Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Better Government Association2020-03-30T18:36:27-05:00https://chicago.suntimes.com/authors/better-government-association/rss2020-03-30T18:36:27-05:002020-03-30T18:36:02-05:00Fact-Check: Booze ban? No, Illinois hasn’t stopped liquor sales because of COVID-19
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>You can still buy booze despite false ads claiming otherwise.</p></figcaption><span class="line"></span><div class="Figure-credit"><p>Sun-Times file photo</p></div></div>
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<p>By <a class="Link" href="https://www.bettergov.org/team/ciara-orourke/" target="_blank" ><b>Ciara O’Rourke</b></a> </p><p>You can call off your emergency trip to the liquor store — states aren’t really stopping the sale of alcohol. But recent Facebook posts would have you think otherwise.</p><p>“No beer or alcohol sales in state of Illinois as of 3pm starting Monday March, 30th,” reads an image posted by <a class="Link" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216470784302842&set=a.1585120028611&type=3&theater" target="_blank" >one account</a>. Then there are links to stories with headlines like this one: “NC Governor to stop all alcohol sales beginning Friday, April 3rd.” Another one claims “Gov. Gavin Newsom suspends alcohol in CA as of March 28.”</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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</div><p>These posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. </p><p>Some of these posts, such as one about Mississippi banning booze that has since been pulled down, appear to be screenshots of a news story. But if you <a class="Link" href="http://portal24hs.com/amp/1036386/nc-governor-to-stop-all-alcohol-sales-beginning-friday-april-3rd-61511?fbclid=IwAR2dcxQma9Hb_BuOKZcSovlbYqxCLsOkInSHwaLnhN56gRNuYLM28kAyOmw" target="_blank" >click</a> on the links in other posts, it brings you to a page that says “you got pranked.”</p><p>The joke, however, is getting lost on many Facebook users as they share both these blog posts and images of seeming media stories with this tee-totaling news. </p><p>Searching for actual news stories about states banning alcohol, we found none. However, Pennsylvania, where the state runs liquor stores, has closed down all of its off-premise locations indefinitely, Forbes <a class="Link" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradjaphe/2020/03/29/how-to-get-whiskey-and-gin-in-pennsylvania-during-covid19-coronavirus-quarantine/#3d03754524b7" target="_blank" >reports</a>. “It remains the only part of the country where residents have such limited access to distilled spirits,” the publication says.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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</div><p>People in Pennsylvania can still buy alcohol, however. One distillery is selling bottles from a drive-thru and shipping to folks’ front doors. Another shop is selling vodka and whiskey for curbside pickup. California, meanwhile, is among the states <a class="Link" href="https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2020-03-20/coronavirus-california-to-go-alcohol-sales-restaurants-abc" target="_blank" >to loosen alcohol rules for restaurants</a>, allowing them to sell beer, wine and cocktails to go as people are preventing from dining in due to shelter-in-place orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus. </p><p>We rate these Facebook posts False.</p><p></p><p></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/3/30/21200513/fact-check-illinois-alcohol-ban-facebook-liquor-boozeBetter Government Association2016-10-29T08:00:47-05:002019-04-15T21:01:35-05:00BGA: His business has boomed since becoming Chicago Heights mayor
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Chicago Heights Mayor David Gonzalez. | Sun-Times files</p></figcaption></div>
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<p>Since he was elected mayor of Chicago Heights in 2011, David Gonzalez has seen his accounting business boom.</p><p>Other suburban governments have flocked to hire Gonzalez, a part-time mayor with a network of friends who were involved with the old Hispanic Democratic Organization that once provided an army of political workers in Chicago for Mayor Richard M. Daley.</p><p>In just the past three years, GW and Associates has snagged 22 new government contracts that have paid it a total of about $2.1 million, records show.</p><p>That includes deals with school systems and other governments whose jurisdictions include Chicago Heights, as well as others in farther-flung communities where former HDO leaders hold sway.</p><p>It’s been a major boost for Gonzalez’s GW and Associates. For most of the more than two decades he’s been in the accounting business, Gonzalez’s practice has involved preparing personal and corporate tax returns, though he also had a small number of contracts to manage the finances of local governments, mostly in the south suburbs.</p><p>He says he’s living the “American dream.”</p><p>“You talk about [a] little CPA firm that is . . . getting into a market that they are not supposed to get into,” says Gonzalez, whose part-time mayor’s salary was doubled this year, to $40,000.</p><p>Among the former HDO political operatives Gonzalez has hired to work for Chicago Heights: Aaron Del Valle, a former Chicago cop and aldermanic candidate who was convicted of perjury in 2011 and sent to federal prison in the Chicago city hiring scandal that tore apart HDO.</p><p>Since last year, Del Valle has been the $72,000-a-year commissioner of streets and public property for Chicago Heights, population 30,000.</p><p>For the 2011 election that put Gonzalez in office, he hired Matt Sanchez, son of onetime HDO organizer Al Sanchez, for his campaign staff. Like Del Valle, Al Sanchez, a former city of Chicago streets and sanitation commissioner, was convicted in the city hiring scandal.</p><p>Once he was in office, Gonzalez hired Matt Sanchez as a part-time grant administrator, a job he held from 2012 to 2015.</p><p>Gonzalez acknowledges his relationship with Sanchez’s father. And he says he hired Del Valle because he “wanted someone with knowledge, expertise and ability to get the job done.”</p><p>After being elected mayor in 2011, Gonzalez also was appointed by then-Gov. Pat Quinn to a seat on the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board, which oversees the state’s 292-mile tollway system. Under Gov. Bruce Rauner, Gonzalez — who’s paid $31,426 a year for being on the board — chairs its audit committee.</p><p>Within months after being reelected mayor last year, Gonzalez — whose firm doesn’t have any contracts with Chicago Heights — picked up new contracts with school districts that cover his suburb: Bloom Township High School District 206 and Chicago Heights Elementary School District 170, records show.</p><p>To hire GW, District 206 first needed to rescind a deal it had reached with another accounting firm to audit its books, records show. Two District 206 board members who voted to switch to Gonzalez’s firm had, between them, contributed $2,190 to Gonzalez-connected political committees, campaign records show.</p><p>Theresa Palombi, a third board member who approved the contract for GW, later was hired as an executive assistant in the Chicago Heights Fire Department. Asked about her vote, Palombi says, “It’s none of your business.”</p><p>Gonzalez also is getting business from south and west suburban communities where former HDO officials hold sway. He’s campaign treasurer for HDO co-founder state Sen. Antonio Munoz, D-Chicago, and previously held the same post for state Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Cicero, an HDO ally.</p><p>GW and Associates first cracked the Cicero-area government market in 2008 — three years before Gonzalez became Chicago Heights’ mayor — when it was hired as a financial consultant for Morton College. Since then, the Cicero college has paid GW more than $720,000, according to Gonzalez.</p><p>Over the past two years, GW has landed auditing contracts with the Town of Cicero and the Clyde Park District, which operates in Cicero.</p><p>Among its government contracts, the firm has been paid five- and six-figure fees since 2013 by Berwyn, Bridgeview, Lyons, Melrose Park, Orland Hills, Proviso Township, the Proviso Mental Health Commission and Riverdale — which paid GW $417,750.</p><p>Former HDO players that had a role in Gonzalez’s election in Chicago Heights included law firms affiliated with Victor Reyes, the onetime Daley City Hall patronage chief who co-founded HDO.</p><p>A lobbying firm owned by Reyes and Bloom Township Trustee Mike Noonan, a onetime aide to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, was a paid Gonzalez campaign consultant and a contributor to his campaign.</p><p>Matt Sanchez is now director of Reyes’ law firm, Reyes Kurson.</p><p>Reyes and Sanchez did not respond to messages seeking comment. A spokesman for Munoz declined to comment.</p><p><i>Casey Toner is a </i><a class="Link" href="http://www.bettergov.org/" target="_blank" ><i>Better Government Association</i></a><i> investigator.</i></p><p> </p><p> <br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/10/29/18335238/bga-his-business-has-boomed-since-becoming-chicago-heights-mayorCasey TonerBetter Government Association2016-08-13T23:04:00-05:002019-04-16T03:30:47-05:00Chicago teacher pension fund overpaid 234, wants its money back
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Retired Chicago teacher Sandra Inniss was overpaid about $72,000 and now must pay the money back to the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund. | Katie Drews / BGA</p></figcaption></div>
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<p>For two years, the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund used incorrect dates to calculate retirement benefits, records obtained by the Better Government Association and the Chicago Sun-Times show.</p><p>As a result of that error, a total of $2.78 million in overpayments went out to more than 200 retirees, the records show.</p><p>Now, the fund — which oversees pensions for more than 28,000 retired Chicago Public Schools teachers and administrators — is asking for its money back.</p><p>“They made a mistake — a big mistake,” says 68-year-old Jean Bosak, one of the 234 people who were paid too much.</p><p>Bosak says she’s struggling to pay back nearly $89,000 in overpayments. “I’m handicapped. I’m old. I live alone. Of course, it’s hard on me.”</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatRight>
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<img class="Image" alt="Jay Rehak." srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/52226e0/2147483647/strip/true/crop/349x196+0+77/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FLxWSworTp1FbWG7Qxhw8c_czk6Q%3D%2F0x0%3A349x349%2F349x349%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28174x174%3A175x175%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16095460%2F3567418.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b3c13f3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/349x196+0+77/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FLxWSworTp1FbWG7Qxhw8c_czk6Q%3D%2F0x0%3A349x349%2F349x349%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28174x174%3A175x175%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16095460%2F3567418.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Jay Rehak.</p></figcaption></div>
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</div><p>The change resulting in the overpayments, made in 2012, was “an effort to simplify and automate pension processing,” according to pension fund records.</p><p>Jay Rehak, president of the 12-member board that oversees the pension fund, says it was “an error in interpretation and application of the Illinois Pension Code” regarding when pensioners began receiving their retiree benefits.</p><p>As a result, the pension fund’s administrators miscalculated benefits for the 234 retirees and mistakenly gave them lump-sum payments ranging from $566 to $217,185 as back pay between 2012 and 2014, when the error was discovered, records show.</p><p>After a pension fund staffer caught the mistake, retirees were contacted last year and told they had to return the money either by paying the amount back in full or in monthly increments through reduced pension payouts until the money was repaid.</p><p>Former third-grade teacher Sandra Inniss says she felt “sick” when she found out she had to pay back about $72,000.</p><p>“I just could not understand,” says Innis, who wondered about the lump-sum payment she got and says she tried to get someone at the pension fund to explain it. “I had been calling, I had been asking for a whole year, ‘What is this money for?’ ”</p><p>Inniss says she was repeatedly told the amount was correct and that it was a benefit she had earned, so she ultimately spent the money. Now, she is getting reduced pension each month until she has paid it all back.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatRight>
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<img class="Image" alt="Clarice Berry. | Sun-Times file photo" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9e006f4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1024x575+0+54/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FWBEQai-8NGHJ7mmoRqalkLkVoYA%3D%2F0x0%3A1024x683%2F1024x683%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28512x341%3A513x342%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16095461%2Fskuls_cst_092514_15_49096217.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f3a4ffe/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1024x575+0+54/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FWBEQai-8NGHJ7mmoRqalkLkVoYA%3D%2F0x0%3A1024x683%2F1024x683%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28512x341%3A513x342%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16095461%2Fskuls_cst_092514_15_49096217.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Clarice Berry. | Sun-Times file photo</p></figcaption></div>
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</div><p>“Before they started taking the money out of my check, I was still struggling,” Inniss says. “When you’re trying to make ends meet, this is very difficult.”</p><p>Clarice Berry, former president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, says she was hit with a bill for about $15,000 owed to the fund.</p><p>“I was angry because I had done everything correctly,” Berry says.</p><p>Still, she considers herself lucky because she’s not among those who $100,000 or more.</p><p>“I couldn’t imagine someone calling me to say I owed $100,000 because of their error,” Berry says.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center><div class="Enhancement-item">
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</div></div><p>Chuck Burbridge, the pension fund’s executive director, says he recognizes the impact on retirees but says the collection efforts are necessary.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatLeft>
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<img class="Image" alt="Chuck Burbridge, executive director of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund. | Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/26d8b17/2147483647/strip/true/crop/545x306+0+157/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FxNUQ-yVXN0o-qwe5SjcHx-y4-Og%3D%2F0x0%3A545x619%2F545x619%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28272x309%3A273x310%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16095465%2Fchuck.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/bd19498/2147483647/strip/true/crop/545x306+0+157/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2FxNUQ-yVXN0o-qwe5SjcHx-y4-Og%3D%2F0x0%3A545x619%2F545x619%2Ffilters%3Afocal%28272x309%3A273x310%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16095465%2Fchuck.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Chuck Burbridge, executive director of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund. | Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times</p></figcaption></div>
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</div><p>“There is no pleasure taking and doing this,” says Burbridge, who wasn’t working for the pension fund at the time the overpayments were made. “This is a tough, tough error to admit, recognize and correct. We are taking every step necessary to make sure we administer the fund according to statute appropriately because it’s a bad situation to be in.”</p><p>Rehak says pension trustees “acted prudently” in taking steps to recover the money.</p><p>So far, the fund has recovered $762,558.58, records show.</p><p>“As fiduciaries of the fund, the board cannot ignore its larger responsibilities, and we will work to recover all monies as quickly as possible,” Rehak says. “We also understand we have a fiduciary responsibility not only to our contributors and our annuitants but also to the taxpayers of Chicago and Illinois, who have the right to expect financial accountability.”</p><p>The teachers pension fund is funded mostly by taxpayers but also through employee contributions and investment income.</p><p>With $10.7 billion in assets, it’s 52 percent funded, according to its 2015 annual report. A minimum funding of 80 percent is generally considered healthy.</p><p>Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently committed to a $250 million property-tax hike to shore up money specifically for the teachers’ pension fund.</p><p><i>Katie Drews is an investigator for the </i><a class="Link" href="http://www.bettergov.org" target="_blank" ><i>Better Government Association</i></a><i>.</i></p><p> <br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/8/13/18374090/chicago-teacher-pension-fund-overpaid-234-wants-its-money-backKatie DrewsBetter Government Association2016-08-12T12:44:00-05:002019-04-15T19:19:08-05:00Struggling municipal golf courses turn to video poker, slots
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Foss Park Golf Course in North Chicago offers slots. | Casey Toner / BGA</p></figcaption></div>
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<p>Struggling municipal golf courses are turning to video poker and slot machines in an effort to make up for declining revenue.</p><p>More than a dozen taxpayer-funded golf courses in Illinois have tried legal gambling in the past three years, though with mixed results.</p><p>The public courses are located in New Lenox, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Joliet, Countryside, Blue Island, Glenwood, Worth and North Chicago and, outside the Chicago area, in Winnebago County, Streator, Cahokia and Moweaqua.</p><p>The municipal courses split any profits with the gaming-machine owners. Altogether, they took in a total of more than $1 million from 55 machines located in their clubhouses, after taxes, records show.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatRight>
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<img class="Image" alt="Gaming machines at The Sanctuary in New Lenox. | Doug Longhini / BGA" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/448a4e5/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3264x1832+0+172/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fq664T9io0uKHE5Tta3g-pnH8daE%3D%2F0x0%3A3264x2176%2F3264x2176%2Ffilters%3Afocal%281632x1088%3A1633x1089%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16049296%2Fparkgambling5.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8ecb59f/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3264x1832+0+172/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2Fq664T9io0uKHE5Tta3g-pnH8daE%3D%2F0x0%3A3264x2176%2F3264x2176%2Ffilters%3Afocal%281632x1088%3A1633x1089%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16049296%2Fparkgambling5.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Gaming machines at The Sanctuary in New Lenox. | Doug Longhini / BGA</p></figcaption></div>
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</div><p>“It’s just becoming part of the norm,” says Bob Schulz, director of golf at The Sanctuary, an 18-hole course owned by the New Lenox Community Park District.</p><p>Still, two public golf courses — in Chicago Heights and University Park — didn’t bring in enough money to continue operating the gambling machines. Seven machines were removed from those courses after taking in a total of just $17,268 after taxes in little over 18 months.</p><p>Citing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses overall, University Park closed its course earlier this year, then turned over management to a private company.</p><p>The gambling machines are allowed under a state law passed seven years ago to help bars and restaurants.</p><p>Since early 2013, gamblers have spent a total of $18.7 million on machines at municipal golf clubhouses, bringing in about $450,000 in state and local taxes, records show.</p><p>One of the first local government agencies to offer video gambling was the Foss Park District in North Chicago, which installed five machines in April 2013 at its 18-hole Foss Golf Course. Since then, gamblers have poured more than $8.7 million into the machines there, won $7.9 million back and netted the park district about $254,000.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatLeft>
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<img class="Image" alt="Foss Park Golf Course. | Casey Toner / BGA" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/957b60c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4608x2586+0+243/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2F6RQHhz-phXNXAGd_8CjpKb8utmc%3D%2F0x0%3A4608x3072%2F4608x3072%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282304x1536%3A2305x1537%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16049305%2Fparkgambling4.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/0a93f6c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4608x2586+0+243/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fthumbor%2F6RQHhz-phXNXAGd_8CjpKb8utmc%3D%2F0x0%3A4608x3072%2F4608x3072%2Ffilters%3Afocal%282304x1536%3A2305x1537%29%2Fcdn.vox-cdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fchorus_asset%2Ffile%2F16049305%2Fparkgambling4.jpg 2x" width="490" height="275"
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<div class="Figure-content"><figcaption class="Figure-caption"><p>Foss Park Golf Course. | Casey Toner / BGA</p></figcaption></div>
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</div><p>The Foss Park District board voted earlier this month to give its video-gambling machine contract to HyperActive Gaming, where Anthony Jones, a park board member, works as a compliance officer. Jones recused himself from voting on the contract.</p><p>Jones was appointed to the park board in May to fill a vacancy left by Susan Dixon, who was convicted of theft for stealing from a 2014 park district Toys for Tots charity event. HyperActive hired Jones in January 2014, months after he retired from the Illinois State Police, where he spent the previous 14 years overseeing licensing investigations for the Illinois Gaming Board.</p><p>In Hoffman Estates, the park district’s Bridges of Poplar Creek Country Club has struggled even after it began operating the machines in June 2014, taking in only $5,946 since then. Last year, the park district lost more than $65,000 on the course.</p><p>Brian Bechtold, the park district’s director of golf, says the small amount of revenue may spur the video gaming operator, Gold Rush Amusements, to remove the machines.</p><p>Glenn Leonard, Gold Rush Amusements’ compliance director, says, “If they are successful, we will be successful, and we won’t remove the machines.”</p><p>The New Lenox Community Park District began operating five video gambling machines at its golf clubhouse last September, keeping them in a room that’s closed during the district’s youth golf league. They’ve brought in $7,379 so far for the course, which loses $50,000 to $200,000 a year, according to Greg Lewis, the district’s executive director.</p><p>“If you want people to keep coming out, you have to invest money into the course, or you will have a goat ranch,” Lewis says. “You won’t have something people will pay top dollar for.”</p><p><i>Casey Toner is an investigator for the </i><a class="Link" href="http://www.bettergov.org" target="_blank" ><i>Better Government Association.</i></a><br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/8/12/18325336/struggling-municipal-golf-courses-turn-to-video-poker-slotsCasey TonerBetter Government Association2016-06-24T11:36:00-05:002019-04-16T08:31:58-05:00Harvey mayor could be off the ballot unless fines paid
<p>Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg has 40 days to come up with $72,750, or his controversial reign as the south suburb’s municipal leader could be over.</p><p>That’s not the plotline of a new political thriller.</p><p>The Illinois State Board of Elections, the government agency that regulates campaign activities, says Kellogg’s political committee owes civil penalties totaling $72,750 for failing to file mandatory fundraising disclosure reports in recent years.</p><p>The political committee has until Jan. 29 to either pay the full amount or negotiate a settlement with the board of elections.</p><p>If Kellogg, the committee’s chairman, can’t come up with the cash or an agreement isn’t reached before then, his name won’t appear on the ballot in the April 7 election, effectively ending his 12-year mayoral career, state officials say.</p><p>Kellogg’s third term expires this spring.</p><p>He plans to run for reelection and has filed nominating petitions with Harvey’s city clerk’s office, as have two other mayoral candidates, suburban officials say.</p><p>The board of elections has settled with other political committees, typically for at least 50 percent of the penalty. In this case that’d be $36,375. “I can’t see the board going any lower than that,” says Steve Sandvoss, the board of election’s general counsel.</p><p>“We’re always open to a settlement,” says Board of Elections Chairman Jesse Smart. “But I have to admit they’ve blown us off for . . . years so they’re a little late in trying to negotiate. The only reason we have their attention is because he wants to be on the ballot.”</p><p>The committee, “Citizens to Elect Eric J. Kellogg,” had $15,400 in cash as of March 31, 2014, according to its most recent fundraising disclosure report. The board of elections says those funds could be used to pay a portion of the penalties.</p><p>But even if that money is still on hand, Kellogg would need to come up with an additional $57,350, or roughly the equivalent of his annual mayoral salary, if no settlement is reached.</p><p>Through a spokesman, Kellogg issued a statement saying, “The campaign lawyers are in discussions with the Illinois State Board of Elections and are very confident that a settlement will be reached very soon.”</p><p>Fundraising issues aside it’s been a challenging year for Kellogg, as evidenced by a few examples:<br></p><ul><li>The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Harvey and its former comptroller last June for allegedly defrauding investors in a troubled hotel development deal. Under a proposed consent decree, filed Dec. 4, a federal court monitor would oversee Harvey bond sales and track how that money is spent for the next three years.</li><li>In October, Harvey’s City Council went against Kellogg and asked Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart to review the operations of the suburb’s troubled police department. That assessment, which Kellogg opposed, could be completed by next month, a Dart spokeswoman says.</li><li>Last month a Cook County judge ordered Harvey to pay the City of Chicago $26 million in unpaid water bills, a gut-wrenching payment for the financially distressed suburb.</li></ul><p>A year ago, the Better Government Association reported that Kellogg’s political committee didn’t file fundraising disclosure reports for more than three years.</p><p>State law requires campaign committees to submit quarterly reports to the elections board. The reports are supposed to reveal the names of all donors who have given $150 or more over the preceding three months, as well as detail how that cash was spent – whether for campaign signs, cell phones or something else.</p><p>The filings are then posted online for the public to review. The aim is transparency – so the public knows who’s donating money and whether it’s used for legitimate purposes. In Illinois, campaign funds are to be used only for political purposes, not for enhancing personal incomes.</p><p>Approximately six weeks after the BGA story, on Feb. 12 and 13, 2014, Kellogg’s committee filed three years of quarterly reports, though it has blown past deadlines for filing subsequent disclosures.</p><p>In all, the board of elections has fined the committee $72,750.</p><p>That includes $55,900 for “delinquently” filing a dozen quarterly reports, from March 2011 to September 2013, plus $16,850 for other related violations. The committee hasn’t paid any of those penalties, state officials say.</p><p>The board of elections could’ve asked a judge to issue an order compelling Kellogg to pay the fines or referred the matter to prosecutors. But officials say they’re not going soft on the mayor, noting Kellogg must either pay or leave office.</p><p>Says Andy Nauman, deputy director of the board of elections’ division of campaign disclosure, “The hammer we have is ballot forfeiture.”</p><p><i>This column was written and reported by the Better Government Association’s Andrew Schroedter, who can be reached at aschroedter@bettergov.org or (312) 821-9035.</i><br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/6/24/18408173/harvey-mayor-could-be-off-the-ballot-unless-fines-paidBetter Government Association2016-06-24T11:35:00-05:002019-04-17T20:56:04-05:00Outgoing city treasurer opts for ongoing taxpayer support
<p>As Chicago’s city treasurer, Stephanie Neely was tasked with helping keep the municipal government on firm financial footing.</p><p>Before resigning from the elected position last month, Neely made sure her own financial footing was secure – courtesy of taxpayers.</p><p>Just days before stepping down in November to return to the private sector, Neely opted into a little-known government retirement plan that caters to politicians and allows them to qualify for a public-sector pension with only eight years of government service – the same amount of years Neely had with the city.</p><p>The city’s rank-and-file pension plan – which Neely had been part of until switching – requires 10 years of government service before someone becomes pension eligible.</p><p>So if Neely hadn’t switched into the politician pension plan, she would not have qualified for a city pension at all, unless someday she returned to city employment.</p><p>Now, when she reaches age 60, the 51-year-old Neely will be able to collect a pension worth, initially, $34,716 a year. And taxpayers will carry most of the freight.</p><p>Neely was unapologetic about the move, which is totally legal but illustrates not only the often-generous retirement benefits afforded to Illinois’ political class, but how, at least in part, taxpayer-backed pension funds have fallen into such crushing debt.</p><p>“I wanted to make sure I had the option to do whatever is in my best interest since I didn’t contribute to Social Security,” Neely said, adding she hasn’t made up her mind whether she indeed will collect the benefit. “I didn’t create the law” allowing this, she said.</p><p>The state law allowing this perk apparently has been on the books since the early 1990s. Government workers who stand to draw public pensions typically don’t contribute to Social Security.</p><p>Neely was appointed city treasurer by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2006 and, like regular city workers, began contributing 8.5 percent of her paycheck – a total of roughly $90,000 over her eight years in office – to the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund, or MEABF. That retirement plan, covering everyone from city lawyers to clerical workers, requires 10 years of service to get a pension.</p><p>In October, the month Neely announced she was leaving her post, she inquired with MEABF about making a switch to the politician plan – which is a subset of MEABF and caters to elected officials such as aldermen, the treasurer and city clerk. Just eight years of service secures a pension there.</p><p>The MEABF responded to Neely in an Oct. 22 letter, stating, “Assuming you joined the Alternative Plan effective November 1, 2014, and you continued to participate in the Alternative Plan thru November 30, 2014, and then were to resign, and you paid the additional 3% to upgrade all of your prior service from December 1, 2006, thru October 31, 2014, to the Alternative Plan, you would be entitled at age 60 to an annuity of about $2,893.00 per month.”</p><p>Elected officials in the deluxe pension plan contribute 11.5 percent of their paychecks to participate. Because Neely was in the other plan contributing less, she had to fork over $35,784 to upgrade. So overall, she personally contributed $126,774 since taking office.</p><p>With an annual pension payout starting at nearly $35,000, Neely would recover her entire investment within four years of drawing benefits. Then, the pension fund – ultimately taxpayers – would be on the hook.</p><p>As city treasurer, Neely sat on the board governing the MEABF, so she knows that its finances already are shaky. The pension plan – funded by employee contributions, taxpayers and investments by pension administrators – currently has a funded ratio of roughly 37 percent and an unfunded liability of more than $8 billion. That means the pension fund is horribly positioned to meet payouts of future and current retirees and their dependents.</p><p>So if Neely accepts her pension, it could put added strain on MEABF. But how much is not totally clear.</p><p>Earlier this year Mayor Rahm Emanuel got the state to approve changes to the MEABF and the Laborers’ pension funds. Under the changes, employee contributions would rise over the next several years and the 3 percent annual cost-of-living adjustment – which helped pension payouts soar, as well as city pension debt – would be slashed. Labor groups recently filed a lawsuit saying the MEABF changes are unconstitutional.</p><p>Because of the legal uncertainty, it’s difficult to determine what Neely’s pension might be in the future.</p><p>If the courts strike down pension reform and other changes aren’t made, Neely stands to collect more than $900,000 if she lives to age 80. Her annual take at age 80 would also be roughly $62,000.</p><p>The reforms, if upheld, are expected to make MEABF 90 percent funded by 2054, according to Elizabeth Langsdorf, a spokeswoman for the city.</p><p>If Neely hadn’t rolled into the plan for elected officials, she could have taken a refund of her contributions or tried to get another city job down the road to boost her service time to 10 years, according to the pension fund’s law firm, Burke Burns & Pinelli.</p><p>Neely’s salary as treasurer was $133,545. Kurt Summers was appointed by Emanuel to fill the remainder of Neely’s term, and that appointment was confirmed by the City Council in November.</p><p>Summers said he plans on getting a regular city pension that requires 10 years to vest.</p><p>“I am a member of the Municipal Employees’ Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago,” Summers said in a written statement. “I intend to earn city pension benefits in the same manner as other municipal employees.”</p><p><i>This story was written by Patrick Rehkamp of the Better Government Association and Dane Placko, a reporter at FOX 32.</i><br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/6/24/18449761/outgoing-city-treasurer-opts-for-ongoing-taxpayer-supportBetter Government Association2016-06-24T11:34:00-05:002019-04-16T03:02:17-05:00Mile-high flub: Local cops fly with guns, raise questions
<p>Three south suburban police officers are facing possible disciplinary action after they brought their department-issued firearms onboard commercial flights, allegedly without proper authorization and for travel that was not work-related, we recently learned.</p><p>The officers, who work for the Village of Riverdale, flew separately on personal trips between Chicago and Orlando and Chicago and Los Angeles over the spring and summer and somehow secured credentials to fly armed, despite not having permission from their supervisors, according to Riverdale officials and documents we obtained through the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.</p><p>Unlike ordinary citizens who have to check their firearms while flying, state and local police officers can carry guns in the cabin of commercial aircraft as long as they’ve been authorized to have a weapon onboard as part of their assigned duties, according to federal regulations. Officers also have to take a short training program on flying with guns.</p><p>Prior to their departure, and apparently without the knowledge of top Riverdale police brass, the cops sought assistance from a clerk in the police department’s records division to submit electronic paperwork – needed to fly armed – through the Illinois Law Enforcement Agencies Data System, a database that connects law enforcement agencies on the state and national level.</p><p>Generally, before a cop can board a plane with a gun, airport security verifies the message from the law enforcement database with the officer’s information, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, the federal agency charged with securing the nation’s airports.</p><p>The Riverdale officers “were given authority as far as we’re concerned,” said TSA spokesman Mike McCarthy. “There’s no way you can show up and just walk through carrying a firearm. There has to be someone at the village who has authority to” send approval.</p><p>In Riverdale, only the chief and deputy chief have this authority, officials said.</p><p>How exactly the officers did it without them remains unclear, as none of the officers, or the clerk, returned phone calls.</p><p>But according to emails we obtained, it appears the clerk and the officers didn’t realize that procedures may have been violated until the department began investigating the issue in September.</p><p>“In no way did I know that this was authorized only by the Chief of Police or the Deputy Chief,” the clerk wrote in a message to the deputy chief. “Had I known this, I would not have performed these duties.”</p><p>One of the officers also wrote: “I was under the impression that flying armed was the norm as a certified LEO,” or law enforcement officer.</p><p>Two of the officers have been with the agency for less than a year, while the third has been there roughly five years, according to the department. The agency has 31 cops total.</p><p>Bernard Mooney, a Riverdale police officer and union steward with the Fraternal Order of Police, said the officers involved couldn’t comment because the department’s investigation is still ongoing and he didn’t know much beyond the allegation.</p><p>“I don’t know if there’s been any wrongdoing,” he said. “All that’s been said is there is an investigation looking into if there’s been any wrongdoing.”</p><p>Airport security experts said the situation identifies a procedural problem and raises questions about how the agencies involved enforce their policies.</p><p>“If it happens three times and the department didn’t authorize it three times, something is wrong,” said Steve Dedmon, an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. “There is something wrong on the police department’s administrative end, letting this paperwork fly out . . . and then there’s the requirement with the TSA that says the person is going to be carrying the gun in an official capacity as a law enforcement officer. Where is the official duty part? . . . Why didn’t someone [at the TSA] ask, ‘How are you acting as a law enforcement officer?’”</p><p>But overall, experts didn’t think the officers’ actions presented a major risk to the public.</p><p>“Is it a security threat? Sure, because procedures were not followed and the system didn’t work. You are not supposed to be able to carry your gun when you’re going on vacation,” said Jeff Price, a professor of aviation at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. “It is a gap in the system, but it really doesn’t point out a significant security risk.”</p><p>Riverdale Deputy Chief Rocky Graziano said no one is pursuing criminal charges, although it could have been an option. Instead, he said the matter will be handled administratively.</p><p>“It is what it is,” Graziano said. “It’s unacceptable, but it’s not the end of the world. There was never any danger to the public.”</p><p><i>This column – a new regular feature called The Public Eye – was written and reported by the Better Government Association’s Katie Drews. She can be reached at 312–821-9027 or kdrews@bettergov.org.</i><br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/6/24/18371280/mile-high-flub-local-cops-fly-with-guns-raise-questionsBetter Government Association2016-06-24T11:33:00-05:002019-04-17T20:06:56-05:00High irony as Thornton Township official pursues medical marijuana license
<p>Thornton Township government offers a range of social service programs — some dealing with substance abuse.</p><p>Now, the head of the township department that oversees those programs is trying to cash in on the newly legalized medical marijuana industry in Illinois.</p><p>Jerry Weems, a top aide to Frank Zuccarelli, the politically powerful township supervisor, is part of a venture that has applied for licenses from the Quinn administration to grow pot plants in Jo Daviess and Carroll counties.</p><p>Separately, the venture also is seeking a dispensary license to sell medical marijuana in Evanston, according to one of the partners in the venture, Mohammad Abughoush.</p><p>State officials have said the licenses will be awarded before Gov. Pat Quinn leaves office.</p><p>“We’re just waiting to hear what the decision will be,” says Abughoush, a Burbank accountant.</p><p>Last June, the Better Government Association reported that a nonprofit affiliated with Thornton Township had received nearly a half-million dollars under Quinn’s controversial anti-violence grant program known as the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative. The grant money was earmarked for mentoring and youth employment programs, but the BGA found some of the funds benefited organizations run by Weems and a family member.</p><p>Launched by Quinn, the now-shuttered grant program came under intense scrutiny because some of the money ended up with groups and individuals with clout.</p><p>State and federal prosecutors have been trying to determine whether any grant money was improperly spent or distributed across the Chicago region in advance of the 2010 election to help Quinn with minority voters. Thornton Township spokesman Melvin Caldwell says the township has never been contacted or subpoenaed by prosecutors. Nobody has been charged with a crime, and Weems hasn’t been accused of doing anything wrong.</p><p>Weems is the township’s youth services director, paid $103,000 a year by taxpayers.</p><p>In that role he oversees counseling and crisis-intervention services for residents of the state’s largest township – which includes all or part of Calumet City, Dolton, Harvey and South Holland, among other towns. There are roughly 185,000 residents within the township boundaries.</p><p>Caldwell initially told the BGA that if Weems wins a medical marijuana license it wouldn’t a conflict with his work at the township government – implying that he would stay on the payroll. But a week after the BGA first contacted the township, Caldwell said Weems plans to step down from his government job should he win a marijuana license.</p><p>Weems and Zuccarelli didn’t return calls.</p><p>The BGA confirmed Weems was a member of the medical marijuana venture through public records and interviews with Abughoush and others.</p><p>Both Abughoush and Caldwell say the medical marijuana venture has no ties to the township or Zuccarelli, a close political ally of Quinn’s.</p><p>The Weems venture has an option to buy two development parcels at the Savanna Depot Park in Savanna, in northwestern Illinois. The commercial site is part of the former Savanna Army Depot property, which is in both Jo Daviess and Carroll counties.</p><p>If the venture wins a cultivation license in one or both of those counties, Weems and his partners plan to acquire and develop the parcels, priced at $3,500 an acre, according to interviews and records.</p><p>The state passed a pilot program for medicinal marijuana last year. In all, it can award up to 21 licenses for cultivation facilities and up to 60 licenses for storefronts where marijuana can be sold to patients with prescriptions.</p><p>The ailments for which a doctor can prescribe medical marijuana in Illinois range from glaucoma to cancer to AIDS and Parkinson’s, though that list could be expanded to include more conditions down the road.</p><p>The first marijuana will likely be dispensed this spring.</p><p>Advocates say the drug’s availability will improve the quality of life for the chronically ill, but law enforcement and others have expressed concerns about social repercussions such as crime and drug abuse.</p><p>In previous stories, the BGA has reported on other politically connected people who are trying to get in on the burgeoning medical marijuana industry. They include Kirk Dillard, a former Republican state senator and current RTA board chairman who is advising a group bidding for cultivation licenses in Will and Kankakee counties, and David Rosen, a former campaign finance director for Hillary Clinton and Quinn.</p><p>Rosen is seeking a cultivation license in Winnebago County near Rockford.</p><p><i>This story was written and reported by the Better Government Association’s Andrew Schroedter and Patrick Rehkamp, who can be reached at aschroedter@bettergov.org or (312) 821-9035.</i><br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/6/24/18439436/high-irony-as-thornton-township-official-pursues-medical-marijuana-licenseBetter Government Association2016-06-24T11:27:00-05:002019-04-17T23:50:34-05:00Election board to Harvey mayor: No deal for you on $72,750 in election fines
<p>The Illinois State Board of Elections has resoundingly rejected a settlement offer from Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg, raising the possibility that his reign as head of the troubled south suburb could be coming to a close.</p><p>The board of elections, the government agency that regulates campaign activities, contends that Kellogg’s political committee owes civil penalties totaling $72,750 for failing to file mandatory fundraising disclosure reports in recent years.</p><p>Kellogg had hoped to persuade the elections board to forgive at least half the fines.</p><p>But board members on Tuesday unanimously rejected his settlement proposal.</p><p>“This guy is a chronic violator,” Board of Elections member William McGuffage says. “I don’t know why we should accept any offer.”</p><p>Now, Kellogg has just over a week to pay the $72,750 he owes the state. His campaign committee, “Citizens to Elect Eric J. Kellogg,” has $3,984 in cash as of Dec. 31, 2014, records show. If the figure is correct, he will have to look elsewhere for the money.</p><p>The deadline to pay is Jan. 29. If Kellogg misses it, his name can’t appear on the ballot in the April 7 election, effectively ending his 12-year tenure as mayor, according to the elections board. No other elections board meetings are scheduled this month, meaning Kellogg is unlikely to reach a settlement because the board must approve those proposals.</p><p>“We’re committed to resolving the issue one way or another,” Kellogg’s spokesman Sean Howard says. “The mayor will be on the ballot. And we’re looking forward to the election.”</p><p>The elections board has settled with other political committees, typically for at least 50 percent of the penalty.</p><p>An attorney for Kellogg’s committee proposed something similar: A “reasonable initial payment” and then “a reasonable payment schedule for the remaining amount due, ultimately concluding with the Committee paying 50% of the outstanding balance, minus late fees and interest,” according to a copy of the offer. But the elections board on Tuesday was unwilling to negotiate.</p><p>In all, the elections board fined Kellogg’s committee $72,750. That includes $55,900 for “delinquently” filing a dozen quarterly reports, from March 2011 to September 2013, plus $16,850 for other related violations.</p><p>State law requires campaign committees to submit quarterly reports to the elections board.</p><p>The reports are supposed to reveal the names of all donors who have given $150 or more over the preceding three months, as well as detail how that cash was spent – whether for campaign signs, cellphones or something else.</p><p>The filings are then posted online for the public to review. The aim is transparency – so the public knows who’s donating money and whether it’s used for legitimate purposes. In Illinois, campaign funds are to be used only for political purposes, not for enhancing personal incomes.</p><p>This is just the latest controversy Kellogg has faced. Under his leadership, Harvey has come under intense scrutiny because of financial mismanagement, numerous misconduct allegations against its police officers and more. Last June the suburb was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly defrauding investors in a hotel development deal.</p><p><i>This story was written and reported by the Better Government Association’s Andrew Schroedter, who can be reached at aschroedter@bettergov.org or (312) 821-9035.</i></p><p> <br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/6/24/18484122/election-board-to-harvey-mayor-no-deal-for-you-on-72-750-in-election-finesBetter Government Association2016-06-24T11:26:00-05:002019-04-17T21:59:33-05:00Ex-prosecutor’s 2012 arrest doesn’t deter her from seeking county job
<p>Sarah Naughton left her job as a prosecutor after an off-duty run-in with police that included her berating and allegedly swatting at a cop.</p><p>But that widely publicized episode hasn’t discouraged the politically connected lawyer from trying to get back on the public payroll — in a job working with law enforcement officers.</p><p>Naughton’s unusual brush with fame began back in September 2012.</p><p>A prosecutor with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, she was arrested by Chicago police for an off-duty incident that followed a day of drinking and involved a scuffle with a North Side shopkeeper.</p><p>While detained, Naughton called an officer a series of obscene and insensitive names, slipped out of handcuffs while inside a squad car, swatted at a cop and kicked at the vehicle’s window, according to court records and interviews.</p><p>The case drew a fair amount of attention because part of the incident was caught on video and posted on YouTube, where at last count there were more than 67,000 views and roughly 100 comments. Another video – from inside the squad car – surfaced later, during Naughton’s 2013 trial, at which a judge acquitted Naughton of every charge, including resisting a peace officer, attempted official misconduct and battery. She left the state’s attorney’s office shortly thereafter.</p><p>The acquittal left a sour taste in the mouths of some. But Naughton – who has family connections to Ed Vrdolyak and the South Side Joyce clan – apparently hasn’t soured on police.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-center>
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</div><p>We learned she recently inquired about getting hired at the Cook County sheriff’s office – which runs Cook County Jail, provides courtroom security and includes a patrol division – and even met with sheriff’s officials on two occasions to talk potential employment.</p><p>It’s worth noting she’s job-hunting for a taxpayer-funded position while another public agency, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, or ARDC, has a pending misconduct case against her stemming from the 2012 incident.</p><p>There are ethics rules that attorneys in Illinois are supposed to abide by, set forth by the Illinois Supreme Court. And the ARDC investigates alleged breaches and can seek discipline for violators – up to and including suspension of law licenses, taking away the ability of attorneys to work as attorneys.</p><p>An ARDC document alleges Naughton – in spite of her acquittal, which the judge said was based on the evidence and questionable testimony – still committed crimes during the 2012 incident, and in the process violated rules governing attorneys.</p><p>In a document Naughton submitted in response to the ARDC claims, she contests many of the allegations. She wouldn’t comment to us.</p><p>Things should come to a head with the ARDC in coming months.</p><p>Meantime, what’s going on with the sheriff’s office?</p><p>Cara Smith, an aide to Sheriff Tom Dart, confirmed that Naughton came by the sheriff’s office twice in late 2014 to chat about employment opportunities. Smith said, “I’m not sure I’d call it an interview” but rather a “meet and greet.”</p><p>“I think she was trying to figure out what she wanted to do,” Smith said. “She didn’t come in interested in a specific job” but indeed was interested in employment.</p><p>Either way, Naughton was not hired for anything.</p><p><b> Was Favoritism Shown?</b></p><p> With the ARDC matter as a backdrop, we took a deeper look at Naughton’s background and found curiosities that spanned the time she was hired by the state’s attorney’s office to the time she left there days after her acquittal.</p><p>Although she could have been fired by State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez following the 2012 arrest, Naughton instead was put on paid desk duty.</p><p>Alvarez’s first assistant state’s attorney, Dan Kirk, wouldn’t comment on many specifics related to Naughton, but said the agency, in general, maintains “a strong belief in due process,” allowing court proceedings to play out when possible before personnel decisions are made.</p><p>We also discovered that while Naughton was on desk duty – in fact, on one of the very days Naughton was at her own trial – Alvarez wrote Naughton a glowing letter, thanking her for “volunteering” to write an appellate brief and giving her 16 hours of compensatory time. “I appreciate your willingness to seek the responsibility of work that is in addition to the daily responsibilities of your current assignment as an Assistant State’s Attorney,” Alvarez wrote in the letter, which we recently obtained.</p><p>Kirk said that was a standard letter to any prosecutor who helped out on the backlog of briefs. Alvarez wouldn’t talk to us.</p><p>Meanwhile, following Naughton’s acquittal (the Illinois attorney general prosecuted the case because of the obvious conflict of interest with the state’s attorney’s office) Alvarez’s office said Naughton was returning to regular duty. A FOX 32 reporter asked how she’d be able to work with police from here on given the second video – from inside a squad car – showing Naughton slipping out of cuffs the night she was arrested, taking a swipe at a cop and kicking at the squad car window. An Alvarez spokeswoman said the office hadn’t known about that video. Later that day Naughton submitted a resignation letter; Alvarez’s office said she was “terminated.”</p><p><b>Connections Abound</b></p><p>Before Naughton was hired as a prosecutor in 2008 in the waning days of Richard Devine’s tenure as state’s attorney, she held clerical jobs with the state’s attorney’s office.</p><p>In one such clerical job, one of the references listed on Naughton’s application was Daniel Joyce, who we’re told is the son of political powerbroker Jeremiah Joyce, a close ally of former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.</p><p>Aside from coming from a clout-heavy family, Daniel Joyce was convicted in a 1980s drug case, and his defense attorney in that case was Devine, who would later become state’s attorney until retiring in 2008 when Alvarez took over.</p><p>Daniel Joyce declined to comment. Devine told us, “I don’t recall ever talking to Dan Joyce about” Naughton’s employment.</p><p>Naughton’s father Gino Naughton said Daniel Joyce ended up as a reference because he is his long-time friend and “a wonderful man.”</p><p>Gino Naughton once worked for the law firm of Vrdolyak, a former Chicago alderman and political powerhouse. And Sarah Naughton worked there as well while in high school – before getting a taxpayer-subsidized General Assembly college scholarship through a local legislator, according to Naughton’s resume, which we obtained from the state’s attorney’s office under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.</p><p>Such scholarships were eliminated in recent years after questions were raised about clout-heavy kids – including children of political donors – getting these tuition waivers while many regular taxpayers were left in the cold.</p><p>Gino Naughton is a former Cook County prosecutor and a former judicial candidate. At one time he helped oversee Vrdolyak’s campaign fund. Vrdolyak, who more recently was convicted in a corruption case and did time in a federal prison, didn’t return our calls.</p><p>So what does all this mean?</p><p>At the very least it raises questions about whether politics or connections played a role in how Sarah Naughton was treated by the state’s attorney’s office, more recently under Alvarez.</p><p>“Two words: Absolutely not,” Kirk said. “Nor should politics ever enter into any employment-related decision.”</p><p><i><b>This column – a regular feature called The Public Eye – was written and reported by the Better Government Association’s Robert Herguth and Patrick Rehkamp. They can be reached at </b></i><a class="Link" href="mailto:rherguth@bettergov.org" target="_blank" ><i><b>rherguth@bettergov.org</b></i></a><i><b> or</b></i><a class="Link" href="//localhost/tel/%2528312%2529%20821-9030" target="_blank" ><i><b>(312) 821-9030</b></i></a><i><b>.</b></i><br></p>
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/6/24/18463315/ex-prosecutor-s-2012-arrest-doesn-t-deter-her-from-seeking-county-jobBetter Government Association