Mayor Daley forgot to push for ethics reform for Illinois Taxpayers

Make sure you read our prior post on Mayor Daley when he also forgot to list his free trips on his ethics statements. Please read Fran Spielman's take on Daley's tricks. Read the extend entry. Mayor Daley must be under too much stress lately. But not as much stress as lawyer from the water department, an ARDC complaint filed was today. Patrick McDonoughDaley pushes Springfield agenda lacking ethics reform
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May 14, 2009
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Flanked by a cast of thousands, Mayor Daley turned up the heat today on the Illinois General Assembly to approve his Springfield agenda with one conspicuous omission: ethics reform.
With one governor in prison and another impeached and indicted, reforming a state government mired in corruption and pay-to-pay politics is high on just about everybody's agenda.
Not Daley's. Not even after the Hired Truck, city hiring and minority contracting scandals resulted in dozens of convictions, including the March guilty verdict against former Streets and Sanitation commissioner and Hispanic Democratic Organization chieftain Al Sanchez for rigging city hiring and promotions.
Why not champion the issue?
"We've done everything here. We're leading the way with our inspector general, office of compliance — all the things we've done. We're more transparent than any other government. Look at it. We're doing a tremendous job here. We lead by example," he said.
With two weeks to go in the spring session, Daley instead renewed his push for the wish list he has championed for months.
It includes an infusion of capital funding to the CTA to ease pressure to raise fares and at least $200 million and pension relief for Chicago Public Schools to avoid classroom cuts and another local property tax increase.
The mayor also pushed for property tax and foreclosure relief as well as what he calls "common sense gun laws."
And he again urged Gov. Quinn to scrap his plan to withhold the 10 percent stake municipalities would expect to see in additional revenues from Quinn's proposal for a 50 percent increase in the state income tax.
"Mayors have said, 'We've politically worked to get our share of the income tax — whether under [former governors] Ogilvie or under Edgar. We worked that. We supported that. They can't take that away," Daley said.
Schools chief Ron Huberman called Quinn's proposed $51.5 million increase in funding for Chicago Public Schools the smallest increase since 2002 and "one of the lowest we've seen."
It comes at a time when CPS is grappling with a $475 million deficit, limping along for the fifth straight year with no state money to fix crumbling schools and has no more rabbits to pull out of the hat.
"The district has already drawn down its reserves by $100 million to avoid increasing property taxes last year. Another draw-down is not an option. If we were to draw down our reserves any further, it would impact our bond rating," he said.
Quinn and legislative leaders are grappling with a monstrous, $12 billion deficit. Daley's agenda would pour on even more red ink.
Asked how he expects them to fund it, the mayor suggested leasing state assets. That's even though his $2.5 billion Midway Airport lease deal recently fell through for lack of financing, and the market for leasing public assets has dried up.
"We did it years ago. Why didn't anybody else think of this? At least they can start thinking about this thing," the mayor said.
"Markets are gonna come back. I'm confident this country will come back. We came back during the Depression. But you have to start thinking outside the box, because government is not gonna be run the same way [as it has] in the last 50 years after this deep, deep recession. It's gonna change. And unfortunately, the private sector is gonna change."

5 Replies to “Mayor Daley forgot to push for ethics reform for Illinois Taxpayers”

  1. Illinois reform: Mayor Richard Daley says he’s ‘leading by example’
    As Springfield debates new ethics laws, Mayor Richard Daley refuses to weigh in, contending, ‘We’re more transparent than any other government’
    By Dan Mihalopoulos and Dan P. Blake | Tribune reporters
    May 15, 2009
    Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday spelled out what he wants from Springfield as lawmakers head into the homestretch: more money for schools, better gun-control laws and protection for property-tax payers.

    But the mayor notably did not stake out a position on the push to improve ethics laws in a state awash in corruption scandals, one of the key issues in the spring session scheduled to end May 31.

    Asked why not, Daley said he is “leading by example” in Chicago.

    “We’ve done everything here. We’re leading the way with our inspector general, office of compliance, all the things we’ve done,” Daley said. “We’re more transparent than any other government. Look at it.”

    The Rod Blagojevich case: Debate over use of federal wiretaps in trial goes on behind closed doors On the transparency front, the Tribune documented last week how the Daley administration routinely cites exemptions in the state’s public records law to avoid releasing information and frequently drags out for weeks or even months efforts to get records.

    On the ethics front, federal prosecutors have convicted several top Daley aides for running an illegal hiring scheme, and a federal monitor has complained that City Hall still is not complying with court requirements to keep politics out of hiring.

    Cook County State’s Atty. Anita Alvarez and Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman — both members of Gov. Pat Quinn’s reform commission — are trying to persuade state lawmakers to adopt recommendations for tougher laws on government purchasing, transparency and more powers for local prosecutors. The pressure comes as the final two weeks of the legislative session wind down.

    When asked if he has taken a position on the commission’s recommendations, Daley responded, “No, not as yet. I haven’t completed reading it yet.”

    The commission’s final report came out April 28. dmihalopoulos@tribune.com

  2. I have run into a great many people both rich and poor who have complained to me that they hate all the taxes Daley has imposed on this city and they are always getting ticketed for trivial things. I make it a habit not to bring up my political feelings to anyone because it would fill my day with anger and resentment if I had to share my feelings with everyone all the time. There feels like a real movement brewing to get rid of Daley. I think he hopes to get the Olympics and that will make up for the voters hating him. Daley is now like a run away train making it very costly to live in this city and black leaders, clergymen and politicians alike are eerily silent. They have all been bought off. Get out the word to dump all incumbent aldermen who voted for the meter ripoff fiasco. There is real disgust now, by everyone.

  3. You can only push the laws of nature so much. What goes around comes around and for every action there is a reaction. Well the reaction has begun and Daleys time is now limited. His crooked and arrogant ways of treading on the poor and stealing from them will bring pressure on his blood to raise his pressure and help give him a stroke or a heart attack. The people hate him now. It’s not just a few. The feds are on his tail and about to indict his son. Even if Fitzgerald is too scared to indict Daley, Daley won’t make it through to re-election because his son will be indicted by then and the voters will look at that as the same as an indictment against him. If he gets re-elected after all this crap he has pulled, can you imagine what he plans on doing next with the amount of arrogance he will gain by getting re-elected. It’s impossible to think about. The aldermen were supposed to vote for meters by the lake front. But they refused after the meter fiasco that is still brewing and will cost about 25% of them their re-election so Daley put the blame on the park district for doing the task of deciding to install meters. It’s all now coming to a head. THE END OF THIS ARROGANT REIN IS NEARLY OVER. KARMA IS WELL IN PLACE ON A GREAT MANY FRONTS. What a price we paid though.

  4. I have my own service business in the Lincoln Park area and I used to pay for the parking meters when I parked because I was to embarrassed too ask my customers for the fifty cents or dollar that I would put in the meters. Now I ask all customers to pay for my meter parking and I tell them to vote out their alderman. They seem as irate as me. I may be only 1, but I service 750 of my customers a year in their home and I am telling them all to also get rid of Daley for this parking meter fraud he pulled on us. I am sure that I am making my impact and pissed off feelings over this crooked mayor and these gutless aldermen known. I know that I am affecting a lot of peoples votes. Everyone needs to do the same thing. VOTE OUT DALEY AND VOTE OUT YOUR ALDERMEN!

  5. “Everyone needs to do the same thing. VOTE OUT DALEY AND VOTE OUT YOUR ALDERMEN!”

    And here’s how to get it done:

    1. Party Primaries are held to determine which candidates for elected office will be chosen to run in the ONLY election that really matters, the General Election.

    2. Unless you care about which specific Republican, or other party, candidate will face off against the Democratic candidate, (in crook county and chicago, that is almost always an Incumbent), there is NO reason for you to cast your party primary votes in the Republican Primary and EVERY reason for you to utilize your votes in the Democratic Primary, using your votes to DENY the nomination, to be the Democratic Party’s candidates in the General Election, to the Democratic INCUMBENTS.

    BECAUSE:

    3. The Incumbent Democrat is MOST vulnerable to being denied reelection by NOT winning their party’s nomination in said party’s PRIMARY elections.

    THAT’S how you get rid of these Democratic Incumbents, by knocking them off the General Election ballot, which is what happens when your votes succeed in denying them their party’s Primary victory.

    (Of course, the beauty of this voting strategy is that it works even more effectively in a no primary, ie., ‘open’ election, because, even with the provision of a mandatory run off, should no single candidate receive 50% + 1 of the votes, what the incumbent then faces is a one on one run off, which makes it really easy to oust that incumbent)

    Q: Now, how can the voters be assured that the votes they cast in the Democratic Party’s Primary will ensure that the Incumbent Democrats will NOT win their primary contests?

    A: By casting your votes using the following voting strategy:

    1. Compile a list of all Democratic Incumbents who you want to NOT make it onto the General Election ballot. Organize your list of Democratic Incumbents by the office(s) which they currently hold.

    2. Bring this list with you when you go to vote.

    3. Locate the Incumbent Democrat’s name on the voting ballot, via the public office which they currently hold.

    4. If the Incumbent Democrat’s name is listed FIRST, then cast your vote for whichever candidate’s name is listed LAST

    OR

    If the Incumbent Democrat’s name is NOT listed first, cast your vote for whichever candidate’s name IS listed FIRST.

    Casting your votes in this manner will, if enough citizens apply this strategy, result in every voter NOT wanting the Incumbent Democrats to win their primary, casting their votes for the same SINGLE challenger candidate in each contest for public office.

    In order to ensure that Incumbent Democrats fail to win their party’s nominations in the General Election, the voters must, for this purpose, disregard WHO they are specifically voting for, and focus on WHO they are specifically voting AGAINST, voting AGAINST the Incumbent by voting FOR the SAME, single challenger candidate.

    This strategy, if applied by a sufficient number of voters, is the most certain to result in the Incumbent Democrats not being reelected, since, if the Incumbent Democrats fail to win their party’s nomination to the General Election, said Incumbent Democrats, being no longer their party’s primary victors, are left with only one option, ie., to attempt to run in the General Election as ‘Independents’.

    The application of this voting strategy can be the first step in restoring authentic Democracy to this city, county and state.

    If Authentic Democracy is what you, the voter, want, the use of this voting strategy will effectively help you to begin the process of it’s restoration.

    No other voting strategy is as mathematically effective, and as potentially devastating to the incumbent machine power structures, both on a city, county and state level.

    REGISTER TO VOTE

    VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION

    HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT

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