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The Tribune’s editorial board endorses Charles Box for ICC chairman after helping block Marty Cohen’s appointment.
So the governor appears to have gotten it right on the third try. He booted out his own first choice to run the ICC, Ed Hurley. His choice to succeed Hurley, Martin Cohen, was rejected by the Illinois Senate. Cohen is quite knowledgeable on utility issues, but the longtime head of the Citizens Utility Board could not be expected to be an impartial arbiter.
So we have choice No. 3: Charles Box.
This is, by the way, getting expensive. Blagojevich pushed Hurley to resign, then gave Hurley a consolation prize: a job in the administration at the same pay, $113,836 a year, he earned as ICC chairman. After the Senate turned down Cohen, Blagojevich created a $112,000-a-year job for him as the administration’s first-ever consumer affairs director. So taxpayers are footing the bill, $339,672 a year plus benefits, for ICC chairmen past, present and almost.
Some of that money could have been saved if the Tribune edit board hadn’t been so far in ComEd’s hip pocket during the Cohen debate.
For the Tribune to editorialize that it was a mistake for Blagojevich to push out that disaster of a chairman Hurley shows just how far the Tribune will go for the utility interests in this state.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jan 13, 06 @ 5:59 am
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Well, there won’t be any complaints from the Republicans about these two new positions as they well know that Blago has created two more patronage jobs which they can dump incumbents out of and replace with their own people when they win the statehouse again. And that will happen, of course,
I assume that Hurley was the usual hack but Cohen’s decision, after years of advocacy work, to jump like a dog for a steak at a job paying only $112,000, working for a highly corrupt Democratic Machine pol, is truly astounding.
He must be really desperate. Or maybe it’s only a part time job and he’ll be making his money elsewhere?
Will Cindi Canary be the next Blago appointee?
Comment by Cassandra Friday, Jan 13, 06 @ 7:53 am
Ed Hurley is no political hack. Unlike many of the unqualified political appointees this state has sufferred under, Hurley had years of relevant experience working as an attorney for the Illinois Commerce Commission and the Attorney General before the Governor appointed him Chairman of the Commission. The Illinois Commerce Commission is no Court of Claims which will run itself regardless of the number of political hacks awarded appointments to head it. Anyone who has sat in at Commission Bench Session can tell you that absent commissioners such as Ed Hurley, Kevin Wright and Erin O’Connell-Diaz - who have the depth of experience needed to actually understand the complexities of the matters before them and did all of the heavy lifting on the Bench - the Commission would have been a national laughing stock. Anyone who puts a halo on the head of someone because they are a self-appointed “consumer advocate” is a fool who has never actually sat down and had dealings with a “consumer adovate”. I have worked with consumer advocates from dozens of organizations over the years and let me tell you 90% of the consumer advocates heading those organizations would snap at a juicy steak offered by the very people they publically criticize just like Marty Cohen did. Like our current Governor they like to accuse everyone else of corruption but have their fingers in the pot too.
Comment by Eyewitness Friday, Jan 13, 06 @ 12:07 pm
Almost as much of a sure thing as death and taxes, the Chicago Tribune endorsing yet another Commonwealth Edison rate hike.
Comment by enviro-zealot Friday, Jan 13, 06 @ 7:14 pm