People                                                                     

Shifts at the top

• State Sen. Denny Jacobs of East Moline was named Democratic caucus chair, succeeding the late Sen. Kenneth Hall of East St. Louis.

•Stephen Riedl of Springfield was named assistant director of the Department of Central Management Services. He replaces Philip Gonet, who was appointed assistant director at the Department of Children and Family Services.

•James McGrath of Springfield was named assistant director of the Illinois Department of Labor. He replaces Jerry Banning, who retired in January.

•Tom Wallace, the outgoing president of Illinois State University, was awarded a severance package that included a year's salary and a cash contribution to his pension plan. The award, granted by the Board of Regents, totaled more than $150,000.

Wallace resigned effective August 15 amid controversy over his accepting several thousand dollars from the ISU Foundation. He received a no-confidence vote from the faculty, the first in the institution's history.

•Thomas Layzell resigned as chancellor of the Board of Governors to be commissioner for Mississippi's State Institutions of Higher Learning.

•Douglas Dougherty was named executive director of the Rural Affairs Council and director of the Illinois Distance Learning Foundation. He replaces Louis DiFonso, who joined the Department of Corrections as director of substance abuse services.

•State Rep. Ed Zabrocki is quitting the legislature. The freshman Republican will officially resign his House seat on August 15. He's quoted in the Chicago Tribune: "When we have politics here in Tinley Park ... we don't bury the ax in each other."

New senator for 50th District sworn in

Larry Bomke (below) of Springfield was sworn in on July 1 to replace former state Sen. Karen Hasara, who resigned to work full-time as mayor of Springfield.

Bomke, 45, was appointed by 50th District Republican county chairmen. A member of the Sangamon County Board for 19 years, he was its chairman for the past two years. He is a partner in the Hollis, Neff and Bomke Insurance Agency in Springfield.

Because Hasara resigned her four-year term just six months after her election, Bomke will have to stand for election in November 1996. Steve Denton of Leland Grove, a veterans' activist, has declared his intention to run for the seat.

Former Chicago School Board member
pleads guilty to tax evasion; new board named

D. Sharon Grant, former president of the Chicago School Board, pleaded not guilty to state charges of failing to file income tax returns for 1990 through 1993. Earlier, she pleaded guilty on similar federal charges. Federal and state prosecutors said Grant deliberately concealed more than $1 million in income by failing to file income tax returns. Grant reportedly agreed to plead guilty to the federal charge and pay a $350,000 fine in exchange for avoiding prison.

Grant's legal problems and resignation from the school board came at the same time Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was making appointments to the city's new school board. Daley, who under new state law has full control of the Chicago school system for the next four years, appointed his former chief of staff, Gery Chico, as president of the five-member board.

Others appointed to the board's four-year terms are: native Chicagoan Norman Bobins, president and CEO of LaSalle National Bank; Dr. Tariq Butt, director of the Mount Sinai Madison Family Health Center on the city's West Side; Sharon Gist Gilliam, a former top official in Mayor Harold Washington's administration and currently chief operating officer of the Unison Consulting Group; and Gene Saffold, a Hyde Park resident who is director of Smith Barney's public finance division.

Daley also appointed the board of education's management team, which includes: Cozette Buckney as chief of staff; Leonard Dominguez as director of policy and research; Ken Gotsch as chief financial officer; former principal Pat Harvey as chief accountability officer; Diane Minor as chief procurement officer; Ben Reyes as chief operating officer; former principal Lynn St. James as chief education officer; and former city budget director Paul Vallas as chief executive officer.

More join the race for the 20th Congressional District

Patrick Baikauskas of Springfield, legislative liaison for the Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, is entering the GOP primary race for the House seat of Rep. Richard Durbin, who hopes to move to the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Paul Simon. Prior to his current state job, Baikauskas was a Social Security Administration legislative liaison under President George Bush, director of Illinois' office in Washington, D.C., under Gov. James Thompson and an aide to the late U.S. Rep. George O'Brien of Joliet.

Shirley Roney of Bonnie in Jefferson County also announced her intention to run in the GOP primary. Roney, who has been a journalist, is currently a communications specialist for community development programs.

Baikauskas and Roney join Rick Angel of Litchfield and Bill Owens of Springfield in the race.

40/August 1995/Illinois Issues

People                                                                     

Congressman goes to trial on sex charges

The trial for U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds, who is charged with sexual assault and obstruction of justice, began July 19 in the courtroom of Judge Fred Suria Jr. in Chicago. The charges stem from Reynolds' alleged affair with a former campaign worker who once said they had sex when she was 16 years old. The girl, Beverly Heard, has since recanted her story; authorities say the two-term Democratic congressman orchestrated the recantation. Chief prosecutor Andrea Zopp expects the case to last about one month. Reynolds is represented by Ed Genson of the Chicago law firm Genson, Steinback, Gillespie and Martin.

State Sen. Alice Palmer (D-13) has announced she is a candidate for Reynolds' 2nd District seat.

But where are the tie bars?

The State University Retirement System's governing board has been reduced from 11 to nine members under legislation signed on July 21. Gov. Jim Edgar, who has sole appointment authority, named J. Fred Giertz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Emma Taylor, Independence Bank of Chicago; Nancy DeSombre, Harold Washington College; Jane Henneman, The Downey Group Inc.; Stan Rives, former president of Eastern Illinois University; Art Aikman, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; Jack Schultz, Agracel Inc.; Pat McKenzie, Travel by Swan; and Talat Othman, Dearborn Financial Inc.

The move follows the resignation of Dennis Spice, the retirement system's director. Spice leaves the post with an $87,100 severance package. The board initially planned to give Spice a year's salary, or $129,200, when he resigned, but reduced the package under pressure from Edgar's aides. Spice stepped down after a state audit disclosed that his pay and benefits included paid country club memberships, a $7,000 car allowance and an agency credit card that he used to purchase luggage and meals — and three 14-carat gold tie bars. Spice told a House committee they were presents for board members but were never given to them.

Illinoisan John J. Kornacki has been appointed by U. S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich to head the representatives' new Legislative Resource Center, an expanded office that encompasses the former Office of Historian. As director, Kornacki will run the House library, the records and registration office, the documents office and the newly named House Historical Office. Kornacki has been executive director of the Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Leadership Research Center in Pekin for the past eight years. The nonprofit, nonpartisan center is the repository of the papers of the late Senate Minority Leader Dirksen and former House Minority Leader Bob Michel of Peoria. Here, Kornacki checks documents and memorabilia from Michel for the archives. An adjunct faculty member of the University of Illinois at Springfield, Kornacki began his new duties in mid-July.

New president for U of I alumni

Roger Plummer (above) of Highland Park is the new president of the 120,500-member University of Illinois Alumni Association. A member of the class of 1964, he is the first African American to head the organization.

Plummer grew up in Chicago and attended the U of I at Navy Pier for two years. In 1962 he transferred to the Urbana-Champaign campus to study engineering. After graduation he started with Illinois Bell and worked for nearly 30 years with the company that became Ameritech. When he retired in 1993, he was president of the Custom Business Services Unit. He now heads his own firm, Plummer and Associates Consulting, based in Highland Park.

Lawyers associations name new presidents

Rene A. Torrado Jr. of Glenview is the new president of the 22,000-member Chicago Bar Association. A Cuban American, he is the first Hispanic to head the organization. He is a partner at Ved-der, Price, Kaufman and Kammholz. Torrado succeeds Richard J. Prendergast.

David V. Dorris of Bloomington is the new president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. He is a lawyer in the firm of Jerome Mirza and Associates, Bloomington and Chicago. He succeeds Curt N. Rodin of Chicago.