CITY COLLEGES TV STATION GOES LIVE FROM CHANCELLOR’S PRICEY PARTY.

P11

COOK COUNTY

Paging Dr. Todd Stroger

The Cook County hospital system is beco-
ming an important part of Stroger’s reelec-
tion campaign. But critics say his complaints
MONDAY about layoffs and cutbbacks are misplaced.
NOVEMBER 9, 2009
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS Stroger is maneuvering to rein in the system’s
independent board, while opposing candidates
disagree. P9

PUTTING
BRAKES ON
CTA MONEY
TROUBLES
CAN OFFICIALS AVOID
AGENCY’S ANNUAL BUDGET
MELTDOWN? P4
LINDSAY BEYERSTEIN

Twilight for Daley?

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is the
country’s longest-serving urban mayor. Cri-
tics say low approval ratings and a string of
scandals may encourage opponents in the
2010 election. P7
02 CHICAGO CURRENT
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 9, 2009
www.chicagocurrent.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITOR’S NOTE

AFTER
AXELROD
P3

A New Voice in Chicago

W
hat you’re holding in your hands
right now is a rare thing: a new news-
paper. In 2009.
You may have heard that things aren’t so great in
the news business. The Trib and the Sun-Times both
sought bankruptcy protection in the past year, and a number of others have gone
under.
So what, you might ask, are we doing?
The answer is simple. The Current aims to cover local politics, government
BUILDING A and public affairs with the kind of verve and depth that many newspapers once
BETTER CTA did, but no longer can.
BUDGET If you’re looking for sports, fashion or entertainment, you can go ahead and
Can agency avoid annual put this newspaper down. There’s a copy of RedEye waiting for you on the floor
doomsday? P4 of a nearby “L” car.
If, however, you’re passionate about politics, please stick with us. We’ll do our
best to give you the expert, in-depth coverage you’re looking for.
NEW DETAILS IN We’ll take you behind the big stories at City Hall and into the little-examined
REPUBLIC CASE STROGER TAKES nooks and crannies of Chicago-area public affairs.
Peter Sachs’ story today on some questionable spending at Kennedy-King
New court records detail
alleged fraud. P8 AIM AT HEALTH College is a great example of the kind of reporting we’ll bring you with every edi-
tion.
BOARD. P9 We’ll give you the inside dope, like what’s going on with Axelrod’s firm now
that he’s working for Obama. And we’ll ask the tough questions — hey, CTA,
CITY HALL isn’t there a better way to budget?
On our Web site, chicagocurrent.com, we’ll provide you with a welcoming
EDUCATION community and an engaging space to hash out these questions in much greater
WILL DALEY detail, along with up-to-the-minute coverage and commentary on blogs written
RUN AGAIN? by our beat reporters.
His polls are lower than UNION WIN IN So that’s it. We’re new. We cover the hell out of politics and government in
ever, but he’s got money CHARTER CASE Chicago. This is our first edition, and we’re looking forward to sharing more
and patronage behind Teachers now have their great journalism with you over the years.
him. P7 first contract at a charter Meanwhile, let us know how you like Chicago’s new newspaper. You can e-
school. P10 mail us at news@chicagocurrent.com.

INTERVIEW

QUINN NAMES Geoff Dougherty Peter Sachs

LEARNING ON CSU TRUSTEES CHICAGO Editor and President Correspondent

THE JOB Students fault delay in CURRENT Alex Parker, Current Publishing, LLC
A former CEO receives Adrian G. Uribarri 800 W. Huron, Suite 3E
making appointments. Staff Writers Chicago, Illinois 60642
a rude awakening in the P11 Tel. 773-362-5002
public sector. P6 info@chicagocurrent.com

03
CHICAGO CURRENT
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 9, 2009
www.chicagocurrent.com
THE BUSINESS
Clients say
Axelrod’s
Consulting
Firm Is Fine
Without Him
AKPD founder left to take White
House position after Obama’s win
k By Adrian G. Uribarri
I
t began as a hunch, with a politi-
cal strategist who thought a young
Illinois state senator could aspire
to more. Soon, the senator became a
president, and the strategist a presi-
dential adviser.
Now, a year after David Axelrod
helped Barack Obama win the pres-
idency, partners at his old firm are
learning how to work without him.
Conversations with clients and Chi-
cago politicos indicate that AKPD
Message and Media is doing just fine
without the old boss.
“I think people may be attracted
to the glow,” says Don Rose, a Chi-
cago political consultant and long-
time friend of Axelrod’s. “I think
there are people who might say, even
without Axelrod, it is still the Axel-
rod firm.”
Rose met Axelrod when the now-
famous presidential adviser was a
cub reporter at the Hyde Park Her-
ald. Rose was working as a political
consultant in Chicago’s South Side,
and dealing with Axelrod on some
stories led him to write a raving rec-
ommendation letter to editors at the
Chicago Tribune.
That letter helped Axelrod land
an internship spot at the Tribune,
Rose says. In 1981, Axelrod would
become the paper’s political writ-
er and columnist — the youngest in
the paper’s history, according to a
“I think there are
people who might
say, even without
Axelrod, it is still the
Axelrod firm.”
Don Rose
Chicago-based political consultant
White House biography.
What happened afterward could
very well have changed the course of
the United States. In 1984, Axelrod
left journalism to eventually manage
media strategy and communications
for more than 150 local, state and
national campaigns.
Twenty years after entering poli-
tics, Axelrod helped Obama defeat
six Democrats and go on to a land-
slide win for a U.S. Senate seat. Five
years later, when Senator Obama
became president, Axelrod turned
from senior partner at the firm he
founded, AKPD, to senior adviser
for the president.
Officials at the White House re-
David Axelrod speaking last month at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
WHITE HOUSE
Axelrod left his consulting firm for
a position in the White House.
ferred all questions about AKPD to
the firm, but partners nor staff there
responded to repeated requests for
comment.
Some former clients and com-
petitors of AKPD declined inter-
views when reached directly or
through spokespeople.
This summer, former Chica-
go Inspector General David Hoff-
man hired AKPD for his U.S. Sen-
ate campaign. He is trying to fill the
seat held by outgoing fellow Demo-
crat Roland Burris.
Hoffman faces stiff competition:
Former Illinois Treasurer Alexi Gi-
annoulias, a friend of Obama’s, is
considered the primary front-run-
ner with about $2.4 million on hand
at the end of September. Chicago
Urban League President Cheryle
Robinson Jackson and attorney Ja-
cob Meister are also contenders.
Yet Hoffman says AKPD’s back-
ing gave him greater momentum in
his campaign. Inking a deal with
AKPD was like a vote of confidence,
CAMPAIGN PHOTO
Senate candidate David Hoffman
recently hired Axelrod’s old firm.
he says.
“It was a significant moment for
me, that a team with that experi-
ence believed in me and motivated
me to be in this race.”
The White House has not is-
sued an endorsement for the seat,
but both Hoffman and Giannoulias
have met with Axelrod in the White
House. While the presidential ad-
viser has divested his ownership
stake in AKPD, he remains acutely
involved with Democratic candi-
dates on the national level.
That kind of access is part of
what Rose, the longtime Axelrod
friend, considers key to the firm’s
continued success with clients.
While Axelrod is no longer a part-
ner at AKPD, he has not completely
cut off ties with colleagues.
“It’s that very sense of contact,”
Rose says. “I’m sure a potential cli-
ent would know that at least these
guys are friends and still talk.”
Dawn Clark Netsch, the former
Illinois comptroller, recalls meeting
LABOR
NEW DETAILS
IN REPUBLIC
WINDOWS
CASE
P8
AP PHOTO/NATI HARNIK
AP PHOTO/HARAZ N. GHANBARI
David Plouffe is senior adviser at
AKPD.
Axelrod, her “informal adviser,”
about 30 years ago. She says Axel-
rod’s transition to full-time work in
Washington may be harder on him
than on his firm.
Axelrod, whose daughter has a
seizure-related condition, has been
a key supporter of Chicago-based
Citizens United for Research in Ep-
ilepsy, or C.U.R.E. Some of his fam-
ily still lives in the city.
“He just has such deep roots
here now,” Netsch says. “It was a
little hard to get over the idea that
he would decide to pack up and go
to Washington, which he knows is a
very different type of world.”
She says his colleagues at AKPD
might still be adjusting to his ab-
sence in Chicago, but that she ex-
pects no dramatic change.
“There are some very good peo-
ple there, and if they worked with
David, they’ve got to be talented,”
she said. “It may be different, but
I think they will be able to survive
without him.”
TRANSIT
04
CHICAGO CURRENT
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 9, 2009
www.chicagocurrent.com
CTA
Can Yearly
Financial
Meltdown
Be Avoided?
Union says federal money could
eliminate service cuts, layoffs
k By Ben Meyerson
F
or the better part of the last
decade, CTA riders have been
held hostage. Over and over
again, they’ve been threatened with
everything from cuts in bus service
to elimination of “L” lines.
After years of patchwork fixes,
small fare increases and loans, in
2008 the Illinois General Assem-
bly passed new sales and real es-
tate transfer taxes that lawmakers
thought would be a viable long-term
solution for the perennially under-
funded system.
But they didn’t foresee the na-
tionwide collapse of the housing
market and the recession that fol-
lowed, which once again left a gap-
ing hole in the CTA’s operations
budget, this time to the tune of $300
million. As the agency scrambles to
balance the books for 2010, service
cuts and fare hikes are on the table
once again.
It begs the question: What will it
take for the CTA to have a sustain-
able operations budget? Answers are
plentiful. Consensus is not.
Some officials hope the recov-
ering economy will buoy the CTA,
growing enough to provide the fund-
ing that the system needs. Others
say the situation demands new rev-
enue.
“With the legislation that
passed two years ago, everyone as-
sumed that we’d have the influx of
operational funds that we needed,”
CTA president Richard Rodriguez
said recently. “The economy has
tanked”
The agency expected $100 mil-
lion from real estate transfer taxes,
and received just $25 million.
Rodriguez says the solution may
be to boost the CTA’s federal capital
improvement budget. That could
bring down operational costs.
“The newer our system, the
less I have to spend on operating. I
would be able to reduce my operat-
ing costs if … my bus fleet was new-
er, my trains weren’t 40 years old,
because of the cost of maintaining
them and keeping them in working
order,” he says.
Robert Kelly, president of the
Amalgamated Transit Union Lo-
cal 308, one of the CTA employ-
ees’ unions, also wants more fed-
eral money for the CTA. He would
use the funds for day-to-day opera-
tions — though he’s hesitant about
depleting the capital budget.
“Federal money has to be
changed and allocated for transpor-
tation companies to use for operat-
ing costs — it has to be done,” says
Kelly. “There’s no other way around
this, we cannot allow all these cars
to drive into the city. Somewhere
in Washington, they have to un-
derstand that the way of the future
is transit, and that has to trickle
down.”
Currently, the CTA can opt to
use as much as 10 percent of fed-
eral capital funding for operations
instead. The idea of trading long-
term investment in the system for
day-to-day funding isn’t popular
with many.
A Brown Line train leaves the Chicago Avenue El station.
CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY
I’m optimistic ... We
think that the levels
of public funding that
we get from the real
estate transfer tax
will go up.”
Terry Peterson
Chicago Transit Authority chairman
“We have literally hundreds of
train stations that don’t have run-
ning water, or broken pipes, and
they have problems,” Kelly says.
Joseph DiJohn, a professor at
the University of Illinois at Chica-
go’s Urban Transportation Center,
agreed, noting that diverting capi-
tal improvement dollars can have
long-term consequences. “That’s
essentially like using your mortgage
to buy groceries,” he says.
As for funding solutions in Illi-
nois, Kelly favors a new gasoline tax
to support the CTA.
“The way that gasoline prices
fluctuate every single day in this
country, I don’t think that 2 cents
a gallon is going to hurt anybody to
fund transit,” Kelly says.
But it seems unlikely Springfield
will move soon to provide long-term
funding for the CTA. An attempt to
roll back the program that allows free
rides for seniors — and will cost the
CTA roughly $30 million this year
— foundered in the legislature at
the end of October, and likely won’t
be back on the table until spring of
2010, according to Illinois Rep. Julie
Hamos (D-Evanston).
Hamos was the chief sponsor
CITY HALL
TWILIGHT OF
THE DALEY
YEARS?
P7
ALEX PARKER
of the “long-term” funding plan
passed in 2008.
“The saddest part of this whole
story was that we thought we had
solved the transit crisis once and
for all, and just a few months later,
the whole economy tanked,” Hamos
says.
However, she thinks that the real
estate tax revenue will grow enough
to support the agency.
“That is my belief and probably
my hope,” Hamos says. “I don’t
think we should be micromanag-
ing the transit system from the state
capital.”
The agency’s current plan for
2010 is to temporarily bandage the
budget by raising fares, cutting ser-
vice and laying off workers. CTA
board chairman Terry Peterson is
confident that whatever the solu-
tion, the problem won’t last.
“I’m optimistic that this econo-
my’s going to turn around. We think
that the levels of public funding that
we get from the real estate transfer
tax will go up, as well as the sales tax
will go up,” Peterson says.
He added: “If it doesn’t turn
around, we’re all in a world of trou-
ble.”
 CHICAGO CURRENT

5 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 9, 2009

www.chicagocurrent.com
06
CHICAGO CURRENT
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 9, 2009
www.chicagocurrent.com

For Former
Corporate
Chief, County
Health Job Is
Eye-Opener
k By Alex Parker
When Warren Batts, a retired executive with companies
ranging from Tupperware to Premark International,
was nominated last year to lead the newly formed Cook
County Health and Hospitals System board of directors,
he wasn’t sure it would be a good fit.
GEOFF DOUGHERTY
But since becoming chairman, he has moved to cut pa-
tronage, pushed for greater efficiency and embarked on When you know you the meetings. my sense is if they’re going to have
And I think people are going to to stand in line all day versus going
an aggressive search for new revenue. He spoke to the don’t know, it’s best be surprised that we do listen to to a local hospital and waiting for
Current about what lies ahead for the hospital system. to find somebody you what they’re saying. We do have an hour, they’re going to vote with
know and trust to guide consultants, but consultants are their feet. So we have to increase
You spent your entire career in the ings, and less of a loose cannon, consultants. our patient orientation immedi-
private sector. How does govern- and hopefully constructive. you. And that’s what We have to make the decisions. ately to be attractive to people who
ment work differ? It’s just a learning process for I’ve done.” There isn’t more and more to have Medicare, Medicaid and pub-
This is my first up close and per- me, but by the time (the board’s spend, and that part hasn’t been lic insurance, et cetera.
sonal dealing with a political body. three-year tenure) is over, I might absorbed (by the public) yet, and I
It’s a different world. be pretty good at it. We are the safety net, don’t think it will be. What will success ultimately look
It’s harder to get things done, and we can’t let that I hope they appreciate when we like for the independent board?
and you have a county president What have been the independent get through this that we are listen- If we can accomplish the operating
and 17 commissioners, and each health board’s biggest accom-
safety net disappear or ing and adjusting accordingly … goals, if the board can be at least
one has a very strong opinion on plishments in the last year and a weaken .” to make sure we don’t abandon extended, hopefully made perma-
any subject we deal with. half? any group of people that needs our nent, so it’s not a game of let’s wait
Overall, up to this point, in spite I think it’s more getting headed in Warren Batts help. We are the safety net, and we the board out and resist what man-
of criticism from different direc- the right direction in a relatively Cook County health system board chairman can’t let that safety net disappear agement is trying to accomplish,
tions, the county commissioners short time. or weaken. that would be ideal.
have been supportive of what we After all, this board, except We have a strategy, and our fi-
try to get done. for me, all have regular jobs, and What do you see as the health nancial plan has been approved by
Commissioner (Jerry) Butler is they’ve given a huge amount of system’s biggest challenges? the commissioners, and we have
my adviser and counselor on how their time to make this thing hap- Short term, we have to get our 2010 a first-class management team in
not to screw up too badly. Only pen. The health board held a series of budget approved. That’s under place.
once I didn’t follow (his advice), We’ve got a first-class manage- town hall meetings in the summer, way. We have information systems
and it turned out he was right. ment team in place. and again last month to discuss The second thing is we’ve got that actually have accurate infor-
When you know you don’t We will have our own general changes to the health system. to pin down our strategy and our mation.
know, it’s best to find somebody ledger online which will greatly There were some pretty heated three-year financial plan, and we If we can get a supply chain sys-
you know and trust to guide you. improve our financial reporting reactions. Did the public reaction plan to have a five-year plan. … tem working, where we’re getting
And that’s what I’ve done. system. …We’ll get better informa- to some ideas, such as ending in- Any major change is going to take (supplies) at competitive prices
The board consists of a lot of tion, so we can actually hold people patient services at Provident and three years, at least. on a regular basis and still meet
people who really know health care accountable for what they’ve been Oak Forest hospitals, surprise The great unknown we face is the (minority- and women-owned
in Illinois, and they’ve been giving doing. We’ve joined the group pur- you? what will be the affect of the health business) goal the best we can, and
me good advice as I go along. chasing organization, which, when The same people who show up at care bill coming out of Congress. we continue to educate and hold
PR-wise, I’ve been a disas- we get it in full swing, will save us these meetings tend to be pretty As Warren Buffett says, this is not responsible the management of the
ter because I’ve literally learned about $20 million a year. consistent. health care reform, this is adding organization.
legally what I can say, should say We’re continually looking for You have the unions represent- more people to the Medicare rolls That will not be all done at the
and should not say. I’m having to ways to operate efficiently. The ing the workers, you have a few and figuring out how to pay for it. end of our time (in 2011), but it will
learn a whole new game as to what more efficiently we operate, the patients with individual situations, If they’re all signed up on Med- be under way.
you can say when, so I’ve become more services we can provide. you have some community people, icaid tomorrow, will they keep
a little more subdued in the meet- and that pattern doesn’t change in coming to (Stroger Hospital)? And
CITY HALL
07
CHICAGO CURRENT
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 9, 2009
www.chicagocurrent.com
THE MAYOR
Scandals,
Angst Could
Encourage
Daley Foes
in 2011 Vote
Will age, Olympic loss lead long-
serving mayor to bow out?
k By Geoff Dougherty
I
n 1969, Richard M. Daley entered
politics as a newly elected dele-
gate to the Illinois Constitutional
Convention.
He’s now the nation’s longest-
serving urban mayor, and a Chi-
cago icon on par with the Hancock
building, Wrigley Field and another
red-cheeked, syntax-challenged guy
named Ditka.
But Daley is now 67. He’s wres-
tling with the lowest approval rat-
ings in his mayoral career, a city
government hamstrung by the re-
cession, a failed Olympic bid and a
tide of ill will rising over his moves to
privatize city services.
Is this the twilight of the Daley
years? And if so, who is Chicago’s
next mayor?
Few would have posed those
questions just a few years ago. But
Daley will soon need to decide
whether he’s a candidate in the Feb-
ruary 2011 election – a move that
would keep him in office well into
his 70s.
“My own view, if I had to guess, is
that he will run,” says Marty Ober-
man, a former alderman prominent
in independent politics. “That’s
who he is. He runs for mayor.”
But Oberman and others say
Daley’s age, coupled with his low
approval ratings and the chang-
ing demographics of the city, may
make him vulnerable in a way that
he hasn’t been before.
“With each passing year, the
population is shifting to younger
people, to young professionals, to
career-oriented people who aren’t
from Chicago,” he says. “The whole
Daley phenomenon is not something
they’re as wedded to as old-timers.
Incrementally, it applies to fewer
people each year.”
Dick Simpson, another former
alderman who now heads the polit-
ical science department of the Uni-
versity of Illinois at Chicago, says
the mayor still has a major weapon
left in his arsenal: money.
“My assumption is that he still
has, if he runs, vast resources. He
can easily raise more than $7 mill-
lion,” says Simpson.
Daley’s patronage army would
also discourage potential opponents
from testing the waters.
“It’s down from his father’s
35,000 to something like 5,000,”
Simpson says. “But it’s still much
more than anyone else’s.”
In the past, those strengths have
limited the competition to the rare
politicians who relish an almost-
certain defeat.
If the 2011 election proves to be
more hotly contested, it will be be-
cause Daley’s current situation at-
tracts stronger candidates.
“There aren’t a large number
of people of mayoral timbre,” says
Richard M. Daley is the nation’s longest-serving urban mayor.
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
City Clerk Miguel del Valle
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez
Simpson. “It has to be someone
who’s run before.”
Among those who might fit the
bill would be City Clerk Miguel del
Valle, County Clerk David Orr, and
U.S. Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Lu-
is Gutierrez, Simpson says.
Of those, Jackson could make
the most formidable candidate
– but only if he’s able to clear his
name in the House ethics investi-
gation stemming from former Gov.
Rod Blagojevich’s attempt to fill the
Senate seat now occupied by Roland
Burris.
“It’s casting a question mark un-
til he’s cleared,” says Oberman.
If there is a strong opponent for
Daley, that candidate will have his
work cut out for him.
“Someone’s going to have to cut
through the sense that you can’t
beat City Hall here,” says Oberman.
“It’s largely a self-fulfilling proph-
ecy.”
But with the right coalition – in-
cluding black and Hispanic voters,
good government groups and voters
upset about everything from taxes
to the Olympics and crime – a solid
candidate might have a chance.
“It would come down to them all
gelling around some meaningful op-
ponent,” says Oberman.
Marilyn Katz, a Daley ally whose
public relations firm does work for
the city, says the backlash against
the mayor is related to the economy
COOK COUNTY
HOSPITAL
SYSTEM IN
POLITICAL
TUG OF WAR
P9
LINDSAY BEYERSTEIN
more than frustration with him per-
sonally.
“Everybody in the nation feels
insecure about the future,” she says.
“The question is the same for the
whole country,”
She expects the rising economic
tide will lift Daley, too.
But will that encourage him to
run again? Or might he decide to
spend his seventh decade relaxing?
She noted that working late into
life is something of a Chicago tradi-
tion. Daley’s father died in office.
Ruth Rothstein, former leader of
the county health system, stayed
into her eighties.
Rev. Arthur Brazier, a well-
known civic leader and pastor of Ap-
ostolic Church of God in Woodlawn,
just retired at age 89, she says.
“I think the best among us work
until we’re bored,” she says.
Simpson says he predicted Daley
would bow out before the election he
most recently won.
That’s why he’s not guessing
what will happen this time around.
“It’s a long way off,” he says. “A
few scandals could make a differ-
ence.”
LABOR
08
CHICAGO CURRENT
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 9, 2009
www.chicagocurrent.com
REPUBLIC WINDOWS
Prosecutors: Complex
Fraud Scheme at Factory
Gillman accused of using shell
companies to bilk window maker
k By Peter Sachs
A
s prosecutors describe it, the
abrupt shutdown and loot-
ing of Republic Windows and
Doors — which put 200 people out
of work last December — was in fact
part of a scheme nearly a year in the
making.
But when the laid-off workers
staged a sit-in at the factory for their
lost wages, they also threw a wrench
in those plans.
Richard Gillman, the former
president of the company, was ar-
rested in early September on a
slew of felony charges and is slated
to be formally arraigned later this
month.
Gillman and several other com-
pany officers succeeded in taking
hundreds of thousands of dollars
from Republic before it shut down,
prosecutors say. Recently released
court documents provide a more de-
tailed account of where that money
went and how it was spent.
Ed Genson, who is Gillman’s at-
torney, declined to comment for this
story.
At Gillman’s initial appearance
in September, Genson blasted the
charges as a publicity attempt by
State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.
He noted that some of the is-
sues raised in the indictment were
the same ones Republic was seek-
ing to address in its federal bank-
ruptcy case.
FINANCIAL TROUBLES
Republic’s executives start-
ed talking as early as March 2008
about how to square the company’s
mounting debts with its shrinking
revenues.
Low on cash, the company had
stopped paying its suppliers for raw
materials like window panes and vi-
nyl, according to court records.
Suppliers stopped extending
credit, and banks that had loaned
BOOKING PHOTO
Richard Gillman
“I’m glad that (bail)
was so high, that he
couldn’t get out, that
he had to do some
time.”
Mayor Ted Schoonover
Mayor of Red Oak, Iowa
Republic money were starting to
clamp down. Officials discussed
selling the company or merging it
with another manufacturer.
Between mid-March and mid-
April 2008, managers also talked
about buying a plant from Traco, a
company that owned a similar win-
dow factory in rural Red Oak, Iowa,
about two hours southeast of Oma-
ha, Neb.
At a meeting at the end of April
2008, managers sketched a time-
line that included closing Republic’s
Goose Island plant by early 2009.
Prosecutors note that the op-
tions on the table in early 2008 were
all “viable, legal and ethical” — even
buying the Iowa factory, assuming
that Republic’s creditors had been
notified.
A ‘CONSPIRACY’
By the summer of 2008, Re-
public’s managers turned from le-
EDUCATION
UNIONS
FOCUS ON
CHARTER
SCHOOLS
P10
ECHO WINDOWS
By September 2008, Gillman
and Bill Smith, a friend who had al-
so once owned a stake in Republic,
were setting up a series of compa-
nies to buy the Red Oak plant and
rename it Echo Windows.
As Smith set into motion the
property side of the deal, other em-
ployees at Republic were directed to
order specialized machine parts.
The supplier was paid nearly
$27,000 for the work in the form of
checks from the IFP account, even
as Republic had an unpaid debt to
that supplier of about $8,000.
With the parts in hand, prosecu-
tors say, Gillman would have been
able to retool the machinery and
make a different line of windows.
In early November 2008, a
month before Republic shut down,
Gillman directed employees to start
packing up some of the machinery in
the Goose Island plant.
The union caught on and tried to
stop the relocation, but to no avail.
In all, the equipment filled 10 semi-
truck trailers.
Three of them got to the Red Oak
plant the day before Republic shut
down.
The other seven trailers full of
equipment only made it as far as a
storage yard west of Midway Air-
port. IFP, the Ohio-based “slush
fund,” paid the trucking company,
court records say.
WHAT’S NEXT
Some of Republic’s workers got
rehired when a California compa-
ny, Serious Materials, bought the
Goose Island factory and started
retooling it earlier this year to make
energy-efficient windows.
In Red Oak, many of Echo’s em-
ployees left the small town because
there were no other jobs in the area,
Mayor Ted Schoonover says.
A small manufacturer moved in
near Traco’s plant in Red Oak earli-
er this year, bringing its 115 employ-
AP PHOTO/PAUL BEATY ees from Omaha. That’s giving the
Republic Windows and Doors worker Dagoberto Cervantos with his son, town an economic boost, Schoon-
Rafael, during a news conference last year. over says.
gitimate ways to sell or close the Partners more than $202,000. Gillman is scheduled to be ar-
company to fraudulent options, While IFP produced invoices raigned later this month. His trial
prosecutors say. for things like chemicals and extru- likely won’t start until sometime in
Soon, Gillman was looking for a sion equipment, Republic never got early 2010. Several former Echo em-
way to escape Republic’s debts and those items. ployees are expected to testify.
keep the company going in another Prosecutors called the invoices For Echo’s employees in Red
form. “phony” and IFP’s checking ac- Oak, Gillman’s arrest and unusu-
Throughout 2008, prosecutors count a “slush fund” for Gillman. ally high $10 million bail provided
say, Gillman started laundering Quite simply, court documents say, a sense of justice and closure, says
money from Republic through shell the plans were a “conspiracy” to Schoonover.
corporations created at his behest. defraud the company’s employees, “I’m glad that it was so high,
In all, Republic paid a company creditors and suppliers. that he couldn’t get out, that he had
called International Fenestration to do some time.”
COOK COUNTY
09
CHICAGO CURRENT
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 9, 2009
www.chicagocurrent.com
Registered nurse Verline Grant treats a newborn at Provident Hospital. Officials have discussed cutting inpatient services at the hospital.
ELECTIONS
County Hospital System
Figures in Stroger Race
Cook leader bashes independent
board over staffing cutbacks
k By Alex Parker
I
n the year and a half since the
Cook County Health and Hospi-
tals System was wrenched away
from the Cook County Board of
Commissioners, the independent
board has taken drastic steps to in-
crease revenue and improve efficien-
cy and services to patients.
But that’s included hundreds of
layoffs and the prospect of ending
inpatient services at Provident and
Oak Forest hospitals, which crit-
ics say will harm health care on the
South Side of Chicago and the south
suburbs.
The audacity of the independent
health board has irked Cook County
Board President Todd Stroger, who
has in recent weeks launched a se-
ries of attacks on its members.
It’s clear the health system will
take on an important role in Strog-
er’s bid for reelection, in which he
will also defend an unpopular sales
tax and scrutiny about the county’s
hiring practices.
The tax hike, he says, is inte-
gral to preserving health care in the
county.
“Right from the beginning, if
it weren’t for me signing that one
cent, we wouldn’t have a health sys-
tem, we’d have a hospital,” he told
the Current. “It’s me that’s put his
"We cannot allow
and will not allow the
board to pay millions
of dollars to outside
consultants”
Todd Stroger
Cook County Board President
"How can he
(Stroger) take
credit for things he
disagrees with so
strongly?”
Larry Suffredin
Cook County Commissioner
neck on the line to make sure the
services are out there.”
Can Stroger bank on the health
system to prop up his campaign?
Local political observers say his at-
titude toward the health board will
GEOFF DOUGHERTY
make it difficult for him to be posi-
tioned as a champion of health care.
But Stroger argues that without the
sales tax, health care in the county
would be in trouble.
Dick Simpson, a professor of po-
litical science at the University of Il-
linois at Chicago, says Stroger will
try to tie some of his unpopular de-
cisions to the stability of the county
health system.
“He’s going to try and claim the
reason he had to do the sales tax
increase was to save health care at
Cook County Hospital and the sat-
ellite hospitals in Cook County,”
Simpson says. “It’s overblown.”
As county commissioners tried
to eliminate the sales tax, Strog-
er repeatedly said cutting the tax
would threaten the county’s health
services. But the health system’s
budget is relying less and less on
EDUCATION
FORMER
COLLEGE
CHIEF’S POSH
PARTY
P11
county subsidies, furthering the
appearance of independence from
downtown influence.
“Personally, I think that the
board doesn’t have any oversight,
and that means they have too much
power because they don’t have a
constituency that they have to talk
to,” Stroger says. “So I’d like to rein
them in some and make them ac-
countable to the (county) board, or
at least have some kind of connec-
tion to the board.”
Margie Schaps, executive direc-
tor of the Health & Medicine Policy
Research Group, says Stroger needs
to zero in on a consistent message.
“On one hand, he’s saying how
great it is they’ve made layoffs in the
entire county. On the other hand,
he’s saying it’s bad they’re laying
people off in the county health sys-
tem,” Schaps says.
Schaps says it’s important to
keep bureaucracy away from the
health system.
“We believe it is important to
have an independent board for this
health system because the issues are
very complicated,” she says. “To
rely on any set of public officials to
manage this system is really more
than we can expect.”
Management changes at the
health system recently led to $200
million in savings and $160 million
in new revenue.
But Suffredin says it will be dif-
ficult for Stroger to claim credit for
that.
Stroger, for his part, says he had
been discussing the possibility of
getting untapped federal dollars
before the independent board was
created.
“Had he wanted to cooperate
with them and work to maximize
federal dollars and maximize out-
reach to other people, I think he
would have been in a position to
take credit for them,” says Suffre-
din, who negotiated the creation of
the independent board in exchange
for his vote on the one-percent sales
tax last year.
“Now he’s at war with (the health
board), so how can he take credit for
things he disagrees with so strong-
ly?”
But Stroger says some of the
credit should fall to him. That it’s
not, he says, is not surprising.
“I expected we would be forgot-
ten by most as the people who really
got the ball rolling in changing the
system,” he says.
EDUCATION
10
CHICAGO CURRENT
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 9, 2009
www.chicagocurrent.com
CHARTER SCHOOLS
New Union
Charts Fresh
Course for
Educators
Administrators, teachers sign first
contract after labor struggle
k By Adrian G. Uribarri
T
he battle began in Chicago,
continued in Springfield and
wound up in Washington.
Now, it has come to a close.
About a year after they be-
gan a unionizing effort, teachers at
the Chicago International Charter
School finally have a contract with
administrators.
They were the first charter-
school teachers to form a union in
the city, and their labor group, the
Chicago Alliance of Charter Teach-
ers and Staff, or A.C.T.S., represents
a growing battleground for labor ac-
tivists around the United States.
Charter schools are public
schools that are exempt from some
Chicago district policies. Once iso-
lated from the influence of unions,
they are quickly becoming recruit-
ing havens for educational labor or-
ganizers.
In their view, the new Chicago
union is a model for collaboration
between organized labor and ad-
ministrators at the schools.
“Do we want to build on it?
Clearly,” says Gail Purkey, spokes-
woman at the Illinois Federation of
Teachers. “This is groundbreaking
and significant. It sort of sets the
tone for how things could work at
other charter schools.”
Purkey’s view reflects how labor
leaders across the nation are trying
to enlarge their ranks within char-
ter schools rather than resist them.
Historically, teachers’ unions have
been at odds with charter schools,
viewing them as a threat to student
enrollment at traditional public
schools and therefore a menace to
jobs for unionized teachers.
Now, thanks to federal support,
the schools are sprouting up so
quickly that union leaders cannot
ignore them.
In April, when the Chicago
teachers announced their plan to
unionize, American Federation of
Teachers President Randi Weingar-
ten got behind them, giving a rous-
ing speech to delegates of the Chi-
cago Teachers Union.
Last week, she called their con-
tract “a recognition that schools will
work better for kids when labor and
management work together. Charter
school teachers, like all other pub-
lic school teachers, want the ability
to contribute to student success at
their school.”
Chicago A.C.T.S. was also a
chance for labor leaders to test the
boundaries of charter-school poli-
cy.
While union organizers initially
certified their bargaining unit with
a state labor board that oversees
public schools, executives at Chi-
cago International Charter School
prevailed in their argument that the
case belonged in the National Labor
Relations Board, which governs the
private sector.
As they saw it, CICS is a private
institution because it is has a private
board of directors, despite receiving
millions of dollars of taxpayer mon-
ey annually.
Ultimately, however, the teachers
Matt Karlan teaches a math class at the Chicago International Charter School’s Ralph Ellison campus.
earned recognition for a union from
both the state and national boards,
allowing them to launch negotia-
tions in July and finalize a contract
in late October.
They also received the backing of
state legislators, who passed a law
that explicitly names the Illinois
Educational Labor Relations Board
as the proper jurisdiction for similar
cases. That board is seen as friend-
lier to unions since it allows teachers
AFT to join a bargaining unit simply by
signing a membership card, rather
than by holding a ballot election.
CICS Chief Executive Officer Si-
mon Hess joined the school short-
Schools will work ly before teachers went public with
their union drive in April. He sup-
better for kids ported a ballot election certified by
when labor and the NLRB, arguing that allowing
management work teachers to take ballots home al-
lowed them greater privacy in elect-
together.” ing a union.
Randi Weingarten When the ballots returned, 73
American Federation of Teachers
teachers voted for the union, and 49
against it.
Hess says that since then, ne-
gotiations with the teachers’ union
have been productive. Still, he char-
acterized the union drive as an un-
necessary and expensive venture.
INTERVIEW
COUNTY’S
HEALTH CZAR
IN HOT SEAT
P06
ADRIAN G. URIBARRI
Direct negotiations with teachers
would have yielded similar working
conditions, he says.
“It would have been a lot cheap-
er for both sides,” Hess says. “There
wouldn’t have been so many attor-
neys or negotiators involved.”
Emily Mueller, who headed the
teachers’ negotiating committee,
disagrees. She says the negota-
tions were amicable, and that the
union was instrumental in secur-
ing a transparent wage scale, class-
size limits and a voice in curricular
changes.
According to the union, the con-
tract includes raises that range from
4.2 to 25.4 percent in the first year
of teachers’ contracts, and raises
of up to 10.55 percent in the second
and third years, as well as additional
merit pay.
Mueller says such conditions are
a stark contrast from the situation
last year, when she says adminis-
trators forced teachers to teach six
periods instead of their regular five,
without offering them a raise.
“I don’t think we would have
gotten a seat at the table, period, if
it hadn’t been for the union,” Muel-
ler says.
11 EDUCATION
CHICAGO CURRENT
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 9, 2009
www.chicagocurrent.com
CITY COLLEGES
Televising
Chancellor’s
Dinner Cost
Public Station
Thousands
Extra staff, security needed for
Watson farewell party on WYCC
k By Peter Sachs
E
arlier this year, as the City Col-
leges pondered how to trim ex-
penses and balance its budget
– an exercise that eventually lead to
58 layoffs – technicians at Kenne-
dy-King College were installing a
$166,000 robotic camera system in
the upscale Sikia Restaurant.
The project, pushed by then-
Chancellor Wayne Watson since
mid-2008, culminated in an invite-
only dinner in May that featured
singer Terisa Griffin – and which
was broadcast live on WYCC, the
district’s PBS station.
The event also celebrated Wat-
son, who was leaving the district.
The $166,000 included a high-
end Sony HD camera, a pair of ro-
botic camera controllers, and the
CHICAGO STATE UNIVERSITY
Quinn Names Four New Trustees
k By Peter Sachs
After months of unexplained delays,
Gov. Pat Quinn last week named four
new members to Chicago State Uni-
versity’s board of trustees.
The four new members are Lisa
Morrison Butler, who runs City Year
Chicago; Gary Rozier, a vice pres-
ident at Ariel Investments; Julie
Samuels, the Openlands Project’s
outreach coordinator; and Zaldway-
naka Scott, an attorney and execu-
tive inspector general under former
Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
cost of designing, engineering and
installing the system.
Running the show and providing
extra security in the campus park-
ing lots for the event added several
thousand more dollars to the bill.
In dozens of e-mails between
district officials discussing the in-
stallation of the equipment and the
planning of the May event, student
involvement and educational ben-
efits take a distant second place to
meeting Watson’s expectations.
“The Chancellor voiced to me his
expectation that we will conduct a
new Sikia Grand Opening featuring
the ‘live’ broadcast of (a) jazz sing-
er,” wrote Chiaka Patterson, a plan-
ning director with the district, in an
April e-mail.
She went on to say that a perfor-
mance in May “always has been a
But one thing
t h a t ’s m i s s -
ing, faculty and
other observers
at CSU say, is
an alumni pres-
ence.
“It’s kind of Gov. Pat Quinn
sad because not
one of them are
alumni,” says Donald Pettis, the
president of CSU’s alumni board.
“They’re not from Chicago State.”
The lack of a faculty or alumni
presence on the board is not un-
Line cook Rene Ortiz plates a dish at Sikia Restaurant.
goal the Chancellor expressed over
the months.”
Last week, district officials said
the expensive equipment was in-
stalled for the benefit of students.
It is being used weekly for the
taping of WYCC’s “Sounds of
Sikia” show.
Students gain experience operat-
ing the robotic cameras, which adds
to their resumes, says Kiara Battle,
the director of Kennedy-King’s me-
dia communications department.
But that doesn’t seem to have
been the primary goal when the
equipment was installed.
“The obvious goal of adding live
entertainment to Sikia is to draw in
more customers,” Patterson wrote in
her April e-mail.
Arthur Wood, who is WYCC’s
general manager, did not return a
call seeking comment.
Watson, now the president of
Chicago State University, declined
to comment.
He says it would be “inappropri-
usual, says Richard Novak, a senior
vice president at the Association of
Governing Boards, based in Wash-
ington. But that doesn’t mean they
should be excluded, either, he says.
“The board can appoint non-
board members to be on (its) com-
mittees, and it makes great sense
for an academic affairs committee
to have faculty members on it,” No-
vak says.
CSU’s board had been operat-
ing for most of this year with half
its seats empty, and it has been two
years since the board had a full com-
ate” for him to talk about the City
Colleges since he is no longer associ-
ated with the district.
This is not the first time WYCC
has drawn attention for special pro-
gramming linked to Watson.
Between 2004 and 2006, Watson
directed WYCC to produce promo-
tional videos for politicians, includ-
ing former state Senate President
Emil Jones.
The station’s former general
manager said in a lawsuit this sum-
mer that she was fired in retaliation
for opposing those plans.
Both the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting and the Illinois Arts
Council, which have given WYCC
large grants, forbid their grant mon-
ey from being used for political pur-
poses.
If the money were found to have
been misspent then it would have to
be repaid, officials from those agen-
cies have said.
The board of trustees approved
up to $200,000 for video equip-
plement of members.
The new appointees will join
board members Leon Finney, Rich-
ard Tolliver, Betsy Hill and student
trustee Levon James, who are re-
taining their seats.
“I hope that it is the beginning
of a new chapter,” says Yan Searcy,
the president of CSU’s faculty sen-
ate. “It appears that there is a nice
mix of community and business (ex-
perience), in terms of the recent ap-
pointees.”
In recent weeks, critics at CSU
and in the media have swatted at
Quinn for waiting so long to make
the appointments. When an admis-
sions scandal rocked the University
of Illinois in May, Quinn replaced all
but two of its board members by the
GEOFF DOUGHERTY
ment and television cameras at its
December 2008 meeting.
The outlays prompted no discus-
sion from board members.
A one-page description of the
spending does not specifically say
why the equipment was needed, nor
did it name Sikia or Kennedy-King
College.
In an e-mail two weeks after that
meeting, Patterson wrote to several
WYCC officials that, with approval
in hand, “there is a need to quickly
refine and nail down the scope and
cost of this project.”
Diane Minor, the vice chancellor
in charge of the district’s facilities,
said last week the installation gives
broadcast students a broader range
of experience.
“It’s a part of the syllabus or the
training program for students to
learn off-site or live taping, as well
as the programming for WYCC,”
she says.
end of the summer.
But any notion that the delay at
CSU was based on race is probably
misplaced, says Novak.
“It’s not uncommon for the flag-
ship institution, no matter the is-
sue, whether it’s funding or board
appointments … to get more atten-
tion than the regional or urban uni-
versities,” Novak says. “That’s not
uncommon, and that’s just a fact of
life in any state.”
Scott, who is a U of I graduate,
says she is open to the concerns of
people who want to see alumni and
faculty given a greater role.
“At this point I’m open to any-
thing that’s going to help turn the
situation around,” Scott says.