Andrea Zopp for US Senate
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Networks: CNN only, in Democratic Presidential Debate
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Total Buy: $7,445
Friday, Oct 9, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The final results are in and as many analysts have noted, “Exelon was the big winner in this year’s [PJM grid capacity} auction.” Here are the highlights:
$1.7 BILLION RATE INCREASE FOR EXELON – Exelon engineered the new rules to increase their profits. Their $1.7 BILLION reward will be paid for by struggling Illinois ratepayers.
Byron and Quad Cities Both Cleared the Auction and are Obligated to Run Well into the Future
Exelon’s Low Carbon Portfolio Standard would have raised $1.6 billion over 5 ½ years for Exelon. The Capacity markets, under Exelon-pushed rules, earned Exelon $1.7 billion over only three years.
Illinois doesn’t have a balanced budget, service providers are being decimated and real people across Illinois are hurting. It’s time for Exelon to take their HUGE $1.7 BILLION WINDFALL and stop asking legislators to keep padding their profits.
Enough is enough!
Just Say “NO” to the Exelon Bailout
BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses. Visit www.noexelonbailout.com.
Yesterday, a member of the press asked if I am willing to meet the governor halfway.
I replied with an example I’ve used in the past, asking rhetorically if it would be appropriate for me to meet the governor halfway if his stated objective were to enslave me. I knew my words were jarring. I used them not in order to play the “race card,” but because they illustrate an unacceptable extreme.
In no way was I suggesting that the governor is a racist. His personal philanthropy and conduct toward me demonstrate otherwise.
The governor and I have worked together productively in the past and continue to do so. Just yesterday, Gov. Rauner, Leader Currie and I celebrated the expansion of the Chicago Innovation Exchange. Later, I attended a meeting of the criminal justice reform commission the governor convened shortly after taking office. Where we share ideological priorities, we’ve worked together, and where we differ, we’ve engaged in civil discussions. The governor has never failed to be a gentleman. That does not mean I must turn a blind eye to the disproportionate impact many of his demands would have on communities of color while harming low-income and middle-class families of every description.
This crisis won’t be resolved in an arm’s length back-and-forth in the media, and I remain willing to meet with the governor to discuss the topics on his agenda. But in my practice of law, I’ve represented employers in negotiations related to labor, workers’ compensation and civil lawsuits, and I know that when one side insists on extreme approaches as the only possible starting and ending point, a negotiation cannot bear fruit. We can’t forget that we live along a fragile continuum of progress. Not so long ago, employees had few protections and injured workers little recourse, civil justice failed the victims of corporate negligence and minorities were shafted at the ballot box and in redistricting.
The governor also prefers we forget that just six months ago, both Republicans and Democrats funded a set of critical priorities that are simply unsustainable without additional revenue. Instead, he’s content to accuse legislative Democrats – a diverse caucus – of uniformly wanting a tax increase, when in fact, most Republicans agree to the need for revenue, with their votes if not their voices.
I’m willing to negotiate, but a list of inflexible demands plus willful amnesia is no recipe for any negotiation, much less a successful one.
* The governor proposed cutting CeaseFire’s $4.7 million state funding by $3 million in February, and hasn’t released any new money for quite a while. Mayor Emanuel also cut $1 million from the program. The AP says the city’s crime spike could be related…
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner froze money for CeaseFire, featured in the 2011 documentary “The Interrupters,” as Illinois began running out of money because Democrats passed a budget that spent billions more than the state took in. The program was cut off before receiving all of the $4.7 million it was budgeted last fiscal year, and it has gotten no state funding this year as the fight between Rauner and Democrats who lead the Legislature drags on and several programs in Chicago and elsewhere in Illinois shut down.
Meanwhile, Chicago has seen a roughly 20 percent increase in shootings and homicides so far this year compared with the same period in 2014. That included a July 4 weekend that left 48 people shot, including a 7-year-old boy who police say was killed by a shot intended for his father, described as a “ranking gang member” by officers.
None of those holiday weekend shootings occurred in two police districts covered by a Ceasefire-affiliated program that managed to fund itself for the month of July. The same area saw nearly 50 shootings in August. […]
Target Area’s grant was $220,000. Combined with another eliminated grant that helped ex-offenders leaving prison, the state dollars made up 21 percent of the agency’s annual budget, Phillips said.
In July, Target Area used an anonymous donation to train several hundred people on how to prevent conflicts from escalating into violence. The neighborhood into which they were sent during the July 4 weekend saw none of the dozens of shootings and killings that plagued the city over those days, Phillips said.
The following month, when funding was gone and programs had ended, there were 46 shootings in the same area.
The theory behind the program seems pretty sound, at least.
* From a recent WaPo interview of epidemiologist Gary Slutkin, at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health…
“What has been meant by this in the past is that you can approach violence with epidemiological methods, which essentially means that you can apply science to it, figure out where it is, and predict it.
“But we’ve gotten much more sophisticated since then, and now we have very specific health methods for reducing it. We understand that the people doing violence have picked up a set of behavioral patterns by the way the brain copies things. And also that people follow their peers, and there are strong brain processes that encourage you to do that.
“If you go beyond thinking about violence as a moral problem and instead try to understand it as a health issue, many things that were previously unexplainable can be explained. People are always saying “senseless acts of violence,” but that’s really because we haven’t made sense of it. […]
“I’ll give you an example. I worked in refugee camps in Somalia. We had six doctors, and there were a million refugees in 40 camps. There was serious malnutrition, an unimaginable rate of death from diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria. So it seemed like this was an unmanageable problem. But what we did is we recruited tens of thousands of health workers, who were taught just a few simple things that needed to be done.
“These are paid jobs, but they’re paid at a scale that’s different than the people who have gone to ten years of school. Because what’s required to help a mom manage diarrhea, or talk to a sex worker about safe sex, or talk to someone who is suffering a lot, it’s often not that complicated. We’re either giving people nothing or super-everything, and it makes absolutely no sense.”
* Oscar isn’t feeling well, so I need to take him to the vet. He won’t eat or drink (he even refused a hot dog yesterday) and he’s obviously not his old self.
Here he is yesterday cuddling with his Uncle Rob…
Think positive thoughts, please. Thanks!
…Adding… … They are giving him some fluids to make him feel more comfortable and then they are going to run some tests and I should know something in about an hour or so.
…Adding More… The tests all came back negative. He ate some treats but he didn’t want any water. They are now going to take some xrays.
…Adding… The X-rays were negative except that he had an irritated stomach and bowels. They are putting him on a canned, bland diet for now and giving me some medicine for his nausea. We are going home now.
…Adding Still More… We’re home and he’s eating his new food. Wolfed down an entire can. What a relief…
Kent Gray, a lawyer and elected member of the Lincoln Land Community College Board, has been named Illinois campaign director for the presidential campaign of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
A news release from the Trump campaign said that Gray, in a 25-year career, has worked on seven national presidential campaigns and many state and local races. As an attorney, Gray has handled ballot access issues for dozens of candidates for offices from president of the country to local school boards.
Gray, 45, lives in Leland Grove. He lost a 2014 GOP primary for circuit judge.
* Several top Illinois Republicans have been gloating lately about how Trump didn’t have an Illinois presence and how he might not get onto the ballot…
“I don’t know that Trump gets on the Illinois ballot,” warns Republican strategist and former Illinois GOP chair Pat Brady. Absent a significant organization, you’re just not going to get it done in this state.” Brady is backing Gov. John Kasich of Ohio. But other top Illinois Republicans are making similar predictions.
IL GOP PARTY CHAIR HAS NO TRUMP CONTACTS: Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider, who is remaining neutral, tells POLITICO that while potential delegates for Bush, Kasich and Rubio have called the state’s GOP HQ raising their hands for those campaigns. “I can’t tell you we know right now, who to contact if someone wants to be a Trump delegate … I’m not sure the Trump campaign understands the complexity of having delegates in every congressional district.” Petitions start circulating Oct. 3 and candidates have until January to get them in. […]
QUOTABLE: “He asked all the usual suspects. They all turned him down.” — Pat Brady on Trump’s attempt to drop roots in Illinois.
* Petition circulation started yesterday. This is not going to be an easy task for Gray because the Trump campaign is so far behind. Even so, he has until early January to find delegates in every district and get their signatures turned in.
Rauner attempted to reframe the debate by arguing Democrats already have voted for various union-weakening proposals in recent years, nullifying their argument that they’d be violating a core principle if they approved his demands. […]
Instead, the governor said, the fight was “about political tactics for the next election versus policies for the next generation” as he insisted Democrats were more interested in protecting their political allies in organized labor than “helping the middle class.” […]
“Length of school day, length of school year, layoffs in Chicago teachers, whenever they needed something out (of collective bargaining), they take it out,” the governor said. “So when somebody argues to you (that) this is about a violation of the core principles of the Democratic Party, call it on them. Call them on it. It’s not true. Simply not true. This is about political manipulation, political maneuvering, not about true genuine policy.”
It’s true that the Democrats have whacked the teachers and AFSCME over the years. Heck, in 2010 those unions boycotted House Speaker Michael Madigan’s campaign funds, and two years later AFSCME flooded Governor’s Day with hundreds of angry, screaming protesters.
But what Rauner wants is patently extreme and most definitely goes against the “core principles of the Democratic Party.” I’m not gonna post it yet again today, but click here if you’re not sure what I mean.
There’s a big difference between taking length of the school year out of Chicago collective bargaining and forbidding teachers and local government employees to bargain on all wages and benefits, overtime and pensions.
C’mon, man.
* Sen. Kwame Raoul rebuts another Rauner argument. The governor says that the fact that he has removed so many items from his list of demands is proof he is negotiating in good faith…
“If you just throw something on the wall that is to the extreme and say, ‘OK, I’m dropping that now,’ that’s not a fair point of departure to say, ‘I’ve negotiated,’” Raoul said of Rauner.
Yep. Dropping “right to work” zones from his agenda wasn’t negotiating, it was accepting reality that there was no way that thing was ever gonna pass and pushing for it was doing more harm to his party than good.
* Will there be state legislative fallout from yesterday’s Barbara Byrd-Bennett indictment? Ald. Burns doesn’t think it’ll be too bad…
It threatens to damage the credibility sorely needed to get the $480 million in pension help from Springfield needed to avert a devastating round of mid-year budget cuts that, Schools CEO Forrest Claypool has warned, could cost thousands of teachers their jobs and send class sizes soaring through the roof.
“There’s a reputation about Chicago anyway. If you’re a DownStater or a suburban legislator who hates Chicago, this confirms why you don’t like Chicago,” said Ald. Will Burns (4th), the former state lawmaker now chairing the City Council’s Education Committee.
“But if something is going to be done for Chicago, the city cannot be the only beneficiary. Suburban and Downstate schools have to benefit as well. So, in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think Barbara’s indictment is hurtful. Part of the reason why is there is new leadership at CPS.”
Burns noted that Emanuel replaced Byrd-Bennett with his chief of staff Claypool, whose reputation for integrity is unblemished at the Chicago Park District, City Hall, Cook County government and the CTA.
But downstate and suburban lawmakers, many of them already CPS skeptics, say the Byrd-Bennett case will make a “yes” vote on an emergency aid bill more difficult.
“We want to know where the money goes. Until you get rid of the corruption and the wasteful spending that’s already occurring, then we have no desire to send you anymore money,” said State Rep. Jeanne Ives.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who hired Byrd-Bennett in 2012, issued a statement saying “CPS students, parents, teachers and principals deserve better.”
But a Republican state lawmaker said “better” in his view, might be his bill that would allow local governments to declare chapter nine bankruptcy.
“Certainly, there is a case to be made that CPS is beyond fixable,” said State Rep. Ron Sandack.
* By Kristina Rasmussen at the Illinois Policy Institute, with emphasis added…
Illinois’ growing bill backlog is back in the news, thanks to the warning bells sounded by Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger.
With Gov. Bruce Rauner rightly rejecting calls for higher taxes until the General Assembly passes much-needed budgetary and economic reforms, a political dance will continue in the halls of the Capitol. Call it the state budget shuffle.
Here’s how it works: Lawmakers essentially have given up on trying to pass a balanced state budget. Of the more than $2.6 billion that flows into state coffers every month, much more goes out the door. That’s why Munger expects a backlog of $8.5 billion by the end of the calendar year if spending isn’t recalibrated.
How is the pie of available funds sliced? The worthiness of any given program has little to do with it. Everyone wants food pantries and crisis nurseries to keep their doors open, but tugging on heartstrings won’t get anyone far. Rather, it’s a game of who has rigged the system so they can jump to the head of the line.
Pensioners have a constitutional clause that guarantees their pension benefits can’t be diminished or impaired no matter how dire the state’s fiscal situation. State workers have binding contracts and court orders that ensure they get paid, even if the state government were to shut down. Lawmakers have a statutory continuing appropriation that means they also will get paid no matter what.
Who doesn’t get preferential treatment? Low-income working moms looking for help to pay for day care. Seniors who rely on community groups for help. Even lottery winners are getting stiffed. The comptroller can try to mitigate the pain the best she can, but she, too, must live within the constraints of the system.
Um, hello? Gov. Rauner proposed cutting that child care program all the way back in February and then pushed through emergency rules designed to decimate it this summer.
The huge child care program cuts are a feature, not a bug.
* From “The Chicago End-Times - The slow humiliation of Chicago’s most vital newspaper” by Sam Stecklow…
The Sun-Times’ website has undergone four redesigns in the last two years (and one very talked-up political redesign), each less popular with the newsroom than the last. “[When the Sun-Times site] changed over from the newest of the redesigns to what it is now, to match the Network site, there was a lot of displeasure in the newsroom about that,” a former longtime Sun-Times staffer said. “I think a lot of employees were confused as to why so much time, and I assume money, to do three or four website redesigns, only to scrap the whole thing and go with this national Network, and then be told we don’t have any money. Well, you had enough money to do four website redesigns that you didn’t want, but you’re laying off employees. The money was just spent in a different place.”
When the Sun Times Network was launched, the Sun-Times newsroom was at once surprised and skeptical. A former Sun-Times employee told me that reporters and editors were asking amongst themselves whether Wrapports higher-ups (chairman Michael Ferro, CEO Tim Knight, and Aggrego CEO Tim Landon) had even thought this thing through properly. “This sort of rewriting existing content into a bloggy national format was sort of an oversaturated market to begin with,” they continued. “Once we sort of figured out what this was, a lot of people asked, ‘How did this cost fourteen million dollars?’ To hire interns and build essentially one website? It wasn’t 70-something websites, it was one website that was poorly done.”
* There are some naughty words, so be forewarned. On the resignation of Tim Knight earlier this week as the CEO of parent company Wrapports…
Former managing editor Craig Newman told me, “I hope that this is good news for the Sun-Times and an end to the failed mishmosh of an experiment that is the Wrapports/Aggrego/Sun Times Network. However, coming on the heels of recent staff departures and continued gutting of the core of the company, the Chicago Sun-Times, it seems more like a rat fleeing a sinking ship—a ship sinking in no small part because of the rat.”
Tribune Real Estate Holdings, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tribune Media Company (NYSE: TRCO), today announced that it has hired Eastdil Secured to begin exploring strategic monetization alternatives for Tribune Tower and adjacent land. The historic 36-story building sits on three acres, with 305 feet of frontage on Chicago’s premiere street for shopping and entertainment, North Michigan Avenue.
“The global renown of this building, its unparalleled location and development potential make this an incredible opportunity and we are expecting a high level of interest from a broad range of private and institutional investors and developers,” said Murray McQueen, President of Tribune Real Estate Holdings.
McQueen continued, “This property offers 100 linear feet more frontage on Michigan Avenue than Rockefeller Center has on Fifth Avenue in New York City. We see this as the future site of an exciting retail destination, surrounded by world-class adaptive re-use of the Tower and additional mixed use development.”
Tribune Real Estate will explore all transaction options with a goal of maximizing proceeds to the company while creating a compelling mixed-use destination for the city.
Built in 1925, Tribune Tower was designed by New York architects Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells, who won a contest held by Chicago Tribune co-publishers Robert R. McCormick and Joseph Patterson to create the newspaper’s headquarters.
Named a Chicago landmark in 1989, Tribune Tower itself would likely remain a centerpiece of any redevelopment. […]
Tribune Media spun off its publishing division — including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other daily newspapers — in August 2014 to focus on its higher-margin broadcasting business. It also retained a real estate portfolio that includes 77 assets, 8 million square feet and 1,200 acres of land. Tribune Real Estate is looking at redeveloping Times Mirror Square in Los Angeles as well as sites in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale in Florida, and Costa Mesa, Calif.
Company officials have been talking about this for years, going back to Sam Zell’s days at the helm.
No Illinois GOP members part of powerful conservative House Freedom Caucus
Members of the House GOP are said to be stunned after Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy unexpectedly withdrew his bid to succeed retiring House Speaker John Boehner.
McCarthy needed 218 votes among House members to move into the House Speakership - the third spot in the presidency succession line. The Majority Leader appeared confident that he had the 218 needed to be the next Speaker, but a small group of conservative members chose Wednesday night to throw their support behind Florida Congressman Daniel Webster.
Those votes moving to Webster endangered McCarthy’s win. The 30 to 40 members of the House Republicans are called the “House Freedom Caucus,” group described in the Wall Street Journal as “a small but smart and strategic group.”
And, according to a published list, not one Republican from Illinois is a part of the conservative Republican “House Freedom Caucus.” […]
“You have to be a rock solid limited government conservative to be invited. Nobody in the Illinois delegation is even remotely close to conservative enough to be invited in,” [former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh] said. “Sad.”
U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Channahon recently has begun emphasizing his view that, as he put it in an appearance before Crain’s editorial board Oct. 2, the national GOP and some House Republicans “are alienating the very people we need to win.”
Kinzinger underlined a series of policy views that will rankle the hard right, including advocating a “path to legalization” for immigrants who are here illegally, opposing a government shutdown over funding for Planned Parenthood, renewing funding for the U.S. Export-Import Bank, and calling for “an adult conversation” about whether there should be a hike in the gasoline tax to pay for road and other transportation projects.
Then he twisted the knife a little: “I don’t call them the Freedom Caucus,” he said, referring to a group of about four dozen very conservative House members who finally got their wish last week when Speaker John Boehner announced his resignation. “They’re the ’so-called Freedom Caucus’.”
Yes, this is a national politics post, but you know how I feel about national political “debates,” so keep a civil tongue in your head and in your typing fingers. Thanks, even though I don’t quite know why your tongue would be in your fingers. That’s gross. Take your tongue outta your fingers - unless it’s civil.
Thursday, Oct 8, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The final results are in and as many analysts have noted, “Exelon was the big winner in this year’s [PJM grid capacity} auction.” Here are the highlights:
$1.7 BILLION RATE INCREASE FOR EXELON – Exelon engineered the new rules to increase their profits. Their $1.7 BILLION reward will be paid for by struggling Illinois ratepayers.
Byron and Quad Cities Both Cleared the Auction and are Obligated to Run Well into the Future
Exelon’s Low Carbon Portfolio Standard would have raised $1.6 billion over 5 ½ years for Exelon. The Capacity markets, under Exelon-pushed rules, earned Exelon $1.7 billion over only three years.
Illinois doesn’t have a balanced budget, service providers are being decimated and real people across Illinois are hurting. It’s time for Exelon to take their HUGE $1.7 BILLION WINDFALL and stop asking legislators to keep padding their profits.
Enough is enough!
Just Say “NO” to the Exelon Bailout
BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses. Visit www.noexelonbailout.com.
Governor Rauner yesterday delivered remarks explaining how reforming collective bargaining is a bi-partisan idea and would save taxpayers billions. In fact, many Democrats, including the House Speaker and House Majority Leader as well as the Senate President and Senate Majority Leader, have voted in recent years to limit and remove collective bargaining requirements in an effort to save taxpayers money.
“Twice in the last four years, Illinois Democrats voted to reform collective bargaining, but now they are hiding behind it to try to force spending higher and raise taxes on the people of Illinois,” Rauner spokesman Lance Trover said. “The notion that collective bargaining is sacrosanct to the Democratic Party is nothing more than political gamesmanship to protect the status quo and hurt taxpayers.”
SB 1 (Pension Reform of 2013)
Senate Democrats voting aye:
Biss, Cunningham, Harmon, Hunter, Jones, Landek, Martinez, McGuire, Morrison, Mulroe, Munoz, Raoul, Sandoval, Silverstein, Stadelman, Steans, Van Pelt, Mr. President
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/98/senate/09800SB0001_12032013_005000R.pdf
That’s all well and good. However, the governor has proposed some awfully radical legislation…
Prohibited subjects of bargaining.
(a) A public employer and a labor organization may not bargain over, and no collective bargaining agreement entered into, renewed, or extended on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 99th General Assembly may include, provisions related to the following prohibited subjects of collective bargaining:
(1) Employee pensions, including the impact or implementation of changes to employee pensions, including the Employee Consideration Pension Transition Program as set forth in Section 30 of the Personnel Code.
(2) Wages, including any form of compensation including salaries, overtime compensation, vacations, holidays, and any fringe benefits, including the impact or implementation of changes to the same; except nothing in this Section 7.6 will prohibit the employer from electing to bargain collectively over employer-provided health insurance.
(3) Hours of work, including work schedules, shift schedules, overtime hours, compensatory time, and lunch periods, including the impact or implementation of changes to the same.
(4) Matters of employee tenure, including the impact of employee tenure or time in service on the employer’s exercise of authority including, but not limited to, any consideration the employer must give to the tenure of employees adversely affected by the employer’s exercise of management’s right to conduct a layoff.
Sorry to repeat myself, but no way are they gonna vote for that, governor. No way are even all that many Republicans gonna vote for it, either.
* A good friend stopped by the house today, so I missed this one. From the US Attorney’s office. Not exactly a huge surprise. The full indictment is here…
A federal indictment returned today charges BARBARA BYRD-BENNETT with using her position atop the Chicago Public Schools to award lucrative no-bid contracts to her former employer in exchange for bribes and kickbacks.
The 23-count indictment alleges that Byrd-Bennett steered no-bid contracts worth more than $23 million to THE SUPES ACADEMY LLC, and SYNESI ASSOCIATES LLC, in exchange for an expectation of hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks. The companies agreed to conceal the kickback money by funneling it into accounts set up in the names of two of Byrd-Bennett’s relatives, according to the indictment. A later agreement called for the funds to be paid to Byrd-Bennett in the form of a “signing bonus” after her employment with CPS ended and the companies re-hired her as a consultant, according to the indictment.
The companies, which specialize in training principals and school administrators, provided Byrd-Bennett with numerous other benefits, including meals, an airplane ticket, and seats at basketball and baseball games, the indictment states. Byrd-Bennett also expected to receive reimbursement from the companies for costs associated with a holiday party she hosted for CPS personnel, according to the charges.
The Wilmette-based SUPES and the Evanston-based Synesi are also charged in the indictment, along with their respective former owners, GARY SOLOMON and THOMAS VRANAS. Byrd-Bennett had worked as a consultant for SUPES and Synesi before moving to CPS in May 2012. She was appointed chief executive officer at CPS on Oct. 12, 2012.
The indictment charges Byrd-Bennett, 66, of Solon, Ohio, with 15 counts of mail fraud and five counts of wire fraud. Solomon, 47, of Wilmette, is charged with 15 counts of mail fraud, five counts of wire fraud, two counts of bribery of a government official, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Vranas, 34, of Glenview, is charged with 15 counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud, two counts of bribery of a government official, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. SUPES and Synesi are charged as corporate defendants with 15 counts of mail fraud and five counts of wire fraud apiece.
The indictment seeks forfeiture from defendants Solomon, Vranas, SUPES and Synesi of all money and property traceable to the violations, estimated at approximately $2 million.
An arraignment date in U.S. District Court in Chicago has not yet been set.
“Graft and corruption in our city’s public school system tears at the fabric of a vital resource for the children of Chicago,” said Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. “School officials and city vendors who abuse the public trust will be held accountable.”
Mr. Fardon announced the indictment along with John A. Brown, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Nicholas J. Schuler, Inspector General for the Chicago Public Schools.
“The American people expect honest services from their government leaders, particularly those responsible for leading our teachers and caring for our children,” said Special Agent Brown. “The FBI, in conjunction with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners, remains steadfast in its pursuit of those willing to trade the education of our children for their own prosperity.”
“The public education system is harmed when a high-level insider chooses to line their pockets with public funds,” CPS Inspector General Schuler said. “My office is committed to rooting out corruption at any level through joint investigations such as this one.”
The contracts referenced in the indictment were awarded by the Chicago Board of Education, which governs CPS, as part of a CBOE training program called the Chicago Executive Leadership Academy (CELA). One such contract – worth $2.09 million for leadership training of school administrators – was awarded to SUPES within two weeks of Byrd-Bennett’s appointment as CEO, and then extended with an additional $225,000 allocation in 2013. A larger no-bid contract – worth $20.5 million – was awarded to SUPES on June 26, 2013.
The indictment alleges that Byrd-Bennett used her position as CEO to lobby CBOE officials on behalf of SUPES and Synesi, and to actively seek funds from the CPS budget to expand the CELA program for the companies’ benefit. Byrd-Bennett directed CPS employees to obtain the necessary approvals to eliminate competitive bidding from the procurement process, and to ensure that the contracts were awarded to SUPES, according to the indictment.
All the while, Byrd-Bennett falsely represented to CBOE officials that she received no financial compensation from the companies, the indictment contends. In reality, Byrd-Bennett maintained an interest in SUPES and Synesi through a secret consulting agreement, which promised to pay her a percentage of the gross proceeds from the contracts she helped to procure, according to the indictment.
The indictment cites an email between Solomon and Vranas on or about Dec. 6, 2012, which contained a prior email discussion between Byrd-Bennett, Solomon and Vranas. In that email, Solomon informed Byrd-Bennett, in part: “It is our assumption that the distribution will serve as a signing bonus upon your return to SUPES/Synesi. If you only join for the day, you will be the highest paid person on the planet for that day.”
In the late summer or early fall of 2013, according to the indictment, Solomon informed Byrd-Bennett that the CBOE Inspector General wanted to review Solomon’s and Vranas’s emails. Solomon said Vranas planned to use a computer program to delete the emails, and he told Byrd-Bennett to delete her emails as well, the indictment states.
Each count of mail and wire fraud is punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, mandatory restitution, and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or gross loss resulting from the offense, whichever is greater. Each count of bribery of a government official carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or gross loss resulting from the offense, whichever is greater. The charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States is punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or gross loss resulting from the offense, whichever is greater.
If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal sentencing statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines. The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The government is represented by Assistant United States Attorneys Megan Cunniff Church and Lindsay Jenkins.
See this piece in the Journal yesterday? It compares the two states. We could just swap governors for a month and both states could fix their problems.
Both men are well-to-do, spent a lot of their own money on their campaigns and are Dartmouth grads. A swap would give Illinois an all-Democratic statehouse and Pennsylvania an all-Republican one. The two states could then become petri dishes for which party makes for a better state.
I know. Been a long three months. I’ll take two aspirin and lie down.
“State financial aide for college students will not get paid. I’m furious about that. Many social service providers will have to close their doors. It’s outrageous, by putting assistance to the most vulnerable at risk. We should not let that happen. Universities and community colleges will not receive state funding, causing some to wonder whether they will be open for the second semester. Outrageous. Should not happen,” he said. “Unpaid bills will continue to pile up, delaying payments to local governments, pension funds, hospitals, nursing homes, other providers. Pushing down our credit rating and raising interests costs on you, the taxpayers of the state. Should not happen. Not having a budget this late in the year is simply inexcusable and unacceptable.”
Furious, outrageous (x2), inexcusable and unacceptable.
Gee, he sounds like he’s a total outsider with zero role in this drama.
Gov. Bruce Rauner restated his demand Wednesday that weakening the collective bargaining rights of public workers must be part of a deal to end the political stalemate that has kept Illinois without a budget since July 1. […]
In his speech, Rauner contended that a change in collective bargaining inside government “is not a radical idea and it is not a partisan idea.” The governor said Democrats across the country have made union-weakening rules, including in Illinois by allowing the outsourcing of Chicago Public Schools janitors and the elimination of CPS union teachers’ ability to negotiate over longer school hours.
“It’s not about Republicans versus Democrats. It’s about good government. It’s about making sure tax dollars go to education, economic growth, tourism marketing and services for the most vulnerable — not to expensive government bureaucracy,” Rauner said.
“It’s time we in Illinois get serious about collective bargaining reform and unfunded mandate relief in government. It’s a critical bipartisan issue where we can find common ground. Getting rid of unfunded mandates and giving decision-making authority on bargaining, bidding and contracting back to local communities,” he said.
Rauner also argues he’s already compromised by dropping some items he was pushing earlier this year, such as letting local communities create so-called “right-to-work zones,” where union membership would be voluntary. And he notes that Democrats in Illinois and elsewhere have previously backed changes to collective bargaining, even though labor unions are among their most staunch supporters.
He’s right that they have passed bills that unions opposed.
(a) A public employer and a labor organization may not bargain over, and no collective bargaining agreement entered into, renewed, or extended on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 99th General Assembly may include, provisions related to the following prohibited subjects of collective bargaining:
(1) Employee pensions, including the impact or implementation of changes to employee pensions, including the Employee Consideration Pension Transition Program as set forth in Section 30 of the Personnel Code.
(2) Wages, including any form of compensation including salaries, overtime compensation, vacations, holidays, and any fringe benefits, including the impact or implementation of changes to the same; except nothing in this Section 7.6 will prohibit the employer from electing to bargain collectively over employer-provided health insurance.
(3) Hours of work, including work schedules, shift schedules, overtime hours, compensatory time, and lunch periods, including the impact or implementation of changes to the same.
(4) Matters of employee tenure, including the impact of employee tenure or time in service on the employer’s exercise of authority including, but not limited to, any consideration the employer must give to the tenure of employees adversely affected by the employer’s exercise of management’s right to conduct a layoff.
The governor said yesterday that his proposals were not “radical.” That’s radical. Period. It’s time he disavowed that proposal and got down to some do-able changes.
* Bernie reports that the US Supreme Court has refused to heal an appeal filed by the Illinois Policy Institute over the refusal of legislative leaders to grant the institute’s reporters access to the chambers’ press boxes…
“We are disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear our case,” [executive editor of the Illinois News Network Scott Reeder] said. “The only question considered by any judge in this matter was whether a legislative leader’s decision on denying press credentials can be challenged in court. Unfortunately, an appellate court ruled legislative leaders are immune from such lawsuits. The court’s ruling leaves news organizations of all stripes vulnerable to retaliation and discrimination by elected officials. This may well have a chilling effect on coverage of American statehouses.”
Not so, said RIKEESHA PHELON, spokeswoman for Senate President JOHN CULLERTON, D-Chicago.
“We have made no judgment about independent news organizations,” Phelon said. “But court rulings now confirm that our decision to ban thinly veiled lobbying organizations from the Senate floor is appropriate.”
In the appellate ruling, the court stated that though the Illinois Policy Institute is no longer a lobbying group because it formed a new entity — Illinois Policy Action, which does have staffers listed as lobbyists — there was no real difference.
“The IPI is plainly an advocacy organization, and even though it did not register as a lobbyist in 2014, both the House and Senate determined it should have,” the appellate court decision said.
I’m a hardcore 1st Amendment guy and I use INN stuff here on occasion, but the Supremes were right. I don’t think courts should be meddling with which non-legislators can and can’t have access to a legislative floor.
Plus, if the Illinois Policy Institute had succeeded, any lobbying entity could then hire a “reporter” and set up a “news service” and demand media credentials. Not good.
* From the dot points on Gov. Rauner’s south suburban speech yesterday that were sent by Team Rauner…
· As you know, we have entered an unprecedented fourth month without a balanced budget.
· Despite this, state agency directors in our administration have done a tremendous job in managing their departments without a budget.
· We have begun transforming state government, and we’re implementing reforms that will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
· Our efforts are making government less expensive, more effective and more efficient.
o Just last month we saved taxpayers $22 million by ending a bad deal with the Lottery and have now put a new, competitive Lottery contract out to bid.
o At the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, our Administration has taken cost-saving steps that will save taxpayers more than $70 million in the current fiscal year.
o At the Department of Central Management Services, we renegotiated contracts and reduced the state air fleet, netting an additional $15 million to the State through a combination of cost reduction and optimization efforts.
o The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has a license process that’s still done through paper records. By modernizing the system, we are reducing process time by 50% and can save millions of dollars as a result.
o The Department of Employment Security has taken new steps to save millions in unemployment insurance overpayments; we’ve automated the employer tax payment system, reducing process time from 6 weeks down to 1 week; and we’re putting in an automated, real-time Power of Attorney system that will take this process from 4 weeks to one day.
· Faster service, lower cost – that’s what we are striving for everywhere in our administration, to shake up the old, inefficient way of doing things and move Illinois towards becoming a 21st century government.
· But while we do everything in our power to improve government, many of the biggest opportunities to save money require action from the legislature.
Notice anything missing?
How about the cuts to the child care program? That’s saving a whole lot of money. Well, at least it’s saving money in the short term. Not so much when single moms have to quit their jobs or take part-time work.
What happens now is that a young mother, needing financial assistance to put her child in day care while she goes to work or school, applies to a program.
Under Rauner’s rules, she gets turned down, most likely because she makes too much money, which now includes anyone earning minimum wage.
So she goes away.
The child doesn’t go away. The mom’s need for child care doesn’t go away. Her need to earn a living to support her child doesn’t go away.
But the mom moves along to make the tough decisions about what to do next: Child care or stay home? Go on welfare or switch the kid to the unlicensed day care down the street? Pay the child care or the rent?
Alejandra Corral, an Aurora resident and single mother of two, was among dozens of parents and providers who spoke at the hearing.
Corral was deemed ineligible for CCAP in mid-July because her monthly income of about $2,000 was too high. She would have qualified if her monthly income was $838 or less.
Corral, 23, currently pays $100 per month for child care, but that’s only because she works for an Aurora daycare that is giving her a temporary discount.
“If they weren’t doing this, I would have to pay over $2,100 for daycare. I don’t even make enough,” she stressed. “All of us here today are not asking for handouts, we’re asking for assistance. We want to be able to work. If this somehow doesn’t get fixed, I won’t be able to afford daycare for my kids, and I don’t want to be on any more public aid than” CCAP.
OK, maybe I can see why the governor didn’t mention it as an accomplishment, even though he has been pushing to slash this very program since his February budget address.
“Only the Legislature can authorize a budget, and they have failed to meet their constitutionally required obligation to pass a balanced budget.”
That’s true, of course.
* But there’s another passage in that document which is almost never discussed. From the Illinois Constitution…
The Governor shall prepare and submit to the General Assembly, at a time prescribed by law, a State budget for the ensuing fiscal year… Proposed expenditures shall not exceed funds estimated to be available for the fiscal year as shown in the budget.
Now, the difference here is that the Democrats’ budget was blatantly unbalanced and the governor’s budget used blatant gimmicks and smoke and mirrors to “balance” his budget.
“As I have stated since January, the number one issue facing the state is the budget deficit. The governor, however, has refused to focus on solving our budget deficit, instead focusing on other issues. That decision has led to dangerous consequences by forcing the defunding of breast and cervical cancer screenings, child care assistance for struggling families, meals for homebound elderly residents and services for children with autism and other developmental disabilities.
“I’ve stated all year that I will work with the governor cooperatively and professionally, but we will not devastate Illinois’ middle class and struggling families by furthering an agenda aimed at driving down their wages and their standard of living.
“I have repeatedly urged the governor to focus on the budget deficit through a balanced approach of reductions in state spending and new revenue. The budget passed by the House included reductions in state spending, and we passed a bill that included $400 million in savings through the Medicaid program. However, a wide range of human service providers, education advocates, and even business groups like the Civic Federation have stated that Illinois cannot cut its way to prosperity.
“The governor can end the damage he has done to women who rely on life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings, children with autism and other developmental disabilities, elderly residents, struggling families and other vulnerable populations in need of crucial state support by turning his focus away from issues that would result in lower wages and a lower standard of living for middle-class families and instead work with the Legislature to pass and implement a state budget with a balanced approach that protects the middle class.”
A top Illinois Republican on Wednesday accused Democrats who control the state’s two legislative chambers of using the state’s most vulnerable citizens as “human shields” and “props” to mask the politicians’ financial failures.
“They are using these poor souls as human shields, to deflect the blame from their historical gross mismanagement of state finances,” Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin told POLITICO. “These hearings are nothing more than putting them up, bringing one group up after another that rely on state funding, to say what happens to them when they don’t have a state budget.” […]
The Republican governor earlier Wednesday gave a speech in suburban Chicago calling on Democrats to end the budget stalemate by using their supermajorities. Afterward, Rauner quickly exited without facing the media and Durkin instead addressed reporters’ questions.
“Sounds like Durkin was a human shield when Rauner went running out the door like a scared second grader,” Steve Brown, spokesman to Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, told POLITICO.
I understand that things are tense and that the stakes are truly high, but, sheesh, man.
Impatience with politics-as-usual has also led liberals to enter Democratic Senate primaries and mount more aggressive and well-financed challenges than in years past to candidates backed by the national party establishment.
In Florida, Representative Alan Grayson, a self-styled “progressive champion,” is portraying Representative Patrick Murphy, the Democratic Party’s preferred candidate for the seat being vacated by Senator Marco Rubio, as a “lightweight, empty-suit errand boy for Wall Street.” A former president of the Chicago Urban League, Andrea Zopp, is running in Illinois against the party-backed Representative Tammy Duckworth. And former Representative Joe Sestak is running as a liberal anti-establishment candidate in Pennsylvania.
Bill Daley’s candidate is lumped in with Grayson and Sestak?
* Peoria already lost its Republican Senator, now it’s about to lose its GOP House member…
After nearly 30 years serving in Springfield, state Rep. David Leitch will retire at the end of his current term in 2017, he announced Thursday morning.
The Peoria Republican is the longest-serving GOP member of the state House, where he has served since 1989.
“It’s been the honor of my life to represent central Illinois for nearly three decades,” Leitch said in a prepared release. “I cannot thank the people of the 73rd District enough for the privilege of serving in the General Assembly.”
Among his accomplishments in office, he counts passing the first law requiring insurance coverage for mammograms, securing funding for the expansion of the Illinois Central College campus in East Peoria and arranging the acquisition of the ICC North campus in Peoria after the closure of Zeller Mental Health Center.
He worked to secure a $10 million loan to prevent the closure of Keystone Steel & Wire in Bartonville. After being repaid in full, the money was put into a fund for Peoria County to use for ongoing economic development.
The man is a class act, through and through. He also displayed great courage and supreme dignity during his life-threatening battle with cancer. He’s soft-spoken and effective and he’s going to be missed.
