Illinois government corruption
From Sunshine Review
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A collection of news stories from around the nation on government corruption, FOIA legislation & litigation, and the good news for transparency advancement.
Dekalb Daily Chronicle editor: "Transparency already foggy"
Chicago Alderman helps expose bribery
Carothers helped the FBI as apart of an agreement between the two parties. In exchange for Carothers help in exposing local corruption, the FBI has agreed to reduce past corruption charges against him. In 2006, Carothers was charged for accepting a $40,000 bribe from a local developer who was pursuing city approval for a residential development.[1]
In addition, Carothers later admitted in 2007 to having had received around $45,000 from Aiyash in exchange for his support of a proposal that granted Aiyash permission to develop in a certain area.[2]
Sunlight in Illinois school districts
SB 2270 is sponsored by Daniel Cronin, Kirk Dillard, Chris Lauzen, and John Millner in the Senate. It is sponsored by Sandra M. Pihos, Patricia R. Bellock, Sandy Cole, Renée Kosel, Jack D. Franks, Keith Farnham and Linda Chapa LaVia in the House. The bill will require every school district to post on its website a “compensation report” for all administrative officials in the district, including salaries, benefits, pension contributions and bonuses.[3]
Illinois local officials might sue after being insulted
The superintendent and board president of Warren Township High School might look into legal action against a man who they say made "unflattering comments" about them at a recent public meeting.
Superintendent Phil Sobocinski and board President John Anderson said will look into whether the Tuesday meeting's confrontation included defamation when a retired instructor gave a 3-minute spiel. Retired Warren instructor Rick Bryan included words such as "cheating," "deception" and "illegal" in his speech.
Bryan was bringing up a controversy involving the school requiring juniors to meet tougher academic standards before taking an annual achievement test.
Sobocinski plans to consult an attorney about whether to seek legal action against the public meeting commenter. A First Amendment lawyer, Donald Craven, doubts he would get far in the process. Craven said under a state law, the public has more leeway when speaking at government meetings.[4]
Illinois governor signs bill to improve FOIA laws
Attorney General Lisa Madigan has named Cara Smith the states new public access counselor. Smith will be responsible for handling the expanded role of the Attorney general's office and the influx of records complaints that Madigan is expecting as the new Illinois law goes into effect on January 1, 2010.
Gov. Quinn signs improved sunshine law
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois: Gov. Pat Quinn has signed HB 1370. HB 1370 improves the Illinois Freedom of Information Act by reducing from 7 to 5 the number of days within which an agency must respond to a FOIA request. HB 1370 also gives new powers to the Office of the Attorney General of Illinois to resolve disputes over which records are open and which are exempt.[5]
The reforms came about in the wake of the corruption-ridden administration of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.[6]
Illinois Governor Quinn sheds light on public employee salaries
On August 11, 2009, Governor Quinn signed in to law a piece of transparency legislation that Americans for Prosperity and State Representative Michael Tryon (R – Crystal Lake) spearheaded. The bill, House Bill 35, will create the “Illinois Accountability Portal” as a law, requiring the Department of Central Management Services to create a transparent website with information regarding state expenditures, tax credits, state employee salaries and state contracts.
“I am proud to have worked with Americans for Prosperity on this initiative. After a two-year battle taxpayers will now have an opportunity to see how their hard earned tax dollars are being spent. I will continue to advocate for the type of common sense reforms that protect taxpayers and hold our government to the highest of standards,” said Rep. Tryon.
The 2009 version of the Illinois Accountability Portal (House Bill 35) received bi-partisan support and support from several grassroots organizations, trade associations, press associations, and taxpayer protection groups. There was strong opposition from labor unions because they did not believe salaries of state employees should be made public.
“We are pleased that Governor Quinn has signed HB 35 into law. Transparency is the first step towards holding our elected officials accountable for how they spend our tax dollars. Now, we must ensure that implementation takes place within the 12 month time span dictated by the act.” said Americans for Prosperity’s state director Joe Calomino.
Transparency-improving bill on Illinois governor's desk
This Senate Bill that has been passed on to the Governor as of June 26, 2009, amends the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act. It requires that an applicant (for gubernatorial appointment to boards, commissions, authorities, and task forces) must provide specified documents to the Governor's Office of Boards and Commissions, the Office must hold a public hearing before appointing or nominating an applicant, the Office must provide to the Senate specific information on all applicants nominated for Senate confirmation, and the Office must post specified information on its website about appointment requirements, applicants, and appointees.
The bill requires all applicants and appointees to file statements of economic interests. As of now, only nominees for and appointees to positions requiring Senate confirmation must file statements. These changes would be effective immediately.[7]
Chicago's TIF sunshine falls short
When the Department of Community Development (DCD) spokesperson Susan Massel said, "We believe we've done a good job of meeting the requirements of the ordinance."
The DCD website provides a series of PDF documents in the TIF section that must be downloaded in order to be searched.
The "TIF District Overviews" provides a set of links to seven regions: North, Northwest, West, Southwest, South, Far South, and Central. The "TIF Annual Reports" link provides only six groupings of TIF districts: Central Area, North Side, Northwest Side, South Side, Southwest Side, West Side. Five new TIF districts, all designated in 2009, are not provided on the site, making it difficult to have an accurate count of TIF districts.
Comparing the site to the original legislation, the site does not fulfill the requirements because only the most recent annual reports for TIFs designated after July 30, 2004 are published when the ordinance called for all to be published. Also, many of the links are broken in addition to the five missing TIFs passed in 2009.
Massel called the website "a work in progress," though the deadline has passed.[4]
Local officials urge FOIA bill amendments
The Illinois State’s Attorneys Association and the Illinois Municipal League are also pushing for changes. They are all worried about excessive access to public records that would produce a need to hire more people to attend to the records retrieval and would result in having to fire someone else in the state's payroll.
The organizations "would scuttle provisions" for a counselor assigned to records access disputes and would have subpoena power. The counselor would issue decisions infallible except by a judge. Those opposing the amendment bill think that it's going to cause more trouble for the state.
Prosecutors and the municipal league officials say the bill on the governor’s desk would give too much power to one person in addition to making too much work for the receivers of FOIA requests. They oppose criminalizing FOIA violations.
"With this new law, providing paperwork about governments' activities becomes more important than the activities themselves," Frang writes. "It is regrettable that there may be cases where municipalities will be forced to lay off firefighters and police officers so that they can afford more FOIA lawyers and other responders to help comply with this 'primary duty.'"
The state's attorney association is concerned that undercover operatives and informants will be in danger of exposure.
Don Craven is the acting director of the Illinois Press Association and a Springfield lawyer who concentrates on public-records law and he says this claim is nonsense because the bill already has clauses protecting these situations.[4]
Possible FOIA amendments
The Illinois Municipal League wrote a letter in opposition of the amendment bill, saying the state will have to fire police officers and fire fighters in order to higher clerks to do the Freedom of Information Act processing and lawyers to fight the nuisance requests.
The state's attorneys association also wrote a letter to Quinn saying the bill would threaten the state having confidential informants and undercover officers and violate the privacy of crime victims, but the letter did not support the claims.
The Municipal League's letter tells Quinn that citizens will exploit the first-50-pages-are-free rule by sending in requests for 50 pages or less to receive the information they seek. It stated that "FOIA is often used as a political tool not to gather information but to harass and harangue public officials."
"There are questions as to whether the FOIA officer is a de jure or de facto officer, which may trigger issues with appointment procedures and with restrictions on holding multiple offices," the letter says. "There are also potential collective bargaining issues at play."[4]
School board shuts out one of its own in Community High School District 99
Deborah Boyle sued the school district and in April won a seat on the school board. Since joining the board, she has not been allowed to vote on a benefit package for district employees, she has not been assigned to a committee, and she has been banned from some of the board's closed, executive sessions.
The Community High School District 99 board members say they are trying to enforce the nepotism policy because Boyle's brother is a history teacher and head football coach at Downers Grove North High School. The members say they are trying to avoid conflicts of interest for Boyle, spending more than $7,000 on an attorney drafting guidelines.
Some citizens say the board members are behaving young-minded.
"This isn't high school," said Elaine Johnson. "School board members don't get to choose whether or not to accept a duly elected member as part of their group."
Johnson's Downers Grove blog has filled with posts and residents' comments about the issue for weeks.
Several board members tend to be parents so there are questions about the differences in conflicts of interests.
At a board meeting this week, Boyle asked whether District 99 board members who have children in the band should also stay out of voting sessions on band uniforms and whether members with a child in the special education program should not vote on issues related to that program.
She also pointed out that her fellow members accepted campaign donations from teachers unions, but then voted on teachers' contracts. Boyle said it is obvious the measures are directed at her.
"You don't need to like me, but we have to respect each other," said Boyle.
Members responded, saying the district has had an anti-nepotism policy since 1976.
"She has a right to run, but there are issues she can't vote on," said school board president Julia Beckman. "You can't have a brother, sister or husband employed by the district and then vote on how much they make."
Cicero's boards are full of the president's relatives
Cicero Town President Larry Dominick offered his brother a spot in the town's government.
"We were just talking and he said, 'How would you like to sit on a town board, get full health insurance and make a thousand bucks a month?'" Richard Dominick said. "I told him, 'Do you think I'm nuts? Yeah, I'll take that.'"
Richard Dominick was a window salesman with no experience in law enforcement who served on the Cicero Board of Fire & Police Commissioners after the conversation with his brother.
The Chicago Tribune discovered that 121 appointed board and commission members in Cicero are paid salaries, totaling $1 million of taxpayer money each year. These employees are also offered health and dental insurance that includes their families.
The town has a population of about 85,000 with a history of nepotism and was once the criminal headquarters of Al Capone. Ernest Hemingway was also born in this town.
Richard Dominick has since transferred to the town's building board, but was fired in the spring for "asking too many questions."
"These boards are a joke," Richard Dominick said. "It's all about political payback. Have you ever heard of a town that gives board members that much money and health insurance? Some of these board members don't even live in town."
Other Dominick relatives served on Cicero town boards in 2009 including Lillian Dominick (Larry Dominick's mother, who serves on the Animal Welfare Board), and Brian (Larry Dominick's son) and Wayne Wente (Dominick's nephew) who both serve on the Housing and Real Estate Board. Additinoally, Larry Dominick's first wife, Carol Bernhard, serves on the Cultural Affairs/Historic Sites Commission and Ryan Chlada, son-in-law of Larry Dominick's second wife, is on the Youth Commission and works as director of special events. Cindy Dembowski, who is Larry Dominick's sister, served on the Animal Welfare Board in 2008 and now is deputy liquor commissioner.
Each member of the 121 person board is paid $7,500 to $12,000 a year and is eligible for insurance benefits, Montenegro said.
Salaries of the board members would amount to $907,500 to more than $1.4 million a year if each member was paid as Richard Dominick was paid, yet Cicero officials would not disclose exact salaries that were requested under the Freedom of Information Act.[4]
Fairview Heights receives FOIA over attorneys' fees
The FOIA request came after Fairview Heights Mayor Gail Mitchell said the suits did not cost the city anything.
Although Illinois state law requires the city supply grounds for refusal, when the city denied a June 9 FOIA request on June 12, they did not cite the reasons for the exemption. City officials have said that they have tried contacting City Attorney Al Paulson, with no calls back, to determine the grounds for exemption.
The request was in order to determine how much the city took away from the litigation that lasted four years and how much its attorneys were paid.
Settlement documents that were released in May show that the defendants paid the city received about $315,000. Both parties were supposed to pay for their own costs for the suits.[4]
U of I publishes FOIA requests to website
The Chicago Tribune sued the University of Illinois for not responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that asked for grades and standardized test scores of several U of I students. There was suspicion that such students were admitted through personal connections to politicians, lobbyists and other well-connected people.
The U of I denied the request without the consent of the students or their parents.[8]
"We respect the privacy of the students, but we don't believe providing this information violates their privacy. It sheds light on the issue," Tribune Editor Gerould Kern said in a Wednesday article by reporter Antonio Olivo.[9]
Cook County sued over Freedom of Information Act
The Better Government Association submitted a FOIA request to Cook County in May 2009, requesting copies of County Board President Todd Stroger's cell phone records, as well as those of his cousin and former CFO Donna Dunnings, former employee Tony Cole and Communications Director Eugene Mullins. The group wanted the records from November 2008 to April 2009.
They submitted the request after several political missteps, such as Stroger hiring and promoting Cole, an ex-convict.
In June, Stroger and Gregg Goslin signed a pledge to honor the Freedom of Information Act.
Cook County Superintendent's office raided
About six boxes of papers and a computer left the office this morning in an effort to further investigate the superintendent whom a state audit confirms misused public funds while in his position. Investigators also raided Flowers' Maywood home on Wednesday morning, leaving with boxes, neighbors report.[4]
'Chicago Tribune' sues U of Illinois for violation of FOIA
The FOIA request from the Chicago newspaper of the university asked for access to records of hundreds of applicants that the newspaper suggests were admitted mostly through the recommendations of politicians, lobbyists and other well-connected people.[10]
The U of I will not release this information without the consent of the students or their parents.
"We respect the privacy of the students, but we don't believe providing this information violates their privacy. It sheds light on the issue," Tribune Editor Gerould Kern said in a Wednesday article by reporter Antonio Olivo.[11]
Stroger and Goslin sign transparency pledge
Two members of the Cook County signed the transparency pledge during the Open Illinois Counties Project. These men were Gregg Goslin[12] and Cook County President, Todd Stroger[13].
Stroger said in a personal letter attached to the pledge:[14][15]
I have reviewed the Sunshine Review Ten-Point Transparency Checklist and I am proud Cook County discloses a wealth of information on our website. A significant initiative was the redesign of the county’s website which now provides access to much of the information suggested for county websites by the Sunshine Review. As the website continues to evolve, additional information contained in the Checklist will be made accessible.
Illinois leading legislators draft weaker alternative to state FOIA law
May 21, 2009: "Illinois' leading lawmakers privately circulated their own proposal for a new public records law Wednesday that would essentially gut months of work by interest groups attempting to strengthen the state's notoriously weak public access to government records.
While supporters of a stronger open records measure scrambled to recover, a House committee went ahead with two other ethics proposals. One would make public some internal probes of state employee misconduct, and the other would fire hundreds of patronage employees hired by two previous disgraced governors.
The newest draft version of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act was drawn by staff of House and Senate leadership and circulated Wednesday to certain lobby groups, with less than two weeks to act before lawmakers go home. Although House Speaker Michael Madigan's staff circulated the redrawn bill, aides to his daughter, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, said she was taken by surprise."
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