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Internal Maywood politics caused shift in NRI grant money

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Illinois

Newly released emails from Gov. Pat Quinn’s office show politics appeared to trump credentials when deciding how big a serving some nonprofits should get from his now-tarnished $54.5 million Neighborhood Recovery Initiative anti-violence grant program.

* The e-mail exchange…

* Back to the story…

Quinn’s administration put Maywood in charge of divvying up $2 million in NRI money for that western suburb in 2011 and 2012. A month into the program, Proviso Leyden had been shut out of funding by the village, prompting a December 2010 complaint to the administration by the organization.

Proviso Leyden eventually wound up receiving $117,715 of the Maywood allotment for re-entry work under NRI.

Maywood allotted a larger, $255,724 chunk of NRI re-entry funds to another nonprofit, Vision of Restoration.

Vision of Restoration’s founder, Marvin E. Wiley, donated $250 to Henderson Yarbrough’s campaign fund and board member Richard Boykin gave a total of $5,000 to political funds of Karen and Henderson Yarbrough. Boykin is a former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., and he ran successfully last spring for the Cook County board with Karen Yarbrough’s backing.

* From the Illinois Republican Party…

ICYMI: Secret emails trip up Quinn as guv cancels planned Q & A

This morning, the Chicago Sun-Times broke a major front page story revealing emails that show Quinn’s top aides used political calculations to make NRI anti-violence funding decisions.

Shortly thereafter, the Governor alerted the media he would no longer take questions at a public event scheduled for 12pm today at Harker Pumping Station, 5300 W. 105th Street in Oak Lawn.

Quinn did indeed cancel his Q&A.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:10 am

Comments

Yarborough hires Rutherford accuser?

First Memo comes out - Yarborough?

Karma.

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:13 am
Boykin’s run for Cook County Board was not unsuccessful.

Comment by BL Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:18 am
this is pretty meh. You’ve got one set of folks saying PL is great, you’ve got a longtime elected from the community saying PL isn’t effective, so you split the difference.

If this is the best they’ve got, this one is going to die of oxygen depletion.

Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:22 am
Well, it looks like Maywood done goofed. The guv’s office not so much. Maywood wanted the org excluded, the gov’s office made them split the grants. Looks like they took a cue from Solomon.

Comment by Jimbo Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:28 am
I would have canceled my Q&A as well, also suspect at least some reporters are looking into the two groups to see how effective they really are.

Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:30 am
“Secret” emails? How do you figure? I mean, I send emails to people every day. I don’t put them all on Twitter. Does that make them “secret” emails? Or just, you know, emails?

Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:34 am
Seems to me she was trying to keep local politics out of the decision making process, good for them.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:36 am
Also, nowhere does the email mention that Yarborough is married to the village president.

And isn’t the Governor’s Office SUPPOSED to listen to legislators? Aren’t legislators supposed to advocate for their districts and provide close-to-the-ground info? Isn’t that the reason behind a government that includes both executive and legislative? And clearly, the Gov’s office did not cave to Rep. Yarborough, as PL got a good chunk of money.

Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:39 am
The attempted spin for Quinn in these comments is dizzying

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:41 am
Hmmm. Another front page NRI story in July. This one about how politics played a part in the granting of this taxpayer money.

It doesn’t seem like a major issue to me, but it’s on the front page and the headline isn’t good, and it causes Quinn to skip a Q&A.

Didn’t these emails come out of the Audit Commission’s inquiry of the program?

Comment by Befuddled Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:41 am
Everything that Quinn does is wholly political and this is especially true when it comes to disbursing funds. It looks as if Quinn has leaned heavily upon Dorothy Brown, Emil Jones, Sr., and Karen Yarborough to gin up the vote totals for him. There is plenty of crime occurring near Wrigleyville, but I do not see any funds going to those precincts.

Comment by Under Further Review Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:47 am
===Didn’t these emails come out of the Audit Commission’s inquiry of the program?===

I think that was after the Dopiness that led to a 3 hour, 30 minute break that turned into an about face, lol

Pretty pathetic trying to spin that farce of a meeting was good.

Could have agreed to the emails on Friday, no hearing, no Barickman looking like an interrupting buffoon.

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:49 am
This is no smoking gun, in fact trying to make this into one continues the lunacy behind the Commission and it’s hearings.

Time for serious people to show up and deal with the real issue of violence in our neighborhoods.

Comment by LIncoln Lad Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:53 am
We have a political system of government. Everything has political implications. The question is whether the Governor or his top aides made a decision that put the Governor’s political aspirations ahead of the public good. And I don’t see that happening here.

I like Dave McKinney and I love the ST, but there’s no “scandal” here. And I speak as an experienced gladiator in a suit.

Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:53 am
Well, it is Illinois, and from that perspective, it’s business as usual in Illinois state government. Through state grants and contracts, the party in power can use our money to advance its political interests–and there’s a lot of money sloshing around-billions go to contracts and grants every year. In this case, I wonder where the money reallywent, and whether there is any evidence at all that the money did any good, indeed is there any way of even finding out. But again, it’s Illinois. It’s all legit, probably. By choosing to live here, I accept this sleazy stuff. Not going to vote for Quinn and his tax increase, though.

Comment by Cassandra Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:59 am
Dear Quinnsters:

Stop. Typing.

Think about what you are reading here.

We gave a quarter million dollars to an organization deemed less qualified due to politics.

Five senior staff for the governor were involved in that decision.

And if anyone has a rational explanation for why the director of CMS is involved in the oversight of grants for violence prevention, I am sure his lawyer would love to hear it.

This is not defensible.

Comment by Juvenal Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:01 am
Am I missing something here? It seems to me the discussion was about Maywood excluding a group from funding and the Gov’s office stepping in and at least giving the excluded group some funding. I’m not sure what the issue is here other than Maywood needed more oversight in how they were handling the money and in this case the Gov’s office provided that oversight.

Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:01 am
==Not going to vote for Quinn and his tax increase, though.==

What about Rauner’s tax increase? Voting for that?

Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:02 am
Unlike Soccermom, I do think there is a there here with NRI generally, but I agree that this story in particular is meh. There is nothing secret - as she said these are just emails. The only interesting thing to me is still why Malcolm Weems is at the center of this. He was at OMB when this was going on and was eventually moved over to run CMS. Malcolm is a political guy. The role that he played is interesting and will undoubtedly get more scrutiny.

But in terms of this story today, no biggie. Is CST now going to make a huge story with all of these emails…dribbling them out in separate front page stories from now to election day?

Comment by Chicago Cynic Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:09 am
Demoralized….

I think what you are missing is that it wasn’t Maywood’s call where the money went. It was supposed to be NRIs call, the thing I don’t quite get from the e-mail is, was it NRIs call to give it to group x then they decided to give some to group by because of the recommendation from Maywood and if so if Maywood’s decision was driven by whom gave to whom.

Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:09 am
I’m not sure I understand the hooplah here. The Gov’s office, through people Lavin and Weems, and thorugh agencies like GOMB, DCEO, and the Finance Authority, regularly consider politics when making policy decisions — e.g., where to send grant money, what highways projects to fund, how much money to give the Union Pacific railroad. Policy decisions, by their very nature, are political, sometimes in a non-partisan sense, sometimes in a non-partisan sense. So, what’s the big deal here?

Comment by Chicago Publius Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:11 am
@OneMan:

The story says Maywood was in charge of $2 million.

Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:14 am
Send $2 Mil to Maywood. Yeah, good idea. Ugh.

Comment by A guy... Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:14 am
Well, I’m not a Quinn spinner, and I see nothing improper in this, unless there’s a lot more somewhere. Staff were alerted to a local tempest in a teacup (they are myriad with grants to local govts and non-profits), stepped up and dealt with it (in what seems a reasonable way), and informed the CoS what was going on.

Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:14 am
Look, if Barbara Shaw had been a great manager who ran an award-winning anti-violence program, I’d be more inclined to say the administration should’ve been hands off here.

What you have, basically, is Toni Irving trying to distance the program from a very real and longterm political war in Maywood. I highly doubt that’s an indictable offense.

Also, we don’t know yet if Yarbrough’s preferred group did better than the one picked by Shaw. Then again, Shaw turned down an offer by the U of C to study outcomes for free, even though the Quinnsters wanted to do it.

Sigh.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:15 am
Juvenal — I am thinking.

And I am thinking that an elected representative called the Gov’s office to say that she — and a local advisory council — disagreed with the staff recommendation. The Gov’s office listened to her comments, considered the staff’s input and decided to split the difference.

You seem to think that “politics” is a bad word. It’s not. In fact, good policy is often good politics. Rep. Yarbrough wants to be re-elected. She wants to stand in front of her voters and say — “Thanks to my good work, this community got a substantial amount of money to reduce violence, and here are the great results.”

Was she right? I don’t know. Vision of Restoration is a large organization and is funded by United Way, so they seem to be fairly legit.

You’re assuming that Karen Yarbrough knows less about organizations in her district than Barbara Shaw and her staff. I don’t know that that’s true. And if this were all about the “politics,” the governor’s office would have given the whole pie to Vision of Restoration, which they did not.

So this “scandal,” if I understand it properly, is that a high-ranking Administration official reviewed staff recommendations, listened to the objections of an elected representative backed by a local council, and split the difference. And did it in consultation with her colleagues, in the full knowledge that her emails were subject to FOIA.

Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:17 am
The fascinating part of all of this for me is Yarborough, and the hiring of the Rutherford accuser.

Nothing is indictable here.

It’s the politics of choices…and governing.

I’m enjoying the connection, as delicious as it is.

“No good deed…”

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:21 am
I have to agree with those who see this as no big deal. I’m still stuck on how Maywood and Cicero were deemed “Chicago neighborhoods” for the purpose of this fine endeavor.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:24 am
Can’t wait for round two when the last two years of the NRI are audited.

Comment by Empty Suit Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:29 am
You seem to think that “politics” is a bad word. It’s not. In fact, good policy is often good politics.

Not in 2014. This is an election year and voters are freaking sick and tired of how the political is eating their lunch, then pooping on them.

It doesn’t matter if they are wrong. In 2014, politics IS a dirty word. This is what happens when government is held is such low esteem and practiced by the lowest of the low before going from the governor’s office to jail. Twice.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:31 am
And “A guy…” — state money goes to Maywood because state money comes from Maywood.

Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:53 am
How does Marvin E. Wiley’s $250 compare to the amounts discussed in the Trib’s Sunday attempt at Scott Reeder type journalism about education?

Comment by Anyone Remember Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 11:08 am
I suspected this would involve conflicting demands of local politicians and power brokers, and Quinn’s team trying tiptoe thru the briar patch. When will we see something illegal?

Comment by walker Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 11:16 am
Yarbrough brings the most votes than any other Dem Committeeman…this consistency must be rewarded….

Comment by LCP45 Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 11:22 am
Different groups fighting over state money? Don’t see that every day. Only days when the sun comes up in the east.

What do you think all those people are doing hanging around the brass rail?

The audit in-and-of-itself is still the most damning thing to see the light of day. Quinn will be lucky if more people don’t read it.

I doubt you’ll find a smoking gun in the emails. If it was there, the federales would have objected to their release.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 11:30 am
==- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:31 am:==

Maybe people should stop wanting the worst possible policy outcome because it would be good for their political prospects. Maybe then “politics” wouldn’t be a “dirty word.” CC: GOP

Comment by Precinct Captain Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 11:38 am
We continue to be stuck on the notion that Brady2010 wants all to believe this is what turned the tide and caused the defeat of IL most gifted leader.
Did anyone else notice these emails were sent in 2011? was voting still open?
This like the breathless analysis of NRI got no votes
NRI got no votes ’cause no $ got on the street
NoTaBill LOST ’cause no one told COmmandoMakeItUp Kirk to tell women in the ‘burbs that NoTax really wasn’t a dog killing monster
Fire, Aim, Ready!

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 11:46 am
===Did anyone else notice these emails were sent in 2011? was voting still open?===

Exactly.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 11:56 am
Rich - the GOP time machine theory is getting put together now. Pretty sure the SunTimes will run it too.

Comment by LIncoln Lad Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 12:04 pm
===Did anyone else notice these emails were sent in 2011? was voting still open?
This like the breathless analysis of NRI got no votes
NRI got no votes ’cause no $ got on the street===

This is going to be for Rauner;

“Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”

It is going to be up to Quinn’s Crew, specifically the Press Shop to educate the voters.

Right now, all that is being digested is, “emails, choosing to give to groups, politics”

This is exactly why “less is more” with the “Ongoing Federal Investgstion” doesn’t need any “proof” to rebuff the political impact.

Sometimes more, makes it less…

… while others want participatory trophies for that 2 day farce. Yikes.

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 12:09 pm
=== Soccermom - Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:53 am:

And “A guy…” — state money goes to Maywood because state money comes from Maywood.===

Thanks for the schooling Mom. Allow me to be more specific. Fine, state money goes to Maywood. This “program” allowed Maywood politicos to control the flow of the money that was set for an objective of lowering gang violence. Not normal state funding to a municipality that I’m sure gets a heckuva a lot more than it gives to the state.

At the same time they positioned themselves with the distribution of that cool $2 Mil. between the Hatfields and the McCoys of local politics who’ve never seen a public dollar they couldn’t corruptly use to their benefit.

Yeah, Mom. Repeat. Great idea.

Comment by A guy... Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 12:12 pm
Maybe then “politics” wouldn’t be a “dirty word.”

Politics will always be a dirty word. Practicing politics is like working marionettes. When the storyline is good, you don’t mind the strings attached to each puppet and you can charge a lot for each theater ticket for the show.

In 2014, voters are tired of the show, the story and are refusing to pay the price. The last thing you should be mentioning are the damn strings.

This Quinn episode is all about the damn strings and voters are in no mood to be reminded about that.

Quinn has to change this story.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 12:28 pm
– This “program” allowed Maywood politicos to control the flow of the money that was set for an objective of lowering gang violence. –

Are you under the impression that gangs don’t operate in Maywood or other parts of Proviso Township?

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 12:31 pm
Okay. Let us accept the counterfactual that a community’s elected representative has no business getting involved in the decision about who should, or should not, receive a state contract.

Who, then, should make that call? A state bureaucrat who may never have set foot in that community? An “expert”? (you can find them easily — just google for “expert”) My mom? Your mom? Who?

Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 12:52 pm
After the site containing these emails crashed yesterday, was it ever fixed? Is there a link to access the documents that were submitted?

Comment by Douglas Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 12:56 pm
Soccermom, lol- I just might believe your mom and my mom would’ve done a better job. This whole foolish poorly conceived program was put forward with no safeguards, and it shows. How about a group of people really selected for expertise? Including a law enforcement person, social services person and for God sake’s an accounting specialist.

And Slinger, I’m aware that Maywood has gang issues. What I’m not aware of is what the point is you’re trying to make.

Comment by A guy... Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 1:03 pm
Soccermom-

Not claiming it was illegal.

But shifting $250K to a less qualified contractor because of politics?

Not smart.

Comment by Juvenal Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 1:06 pm
Juvenal — who says they were less qualified? A couple of state bureaucrats. Did they know more or less than Rep. Yarbrough? Who knows?

Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 1:21 pm
I mean, Juvenal, you’re saying that a couple of people selected by Pat Quinn were by definition more qualified to make a decision than someone who was directly chosen by the voters of that specific community.

I didn’t realize you had so much faith in the Governor.

Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 1:22 pm
A community’s representative should make that call. The community and their representatives should actually make many of those calls, and do everything they can to land those public funds.

Professional government administrators and public employees, however, should not base the decision on those calls, personal favors or politics. They should ultimately base the decision on merit and “the most qualified”.

This email exchange may not be shocking to most of us, but it is also not deserving of defense.

Comment by Formerly Known As... Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 1:31 pm
- Soccermom -,

You deserve kudos. You more than hold up your end of the argument.

The easiest thing to try to walk this away from the governor are the dates of the emails.

The rest is the back and forth, but the dates are significant.

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 1:32 pm
I am glad people are looking at these issues openly, and starting to discuss them. Governing is never easy or perfect. Politics and personal relationships impact every group activity we humans do, from the PTA to the largest private company. People have all kinds of different definitions for what is “corrupt.”

Soccermom: You’re one of the best.

To answer you directly: Local representatives might know better who can best do the right job with state funds in their own communities, while at the same time be more likely to misdirect resources for the wrong reasons. In our current suspicious environment, I’d go for state grant experts and bureaucrats making all the key decisions, while hearing local input, even if we lose efficiency and effectiveness because of lack of local knowledge. Less tradeoffs for political and personal gains are available to them.

It might be unworkable for some programs, due to low state staffing levels. You would know better than me. But that would be the proper bias, IMHO.

This wasn’t about funding a specific GOTV effort, as some fearful cynics have claimed, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing bad here. Wordslinger is probably right, that what is most of interest to the Feds, is probably not in these e-mails. We shall see.

Comment by walker Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 3:16 pm
Willy -

The dates are only significant to the allegations that the funds were used to fuel GOTV efforts.

They clearly were diverted to a less qualified contractor for political reasons.

As to who better qualified to determine which contractor was most able…

I would hope the people with master’s degrees and PhDs.

If they believed the other was more qualified, why split the money?

Look, politics always will and should have some influence on appropriations. On whether to spend $54 million reducing violence in Chicago or $54 million on suburban school construction or $54 million boosting tourism in Southern Illinois.

But politics should not determine who does or does not get contracts.

That is what Rauner-Rendell was about.

That is what MSI was about.

That is what George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich were about.

Comment by Juvenal Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 3:31 pm
===They clearly were diverted to a less qualified contractor===

As designated by Barbara Shaw, who screwed up that program royally.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 3:43 pm
Yup.

Comment by A guy... Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 3:47 pm
Juvenal, I have met people with master’s degrees and Ph.Ds. Some of them are brilliant. And I wouldn’t trust some of them with my lunch money…

Similarly, I know some top-notch legislators whose judgment I would trust implicitly. Others I wouldn’t allow anywhere near my purse or my daughters.

As Rich properly notes, you don’t help your cause by saying that a decision was made that ignored Barbara Shaw’s input.

Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 3:50 pm
Excuse, Juvenal, but which contracts are you referring to under George Ryan? And to my recollection the MSI issue was about how they performed and things they did well after they got the contract, not about how they got it. Is your recollection different, and if so, how so?

Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 4:25 pm
- Juvenal -,

If the dates aren’t significant, and Barbara Shaw isn’t significant to Quinn’s role, what do these specific emails actually prove to actual wrongdoing, within the GOTV time frame?

It was a mistake to take any evidence that Quinn’s Crew can try to change the pristine idea that there is an ongoing federal investigation, and “we have no idea what, criminally, the US Attorney is looking at.”

It was beyond perfect, now it has targets that need to be hit(?)

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 4:31 pm
Well, Soccermom, how about this:

Proviso Leyden was a $6.5 million organization with a staff of 196, board of director of 24, founded in 1970.

Vision of Restoration was a $125,000 organization with 4 employees and three board members founded in 1998.

Better Business Bureau recommends a minimum — MINIMUM — of five independent board members.

Were these board members independent of REVEREND Wiley?

I dunno.

What I do know is that after they got the NRI grant, Reverend Wiley and another board member pocketed $10K from the organization’s proceeds.

[McKINNEY, HOW COULD YOU LEAVE THAT OUT?]

I understand Quinn wants to push this all down hill and as far away from him as possible, and that means Barbara Shaw.

I just don’t buy it.

And Yarborough, whom you claim is so knowledgeable of Maywood, claims in the Sun-Times story she had no idea there was all of this political conflict going on.

In the words of Bill Cosby: “Riiiiiiiiiight.”

Comment by Juvenal Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 4:49 pm
Those who remain focused on the big picture know this is not good for Quinn and know this story has been kept afloat in large part because of the Audit Commission’s extended inquiry.

Those who are borderline psychotically focused on one hearing are never going to acknowledge it.

Comment by Befuddled Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 6:08 pm
===Those who remain focused on the big picture know this is not good for Quinn and know this story has been kept afloat in large part because of the Audit Commission’s extended inquiry.===

Those focused on the big picture knew looking Dopey with a commission meeting and asking for more evidence for Quinn to refute are amazed that people think the commission hearing was positive. lol

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 6:19 pm
PLCCA is not all it seems to be. Claude Porter and his family have run this organization for decades and in the process have angered many in the community. I’m not surprised that the village wanted to limit PLCCA’s role in the grant.

Comment by Been there Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 6:54 pm
@Been There -

Angered so many in the community that they raise nearly $300K a year? Run a successful daycare, Headstart, substance abuse treatment program?

Such a lightning rod of controversy that Senator Lightford serves on their board.

Yep. Okay.

Comment by Juvenal Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 8:27 pm
Proviso Township is a cesspool of politics and there is a lot of bad blood between most of the politicians and organizations. The state made the right decision when funds were dispersed. I think these emails demonstrate that the state was NOT being political. Not sure where the Suntimes got their particular view…

Comment by Been there Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 9:46 pm
@Juvenal
Could it be that some in the community are angered that Claude Porter made over $175K in 2011?

Comment by Been there Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:10 pm
That Commission hearing that you are so strangely focused on will have no impact on this election. None. Zero. Willy, you may be the only person obsessed with it, and one of only 1,000 people who even know it happened.

The NRI story will have an impact. Period. More and more people are learning about it every time the media reports on it. For you to keep pretending that Commission hearing is a positive factor for Quinn really strains your credibility. it sounds more like a personal vendetta than a reasonably thought out position.

Comment by Befuddled Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 10:18 pm
So, BF, the audit commission is the only one keeping the story alive but no one is paying attention to them?

Coming to terms with the cognitive dissonance. Good for you.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jul 23, 14 @ 11:18 pm
Been there-

Absolutely! I am sure that there are some who are angry that Claude Porter made $175K.

That is just about the going salary for the CEO of a $6.5 million organization with 300 employees.

Perhaps you want the 300 jobs to go away too?

If these are the types of grudges folks have, Shaw was right to recommend Proviso-Leyden. But if the Mayor of Maywood didn’t like it, I would have told him we were shifting the $2 million to another community and wish him the best of luck.

You don’t hand $2 million to an organization with an executive director, receptionist and two underlings run by a minister and his two pals. That is just asking for trouble.

Comment by Juvenal Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 7:13 am
I can’t believe this is news! This is a waste of taxpayer money. Who is PLCCA? Proviso-Leyden Council for Community Action? If so, then they have plenty of political muscle with Sen. Lightford and Rep. Welch as directors, so I’m not sure what the point of this article is.

Comment by Holly Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:04 am
===That Commission hearing that you are so strangely focused on will have no impact on this election. None. Zero. Willy, you may be the only person obsessed with it, and one of only 1,000 people who even know it happened.===

lol, you are the only one thinking the Dopes like Barickman did good. They didn’t.

I am not obsessed, you keep bringing it up as good. If losing credibility by a 3 hour, “30 minute” lunch and about face is good, your acumen is way off.

===The NRI story will have an impact. Period. More and more people are learning about it every time the media reports on it. For you to keep pretending that Commission hearing is a positive factor for Quinn really strains your credibility. it sounds more like a personal vendetta than a reasonably thought out position.===

I never said it was positive, I said. Barickman and his Dopey way tainted and stained the pristine and perfect, by looking like a zealot, and then retreating like someone who hit taught a lesson.

You keep selling the hearing was good, I gave a rational response to make the perfect more perfect, but when a Dopey move by Barickman wants politics injected, it’s farce, sad you are the only one who doesn’t think so…

Or you could be befuddled as to how good politics works, I don’t know.

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:40 am