PEOPLE Edited by Jennifer Halperin SHIFTS AT THE TOP Dan Egler, former speechwriter for Gov. Jim Edgar and Chicago Tribune reporter, has been named deputy director of the state's Capital Development Board. The board is responsible for all construction, repair and renovation of state buildings and facilities. Egler says he'll earn "about $82,000." Taking his place as speechwriter is John Webber, former senior writer/editorial assistant at The Quincy Herald-Whig. He will earn $56,000. APPOINTMENTS Gov. Edgar appointed former state Rep. John Hallock chairman of the Illinois Industrial Commission. The position pays $86,839 annually. Hallock, 50, has been a member of the commission since May 1991. He served as a state representative from 1979 through 1991. then resigned from the House to run unsuccessfully for Congress. Champaign businessman Gene Lamb was named chairman of the Illinois Racing Board, replacing Gary Starkman. The position pays expenses plus $300 per diem for meetings. Lamb, 66, has served on the board since 1991. He is president and chief executive officer of the Champaign Asphalt Co., where he has worked since 1954. Republican Party officials have selected Michael McAuliffe, 33, of northwest Chicago to fill the unexpired term of his late father, state Rep. Roger McAuliffe. The elder McAuliffe, an assistant majority leader, died in early July in a boating accident in Wisconsin. HONORS Chicago economist and urban planning consultant Doris B. Holleb has been named by President Bill Clinton to the National Council on the Humanities, the advisory board for the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Senate approved her appointment this summer. Holleb has been a faculty member of the University of Chicago since 1966. She has served as director of the university's Metropolitan Institute and as a senior research associate at the Center for Urban Studies. Holleb has written several books and articles on housing, economic development, education and poverty. She has served on the Chicago Planning Commission since 1986. The National Council on the Humanities is made up of 26 scholars appointed by the president. They advise the endowment on policy matters and grants.
STATE SCHOLARSHIP SAGA KEEPS GOING AND GOING AND GOING... Gretchen Sutton, daughter of Democratic state Rep. David Phelps of downstate Eldorado, made news this summer when she paid back a legislative scholarship she had received to attend Southern Illinois University. It had been awarded to her by former state Sen. Gary LaPaille, a Chicago Democrat. Soon after, Gov. Jim Edgar used his amendatory veto to change a bill passed by the legislature requiring lawmakers to make public the names of students to whom they give legislative scholarships. Under a 91-year-old state law, legislators are able to award two four-year tuition waivers annually to state schools. The recipient must live in the legislator's district. The scholarship program came under fire this year after reporters found lawmakers have routinely awarded the waivers to relatives, friends or others with political connections. What's more, many legislators apparently were awarding the tuition waivers to students who lived outside of their districts. Edgar's changes call for lawmakers to release names, addresses and the amounts of the awards. He also wants to revoke the scholarships of students who provide false information on their applications, such as incorrect addresses that imply a student lives within a lawmaker's district when he or she does not. Recipients who are found to misrepresent themselves would have to reimburse the state for the amount of the waiver. "I continue to believe that it would be in the best interests of the legislature and the people of Illinois for this program to be abolished," Edgar said. Lawmakers now must approve the governor's changes or override them. If they fail to approve or reverse the changes, the bill dies. Some observers say the House may approve the governor's changes while the Senate lets the measure die. A few lawmakers already have released the names of recent scholarship recipients, including state Reps. Bill Black, a Republican from Danville, and Julie Curry, a Democrat from Decatur. Both say they no longer will award the scholarships. 36 ¦ September 1996 Illinois Issues
Advances in science * A world-renowned expert on electronics has been named director of Argonne National Laboratory. Dean E. Eastman served as vice president of technical strategy and development re-engineering for IBM Server Group, where he worked for 33 years. His specialties are the electronic properties of materials and spectroscopy. U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary praised the appointment, saying Eastman brings "great management ability in addition to his enormous accomplishments as a scientist." Eastman, 56, has been involved in several national science and engineering policy and advisory activities, and holds three patents. He succeeds Alan Schriesheim, who stepped down in July after 12 years. * Chicago Academy of Sciences resident Paul Heltne received an award of recognition from the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society. Heltne was recognized for "his contributions to science education and research, for increasing public appreciation of science, and for development of the Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Nature Museum." Sigma Xi recognizes individuals who support original work in science and technology. The Chicago Academy of Sciences was Chicago's first museum, founded in 1857. It specializes in the ecology and natural history of the Midwest. Teacher unions hire new media relations aides The Illinois Education Association named former reporter Charles McBarron as director of media relations for the 89,000- member union. He formerly headed his own media relations company, McBarron Media Inc. From 1989 to 1994, he worked on a variety of health care and consumer accounts at Bozell Public Relations in Chicago. Previously, McBarron was a reporter, news director and morning radio show personality in Springfield. He also was state capital correspondent for WMAQ- AM when it adopted its "all news" format in 1988. Meanwhile, Dave Comerford has been hired as communications assistant for the Illinois Federation of Teachers. Comerford was a news photographer for Champaign-based WCIA-Channel 3 for two years, working in the station's Statehouse bureau. Before that, he was a reporter/photographer for Decatur-based WAND-TV for six months. Comerford says he was hired to do media relations as well as work on video projects and contribute to the union's newsletters and brochures. Although summer usually is a relatively slow time for teachers' unions, his job pace picked up considerably when the IFT attempted to file suit in August against the state comptroller's office in the wake of the firing of several union members who worked there. Constitutional officer appointments * With an eye toward helping Illinois cities develop their downtowns, Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra created the position of assistant state coordinator of the Illinois Main Street program. Martin T. Lucas, who was named to the position, will be responsible for helping communities develop and implement projects aimed at helping revitalize their downtown areas. His starting annual salary is $35,000. "Marty brings a strong community and economic development background to our office," says Kustra. Lucas has served as executive director of the Galesburg Downtown Council. Kustra created Illinois Main Street in 1993 to provide local leaders and business and property owners with technical assistance for reviving their downtown districts. There are 23 communities downstate and nine in the suburbs currently participating. * State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka has appointed Thomas C. McNichols director of the Illinois Public Treasurers' Investment Pool and Gregg Durham director of media relations. Both men will earn $67,500 annually. McNichols formerly was an assistant vice president at Bank One in Springfield. Durham was director of media relations for the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce. Illinois Issues September 1996 ¦ 37 PEOPLE UNINVITED GUESTS While Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar was in San Diego at the Republican National Convention, his home was raided by state police as part of a two-year investigation into tollway land deals. The Chicago Tribune reported police also raided the office of Claar's accountant, Phillip Engstrom, and the Chicago office of lobbyist and former lawmaker Al Ronan. The Illinois State Police inquiry turned to Claar in connection with the tollway authority's purchase of 27 acres near suburban Lemont from land developer Donald Hedg, who has contributed to Claar's campaign, according to the newspaper. Police are investigating thousands of dollars that have passed between Hedg, Ronan and Claar's consulting firm. Earlier this summer, The Associated Press reported that Claar received a payout from a controversial Illinois Toll Highway Authority supplemental pension program. Claar is a board member of the tollway authority. Overall, 485 employees of the authority received nearly $12 million through the pension plan, which began in 1990 and was abolished four years later. The AP reported that eight workers were eligible for payouts greater than $100,000 each. Others who received payments included Senate President James "Pate" Philip's brother Arthur ($16,254), Gov. Jim Edgar's nephew Todd ($1,280), and the ex-wife of former tollway authority chief and Edgar fund-raiser Robert Hickman, according to the AP. Hickman's former wife, Jacqueline, got $73,719. Hickman is under indictment in an Oak Brook land sale. OBITUARY John A. McDermott, founder of the award-winning Chicago Reporter magazine, died August 17. He had suffered from leukemia. McDermott, 70, moved to Chicago in 1960 to serve as director of the Catholic Interracial Council of Chicago. He later served as publisher and editor of the Reporter, a publication that focuses on issues of racial justice. McDermott also served as director of urban affairs for Illinois Bell. PEOPLE PUT THE SPOTLIGHT ON AN ISSUE: Citizens group wins court challenge to law aimed at protecting township governments Townships have been part of Illinois government since 1848, and controversial nearly that long. The latest skirmish concerns legislation enacted in 1995, which requires that the simple majority of votes to abolish townships throughout a county be spread over three-fourths of the townships, a change that makes it far more difficult to eliminate townships or even organize campaigns against them. DuPage County Circuit Judge Robert E. Byrne recently declared the provision unconstitutional. Illinois has far more units of local government — more than 6,600 — than any other state. Roughly one-fifth are townships. Their statutory functions are tax assessment, general assistance and road maintenance; they may assume other functions as well. When the state was sparsely settled, with few local governments, this made sense. Detractors say that the scheme is no longer needed. Assessment is uneven, inequitable and often inefficient. General assistance, now called "transitional assistance," could be handled by the Department of Public Aid, while road maintenance, already duplicated by counties, could be taken over by county governments. Townships also have been called "the last bastion of patronage." Supporters point out that the state and counties would be unable to absorb care of 71,000 miles of road and 17,000 bridges. They emphasize the advantage of local knowledge in assessing property for taxation. Finally, with the potential of citizen participation in a town meeting atmosphere, they see township government as "the last bastion of democracy." But opponents of the law changing the rules for abolishing townships saw it as anything but democratic. The Illinois Constitution says that citizens may merge or dissolve township governments individually or on a countywide basis by a simple majority vote. But under the 1995 law, a majority vote would be required in three-quarters of the county's townships for a countywide referendum to pass. "Under the Constitution, if you fail to get 50 percent plus one, you lose," says Theresa Amato, executive director of the Citizens Advocacy Center (CAC), an Elmhurst organization that works to safeguard citizen rights. "Under this law, there are myriad ways to lose. You could have 95 percent voting in favor, but if the vote was not distributed properly, you lose." In a county with, for example, nine townships, abolitionists would need to carry seven of the townships to pass their referendum. "It would necessitate a miniature campaign in all the townships," says Amato. "You'd have to go township by township." The CAC challenged the constitutionality of the law on behalf of STOP (Send Township Officials Packing), an alliance of citizens trying to end township taxes as well as individuals seeking to place a referendum to abolish townships in DuPage County on a countywide ballot in November. Judge Byrne said there was no ambiguity in the Constitution and ruled the measure conflicted with the plain language of the constitutional provisions that sanction changes in township government. Citing debate at the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention, Byrne concluded, "Clearly, the drafters did not intend that the referendum must be approved by a majority in each township to abolish all township government in a county, as defendant suggests." Amato hailed Byrne's ruling as a victory for citizens seeking to affect government by initiative. She said citizen advocates had urged state lawmakers and Gov. Jim Edgar to abandon efforts to change the law. "But," she added, "our state officials went right ahead and chose to enact a law to dissuade people from using initiatives to have access to the ballot so that the politicians could protect their political allies in township government from the will of the voters." The state does not plan to appeal. F. Mark Siebert 38 ¦ September 1996 Illinois Issues |
|||||||||||||||
