There are many articles coming out about the Illinois Governor and his attempts to "sell" Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.
Although we haven't really had much reported corruption in Lake County, I found a quote in one article (below) about the Illinois and Chicago corruption reputation problem. I actually found a quote in the article when it was sent out by a Supervisor of Orange County, California, John Moorlach, who detected a possible financial crisis due to the County Treasurer's investment practices. He was ignored back in the 90's, and then his prediction came true and Orange County lost over a BILLION dollars that led to the County filing bankruptcy. Moorlach was subsequently elected County Auditor-Controller (Florida does not have a central county Auditor or Controller like California), then later he was elected a County Supervisor (like a FL County Commissioner). He constantly gets calls from reporters when some other government agency anywhere in the US declared bankruptcy or suffers fraud or corruption. The article below includes an interview of him looking for suggestions related to the Chicago corruption.
Here is a quote from the reporter (not Moorlach) that applies to any government agency...it focuses on transparency of government spending by publishing accounting reports, etc. so the public can keep an eye on spending, which is one of the philosophies of FiscalRangers.com .
vj
“I think you’ve got to start fresh and new,” said Serafin, who recommends figuring out ways to make government financial information easily accessible while also getting political neophytes to run for office without having to go to party bosses for money.
“Information is knowledge, and knowledge is power,” Serafin said. “If you keep them dumb, barefoot and pregnant on the farm, that works to their (political powerbrokers’) advantage.”
Arrest makes it easy to
mock Illinois’ reputation
By
BRUCE RUSHTON
THE
STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
On the
plus side, the limelight’s off a house stranded in the street and a former
presidential museum director accused of shoplifting.
But there’s little
question that the scandal engulfing Gov. Rod Blagojevich has consumed an entire
state already infamous for corruption.
Strictly by the numbers, it’s not
as bad as some people might think. According to USA Today, Illinois ranks only
seventh in the country in terms of the number of public officials convicted of
corruption in the past decade. Florida, Pennsylvania, New York—even
California—are all worse than us.
And on a per-capita basis, North
Dakota, with more than eight corruption convictions per 100,000 residents, is
the dirtiest state in the nation.
Still, with three governors — George
Ryan, Otto Kerner and Dan Walker — imprisoned since 1973 and another twisting,
outsiders are again asking: What’s up with Illinois?
“I’ve heard from
Thailand, China, Germany, England, Australia and around the United States,” said
Sangamon County board chairman Andy Van Meter, whose importing business puts him
in touch with folks around the world who like to read the news. “I’m still
getting it.”
The comments have not been kind. Is Illinois a Third World
country? What else is for sale here?
“I say it’s very aberrant behavior
of a very disturbed man,” Van Meter said.
Gary Plummer, president and CEO
of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, says he, too, has received jibes
from chamber types from across the nation, but they’re not necessarily thinking
about Springfield.
“I think any perceptions are probably directed at the
state as a whole as opposed to the city of Springfield,” Plummer
said.
Tim Farley, executive director of the Springfield Convention and
Visitors Bureau, points north.
“Quite frankly, the whole story basically
focuses on Chicago,” Farley said. “The governor didn’t spend a lot of time in
Springfield—it’s not like he was here when it happened.”
Others aren’t so
sure. While absolving President-elect Barack Obama of blame, Washington Post
columnist David Broder wrote Thursday that Illinois corruption runs deeper than
Blagojevich and broader than the Windy City.
“As a fellow Illinoisan, I
have to admit that this latest example of the Springfield Syndrome that has now
tainted four recent governors is a signal that the ethics reforms Obama
sponsored as a member of the Illinois Legislature did not go far enough to
cleanse the pay-to-play culture,” Broder writes. “Get out the scrub
brushes.”
In announcing the governor’s arrest on Tuesday, FBI agent Rob
Grant professed himself appalled by Blagojevich’s behavior.
“Today
certainly is a new low for the state of Illinois,” Grant said. “I think even the
most cynical agents in our office were shocked.”
Then again, Grant didn’t
handle the investigation of Kerner, who was convicted in 1973 after a racetrack
owner deducted a gubernatorial bribe from her tax returns on the grounds that
such expenditures were legitimate business expenses in Illinois.
At this
point, Illinois’ reputation on matters political has been so shattered that it
cannot be rehabilitated, says Thom Serafin, a Chicago political consultant who
specializes in crisis management.
“I think you’ve got to start fresh and
new,” said Serafin, who recommends figuring out ways to make government
financial information easily accessible while also getting political neophytes
to run for office without having to go to party bosses for
money.
“Information is knowledge, and knowledge is power,” Serafin said.
“If you keep them dumb, barefoot and pregnant on the farm, that works to their
(political powerbrokers’) advantage.”
Things could be worse, says John
Moorlach, chairman of the Orange County (Cal.) Board of Supervisors and a
man who knows what it’s like to live in a place loved by late-night
comedians.
Moorlach owes his political career to Orange County
declaring bankruptcy in 1994. As an unsuccessful candidate for county treasurer,
he had predicted the financial meltdown, and he still hears about
it.
“When Jefferson County in Alabama declares bankruptcy, Fox News calls
us,” Moorlach said.
Even so, the public memory is short, says
Murdoch, and the stain of bankruptcy is worse than the stain of auctioning a
U.S. Senate seat. The governor’s last name (Moorlach pronounces it
Blag-don-o-vitch) helps, he says.
“‘Ryan’ is a lot easier to remember,”
Moorlach said. “This guy will be gone. Good riddance, and move on. We
make cracks about Chicago—not necessarily Illinois—but Chicago’s fair game
around the country.”
Opinions vary on whether Illinois’ image will
suffer further.
“I think it depends a lot on Gov. Blagojevich,” Van Meter
said. “If he does the right thing by the state and resigns, that’s a step toward
restoring our reputation. If we now engage in a month-long struggle to remove
him from office, there will be additional damage to our reputation.”
The
only way to go is up, Plummer said.
“We’ve hit rock bottom,” he said.
“The uncertainty of how things were going to happen in the administration
because of the ongoing investigation, maybe removing that uncertainty might
actually be a positive thing. Now, we can start to pull ourselves back
up.”
Farley, acknowledging he’s a glass-half-full guy, says Obama’s
election and the president-elect’s ties to Springfield will ultimately eclipse
any taint Blagojevich has left on a city he rarely visited. And if the governor
leaves office and his replacement re-opens historic sites that have been closed
due to budget shortfalls, Springfield could end up better off, he said.
But you can only spin so much, Farley acknowledged.
“It’s
obviously not a good thing,” he said.
See the article at the link below about how much damage
