Sept. 6, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois taxpayers continue to pay for more local units of government — nearly 7,000 — than any other state, according to new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

That includes municipalities, townships, library districts, school districts, park districts, water and sanitary districts, mosquito-abatement districts, airport and transit authorities, hospital boards, tax-increment-financing districts — all of which provide services for Illinois taxpayers.

But services come with a cost, says one government watchdog. Cons? They’re expensive to operate. They duplicate services. Many lack transparency. It’s exhausting to monitor all of them and how they’re spending money.

Pros?

“They’re good if you want to be employed as a politician,” said Brian Costin, director of government reform for the Illinois Policy Institute, a right-leaning think tank.

Illinois has 6,968 units of local government, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s preliminary 2012 Census of Governments, released last week. Considering the state’s population of 12.8 million, that means there’s one governmental body for about every 1,800 residents.

“You could go to a local government meeting every day of the week and still not be able to make all the meetings,” Costin said. “I think that’s something where citizens get discouraged. They say, ‘I can’t keep up on everything that’s going on, so I’m just not going to participate.’”

Illinois leaves No. 2 Pennsylvania in the dust by more than 2,000. The Keystone State has 4,905 units of local government. Rounding out the top 10:

• Texas: 4,856,
• California: 4,350,
• Kansas: 3,806,
• Missouri: 3,752,
• Ohio: 3,702,
• Minnesota: 3,633,
• New York: 3,454,
• Wisconsin: 3,123.

The 10 states with the fewest units of local government:

• District of Columbia: 2,
• Hawaii: 21,
• Rhode Island: 134,
• Alaska: 177,
• Nevada: 190,
• Delaware: 338,
• Maryland: 347,
• Virginia: 497,
• Louisiana: 530,
• New Hampshire: 542.

Illinois lost a few governmental bodies in the past five years. The 2007 Census of Governments showed Illinois had 6,994 local units — still No. 1 among the other states.

Still, consolidating or eliminating local government is not easy. Voters have to push for a ballot referendum, and officials and lobbyists often resist the idea, because someone most likely will be out of a job. Occasionally, bodies decide on their own to merge.

“I think it’s easier to create a new one than to consolidate,” Costin said, noting that the creation of tax-increment-financing, or TIF, districts has surged throughout Illinois. All it requires is a majority vote of the overlapping taxing bodies to approve a TIF. These special taxing districts funnel money to areas that local officials deem blighted in an effort to attract development.

Illinois in 2011 authorized a 17-member Local Government Consolidation Commission, charged with examining local governments and, among other things, reducing “the multiplicity of local governments” and eliminating “overlapping and duplicating of unnecessary powers.”

Members include state senators, state representatives, residents appointed by the governor and people who represent various units of local government. The commission is supposed to file a report by the end of 2012 but is seeking more time.

Illinois currently has 2,831 “general purpose” units of government, such as municipalities, counties, villages and townships. It also has 4,137 “special purpose” units, including 3,232 special districts and 905 independent school districts. Special districts include mosquito-abatement districts, sanitary districts and transit authorities.

Illinois has 1,400 townships alone, the most of any state. Townships, which are a taxing body, usually staff crews for rural road maintenance and snow removal. They sometimes undertake additional roles.

In a Sept. 3 editorial, Chicago-based government watchdog the Better Government Association called for township reform in Illinois.

“In fact, Illinois law actually requires very little of townships — some provide welfare services and run food pantries — but those functions could be incorporated into nearby towns and villages that already offer similar programs,” BGA President Andy Shaw wrote. “Still, townships continue to hoard tax dollars and sit on cash cushions that would make King Midas jealous.”

Costin said he believes Illinoisans are ready to talk about consolidation of governmental services but they have little power to force the conversation.

“If there’s no legal avenue for the citizens to push for consolidation, I don’t see a lot of the agencies themselves saying, ‘Let’s make an effort to see how we can save the taxpayers money,’” he said.

Sept. 4, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

SPRINGFIELD — When it comes to attendance, Illinois’ congressional delegation earns above-average marks.

But attendance and missed votes don’t tell the full story about a congressman’s performance, according to one Illinois political observer.

“You count what you can. But for the average voter who’s maybe not very engaged, they’re going to be looking for these kinds of cues that give them some sense of how effective somebody is,” said longtime Illinois political observer Kent Redfield. “Whether they take it seriously and, for better or worse, whether they miss a lot of roll calls are measures.”

All of Illinois’ seats in the U.S. House of Representatives — 18 in all after losing one in the redistricting process — are up for grabs in November.

Of the state’s 19 sitting U.S. representatives, only Democrats Bobby Rush of District 1 and Luis Gutierrez of District 4 have missed more than 10 percent of roll-call votes during their time in office, according  to the latest figures from Govtrack.us, which tracks federal legislation and lawmaker votes in Congress.

Both have been in the U.S. House since 1993, and more than 13,000 votes were taken during that time. Rush missed 1,760 of them, and Gutierrez, 1,548.

Fourteen representatives missed between zero percent and 3 percent of their votes.

U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-District 14, who joined Congress in January 2011, has the best record, missing only four of 1,503 votes during his tenure.

U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-District 13, has been in office since 1999 and has the second-best record, missing only 68 of 9,679 votes.

The median for missed votes among congressional lawmakers is 2.4 percent, according to Govtrack.us.

Some candidates say they miss more mundane and procedural votes, because they are meeting with constituents and interest groups as well as advocating for particular issues and meeting with interest groups — all of which make them better representatives of those who elected them.

But a candidate’s voting record, especially missed votes on key legislation, can be damaging material for an opponent’s campaign ads, said Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

“It really can be political dynamite because it translates so easily into an appeal that the average voter can understand. ‘I’ve got a job. I’m supposed to do things. I’m supposed to be there. I’ve got work days, and I can’t just blow off work,’” he said.

“So when a congressman misses a lot of roll calls, it’s really easy to make the case that the congressman is skipping work and therefore is not paying attention to the basics. And if they don’t have the kind of character to show up for work, then how can you trust them on all of this other stuff. It fits very easily into a more extended narrative of whether they’re really up to the job.”

Rush, who has missed 13 percent of roll-call votes during his tenure, did not respond to a request for an interview Tuesday through his spokeswoman.

Rush missed a large number of votes in 2008 when he was being treated for cancer.

That, Redfield noted, is an example of why voting records alone without context can cause confusion for voters.

Voters can consider the types of legislation the candidates helped pass, the perks the candidates brought home for the district, their leadership roles in sponsoring legislation — all of which help paint a more accurate picture of the job lawmakers are doing, Redfield said.

“If you can make the case that, ‘I make the important votes, and here are the other important things I’m doing,’ that may be sufficient,” he said. “It’s just that without any context, missing votes translates into not doing your job and not taking the job seriously. Without context that’s a very compelling negative argument.”

Aug. 29, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois communities that bought into the promise of cheaper rates from a clean-coal plant in southern Illinois may experience buyers’ remorse when their bills arrive, according to a report unveiled Wednesday.

But others say the report’s findings are flawed because they are based on comparisons to current market rates, which are low because of decreased demand for power.

The Prairie State Energy Campus, a 1,600-megawatt coal-fired plant in rural Marissa about 40 miles southeast of St. Louis, has experienced project delays and increased construction costs, more than doubling the price tag to nearly $5 billion. Original estimates put the cost at $2 billion.

The increased costs will be passed on to consumers, raising rates by at least 40 percent more than what investors originally expected them to be, according to a report by the Massachusetts-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which researches environmental and energy issues.

The costs are “real, immediate and likely to continue,” said Tom Sanzillo, one of the report’s authors.

More than 200 municipalities and electric co-ops, serving 2.5 million customers in eight states, invested in the project, which was spearheaded by St. Louis-based Peabody Energy. The municipalities and co-ops signed 30-year contracts to obtain power from the plant on promises it would be a less-expensive, stable power source.

The Prairie State Energy Campus is “an unnecessary financial burden on ratepayers and local governments rather than the much-needed financial relief that was promised,” Sanzillo said.

At least one community, Hannibal, on the Mississippi River in central Missouri, this summer approved a 3 percent rate hike for customers to offset the added construction costs and delays.

“We’re in almost a million and a half bucks, and we don’t have a dime of revenue,” Bob Stevenson, director of the Hannibal Board of Public Works, said in a June St. Louis Post-Dispatch report. “All I can say is, I had other plans for that money.

The Illinois Municipal Electric Agency owns a 15 percent share in the project. Phillip “Doc” Mueller, vice president of government affairs at the agency, said the IEEFA report is flawed.

“The study seems to fundamentally misunderstand the place that Prairie State holds in our total energy portfolio,” Mueller said.

IMEA represents 32 Illinois communities that own and operate their own utilities. The agency’s main responsibility is to provide long-term electricity at wholesale prices through various means, such as owning portions of power plants in other states, contracting with Midwest energy company Ameren, buying off the market and investing in Prairie State.

Mueller said IMEA members are not going to see power costs that are at least 40 percent higher, as the report predicts.

“What (the report’s authors) have done is compare the current market price of power with Prairie State, and the only way the report makes any sense is if you buy all of your power off the market all the time. But if you do that, then you open yourself up to the higher market prices as they go up and down through the year and as they go up over time,” he said.

“Our job, and this little piece of Prairie State that we’ve got, is actually intended not to hurt our people. It’s intended to provide a cost hedge for the long term because inevitably the market prices we’re seeing out there now are not going to hang around. When natural gas goes up and the market goes back up, the market prices will follow.”

Sandy Buchanan, executive director of Ohio Citizen Action, the state’s largest consumer and environmental organization, said ratepayers there have not been given full and complete information about the Prairie State project, its operations, the financial risk and the cost.

“What today’s report shows is that the coal plant is turning out to be the financial nightmare many of us feared when the plant was proposed,” she said.

Peabody announced plans for the Prairie State Energy Campus in 2001, when the economy was better and the demand for electricity was higher. The company currently has a 5 percent stake in the project.

Peabody spokeswoman Meg Gallagher on Wednesday said the company still is reviewing the report but found its assertions biased and lacking important facts.

“Among other issues, the report makes a number assumptions on costs of competing fuels and uses this to make flawed estimates for a plant that will be in operation for decades. Even so, the cost of coal for Prairie State is less than half the cost of natural gas at a time when gas is at historically low levels this year,” she said in an email response.

“Ultimately, when the scorecard is complete, we firmly believe Prairie State will continue to provide reliable, clean low-cost electricity for the benefit of millions of customers in multiple states for decades to come.”

One of the plant’s two 800-megawatt generators went online in June, and the second one is expected to go online by the end of the year. The plant includes an associated underground coal mine at Lively Grove that will produce an estimated 6 million tons of high-sulfur coal each year.

IEEFA researches various energy and environment issues. The organization’s mission is “to accelerate the United States’ transition to a diverse, sustainable and profitable energy economy and to reduce the nation’s dependence on coal and other non-renewable energy resources.”

Sanzillo, finance director for the group, is a former deputy comptroller for the state of New York.

Aug. 27, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Pat Quinn and his staff may tell you about the sausage that is Illinois policy, but they aren’t quite as open about the sausage-making process, according to a review of public records requests by Illinois Watchdog.

Quinn’s office cited the “preliminary drafts” exemption to Illinois‘ open records law in one out of four Freedom of Information requests between April and July, enabling it to withhold documents that could shed light on a range of high-profile policy decisions.

Quinn’s office withheld records about prison and developmental-center closures, consolidation of state police communications centers and shutting down animal disease testing facilities – each of which has affected taxpayers and the economy all over the state.

The “preliminary drafts” exemption was designed to allow policymakers to communicate honestly and openly without the risk of embarrassment. It allows officials to withhold “preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations, memoranda and other records in which opinions are expressed, or policies or actions are formulated.”

Quinn’s office may be using the exemption as it was intended, said Springfield attorney Don Craven, who specializes in open government matters. The problem, however, is that the broad exemption leaves taxpayers in the dark about the decision-making process. Illinoisans have no clue what factors were or were not considered in any given policy decision.

“Why did they come to the conclusion to close Jacksonville (developmental center)? You can’t tell what policy considerations went into that decision. You can’t tell what policy considerations were rejected as part of that decision-making process,” he said.  “And all the administration gives you is, ‘We think Jacksonville should close; therefore, it closes.’ And it causes severe frustration.”

Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said the “preliminary drafts” exemption has been part of the state’s open-records law for decades and that it allows “free and frank discussion among policy and decision makers” and “a wider range of ideas that could lead to more effective public policy.”

Anderson noted that final decisions are available under the law.

“Under Gov. Quinn’s direction, we work to be as transparent as possible. The governor’s office receives a high volume of FOIA requests, with many containing complex issues,” she wrote in an email to Illinois Watchdog. “We carefully review, analyze and respond to each request in a transparent fashion and as quickly as possible.”

Quinn’s office received an average of 17 FOIA requests a month between January and July, according to records supplied by the office. Of 77 requests it processed between April and July, the office cited the “preliminary drafts” exemption 19 times. Between January and July, it cited the exemption 23 times.

In addition to withholding records about some of Quinn’s major closure decisions, since January his office cited “preliminary drafts” in withholding records about:

• A third airport in Chicago.
• A Department of Children and Family Services contract.
• Hospital tax exemptions in the state.
• A contracted review of hiring practices under the Rod Blagojevich administration.
• One of Quinn’s nominations to the state’s tollway board.
• A review by the Illinois State Police of its consent-search policies.

It also withheld communications among Quinn’s staff about the location of a southern Illinois news conference in July, at which state workers showed up to protest Quinn’s planned facility closures.

Quinn’s FOIA officer, Benno Weisberg, is based in Chicago. He has been an “associate general counsel” to Quinn since February. Anderson said he also is a legal liaison between the office and 10 state agencies. His salary is $72,000 a year.

In Illinois, individuals whose records requests are denied may ask the state attorney general’s public access counselor to review the denial. Since January, the public access counselor has received 16 requests to review FOIA denials by Quinn’s office, of which six were for denials citing the “preliminary drafts” exemption.

Craven said about once a week he hears from frustrated reporters new to Illinois who received a “preliminary drafts” denial from a public body for records they were able to review easily in other states.

“They say, ‘I can’t believe the way the laws work here,’ to which I respond, ‘Welcome to the Land of Lincoln,’” he said.

It’s unclear if there is a happy medium to the exemption that would satisfy both public officials and the public’s right to know.

“In order to get to a happy medium, you have to have a conversation. And I don’t know anybody on the other side of the table from where I am who wants to have a conversation about that exemption,” Craven said. “They like it just the way it is.”

Aug. 17, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois House lawmakers on Friday kicked out indicted Rep. Derrick Smith, who faces a federal bribery charge for allegedly accepting a $7,000 bribe in connection with his job as legislator.

The vote – 100 in favor of expulsion and six against it – resulted in Smith immediately being removed from the House roll. He is a Chicago Democrat who was serving his first term as a state lawmaker.

Neither Smith nor his Chicago attorney, Victor Henderson, were present for the vote in Springfield. At a Chicago news conference after the vote, Smith said the ordeal allowed him to learn who his friends are, adding that friends “stick by you through thick and thin.”

The six representatives who voted against expulsion were all Democrats: Anthony DeLuca of Crete; Mary Flowers of Chicago; Rita Mayfield of Waukegan; Arthur Turner of Chicago; and Karen Yarbrough of Broadview.

Three Democratic representatives voted “present,” meaning they did not cast a vote either way: Charles Jefferson of Rockford; Andre Thapedi of Chicago; and LaShawn Ford of Chicago.

Three members of the chamber’s Black Caucus – Jefferson, Davis and Flowers – sided somewhat with Smith ,who also is black, questioning the timing and the process to kick him out. They also questioned whether the expulsion process respected Smith’s right to a due process.

Flowers said Smith’s not-guilty plea in federal court allows lawmakers to “infer” Smith is not guilty.

Other lawmakers said Smith and his attorney had opportunities to appear before the House discipline committees and say the lawmaker was not guilty, that he did not do the things he was accused of and that it was not his voice on federal wiretaps that recorded the alleged bribery transaction.

Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, said Smith had more rights during the expulsion process than former Gov. Rod Blagojevich had during the impeachment proceedings in the General Assembly.

Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, said the vote was one of the most difficult but important votes the House would ever take.

Smith remains on the Nov. 6 ballot in his home district, but he no longer has backing from the state’s Democratic machine. His bribery arrest came after the March primary election. He faces Lance Tyson, a Democrat who is running as a “Unity Party” candidate with Democratic backing.

Aug. 10, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

SPRINGFIELD – Want to know what conditions are like inside Illinois’ prisons? You’ll have to take someone else’s word for it.

And for the most part, that someone has to be the state of Illinois or the union that represents correctional officers and other prison workers.

Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, is steadfast in his opinion that media tours of the state’s taxpayer-funded prisons, even the minimum-security ones, are a security risk and not a good idea.

“Prisons aren’t country clubs. They’re not there to be visited and looked at. I think we have to make sure they’re secure, and I think the security of the public is paramount when it comes to prisons,” Quinn said during questioning by reporters after he cut the ribbon for the 2012 Illinois State Fair in Springfield.

The issue of prison tours gained traction this week after a report by Chicago public radio station WBEZ that one of its reporters was turned down when he asked for a tour of the minimum-security prison in Vienna to investigate conditions there for prisoners.

Other reporters’ prison tour requests have been turned down, as well.

“I think it’s important that we listen to those who are on the front line at the prison with respect to working there and understanding their decisions regarding the safety of the prison,” Quinn said Friday. “Our corrections officials who are running the prisons are wardens. They have expertise that we ought to pay attention to.”

But Alan Mills, legal director at the Uptown People’s Law Center in Chicago, which represents Illinois inmates in legal cases, said Quinn is off base.

“Clearly, not only is it in the public’s interest, I think it’s the public’s right to know what’s going on in the prisons. Government should never be able to force the public to rely on its own version of the events. That’s what journalists and outside watchdogs are for,” Mills said. “The argument about security is hogwash.”

Mills said state officials have allowed tours of the Stateville and Dwight prisons regularly, and they have run tours of Tamms “when it suits their interests.”

“So there is no reason why they can’t run a tour and allow access to a medium-security prison. Do they have to assign someone to walk you through? Yes, but so what?” he said. “I think the public is legitimately able to conclude from their refusal to let people in that they don’t want people to see what’s going on in there.”

The union that represents corrections officers, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, has publicized reports from the last month about violence in the state’s prisons. But it’s impossible to confirm the reports because the Illinois Department of Corrections will not release incident reports – even versions with sensitive information blacked out – that document the alleged occurrences.

On June 26, Illinois Watchdog (formerly Illinois Statehouse News) filed a Freedom of Information request with the department seeking records about security incidents and resulting injuries to inmates and staff at each Illinois correctional facility. Watchdog also asked for all documents that describe the cause and nature of the incidents and injuries, from May 2007 to present.

The request was an attempt to independently confirm if, indeed, violence was on the rise in the state’s prisons and to gauge the severity of the violence.

The department’s FOIA officer denied Watchdog’s request, citing an exemption in state law that allows them to withhold “records that relate to or affect the security of correctional institutions and detention facilities.”

“Each of these records is utilized by the department for increasing security at a facility after an incident has occurred,” the department’s FOIA officer replied in a letter.

The records additionally were denied citing an exemption that allows withholding documents that “disclose unique or specialized investigative techniques other than those generally used and known or disclosed internal documents of correctional agencies related to detection, observation or investigation of incidents of crime or misconduct, and disclosure would result in demonstrable harm to the agency….”

The department of corrections did provide a chart showing the number of violent incidents by month and by year, but there was no supporting data for the numbers.

Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford, a Republican and former state senator, for years led tours of the Pontiac and Dwight prisons for members of the General Assembly and the media. He said he understands first-hand that laying eyes on the inside of a prison is extremely valuable when forming or reporting on public policy and state funding.

He said he suggests the governor invite the media into the prisons “unless he’s trying to hide something.”

“I can appreciate the governor is concerned about public safety. I am too. Prisons are not tourist attractions, and for him to say they’re not country clubs, he’s absolutely right,” Rutherford said.

“But to preclude the public under very reasonable requests to have first-hand sighting of how their tax dollars have an effect on policy and how it’s conducted is inappropriate.”

Laurie Jo Reynolds, organizer of Tamms Year Ten, a grassroots campaign to educate people about the effects of long-term prison isolation, said she believes the corrections department under the Quinn administration is more transparent than it was under the administration of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but that more transparency and accountability undoubtedly will improve the state’s prison system.

“It is important that legislators understand the consequences of all the increased sentencing, mandatory imprisonment, reduction of good time and other tough-on-crime policies that they use to get re-elected,” she said, noting also that limited knowledge comes from walking through a prison on one tour.

“For example, you can’t see the effects of long-term segregation and isolation. You can’t see how long people have been in solitary confinement or their mental-health histories,” she said. “This takes more in-depth reporting, and news media historically has not shown that commitment.”

Aug. 9, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Pat Quinn’s office continues to withhold emails that could shed light on whether his staff moved the location of a southern Illinois news conference to avoid protesters.

Even so, his spokeswoman says he remains committed to the issue of transparency in state government.

One document his office released Wednesday, apparently an exchange of emails, is completely censored — or “redacted.” Officials blacked out even the dates and times of the emails and the names of the senders and recipients.

“This is the most redacted email I’ve seen,” said Esther Seitz, a media law attorney in Springfield. “I’ve seen an email where at least the subject and the ‘from’ and ‘to’ lines were disclosed, but the content of this email was blocked in whole.

“Pretty much, (the governor’s office is) withholding the entire document. I don’t see why they’re giving you that email at all. There’s no point.”

Among other things it’s apparent officials redacted the location of the news conference even though the address was provided to reporters ahead of the event. They also redacted the location in a news story emailed by a staffer, saying it was personal information and therefore exempt under the state’s open-records law.

Quinn has long championed openness and transparency in state government.

“Since taking office, Gov. Quinn has improved ethics and increased government accountability and transparency in Illinois,” his spokeswoman, Brooke Anderson, said in an email Thursday night. She cited three websites he launched — data.Illinois.gov, appointments.Illinois.gov and accountability.Illinois.gov — that allow taxpayers to search a variety of information about state agencies, state commission memberships, state expenditures and payroll information.

Illinois Watchdog, formerly Illinois Statehouse News, in July sought access to communications among Quinn’s staff and others about his July 16 appearance at a Waltonville farm in southern Illinois.

Rumors abounded that the governor’s staff changed the location of the news conference to dodge state workers and families who intended to protest his plan to shutter state facilities. The governor’s spokeswoman denied the rumors.

Illinois Watchdog sought correspondence between July 12 and 17.

In a July 26 reply, Benno Weisberg, an attorney and the governor’s Freedom of Information Act officer, said 10 emails were found pertinent to the FOIA request but that they were being withheld in their entirety. He cited an exemption in state’s open-records law that allows officials to withhold “preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations, memoranda and other records in which opinions are expressed, or policies or actions are formulated.”

On Wednesday, Weisberg sent a follow-up response to Illinois Watchdog, saying five additional emails were found. Three of them contained the text of news articles about Quinn’s appearance that were emailed among his staffers. Nothing was redacted from those documents.

A fourth document is an invitation from the governor’s staff to a local public official to attend the event. The official sent a brief response, and there was apparently further correspondence, but that, too, is redacted. Also blacked out in the exchange was the address of the Laird family farm in Waltonville, where the news conference was to take place. The address of that farm, 6326 E. Elm St., was identified in the governor’s public schedule released the day before the event.

A fifth document, identified as “Bankers for Monday_Redacted,” is perhaps the most striking because it appears to be an email exchange that is almost completely redacted with black bars. Not blacked out is what appears to be an initial email that contains a news story about the event that was sent by a staffer to others. Again, the location of the Laird farm is blacked out.

Illinois Watchdog is appealing the governor’s decision to withhold any documents related to the request.

Seitz said the “preliminary drafts” exemption of Illinois’ FOIA law is overused because it is vague and there isn’t much case law to help public officials know when to cite the exemption.

“What really is preliminary or non-final, and what really concerns policy? You can construe that very broadly, and that’s why public bodies tend to overuse that exemption,” she said. “I think withholding, literally, an entire email and providing such a cursory reason why that exemption is being invoked here, you’re really left with no check on why the governor’s office used that exemption.”

Aug. 2, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

SPRINGFIELD – Prison lockdowns and inmate assaults are nothing new in the Illinois prison system. What is new, three longtime observers say, is the public-relations battle that has heated up between the state and the union representing corrections workers.

A volley of news releases and leaked memos since mid-July stemming from Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close two state prisons has surprised experts, who the dust up distracts from major flaws in the state’s prison system, including overcrowding, understaffing and cuts to programs for inmates.

“There is increased tension, so there’s an increase in prisoner-on-prisoner fights, but that’s because it’s hot. And the prisons have been on lockdown and they’re overcrowded, and there are no programs left so everybody is sitting in their cells. So there’s a good story here, but it’s not the one being told,” said Alan Mills, legal director of the Chicago-based Uptown People’s Law Center, a nonprofit legal center that handles cases on behalf of inmates.

Recent inmate assaults on both guards and fellow inmates — brought to light by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union representing prison employees — are tied to the impending closures because prisons already are overcrowded, the union contends. Consolidating inmates will make matters worse, it says.

At a July 19 rally in Springfield, prison employees described a spike in inmates punching, spitting on and biting guards, saying the incidents worsened in recent years because of overcrowding. And a July 24 report documented what a union representative described as “a riot,” fueled by understaffing and overcrowding, at a minimum-security prison in East Moline during a power outage.

Mills has monitored the state prison system for more than 20 years, and he questions why the assaults suddenly are being publicized, when they are the norm, for many reasons, in prisons.

“I’ve been disturbed by the lack of any sort of skepticism on behalf of the press. I don’t see how you can report that anytime there’s an assault it must be related to closing a correctional institution without asking for somebody to prove it. Anytime there’s an incident in any prison … the union puts out a press release,” he said. “Things are terrible, but it has nothing to do with prison closures.”

The Illinois Department of Corrections, meanwhile, ordered a pat-down search of employees as they left their shifts at more than a dozen prisons around the state in July. The union asserts the searches were retaliatory and meant to intimidate whistleblowers. A corrections spokeswoman denied the claim, saying employee searches can occur at any time.

In addition, there have been reports that corrections officials took fans away from inmates, who sit in stifling, un-air-conditioned cells. The heat was a factor in at least one inmate death, according to reports. Corrections officials said fans were removed because parts could be used to make weapons.

And a corrections official tried to stop a newspaper reporter from writing a story about transferring some inmates out of state, telling the reporter that naming them would endanger guards and inmates.

“If you proceed to disclose any information in your possession on this subject beyond yourself, the department will view your actions as attempting to promote disorder within the prison system,” the official wrote.

The tit-for-tat can be confusing for taxpayers, most of whom have little interaction with the prison system and are trying to make sense of Quinn’s plan and the union’s objections, experts say.

Laurie Jo Reynolds, who has taught at Columbia College in Chicago and is the organizer of Tamms Year Ten, a grassroots campaign to educate people about the effects of long-term prison isolation, said the incidents are being used to bolster the argument that no prisons should close.

“I think it deceives the public about what the true issues are. It confuses the public, and it makes it harder for the governor, the (Department of Corrections) and anyone else to pursue evidence-based public policy,” Reynolds said.

“They are creating an environment of scare tactics and fear mongering,” she said. “We all need to work together to reduce overcrowding, and everybody needs to buy into true evidence-based policies to reduce prison populations. But they’re creating such a polarized political environment, it’s not good for the dialogue and it’s also not good for the policies.”

The John Howard Association of Illinois advocates for humane conditions in the state’s prisons, as well as for addressing overcrowding and reducing recidivism. The organization does regular inspections of the state’s prisons, documenting conditions and interviewing staff and inmates.

Executive director John Maki said there is much at stake in the closure debate occurring this summer.

“It’s good for people to argue … but at the end of the day we still have to move forward. What I would hate to see is for these arguments and battles to poison the well, because we definitely need to go back to that well and find ways to reduce our prison population,” he said.

“What we’re seeing here is decades of asking the system to do more than it can possibly do with the amount of resources we’ve given it,” Maki said. “Everyone is feeling that — from the administration to the staff to the inmates. The answer isn’t to have more staff. The answer is to do what other states have done, which is to reduce the prison population.”

Maki, who said the association does not want to get caught in the middle a dispute between prison staff and the governor’s administration, admitted it may be difficult for Illinoisans to decipher what is going on right now.

The prison system really encapsulates the state, he said. Prisons are located throughout Illinois and are populated and staffed by people from throughout Illinois. And the state’s complicated cultural and economic relationships are playing out in the prison debate right now, he said.

“The average citizen should keep in mind that it’s in everyone’s interest to have the most effective prison system possible, but also because we spend more than a billion dollars a year on this system,” he said. “As all these battles are getting played out, citizens should be asking how does this help what we all care about – safer communities and a safer state.”

July 27, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

SPRINGFIELD – Whether  Gov. Pat Quinn’s staff moved the location for a southern Illinois news conference to avoid protesters remains a mystery.

The governor’s office Thursday denied a Freedom of Information Act request by IllinoisWatchdog.org, formerly Illinois Statehouse News, about planning for the event, held earlier this month.

Watchdog asked for “any and all correspondence to and from governor’s office employees regarding the governor’s appearance in southern Illinois on July 16.” This included correspondence for July 12-17.

Watchdog wants to know if  the news conference was moved from a Waltonville farmstead to a field several miles away, with local police monitoring the entrance.

Rumors abounded that the governor’s staff moved the location to dodge state employees, family members and others protesting Quinn’s plan to close several state facilities in southern Illinois, including prisons and centers for developmentally disabled people.

Quinn’s spokeswoman, Brooke Anderson, denied the rumors.

Benno Weisberg, an attorney and the FOIA officer for the governor’s office, denied the records request. In a letter, he said staff found “approximately 10 emails responsive to your request,” but that they were being withheld in their entirety.

Weisberg cited a FOIA exemption that allows officials to withhold “preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations, memoranda and other records in which opinions are expressed, or policies or actions are formulated.”

The denial will be appealed to the Illinois attorney general’s public access counselor.

Don Craven, a Springfield attorney who specializes in open government matters, said the “preliminary drafts” exemption to Illinois FOIA law is overused and that attempts to get lawmakers to rein in the exemption have been unsuccessful.

The justifiable purpose of the exemption, he said, is to allow staff members debating policy to be candid as they’re discussing the nuances of a particular issue.

“It’s got nothing to do with frantic emails or texts among the governor’s staff about where to set up a podium so he doesn’t have to look at state-employee protesters,” Craven said.

“Pat Quinn from four years ago would have demanded that those very documents be released. Pat Quinn from 20 years ago would have demanded that those very documents be released. Those are precisely those kinds of documents that the taxpayers are entitled to see.”

July 25, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

SPRINGFIELD – Crop insurance — not disaster aid — will cover the losses of most Illinois grain farmers hurt by the summer’s severe drought.

Even so, the state’s taxpayers will be on the hook for millions of dollars – billions nationwide – because of a flawed program that has quietly mutated since 2000, one environmental watchdog group says.

“There’s really a lot of smoke and mirrors behind this crop insurance program,” said Craig Cox, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group, which tracks farm subsidies. “We’re growing more and more concerned about who is this program being designed to benefit – crop insurers and farmers, but certainly not taxpayers.”

Gov. Pat Quinn is seeking disaster designations for most of Illinois, because of the drought. Illinois has had the warmest first half of the year on record, and rainfall is at least seven inches below normal levels.

Twenty-six counties already hold the disaster designation. Quinn asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to add 69 counties to the list, meaning farmers in most of the state’s 102 counties would be eligible for loan programs through the USDA.

Congress no longer authorizes the ad hoc disaster programs of old, which sent billions in one-time cash payments flowing into the countryside. These days, lawmakers must find cuts elsewhere in the federal budget to pay for such programs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture can provide low-interest loans and other conservation programs to help farmers.

Loans, though beneficial for emergencies, really aren’t much help to farmers hurting because of drought conditions, which occur gradually, said John Hawkins, spokesman for the Illinois Farm Bureau.

“Floods happen right now. You’ve got a lot of damage that you have to get rid of like sand in fields and trees and debris. That’s something (in which) you can bring a bulldozer down, and trucks,” Hawkins said. “But with drought, it’s such a slow process because it happens over a series of months that it just kind of creeps up on you, and by the time you figure out ‘I’m really in trouble,’ it’s already too late.”

That’s where crop insurance, which about 80 percent of Illinois farmers have, comes in.

But it doesn’t work like traditional home or auto insurance policies, in which a person or a business takes out a policy, experiences a problem, has an adjuster examine the damage and receives a check to cover that damage based on the limits set when the policy was purchased. Major changes to the crop-insurance program in 2000 have taxpayers picking up more of the tab, Cox said. They pony up millions to help cover premiums, administrative costs and revenue guarantees.

For example, Cox said:

• Taxpayers cover about two-thirds of the premiums for crop insurance policies. The cost to taxpayers has grown from $1.5 billion a year in 2002 to $7.4 billion last year, he said, citing USDA figures. Plus, taxpayers foot another $1.3 billion a year for overhead costs for the insurance companies, such as administering the policies, adjusting the policies, examining the crop losses and more.

• Taxpayers, not the crop insurance company that sold the policy, are on the hook for most of the payout when a farmer suffers a loss. Cox said the formula used to determine the risk sharing on policies is complicated, but the bottom line is as the losses get bigger, the taxpayer pays more. “And when losses get really big, like they’re likely to be this year because of this horrible drought, taxpayers are going to end up on the hook for the vast majority – over 90 percent – of the loss,” he said.

• The latest crop-insurance policies, which are the most popular policies in the Corn Belt, have something called “revenue protection,” insuring a crop based on dollars per acre instead of bushels per acre. The insurers may have no idea how much a farmer gets for his crop at the end of the season, but they pay out an amount based on the insurer-established harvest price and the actual yield. If it’s less than the per-acre guarantee established when the policy was taken out, the company pays the difference.

• In addition, these revenue-protection policies allow the guaranteed payment to be adjusted according to grain-price fluctuations. If the price of corn or soybeans, for example, rises during the growing season, the policies calculate the guarantee based on the highest price.

“That’s turned crop insurance on its head,” Cox said.

“It’s no longer simply protecting a farmer from a loss of yield. It’s now protecting the farmer against a loss in yield, a drop in prices or a combination of the two. Taxpayers pick up a big chunk of that premium. And so these policies have become insanely popular. It’s really hard to find a corn or soybean farmer that still insures his or her crop with an old-fashioned yield-protection policy.”

The cost to the government for the crop insurance program in Illinois between 1995 and 2011 was more than $1 billion, according to figures from the Environmental Working Group based on USDA data.

Think taxpayer dollars here.

The reality, Cox said, is that disaster assistance really isn’t needed for grain farmers.

“If that farmer loses his entire crop, he’s going to get more money from the insurance policy than he expected to get if he saw no loss in yield at all and sold his entire crop under the insured price when he bought that insurance policy,” Cox said.

Not necessarily so, Hawkins said, noting not every farmer will be made whole by their crop insurance. The goal is to at least get them some money so they can start again the next year.

Food is a national-security issue, he said.

“If you don’t have somebody raising it, we’d be in a world of hurt. Farm programs are there to ensure that we have an affordable, safe food supply. I think if you did away with disaster aid or some of the other, even crop insurance, you would insert an extremely high level of volatility on farm owners,” he said.

“If we have another year like this, you’d probably have a lot of people just get out of the business. People wouldn’t be very eager to enter (farming) either, because of the investment and time. Whenever you have a disaster like this you’re always glad there is crop insurance or some kind of cushion there that farmers can depend on to get them through the short times so that when we have normal crops we’ll still be there.”

Any business, particularly farming, is inherently risky. Typically.

But in this case, it’s the taxpayers who will pay. Again.

It could be a record year for insurance payouts because of the drought, which stretches across much of the country. Estimates run from nearly $20 billion by the chief economist for the USDA to $40 billion by the president of the Iowa Farm Bureau, Cox said. No one will know until the harvest is in and the insurance companies make their payments.

Illinois is nowhere near the top of the heap when it comes to total crop-insurance costs by state. At $902 million, it ranks 16th. Texas’s costs are $7.8 billion. Also in the top 10: North Dakota, Kansas, South Dakota, North Carolina, Minnesota, Oklahoma, California, Missouri and Georgia.

In terms of disaster assistance, Illinois received $318 million between 1995 and 2011. The largest amount of disaster money funneled into Illinois came in 2010, when farmers received nearly $61 million. The smallest amount – $21,000 – came to the state in 1998.

In 2011, disaster payments for Illinois totaled $45.2 million, coming in sixth among states last year, behind Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Kansas and Montana.

During the severe drought of 1988, most farmers did not have crop insurance and relied heavily on government disaster aid. Hawkins said this summer’s drought is the first real test of the crop insurance program in Illinois.

Cox agreed.

“There are very few people who have taken the time to really dig into what the crop insurance program has become since that 2000 act. This has happened very quietly,” he said. “This year, with this drought and these huge payouts and the way these new-fangled policies work, it may indeed draw a lot of attention.”

The Environmental Working Group supports crop insurance, Cox said, but the organization questions how much taxpayers should be responsible for and why taxpayers should be on the hook for the costs. It’s OK for taxpayers to compensate farmers for a significant loss in yield, but that’s about it, he said.

“We think lawmakers ought to just be really smart about what they do in response to this drought,” he said.

“Assistance really needs to go to the people who are really hurting, and we shouldn’t simply do one of these disaster programs that sends money out willy-nilly, regardless of whether it’s going to someone who is already going to be made more than whole by crop insurance, or whether it’s going to a livestock farmer that’s really facing the potential financial viability of their operation.

“Disaster assistance ought to be really carefully targeted to those producers who really need it.”

July 19, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

SPRINGFIELD – Indicted state Rep. Derrick Smith will be on the ballot come November.

His challengers? Well, no one knows for sure.

Objections are pending for the filing petitions of all three challengers for the incumbent’s seat.

In an ironic twist, no objections were filed against the petition for Smith, who may be kicked out of the House in the coming weeks. His paperwork was filed in November.

One challenger, Lance Tyson, appears poised to give Smith a run for his money in November.

Tyson is a Democrat – just like Smith. Both are black candidates in a predominantly black, predominantly low-income but historically well-organized 10^th House District on Chicago’s west side.

Here’s the rub: Tyson has the backing of the state’s Democratic machine – something Smith had until after the primary election. But the word “Democrat” won’t come after Tyson’s name on the November ballot.

Things get even trickier, as voters will have to know to look for “Unity Party,” the party Democrats set up when they chose to run Tyson against the embattled Smith in an effort to retain control of the seat.

That could be a problem for Democrats, one Illinois political observer said.

“Tyson is favored to win, even though the Democrats will have to do considerable work to make sure the voters in the district know the true Democratic candidate,” said Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a former Chicago alderman.

Simpson said Smith automatically will get 10 percent to 20 percent of the vote from people who don’t know any of the candidates but want to vote Democrat, as well as from those people aware that Smith is — or was — a legislator for a little more than a year.

“My assumption is Smith isn’t going to campaign because he’ll be busy fighting his corruption charge. He hasn’t been much of a state legislator, so I don’t expect him to be much of a campaigner,” he said.

Tyson is a well-connected Chicago attorney with ties to both former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley and former Cook County board president Todd Stroger. Campaign filings this week show no donations yet to Tyson’s campaign. He used just more than $2,600 of his own money for mailing services, office supplies and travel.

But White is hosting a fundraiser for Tyson on Tuesday at 312 Chicago, a restaurant in the Chicago Loop. An individual ticket is $150. And the list of endorsements on Tyson’s site already includes numerous politicians, such as White, various Chicago aldermen, Cook County officials and two state representatives, Daniel Burke and Jack Franks, both Chicago-area Democrats.

Smith’s campaign filings this week show he had about $42,000 in his campaign fund at the end of June.

“Smith really has no chance of getting re-elected,” said Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois-Springfield. “He has no support from the Ward organizations in the district and will not be able to raise any money from interest groups, who will not want to have their names on campaign disclosure documents as having given him money.”

It’s not too late for Tyson to make up the fundraising difference, Simpson said, noting that most political campaigns don’t start until around Labor Day, when voters become more focused.

Calling Smith “an embarrassment to the Democratic Party,” Simpson said the real issue is whether Democrats will help Tyson raise money.

“Will Tyson be able to use his contacts with corporations he developed from the time he was in the county board office as chief of staff? Will any political figures, like Rahm Emanuel, endorse him?” he said. “All of that is still to be seen.”

Smith’s Republican challenger is Kimberly Small, a moderate and a businesswoman. No records could be found about her campaign at the Illinois Board of Elections.

Joseph W. Sneed Jr. is running against Smith as an independent. His last campaign filing was in March for the quarter ending Dec. 30. At that time his fund had $128.

Redfield said the House no doubt will vote to expel Smith.

“The Ward organization and Jesse White’s organization will provide all the ground troops and money that the ‘independent’ candidate will need to win,” he said.

Smith, who has been in Legislature just more than a year, is accused by federal prosecutors of accepting a $7,000 bribe in connection with his job as a lawmaker. A bipartisan committee of his House colleagues on Thursday voted to recommend he be kicked out of the House. Only one, Rep. Al Riley, D-Olympia Fields, voted against the recommendation.

The matter now goes to the House for a vote and must have a two-thirds majority to pass. Lawmakers could be called back for a special session to vote, but it is unclear when that might occur.

“I would think the general mood and interest of the House of Representatives would be to dispose of whatever recommendation the committee makes as soon as possible,” Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, said Wednesday.

If lawmakers vote to remove Smith from the House, they would be kicking him out of the 97^th General Assembly, which adjourns later this year. The 98^th General Assembly convenes in January. That means Smith, if re-elected in November, could reclaim his seat in the House then. Nothing prevents a legislator who has been expelled from seeking re-election, and lawmakers cannot expel a colleague more than once for the same offense.

Simpson said he expects the House will vote to expel Smith.

“It’s in many ways a pretty standard corruption case, particularly because the prosecutors do have him on tape,” he said. “And, obviously, all the political figures believe it to be true. If there was a doubt about him being guilty, they wouldn’t be backing a candidate to run against him. They would give him the benefit of the doubt.”

July 16, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

WALTONVILLE – Farm families are “our families, our neighbors” and are owed “an eternal debt of gratitude,” Gov. Pat Quinn said Monday in a brown, drought-stricken field in rural Jefferson County.

Meanwhile, workers and families affected by upcoming state facility closures lined the entrance to a farm where reporters and others gathered before driving several miles to a remote field for a news conference.

Quinn did not stop to speak with the protesters, which included both prison and developmental center employees, as well as families who have relatives who use the facilities slated for closure, according to Ed Caumiant, regional director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.

A police officer turned away the protesters when they showed up at the entrance to a dirt lane that led to the site of the news conference.

“I think it’s, frankly, kind of cowardly to play hide and go seek with your event just to avoid people who have something to say,” Caumiant said.

Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said rumors the location for the news conference was changed to dodge the protesters were incorrect.

“The farm today was selected because the owner volunteered it to allow us to inspect the damage and make the relief announcement,” she said.

Quinn was in southern Illinois to announce a series of assistance programs that will be made available to farmers who have corn crops damaged by the extreme heat and lack of rain.

Unions and lawmakers representing workers affected by the closures have asked Quinn to reconsider. The General Assembly included enough money in its budget to fully fund their operation and save jobs, they argue.

Quinn, a Democrat, said the closures will go forward, noting that some of the facilities are only half full.

“We are not building prisons or any center for the sole purpose of employment. We have to understand the common good comes first,” Quinn said.

“In our state, the Legislature funded those particular institutions, but they underfunded our Department of Children and Family Services, and we cannot have that. We cannot have abused children in dire straits.

“I have to make decisions, many times very difficult, but I make those decisions on behalf of the common good, and I stick to them.”

Monday was Quinn’s first appearance outside of the Chicago area in about a month. That also is roughly the last time it rained in Waltonville field where the news conference took place. The area received sixth-tenths of an inch on June 11, Quinn noted Monday.

June 26, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

CHICAGO — It’s been more than a month since Chicago hosted the international NATO Summit and its accompanying protesters, but details continue to trickle out about the cost of hosting the two-day event.

Meanwhile, businesses downtown and near McCormick Place — the site of the event — have mixed feelings about how the city handled it.

The 2012 North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Chicago, which brought together high-level heads of state to discuss government alliances, technically occurred May 20-21. But some costs, such as security, were incurred in the days leading up to the event. Washington, D.C., is the only other American city to host the summit.

The Ohio House Motel on North La Salle Street, just north of where much of the NATO activity happened, saw a drop in its leisure market — Friday and Saturday guests — that weekend, according to general manager Larry James.

“Usually on the weekends we sell out. All 50 of my rooms would have been sold on a normal weekend,” he said, noting that he lost probably $500 to $1,000 a night during the weekend of the summit.

Business is back to normal, though, James said, adding that he would support Chicago hosting the summit again.

“After seeing how (the World Trade Organization meeting) was handled in Seattle and the ’68 Democratic Convention (in Chicago), I thought it was handled wonderfully,” he said. “A lot of people who came to Chicago that weekend didn’t have the chance to see the whole city. I think some will try to come back again.”

Chicago officials estimate the cost of hosting the event at $55 million, although they say that will be covered by a combination of federal money and private donations. A nonprofit “host committee” — the Chicago NATO Host Committee — was established to handle much of the planning and organization.

The host committee reportedly is compiling the costs, though it’s unclear when the committee’s analysis may be released.

Some of those costs that have been reported:

• About 3,100 city of Chicago police officers were assigned to NATO duty and incurred overtime. The dollar amount due to the officers has not been disclosed, and the Fraternal Order of Police, the union that represents the officers, has been negotiating with city officials. The city has said it expects a federal grant will cover security costs associated with the summit.
• The Illinois Emergency Management Agency sent some representatives to Chicago to be available for an emergency. The workers staged at the College of Du Page in Glen Ellyn for four days, and the cost was minimal — about $13,600 — according to agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson. ”This is pretty much within our natural role — preparing for potential emergencies,” Thompson said. “This was a good thing because nothing happened. But if it had, we would have had personnel that would not have been far away that would have been our quick responders.”
• The host committee paid $5.8 million for insurance coverage for 46 days leading up to, and after, the summit. According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, the insurance through Lloyd’s of London included a $1.3 million premium for up to $100 million in terrorism coverage, as well as coverage for more minor occurrences, such as automobile damage, medical coverage and more.
• Metra, the city’s commuter rail system, reported a cost of about $800,000, which included added security expenses, such as bomb-sniffing dogs, as well as the cost of lost revenue from commuters who found others means of transportation during the summit.
• The Evanston Police Department had about $117,000 in overtime and other expenses, for which officials there reportedly will seek reimbursement. It is unclear how many other suburban police departments had expenses associated with the summit.
• Chicago Parking Meters LLC, which maintains parking meters in the city, reported $65,000 in lost revenue because of street closures and parking restrictions.
• It is unclear if Chicago’s hotel occupancy was affected during the summit. State-compiled figures on sales taxes and hotel taxes won’t be available until later this summer.

Matt Scannell, who works at Wing Stop on Harrison Street, said business at the restaurant didn’t change much during the NATO summit, noting that the hot weather also could have been a factor in any loss of customers. The staff was prepared for a potential influx of business.

“Sunday was the day (the protesters) did the marching, and they marched right by our store. I was told we had a lot of people buying bottles of water and drinks,” Scannell said. “It didn’t really hurt or help the business out. Sunday was a little slower since they had streets blocked off right in front of our store.”

Scannell said he thought the city adequately was prepared for the NATO protesters and said he would support hosting another summit. He said he was glad it was on a weekend.

“Everything was kept to a minimum. We didn’t have any problems, and we were all worried about the marching, with everyone dispersing and going off in groups in different directions,” he said. “We pretty much spent the day watching people come in and out.”

Eric Swanson, owner of Swanson Bows — a shop that specializes in repairing bows for musical instruments in the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue — said his business was closed for four days because the whole building was closed – closed and boarded-up, actually – for NATO. He said his wife, who is involved with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, also was affected because the group could not play in Symphony Hall. Youth symphonies who meet in the building on weekends also were affected.

“If you think about it, the whole cultural, artistic side of the city was shut down,” Swanson said. “You would think that is something that NATO members and others participating (in the summit) might have wanted to see.”

Swanson said he found it odd that officials decided to shut down parts of the city for the summit, noting that thousands of people flooded downtown Chicago and Grant Park when Barack Obama was elected president and nothing was closed down then.

“Chicago is totally capable of handling a summit like this. It is interesting that it came to Chicago, but there is no need to shut everything down like that. It is almost un-American. It doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.

“(Chicago Mayor) Rahm Emanuel played it up as a big gain for Chicago businesses, like hotels and restaurants, but this city is really made up of small businessmen, and it really wasn’t a good idea for people like me.”

(Reporter Stephanie Fryer contributed to this report.)

June 19, 2012

By Jayette Bolinski

SPRINGFIELD — History probably would have overlooked Illinois Rep. Frank Comerford’s speech to law students in Chicago, except for one thing — he named names.

“To say that the Illinois Legislature is a great public auction, where special privileges are sold to the highest corporation bidders, is to put the statement mildly,” Comerford, a Cook County Democrat, told a gathering of Illinois College of Law students and faculty on Jan. 27, 1905.

A 30-year-old lawyer and just months into his first term as a legislator, Comerford then detailed the names of lawmakers rumored to be on the take, how much cash changed hands and where the conversations took place.

Days later, facing fellow lawmakers poised to kick him out of the House, Comerford said he believed the students had a right to know how laws were made here, and that bribery was rampant.

“I was lecturing to the student body of a college — not making charges upon the floor of this House or in the newspapers. I reserve the right to my opinion; I believe now, as I did then, that the stories told me are true,” he said.

Word of Comerford’s speech hit newspapers Jan. 31, and that is how the representative from the 2nd District came to be the first and only lawmaker expelled from the state’s House for “besmirching its good name and reputation” — and it took only nine days for them to do so. Notably, nothing happened to the legislators who allegedly accepted the bribes. Lawmakers said Comerford failed to back up his claims.

For all the corruption that has been exposed in the Illinois Capitol since the state was established in 1818 — six governors indicted or sent to prison, the Cement Bribery Trial of the early 1970s, the famous Paul Powell shoe boxes full of cash and the state auditor who embezzled millions — there is little precedent for how the House should investigate allegations against one of its own.

One hundred and seven years after the Comerford case, state lawmakers grappling with what to do about indicted Democratic state Rep. Derrick Smith have found themselves using the framework of Comerford’s 1905 disciplinary proceedings as a guide for investigating Smith in 2012.

But the framework could use some work, experts say.

State Rep. Elaine Nekritz, who sat on the House Special Investigating Committee to look into the allegations against Smith this spring, said lawmakers relied on rules and guidelines that were “a little convoluted, at best,” she said.

“I think we could have had for this Special Investigating Committee some clearer guidelines on how the process should unfold,” she said. “The framework could use some work. The rules in some ways were contradictory. There just needs to be clearer direction on time frames and notices — those very simple kinds of things.”

Nekritz, a Democrat from Northbrook, said the committee felt it was important to work within the established framework once it began the Smith investigation, even if some of it was murky.

“It would have felt awkward to me to change the rules in the middle of this process. That would have not felt fair to Rep. Smith to me,” she said. “The rules were the rules under which the process was started.”

Smith, of Chicago, is accused of accepting a $7,000 bribe in exchange for trying to steer a $50,000 state contract to a fictitious daycare. Federal investigators caught the transaction on tape.

The House rules call for a particular procedure leading up to any discipline of a lawmaker, whether it’s expulsion, censure, a reprimand or nothing at all. It starts with at least three lawmakers filing a petition requesting an investigation. A Special Investigative Committee is convened to look into the allegations, and then the probe moves into the hands of a bipartisan Select Committee on Discipline, which determines if the lawmaker should be disciplined. If the committee recommends discipline, two-thirds of the full House must agree.

State Rep. Dennis Reboletti, R-Elmhurst, also sat on the committee to investigate Smith. He said the group looked to various sources for guidance on how to proceed, including the Comerford case and the conviction and impeachment hearings of Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

“We looked at as much precedent as possible and, fortunately, this doesn’t happen very often,” said Reboletti, a former prosecutor. “I don’t think it was as simple as looking at one thing in particular, but also trying to modernize things as thought was appropriate for the Smith situation.”

Reboletti said he anticipates the House rules will be changed in the future to identify the level of misconduct that can trigger an investigation. Theoretically, the way the rules are written, a speeding ticket, a cross word or political ax-grinding could trigger an investigation if at least three representatives request an investigation.

“Just because a representative says something on the House floor or in his or her district, like Comerford did, you don’t want to just base an investigation off of that,” he said. “There has to be a more substantive reason for bringing that course of action.”

Kent Redfield, a political science professor at University of Illinois Springfield and an expert on Illinois government, said the General Assembly historically has dealt with situations like Smith’s on case-by-case basis, which is reflective of the political culture in Illinois.

“We generally tend to treat things as kind of ad hoc — deal with this particular situation, make it go away, as opposed to saying are there systemic issues here that we ought to deal with,” he said.

“My guess is that we are going to deal with this particular situation — that at some point Rep. Smith will be expelled before the end of his term — and then we’ll wait for the next incident to occur and then deal with that.”

Other states and the federal government, though, have set up standing ethics committees for their chambers, written codes of conduct for lawmakers, and established a way for the public to file ethics complaints and see those complaints dealt with publicly.

“The political institutions are in trouble at a time when we’re asking the general public to accept some pretty tough decisions. And all of this would work better, I think, if people had more confidence in government,” Redfield said. “I think that there are things the legislature could do to demonstrate that and try to build that confidence.”

Nekritz declined to comment on whether Illinois should have lawmaker codes of conduct and ethics committees for each chamber, but did say she would like to see the House revisit its rules for discipline eventually.

“I think that we will be looking at this portion of the rules as the new General Assembly is seated next January and try to clean this up,” she said.

Reboletti said things always are subject to review, but noted that, “like anything else, you can legislate and write codes all you want, but there are people who will choose not to follow them. I don’t want to say there already are enough (corruption-fighting tools) on the books, but there is a process to review the procedures and see if something new can be done to try to quell that.”

People always can contact state and federal prosecutors about public corruption, but legislative committees can be hamstrung when it comes to getting information from prosecutors, limiting their effectiveness, said Mike Lawrence, a former statehouse reporter, longtime political observer and a former staff member under Republican Gov. Jim Edgar.

“I don’t know of any meaningful substitute for prosecution of wrongdoing. We have laws against doing what Rep. Smith is accused of doing. We have laws prohibiting the kind of action that Gov. (Rod) Blagojevich was sent to prison for,” Lawrence said.

“Frankly, it’s not an easy answer, but the fact of the matter is the culture of corruption in Illinois will change when citizens get as outraged about dishonesty by public officials as they are about not getting their garbage picked up on time or getting the snow shoveled from their streets in a timely fashion.”

Smith’s case continues to make its way through the federal court system. It is unclear if the House will decide to discipline him prior to the November election. His name remains on the November ballot for his district.

In Comerford’s case, he had the last laugh. Even though he was kicked out of the Illinois House in February 1905, he ran as an independent in a special election to fill his seat, and he won re-election on April 4.

He later went on to become a judge in the Superior Court of Cook County and died in 1929. An Associated Press article about his death referred to him as “the boy orator of the Legislature” for his 1905 allegations.