People                                                                                     

Shifts at the top

Comptroller adds four staff members to PR department

Like other state officers before her, Comptroller Loleta Didrickson has raided the pressrooms to bolster her image-making department. Joining her staff as press secretary is Edward Marshall, formerly news assignments manager for WBBM-TV in Chicago. Molly Hall, previously a political reporter for WCIA-TV in Champaign, joins the staff as deputy press secretary.

Jackie Price, who is an assistant deputy director of communications, was a Springfield State Journal-Register reporter. And Marie O'Brien, a former reporter for WMAQ-TV in Chicago, is the comptroller's director of public information.

Former state superintendent
of schools named to head SIU

Ted Sanders (above), who was superintendent of schools from 1985 to 1989 under former Gov. James R. Thompson, will replace James M. Brown as chancellor of the Southern Illinois University system effective July 1. Since leaving Illinois in 1989, Sanders has served as deputy and acting secretary for the U.S. Department of Education. Currently, he is superintendent of public instruction in Ohio. As chancellor Sanders will be paid $160,000 per year plus an $18,000 housing allowance. He will get the use of a car.

Committee to study
long-term care for the elderly

Gov. Jim Edgar announced a 20-member committee, coordinated by the Illinois Department on Aging, to examine the community-based system of long-term care for older people. The members include:

•Ann Ford, director of the DuPage County Center for Independent Living in Lombard.

•Antoinette Hardy, Hardy Home Care of Chicago.

•Mark S. Heaney, vice president of National Homecare Systems of Chicago.

•Susan Hughes, director of gerontological health at Northwestern University of Evanston.

•Patsy Jensen, director of Shawnee Health Service and Development Corp. and Shawnee Alliance for Seniors of Centerville.

•Charles D. Johnson, executive director of the Northeastern Illinois Area Agency on Aging of Kankakee.

•Keith Kelleher, head organizer for Service Employees International Union Local 880 of Chicago.

•Jonathon Lavin, executive director of Suburban Area Agency on Aging of Oak Park.

•Michael Marcus, senior program associate for Chicago Community Trust of Chicago.

•Phyllis B. Mitzen, director of Home and Community Based Services and Council for Jewish Elderly of Chicago.

•Janet Otwell, director of American Association of Retired Persons Area 5 Office of Chicago.

•Margaret Rudnik, director of provider relations. Hospice of the North Shore of Evanston.

•Leon Schlofrock, chairman of Betcare Associates of Northbrook.

•Rich Schott, chief executive officer of Rest Haven of South Holland.

•Jane Stansell, director of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical/Alzheimer's Family Care Center, Chicago.

•Wendy Thomas, division manager of senior services. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

•Charles Warner, executive director of the Older Adult Rehabilitation Services Inc. of Countryside.

•Joe Warner, president of Heritage Enterprises of Bloomington.

•Cindy Worsley, executive director of Fox Valley Older Adult Services of Sandwich.

•Kathleen Yosko, president and chief executive officer of Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital of Chicago.

Members will make recommendations for improvement regarding personal versus public responsibility for long-term care and examine whether gaps exist in the services offered.

Photo courtesy of The Nature Conservancy
The Illinois office of The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit conservation organization, has named Jim McMahon as Mackinaw River Project director. McMahon will work with local landowners and Conservancy scientists to reduce erosion and flooding in the Mackinaw River watershed, which will protect the wide range of fish and mussel populations and enhance the value of agricultural lands. McMahon also works with the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment in Bozeman, Mont., and the World Research Foundation in Kent, England. He is a published environmental writer.

30/May 1995/Illinois Issues

People                                                                                     

Two professors nominated to
seats on federal bench

President Bill Clinton has nominated Wenona Y. Whitfield (above), a Southern Illinois University School of Law professor, for a federal district court seat in southern Illinois. Recommended by both U.S. Sens. Paul Simon and Carol Moseley-Braun, Whitfield of Carbondale has taught at SIU since 1981. Prior to SIU she worked as counsel for the state department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities and for the Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust Co. of Chicago.

President Clinton also nominated Diane P. Wood, a U.S. Justice Department attorney on leave as a University of Chicago Law School professor, for a seat on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

New mayors in Springfield and
Decatur; a repeat in Chicago

Illinois state Sen. Karen Hasara, a Springfield Republican, will become the capital city's mayor on May 1. Hasara defeated Michael Curran, a former state representative. Hasara began serving in the Senate in 1992. She plans to complete the spring legislative session, which is scheduled to last until the end of May. She has spent more than 20 years in public office, including terms in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1986 to 1992. Before holding state office, she served as the Sangamon County circuit clerk and as a member of the Sangamon County Board.

• Meanwhile, in Decatur, a central Illinois city featured in this issue, Terry Howley defeated Randy Van Alstine, a city councilman. Howley was endorsed by police, firefighters and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

• In Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley was overwhelmingly re-elected. He beat Roland Burris, the former state attorney general, by a nearly 2-1 margin. Daley and the city's aldermen spent the post-election period approving pay hikes for city officials and signing a regional airport pact with the city of Gary, Ind. Both moves sparked controversy in the GOP-led legislature. The House moved to overturn the salaries. And lawmakers are expected to take aim at the airport deal.

At press time

• State Sen. James F. Clayborne Jr. II, a Belleville Democrat, was sworn into office on April 17 to fill the remaining term of the late Sen. Kenneth Hall of East St. Louis. Clayborne is the corporation counsel for East St. Louis. He intends to run in the 1996 general election for a full term in the Senate.

• The Rev. Corneal A. Davis, 94, a member of the Illinois House representing Chicago districts from 1943 to 1979, died April 17 in Chicago.

• Virginia Duffield Kerswill Heiple, 62, wife of Supreme Court Justice James Heiple, died April 16.

Executive director of university retirement system takes some heat in state audit As executive director of the 121,000-member State Universities Retirement System, Dennis Spice has been enjoying some perks that a state audit found questionable. Auditor General William G. Holland, in a report covering a two-year look at SURS ending June 1994, says that Spice received reimbursement of $6,725 for mileage and "auto-related expenses," in addition to a $7,000 annual car allowance. SURS also paid Spice's initiation fees, monthly dues and dining/business meeting expenses at two private country clubs that amounted to $11,000. Without naming the executive director, auditors were also critical of some expenses charged by employees to SURS-provided credit cards. Auditors noted 38 instances totaling more than $6,700 where employees either exceeded the $24-per-day rate for meals, or included spouses in the charges. Auditors also pointed to 30 instances of out-of-town lodging billed to SURS credit cards that exceeded the allowable rates. Some of the actual charges ran as high as $234 per night (allowable rates are $60 in the Chicago metre area; $50 outside the metro area; $90 for out-of-state). The report also questioned awarding bonuses to employees, including Spice, which in fiscal year 1994 amounted to $28,000. Spice, whose salary is $124,000 a year ($140,000 last year with bonus and benefits), reimbursed the pension fund for $3,625 in questioned credit card purchases. At the end of last fiscal year, the pension system, which represents retired professors and other university staff, faced a $4.1 billion shortfall, according to the auditor general's January financial report. The system's investments had earned only 0.8 percent interest for 1994. A spokesperson for the board of trustees says that investments are returning around 7 percent so far this year. The SURS board responded in mid-April to the state audit. The board took away staff credit cards and changed its travel policy, dropping payment for mileage but continuing the $7,000 per year car allowance. It also will no longer pay for country club memberships. However, the board defended Spice and said it would continue to consider bonuses for employees in order to compete with the private sector. Beverley Scobell