that “in older parts of the system, we still have more work to do.” She said the agency currently has more than 85 active projects to manage local stormwater. Since 2008, the agency has spent $506 million on stormwater and green infrastructure projects, according to Allison Fore, an MWRD spokesperson.
That’s less than $34 million a year. Chump change.
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* These are all very recent stories. Let’s start with this one from Crain’s…
Alight Solutions is relocating its headquarters from north suburban Lincolnshire to a dramatically scaled-down office footprint atop one of downtown’s newest skyscrapers, a move that notches a corporate win for Chicago but likely deals another heavy blow to the reeling suburban office market.
The benefits administration company has signed a roughly 16,000-square-foot lease for the penthouse floor in BMO Tower at 320 S. Canal St., which will serve as Alight’s new global headquarters, CEO Stephan Scholl said. Alight’s leadership team will move to the 52-story tower from the company’s current headquarters at 4 Overlook Point in Lincolnshire, where its lease for roughly 200,000 square feet is due to expire next year. […]
“There’s a real draw to being downtown,” said Scholl, who took the reins as Alight’s CEO just weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s about hiring the right people and keeping the right people, but it’s also about bringing clients in.” Getting customers to travel to a far Chicago suburb, he added, has proven difficult.
* Also, from Crain’s, but note the caveat…
The average number of Chicago workers who are back in the office increased nearly 17 percentage points last week, a big jump that follows a Fourth of July plunge and puts the city once again ahead of the nationwide average.
That’s according to data from real estate technology firm Kastle Systems, which analyzes building security card swipes and compares current figures to early 2020. […]
(This is not comprehensive data; Crain’s is relying on inputs from buildings that use Kastle Systems technology.)
* Crain’s again…
Coming soon to a suburb near you: the battle over converting empty office parks to warehouses. […]
In some cases, it’s getting heated. Hundreds of north suburban residents packed the Deerfield High School gym in May to wave signs and boo as Chicago-based Bridge Industrial pitched its plan to raze the Baxter International headquarters and build a pair of large industrial buildings on the 101-acre site. […]
Real estate fundamentals are behind that shift. The rise of remote work has cost the Chicago suburbs more than 3 million square feet of tenant-occupied space since the beginning of 2020, pushing the share of available space to an all-time high of nearly 29%, according to data from brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle. High interest rates compounded the problem over the past year, driving down property values and setting off an unprecedented wave of loan distress. Vacancy for warehouses, meanwhile, is so low that developers are on track to complete a record 41.9 million square feet of warehouse space in the Chicago area this year, according to data from real estate services firm Colliers.
That backdrop sets the stage for high-profile office-to-industrial plans. Nevada-based Dermody Properties kicked off the party when it struck a deal to buy the sprawling former Allstate campus in Glenview and redevelop it into a 3.2 million-square-foot logistics center that is now under construction. Bridge Industrial is so intent on redeveloping the Baxter campus that it is asking Lake County to approve its plan despite the aggressive pushback from nearby residents. In Rolling Meadows, Rosemont-based Brennan Investment Group in April bought a distressed office property on 40 acres along Interstate 290, where it plans to develop 600,000 square feet of industrial real estate.
More are likely on the horizon. A JLL analysis earlier this year found that investors purchased 3.9 million square feet of suburban Chicago office space in 2021 and 2022 with the intent to redevelop for industrial use. JLL estimates another 2.4 million square feet is no longer competitive for office tenants but fits key size and location criteria for industrial projects. The latter figure doesn’t even include top-tier, or Class A, buildings or owner-occupied ones like the Baxter campus.
* And, as Crain’s reports elsewhere, it’s not just warehouses being converted from office parks…
A developer that builds data centers is poised to take over the sprawling Sears campus in Hoffman Estates, another suburban corporate headquarters that could undergo a drastic transformation amid major shifts in the real estate market and economy.
* Daily Herald…
Zurich North America is putting about 360,000 square feet of its iconic 783,800-square-foot headquarters in Schaumburg up for lease in another sign of the post-pandemic evolution of the suburban office market.
Jones Lang LaSalle Senior Managing Director Andrea Van Gelder said the current trend is of companies gravitating to smaller but higher-quality space for their office needs. Zurich’s will be the highest-end leasable space available in the region, she added.
Zurich North America certainly will remain the building’s anchor tenant, its media and public relations manager, Clare Fitzgerald, said.
She said the building’s transition to a multitenant facility will have a greater economic impact on the region, “drawing additional businesses and more jobs.”
* Meanwhile…
Elk Grove Village officials say the proposed data center redevelopment of an unincorporated residential subdivision — and millions of dollars for the homeowners who have agreed to sell — won’t happen unless the Elk Grove Rural Fire Protection District finally agrees to let the village and two other towns take over fire and emergency medical services there.
But members of the fire board — who all live in the Roppolo subdivision and have pending sales contracts with the developer — say the two issues are separate. And, they’d be violating conflict-of-interest provisions in state law by voting on the intergovernmental agreement as currently drafted. […]
The fire board has been negotiating with officials in Elk Grove Village, Mount Prospect and Des Plaines for years over a deal. It would allow the municipal fire departments to service the area now covered by the district — 57 single-family homes in the Roppolo neighborhood north of Landmeier Road, four mobile home parks along Touhy Avenue and Elmhurst Road, and several industrial and commercial properties on either side of Higgins Road.
Annexations by the towns, and the resulting shrinking tax base, have left the district nearly insolvent.
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* We’ve talked about some of this at the blog already, but here is my weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Both the majority and minority opinions in the Illinois Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on the SAFE-T Act last week claimed the other side was ignoring the “plain language” of the Illinois Constitution. Each focused on a single, but different word.
As the all-Democrat majority noted, the judiciary must look at the “plain language used in its natural and popular meaning when the constitutional provision was adopted.”
For the majority, the “plain language” in question was from the Illinois Constitution’s Bill of Rights: “All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for the following offenses where the proof is evident or the presumption great.”
The Illinois Supreme Court created a Commission on Pretrial Practices in 2017, which eventually reported back that “bailable” by “sufficient sureties” did not necessarily mean cash bail. The word “bail,” the commission reported, “literally” means “release” and does not necessarily mandate a cash component. Last week’s majority opinion emphasizes that the state’s constitution never specifically spells out that bail is monetary in nature.
Importantly, the majority opined that cash bail “was all but unknown” when the state’s original constitution was first approved in 1818, and the same basic language from that document remains in force today.
“The bail clause does not include the term ‘monetary,’ so it did not cement the practice of monetary bail, however long-standing and prevalent across Illinois, into our constitution. ‘Sufficient sureties’ is not limited to sufficient monetary sureties, and we cannot append or supplement the constitutional text,” the majority ruled.
The all-Republican minority opinion relies on a different word in a different part of the state’s Bill of Rights to argue that the statute “is in direct violation of the plain language of our constitution’s bill of rights.” The section was written to protect the rights of crime victims, partly by allowing them to have their and their families’ safety considered when courts fix the “amount” of bail. But within the statute, the minority argued, “the amount of bail is effectively set at zero for all cases under the Act,” which therefore “wholly nullified” victims’ constitutional rights.
The majority opinion countered that argument: “The crime victims’ rights clause mentions the ‘amount of bail,’ not the amount of monetary bail. The word ‘amount’ connotes quantity and does not only mean a quantity of money but rather, consonant with the bail clause, a quantity of sufficient sureties.” The majority went on to note that crime victims’ rights were specifically protected in the statute within the confines of the Bill of Rights and that “Nothing in the crime victims’ rights clause’s plain language indicates such an intent to upend suddenly, after 174 years, the constitutional history of bail in Illinois.”
The opinions are a bit more complicated than what I’ve laid out, but that’s really the essence of the two arguments. The claim made against the statute brought by state’s attorneys and sheriffs — that the law violates the constitution’s separation of powers clause — was dismissed by the majority using recent precedent and only mentioned by the minority in its argument that the plaintiffs had standing to bring the case in the first place. The rest of the plaintiffs’ arguments were already dismissed at the trial level.
Former prosecutors have been actively recruited by both political parties forever, in all three branches of state government. That tradition probably won’t change much, except perhaps in Chicago, but people throughout the political spectrum have complained for a very long time that decades, or even centuries, of “war on crime” laws pushed by those former prosecutors and their allies have resulted in the targeting of poor people of color for prosecution and imprisonment.
But the release of the Supreme Court’s Commission on Pretrial Practices report in April of 2020 that recommended abolishing cash bail; the massive George Floyd protests in the summer of that year, along with insistence from activists that the Legislature needed to take action; then-House Speaker Michael Madigan’s desperation to remain in power by locking in support from a long-frustrated Black Caucus; a billionaire governor sympathetic to their cause during what was essentially a closed-off, round-the-clock winter session held in the midst of a deadly worldwide pandemic; and a dysfunctional and unfeared minority party, all combined to pass this highly unusual bill.
States have long been called “laboratories of democracy.” Illinois’ laboratory has managed to produce this law, which is now confirmed as constitutional. We’ll see how it goes.
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* WBEZ…
Stories of dire conditions in Illinois prisons have been trickling out for years, but a new report from a consulting company hired by the state of Illinois to assess its prison infrastructure shows the situation might be even worse than previously revealed. In the report, obtained by WBEZ, consultants rated three of the department’s 27 facilities as approaching “inoperable” and estimated the prison system has at least $2.5 billion of “deferred maintenance,” the highest of any state agency. That number is expected to double in five years if unaddressed.
The Illinois Department of Corrections declined a request for an interview. But, in a written statement, spokesperson Naomi Puzzello said the department has reviewed the report and “is in the beginning stages of internal discussions to determine the next steps necessary to meet the operational requirements of the agency.”
The report encourages major repairs and fixes. But in light of a dramatically decreased prison population over the last decade, it also recommends closing one prison and shrinking another. That’s a recommendation that is likely to be controversial — unions and communities surrounding prisons have historically fought to keep facilities from shrinking.
* From the report…
Finding: Aging Capacity. Twenty percent of IDOC’s bed capacity is in facilities that opened prior to 1926. Those facilities were designed to reflect the predominant correctional philosophy of the 1800’s. The majority of IDOC’s beds (65 percent) are in facilities that were built during the extreme prison population growth period from 1970 to 2000, and many are now experiencing significant physical plant issues. This group of correctional centers may have met the operational requirements of the agency when built, but they now lack spaces necessary to accommodate today’s staffing, programming, and treatment needs.
Additionally, several of IDOC’s facilities are former mental health institutions converted to correctional facilities and most still retain housing and support spaces that are nearly a century old. For example, Logan Correctional Center opened in the 1870’s as the Illinois Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children. Nearly 1,000 of Logan’s current housing unit beds were built more than 90 years ago for a mental health population. Likewise, most of the housing at Dixon Correctional Center was constructed in the 1920’s and 1930’s to house mental health patients.
The majority of IDOC’s facilities were opened prior to the passage of the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, and the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) in 2004. Significant physical plant modifications are required to come into compliance with these mandates. This is especially true for the oldest facilities (Stateville, Pontiac, and Menard) which have multi-tiered housing units that cannot comply with ADA and make PREA compliance difficult. Other buildings, including medical and dietary at Pontiac are not accessible.
Finding: Decreasing Population. The prison population has decreased significantly over the past 10 years, through the passage of criminal justice reforms, including those adopted during the Pritzker Administration, as well as the recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has dropped by 44 percent from nearly 50,000 in 2012 to slightly under 28,000 in 2021. As the pandemic has begun to lift, the population crept up to 29,395 in October 2022.
Today’s lower population level provides an opportunity to right-size the agency, reducing outdated, ineffective, and costly-to-operate buildings and updating some of the remaining to better support IDOC’s goals.
Finding: Litigation Impacts Space Needs. Litigation outcomes have transformed IDOC’s operations and substantially affected its physical plant needs. Settlement agreements, including the Rasho and Lippert decisions have enhanced nearly every aspect of providing medical and mental health services in the IDOC. This expansion has placed significant stress on the limited space inside correctional facilities, as treatment increases, and professional staff levels have grown.
Finding: Deferred Maintenance Crisis. The level of deferred maintenance in the system is at a critical level. IDOC has $2.5 billion in facility deferred maintenance, the highest of any Illinois state agency.
Deferred Maintenance in a correctional system, if left unaddressed, will double every 5 years. The level of repair and capital funding IDOC has received in the past decade is insufficient, and without significant progress in addressing existing deferred maintenance, the deterioration of IDOC physical plant will cascade, impacting its ability to safely manage its facilities and meet its goals. At nearly every correctional facility, IDOC’s operational mission as well as safety and security are negatively impacted by its worsening conditions.
Finding: Staffing Challenges. The ability to manage a complex correctional system is made more complicated by the fact that many are facing historic-level retention and vacancy issues. This issue has become so prevalent and pervasive that many systems have been forced to assess the number of incarcerated individuals they can safely manage given finite staff resources. Some correctional systems have taken the extraordinary step of closing prisons given their inability to recruit and retain staff.
IDOC is not immune to staffing issues, as vacancy rates have risen above 25 percent.
Pontiac Correctional Center’s correctional officer vacancy rate reached 47 percent, considerably greater than the already high agency rate of 28%. Other aging complex facilities including Dixon and Stateville had correctional officer vacancy rates well above the average.
Finding: Facility Conditions. HDR conducted detailed facility conditions assessments at each prison and found significant facility degradation. Only three out of 27 facilities reviewed had average facility condition assessments in the “Fully Operational” range. The remainder were in the “Impaired Operation” range with Stateville, Pontiac, and Logan approaching an “Inoperable” rating.
There’s more.
* Some of the recommendations…
• Recommendation: Replace the Dixon Psychiatric Unit: The Dixon Psychiatric Unit (DPU) does not effectively support the treatment and supervision of IDOC’s most difficult to manage and vulnerable population. The DPU’s X-House design is nearly identical to the facilities IDOC opened in the 1980’s and 1990’s to house general population, medium security incarcerated males. This unit should be replaced with a purpose-built design that provides appropriate housing for a severe mental health population along with adequate treatment and staff space in a design that creates a supportive environment. Estimated Cost in today’s dollars to build a 215 bed Secure Psychiatric Unit: $58,634,249 - $72,271,582 depending on location.
• Recommendation: Add Mental Health Treatment/Staff Spaces across IDOC: The lack of appropriate space for mental health professionals and mental health treatment is a substantial concern and impedes IDOC’s abilities to meet its operational goals. The department’s existing facilities were never built to manage the size of the existing mental health caseload or provide office and treatment space. The result has been that IDOC has had to make do with whatever space it could find, even at the detriment of other services. Many health care units were packed with staff and valuable exam rooms, x-ray rooms and other areas had been converted to mental health offices. […]
• Recommendation: Replace Stateville Housing: The Quarterhouse and X-House at Stateville are not suitable for any 21st century correctional center. The Quarterhouse particularly has a design developed during the penitentiary period of the 1800’s. As a result, it has little space for out-of-cell time, no program space or office space (other than converted cells). It is very staff intensive to manage and has an estimated $12 million in immediate structural repairs that are needed […]
• Recommendation: Address Women’s Facility Needs. Underlying any correctional system’s potential to meet its mission and goal is its ability to create an environment where staff and inmates can be successful. A poorly maintained correctional facility can create security and safety issues for staff and inmates, as well as a work environment that is detrimental to good performance. Our review found the existing Logan Correctional Center to be inefficient, ineffective, and unsuitable for any population. The aging coal-fired power system, molding housing units, and facility layout all work in opposition to the mission and goals of the facility. IDOC should find a more suitable location for housing its incarcerated women.
Considering the projected excess capacity of male medium security beds in the system, CGL recommends the female population at Logan be moved to one of the male medium security X-house facilities. These facilities are in much better condition but would need some renovation and new construction to develop spaces specific to managing a female population. Illinois River Correctional Center could be the preferred site given its special management unit which could serve as housing for a maximum custody population. Estimated Cost in today’s dollars to renovate and construct new space at Illinois River for a women’s population: $12,245,842 […]
• Recommendation: Consider Reducing Pontiac’s Capacity. Given its age, outdated/inefficient design, extensive physical plant needs, high cost to operate, and difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff, consideration should be given to reducing Pontiac Correctional Center’s capacity. During the course of this master planning effort, the population at Pontiac was reduced due to its high staff vacancy rate through the closure of its Medium Security Unit (442 beds). That left an August 2022 rated capacity of 778.
From a purely fiscal standpoint, Pontiac remains the most expensive facility in the state to operate on an annual basis with an annual per capita cost over $65,000 and has $235 million in deferred maintenance. Given these issues, and the excess male maximum security capacity in the system, additional capacity could be taken offline reducing agency expenses. This should improve facility security and allow Pontiac to focus its resources on the remaining population and their service needs.
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Open thread
Monday, Jul 24, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Hope you all had a relaxing weekend! What’s going on?…
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Isabel’s morning briefing
Monday, Jul 24, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Here you go…
* Tribune | I-55 toll lane expansion no sure thing despite taking a step forward in Springfield: Pritzker acknowledged in an interview with the Tribune last month that “there’s very much a divide” between organized labor and environmental groups on the issue. Similar discord arose during negotiations over the landmark energy and climate measure he signed two years ago and the more recent debate over a proposal now on Pritzker’s desk that would lift a decades-old moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants in Illinois.
* Tribune | Push to build more CO2 pipelines and store vast amounts of the gas underground in Illinois raises alarms about safety regulations: Navigator says this can be done safely and points to thousands of miles of CO2 pipeline already in use in the United States, mostly by the oil industry, which uses carbon dioxide to boost production. But opponents, including environmentalists and landowners, say a new generation of massive, climate-oriented CO2 pipeline projects such as Navigator’s should be put on hold until government officials can address “alarming” gaps in health and safety regulations.
* Tribune | CO2 pipeline company conducted a 24/7 drilling operation for 2 months across from family’s Nokomis home: ‘They’ve created chaos.’: There was no letter from Navigator, according to the Jones, who live on a quiet country road in Nokomis, 200 miles southwest of Chicago. There was no phone call or visit. But for more than two months, starting in early May, the drilling operation filled their leafy front yard with a dull industrial hum, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
* Scott Holland | Maternity deserts a problem for everyone, not just young families: The thought surfaces when reading coverage of a trickier issue: maternal care deserts. FarmWeek’s Tammie Sloup, a longtime newsroom colleague, wrote this week about the 36 Illinois counties with no hospitals offering obstetric care and no obstetric providers. The information comes from a 2022 March of Dimes report, which codes 16 other Illinois counties as having low or moderate access.
* Tribune | Conservative group headed by 2020 presidential election denier wins access to Illinois voter data in court settlement: The settlement includes a confidentiality order aimed at preventing dissemination of voters’ personal information beyond the Illinois Conservative Union. The settlement, filed Tuesday, dismisses a case brought on behalf of the Conservative Union by the right-wing group Judicial Watch.
* Farm Week | IFB members celebrate legislative victory: Previously, only highway commissioners in townships with less than 500 in population could serve multiple districts. The new measure increases the maximum population of a district to 1,000 and will allow road clerks to serve multiple districts in townships with a commission form of government.
* Daily Herald | Disabled veteran property tax exemptions continue growth: A new Illinois Department of Revenue report shows the number of disabled military veterans and surviving spouses receiving a full reprieve from paying property taxes nearly tripled from 2015 to 2021.
* Capitol News Illinois | Pritzker Focuses on Business Development, Clean Energy Jobs at Joliet Assembly Plant Opening: “This is about more than just cars on the road. It’s also about making sure that we have the buses, the community experience of the new clean energy economy,” Pritzker said, directing his comments toward younger people in the audience. “Because while all of that is very important, it’s predicated on having a planet that’s environmentally sustainable for your generation and beyond.”
* Daily Herald | A tale of two senators: Duckworth outraised and outspent Durbin in year’s second quarter: Duckworth, who won election to her second 6-year term in November, received about $568,764 in campaign donations from April 1 to June 30. Durbin — a Springfield Democrat who won his fifth term in 2020 — collected about $114,570.
* The Telegraph | Raftopoulos seeks to face Elik in 2024: Nick Raftopoulos of Granite City will seek the Democratic nomination to challenge state Rep. Amy Elik, R-Alton, for Illinois’ 111th House District in 2024. “I am running because I think the 111th needs a representative that will fight for hard-working families, stand up for unions, and bring new solutions to the State House,” Raftopoulos says.
* Crain’s | Northwestern soccer and volleyball players were hazed, too, attorney says: Patrick Salvi II says the new allegations describe “instances where members of male sports teams engaged in inappropriate conduct with female athletes.” The acts included “sexual harassment, inappropriate sexual touching and hazing,” he said. Salvi further asserted that the acts were reported to the school, which “essentially did nothing.”
* The Hill | Durbin tests positive for COVID-19 for third time in one year: “Unfortunately, I tested positive for COVID-19 today,” he tweeted. “I’m disappointed to have to miss critical work on the Senate’s NDAA this week in Washington. Consistent with CDC guidelines, I’ll quarantine at home and follow the advice of my doctor while I work remotely.”
* Sun-Times | National Labor Relations Board ‘finds merit’ in union claims against Howard Brown Health: A representative for the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board said last week the agency is now seeking a settlement between the union and Howard Brown. If a deal can’t be reached, a hearing will take place and an administrative law judge can order “make-whole” remedies for employees affected by the actions.
* Tribune | As Black leaders pushed for ‘community control of police’ 50 years ago, one activist cop was assigned to patrol an alley: Once Robinson became president of the fledgling Afro-American Patrolmen’s League, he made headlines and was subjected to disciplinary actions in regular succession.
* Tribune | Prominent Chicago pastor, community activist remembers 16-year-old grandson who was shot and killed Friday: Hood, who described his grandson as “energetic” and “a good decent kid,” said the teen played basketball and baseball and was about to be a junior in high school. His family called him “tiny man” because he was short in stature, Hood added.
* Daily Herald | Metra crime grows with ridership, but ‘it is a very safe system,’ officials say: Crime reports reached 238 in 2017, hit 307 in 2018, and totaled 273 in 2019, according data acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request. As thousands of Metra riders worked from home in 2020, offenses dropped to 193. In 2021, the tally ticked up to 219, then rose again to 238 in 2022.
* Daily Southtown | ‘Oldest standing brewery in Illinois’ built around water bubbling from deep underground: “We saw the well when we first toured the property,” said Andy Howell, a founder of Thornton Distilling Co. “We were trying to determine where to open, and that was a huge factor.” By that time, the building at 400 E. Margaret St. in Thornton was empty. Its run as a brewery lasted into the 1950s but ended amid clouds of corruption and lingering connections to organized crime that originated with the onset of Prohibition in the early 1920s.
* NYT | Inside Starbucks’ Dirty War Against Organized Labor: But these professions of innocence are countered by piles of testimony from workers and National Labor Relations Board findings suggesting that Starbucks has indeed illegally repressed employees’ rights. The company has so far racked up a staggering number of complaints from the agency. In 100 cases, many of which consolidate a number of incidents, regional N.L.R.B. offices have decided there is sufficient evidence to pursue litigation against Starbucks. That includes a nationwide complaint, consolidating 32 charges across 28 states, alleging that Starbucks failed or refused to bargain with union representatives from 163 cafes.
* Illinois Times | A changed man: During my 35 years covering politics, I’ve seen politicians drunk while debating legislation. And I’ve seen them holed up in their offices drinking when they were supposed to be legislating. But the phone call I had last week from Terry Schilling, a son of former U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling, left me stunned. He said his dad spent much of the 1980s hooked on crack cocaine.
* Vox | Why pedestrian deaths in the US are at a 40-year high: This year’s report makes clear how dangerous it is to walk in America: The GHSA projects that 7,508 people were killed while walking in 2022, the most pedestrians killed since 1981, when 7,837 pedestrians were killed.
* SJ-R | ‘Beacon of Endurance’ honors legacy of Abraham Lincoln outdoors in downtown Springfield: Officials gathered at the corner outside of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum on Wednesday to unveil the “Beacon of Endurance,” an obelisk that stands at almost 25 feet tall. “We hope this sculpture will serve as a literal beacon, guiding people to Abraham Lincoln and his vision of a better America,” said Christina Shutt, executive director of the ALPLM.
* Tribune | City Series arrives with both the underachieving Cubs and White Sox at a crossroads: In truth, when push comes to shove, the Bears will always win out when it comes to media coverage, leaving the Cubs-Sox series as an afterthought. That’s a shame, because this year’s Crosstown Classic, as everyone except this newspaper calls the rivalry (don’t ask why), figures to be more interesting than ever.
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Live coverage
Monday, Jul 24, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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