This month IVI-IPO is electing officers for the organization and its chapters. The mail-in balllots are due Thursday, July 22. I am a candidate for delegate from the south chapter.
Today I mailed a questionnaire to all the candidates running for offices either in the statewide organization or from the south chapter. (I'm waiting to get the names and addresses of candidates in other chapters.)
I will post the responses on Prairie State Blue as I get them.
Chicago City Clerk Miguel del Valle's office anounces a major step toward transparency in Chicago city government. Starting today, the public can watch (Chicago) City Council meetings live and on-demand through a new archive video page on the City Clerk website.
The archive video feature was created in collaboration with and through the recommendation of Dick Simpson and several community groups and good government organizations, including IVI-IPO, the BGA, the League of Women Voters and the Union League Club.
Clerk del Valle noted that bill info and video will soon be linked, searchable, and cross-referenced
Despite suggestions that Dem US Senate candidate David Hoffman is a regional candidate, Mayor of Urbana Laurel Prussing expanded Hoffman's endorsement reach by joining influencers like IVI-IPO, the Daily Herald, the Trib, and, today, the Chicago Sun-Times. In this cold, short election season, where one of the fastest growing FaceBook pages is the "No February Elections" page
http://www.facebook.com/group.... is that going to be enough to overcome Giannoulias' name recognition and residual good will lead? Only God (or FSM, if you prefer), and the pundits on this page know!
Early voting has started. I've done my duty. How about you?
The only comment I got on my last post was a request for more local politics. Of course, seeing as how this commenter had also complained a while back that one of my pieces was too Chicago-centric, I guess I'm taking my chances here.
I got a call yesterday, actually a message about a call my wife took, urging me to attend my local IVI-IPO endorsement session and support his endorsement. I have just just returned from that session. Now usually the only reason one gets a call from a candidate is because they are a good progressive and they are afraid of losing to the machine or some other serious threat. Since this was a local session I figured I must know him. The name was vaguely familiar, was it someone in Northside Democracy for America.
The Chicago Reader has a sensational story in it today, but, as usual in this town, the story with the real impact on the lives, services and taxes of Chicago's citizens is probably going to go virtually unnoticed right next to it.
The story titled "Transparency in Action - How a bill intended to expand the state Freedom of Information Act was bastardized to expand the mayor's shadow budget", by Ben Joravsky, talks about how the state legislature snuck in an extreme extension of some of the City of Chicago secret slush funds known as TIFs, from a generational 24 years to a nearly two generation long 36 years. And people that this blog would consider 'friends' helped.
On Thursday, November 19, IVI-IPO will host a party to meet the candidates. The event will be at Quartino's, 626 N. State St., Chicago, from 6:00-8:00 PM.
The event is free for IVI-IPO members (unless you are a candidate). Tickets are $50 each. RSVP by email, iviipo circled "a" Yahoo, or call, (312) 939-5105.
On Saturday, Nov. 21, and Sunday, Nov. 22, IVI-IPO will hold candidate endorsement sessions at University Center, 2nd Floor - Loop River Room, 525 S. State St., Chicago. For the schedule see below the fold.
It's been a big day for IVI-IPO. More to come from state chair, Bob Bartell in coming days...
Meter deal illegal, suit asks for court to declare contract void
CHICAGO - The Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization and board member Aviva Patt, represented by atty. Clint Krislov, filed suit in Cook County Court Wednesday in an attempt to overturn the city's privatization of parking meters.
IVI-IPO will hold a meeting for members to identify problems and suggest solutions to the endorsement process. The state board (board of directors) will then consider modifying the process.
The meeting will be Wednesday, August 5, 6:30 PM, at Chicago Temple, 77 W. Washington.
IVI-IPO requests members submit concerns and suggestions in advance by emailing iviipo circeld "a" Yah00. (Organizers request suggestions be submitted by Monday, August 3.)
As I understand the situation, both IVI-IPO members and critics agree with the general critique that IVI-IPO endorsements are unduly influenced by people who are not "independent". In some cases ward organizations actively stack the deck by getting large numbers of members to join IVI-IPO to influence the process. Generally, there are many members participating in the endorsement process that are partisan Democrats closely allied with specific politicians.
Last year, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, after bum-rushing the City Council to fill a supposed multi-hundred million dollar gap in the city budget, sold the city parking meters for, potentially, a billion dollars less than their worth. At the time he claimed that there was no other way for us to come up with that money. This year he is threatening lay-offs and/or furlough days for hundreds of city employees because he said there was no other way to close the city's fiscal gap.
At a meeting tonight sponsored by IVI-IPO (Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization), Cook County Clerk David Orr, Alderman Scott Waguespack and Chicago Reader reporter Ben Joravsky will reveal over 500 million dollars of city tax money hidden away in slush funds around the city, money that could easily close those gaps.
Surprised that you haven't heard anything about this? The answer is you probably have, but haven't understood what Tax Increment Financing Districts (TIFs) are and how they are abused. By David Orr's account last year, there's over 550 million dollars of city tax money sitting in these accounts that are administered in the least transparent way that you can imagine. Tonight's meeting gives you the opportunity to find out about an abuse that costs you and me a fortune, and creates headaches like the parking meter deal, and then ask these three experts what can be done about it.
Date:
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Time:
7:00pm - 8:30pm
Location:
Logan Square Public Library
Street:
3030 W. Fullerton
City/Town:
Chicago, IL
If you are not able to make it, there are people who are expected to be posting from the event. Check IVI-IPO's facebook page for more info. Hope to see you there.
Pat Quinn was the featured guest and main speaker at IVI-IPO's 65th annual Independent's Day Dinner on Saturday, 6/20/09. WCPT Radio has posted a podcast of the event on their site.
This is what they said about the event:
WCPT attended this wonderful dinner that featured Aaron Freeman as the host and Governor Quinn as the keynote speaker; the topic was "Reform in Illinois". The event usually drew a couple of hundred Illinois progressives and awards were given to the following individuals:
The Leon Despres Award for Political Independence was given to Toni Preckwinkle.
The Harold Washington Award went to the Save Grant Park Coalition.
The Labor Award went to Carl Rosen, who was instrumental in the Republic Windows action.
The Saul Mendelson Social Justice Award went to Mahaley Sommerville, from Action Now and a long-time social justice activist.
The Legal Eagle Award went to the National Immigration Justice Center and the Voting Rights Award to Xavier Noguera.
(March 10th, 6ish, IVI-IPO offices at 1325 S Wabash suite 105)
If I may repeat myself. IVI-IPO recently had a change of leadership. The new leadership is hoping to improve the organization. That's a pretty common paradigm but also it's an opportunity for those of us into progressive change. Now during the recent IL-05 election campaign several of us here had ideas for improvements for IVI-IPO's endorsement process. Naturally, organizations with a long historical memory, like IVI-IPO, operate conservatively. In the good sense. What may strike someone new to the organization as an imperfect way of doing something, may also turn out to have been a very rational solution to a previous problem learned the hard way.
The way one discovers these historical lessons is to engage with the historical memory of the organization, which is to say the long-timers in the organization. Now often those long-timers in the organization are very focused on their organization. That's how you get things done. That means that they may not come to a place like PSB to hear our ideas and set us right as needed. And indeed why should they? No reason actually unless they themselves may have an idea on how we could improve things around here.
So about three weeks ago I set out to set a double example.
[Note: This is Part I of a multi diary report. The next installments will be hammered out over the next two days.]
There is a palpable stirring at IVI-IPO. It may seem slow to those folks that have gotten used to internet time frames, but then look at how long the Obama campaign ran and think along those time frames. Two years ago IVI-IPO was barely mentioned on these pages. Now some exclaim that IVI has become a PSB fetish. Why does IVI pop up more often on these pages? The reason is that of late there has been an infusion of new energy into the organization. Not just new people, and to be sure there are new people, but also long-timers with new and fresh approaches. IVI is a progressive institution with an historical memory, with an established reputation and with a lot of real political clout. And did I mention that it's progressive?
Monday night I had the extreme pleasure of sitting with some consummate political professionals during an IVI legislative committee meeting. It was a small intimate group, seven counting myself. I was there because the Illinois General Assembly has always been a weak area for PSB. Is IVI a potential resource, I had wondered?
The meeting was held at the IVI offices at 1325 S Wabash. I assume that the neighborhood has gentrified around IVI. They rent from some an old lefty folks who probably bought when it was cheap. At first glance you might think that IVI itself is still mired in the old leaflet on paper days. Yes there was the 21st century version of a memio machine "Xeroxing" out flyers. But on the conference table was the first evidence of techno, a bi-directional conference-ready phone. When you are on a conference call you want to be able to interrupt speakers on the other end of the line while they are talking. It's takes a modern device to do that. But it takes more than hardware to be up-to-date, of course, so it should come as no surprise to learn that IVI exists on facebook as well as on U.S. mail.
But I'm getting off track. There was good reason for the conference machine. The Legislative committee meeting was to be connected live with IVI's lobbyist in Springfield. Actually it was to be with two lobbyists in Springfield, a new one for IVI and an old one that has worked with IVI in the past and was now transferring institutional knowledge to the new one. Did I mention that IVI got history
In the next installment of this report I'll introduce you to the meeting participants and the tsunami wave of election and financing reform bills that IVI hopes to surf in the current and rapidly proceeding Illinois General Assembly. That IVI's position on one bill would have to wait two days for IVI's next board meeting this Wednesday was met with a short lecture that things are constantly changing in Springfield during a session. So constantly, the lobbyist reasserted, that someone who could make policy decisions would need to be available by phone at all times, because critical bill decisions were often made during meetings that would not wait for more than minutes for answers.
[If you are reading this and you consider yourself to be a progressive in good standing then you need to be a member of IVI-IPO. Just saying.]
UPDATE: Commenter Kathy G. notes that Geoghegan proposes an eventual raise to 65% of past income from the current level of 38% to 39% of past income. This is only a 70% increase, not actually doubling it which would mean a 100% increase. I apologize for the error. - Sandra
Earlier Jeff Wegerson did a nice summary of the yes/no questions on the IVI-IPO questionnaire, but there are also several essay questions. One of these is:
What changes, if any, do you support regarding Social Security?
The boldest answer to that question is given by Tom Geoghegan, and in fact it is one of the signature issues of his campaign:
I want to expand Social Security, our public pension system, to replace, not overnight but in stages, the private pension system which has collapsed. Social Security now pays about 38 to 39 percent of your working income. In other developed countries, it averages 65 percent. That's where our fiscal stimulus should be: a commitment to reach this goal, a public pension that ordinary working people can live on.
A preposterous idea?
I decided to take a look at my own W-2 form to see how much I currently put into Social Security versus how much I am spending on private retirement funds. What I found out is that last year I (and my employer) put an almost equal amount into my various pension plans as we did into my Social Security taxes. And those private pension plans are not looking so good right now. The reality is that a big chunk of my life savings is now gone. Ironically, if all that money had been in Social Security it would be still be there. So, just looking at my personal situation, the idea of doubling my Social Security in exchange for getting rid of my private retirement accounts seems like a pretty good deal.
Gheoghegan also has the experience of his lifetime of legal battles against companies trying to deny workers the pensions that they have earned. How many times do we hear news stories about pension funds being looted or underfunded or bankrupt? I am sure he has seen every trick in the book for denying people's pensions; it is no wonder he is advocating for a different system.
Below are the other candidates responses to this question.
So taking the available and machine readable candidate IVI-IPO questionnaires (awaiting corrections from Mike Quigley, n No entry from Jan Donatelli and Charles Wheelan's was not machine readable) where do the candidates differ on the issues. At least as far as the yes/no answers go. Here's a table. Warning: I have not checked these for accuracy. Computers allow me to make many more mistakes much faster. :-(
OK so lets move the table to after the jump!
Update: I just looked at some of the non-answers from Feigenholtz and in them she has extended replies. That is, of course the big drawback from looking only at yes/no.
At 3:53 pm today, Saturday Feb. 7th, Prairie State Blue scooped Chicagoland media with the live-blog announcement that John Fritchey won the IVI-IPO endorsement in the race to replace Rahm Emanuel. By a vote of 31 to 8, Fritchey met the 60% yes requirement. Sara Feiganholtz was the only other nominee voted upon. She lost by approximately the inverse vote. The official results will be posted on the IVI-IPO website. See the live blog session below the main page for more and pictures. (Well not much more.) There's David [Edit: Igasaki, chair of the meeting] talking with an un-identified someone or other.
Illinois5th.com Forum. Well, Okay, the fire marshals weren't actually there (at least not to my knowledge.) What an amazing event. Beyond my expectations in every way. This is the way democracy is supposed to be run. It's a shame it wasn't on network tv. Hat's off to all the sponsors.
The winner was Jan H. Donatelli. Of course, that's in the expectations game. The runner's up were the doctors. But don't get me wrong, the professional politicians held their own. Even Frank Annunzio presented himself well.
Here's a quick hit on the top four, Mike, Sara, John and Tom. Mike was down, Sara was flat, John held his own and Tom impressed as expected. Israel was the trick question. It's a question you have to finesse. The question was "Would you increase spending on Israel?" See what I mean about it being trick. I assume that that was Lyn Sweet's doing. On the whole she was the most authoritarian person on the dais. Really that shouldn't be a hard question to finesse. Sara didn't particularly try and said yes, but blah blah. Fine she did her finesse thing. Fritchey did a great job finessing it. So good that I had trouble writing down whether he actually said yes or no. Tom did his intelligent type answer, "no" because he'd seen no reason to increase it. But Mike, oh Mike, Mike Mike. He said yes, he'd increase it. Well so had Sara. But for Blah Blah Blah, he then launched into worrying about Iran, the "much greater threat." Oooops.
Monday night I had the extreme pleasure of sitting with some consummate political professionals during an IVI legislative committee meeting. It was a small intimate group, seven counting myself. I was there because the Illinois General Assembly has always been a weak area for PSB. Is IVI a potential resource, I had wondered?
See the live blog session below the main page for more and pictures. (Well not much more.) There's David [Edit: Igasaki, chair of the meeting] talking with an un-identified someone or other.
Illinois5th.com