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*** UPDATED x1 - Yednock responds *** Attorney to file complaint about Madigan scheme

Thursday, Oct 4, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

Did Democratic House candidate Lance Yednock take an illegal campaign contribution from Michael Madigan?

A Peru attorney alleges that Yednock, running against state Rep. Jerry Long (R-Streator), improperly took $55,400 from the House speaker — and she wants the state Board of Elections to look into it. […]

“It is my belief that the Friends of Michael J. Madigan laundered a $55,400 campaign contribution to Friends of Lance Yednock through Friends of Marty Durkan,” she wrote.

As Ajster described it, Madigan gave $55,400 to Durkan, a commissioner on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, on March 19 — a day ahead of the election Durkan won.

An identical sum was later deposited Aug. 19 from Durkan’s committee into Yednock’s.

The attorney is basing her claim on two parts of the state’s Election Code: The contribution cap limit (which is $55,400 this year from a candidate committee) and this…

No person shall make an anonymous contribution or a contribution in the name of another person, and no person shall knowingly accept any anonymous contribution or contribution made by one person in the name of another person.

Basically, she’s arguing that since Madigan has already given Yednock $1,582 he laundered the money through Durkan to get around the cap “in the name of another person.”

* Madigan does this a lot. His 13th Ward committee, for instance, gave Durkan another $55,400 on March 19th. But it’s not mainly from his own account. He appears to direct others to give his members big checks and then they transfer the $55,400 to candidates in need.

Madigan’s lawyers basically wrote the election code, so they know where the loopholes are. But he’s currently facing a federal civil suit for putting up a couple of sham candidates in his own primary and I never thought it would get this far because nobody figured that was against the law, either.

A State Board of Elections spokesperson said this afternoon that the board had not yet received the complaint.

*** UPDATE *** Lance Yednock…

Now that his own party has called on him to resign over his inappropriate conduct with a female staffer, Rep. Long has resorted to simply making things up. Marty and I are both members of Operating Engineers Local 150, and he is supporting my campaign because Jerry Long has proven that he will not stand up for working families and his treatment of women shows he is unfit to represent us. I look forward to serving our community with honesty, independence and integrity which Republicans and Democrats alike agree Rep. Long is clearly lacking.

11 Comments

Fingers continue to point over step increases

Thursday, Oct 4, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Coming a bit late to this, but here’s the AP…

Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration says it needs up to two more months to produce a plan to provide three years’ back pay to union workers.

A lawyer for the Republican governor told the Illinois State Labor Relations Board in a letter Monday that determining how much is owed to 20,000 workers is onerous.

Monday was the labor board deadline on the issue involving so-called step increases shut off in July 2015.

The letter says transferring money from other funds could jeopardize feeding prison inmates, providing utilities to the poor or medical care at state facilities.

We’re talking maybe $400 million that wasn’t put into the budget.

* SJ-R…

The administration stopped awarding step increases after AFSCME’s last contract with the state expired in June, 2015. Step increases are automatic raises given to workers in the first seven to 10 years of their careers.

A compliance officer in August asked the state to document who is owed what for the step increases, including people who no longer work for the state or are deceased. Administration lawyers said computing the information is enormously complex and that more time is needed to comply.

* Press release…

“This foot dragging is taking place despite clear direction from the courts and independent arbitrators to identify costs associated with the contractually established state employee salary adjustments and step increases long overdue to employees,” Illinois Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza said.

“Governor Rauner cannot use his own ineptitude as an excuse to ignore court orders and trample basic worker rights,” Comptroller Mendoza said. “His pursuit of an extreme anti-worker agenda that underlines his irresponsible and illegal delay in estimating the contractual liabilities that continue to grow is fiscally unsupportable. The critical issue of basic fairness aside, this information needs to be incorporated into the state’s financial statements and the lack of data complicates budgetary and cash management planning for the current fiscal year and beyond.” […]

“It’s particularly ironic that this Administration has expended hundreds of millions of dollars for Information Technology consultants with the goal of improving administrative functions at the same time he whines that basic payroll costs can’t be calculated because it’s too difficult,” she said.

Ouch.

* A big reason for the delay…

(T)he administration said it’s got three different reports it’s running: Report 1: assumes step progressions are owed through January 8, 2016, which is the date that impasse occurred; Report 2: assumes step progressions are owed through December 13, 2016, which is the date that the Board ruled on impasse; Report 3: assumes step progressions are owed through the time the report was produced, as if no impasse occurred at all.

The AFSCME union says there’s no impasse and said Gov. Bruce Rauner is playing games.

…Adding… Governor’s press office…

We responded in detail to requests for information from the Labor Relations Board’s compliance officer. The compliance officer did not order the state to start paying employees step increases by October 1st. The state was ordered to “provide information” that the compliance officer believes may be relevant “to obtain the record” of what employees were owed by October 1st.

The process of calculating current steps and backpay is complex and requires many hours of manual labor. The state has supplied voluminous materials to the compliance officer in accordance with his requests. The state is working diligently to calculate the remaining information. Prior experience from the 2012/2013 wage increase case, which predates the Rauner administration, shows how both the state and AFSCME employees can lose when the calculations are rushed and mistakes are made. In addition, the compliance officer recognized that legal disputes remain regarding the amount of step increases that are owed, and that those issues must be resolved by the Labor Relations Board or a court. To aid in resolving those issues, the compliance officer noted that a hearing with an Administrative Law Judge would be scheduled.

We look forward to resolving the remaining issues promptly so we can bring this process to a close and make all the necessary calculations as quickly as possible.

41 Comments

*** UPDATED x1 *** Pritzker, Rauner to hold press conferences today to call each other a criminal

Thursday, Oct 4, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Media advisory…

JB Pritzker to hold media availability on the new criminal investigation into Bruce Rauner’s fatal mismanagement in Quincy.

WHEN
Thursday, October 4 at 11:30 AM

* Media advisory…

Governor Rauner will hold a press conference to address JB Pritzker’s “scheme to defraud” Illinois taxpayers. This follows a letter from seven Illinois Congressman to the U.S. Attorney’s Office calling for an investigation into Pritzker’s scheme. […]

WHEN
Today - Thursday, October 4th
Press Check-In at 12:45 PM
Event will begin at 1:00 PM

Predictions?

*** UPDATE *** Pritzker campaign…

“The story of the Legionnaires’ Crisis at the Quincy Veterans’ Home is the story of a failed governor who cost people their lives,” said JB Pritzker. “Bruce Rauner cared more about headlines than heroes. We’ve seen this before. In Flint, Michigan, the Attorney General launched a criminal investigation into the contamination of the water. Now, 15 government officials have been charged and one is facing involuntary manslaughter charges. Here in Illinois, there’s now a criminal probe into the Rauner administration’s mismanagement in Quincy. When 14 Veterans and their family members die, when nearly 70 people get sick, when you wait days to tell people on the ground what’s going on, you better believe crimes were committed. This is criminal negligence that cost people their lives and it’s time we have a grand jury get to the bottom of this.”

Attached video…

Credit should be given to Rep. Stephanie Kifowit for this move by AG Madigan. From this week’s WBEZ piece…

“All aspects of this need to be looked at through the criminal process, whether it be manslaughter, neglect, you name it,” said state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, an Aurora Democrat and chief House sponsor of the disease notification bill.

Kifowit told me yesterday that she’s been pestering the attorney general since late August.

32 Comments

Mendoza accused of being too political in office

Thursday, Oct 4, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* A few months after Comptroller Susana Mendoza took office, the Illinois Republican Party dispatched a tracker to follow her around Springfield. Click here if you don’t remember it. That unprecedented move is necessary context to yesterday’s Sun-Times editorial board meeting…

But it was a question on whether or not the job of comptroller is a political one — and the tough financial choices that come with being comptroller — that set off the most spirited debate between Senger and Mendoza.

Senger argued that Mendoza often made the office too political by lobbing criticisms at Rauner. There have been some real concerns about turning that office into a politicized office versus keeping it independent, the Naperville Republican said.

“There’s no question that it’s been taken to a level it hasn’t been taken before, and you don’t see Treasurer [Mike] Frerichs or Secretary of State Jesse White do the same thing that you were doing,” Senger said, addressing Mendoza.

“If you’re trying to go out to say ‘I’m being transparent, I’ve got good information for you to share’ you do your 9-to-5 job, but then after your 9-to-5 you’re totally politics on everything, people are going to start thinking ‘hey, are these numbers political?’”

Mendoza argued she felt her approach was necessary when looking at the state’s finances and after meeting with people who were “on the verge of being disconnected from their life-saving medical services.”

Does Mendoza sometimes go over the top? Heck yes, she does. Should she tone some of it down? Yep. But politics ain’t beanbag.

…Adding… Abdon Pallasch sent along this Mendoza quote that didn’t make it into the story…

“The unanimous vote totals on my legislation show how bipartisan I am and I’ve been about as hard on Rauner as I was on Blago and neither of their parties had anything to do with it. I just don’t suffer lying governors no matter what their parties are.”

69 Comments

McCann wants TV stations to pull down ads claiming he voted to raise taxes

Thursday, Oct 4, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* You’ll recall that the Illinois Economic Freedom Alliance new TV ads attacking Sen. Sam McCann claim the gubernatorial candidate “voted with Mike Madigan to raise taxes $3 billion.”

I asked the alliance for documentation about that tax hike claim. Click here to read their full response. They sent me news stories which reported that McCann voted against the tax hike, but also voted for the budget that spent all the tax hike’s revenues. You could use that same logic to claim that Gov. Rauner supported the tax hike, too. But I doubt that the alliance, which appears to be run by the Illinois Manufacturers Association, would ever say something like that.

* From the McCann campaign…

Today, Conservative Party gubernatorial candidate Sam McCann delivered cease and desist letters to downstate networks that began airing attack ads this week paid for by the Illinois Economic Freedom Alliance, a “super PAC” linked to the Rauner-allied Illinois Manufacturers Association.

McCann’s letter centered around the ad’s false claim that he voted for a $3 billion tax increase. Vote results provided by the Illinois General Assembly prove that McCann voted “no” on Senate Bill 9, which increased taxes, and also voted “no” to override Governor Rauner’s veto of the bill.

McCann issued the following statement:

The claim that I voted to raise taxes is a bold-faced lie. That the Governor’s allies would spend more than $1.5 million to spread lies on television shows the desperation they feel as voters continue to distance themselves from four years of Bruce Rauner’s catastrophic attempt at leadership.

After consulting with counsel, I delivered cease and desist letters to all stations airing these ads with evidence of their falsehood and am urging them to stop airing the ads immediately.

…Adding… Oops, I forgot to note that McCann’s campaign just got $265K from the Fight Back Fund, which is connected to Local 150 of the Operating Engineers. McCann said this week that he’s spending about $275K on his own TV ad.