I am blogging, just not here

Proviso Probe has been suspended.

I (Carl Nyberg) am now blogging at Ellen of the Tenth and occasionally at Prairie State Blue.

Proviso Probe will operate until February, 2010 primaries

Tonight I'm going to a committee meeting of IVI-IPO to discuss how to improve the candidate endorsement process. Two nights ago I attended a meeting with a political organization (Tenth Dems) about how to improve the organization's use of social networking.

I did get sick of blogging on stuff Proviso for awhile, but I care about some of this stuff. I would like to see Proviso elect good representatives in the February, 2010 election. After that, this blog will go away away unless some way to make it substantially more lucrative than it has been emerges.

What stories interest you? What's on your mind?

Yarbrough excludes media from D209 candidate forum

On Tuesday, February 24, 2009, Proviso Township Democratic Organization (PTDO), the political organization of Karen Yarbrough, who is both a state representative and the Democratic Committeeman for Proviso Township, invited me by email to attend the Saturday meeting at 10:00 AM on February 28, 2009.

The invitation listed four candidates for the board of education, Proviso Township High Schools (District 209): E. Chris Welch, Reatha Sue Henry, Dan Adams and Brian Cross. These four are all incumbents and all part of one slate. (See more of the invite below.)

Welch ran against Yarbrough for state representative in 2006. The defining ideology of Yarbrough's political organization seemed to be opposition to former Proviso Democratic Committeeman Eugene Moore and hatred of Welch, who has a knack for making enemies.

Friday, February 27, at 9:59 PM Yarbrough sent me a text, "no endorsements for schools and no media tomorrow." I responded within 10 minutes, "What's that mean for me?" Yarbrough did not respond.

On Saturday, February 28, I arrived about 10 minutes early for the 10 AM meeting. I entered behind Rory Hoskins, a Forest Park commissioner and president of PTDO, and helped myself to a doughnut.

When Yarbrough arrived she didn't greet me, but referred to her text from the night before.

I asked, "Are you asking me to leave?"

Yarbrough responded, "I told you not to come."

Along the way she mentioned Josh Adams, editor of the Forest Park Review also requested to attend the meeting. Yarbrough allying with Welch shakes up the political factions in local politics.

Text of PTDO invitation sent to me:

PROVISO TOWNSHIP DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION
REMINDER
from President Rory Hoskins

Proviso Township Democratic Organization's Saturday Meeting
DATE: Saturday, February 28th, 2009

TIME: 10:00 AM

LOCATION: 2301 W. Roosevelt Road

Broadview, IL 60155

Phone: 708-344-7062

Agenda Items:

* Meet District 209 Incumbent Candidates

E. Chris Welch

Reatha Sue Henry

Dan Adams

Brian Cross


PTDO Mission Statement
The Proviso Township Democratic Org., in coordination with the state and national Democratic Party, is committed to the principles of honest, open and progressive government and to increasing voter participation in the electoral process. PTDO is open to all persons, regardless of their race, age, gender, creed, religion, sexual orientation or economic status. [emphasis added]

Message from Karen:

It's been a busy time for all of us however we must do our due diligence in making selections for endorsement. The next few meetings will be spent hearing from candidates who's name will appear on the April 7th election. In the case of local elections, those who are members of the organization will be able to present their candidacy to the group.

Please note that all of these elections are
NON-PARTISAN. (meaning neither Democrat or Republican)


See you there!


PS: Only paid up dues members will be eligible to vote.


Karen A. Yarbrough
Commiteeman

Was the DelGaldo Group beneficiaries of statements about Sterk on Proviso Insider?

Forest Park Review (Josh Adams):

In an expanding war of words being waged online and in court, District 209 school board President Chris Welch won a temporary restraining order against a Forest Park man, forcing him to remove allegedly slanderous material from an Internet site.

The judge's July 16 ruling was handed down just two days after Welch filed a lawsuit against Carl Nyberg, claiming that he is the victim of libelous statements posted on Nyberg's blog. Welch, who is being sued by the school district's former attorneys for slander, filed the paperwork with the Cook County Circuit Court.

If you haven't seen the Forest Park Review coverage of Welch's lawsuit against me, follow the link.

I thought it was odd that Michael DeBartolo, the District 209 lawyer from the DelGaldo Group, makes the claim that District 209 is paying for part of Welch's defense in the Odelson & Sterk v. Proviso Insider case and implies that the district isn't paying for the counter suit. This claim seems non-sensical to me. Also, note DeBartolo picks his words carefully.

As a point of clarification, DeBartolo said the $22,400 paid by the district does not cover any of Welch's expenses for the counterclaim filed by the school board president in January. The money expressly pays for Welch's defense in the Odelson and Sterk case.

What I think DeBartolo is saying here is that Welch hasn't submitted his bills for the counterclaim lawsuit. Those are yet to come.

If the logic behind paying Welch's legal bills is that the case is intertwined with his duties as a school board member--a bullshit claim, but let's pretend for a little bit--then the one part of the suit that touches on Welch being a school board member is the countersuit, about Welch getting fired from Roche & Associates because he stopped giving taxpayer money to James Roche's buddies, Odelson & Sterk.

The part of the lawsuit DeBartolo says taxpayers should pay for revolves around Proviso Insider making statements about Mark Sterk and Melrose Park police officers. How is the responsibility of District 209 taxpayers that Welch and Emily Robinson wrote probably slanderous statements about Mark Sterk on a blog? Welch had his identity concealed. What part of the case involves District 209?

One conflict-of-interest that might not be immediately apparent is the role of the DelGaldo Group. The claim Proviso Insider (Welch and Robinson) made was that Sterk was coaching Melrose Park police officers to lie to the federal grand jury that subsequently indicted seven, including the chief of police and deputy chief.

Someone familiar with Village of Melrose Park politics speculated if any law firm was involved in coaching these cops it was the DelGaldo Group. The firm is very close with Melrose Park village president Ron Serpico. If the feds indicted Vito Scavo, the chief of police, he would be tempted to give them a bigger fish to reduce his sentence. (I'm a bit of a contrarian on the issue of who is the big fish in Melrose Park. Scavo was chief of police before Serpico was village president. I think Scavo has his scams going and ran the patronage in the police department and he agreed to bring in Serpico as his flunky. The counter argument is that Ralph "Babe" Serpico, Ronnie's dad, was a big fish when Scavo was just a kid.)

We don't know if any lawyers were involved in coaching those police officers to lie. But it seems a potential conflict of interest that a lawyer from the DelGaldo Group is deciding whether Welch was acting in the scope of his D209 duties while anonymously spreading gossip, if not lies, on his blog.

Judge grants temporary restraining order against Proviso Probe

Emanuel "Chris" Welch has sued me for defamation (again). He is represented by Myron Mackoff, of Richardson & Mackoff.

Today Cook County Judge Martin Agran granted a temporary restraining order that required me to remove one paragraph of the original entry. While I'm not happy about this, I don't feel it substantially changes the meaning of what I wrote.

I disagree that Judge Agran's interpretation of the law is a good interpretation of the law, but I'm not sure that it's incorrect.

Under Illinois law, as Judge Agran explained it, accusing someone, including a public figure, of a crime is sufficient to constitute defamation, even if it's couched in what a former boss called "weasel words". For example, "I believe X committed a crime," "I speculate X committed a crime" and "The State's Attorney should prosecute X for a crime" would all be potentially defamatory.

And, according to Judge Agran, it would be proper to issue a temporary restraining order to remove these statements irrespective if they were true.

I was representing myself. I'll post the gist of my arguments later. So, maybe if I quoted some case law and had an attorney I would have prevailed.

Based on Judge Agran's ruling, if a blogger wrote, "Based on the testimony at the Rezko trial Governor Rod Blagojevich should be prosecuted for corruption," Blagojevich could get a temporary restraining order to get the sentence removed.

Of course, the downside for Blagojevich would be that he'd be opening himself to depositions. Welch has the same problem. I don't think he will want to be deposed on the issues in question.

I disagree with the interpretation Judge Agran is using, but I'm not sure he's misinterpreting the case law incorrectly. I think public figures should be open to being accused of criminal activity, especially politicians.

Whether someone gets prosecuted or not is an intrinsically political decision. Prosecutors (the Illinois Attorney General and county state's attorneys) are elected.

This is a system that tilts criminal justice in favor of political bosses. Why would a county state's attorney prosecute people who can cause him/her problems in the next election?

Local officials, like Welch, Eugene Moore, Ron Serpico and Karen Yarbrough, can do stuff that looks like it violates Illinois law. And regular citizens need to be able to afford a lawyer to call-out the public officials who are already getting a massive benefit-of-the-doubt from the state's attorney.

building friendships and alliances based on political firings

James K. Graham, Sr., and Generoso "Gino" Trombetta at the Neopolitan Social Club, aka Club Napoletano, on Friday night.

Trombetta was wrongfully terminated at District 209. Outside of superintendents Trombetta is the most famous Proviso case of someone wrongfully terminated going to court and winning a big judgment.

Graham has the same position at District 88 (Bellwood and Stone Park elementary schools) as Trombetta had at Proviso Township High Schools (District 209). Graham was fired after less than two months on the job, in a firing he believes was political. This entry linked to an article that explained the back story.

Graham met Trombetta for the first time at Club Napoletano. The club is a private social club. Members get to eat and drink for a flat rate fee. Call club president Mike Manzo, 708-268-4050, for details.

I have been working at Club Napoletano for about three weeks.

Trottie column on Yarbrough and Nyberg

L. Nicole Trottie (West Suburban Journal) has a column taking Karen Yarbrough to task for accepting campaign contributions by Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins, the Village of Maywood's law firm. Karen's husband Henderson Yarbrough is village president.

Maybe I should have explicitly praised West Suburban Journal for the news story, but I rarely praise other newspapers for doing their jobs. If I praised West Suburban Journal it would probably be in the context of pointing out how boring and useless most of the paper's journalism is. Or outright defamatory.

West Suburban Journal has migrated editorial perspectives from being allied with Bellwood Village President Frank Pasquale and District 209 board president Emanuel "Chris" Welch to being allied with Karen Yarbrough (and critical of Pasquale and Welch) to being aligned with Welch again.

But I may be oversimplifying. Trottie felt double-crossed by Pasquale on some advertising revenue. Trottie later accused Pasquale of cutting off the advertising money when she refused to have sex with Pasquale. And Trottie had been dating Welch, but turned against him with a vengeance.

So, Trottie was not so much a Yarbrough fan--she felt Yarbrough or Yarbrough's staff--leased some office space out from under Trottie, space Trottie wanted for the office of West Suburban Journal. This predated Trottie becoming anti-Pasquale and anti-Welch.

Later Trottie's relationship with Karen Yarbrough went sour. According to a comment posted to Proviso Probe by someone using Trottie's name, Yarbrough's father, Don Williams, failed to complete an advertising contract because he disagreed with some editorial decision made by Trottie.

So, Trottie ended-up in the anti-Yarbrough camp and the newspaper eventually settled on covering Maywood.

This is a decent situation from the point of view the media is supposed to be skeptical of the government. And the Yarbrough political camp dominates village politics.

However, Trottie seems to believe the enemey of her enemy is her friend. And perhaps she's pressured into this thinking because she has to chase after advertising revenue.

By focusing on political factions instead of principles, Trottie's column is weaker than it would be otherwise. It also contains statements that seem debatable. And the sniping at me (Carl Nyberg) is irrelevant to her larger point.

One good point made by the column is that Karen Yarbrough didn't respond to West Suburban Journal's request for comment. I share West Suburban Journal's frustration at elected officials not returning phone calls and emails because they don't want to deal with the issue at hand.

Trottie wrote:

A taxing body that accepts contributions from a no-bid vendor is a very big issue. In fact, it’s a federal hot topic.

I wish this was true, but it's not. Law firms are hired through no-bid processes because they fall under the exception for professional services. Law firms giving money to the politicians that hire them does not automatically trigger a federal investigation. If Trottie had a broader perspective on local issues, she'd know that Odelson & Sterk contributed to Welch's campaigns and Giglio & Del Galdo contributed to campaigns of Melrose Park village president Ron Serpico. Welch and Serpico are under federal investigation, but the investigation wasn't triggered by contributions by law firms they hired.

The interrelationship between the village counsel and Yarbrough’s political parties imply that something of value is given in return for something of value.

This statement goes too far. This statement would appear to damn all campaign contributions. And defenders of the status quo on campaign contributions would probably respond to Trottie by saying that it often appears there is a quid pro quo relationship between her editorial perspective and her advertising revenue.

If a politically-connected law firm, let’s say, Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins, is hired by the Village of Maywood to defend the wolf’s actions in “Little Red Riding Hood,” it would not focus on the wolf’s unbridled desire to consume Little Red Ridding Hood; instead, it would argue that said wolf, disguised in drag as Grandma, should be offered protection under the state’s anti-discrimination laws. The attempted consumption of Little Red is of little worth.

Can someone explain this analogy to me. If a law firm is hired to defend the wolf then the law firm should defend the wolf to the best of its ability, right?

[The Yarbroughs] should give the money back and amend the Village Code ethics portion to prevent such messy contributions from happening in the future.

On this point Trottie and I agree.

Finally, I will defend my honor. Trottie called me the president of the Karen Yarbrough fan club. I like Karen, but she's not the only person I like locally. In 2007 I've spent far more time on the phone with Arnie Bryant, Charles Flowers, Theresa Kelly and probably Mike Manzo than I have with Yarbrough.

You don't especially have to take my word, look up what I've written on Karen Yarbrough on Proviso Probe. Since January 1, 2007 I have written 20 entries that mention Karen Yarbrough out of over 375 entries. Of those 20 entries a number have been less than complimentary.

* Yarbrough political committees hit up village's legal counsel
* A07, election analysis

Most of the entries are neutral, in many Yarbrough just gets mentioned and is not a central character in the entry.

I disagree with Trottie labeling me the "president of the Karen Yarbrough fan club". It's not accurate. And mentioning me is superfluous to the point of her column.

[UPDATE: The Proviso Insider responded to this post under the title, "Carl Nyberg Admits Relationship With Anti-Welch-Serpico-Moore Group!!!". How should I respond? My Naval Academy roommate would have used sarcasm.

"Insider, you're right. There is a group dedicated to ruining Welch, Serpico and Moore. It has weekly meetings. Not only are Nyberg and the others there, but Patrick Fitzgerald and the FBI attend the meetings too."

I could point at that it's hardly a revelation that I talk to most of these people. How often am I on Bryant's radio show? Who attends board D209 board meetings and hasn't seen me talking with Kelly or Flowers? What's sinister about me talking to the political opponents of Moore, Welch and Serpico anyway?

[If you care about the details of my relationship with any public figures, feel free to ask in the comments.]

West-View News hits news stands

Judy Brown-Marino has expanded her newspaper to include Westchester as well as Broadview.

The issue dated July 25, 2007 has a number of stories and columns that caught my attention.

"Broadview Sued Over Strip Club" (page 1) covers Chicago Joe's Tea Room suing the Village of Broadview in federal court.

The Complaint charges that Broadview's zoning laws are unconstitutional and violate the plaintiffs [sic] First Amendment rights....

The introduction of the Complaint reads, "This case results from an attempt by local officials's misuse of their power to censor speech and other expression with which they disagree. Defendants have imposed a unconstitutional prior restraint on the dissemination of erotic speech through Broadview licensing and zoning ordinances in violation of the First Amendment..."

Starting on page two the paper includes summaries of village meetings in Broadview and Westchester, including citizen comments. I expect that there's a reason other newspapers don't use this format. While it's truer to what happened at meetings than the traditional way reporters write about local meetings it's not as readable.

Judy Brown-Marino has a column expressing skepticism about Broadview considering one or two more TIF (tax increment financing) districts.

TIF Funds are not money sent from heaven. The money diverted into TIF's would otherwise go to the taxing bodies like the School, Library and Park Districts as well as to the Village itself.

I am disappointed in the school, library and park Boards and especially in their attorneys for not doing their jobs to protect their much needed revenue.

One additional issue about TIFs is that they let current elected officials borrow against future revenue to implement big projects today. Sometimes this is appropriate and sometimes this is just putting money in the pockets of politically connected developers.

I also have a column in the paper. I will have a regular column under the name "Probing Proviso".

You can get a copy of the paper at the following locations:
Broadview Village Hall
Westchester Village Hall
Broadview Public Library
Broadview Park District
Marquee Restaurant
Le Petite Cafe
Cookie Outlet
The Epicurean Restaurant
Westchester Citgo
Joe's Place
Sawa's Old Warsaw
Paul's Pizza
White Hen, 10235 Roosevelt
Gobber Real Estate
American Car Center

If you want to suggest a location, call (708)945-4942.

D209 board of education declares Flowers' seat vacant

Today at 7 PM the Proviso Township High Schools Board of Education (District 209) board of education held a special meeting to declare the seat held by Charles Flowers, EdD, vacant.

The seat was declared vacant by a 5-1 vote. Board member Theresa Kelly voted “nay” and Flowers did not attend. Board member Dan Adams made the motion to declare Flowers' seat vacant. After a period of time when the board president was fishing for a second, the president said board member Robin Foreman seconded the motion, although her second was inaudible to the audience.

The meeting was held at Proviso Math and Science Academy. The meeting was sparsely attended. The meeting was announced on Friday, June 29, the day Flowers took the oath to be Cook County Regional Superintendent of Education. Flowers was elected to the four-year term on November , 2006. Induction as Regional Superintendent of Education happens on July 1 so turnover will happen while schools are on summer break.

I was one of two citizens to speak on the issue.

My position is that Flowers should have resigned. This would avoid the appearance of partisan politics and conflict of interest when Flowers exercises oversight of District 209. The board of education should not remove Flowers by declaring his seat vacant at this point. The district should seek guidance from the Cook County State's Attorney or Illinois Attorney General. If the state's attorney or AG says Flowers needs to resign then he'll presumably.

Instead the board majority had their political hack law firm write an opinion that cites case law and Illinois AG opinion but ultimately rests on a judgment call.

Arbdella Patterson also gave a statement to the board. She drew attention to the numerous conflicts-of-interest that either exist for board members or applied to past votes. Board member Reatha “Sue” Henry argued with Patterson during her public comment. Henry didn't like Patterson mentioning Henry voted (4-3 vote) to hire her daughter as a secretary. And Henry argued that it wasn't a conflict of interest for her to vote on her boss Eugene Moore to make $150,000+ per year as the district's insurance broker because she works for Moore in his capacity as Cook County Recorder of Deeds, not his insurance business.

Board president Emanuel “Chris” Welch didn't maintain order when Patterson was speaking. So, I figured if it was fair for Henry to interrupt Patterson, I could call out the attorney, Michael Del Galdo, of Giglio & Del Galdo on his BS.

Things Del Galdo said to the board:

• Flowers was notified of the meeting at 6:28 PM on Friday. Although, as board member Robert Cox noted after the meeting Flowers had been aware of the issue for a long time. Cox had asked Flowers about it. Del Galdo said a lawyer—presumably from his firm—was at the swearing in ceremony to make it official that Flowers' seat could be declared vacant.
• Del Galdo repeated the point a number of times that the legal opinion was based on “incompatability of office” not conflict of interest. This was mostly twisting words since the two ways the offices were incompatible came back to conflict of interest issues. Two offices are incompatible if one exercises supervision and control or if on apportions or distributes money to the other.
• Del Galdo claimed—in response to my critique that the litigation connected to Flowers assuming duties as Regional Superintendent—that there would be no need to bill District 209 for legal services from this point forward because now the issue would be in the hands of the state's attorney and AG who have to rule on declaring Flowers' seat vacant now. Something tells me this is a lie. Del Galdo knows he and the board have created a situation that will probably require legal work. And the law firms aren't going to do the work for free. We'll see if Del Galdo keeps his word and stops billing for this issue from tonight forward.

Cox made a point that was somewhat dishonest. He said that if the board position remains vacant for 45 days then Flowers will appoint someone to fill the vacancy. I assume Cox realizes Welch didn't engineer declaring Flowers seat vacant the first working day of July just to let Flowers appoint his replacement.

Cox also expressed regret Flowers wasn't present to explain his explanation for whether holding both offices was “incompatible”.

Kelly started a speech opposing the motion to declare a vacancy. Welch tried to call the question for a vote, but Kelly wouldn't yield.

Some stuff happened after the meeting adjourned.

I had words with Del Galdo. I tried to ask him a question. He refused. He told me, “If you want to get treated like a professional you need to act like one.” Forgive me, Mr. Del Galdo, but I've seen how your kind act. There's no point in being polite and hoping for modest reforms of “half a loaf”. You are aligned with a political machine that's going to do what it wants. So, don't expect critics to be polite. When dealing with greedy political hacks, politeness is for chumps.

Welch and Pioneer Press reporter Chuck Fieldman had words. Fieldman is from the camp that thinks everybody involved with District 209 is tainted, if not equally tainted. Fieldman was trying to get Welch to comment on the story he's doing on the photocopier contract. See Proviso Herald (Chuck Fieldman). Welch was yelling at Fieldman, which is rare. Welch was a communications major at Northwestern. He's pretty good at presenting himself when he's on the top of his game. Welch refused to answer Fieldman's question and ended-up yelling across the room, “Your paper is nothing but a political rag. You can print that.”

Cox encouraged me to apply to be a school board member.

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.

ETHNICITY, Peraica tries to play race card against Obama

I'm a fan of Commissioners Tony Peraica and have written favorably about him. See Carl Nyberg (Forest Park Review).

In Madison County Record Tony Peraica wrote a piece intended to slam Sen. Barack Obama. Peraica would probably claim that he's trying to tarnish Obama's reputation as a reformer by linking him to politicians in Chicago who Peraica identifies as corrupt.

Who does Peraica start with? Ald. Dororthy Tillman. Why Tillman? Why not start by linking Obama to President of the County Board Todd Stroger? There's more ammunition to indict Stroger of cronyism and he's a bigger fish than Tillman.

Tillman is perhaps most famous for her staunch advocacy of slavery reparations, but also is renowned for....

I want to give Peraica the benefit of the doubt, but by making Tillman the first example of his story, it's hard not to read Peraica's words as pushing divisiveness along racial/ethnic lines.

Peraica also includes this old chestnut:

Perhaps Obama is hoping for the same Chicago Election Day magic that the mayor's father provided for another presidential candidate, John F. Kennedy, back in 1960.

In the 1960 presidential election Kennedy/Johnson received 303 electoral votes and Nixon/Lodge received 219. (Fifteen electoral votes from Alabma and Mississippi were unpledged.) Illinois was worth 27 electoral votes. Even without Illinois' 27 electoral votes Kennedy/Johnson since had over 270 electoral votes. So the idea that Mayor Richard J. Daley threw the 1960 election is just a myth. Kennedy didn't need Illinois' electoral votes to win. See Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections for election results.

I don't know the purpose of Peraica's op-ed. Since it's published downstate, maybe he's contemplating a run for U.S. Senate against Sen. Dick Durbin in 2008.

I like Peraica, but I think he should avoid running for Congress in 2008. The GOP is going to get shellacked at the national level and the party is going to write-off Illinois early. If they have an extra million dollars it is going to be used to defend vulnerable incumbents, not for high-risk candidates in expensive states.

A07, candidate forum Village of Forest Park [FP]

Last night candidates for Village of Forest Park participated in a candidate forum. Forest Park Forums has a discussion.

Since, I'm a candidate it's hard for me to give an evaluation separate from my personal perspective. I was happy with the questions asked. I wasn't as smooth as I'd like, but I think I made my points.

The candidates for mayor are:

• Anthony Calderone
• Theresa Steinbach
• Nagele Jackson (write-in, did not participate in debate)

And the commissioner candidates, in order of seating:

• Anthony Lazarra
• John Plepel
• Rory Hoskins
• Carl Nyberg
• Mark Hosty
• Mike Curry
• Marty Tellalian
• Jerry Webster

Before the event Calderone said he was talking to the attorney who represented Illinois Supreme Court Justice Bob Thomas in his defamation suit against a local newspaper about suing Forest Park Review for Bill Dwyer's column.

Afterward, former village clerk Joan White was talking to school board member Steve Johnsen about White running as a write-in for the two-year position without a candidate filed for election. Apparently a number of people are interested in running as write-in candidates.

ED, Proviso Township High Schools March meeting [D209]

REMEMBER: This is the fund raising drive for your community blog.

Monday (yesterday) the Proviso Township High Schools board of education held its regular meeting. See pths209.org for agenda. The meeting featured conflict, including a threat to have security remove me from the meeting. This was the last board meeting before the April elections.

However, the most significant policy adopted was a recommendation by superintendent Stan Fields to reduce the number of credits required to graduate while increasing the rigor of core courses.

One aspect of the proposal is to require students pass grade level classes to be promoted to the next grade level. Students would no longer get credit for remedial courses. To be promoted with their peers students would be responsible for doing remedial work before the beginning of the school year (summer) and then they would have to pass their grade level courses in the required subjects.

Another aspect of the proposal is to all but eliminate electives. Students would be required to take only one elective to graduate. Electives would be replaced by extracurricular activities and community service. As part of the push to encourage extracurricular participation Proviso Township High Schools would reduce academic eligibility requirements to the minimum allowed by state law. IIRC (If I recall correctly) Proviso’s current standards are a 2.0 GPA; Illinois allows extracurricular participation with a 1.0 GPA.

(Fields was a collegiate football player and was teammates with Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith.)

One criticism of Fields change to the graduation requirements is that it reduces the number of classes taught by reducing the credits required to graduate and lengthening class periods. This would allow Proviso High Schools to service the same number of students with fewer teachers. One criticism I have aired of Fields’ changes is that it is a cost-cutting measure disguised as an education policy.

Fields responded to this criticism by saying with the additional remedial classes--classes that wouldn’t count toward graduation--the plan would increase the total number of teachers required.

If people buy into the plan it should work to produce graduates who score better on standardized tests. I wouldn’t want to go to school in a district that eliminated electives. I wouldn’t want members of my family to go to a high school that eliminated electives. And I doubt Fields will send his children to an elective-less high school. But if students and teachers buy into Fields’ plan test scores should come up.

Here are some concerns:

1. Fields made significant changes to the educational program without engaging the community about what he was doing and why. He made the proposal at last month’s board meeting and he implemented it this month. It was passed in a 4-3 vote. I am not aware of any attempt by Fields to engage any stakeholders who weren’t guaranteed to agree with his proposals.
2. I doubt Fields has studied the ability of community organizations to supervise large numbers of students doing community service. I also doubt he analyzed how the schools will offer extracurricular programs to significantly more students. If he did examine these issues he didn’t brief the board of education.

More later....

Discuss and add your perspective in comments.

MEDIA, Nyberg to host Viewpoints

Listen to WJJG, 1530 AM, 2-3 PM to hear "Viewpoints From the Other Side".

First, there will be a candidate for mayor from the south suburbs. [UPDATE: I interviewed Alderman Steve Burris who is running for mayor of Country Club Hills against Mayor Dwight Welch. Burris is the nephew of Roland Burris.]

I'll also discuss the CUFP forum for mayor in Forest Park.

I'll probably mention some concerns about how the county budget process is going down.

And I'll definitely talk about District 209 starting at 2:40. Nominating petitions will be the topic.