BGA Public Eye: Now agency chairman, Schillerstrom's law firm to end tollway bond work

 

BGA Public Eye: Now agency chairman, Schillerstrom's law firm to end tollway bond work

Written By Better Government Association Posted: 06/14/2015, 11:22am

 

When Bruce Rauner ran for governor last year, he counted former DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom among those endorsing him.

Schillerstrom hosted a campaign fundraiser that brought in $25,000, gave $1,000 from his own political fund and introduced the future governor to other potential backers.

“I was a supporter of the governor early on,” Schillerstrom said in an interview.

Now Rauner has become a supporter of Schillerstrom, appointing the attorney and fellow Republican to the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board of directors in May then, this month, naming him chairman of the agency, which oversees billions of dollars in road projects in northern Illinois and controls more than 1,500 government jobs.

 

Schillerstrom’s law firm, Indianapolis-based Ice Miller LLP, has been doing legal work for the tollway system since at least 2008 for which it’s been paid a total of $236,945 over the past several years.

Ice Miller is involved in two current bond deals that could get the firm another $200,000, according to records and interviews.

Schillerstrom said he isn’t directly involved in those deals.

In any case, a tollway spokeswoman said Schillerstrom “will forgo any financial participation from Ice Miller’s work on these transactions.”

Schillerstrom initially said he could indirectly benefit from the tollway business because he’s an equity partner at Ice Miller’s Lisle office and shares in profits. He later said he won’t benefit from the tollway legal work in any way.

 

Ice Miller will continue working on the current bond transactions because “leaving now could stop or delay the deals,” Schillerstrom said.

But agency officials and the firm have agreed that Ice Miller, which has a four-year contract that was to expire in 2017, won’t get future bond work as long as Schillerstrom is on the tollway board “to avoid future conflicts,” a tollway official said.

“We want to make sure there’s no conflict,” Schillerstrom said. “We recognize that, going forward with me on the board, we have to change this.”

His law firm was hired in March to provide legal counsel on the two pending tollway transactions: a $400 million bond sale to help pay for road projects that may include widening the Jane Addams Tollway and the refinancing of $350 million of bonds sold in 2007 and 2008.

The $400 million deal could close as soon as July, with the law firm getting $100,000 in fees, according to the tollway authority. The other deal could close at any time and pay the firm up to $100,000 in fees.

Schillerstrom, who has been with Ice Miller since 2004, said he informed Rauner’s staff before his appointment of the firm’s work for the tollway.

Ice Miller is one of a pool of 10 law firms that provide legal counsel to the tollway on bond offerings and related matters, according to the agency.

Schillerstrom, who was DuPage County Board chairman for 12 years, left the  board in 2010 and since 2012 has been a registered lobbyist with clients that have included an Indiana technology firm and the South Suburban Joint Action Water Agency.

Schillerstrom said he is stepping away from lobbying: “I will not and cannot be a lobbyist if I’m a tollway director.”

As chairman of the tollway board, a position most recently held by Paula Wolff, Schillerstrom is paid $36,077 a year and gets health insurance. That’s in addition to the $119,640 yearly pension he receives from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund stemming from his DuPage County government tenure, according to interviews and records.

BGA Public Eye: Now agency chairman, Schillerstrom's law firm to end tollway bond work

Gov. Rauner outlines second round of cuts if balanced budget isn't approved - News - The State Journal-Register - Springfield, IL

 

By Doug Finke and Seth A. Richardson, State Capitol Bureau

Posted Jun. 12, 2015 at 3:52 PM
Updated Jun 13, 2015 at 8:28 AM

Funding for construction projects other than roads will be suspended, spending on Amtrak cut, and funding for the University of Illinois Extension, soil and water conservation districts and the Illinois tobacco Quitline put on hold under a new round of budget cuts Gov. Bruce Rauner announced Friday.

Altogether, the extensive list of proposed spending cuts will save about $420 million in the budget year that begins July 1, the administration said.

The proposed cuts, like a round of $400 million in proposed cuts announced last week, are intended to close what is currently a $4 billion hole in a state spending plan approved by the Democratic-controlled legislature.

The Republican governor's administration once again blamed the cuts on House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, both Chicago Democrats. In a prepared statement, the administration said the two have "refused to pass real, compromise reforms that will grow the economy, pay down the debt and end the era of wasteful spending and broken budgets."

"In preparation for the possibility of having no budget on July 1 or a budget with a $4 billion hole, the administration is initiating its second round of steps to responsibly manage the state's finances," the administration said.

Spokesman Lance Trover said Rauner has repeatedly compromised on issues, "but Speaker Madigan and the politicians he controls to block any real reform.

"It's deeply troubling to see that Speaker Madigan remains committed to sacrificing the middle class in order to protect the political class," Trover said.

Read more details: Gov. Rauner outlines second round of cuts if balanced budget isn't approved - News - The State Journal-Register - Springfield, IL

$2M Rauner donor's company does business with state, has exceeded $50K limit past 4 years - News - The State Journal-Register - Springfield, IL

 

• By Bernard Schoenburg, Political Writer

  Posted Jun. 13, 2015 at 10:00 PM

  The head of a company that has done more than $50,000 in business with the state in each of the past four years donated $2 million to Gov. Bruce Rauner's campaign fund in December in apparent conflict with state campaign finance laws.

  Richard Uihlein of Lake Forest is CEO of Uline, a packaging supply company now based in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. In December, he gave Citizens for Rauner a $2 million contribution. Uihlein's wife, Elizabeth, is president of the firm, and she donated $25,000 to Rauner in October.

  According to comptroller's records, Uline has been paid more than $80,000 for purchases by agencies under the governor in fiscal year 2015, which ends June 30. The previous year, fiscal 2014, such agency purchases from Uline totaled more than $86,000. The total was about $70,000 in fiscal 2013 and $100,000 in fiscal 2012.

  Those totals represent the bulk of Uline sales to the state each year but don't include purchases made by parts of state government not under the governor's control.

  The state's chief procurement officer, Matt Brown, said his agency is investigating the matter.

  At a news conference (hear audio) on the grounds of the Executive Mansion last week, the Republican governor — who has frequently spotlighted what he says are conflicts of interest between donors and elected officials — again criticized the Democrats who lead the General Assembly as "working for government insiders." He was asked about wealthy donors to his own campaign.

  "My donors are taxpayers," Rauner said. "And the reality is, I have not taken money from folks who do business with the state, who make money from the government. … Frankly, it's illegal for businesses or individuals who contract or do business with the state to do business with politicians. That's a good restriction. I haven't taken any money from any of those folks. My donors are taxpayers, pure and simple."

  A state law that took effect in 2010 state, "Any business entity whose contracts with State agencies, in the aggregate, annually total more than $50,000 … are prohibited from making any contributions to any political committee established to promote the candidacy of (i) the officeholder responsible for awarding the contracts or (ii) any other declared candidate for that office." Vendors whose business exceeds the threshold are supposed to register with the State Board of Elections.

  Page 2 of 4 - "I can't speak for whether or not Uline should be registered — the onus is on the contributor," Rauner spokesman Lance Trover said in an emailed statement. "As you know, Citizens for Rauner had a strong record of compliance during the campaign."

  A phone message left with a Uline spokesperson was not returned Friday.

  Rauner became a declared candidate, as defined in the statute, when he filed his nominating petitions for governor in December 2013, which was in the middle of the state's fiscal 2014.

  'Analysis' underway

  Brown said that after he was told by The State Journal-Register last week of Uline's aggregate state business, he asked the state purchasing officers who report to him to gather information to see if the donations from the Uihlein s and the state business going to Uline are outside the boundaries of the law.

  "If there's money expended from the state's treasury and we have that company receiving those funds in remuneration for contracts or business … obviously there's a $50,000 threshold there," he said.

  Brown said agencies can spend up to $20,000 on a purchase without a contract, and it is not unusual for companies that sell to many agencies to not immediately realize they have crossed the $50,000 threshold. He said that when he and purchasing agents find such cases, "we ask those companies to go ahead and disclose" their vendor relationship. He also said meetings of purchasing agents can lead to recommendations that there be a master contract bid for certain items.

  "An agency can go out under their small purchase authority and they can say, 'I need $5,000 worth of boxes,' and order $5,000 worth of boxes and pay the invoice," Brown said, speaking hypothetically. "And the state doesn't have the technology that essentially filters all those invoices and says, 'Hey, you guys know we're spending $78,000 this year with this company in small purchases?' "

  In several cases, Brown said, officeholders that receive contributions from companies doing more than $50,000 annually in state business have had to give the amount of the donation to the state's general revenue fund.

  As for whether that means Citizens for Rauner, the governor's campaign fund, will have to give more than $2 million to the state treasury because of Uline's state business, Brown said he didn't want to go that far.

  "We want to conduct that analysis before I give you any idea what the outcome could be," he said.

  The Executive Ethics Commission, which is the body that named Brown to his five-year term as chief procurement officer for general services, has a list of more than 30 contributions that were made by state vendors and then donated to the state. That includes a $250 donation to Rauner's campaign fund in February from Prairie State Plumbing & Heating Inc., based in Athens, and $1,000 donated in April to the Rauner fund by Springfield Electric Supply Co.

  Page 3 of 4 - Both of those companies are registered as vendors with the State Board of Elections, but Uline is not.

  Technical violation?

  Comptroller's office records of spending with Uline show payments were in relatively small amounts. The largest annual total for any agency in the current fiscal year is $17,876 from the Department of Transportation, for example. More than $12,000 has been spent on Uline goods so far this year by the Department of Natural Resources, and some orders have been as small as $170, which was paid by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

  Even if there is merely a technical violation, given the relatively low amount of state spending with the firm and the large associated political donations, the situation still deserves to be reconciled with the law, Brown said.

  "Irrespective of how the scales weigh — the value of the contract versus the value of the contribution — it doesn't get them off the hook," Brown said. "My job as CPO is to understand the magnitude of the violation."

  A company like Uline, he added, may decide it wants to stop doing business with the state in order to allow its owners to keep contributing to candidates.

  Richard Uihlein's $2 million donation was part of $20 million Rauner's campaign fund raised in late December. Of that total, Rauner donated $10 million, and Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, a hedge fund based in Chicago, donated $8 million.

  In a 2013 story in Crain's Chicago Business, Uihlein was quoted as saying, "I'm a conservative Republican, and I'm trying to help people who believe as I do in limited government and free markets." He said at the time that Wisconsin officials had aggressively courted the Uline headquarters. He also said that Illinois' fiscal crisis worried him enormously.

  "Bruce is the only one in the race who isn't beholden to public sector unions," Uihlein said at the time.

  Brown, of Auburn, said he was not reappointed to another five-year term by the Executive Ethics Commission and is leaving his post at the end of June. Named by the commission to replace him as of July 1 is Ellen Daley of Chicago, who is now deputy general counsel — procurement at the Department of Central Management Services. She is up for Senate confirmation.

  Page 4 of 4 - — Contact Bernard Schoenburg: bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com, 788-1540, twitter.com/bschoenburg.

• By Bernard Schoenburg, Political Writer

  The State Journal-Register

   

$2M Rauner donor's company does business with state, has exceeded $50K limit past 4 years - News - The State Journal-Register - Springfield, IL

Illinois governor rejects possibility of temporary budget - Yahoo News

 

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner on Thursday rejected the possibility of a short-term spending plan to keep the state operating beyond the July 1 start of fiscal 2016 if there is no deal over a full-year budget.

"An unbalanced short-term budget with no real reforms is still a phony budget and unacceptable to the people of Illinois," said a statement from the Republican governor's office.

On Wednesday, Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger said nearly all payments handled by her office will cease on July 1 without appropriation authority contained in an enacted fiscal 2016 budget. That includes workers' paychecks and new payments to Medicaid providers.

The Illinois Hospital Association said on Thursday that a lack of state funding for Medicaid, the healthcare program for poor residents, could jeopardize access to services for children, seniors and families, and the ability of hospitals to meet their operating expenses.

"If a budget resolution does not appear likely by the end of the month, the adoption of a temporary one-month budget should be considered to preserve access to essential health services until a final budget agreement is reached," the group said in a statement.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, a union local which represents 38,000 people employed by the state of Illinois, could go to court as it has done in the past to ensure workers are paid, said Anders Lindall, its spokesman, adding that an interim budget could avert a shutdown.

"Failing that, our union will be prepared to do whatever’s necessary to ensure that public services are not disrupted and public service workers are paid on time and in full," he said.

Democrats, who control the House and Senate, have passed a $36.3 billion budget that relies on cuts and at least $3 billion in yet-to-be-identified new revenue. Rauner has insisted that lawmakers approve his so-called turnaround agenda, which includes term limits and a local property tax freeze, before he will consider a tax increase.

The governor's office said a budget deal can still be reached this month with Democrats if they embrace "real reform and compromise to grow the economy."

In 2007, the Illinois legislature passed a one-month temporary budget amid a fiscal 2008 spending dispute with then-Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich. A full-year budget was not signed into law until Aug. 23, 2007.

Illinois governor rejects possibility of temporary budget - Yahoo News

Some Democrats say Governor Rauner is 'personable' when he's not gutting services for the poor and infirm

Some Democrats say Governor Rauner is 'personable' when he's not gutting services for the poor and infirm

Posted By Mick Dumke on 06.12.15 at 07:30 AM

• Peter Holderness / Sun-Times
• Alderman Danny Solis (above) says Governor Bruce Rauner is pretty friendly for a "conservative, right-wing Republican."

Governor Bruce Rauner scheduled time to meet with Chicago alderman Danny Solis on Friday, January 23, just a week and a half after he was inaugurated.
Solis says a Rauner aide got in touch and asked him to have a chat in the governor's office at the Thompson Center. Like almost every other elected official in Chicago, Solis is a Democrat, while the governor is a Republican who campaigned by attacking entrenched Democratic leaders in Springfield.
Still, members of the two parties have been known to speak before they start cursing each other's children, and the alderman welcomed the meeting. "I thought it was a good idea," Solis says.
Solis says he sat on a couch in the governor's office as they talked casually and agreed to keep the lines of communication open. "He told me there were a lot of issues that we were going to have different positions on, and he understood that I would be publicly against him, and he would appreciate some contact with his staff," Solis says.
When Rauner asked Solis for his input, the alderman says he advised him not to attack President Obama's immigration reforms, as other GOP governors have done. Rauner appeared to listen. "He is very personable," Solis says.
Unless, he adds, you're house speaker Michael Madigan or senate president John Cullerton. Rauner is ripping them by name as he tries to turn the state budget impasse into a referendum on machine politics.
"I feel that he is definitely a conservative, right-wing Republican," Solis says. "And on the issues I'm going to be more with the speaker and John Cullerton."
While Rauner pushes his "turnaround" agenda of restricting union rights and workers' compensation, he's filled his daily schedule with meetings, briefings, and phone calls around the state. And he's made it clear that he's interested in hearing from a range of elected officials.
That's the part of the story he wants you to know.
Here are the parts he doesn't: the governor is also consulting people whose names he wants to keep secret. As Ben Joravsky and I reported this week, Rauner redacted more than 150 appointments from the copies of his daily calendar that he released publicly—and that's just for the first three and half months of his tenure.
At the same time, elected officials from both parties are listed by name on his meeting schedule. But that's not all it appears to be either.
Reaching out to legislators and local officials is something Rauner should do as the state's chief executive. It's also something he wants to do as the state's political blamer in chief: it allows him to claim the high road while blasting Madigan, Cullerton, and "the legislators they control" for putting politics ahead of Illinois.
Several of the Democratic pols who met with the governor describe him as friendly and attentive—and committed to scoring points against the Democratic leadership.
A couple weeks after his talk with Solis, the governor sat down with freshman state rep Pamela Reaves-Harris, another Chicago Democrat. She says she requested the meeting after Rauner proposed axing $6.7 billion from the budget, including funds for day care and mental health services.
Reaves-Harris grew up in the former Cabrini-Green public housing development before working her way through the University of Illinois and becoming an attorney. "I wanted him to see me as evidence of what government can do," she says.
She says Rauner seemed concerned when she spoke of how social service cuts would hurt people in her near-north and west-side district. But he noted that state finances are a mess, and "he made it clear that he has an issue with legislators who have made a career out of politics."
Reaves-Harris argues the state needs to bring in more money, yet the governor won't discuss it while his probusiness proposals flounder in the Democratic legislature. "Most of the conversations he's having in the public are more about his turnaround agenda, and I have a problem with him holding the budget hostage."
Cook County commissioner Richard Boykin also made the governor's appointment calendar, on March 13. Boykin says he too requested a meeting so he could ask the governor not to cut mental health funding.
He was pleased when Rauner agreed to declare May 31 "No Stigma Sunday" as a way to encourage people to seek help for mental health issues. "He not only responded to me verbally—he responded in deed," Boykin says.
But when May 31 came around, the governor was fighting with Madigan and Cullerton as the deadline to pass a budget came and went. His office didn't even send out a press release about "No Stigma Sunday."
Boykin argues that legislators should give the governor something he wants—as long as he agrees to sign off on a tax increase on the wealthy to pay for social services. "That's called compromise."

FROM:  http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2015/06/12/some-democrats-say-governor-rauner-is-personable-when-hes-not-gutting-services-for-the-poor-and-infirm

Governor Rauner Blacked Out 150 Appointments On Official Schedule

Governor Bruce Rauner, champion of transparency and efficient government, has apparently censored at least 150 appointments on his official schedule.
Following repeated requests for copies of Gov. Rauner's public schedule under the Freedom of Information Act, the Chicago Reader finally received a copy. The results were not exactly what the reporters expected, as they were sent a heavily redacted version of the governor's schedule from inauguration day through the end of April with more than 150 individual appointments blacked out.
When the Reader pushed back on the governor's staff, they were told by Associate General Counsel to the Governor Donovan Borvan that the redacted events were covered by two general loopholes in the FOIA law: one which exempts "preliminary" records and another which allows governments to withhold documents protected by attorney-client privilege. The Reader, doing their due diligence, asked how these provisions applied, but did not receive a response from Gov. Rauner's staff.
The Governor is currently pushing his "Illinois Turnaround" agenda, which has been more or less boiled down to being anti-union and pro-spending cuts. Interestingly, Rauner's schedule lists meetings between him and various elected officials to discuss his agenda, as well as members of the press. Which leads one to wonder what, exactly, is so important about these meetings that they had to be redacted from the copy of the schedule.
One of Gov. Rauner's first acts in office was to sign an executive order which publicly listed the state's political hires on the Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal website. In a statement at the time of the signing, he said:

"The IDOT hiring scandal proved the public deserves a way to easily find out who are all the political appointees in state government. We need to restore faith in state government if we expect the people of Illinois to help the government in its mission. This Executive Order is a first step towards earning back the people's trust. Taxpayers at every level of government deserve to know more about how their money is being spent. The action we are taking today will help build a more open and accountable government."

In six short months, we've gone from Illinois residents deserving to know more about what their government is doing to the state denying our ability to know what the chief executive is up to. What could be on tap for the next six months?

FROM:  http://chicagoist.com/2015/06/11/governor_rauner_blacks_out_150_appo.php

Courier and Smith seek Republican nomination for States Attorney

Two women to vie for Boone County State's Attorney seat for first time in county history

By Ben Stanley
Rockford Register Star

Posted Jun. 10, 2015 at 10:48 AM
Updated Jun 10, 2015 at 11:46 AM

BELVIDERE — Two candidates emerged this week in the race for Boone County state's attorney and for the first time in county history, both of them are women. Incumbent Michelle Courier and challenger Tricia Smith, a former County Board member, announced their bids Tuesday for the Republican nod in the November 2016 election.

The Republican primary will be held in March.

Courier is the first woman to be elected state's attorney in Boone County. Her second term in office will end in 2016. She announced her candidacy for re-election Tuesday night at the Belvidere VFW, 1310 W. Lincoln Ave.

Courier emphasized her track record prosecuting gangs and child predators over the past eight years. In 2009, Courier successfully sued the Latin Kings organization and more than 30 known members in Belvidere and Boone County under the Illinois Street Gang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act. The lawsuit prohibited gang members from spraying graffiti on public and private property, meeting in public, and possessing guns.

"My priorities have remained the same for the last two terms," Courier said Tuesday. "Making sure we aggressively prosecute drug dealers, child predators … those areas aren’t going to change for the next four years.”

Courier said she also plans to coordinate with the judicial system to expedite prosecution in cases of domestic violence and expand diversionary programs designed to allow certain offenders to avoid criminal charges by attending preventative education classes, paying restitution and performing community service if they are unlikely to become repeat offenders.

Smith is running with the support of former Boone County Sheriff Duane Wirth, and John Maville, who served three terms as Boone County state's attorney from 1968 to 1980.

Smith said on Tuesday that the results of Courier's lawsuit against the Latin Kings have been overstated: "These people ... remain in our community and continue to commit crimes."

"The incumbent state's attorney has chosen to address gang activity in our community by suing alleged gang members for fines," Smith said in a statement released Tuesday. "To combat gang activity, I will emphasize vigorous and effective prosecution of crimes committed in Boone County to send gang members to prison."

In addition to her law degree, Smith also has a master's degree in public administration and a degree in administration of criminal justice. She has served on the Boone County Board, spent nearly six years as a Rockford police officer and has worked as both an assistant state's attorney and a defense attorney.

Smith said she isn't necessarily opposed to expanding diversionary programs.

"Sometimes people do make a one-time mistake," Smith said. "I don't want to overburden our criminal justice system if we can divert people into those other programs, but they have to be effective."

 Above is from:  http://www.rrstar.com/article/20150610/NEWS/150619950#150619950/?Start=2&_suid=143403659308606504728687259658