Broken Pension Funds

Yesterday evening I attended the Better Government Association’s panel discussion on the topic of pension reform on the county and city level.

However, much of the first part of the discussion focused on the State of Illinois pension problem. 

At all levels of government in Illinois our pensions funds are in BIG BIG trouble. Lots of reasons for the mess. And while analysis is important to understand the problem and placing blame can be fun what MUST happen soon is reasonable action to address the problem.

The Cook County Board established a Sub-Committee on Pensions and Commissioner Bridget Gainer chairs it. Here is the linkto the website. 

The city was invited to participate in the panel but did not send anyone. Not surprising.

A Dress Code for the NATO Summit

Today’s news includes an article from Crain’s Chicago Business reporting that some businesses are suggesting employees not wear formal business attire during the NATO summit
to blend in with the protesters
to not attract the attention of the protesters
to avoid possible problems from/with protesters.

Here’s my response:

1) If people who are Loop working stiffs in all types of professions wear clothes that are typical of a protestor (whatever that garb is) won't that jack up the apparent size of the anti-NATO forces and make it harder to calculate crowd numbers?

2) What do protesters wear these days? Does it vary by age and gender and "cause" of the protestor? (I have posted above  at the left a photo from Creative Commons of protesters.  These folks look average/normal and not scary)

3) There is an assumption in the article that people who wear formal attire to work are content with the status quo in the world. Is that really the assumption?  And is that assumption accurate?  Are there no accountants or attorneys or even bankers who disapprove of how the current "world leaders" are running planet Earth?

Rockin' at the Nurses' March

The City of Chicago rescinded the parade permit issued to National Nurses United (NNU) because (drum roll) the nurses' group had recently added rocker Tom Morello, formerly of Rage Against the Machine, as a speaker and performer. 

The city was changing its mind "to accommodate changes to your (the NNU) event, including a performance by a nationally known musician and a significantly increased number of expected attendees.". 

City officials said they needed to move the ending rally of the march from Daley Plaza in the center of the Loop to the Petrillo Music Shell. (Maybe the city should try to sell the seats at Petrillo for $25 a pop like they plan to for Taste of Chicago. See  April 11  post.)

NNU may not like the new route but they sure are getting a publicity bump from this. And since some Loop offices my shut down on Friday because of the NATO Summit employees with the day off might come down to the march for the free concert on Friday, May 18 at noon.

Two people, Squirehogg and Sillypuppetdude, have produced a very funny puppet parody about NATO. It’s the only thing about NATO2012 that has made me chuckle.

Go to youtube here and check it out.

The vocalist is Derrick Porcell.

The Secret Service revealed the road closures, parking restrictions, changes to public transportation services and other details of the security plan for NATO2012.

The press conference was held on Friday afternoon. Traditionally that is the time when press conference are held about stories that are seeking NO or MINIMAL coverage because the stories run in the Saturday papers which are not read as much because people do other things on the weekend.

With the 24/7 news cycle, the internet, instantaneous access to info Friday news might be more available but I got to wonder why they didn't release the story for the SUNDAY paper. Here's a link to the Chicago Sun Times article. I'm concerned about the "rolling" street closure when the "leaders" are carted around the city for events.

I wonder what the NATO roadblocks will look like. I don't think they will just put up sawhorses and be done with it. I think they will be "manned" to some degree. 

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I signed up for another City Club luncheon on May 14..

The topic is Water and Government Management.

This one I want to take a bunch of folks to.  I think the mayor is fixing the water system (and jacking up water rates to do so) because he is a fixin’ to sell the water system.

The panel for the luncheon is to include:
 
Michael Deane, Executive Director of the National Association of Water Companies, 1725 K. Street, NW, Ste. 200, Washington, DC 20006

From the NAWC website:
"NAWC maintains an aggressive set of programs to support the Private Water Service Industry and their customers.
We afford our members the means to assure their concerns and the concerns of their customers are before the nation's key decision makers. The association's relations with federal legislators and agency directors, as well as with Public Utility Commissions and staff, improve our members' effectiveness in addressing the common concerns of the industry, our customers, and the Nation.
 
Douglas Scott was appointed by Governor Pat Quinn as chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) effective March 3, 2011. His term expires January 20, 2014.

Prior to his appointment Scott served as director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency from 2005 to 2011. During those years he chaired the Illinois Governor’s Climate Change and Advisory Committee and was a member of the Midwestern Governors’ Association panel charged with developing a regional cap-and-trade system. He was a member of the Air Committee for Environmental Council of States (ECOS) and the USEPA Environmental Financial Advisory Board. He served as chairman of The Climate Registry Board of Directors and co-chair of the Keystone Foundation Energy Board.

He was elected and served as mayor of Rockford, Illinois from 2001 to 2005. As mayor he held leadership positions in the Illinois Municipal League, United States Conference of Mayors and the national League of Cities. He also served as president of the Illinois Chapter of the National Brownfield Association.

Scott was elected a state representative from the 67th district in 1995 and served in the General Assembly until 2001 when he became mayor. Scott also served the city as city attorney.

A native of Rockford Scott received his undergraduate degree with honors from the University of Tulsa in 1982 and a juris doctorate with honors from Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI in 1985.

Thomas Powers, Chicago Department of Water Management (DWM) Commissioner
 
Mary Sue Barrett has been president of the Metropolitan Planning Council since 1996.
 
During her tenure, MPC has strengthened its relationships with regional decision-makers, and is increasingly called upon to untangle local development and regional policy challenges.

Prior to joining MPC, Ms. Barrett served in former Mayor Richard M. Daley's first administrations, holding positions of increasing responsibility over seven years.  Ms. Barrett began her municipal government work in 1989 in the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and was promoted in 1993 to chief of policy, coordinating initiatives on public safety, economic and community development, and lifelong education. 
 
In 1995, she was recruited by Mayor Daley to serve as chief of staff to the Chicago School Reform Board of Trustees, part of a new management team charged with bringing revolutionary change to the Chicago Public Schools. 
 
Ms. Barrett serves on the Advisory Boards of Metropolis Strategies, the Harris School’s Visiting Committee at the University of Chicago, and Illinois Issues magazine.
 
Ms. Barrett has a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University

I got back to Chicago on Sunday.

Yesterday I attended the City Club of Chicago’s public policy luncheon at Maggiano’s.

On the menu, mushroom ravioli and Lori Healey.

I went with my friend Anna Klocek, two-time aldermanic candidate in the 45th ward.

The other people at our table were from Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital.

I thought Lori was going to talk about security again. But no, this time she was blathering on, I mean delivering a speech, about the economic benefits of the NATO summit to Chicago.

It seems a group of consultants put together a NATO version of the Chicago 2016 Olympic economic nonsense. (Lori Healey was President of Chicago 2016, the failed Olympic bid.) They figure 21,200 people will be coming to the summit and will generate 49,300 hotel night stays. 

By comparison the International Home and Housewares Show at McCormick Place attracts: 60,000 professional attendees, over 2,000 exhibitors - from over 30 countries, over 15,000 buyers from the United States, and more than 6,000 international buyers from 100 countries on 6 continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.  (Chicago lost a bunch of conventions after Richie Daley dug up Meigs Field. Daley destroyed the general aviation airport that fed the convention business while our competitors Las Vegas and Orlando spent millions to upgrade their general aviation airports.)

And when the regular non-NATO conventions are at McCormick Place the Feds don’t have to create a “Red Zone”, wear battle dress, and have guns that shoot beanbags.  And the Secret Service doesn’t have to use tax dollars to buy/rent security equipment like 20,000 linear feet of concrete barriers, high-security vehicle barriers, crowd control barricade systems, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

The economic forecast for the NATO is definitely rosy. And it just barely mentions that if some kind of problem occurs, the projections could be faulty.

I did not know until Lori’s speech today that the NATOnians were going to be schlepped all around Chicago.

They’re going to the Crosstown Classic (Cubs vs. White Sox) at Wrigley Field.  That, it turns out was why the hospital folk were at the event. They are the closest hospital to Wrigley so if something goes catawampus they are the ones who will have to deal with it.

NATO is going to a kite flying festival at Montrose Harbor.

The NATO wives are visiting a children’s hospital in Hyde Park.

NATO, the people who carry out wars all over the world will be here having a fun-filled weekend while we the taxpayers/residents of Chicago prepare for marchers and protesters and possible hooliganism in the streets.

The more I think about this summit the weirder it is.  Why can’t NATO just have meetings in Brussels?

And my suggestion for enhancing Chicago's international reputation is to focus on the families of the tens of thousands of foreign students studying in Chicago.

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Checking the Chicago papers on line at the library I read that Lori Healey (pictured at left) and the NATO host committee were “shocked” that the Feds were going to beef up security around in the section of the Loop that contains lots of Federal buildings.

The Feds are calling it “Operation Red Zone”. According to the printed report of a WGN story, “federal law enforcement will wear “battle” gear and carry weapons that shoot bean bags.” (Is there really a weapon that shoots beanbags?  When I get back to Chicago I’ll have to go to the “Red Zone” to check this out.)

Well, I’m not surprised that Lori and the gang are surprised. Their performance at Mercy Hospital earned a no-confidence-in-their-preparations vote from me.

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At the Fair Board  meeting last night we discussed having a cash raffle this year instead of raffling off a prize.  Last year they raffled a tractor. But the consensus seems to be that a cash raffle would appeal to a broader audience.

One of the groups I’m involved with up here is the Wacky Weeders. 

We are a group of volunteers who meet Wednesday mornings and help out the Public Works Department by maintaining plantings/gardens in the city parks, the Presque Isle Historical Museum and the 40 Mile Point Lighthouse. We are guided by Deb Stiler a local artist who sends out an email every week so we know what we will be working on.

We meet at 8:30AM and by about 10:00 we finish up our gardening and all go off and have breakfast at Karstens, a wonderful dinner on the Third Street.  (During the winter, the Wacky Weeder walks on Wednesday weather permitting and then go and have breakfast.)

Today we prepped the soil in the wildflower garden which I think is technically part of North Shore Park. There are nine parks in this town of 3,000 people. Amazing.

The Wacky Weeders are a fun group. helps keep Rogers City the cleanest neatest city I have ever seen!

Then at noon I went to the lunch meeting of the Zonta chapter.  Our snowbird members are starting to come back north so we had a good turnout. 


This just in from Chicago.  The City Council did approve a revised version of the Infrastructure Trust ordinance. Though there was strong dissent again.

We lost a few of the no votes from the Finance Committee, Aldermen Cochran, Dowell and Lane.  But we picked up a few others. So the “Magnificent Seven” who voted no were: Bob Fioretti (2nd); Leslie Hairston (5th); Toni Foulkes (15th); Ricardo Munoz (22nd); Scott Waguespack (32nd); Brendan Reilly (42nd) and John Arena (45th).

So that means, at some point TEN Aldermen said no to the mayor on this issue.

I’m Up North in Rogers City, Michigan.

So, I’m missing the action on the Infrastructure Trust ordinance in the Chicago City Council.

But I am still living civically. 

I got into town last Friday (April 20) just in time for the meeting of the Ad Hoc Growth Committee of the Rogers City City Council.  I am on the Committee and we are working on no and low cost initiatives to promote this wonderful town on the shores of Lake Huron.

I am working on an initiative to develop relationships with the travel writers/editors at media in Michigan.

Then, tonight I’m going to the Board meeting for the Presque Isle County Fair.
I on the Board and we are busy reinventing the Fair.

While I’m up here I rely on the local branch of the Presque Isle Public Library for computers.  So my postings will probably be shorter.

I submitted the following letter to the editor to both the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune.

I attended the entire Finance Committee meeting on Monday and yesterday’s City Council meeting. I applaud the Aldermen who during the committee meeting asked pointed questions on behalf of their constituents and who exercised their political power to produce the legislative delay.

Here are four of my questions regarding the private investor-public infrastructure plan being considered by the City Council.
(1) If the impact of a one-time summer event, the 2016 Olympics, required public meetings in all fifty wards doesn’t a privatizing investment infrastructure program with potentially multi-decade financial implications deserve the same public examination and input?

(2) Why is the structure being contemplated called a trust? What legal definition is being used?

(3) Can anyone explain how public assets/infrastructure can generate revenue/income/returns to satisfy private investors without requiring user fees of some kind for the public’s use of the public assets/infrastructure subjected to the private investment?
(4) The only example of the kind of private investment contemplated by the proposed investment plan cited during the committee meeting by the city’s Chief Financial Officer was the construction of a toll way near San Diego that turned out to be a boondoggle bust. Is there a positive (i.e. good for the public and the investors) example of this kind of infrastructure investment plan?