PEOPLE

Edited by Rodd Whelpley

SHIFTS AT THE TOP

David Bender's resignation as Lt.
Gov. Corinne Wood's chief of staff
topped a spate of departures from
that office. Bender left to become the
executive director of the Illinois
Nurseryman's Association. Also
leaving Wood's office were legislative
affairs director Brittan Bolin, policy
chief Barbara Stewart, who will
become a vice president of Bank
One Illinois, and press secretary Erie
Robinson, who is launching his own
communications firm.

Wood moved Chris Hensley to
deputy chief of staff' for Chicago
from chief of strategic planning and
Tom Faulkner to deputy chief of staff
for Springfield from senior policy
executive. She charged a committee
with helping her find a new top aide.

Allan Woodson joined Secretary of
State Jesse White's office as director
of driver services, taking responsibility
for the state's 136 license facilities
and some 1,300 employees. He
replaces Robert Coughlin, who
resigned when reports surfaced he
was fired by the Chicago Police
Department in 1983.

Woodson, former assistant vice
president for human resources at the
University of Illinois at Springfield,
takes over as the office faces a federal
probe into selling of trucker's licenses.
"I'm a by-the-book manager who
complies with the rules and regulations,
" says Woodson. "And our
workers will follow the rules."

The probe was launched after the
1994 deaths of six children in a crash.
The family's van ran over a taillight
assembly that had fallen from a truck
driven by Ricardo Guzman. Secretary
of state records show he received his
commercial license with the help of
three of the eight former state
employees indicted for trading
commercial licenses for campaign
contributions.

James D. Heiple

He's the Illinois Supreme Court justice who represents the state's west central 3rd District. The Peoria Republican, noted for his bluntly worded court opinions, met in his office last summer with public radio reporter Bill Wheelhouse, who is Statehouse bureau chief for WUISIWIPA at the University of Illinois of Springfield.

Wheelhouse talked with Justice Heiple about relations between the legislature and the courts. This is an edited version of the conversation, which aired on public radio stations throughout Illinois. This portion of the conversation centered on court rulings overturning legislation addressing more than one subject, including a measure that combined the issues of sex offenders and leaking underground storage tanks. More recently, the court let stand legislation incorporating spending and revenue matters, arguing that both issues pertained to the budget and were thus naturally and logically connected. Heiple disagreed.

Q. Can you tell me about that?

You have to understand the philosophy behind these Christmas tree bills. You get all these special interests together in one package and they may not care about 90 percent of it, but their little pet project is in the bill. So you pick up votes that way. This is why the constitution of Illinois requires that bills be limited to a single subject, so that the legislators must focus on that subject.

For a period of time, it looked like the Supreme Court was going to enforce that provision. They'd ignored it for years. Then we get a bill that involves budget and tax. And I don't know what motivated them, but on this particular bill they departed from the precedent that they had recently established. And that was the essence of my dissent.

Q. Other rulings did address, from your standpoint, the constitutionality of some of these multisubject pieces of legislation. Do you think that sent any kind of message to the state legislature?

The legislature will take any course of action they can get away with. Certainly, they don't like to have bills declared unconstitutional, and they're going to try to avoid that if they can. You talk about sending messages. I think this recent case sent a very strong message that they can pretty much do what they want.

We also have a requirement that a bill be read on three separate days before it can be passed into law. The Supreme Court will not enforce that constitutional provision. They've had the opportunity to on several occasions.

But the courts are probably the weakest branch of government. They have to depend on appropriation bills from the legislature to pay their salaries, and maintain their offices, and pay for their staff. So there is a power that the legislature has: the power of the purse. And it's a very strong force, and I can't say that the courts are immune to that power.

Speaking for myself, I can tell you I am. If they want to cut our budget, that's their prerogative. They'll have to live with that, and we will too. Judges personally are protected in that our salaries cannot be cut during our term of office. As far as I'm concerned, that's a sufficient protection.

The 3rd is one of four state Supreme Court districts with election contests next year. Heiple told Wheelhouse he had not decided whether to run for retention, but he has until the end of the year to make up his mind.