Charles Flowers arrested

Daily Southtown (Duaa ElDeib):

Regional Supt. Charles Flowers was charged today with theft by the Cook County state's attorney's office....

Flowers turned himself in about 1 p.m. to sheriff's police in Maywood. He was accompanied by his attorney, Tim Grace.

I linked to ElDeib's article first because he's been the most vigilant about covering Flowers at the Regional Office of Education.

The following media outlets also have coverage:

Chicago Breaking News Center (Matthew Walberg)
WBBM 780 AM
Chicago Public Radio (links to an interview with Flowers)

What to say?

Having dealt with Flowers and his staff, I can attest to the office being run in an unprofessional manner.

I did a small amount of work for the ROE making video recordings of meetings. While Flowers and his staff were accustomed to manufacturing thin excuses to eat and drink on the office credit card, it was difficult to get them to pay me relatively small amounts of money for recording meetings.

On one occasion I arrived to record a meeting which necessitated leaving another job early. I arrive to complaints from various people, including Flowers. I was accused of not returning phone calls. Apparently, one of Flowers' assistants had given him the wrong number for me.

Members of Flowers' staff claim the office has never had sufficient resources to fulfill its mandates without either going in to debt or getting subsidies from the Cook County Board. This is probably true, however, mismanagement and misprioritized spending were a problem.

Based on what I saw of putting meals on the credit card and an attempt to put a bar tab on the credit card, it seems credible that Flowers and his people got sloppy and crossed the line and spent taxpayer money on stuff that was clearly personal expenses.

Flowers has been abyssmal at handling the media. He has avoided taking questions from Duaa ElDeib and in one instance Flowers' sister called and left a snotty voicemail.

Flowers, the ROE and the Illinois State Board of Education

Have you been following the drama for Charles Flowers, Regional Superintendent Suburban Cook County Schools?

Flowers was investigated for various allegations of misuse of funds. Since then various entities have acted unsympathetically to the ROE (Regional Office of Education).

Cook County demanded repayment of a loan. The ROE didn't have the money. The ROE's landlord (Westchester elementary schools) demanded payment of back rent. The ROE didn't have the money. The ROE got an office in Broadview, but was shut down for lack of an occupancy permit. Now there is no office and the ROE functions aren't being done. See Daily Southtown (Duaa ElDeib).

If you're one of about 25,000 teachers or administrators in any of the 143 school districts needing the services of the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education, try back later.

Has Flowers made mistakes? Have his actions cast doubt on his competence?

Yes.

Would the Village of Broadview normally keep a government office from operating for 30 days for lack of an occupancy permit?

I doubt it. But Flowers has few friends. And life is harder when no one wants to help you and lots of people are looking to "throw you under the bus".

But I'd like to step back.

If the Illinois State Board of Education and other authorities in the bureaucracy are willing to let Flowers and the ROE twist in the wind, what's the say about the office?

It seems to me a major function of the ROEs across Illinois is to obfuscate accountability when the Illinois State Board of Education either incorrectly processes paperwork or takes a long time. The teacher or district submitting documents can't be sure if the ROE is responsible or the Illinois State Board of Education.

The ROEs are funded by state government (Illinois General Assembly and Governor). So, when something goes wrong at one ROE the recourse goes through Springfield. But the ROEs serve parts of the state.

If the President of the Cook County Board makes a mistake, s/he has to answer to the commissioners. Virtually every executive in the U.S. political system has to answer to a legislative body with the power of the purse and the legislative body serves the same group of voters as the executive.

One of the few (only?) exceptions is a ROE in Illinois. They don't have local legislative bodies to hold them accountable. So, someone who lacks the competence to do the job can get elected and it's not clear how to remove the person or hold her/him accountable.

The Flowers debacle shows the office should be eliminated as an elective office and be appointed by the governor or the state superintendent of education.

Team Flowers would probably argue the office doesn't have the funding to do the job it's expected to do. So, many of the financial problems of the Flowers administration originate with the office being underfunded. This is probably true, but....

Did the Flowers administration use the money it had wisely?

It seems clear that some money was either misspent or spent without the required documentation that it was spent properly.

Has Flowers handled the media well?

No.

Are other public officials, including elected officials, withholding money from the ROE that would probably go to the ROE if Flowers hadn't gotten himself into trouble?

Probably.

Even the most pro-Flowers interpretation of the situation is that he and his appointees made a mess. And Flowers lacks the skills to dig himself and the office out of the hole. And the Illinois State Board of Education seems content to allow the Suburban Cook County ROE to founder.

PS It does seem like Proviso's state legislators could do something to improve the situation. Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood) is on the Senate Education Committee and has been the chair in the past. Sen. Dan Cronin (R-Elmhurst) is the senior Republican on that committee. Like Lightford and Cronin State Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) is on her chamber's Education Committee. Yarbrough is the Democratic Committeeman for Proviso Township. And she's the person who persuaded the Cook County Democratic Party to nominate Flowers. Although she and Flowers are not as tight as they were.

Liz Gorman whines that village clerk is father of her opponent

Kristen McQueary (Daily Southtown) has a column noting Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman (R-Orland Park) is complaining that the Village of Orland Park is an early voting site and the village clerk is the father of one of her Democratic opponents, Patrick Maher.

Gorman's husband ran a car dealership. Daimler-Benz had a dispute with Mr. Gorman over some money and took him to court. How did Gorman respond to the allegations about the money? He filed a motion saying that his point of contact at Daimler-Benz used derogatory terms to describe Black people.

Liz Gorman is throwing allegations against the wall. Guess what Commissioner G? A whole bunch of candidates run in elections where the village clerk isn't on their side. Deal with it.

[UPDATE: Victor Forys is also running in the Dem primary. Ray Hanania (OrlandParker.com) calls Forys the leading candidate. Gov. Pat Quinn just appointed Forys to the Illinois Board of Health.

[Forys did well in the Polish community when he ran for IL-05. Quinn supporting Forys allows him to give something to the Polish community and it forces Maher, who is kin of Dan Hynes, to run opposed in the Dem primary.]

school budget issues

Next Monday, the board will vote on the 2007-08 budget for Proviso Township High Schools (District 209).

The Forest Park Review encouraged everyone to study the document.

BTW, the State of Illinois may have fouled-up the system of collecting property taxes by not passing legislation in Springfield. See Phil Kadner (Daily Southtown), h/t Capitol Fax Blog (Rich Miller).

The state needs to pass legislation that sets the level of the property tax bills. The county can't determine the amount to bill property owners until the level is passed into law. And if the county doesn't get the property tax money then the schools don't get their property tax money, which is their primary source of income.

From a theoretical perspective, property tax revenue is supposed to the most reliable. The cyclical nature of the economy causes income taxes and sales taxes to fluctuate. However, property owners are expected to absorb the economic uncertainties with property taxes. That is, the property owner pays $X not matter if the economy is booming or in the doldrums.

From Kadner:

"I told my school districts that we can expect to lose $300,000 a month, or about $10,000 a day, just in the interest we would have made off of the property tax money, had we received it and put the money in an interest-bearing account," said Rob Grossi, treasurer of Bloom Township schools.

Finally, we know what the township treasurer of schools does. In weird budget situations s/he gives a quote to the newspaper.

campaign worker used to paint Peraica team as thugs

Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica (R-Riverside) is running for State's Attorney.

Peraica was something of a media darling when he ran against Todd Stroger for President of the County Board. Media people liked Peraica because he was accessible, gave good quotes and reflected back the media's perception of Stroger. Peraica railed against the cronyism, corruption and incompetence.

On election night Peraica's campaign was celebrating, including drinking. Mike Manzo was at the location where the ballots were being tabulated by the Cook County Clerk. There had been a number of irregularities and Manzo witnessed a bunch of Stroger people being on the inside.

Manzo called Peraica and informed him that the campaign should get there people to come over to prevent any cheating.

Peraica marched his campaign staff, many under the influence of alcohol, to the location and they were not allowed to get the equivalent access that the Stroger campaign had.

The media saw and filmed Peraica's celebrants, including intoxicated people, marching like an angry mob. This became the defining image of the campaign: Peraica's angry mob.

The Democrats and their allies in the media are now playing-up stories that re-enforce this image. This is somewhat analogous to the media deciding Howard Dean was unhinged for opposing the Iraq War (before it was socially acceptable on the DC cocktail circuit to say the invasion was a bad idea). So, when the media got an image to match the story they already told themselves, they repeated it over and over again.

For Democrats that want to pooh-pooh Peraica, his complaints about election fraud in Cook County were quite similar to complaints Democrats were making about electronic voting in other parts of the country. The basic complaint is that the dominant party has access to the machines and the votes and if the votes were tampered with the tampering is exceedingly difficult (impossible?) to detect.

I imagine if the Peraica campaign would have had it to do over again... they would have done certain things differently.

But the image of Peraica as the leader of an angry mob is getting re-enforced by other stories now. Capitol Fax Blog (Rich Miller) tied together a couple stories under the title "More thuggery from Peraica".

There are those who say that Peraica’s infamous march to the County Building on election night last year was simply an unfortunate, isolated incident, despite the obviously stupid move of leading a drunken mob across town. But Tony apparently loves him some thugs, and likes to have them do his bidding.

I like Peraica. And the need to reform Cook County government, and especially law enforcement in Cook County, doesn't disappear because the reformers are uncouth.

I think Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman, who is chair of the Cook County GOP, is closer to the mark on Peraica than the image the media is trying to sell.

Capitol Fax Blog quoting Daily Southtown (Steve Patterson):

“Peraica thinks everything is a fight, but it takes two to fight, and I won’t be part of this,” Gorman said. “He’s tossed too many grenades. One was bound to backfire on him.”

Peraica, and the people around him, often refer to other Republicans as venal, corrupt or incompetent.

When Peraica kicked-off his campaign for State's Attorney he had a conference call for bloggers. Someone--not me--asked a question.

Peraica starting ticking through suburban townships where he had good words for the GOP committeemen, but they he got to Proviso Township and gave a more detailed analysis of the local political landscape.

Peraica said of Michael Corrigan, the Proviso Township Assessor and GOP committeeman, that he barely shows up for his township job, how could you expect him to do any work as committeeman?

Having seen firsthand how the Cook County State's Attorney covers for local politicians not following the law, I see the need for reform. And if Peraica fails to deliver reform at State's Attorney it will be easy enough to dump him in four years.

However, Peraica seems to have trouble focusing on saying things that advance his cause of getting elected without adding gratuitous insults of others, especially local Republican officials.

Gorman may think Peraica's a jackass, but she's not hell bent on sticking it to Peraica. One Peraica campaign worker told me that when he approached Gorman--he'd known her for a long time--she got her people out to help Peraica's campaign.

My two cents is that Peraica and his staff should resist their inclinations to engage in conflict with others when it doesn't advance their interests in accomplishing something specific, like winning an election.

the maybe candidate against Lipinski

Daily Southtown (Phil Kadner):

Palos Hills Mayor Gerald Bennett is pondering a run for Congress against U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-3rd), son of former congressman William O. Lipinski.

"Yes, I'm considering running against him in the Democratic primary, and I'll be making a decision within the next two weeks," said Bennett, who has been mayor of Palos Hills for 27 years.

Seems late in the game to be saying maybe he'll run, but maybe he's got some brilliant plan.

GOV, fired county employee bitter

David G. DeVos wrote a guest column published in the Daily Southtown.

I've spent the last 17 years of my life aiding the care of the patients at Oak Forest Hospital. I arrive to work at 4:30 a.m., five or. sometimes. six days a week. I work in the kitchen. I'm inconsequential in the grand scheme of things for the county, a middle manager whose purpose it has been, until now, to provide meals for patients and to do my part to improve the quality of these patient's lives in my own small way.

DeVos rips Todd Stroger in his letter.

It's the janitors and the cooks and the laundry workers and all of the support staff that serve the county selflessly and make a real difference in the lives of those people who need county services. The pleas of the people fell on deaf ears, but we won't be discouraged because Stroger and the commissioners are elected by those who were tossed to the streets.

We won't forget this, and it will be reflected by our votes. Let's see then if Todd still has that perpetual smirk on his face while he gives his concession speech.

GOV, process of approving Cook County budget

Daily Southtown (Jonathan Lipman) has a good summary of the process.

Republican Commissioners Elizabeth Gorman (Orland Park), Gregg Goslin (Glenview) and Peter Silvestri (Elmwood Park) broke from the opposition budget to support Stroger's budget.

Democrat Commissioner Joan Murphy (Crestwood) stayed with the opposition and voted against the Stroger budget.

KLEPT, Daily Southtown gigs Hastings [D209]

Daily Southtown has been digging dirt on Kyle Hastings for awhile. Hastings is mayor of Orland Hills and director of auxiliary programs for Proviso Township High Schools. One of Hastings major responsibilities as director of auxiliary programs is summer school. He went on vacation during summer school last year. See Forest Park Review.

Daily Southtown's editorial describes how Hastings received consulting fees without being under a written contract. This should not be legal.

Eugene Moore used to play this game (1997) with Proviso Township. Moore would receive payments for "consulting" on senior services without providing any work product or being under a written contract.

If this practice is legal then there's no limit to what the politically connected can pay each other for "consulting". We need a legislative fix.

And BTW, if State's Attorney Dick Devine is really pissed at Cook County Board President Todd Stroger he could show he means business by prosecuting some Stroger pals for corruption and ghost pay rolling. Dick, if you're not willing to do anything about it, you're just performing for the cameras.

KLEPT, Hastings logrolls for consultant fees [D209]

Daily Southtown (Isaac Wolf)

Orland Hills Mayor Kyle Hastings has received almost $50,000 in consulting fees from South Suburban College, where village administrator John Daly serves as vice chairman of the board of trustees.

From 2000 to 2003 Hastings earned $1,250 per month to review the college's safety procedures and collected another $2,304 for teaching two classes. In total he received $46,679 from South Suburban College, financial documents reveal. All the while, he held down a full-time job as a "business liaison" with the Illinois secretary of state's office.

Do you get the impression the Daily Southtown reporters and editors think Hastings is crooked? It probably antagonized Daily Southtown people and inspire them to dig more aggressive when the Orland Park attorney, Mark Sterk, accused the Southtown of not being credible.

Kyle Hastings is director of auxiliary programs at Proviso Township High Schools.

GOV, Stroger vetoes county budget

A few days ago county commissioners crafted a budget that minimized cuts in services by cutting waste, especially unnecessary management positions. Today County Board President Todd Stroger (D-Eighth Ward) decided to veto the budget.

One of the things that makes the veto galling is that Stroger and his mentor, Commissioner Bill "Hog With Big Nuts" Beavers claimed that the budget process was legit. Stroger and Beavers were willing to incorporate cuts and improvements suggested by the commissioners.

Team Stroger made it difficult for commissioners to get a handle on the budget, so finding the waste wasn't easy. The commissioners did their job, but apparently they did it too well. They cut too much of the patronage and waste for Stroger's taste.

At a League of Women Voters forum last fall I learned what happens when the president vetoes the budget. Unless the commissioners can override the veto the president gets to write his own budget. And it takes 4/5 of commissioners to override the veto (14 of 17).

Daily Southtown (Steve Patterson) has an article discussing how during the campaign Stroger promised to support reducing the threshold, but now is quietly opposing the change. And Stroger denies saying he supported the change and he's deleted the press release from his website. Classy guy, huh?

Daily Southtown (Jonathan Lipman) has an article on Stroger's veto announcement.

Commissioners proposed to restore $73 million in cut services, including all 26 community health clinics, through a combination of new revenue and administration cuts. But Stroger said the administrators proposed for cuts are vital to the county.

“Their amendment … will destroy what (interim health bureau chief Robert) Simon is trying to do at the hospital,” Stroger said. “The county wouldn’t even run if we let that go through.”

For all those people who bad-mouthed Stroger's Republican opponent Commissioner Anthony Peraica, it now looks like more clinics in the hood would have stayed open under Peraica.

BLOG, blogger trying to cash in on Commissioner Bill Beavers' wit

Want Todd Stroger's mug on your skivvies, panties, drawers, undies?

I don't, but Rogers Park Bench (Tom Mannis) thinks there's a market.

h/t Phil Kadner (Daily Southtown)

PO-PO, Daily Southtown exposes police chief as liar [D209]

Kyle Hastings draws a six figure salary from Proviso Township High Schools, District 209 as director of auxiliary programs. He's also the mayor of Orland Hills.

The Orland Hills police chief was recently deposed about a bar, Fire and Ice. The chief claimed ignorance of things he told the Daily Southtown about in an interview. See Daily Southtown (Lauren FitzPatrick). The paper pretty much called the chief of police a liar.

What law firm is representing Orland Hills in this litigation? Odelson & Sterk, District 209's law firm.

Mark Sterk had a good quote.

Orland Hills attorney Mark Sterk, who represents Laveck in this case, said that the Southtown article doesn't prove anything.

"I don't believe anything I read in the paper unless it's a line score from a sporting event," Sterk said.

Sterk can attack the credibility of newspapers, but I think most people trust the newspapers more than they trust lawyers, especially from law firms that double as political hacks.

Other Orland Hills officials, including Mayor Kyle Hastings and village administrator John Daly, did not return several calls to comment. The head of the Fire and Police Committee, Trustee Cal Million, declined to speak on the record....

Casper and the bars have settled. Attorneys continue to depose village officials and seek to question Hastings, as well.