Arnie Bryant has died

Arnie Bryant has suffered a stroke, and is either dead or brain dead.

I saw Arnie on Saturday, March 29. He looked great. His health seemed to be the best it has been in awhile.

ED, Fields appears on Viewpoints [D209]

Arnie Bryant had the superintendent of Proviso Township High Schools (District 209), Stan Fields, PhD, on "Viewpoints From the Other Side" today.

Fields gave his usual performance. Test scores suck. The district has been deficit spending for the last decade. He's cut the projected deficit $9 million. Proviso citizens shouldn't be satisfied. Fields implied he's a force for change.

I called the show and asked Fields what specifically he's cut to achieve the $9 million dollars in savings. He kept trying to get away with the answer, "If you read the budget on the web..."

Finally, I pinned him down. Fields claims he's achieved savings by cutting improperly let contracts. When I asked for examples he said he could recall any specifics names.

Here's what I suspect is happening. Fields $9 million savings exists because of accounting sleight of hand. The original budget overestimated expenses and underestimated revenue. By merely correcting the numbers Fields (and business manager Nikita Johnson) created the illusion of large savings when they really have achieved more modest savings.

I also asked about Fields letting the big contract with Technivista for the new website. Earlier Fields had extolled the benefits of requiring a bidding process for contracts. I asked Fields about the website contract. IIRC Fields claimed there was a bid process, but he quickly used the evasive answer of saying the process fully complied with the law.

If Fields did cut corners or outright break the law, do you think he'd say?

"Yeah, I broke the law on that one. My buddies the Schoeder brothers made a mint and they agreed to kickback part of the money to Welch's school board candidates."

Fields answers about the website increased my suspicion that the process wasn't on the up-and-up. One piece of speculation I've heard is that the district justified not bidding out the website work because it fell under the exception for "professional services". Lawyers and accountants can be hired without a bidding process.

Also, Fields question on the district hiring process was pretty much an admission that he engages in patronage hiring. He said he's inclined to hire people who are recommend to him by people he trusts. It might be a good follow-up question to ask who Fields trusts to recommend candidates for hiring.

I'm hoping to get a copy of the tape, so I can quote Fields verbatim.

A07, two Bellwood library referendums [BW]

Bellwood voters will face two library referendums on April 17.

One referendum is to split the library finances from the Village of Bellwood. At first glance this seems to be a "so what?" referendum. It won't affect the tax rate and it won't affect the amount of money the library gets each year.

Right now Cook County government disburses money for the Bellwood library to the Village of Bellwood. This allows the village to use the money to cover its short-term expenses as long as the money is given to the library eventually.

Arnie Bryant, the president of the library board, would also like the library district to have its own bond rating. He believes the library district does a better job managing its finances than the village does.

The other referendum seeks a tax increase to build a new library. The argument against passing the tax increase is that property taxes are already too high. However, this argument carries less weight because the amount of taxes devoted to the library is relatively small.

Typically Cook County property owners give about 1/3 of their taxes to their elementary school district, 1/3 to their high school district, about 10% for county government and about 10% municipal government. IIRC the park district, library district and township each get 2-6%. So, even a large tax increase for a library translates into a small property tax increase.

Their are various arguments for a new library. The obvious argument is that the facility is old (built 1960) and cramped. I've been to the Bellwood Public Library a couple times. It appears well run; and it's used by a number of patrons.

Other communities, like Forest Park, Maywood and Oak Park have nicer, more modern libraries.

Arnie argues that no community-minded person should be against improving library services. Arnie's position is more extreme than I would take. I opposed Oak Park's referendum for a new library (1999? 2000?).

I opposed the Oak Park referendum for a few reasons. I didn't perceive the previous facility was inadequate. I felt the new library proposal was an upgrade from adequate to luxurious.

I also felt that the relationship between libraries, bookstores and the Internet was evolving rapidly at the time. And it made sense to wait a few years to see how libraries could best complement bookstores and the Internet to provide the services needed by patrons.

Finally, I felt Oak Park's political elite had gotten a little carried away with passing referendum. Specifically, the new middle schools seemed like superfluous spending justified with misleading statements. The premise the schools were overcrowded seemed absurd since the ten schools had served 20% more students in the 1970s. (BTW, this position has become considerably more mainstream in the last couple years.)

One of the things I've noticed about the Forest Park library is that many patrons come to the library because large corporate employers (like Kmart and UPS) direct potential employees to apply for jobs online.

Libraries should probably hire people, at least part-time, to help patrons apply for jobs online. Hopefully, the Bellwood library will provide this kind of service. I do know the proposed library has many stations from which to access the Internet.

Arnie Bryant is a financial contributor to Proviso Probe.

ED, Stan Fields scheduled to be on "Viewpoints" [D209]

Proviso Township High Schools superintendent Stan Fields, PhD, is scheduled to appear on "Viewpoints From the Other Side" on WJJG, 1530 AM, Saturday, March 17, 2-3 PM.

My understanding is that Fields will take questions from guests that call the show.

I drafted some questions that I hope get asked. I'm not satisfied with the list, so if you can improve the wording, please make suggestions. Also, feel free to suggest new questions and comment which questions you think are more important.

What's the best policy you've implemented at Proviso Township High Schools?

You advocate reducing the number of classes--all but eliminating electives--and concentrating on subjects covered by standardized tests. Would you choose to
attend school or send your children to high school in a district that implemented this policy?

Critics have said that eliminating electives is a cost-cutting policy disguised as an education policy. How many teachers could be cut if you succeed in reducing the number of classes?

When you were superintendent of Mundelein High School you implemented various cost-cutting policies and revenue enhancement policies. What services or
functions did you outsource or privatize? Did you recommend other services or functions be privatized only to have members of the board of education stop
you?

Is it true that board member Theresa Kelly sent you email requesting an issue be put on the agenda five times before you responded? And did you wait to respond until after the deadline for putting new action items on the agenda? And did you tell Kelly
that it was impossible to fulfill her request because the deadline had passed? Did you realize that Kelly's requested agenda item was not an action item? Were you deliberately working against the desires of board member Kelly? Or did you erroneously apply Illinois law by neglecting the difference between an action item and discussion?

During the superintendent's report of you first Proviso school board meeting (September, 2006) you opened the door to attacks on board members Charles
Flowers and Theresa Kelly. You gave board president Chris Welch a list of computer hardware that was "missing". Welch read one name from the list: Charles Flowers. Your list claimed Flowers had custody of a District 209 computer. Where was that computer? Did you ever apologize to Flowers?

During that meeting you accused board member Theresa Kelly of maintaining the funds for the Proviso East Wall of Fame in an illegal manner. Where does the bank
send the statements for that account? Have you changed how that fund is managed? Do you still think it is managed in an illegal manner?

You have alleged that board members have received cash advances for board travel but not reconciled the travel claims upon returning. What are the dates of these unrecognized travel claims? Which board members have unrecognized travel claims? What have you done to reconcile these travel claims? Have these board members traveled at District 209 expense since you became superintendent? Why didn't you require them to reconcile the past travel claims before allowing them to travel again? How much money do you expect to recover when these travel claims are reconciled?

You have referred to the "nonsense of the past" as if you are a break with past practices, even though Chris Welch remains president of the school board.
Specifically, what bad behavior was part of the "nonsense of the past"? What have you done to reduce or eliminate the "nonsense of the past"? Did your predecessor, Robert Libka, engage in the "nonsense of the past"? Why is he still on payroll?

The Daily Southtown has run a number of articles that insinuate that Kyle Hastings is a career ghost-payroll government worker. How many hours per week does Hastings spend at the PMSA building?

The issue of political patronage hiring is now openly acknowledged. In the past board member Theresa Kelly would ask if the political bosses had lobbied the superintendent or HR director on behalf of any applicants. If you assume that the superintendent and
HR director were answering questions truthfully then it seems likely that the politicians were working directly with department heads and staff members below
the superintendent to parcel the patronage. Would you be surprised if Chris Welch, Eugene Moore, Claude Porter, Ron Serpico, Dan Coglianese or their representatives were lobbying members of your staff to get "their people" jobs at District 209? Have you taken any action to stop or discourage this meddlingin hiring?

There are rumors that school board president Chris Welch and your business manager, Nikita Johnson, are dating. If this is true would it violate any laws or school district policies? Does it violate any of your policies? If it was true, would you fire Nikita Johnson?

How do you measure the level of violence at Proviso Township High Schools? What policies have you implemented to reduce violence against students and staff? Have your policies reduced violence?

These are some other subjects for which I haven't drafted specific questions:

• Open Meetings Act
• website
• EMM, unnecessary insurance payments to Eugene Moore
• why is Eugene Moore "in the loop" on district decision making
• nominating petitions

"Viewpoints From the Other Side" is a weekly radio program hosted by Arnie Bryant.

MEDIA, Viewpoints From the Other Side

Arnie Bryant will be back in the chair to host "Viewpoints From the Other Side". Listen to WJJG,1530 AM, from 2-3 PM, Saturday.

Arnie will interview Commissioner Tony Peraica.

I hope Arnie will ask about the difficulties of participating constructively in the budget process because the Stroger administration provided a budget full of errors and is constantly changing the budget, so the commissioners are like barbers trying to cut hair on marathon runner during a race.