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WWRD?

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* This might work…

Merging the redundant investment arms of the five pension systems into a single Illinois Public Employees Retirement System, or ILPERS, would lower the likelihood of corruption—and save state pension funds tens of millions in overhead costs every year.

Then again, a merger would make it a whole lot easier for a future corrupt governor to get control of all the pension investments at once. Imagine, for a moment, if Rod Blagojevich had that power.

While I’ve said many times that we couldn’t have stopped the criminal, it’s important to first put all reforms through a “WWRD” (What Would Rod Do?) filter. This could’ve been a real boon to the Blagojevich mob.

* And, simple solutions are often neither…

Tacking local elections onto state or federal cycles might save money, but county officials see that as a nightmare for them and voters, who would face very long and complicated ballots. It also would require changes in voter registration laws.

Consolidated local elections are the most complicated to manage, election officials said. So many ballot variations are needed in small and large numbers—from community college trustee races that every voter in a county can weigh in on to a contested trustee race where only residents of that community are eligible to vote.

Ballots for those races must be coordinated with those for local school districts, which may not have the same boundaries, and park districts, which may have different boundaries than municipalities and school districts. Toss in referendums and the task of assuring that every voter gets the appropriate ballot can be head-spinning.

* Hmmm…

To increase voter numbers, Quinn has pointed to Oregon — the only state to offer 100 percent mail-in elections — as a model Illinois could follow. […]

Virginia Ross, a Portland, Ore., attorney serving on the board of the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition, says voting by mail makes voting easier since you can fill out a ballot on your own schedule.

“Wait till you get a chance to vote by mail just once,” she said. “You’ll never look back.”

However, Ross also said voting by mail works in her state because Oregon has a “tradition of integrity” and an anti-machine political culture. With former Gov. George Ryan in jail and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich facing charges that could earn him upwards of 300 years in prison, Ross admitted that Illinois may have trouble adopting a similar system.

Thoughts about this one?

* Is it really “fumigation” if you give your target two weeks notice and he quits instead?

Rajinder Bedi, the $111,708-a-year managing director of the state’s Office of Trade & Investment, decided Tuesday to resign his post after Gov. Quinn’s administration told Bedi the governor would fire him at the end of the month.

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich hired Bedi in June 2003 after he helped the ex-governor raise significant campaign dollars in Chicago’s Indian-American community.

Well, at least he’s gone. One down, countless more to go. Get on with it, already.

* Self serving tripe…

“Most importantly, we have to take the integrity crisis caused by my predecessor and confront that once and for all and disinfect Illinois state government and make sure it has the honesty and integrity and openness and cleanliness the people are entitled to,” [Gov. Quinn] said.

And Quinn, who has declined to say much on whether he’ll seek election as governor next year, indicated that winning a full term isn’t his top priority at this point.

“And so, whatever happens to me, whether I’m governor two, three, four years from now, matters not in my opinion because right now my mission is to get Illinois cleaned up.”

OK, get on with it. First, “confront” the past by confessing your own not insignificant role in the Blagojevich disaster. Then, fumigate your own administration.

…Adding… This column is why I always advise my interns to become lawyers.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 10:27 am

Comments

I think the WWRD actually means What Wouldn’t Rod Do?

Comment by Captain Flume Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 10:38 am
Was Bedi double-exempt or was he on a four year term. If he was on a four-year term, wouldn’t they have had to fire him for cause before his term was up if he didn’t go on his own (or with a push). That can be expensive and time consuming and while the person is fighting the discharge they aren’t of much use in their job.

I keep harping on this employment status issue because I think it is important that people understand how heavily protected the great majority of state government employees are in Illinois (and other government venues as well). I definitely think Quinn has been too slow in moving out top executive staff as well as the cabinet agency directors and their top, double-exempt staff. But if he is trying to conserve resources, he has to pick his fights when getting rid of individual employees with any type of civil service protections. And of course he can’t ignore political considerations completely. Illinois state government is awash in relatives and cronies of state pols and their campaign contributors. It’s the Democratic way.

Comment by Cassandra Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 10:39 am
WWRD would not be very accurate since it was hard to tell WWRD.

Comment by make it so Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 10:40 am
Centralization is one of the foundations for corruption. It is the biggest flaws in businesses and in governments. It became a mantra during the industrial age, and was picked up by governments over the past century. It is a tenant of Socialism and Communism, and it’s biggest flaw. It is the biggest flaw when reviewing governments ran by crowns of state. Centralization has been proven to destroy as much as it theoretically saves.

Human beings are not by nature, virtuous. Hence centralization is the road to hell.

Our Founding Fathers knew this when they created a government for the United States. They shunned it to the extent that our first government, based on the Articles of Confederation, wasn’t functioning due to a lack of centralization. This was addressed by the US Constitution, and we know it as a federal system which decentralizes government actions and powers in order to prevent corruption and abuse.

Over the past 100 years, what the Industrial Age has wrought, the Socialists and Communists embraced. Ironically, it was these forms of government which claimed to be a counterbalance to the centralization of business. Consequentially, they embraced the very sin that they swore to fight. Throughout the past 100 years, we have been witnessing the centralization of governments and powers in the name of efficiencies and fairness.

Although this kind of government thinking has been exposed as fraudulent during the 1970s-2000s, and western governments had been undergoing a deregulation era, we are witnessing this basic flaw being reborn in the US government a-la-hopenchange.

Centralization corrupts. How many times do we have to learn this?

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 10:42 am
“I always advise my interns to become lawyers.”

That’s just cruel…

– MrJM

Comment by MrJM Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 10:53 am
Perhaps if we didn’t have 1500+ taxing districts then it wouldn’t make elections so complicated! And therefore lower our taxes and lead to less corruption.

Comment by BIG R.PH. Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 10:55 am
“I always advise my interns to become lawyers.”

I’d tell them to shoot for higher morals than that.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 10:56 am
Vrdolyak is the guy who should write the book, not Rod. That one, I’d buy.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 10:57 am
You asked about voting by mail.

My opinion. It’s obsolete and just asking for fraud.

Makes more sense to skip right to internet voting. Security and integrity issues would be a lot easier to control with electronic voting than with voting by mail, counting would be more accurate and what could be more convenient than voting in your pajamas?

Comment by Old Elephant Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:02 am
The consolidated elections would be less complicated if all Township Governments were eliminated. Illinois has more government units than anybody else. Why in this era do we still have an 1800’s form of government called Townships when their functions can be easily handled by other governmental units at a fraction of the cost?

Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:02 am
In general disbursing money over multiple taxing bodies facilitates corruption at the local level.

There simply aren’t enough independents and reformers to who have the skill set and drive to run for every unit of government.

Local media can’t even get journalists to all the meetings.

The goal should not be to thwart a determined bad actor. Instead the goal should be to create a system that doesn’t unduly pressure otherwise good people to do the right thing.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:05 am
Louis,
I can’t speak for other areas of the state, but we still have Townships in suburban Crook County predominantly because the Chicago Democratic machine controls the County Board and directs as few resources as possible to suburban Crook County and its residents. Were it not for Townships, I suspect that the suburban poor; of which there are many, would be totally lost and forgotten.

Comment by Quinn T. Sential Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:10 am
VM,

It’s a 2-way street. Too much centralization causes unbalanced concentration of power in the hands of a few and breeds inefficiency and corruption. Too much decentralization creates unattended fiefdoms, duplication of services and market failures. There has to be a balance.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:23 am
If you think that Fast Eddie V is the only lawyer riding this gravy train; then you better think again.If you new how many others; the fee allocations, and what they actually did (not) do to earn them you’d probably “Flip”.

Comment by Quinn T. Sential Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:29 am
I to think Quinn is moving way to slow. It appears that he is managing by crises. When someone or something comes out in the media he then acts. Not a good way to clean things up. I realize he doesn’t have many friends and in most cases anyone with real credentials wouldn’t want a high profile state position right now but if he was truly concerned about favor trading or politics I am sure He could work with the powers to find qualified replacements. In many cases the people in charge have little or no qualification so he would have to look far. In my opinion he isn’t interested in fixing the problem, he is only interested in staying out of trouble.

Comment by Just Because Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:32 am
The issue of the township form of local gov’t is a tough one. Illinois does have more gov’t bodies that other states and the township is the usual target with good reason. The problem with Cook County is real tough since the democratic machine rolls over the suburban districts which are generally more republican. I like the idea of internet voting since it would make it easier. I believe that all voting should require proving who you are whether it is an ID card at the polling place or some kind of eye/finger scan at your pc. A type of indelible blue dye on the finger, as it were.

Regarding the evil in centralization, it makes some sense to realize economy thru elimination of duplicate services in multiple pension funds but we see too much corruption as VM says. I’d pay for multiple eyes on the prize(s) myself. Cost of doing business.

Comment by dupage dan Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:33 am
If there is an attempt to consolidate all the pension systems, I doubt if the General Assembly pension would be in the mix. It seems that the GA would protect their pensions from mixing with those of us whose pension systems have been underfunded by the same GA members.

Comment by Nearly Normal Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:38 am
{It seems that the GA would protect their pensions from mixing with those of us whose pension systems have been underfunded by the same GA members.}

The GARS is the least funded (most under-funded) of the state retirement systems currently hovering around 32%. Part of the reason is the fact that the benefits are far greater than many of the other pension funds.

Comment by Quinn T. Sential Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:44 am
The GA pension systems investments are already consolidated. The State Board of Investment invests all of the funds of the State Employees Retirement System (SERS), the Judges Retirement System (JRS) and the General Assembly Retirement System (GARS). The pension investment consolidation plan if enacted would include the three above along with the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) and the State Universities Retirement System (SURS).

=== Then again, a merger would make it a whole lot easier for a future corrupt governor to get control of all the pension investments at once. ===

This is unfortunately true, the putting all your eggs in one basket argument. But it’s also true that it’s much easier to catch a bad actor if you only have to keep an eye on one operation instead of three. As the TRS scandal proved, there just aren’t enough watchdogs to keep an eye on three investment boards for state pension funds.

Comment by Scooby Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:53 am
“I always advise my interns to become lawyers.”

Shouldn’t you be encouraging them to earn an honest living?

Comment by Bill Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:54 am
The GARS is the least funded (most under-funded) of the state retirement systems currently hovering around 32%. Part of the reason is the fact that the benefits are far greater than many of the other pension funds.

But their retiree members have never missed a check. A problem would not be seriously perceived here unless that started happening or was just around the corner. Fact is, there’s plenty of cash reserves to hold off the wolves for several years while the problem remains unfixed.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 11:58 am
{But their retiree members have never missed a check.}

Please let me know what retirees; and from which pension plan have missed a check, or missing one is just around the corner?

Comment by Quinn T. Sential Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 12:13 pm
QTS - none of the state retiree systems have missed paying a benefit check AFAIK. The point here is, even if the state systems were all tied together, the can could still be kicked down the road as long as the GARS retirees were receiving their checks and funds were there to pay the soon-to-be-retired GARS pensioners.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 12:40 pm
Cassandra - Do you know for a fact that the four term appointments are a guarenttee of employment for those four years? I have seen quite a few appointees who have been terminated mid term because of a change of administration, someone decided there was a different path to follow and wanted a new figurehead, or someone else became more important due to favors owed. While I don’t know first hand exactly how it was done there didn’t seem to be too much the one leaving could do.

Also, before the powers that be change the pension systems all around to try to find a better way to make them corruption proof; why don’t they just fund them as they should have been doing. Let them operate they way they were supposed to and never had the chance because they were pilfered by the GA and every administration for the last 30 years. Maybe if they were left alone and funded we might find they work just fine the way they are. I see this whole pension cleanup campaign as a political ploy to cover up the fact that Quinn has not changed a thing from the past administrations. He will not fund the pensions because he wants to use the money elsewhere. I too am growing weary of waiting for this NEW reformer to start reforming. Is it true that power corrupts and no one can occupy an elected seat in Springfield without falling into the pit? I guess we will see.

Comment by Irish Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 12:40 pm
I must be the only person who finds humor in a company under FEDERAl INVESTIGATION FOR A PENSION SCAM (that’s what ESOP are friends) wags its tongue on government pension reform.
Way to brighten our day

Comment by 2ConfusedCrew Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 2:17 pm
lol - “this is why I always advise my interns to become lawyers”

Comment by Kevin Fanning Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 2:50 pm
We know why GARS is the least funded because of all the retired General Assmebly members who abused the system for years working one year after leaving the GA as a judge or for some branch of the City of Chicago at an inflated salary and drawing their GARS pension on based on that inflated last day pay. That loop hole wasn’t closed until the late 90s. Also the Governor/GA only appropriated General Revenue dollars in the budget to replenish their own retirement system no other. No way is the GA going to let GARS or even JRS be merged. You didn’t see the GA take $175 million out of their pension fund to pay late state bills lately did you.

Comment by JJW Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 3:02 pm
In the land of the blind….

Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 3:15 pm
=== No way is the GA going to let GARS or even JRS be merged. ===

Hmm, let’s try this one more time for the cheap seats:

“The GA pension systems investments are already consolidated. The State Board of Investment invests all of the funds of the State Employees Retirement System (SERS), the Judges Retirement System (JRS) and the General Assembly Retirement System (GARS).”

Comment by Scooby Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 3:37 pm
Six Degrees,

All of the state sponsored pension plans; for current active employees and annuitants are constitutionally protected and will be paid. Funding them will occur, the only question is when the legislators will come clean with the citizens that they must tax them to fund the plans because the road they had been kicking the can down turned out to be a dead end.

Comment by Quinn T. Sential Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 3:53 pm
Quinn is starting to sounds like Blago lite, but not the good kind of lite with fewer carbs and calories….

Comment by Ghost Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 3:58 pm
Thanks Gov Quinn

Hope he goes after Filan Next

He was one of the MASTER MINDS

Behind Gov. HOT ROD

Where is he NOW???

Comment by grategul Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 5:55 pm
Start cleaning house with all the folks that received 30% pay increases after the 2006 election. Should not be hard to figure out who they are.

Comment by MIDSTATE Wednesday, Apr 15, 09 @ 6:01 pm
Louis–I do agree that townships are inappropriate in the Chicago Metro Area (and probably the Metro East area of St. Louis), and coterminous townships (I live in Champaign, which is coterminous to City of Champaign Township, and neighboring Urbana is coterminous to Cunningham Township) probably should be dissolved posthaste.

HOWEVER, I grew up on a farm in Southern Illinois, and in the rural areas throughout the state townships are a good thing. If my southwestern neighbors had depended on the county highway boys to plow us out, we would have been snowed in for weeks or months. But the local township road commissioner (where I’m from, a non-paid position, but I guarantee the Cook County boys are getting a nice check from their townships) would organize crews–my dad was on one for many years–and the farmers would go out in snowplows, dump trucks, tractors with front end loaders, etc., to get the roads cleaned so we could get out to go to town and buy things, or go to town to earn wages so we could afford to continue farming.

Any way we can eliminate inappropriate townships while preserving those who are worth the paper they are balloted on?

Comment by Lynn S Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 12:22 am
==Any way we can eliminate inappropriate townships while preserving those who are worth the paper they are balloted on? ===

That’s part of the problem. Quite a few people like their own townships and hate everyone else’s. Personally, I have no idea what my current township does, but I also grew up in the country and remember well the services they provided - which wouldn’t have been provided if left to the county.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 12:25 am
Unfortunately, Rich, City of Champaign Township provides very few services(mostly welfare assistance, no snowplowing–Champaign (the city, not the township!) does that), and I have heard arguments that these services could be/should be contracted out.

It’s not that I *hate* inappropriate townships; I just want to know what can be done to eliminate them, while keeping the ones that do provide value to their taxpaying citizens.

But then, we should probably all remember that it took about 95 years to end the telephone tax that funded the Spanish-American War…

Comment by Lynn S Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 12:45 am
My job has required me to travel on little or no notice, so voting by mail would be great, but do you think the Cook County cementaries are staffed to handle that volume of mail? (This might also go with the other thread, ===* The Question: Can you identify some Illinois political myths?===)

Comment by Cranky Old Man Thursday, Apr 16, 09 @ 8:55 am