GOVERNMENT WASTE

- ILLINOIS -

Date	Individual / State Agency	Who, What, Where?
04/22/05	State Prison System	Unused State Prisons Cost $2.1 Million The state has mothballed two state prisons that never housed even one inmate at a cost of $2.1 million last year. The millions of dollars are spent to keep the lights on, to pay an engineer and flush the toilets.
04/28/05	Central Management Services Department	New Agency Nothing But Free-Spending Bureaucracy The new agency created to cut waste has fallen victim to the age-old government ploy of spend, spend, spend. The Central Management Services Agency has been charged with improperly billing taxpayers for lavish dinners, hotel room service and parking for Chicago Bulls basketball games. But more importantly, the agency was condemned for failing to accomplish its main charter to deliver on cost savings and for awarding multi-million contracts to consultants to promote the agencies’ agenda.
05/14/05	Cook County Commissioners	Cook County Commissioners Pay Through Nose In Cook County, Illinois, county workers seemingly file ridiculous worker’s compensation claims with the blessing of the commissioners who approve such payouts. Examples of some of the more low-cost claims include: · Injured ankle from standing too long - $30,000 · Trapped while avoiding geese in a building - $3,000 · A highway department laborer filed five claims within 32 months suffering injuries from weed-whacking and tripping. · A recorder’s clerk filed five claims in 23 months including one for bug bites. However, the county has also paid on a number of large claims that deplete the state resources: · Injuries caused by a broken chair/bench - $1, 300,000 · Tripped on cord, rug or briefcase - $569,000 · Assaulted by co-worker - $403,000 Since 1997, Cook County Commissioners have paid out $51 million out of a total of $81 million in claims filed by county employees for this one county.
05/28/05	Stevenson Township High School District	Chief Financial Guru Rakes In Pension The man in charge of finance for the state’s public schools, James Hintz, will earn $375,000 this year just in time to fatten his pension, which is equal to 75% of his last four years of salary. Part of that compensation is a check for $101,566 for health insurance, which he doesn’t need to use on health insurance. When he retires at the end of June, he will receive a pension of $217,000 for the remainder of his life. Officials in the school district claim he is worth every penny as he has saved the school district over $25 million during his tenure. That argument doesn’t seem to hold water as many management employees manage to get end-of-tenure “stipends” during their last four years to bloat their grand retirement pay, for after all its only taxpayer money. The next four highest management salaries ranged from $280,828 to $289,404. Even the top five principals made from $197,287 to $219,878. And even better, the top five HIGH SCHOOL teachers ranged from $157,781 to $173,077.
11/01/05		Proof That We Have Too Many or the Wrong Representatives Based on legislation proposed by some small-minded representatives, there is ample proof that we have too many or the wrong representatives in our state legislatures. Proof is in the pudding! One such representative, Senator Mary Flowers (Democrat) is wasting the time of her fellow representatives by attempting to pass a bill that mandates that every student wash or sanitize their hands before eating lunch at school. Let’s see now. If I recall my youth, I rushed from one class to another with barely enough time to gobble down my lunch. I can just see the enormous lines at the boys and girls rooms under the whip of the teachers in their Nazi arm bands and snarling German Shepherd dogs to assure compliance. Each student will probably have 5 to 10 minutes to wolf down something passing as a nourishing lunch after completing the mandatory sterilization procedure. Since the lines would be horrendous, in a few years, I can just see this “representative” proposing new legislation to add 10 more bathrooms to each school to reduce the lines, which of course will be paid for by the taxpayers. How do these fools get elected? Before any representatives propose preposterous legislation, they should give deep thought to the implications of the bill (cause and effect relationship), and the additional responsibilities this places on the school administration to assure conformance – these people have more important functions to perform – it’s called teaching! When are our legislators going to concentrate on important issues such as balancing/reducing the budget, rooting out corruption, or giving themselves raises, instead of wasting people’s time with these nonsensical items?
12/01/05	Governor’s Office	Nepotism Is Alive and Well In Illinois According to the Chicago Sun-Times, if you’re looking for work, any work; it helps to know a few political office holders. Immediately after Governor Blagojevich took office, suddenly most of Representative Dan Reitz’s (Democrat, Steeleville) immediate family got jobs in the new administration. These jobs included: · Joyce Reitz (his wife) got a $32,556 a year job with the state parks department · Nick Reitz (his son) got $47,496 as a public administration intern lobbying for the state agriculture department · Peter Geppert (his secretary’s husband) got $47,496 as a supervisor of a state park in his own district. · I wonder whom the family dog works for? · Besides his family, the list includes campaign workers, political donors and relatives of political fund-raisers. Now the administration claims that all of these people were well qualified for the jobs, but one of Governor Blagojevich’s promises was that only critically needed state jobs would be filled. In deference to that policy, these jobs were filled as federal authorities continued to subpoena hiring records from three major department, transportation, corrections and child welfare. According to Blagojevich, not only has his administration not done anything wrong, the Democratic machine is upset with him for not providing enough jobs to relatives and Democratic foot soldiers. Ah, yes – the spoils system is alive and well in Illinois.
03/01/06	Chicago	Expensive School May Cost $10 Million More A new state-of-the-art high school that is the most expensive school ever built in Chicago, may cost $10 million more than the latest revised estimate for completion. City offcials are fighting a claim made by the general contractor, McHugh/Riteway Joint Venture, that seeks to hike the final cost from $63 to $73 million. This latest boondoggle follows huge cost overruns at Millennium Park and Soldier Field in recent years. If the $73 million were approved, it would put the final price tag at 31 percent above the original cost estimate. In November, the project manager, Yaov Yaakoby, whom the commission hired to oversee the construction, resigned. It just so happens the Yaakoby is the husband of Richard Daley’s personal trainer, who worked for the Israeli Department of Defense, and has no experience or education in school construction.
03/01/06		Heavy Political Contributions Grease Sweet Deal for I-Pass Vendor According to the Chicago Sun-Times, IGOR the Watchdog Corp., was originally hired to package and deliver tollway I-Pass transponders to Jewel-Osco stores for $150,000. Since 2003, the tollway has twice extended IGOR’s contract without re-bidding it and significantly upped the dollar value on five separate occasions to where its now a $7 million contract, in that they are now installing the wallet-sized devices in more than 1.1 million cars and trucks. The Sun-Times reports that DuPage County prosecutors are scrutinizing the IGOR deal as part of an investigation into a tollway employee who was suspended for possible wrongdoing. Critics of Governor Blagojevich say the deck was stacked in IGOR’s favor because its owners, Michael and Sherry Guthrie, donated $76,000 to Blagojevich’s political fund and employ former Blagojevich employees. Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association, said. “This contract, at best, looks like it was rushed through with a get-it-done, worry-about-details-later attitude. Given the circumstances of how Governor Blagojevich became governor and what his promises were, I don’t think this is what the voters thought they were voting for in 2002.”
07/01/06	Cook County	Cook County Adds 2,000+ Employees Cook County (home to Chicago) is facing another gigantic budget deficit forcing it to open an emergency line of credit for $200 million to pay bills at 10 percent interest. Cook County imposed a hiring freeze when employment was 25,060 employees in early 2005. Reviewing payroll records, by early 2006, Cook County had 27,292 employees, an increase of more than 2,000 employees. In just the last month, 408 new employees were added to the payroll. Obviously, no one in government pays the slightest attention to who does the hiring for City Hall, for no one cares – its only taxpayer’s money.
08/01/06	Chicago City Council	Chicago City Council Feeble Minded In major cities that are controlled by the Democratic machine, laws passed by the city councils astound even the most hardened veterans of the political wars. Chicago is paying the freight for 50 city council members. Only New York has a larger number of comatose representatives, 51. Philadelphia has 17, Houston has 14 and Los Angeles has 17. Obviously Chicago has too many council members with time on their hands. The Chicago City Council has now outlawed the sale of goose liver (foie gras) in restaurants. Mayor Daley urged the City Council to come to its senses and repeal a foie gras ban that has made Chicago an international laughingstock in restaurant circles. Another feeble human being, Alderman Edward Burke, has introduced legislation to ban smoking inside cars when small children are in the vehicles. Of course, as stupid as that proposed law would be, the inevitable questions arise, “What exactly is a ‘small child?’” Burke defines it as a child under the age of 8. Don’t children over the age of 9 breathe too? Perhaps we could draw a line on all cars as they leave the assembly line, in much the same way as amusement parks gauge whether a child is tall enough to enjoy a thrilling ride. Democrats and the liberals within their ranks just don’t get it. Stop imposing asinine laws on the American people. And focus on problems that confront the taxpayers, like waste and corruption. But Burke didn’t stop there. He has a new proposal to restrict restaurants from using trans fat in their cooking if the restaurant has gross sales of $20 million. So I guess it’s OK to clog your arteries in upscale, non-chain restaurants. Another loony on the city council is trying to get a law passed that will require all dogs to have microchips implanted in their necks in case they get lost. Are human beings next in the grand scheme of things? I propose the following new laws for the City Council to consider: · Anyone talking loudly on a cell phone, a restaurant, store or moving vehicle will immediately be thrown into jail · Anyone seen driving an SUV for two days in succession will immediately be thrown into jail (regardless of how many children are in the family) Any Council member who proposes another stupid law will be required to write, “I am an idiot,” 100 times on the blackboard in front of a classroom of kindergarten children.
08/01/06	Cook County	1,300 Employees Added to Cook County Payroll Immediately after Cook County Board President John Stroger suffered a stroke that left him incapacitated and unable to run county government, 1,300 people were added to the payroll. These included Stroger’s campaign manager and his chief of staff’s daughter supposedly while a hiring freeze was in effect. Hiring peaked with 829 employees added to the payroll in May and June, compared with 344 in the same months last year. Since the county's fiscal year began in December, records show, leaders of the cash-strapped government found $41 million available to fund 1,648 positions. Critics say the county shouldn't be hiring in the same patterns as earlier years, because county finances are worse than ever before. "No one was watching --they snuck people in when no one was looking," Commissioner Mike Quigley said. "While [Stroger] was incapacitated, they knew they could get away with it. They should be ashamed of themselves." Though the three-year-old hiring freeze can be lifted for public safety and health, records show about half of all those hired for full- and part-time jobs since December were outside those areas. "They're thumbing their nose at Cook County taxpayers by packing the payroll with all their friends and relatives," said Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica. "The level of hubris they're exhibiting is absolutely amazing." Summer Whigham is one of 39 new counselors at the troubled juvenile detention center, long described as a dumping ground for patronage workers. Other new hires since the fiscal year began include Maria Moreno-Szafarczyk, sister of Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno, as an $85,000-a-year assistant superintendent at the juvenile center, and Ebonie Taylor-Brookins, wife of Ald. Howard Brookins (21st), as a $33,000-a-year aide to Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Larry Rogers Jr. Bobbie Steele, the county's caretaker president, said she's "uncomfortable" about the explanations given for some of the new hires and issued an executive order "prohibiting political patronage in hiring." But even she had a chance to set an example -- by axing Stroger's patronage chief -- and she blew it. She admitted she couldn't figure out what Gerald Nichols was doing to earn his $114,000 annual salary but then she simply transferred him to an office upstairs, where he's still getting paid.