*** UPDATE *** I just noticed this in the commission report…
Require exclusive employment for the Senate President and Speaker of the House positions with compensation commensurate with Illinois Supreme Court Justices.
In other words, no outside income for legislative leaders.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* You can read the final report of the governor’s reform commission by clicking here. The press release is here.
A state government reform panel appointed by new Gov. Pat Quinn today proposed term limits for powerful legislative leaders, cutting back on lawmakers’ private meetings and overhauling a patronage-riddled hiring system.
“The nation’s eyes are upon us, they are watching what we do here. Will we get meaningful reform?” said Patrick Collins, the former federal prosecutor who chaired the commission. “The question for our state at this time in our history is what will be our response to this unprecedented crisis of integrity that we face.”
House Speaker Michael Madigan, who I caught in an elevator a few minutes after Quinn’s press conference, was more reserved. “We view it as an honest effort to generate ideas,” said Madigan, who has ruled the House for most of the past 26 years. He went on to imply that the notion of limiting legisaltive leadership tenure is un-democratic.
As with general elective term limits, the Commission
was unable to make a unanimous recommendation regarding the direct recall of elected officials. While Commissioners acknowledge the merit of making elected officials more accountable to the voters, Commissioners were concerned about the potential unintended consequences of a reactionary endorsement of the recall power.
While the Commission applauds the recent Senate efforts to increase full committee hearing of proposed legislation, the Commission recommends modifying the process even further. To ensure due consideration of pending legislation, the Commission recommends that the House and Senate adopt rules requiring that each bill introduced to the Rules or Assignment Committees, as applicable, be subject to a
full committee vote if the bill has a minimum of sixteen sponsors in the House or eight sponsors in the Senate. The Commission believes that this will allow for consideration of all bills that have a reasonable chance of success, while preventing the waste of time that consideration of every single bill might engender.
The commission urged… an overhaul of the way the state budget gets voted on by breaking it into pieces and holding public hearings on each piece, and de-emphasizing the power of the House and Senate Rules committees, which historically have been chokeholds on major pieces of legislation.
The commission wants to make government more transparent by applying the Open Meetings act to the Illinois General Assembly and making state government approve more Freedom of Information Act requests.
* Gov. Quinn didn’t sign off immediately on the commission’s procurement reforms, saying he hadn’t had a chance to read them yet…
* The governor also said he’d be open to public financing for more than just judicial races…
Quinn said Tuesday he wants voters to have the power to recall corrupt officials. That’s something the reform commission did not support. […]
The Chicago Democrat also says voters should be able to hold referendums on key ethics issues, so that lawmakers aren’t the only ones making decisions.
* The guv kinda waffled a bit on whether the GA ought to pass the reforms as is, right now…
* Background on the Bears’ third round draft pick…
Third-round DT Jarron Gilbert has excellent athleticism and all the physical tools. His athleticism has been displayed on YouTube since last summer when he jumped completely out of the shallow end of a pool.
“Our strength coach had told us that he heard a story of Adam Archuleta jumping out of a pool, and everybody went crazy and thought it was unbelievable,” Gilbert said. “I went out there and tried it and got it on the first try. Then I had to put it on film.”
