NEIU hosts Sean Spicer with protests and culture clashes

It’s been some time since we witnessed a college protest, and that was when we were  a protester during the Vietnam War so imagine our middle-aged chagrin as we approached the Northeastern Illinois University campus, on Thursday night, to cover the Daniel L Goodwin Distinguished Lecture Series with longtime political strategist Donna Brazile, and former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, in what was bound to be a lively discussion, but had forgotten the deafening sounds of bull-horns, and rhyming protest chants.

The request for an escort, to the box office, across the floor, blocked by protesters, was given to a buff looking male with a walkie-talkie, to get our press pass, proved fruitless as we were told with a raised eyebrow, “You’ll just have to force your way through.”

Realizing that this was going to be challenging, but in the name of a free press, we tried, with a litany of “so sorry”, “excuse me” past a megaphone toting woman, leading the group in a loud chant of, “Hey, hey, here, here, Sean Spicer is not welcome here!”, while scampering past the auditorium doors, where the Plexiglas barrier of the box office made conversation impossible..

Finally, after some yelling of our own, we were escorted through the kind efforts of two fierce looking athletic males (with their own walkie-talkies), to the press section, and immediately heard Spicer angrily confronting Phil Ponce, host of WTTW's Chicago Tonight, who was the moderator of this sixth installment of the Goodwin series.

That was not the beginning, or even end of the protest drama, and we missed, but later learned that a male protester disrupted Ponce’s introduction rushed the stage, yelling “Shut it down!”, but was quickly tackled and dragged away by security guards, as he shouted, “I am a student here and all of you here are “f----g Nazis, you guys are hurting me!”

Ponce later quipped, “No one said that Democracy was easy!” and also added, “I hear that shouting outside, and that’s a sign of health, and we have an opportunity to have a robust and civil discussion.”

Spicer his voice near screaming, railed against Ponce, who tried for cover, over screeching accusations by the former press secretary, of “you” and “you people”, as he screeched his defense of President Trump, and the biased media:  “You all said, when he first came in, “How do we get this guy?” responding to Ponce’s question about the accuracy of some of his early statements.

As Ponce, stammering, struggled to regain his composure, and counter that some of Spicer’s earliest comments were indeed untruths, “for example the size of the crowds at the Inauguration, where you said, “It was "the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe."

Spicer then retreated from the quote, and instead gave an explanation, that in his inimitable style, was that the real problem was of regret saying, as he had publicly noted before, but that it was still the “greatest experience to witness seeing such a large crowd.”

In an interview with NPR in July of 2018, Spicer said, “If you ask me for one thing that I probably want a do-over on, that's it. There was nobody happy with me that night.”

That might have been an understatement that night as, someone, three rows ahead of us, shouted “liar”, where he was promptly shushed by an elderly woman, only to have someone else, on the other side of the auditorium make the same accusation.

Then a second man appeared, and scrambled onto the stage, saying, “Spicer invited me! And sat cross-legged on the side, until Brazile nudged Ponce, who said, ‘Sir, you have to leave,” and was then hustled off stage, by security.

Earlier, CampusReform.org reported that “Moments after Spicer walked out on stage, someone is heard shouting "Spicer, you f*cking scumbag, kill yourself" and "you piece of shit!"

There was some questions of accuracy, but later that person identified himself, to me, saying he said “douche bag” to be exact.

Semantics aside, and oddly enough, after all of the shouts, screams, and the quirky defense of his statements about the inaugural crowd size, Spicer denounced Hillary Clinton, “that nobody liked,” giving some listeners the feeling that he was back in the White House press room before a slew of reporters.

Ponce then pointedly asked him about the charges that many people have made, questioning whether Trump is mentally incompetent, mentioning the diagnosis of narcissism, according to the criteria of the DSM, the Diagnostic Statistics Manual, used by psychologists, counselors, and social workers; and, to which Spicer replied, “that is a silly question, how could you even ask that based on some medical journal?”

The anger that the protesters fed from, that has given pause to some in the media who have said that the upcoming 2020 election is less about issues, and more about the person-hood of Trump and his dramatic altering of what a 21st century American democracy looks like.

Appearances, aside the evening billed as “Politics, the Press, and the Presidential Election,” the question of campus speeches from conservatives was also a topic, with Spicer noting that in his college years, “I don’t ever remember a conservative speaker.”

Some have wondered, aloud, what does being a conservative mean, now?

Debated for several decades, the greater contrast between political labels, remains to be firmly seen, but taking a rear-view glance, in attempting a definition, the ball has shifted from such old-school examples of Henry Cabot Lodge, or a Douglas Dillon, to those who have altered the course, and entered the presidency, such  by Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush; all of whom, in their administrations, skewed prevailing conservative ideas about fiscal, and legislative solutions to social issues, that earlier conservatives espoused, albeit with limitations.

The protests themselves, that night, reflected the shift, and in the materials that we received, there were these excerpts, in reaction to violence that has been triggered by the president’s remarks, in incidents both here, and abroad.

“"We see the policies and rhetoric of the Trump administration—including the role Spicer took early in this administration—as drivers of this violence," protest organizers wrote on the Facebook event page for the Rally to Stop Sean Spicer at NEIU. . . .The role Spicer played—and that the Trump administration continues to play—in this violence is one of creating space for these acts to occur."

“Spicer has consistently promoted policies like the Muslim ban, a border wall, family separation, mass deportations, banning trans people from serving in the military, and many other policies that have encouraged the violence that is taking over our world,” quoted Reason.com.

Ponce in advance, on WTTW, emphasized “The appearance at NEIU by Sean Spicer and Donna Brazile underscores key roles of a university – to expose students to different points of view, to acknowledge the right to protest, and to generate discussions about pressing matters in society,” Ponce told WTTW News. “All of us can benefit from robust and civil conversations on the current state of politics, the press and the future of the presidency.”

Perhaps so, but with a diverse student body of Muslims, Jews, and other ethnic minorities, and a location in a known neighborhood of immigrants, working class students, and with institutional credentials that NEIU has received “a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution, [that] is consistently recognized as a national leader among its peers,” the invitation seems to be contradictory to established university values, some said, or others, more candidly, told us, later, that the Spicer invitation is “a slap in our faces.”

With the focus on Spicer, and only much later Brazile, he was asked about the veracity of many of his statements, he noted that defending unpopular statements, was his job, and “not to call the balls”, and added the role of the White House press secretary “is a hard job.”

He also disavowed that he had once kept The New York Times, CNN and Politico out of the press room, saying instead that he had held a private meeting, and that it was not open to the press, saying, “I have a right to hold a private meeting!”

Brazile, on the other hand, when she could get a word in,  tried to jolly up the crowd with some folksy, “down home” humor, and jokes about “cussing folks out,” but, at times, seemed to wander about to find her position, and, whether it was earth mother, political expert, with a past, or simply to make everyone feel good.

She was not without a measure of success, as she parried, and laughed, and cracked jokes, but attempted to bridge the chasm, by saying, as “press secretary if they tell you that the sky is blue, and it’s not, it’s blue.”

Brazile also took a few swipes, with scattered references to being badly portrayed by the media, and for journalists, “that don’t do their homework,'' as Ponce asked his first question, playfully saying, “I know that you have the answer, as I submitted the question to your first, referring to her departure from the DNC for leaking a question to Hillary Clinton in a presidential debate, because, as she later explained, she didn't want her to be “blindsided” by the question.

Much like her later revelation to FOX TV personality Tucker Carlson, where she now also works, she claims that she also gave questions, at that time in 2016, to Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley.

There were a few titters from the audience, with Ponce's teasing, but Brazile did not seem to be amused by his humor.

She also took a swipe, in equal measure, at the polls and how they inform party politics, and how “misleading” but also that they need facts, not “bullshit”, and journalists that don’t do their homework, prompting some applause.

In what might have been seen as a way to spread the pain of the loss to Trump, by Clinton, Brazile noted the strategic loss of “bumper stickers and buttons” to key battleground states like Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, by the DNC, and that without “voter expansion” by the Democrats, Trump could be reelected.

This very urban audience seemed to be underwhelmed by Brazile’s notice that the DNC needed to pay attention to rural areas, something that the Trump campaign has focused on heavily.

Taking the offense she also focused on her controversial remarks, last month on Fox Radio’s “Guy Benson” show about Trump’s rhetoric and its link to mass murderers, and the many negative comments engendered from the president’s many critics.

 "The reason why is to point fingers and to play this so-called blame game. President Trump had nothing to do with the maniac, and I’m being gracious here, the maniac who shot up a Wal-Mart store. He had nothing to do with the person who shot up, you know, the bar in Dayton. This is unbecoming of the country. The President of United States, you know, should not be blamed for you know these individual killers."

She then supported other remarks made at the same time, echoing Candidate Obama, that “we are all Americans” and that she is sick of all of these references to race, that bought huge applause, intended to support her assertion or not.

Many in the audience were expecting a prediction, of sorts, on who could beat Trump and she noted that with Kamala Harris and Corey Booker “stalling” it seemed that Joe Biden was the one leading candidate expected to win the nomination.

NEIU’s Goodwin lecture series may never have this many fireworks again, but in an age where opinions, and those who make them, are not receding, democracy is indeed at work.

Lightfoot sets the blueprint for fiscal reform

Last week Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot gave a state of the city address, that surprised some by its brevity, but as many are noting this has become her signature style: keep the message simple, and involve residents with a true desire for their input, much as her nocturnal visits to some of Chicago’s worst crime ridden neighborhoods, when she first took office dented those who underestimated her determination to tackle crime.

The position, she made front and center, was not new to most Chicagoans, and lawmakers, but the figure, the central figure of an $838 million deficit, put the shilly shallying aside about the more wonky details of urban economics that local alliances, and misalliances have noted.

The most notable aspect of her speech, coming on the edge of the Labor Day holiday, was that she would risk her political life on dealing with the deficit; for, as many journalists and economists have noted: nothing can be done in the city without money to feed that beast and move on to tackling the most challenging “to-do” list for a recent urban mayor.

“We have some hard choices to make. There is no doubt about that and I will not sugarcoat that reality. But I am confident, with the incredible talent in this city, working together we can make the necessary choices that will put us on sound fiscal footing not just for today, but for the future.”

Already, she has critics nipping at her heels ---- most notably with Tuesday’s first day of school for Chicago Public Schools, and a teachers union that has shown her no love, when their endorsed candidate, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was defeated by  her.

While Lightfoot scours every corner of the city budget looking for ways to save money, the Chicago Teachers Union has rebutted the offer of a 16 percent pay raise over five years, and President Jesse Sharkey has been saber rattling, to make it all the more difficult for her, as she tries to row a boat that has had poor captains for decades.

The teachers could strike as early as October, and that is sure to garner unwanted headlines.

The city's homelessness problem has increased, twofold, with the city’s “el” train system as the place of repose for over 80,000, in a point of time study, by The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, with 80 percent doubled in other people’s homes, and the rest on the street, or, on the all night trains and buses.

Just outside the Harold Washington Library where Lightfoot made her speech, the Chicago Tribune reported that protesters “Carrying signs reading “Lori Lightfoot’s Broken Promise” in the style of her “Bring in the Light” mayoral campaign logo, homeless advocates criticized her for not living up to a pledge to fund affordable housing. Others urged her to cut off funding for the controversial taxpayer subsidy for the proposed Lincoln Yards development.”

Lightfoot was not specific on how she would address the deficit, but did say that she did not want to do another property tax increase, that some have said might be inevitable after, the one by her predecessor of $53 million, that hit property owners hard, with much was passed onto tenants.

Hitting the brakes hard on spending, maybe even harder, after a report, also released on Tuesday, from bond rating agency S&P Global Ratings, and was reported by Crain’s Chicago Business who said:

“In a statement, S&P Global Ratings says the city’s commitment to solving its pension woes, a commitment first made by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, is "at the core" of the city’s current BBB+ rating—above junk, but only by two levels.

However, it notably added, “We would view any measure that would lower annual contributions into Chicago’s pension systems negatively.  That’s a reference to talk that Lightfoot might seek to lower and move farther into the future the pension-payment ramp adopted at Emanuel’s request.

On the other hand, the New York firm said, “We would view measures that either trim liabilities through benefit reductions or a dedicated revenue stream toward pensions positively.” S&P didn’t get specific, but officials have talked at reviving what now appear to be moribund plans for a Chicago casino that could help pay pension debt or moving to reduce the 3 percent annual compound COLA that about half of the city’s retirees now are scheduled to receive, perhaps by amending the Illinois Constitution.”

“Next year, the city must contribute an additional $121 million to its pension funds in order to keep them on the path to solvency. And the city’s required pension payments will have jumped by nearly $1 billion a year by 2024. It must also pay about $650 million in debt service. In recent years, the city has used borrowed money in order to help balance budgets and pay for short-term services,” reported local station WBEZ.

Lightfoot’s formal budget proposal will be released after she addresses the City Council on October 23rd.

Tied to the future, if not the near future, is her campaign promise to start investment in the areas that have been long neglected, and are tied to the increasing crime rate that has characterized the city as a war zone.

“Thus, our pathway to fiscal health has to run through households and neighborhoods like Roseland, and Rogers Park, Austin and Englewood, from the southeast and southwest, and neighborhoods like Pullman and Park Manor. We must lead with public investment, along with private partnerships, to catalyze neighborhoods where generational poverty has people in its crushing grip, “she emphasized.

In what some called a political speech, the new mayor also tackled one of the more divisive local issues that of the dividing line between I-80 and Chicago, and noted, “People in this state know – as I do – that I-80 is not a border - That there cannot be a “Chicago” versus “The Rest of the State.”

“All of Illinois is looking for solutions. And to really solve these problems, we all have to be partners in reform,” she noted, and this may be a nod to Governor J.B. Pritzker for targeted help joining pension funds in a statewide pool to limit the liability and increase resources, in a massed group, but one that Pritzker has demurred, yet as we have noted before, she is ready to do battle for the new graduated tax referendum he has placed on the referendum for the fall ballot.

“We have been, since the time of the transition, in conversation with the governor and his team, the legislative leaders and their respective teams,” Lightfoot said last week. “We need to have help from Springfield to address the challenges we have as a city. Now some people say well we can’t do a Chicago bailout but the reality is Chicago is 80 percent of the economy of this state.”

In the works is the casino project, but it may not be placed where she wants it, in neglected south, or west side neighborhoods. But, no matter, where it is located, the needed revenue is necessary to fill city coffers; yet there has been some debate over exactly how sweet the deal is for the operators, and, in turn, the city.

Reuters noted that “Legislation signed in June by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker authorized a casino for Chicago as part of a state-wide gambling expansion that included sports betting.

But the analysis, conducted by Las Vegas-based consultant Union Gaming Analytics, said the law contained the highest effective gaming tax and fee structure in the United States, making it difficult to finance a Chicago casino and operate it at a profit.

Total development costs, including licensing and other fees, would generate “at best a 1% or 2% return annually, which is not an acceptable rate of return for a casino developer on a greenfield project,” according to the analysis, which looked at five proposed sites for the project.”

“If we don’t secure this casino and the revenue it generates, we will be forced to make painful choices on finding other revenue sources, and we all know what those are, the sources we wish to avoid,” Lightfoot said.

The allusion to a property tax increase as apparent, but the first move was the quick cue to the hiring freeze of “3,000 vacancies, including the Chicago Police Department. A September class of CPD recruits has been cancelled.”

The Chicago area is the nation’s third largest market behind Las Vegas and Atlantic City, New Jersey but the possibility of a deal that benefits all parties, is showing cracks.

“In late June, the CEO of Penn National Gaming, the state’s largest gambling operator, said a Chicago casino “would be a very difficult investment to make.” Other big casino companies have either expressed similar sentiments or not commented.” said Crain’s Chicago Business, in mid-August.

Somewhat cryptically, Lightfoot addressed the problem of congestion, which sent some to scratch their heads on what she might have meant, while some think that there might be HOV lanes,  or possibly a head tax, to discourage those that want to come downtown, and drive, instead of taking public transportation, might take the form of a commuter tax.

It’s not over, not by a long shot, and October is just around the corner.

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Game on: Lightfoot versus Chicago Teachers Union

In what seems to be a game of chicken between the newly inaugurated Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and the Chicago Teachers Union, the latter is threatening a strike if they don’t get what they want, not the $300 million, 14 percent salary increase, over five years, in a proposed contract, that is currently being negotiated, but wants instead a 5 percent, per year increase.

The last strike, in 2012, garnered national headlines and celebrity support, but also put former Mayor Rahm Emanuel on the ropes, and, getting off, cost him a lot of political capital.

Lightfoot, who was not the CTU’s favored candidate, in the recent mayoral election, faces payback time for winning in a landslide victory that totally eclipsed their favored candidate, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

The news comes with CTU criticism of the interim school board, and not an immediate elected school board, that they sought, despite the fact that the diversity of its members and their record are laudable.

Adding to the ire between the two was a commissioned poll, from the group, and for Children, that in March, showed a victory for Lightfoot, “to finish first among 14 candidates vying to replace” Emanuel, which  CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates called “trash.”

Sharp rhetoric is not unknown in Chicago politics, but this time, on the backdrop of a weakened city finances, with the historic election of a black woman, in a city with nearly a 35 percent black majority, adds another dimension to an already burdened financial future.

Tip O'Neill's famous quote that “all politics are local” might encapsulate Chicago as it tries to hit the reset button on how things are done, or in the case of the recent past, not done.

With a deficit over $700 million, as we have noted before, Lightfoot’s stance that this is a fair offer, stands in direct contrast to what CTU says:

“The mayor’s offer not only falls far short of the 5%-per-year the CTU has demanded but, [President] Sharkey argued, when increased health insurance costs are factored in, it’s more like an 11.7% pay raise over five years,” reported the Chicago Sun Times.

 “This is not good enough. ... The wage offer is anemic. It’s weak. It’s less than we’re expecting. Combine it with the fact that we haven’t heard anything else about the other pieces, it paints a picture where we really have not gotten a serious response to the important issues we’re raising,” Sharkey said.

“. . . the union complains the offer is really only 12.5 percent after increased employee payments for health insurance are factored in,” noted Crain's Chicago Business.

So what does the union want? Five percent annual raises—which would amount to a pay increase of about 27 percent after compounding if granted over the same five-year period.

Sharkey  also issued a threat, "Candidate Lightfoot has vowed there will be no teachers strike on her watch. Mayor Lightfoot has a month to make good on that and her campaign promises."

Irony comes into the picture, with a firmer financial footing, than before, although not perfect, and coming from high borrowing costs from Emanuel’s effort and a one-time check from the controversial and what some historically have called, a slush fund, but was acknowledged at the time, was not an end, but a band aid.

“In 2012, Emanuel’s bullying missteps provoked a seven-day strike that was Chicago’s first in 25 years. Four years later, he avoided another strike, only after using an $87.5 million tax-increment-financing surplus that the mayor’s own City Council floor leader acknowledged was “not sustainable,” according to the Sun-Times.

What is widely acknowledged if Sharkey gets his way, the city suffers at the expense of solvency as it tackles its mammoth pension deficit.

As the venerable Chicago Tribune opined: “The union is asking for a lot more than wage increases from a hard-pressed school district and hard-pressed taxpayers.”

Added to the list of demands are what have been called “wrap around services” for CPS students, which include more counselors, nurses and librarians, with a price tag, that CTU has not provided, but that Crain’s says sources told them it could be as much as $2.5 billion.

“The Sun-Times reports that the union also wants the creation of 55 “community schools” (each costing $500,000), a moratorium on charter schools and a ban on school closings during the term of the contract”, in addition, said the Tribune.

All in all this is “a mighty big addition to a budget that’s already severely strapped. Yearly structural deficits continue to force the district to borrow to pay day-to-day expenses. The district’s junk-status credit rating translates into high borrowing costs. CPS’ pension fund remains just 48 percent funded and is saddled with $12 billion in unfunded liabilities.”

Lightfoot has said the money from her proposal have come from an increase in the school funding formula, but also $450 million from the Illinois General Assembly’ but should all of the monies be “devoured” from the new contract.

Again, from the Tribune, “In what ways can CPS get more efficient, and in doing so, free up money for a new contract? As unpalatable as it may seem, CPS should face the reality of shrinking enrollment and close more of the district’s underpopulated schools.”

Looking at those numbers, they cited some examples: “Frederick Douglass Academy High School in the West Side’s Austin neighborhood has a capacity for 1,188 students. It’s enrollment for the 2018-19 school year? Sixty-two students, making Douglass just 5 percent enrolled. Manley Career Academy High School in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side: 83 students, 6 percent enrolled.”

The specter of Lightfoot facing a major embarrassment, early in her tenure, might be tempting for a vengeance move, by the CTU, but “A strike would be devastating. So would reaching an agreement that shoves CPS further into a financial abyss. Either of those outcomes would imperil Chicago, because either would imperil its children.”

Things are getting hotter in the negotiations with the Board as the first day of school looms for students on 3 September, and designated factfinder, and lawyer, Steven Bierig has offered staff raises of 3 percent in the first 3 years and 3.5 in the last 2 years, totaling 5 years in the life of the contract.

Local public radio station, WBEZ noted that the offer “recognizes and respects the offers that we put on the table,” she said of the recommendations.

“Lightfoot also repeated that there is no reason a contract deal can’t be reached and that she has directed her team to make it happen. The union is bashing Bierig’s recommendations in a letter to its members, although CTU President Jesse Sharkey said earlier this week that there was some progress being made in negotiations.

Bierig’s recommendations are not binding and the city or CTU can reject them. Fact finding is a mandated step before a strike.  

In a school system with 500 schools the challenges are plentiful, but the fact remains that Chicago faces as its number one problem, a pension deficit that has harnessed the city in its offer to the teachers, but the Union has said that the offer is unsatisfactory and also that it fails to recognize the female and minority dominated workforce.

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In Sharkey’s letter to members, he writes: “Let me be blunt. CPS' factfinder agrees with the mayor's bargaining team: throw an inadequate wage proposal at educators and literally ignore everything else needed in our school communities to provide our students with a quality education.”

“I think what it shows is that the city has stepped up and made real commitments to teachers and support staff to make sure we are enhancing the educational experience for our young people.” Lightfoot said of the report during a press conference Friday, as reported by local public television WTTW.

In a clarion call to members, he noted, and bringing up the justice issue: “This report does nothing but codify inequitable and unjust school policy,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in an emailed statement to union members.

While it’s true that the so-called, “wraparound service” for increased nurses, and social workers are needed, it’s also been thought that these, as noted, can be negotiated items that still preserve the need for needs outside of teaching skills; and, not to mention class sizes and staffing ratios.

Also at stake are the need for paraprofessionals to be paid a just wage and that some reports have said that some are making less than $31,980; yet taking into account a budget that needs more, not less, as well as the shortfall of $141 million, then the offer from the Board is sensible, if not ideal.

“Teachers say Chicago is lagging behind the other six largest unionized school districts in the country, which have seen average COLA increases of 19% from 2010-11 to 2018-19. CPS has seen just a 12% salary increase during that time. Since 2011, CTU claims the average union member has seen COLA increases of just 1.44%, which they say is “well below the rate of inflation.”

“Dick Simpson, a former alderman and political scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago who endorsed Lightfoot, sees the administration’s hardball approach as a “negotiating tactic” that “stems mostly from the Rahm Emanuel period." He hopes things will change once Lightfoot herself switches gears from the ethics reform work she has prioritized so far and gets more involved in the negotiations.

“There just isn’t enough money to do things that you might have agreed to,” Simpson added, in an interview with Salon.com; and  “The issue is going to be: Can they find a compromise position that recognizes the financial limits but at the same time makes the teachers feel valued and that they’re getting some financial help from the system?”

Kency Nittler, of the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonpartisan policy and its research center.teacher policy director, said, “Chicago teachers in comparison to other teachers in large districts are being paid relatively well, " reported Chalkbeat.

"She said that the district’s offer to teachers is solid, and not outside the bounds of what districts regularly offer in negotiations. 

Nittler added that, in a difficult work environment, raises may not be enough to retain teachers. That echoes the argument the Chicago Teachers Union has been making in calling for smaller class sizes and more support staff, such as nurses, social workers, and special education case managers."

“Those (calls) are coming from a place of ‘your salary alone is not enough,’” she added. 

Coming on the heels of the fact finder, the CTU has rejected the city's offer and is prepared to strike, although some see this as not occurring before the end of September, or in October, at the latest, and just in time to embarrass Lightfoot as she grapples with record debt inherited from decades of pension neglect, as stated before, the city's number one problem.

With the loss of their favored candidate, Preckwinkle, politics are entering the picture and it's threatening to get nasty, and, in truth, would have been worse had Bill Daley been elected with his fractured view of local education, that included combining city colleges of Chicago, its community colleges system with CPS. And, then the CTU could have used the black and white divide to gain even more notoriety.

In a hopeful manner, Lightfoot said, “There’s no reason a deal can’t be reached by the start of the school year,” Lightfoot said Monday at a press conference at Webster Elementary School on the West Side. “There’s no reason there should be a strike. We have 30 days to get the job done. We could get this done today. We’ve put, I think, a very robust offer on the table.”

With some saber rattling, Sharkey said,  “This union is going to continue preparing for a strike, if need be, in order to deliver those improvements for our members and for the people who rely on public schools in the city of Chicago," reported the Sun-Times.

"The [fact finders] report’s suggestion on wages and employee health contributions was a compromise between the two sides’ proposals, with the fact-finder recommending a 16% raise over five years instead of CPS’ proposed 14% raise over that term. The teachers union had asked for a 15% raise over three years.

Employee contributions to health care, meanwhile, should go up by 1% over the last three years of a five-year deal, the fact-finder’s report said. CPS had proposed raising employee contributions to health care by 1.5% over that time, while the CTU asked to maintain current contributions.

The CTU had originally proposed a three-year, $3 billion contract with that 15% pay raise in a deal that would “rebuild” the city’s public school system with wraparound services that would support students faced with trauma," they added.

While a strike could begin as early as September, it is expected, if no agreement, to take place in October, "because they temporarily lose their health coverage if they aren’t working at the start of the month. Indications from the CTU point to a mid-September authorization vote at the earliest."

The vote amongst union members hit a record high at well over the needed 75 percent, and the rankling and saber rattling caused Lightfoot to hold a press conference where she was clearly rattled by the lack of progress, and the political denouement that CTU is planning, and claimed that the Board sent over a scant few pages in response to her 50 page report.

“I am definitely concerned,” she said at a press conference Monday morning as she stood side-by-side with Schools CEO Janice Jackson and Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle. ”We have a number of open issues. We have moved and met them on issue after issue. We can’t bargain against ourselves," reported local station WBEZ.

“It [CPS’ offers] does not make promises CPS can not keep,” del Valle said, making clear he’s backing up the school district. “We will staff more nurses, more case managers and social workers. We will increase equity. We will improve conditions in all our neighborhood schools. But we need flexibility, we need creativity and we need partnership with CTU and the community."

Crain’s Chicago Business reported that, "CPS wrote in its recommendation that the five-year contract proposal helps keep a lid on the district's still-recovering finances, including unfunded pension liabilities and long- and short-term debt. “Given these significant long-term obligations, it is imperative that the board continue to stand firm in making fiscally responsible decisions related to the allocation of its limited financial resources among its operating costs (e.g. employee wages and health care benefits, staffing levels, etc.)."

While time will be the judge, the potential for political payback seems to be piggybacked on the needs of Chicago public school students. And, it's clear that sense a state law from 1995 says that teachers cannot strike outside of compensation, they are warily, and some say crafituly trying to get the so-called wrap around services guaranteed in writing.

The move, while seemingly innocuous, smacks of politics, since if CTU can get what it wants, and the city deficit increases, as a result, they can say, in response, "Well, if the money wasn't there why did shy put it in writing," and offer condolences on the burgeoning city deficit, while claiming innocence.

 Updated 9 October 2019, 06:57 p.m. CSDT

Lightfoot and the uphill battle of Chicago finances

Lori Lightfoot, the newly inaugurated mayor of Chicago, has faced some hard knocks in her nearly two month tenure, and among them is facing a crime rate, over the Independence Holiday weekend, that resulted in nearly 33 people shot, four of them fatal.

While the city has had banner headlines on crime for some time, and despite the new mayor’s nocturnal visits to high crime areas, it is not the most pressing problem that she faces - what is most important to help solve this, and other city wide problems, is money, that she desperately needs; and with an inherited budget from former Mayor Rahm Emanuel with a conservative estimated deficit of $700 million. This is indeed the elephant in City Hall.

With a Fall deadline approaching for a new budget, she has to attack the doughnut hole, so to speak, of an over $1 billion pension deficit that was the result of promising too much, and delivering it; but which was not helped by periodic raids, such as in 2007, when Mayor Richard M. Daley took $7 million to prop up the ailing CTA, to avoid a fare hike - the first of many such pension raids, and “holidays”.

To her credit Lightfoot has said that the pension crisis is her top priority, and “one she’s willing to risk her re-election on,” noted an editorial in Crain’s Chicago Business.

“The reason we haven’t solved the pension problem is (lack of) political will, pure and simple,” she said.

“Whether it’s the structural deficit for next year, the pension obligations that we have to meet, the service on the debt, open police, fire and teachers contracts and a range of other issues, we have a significant challenge on our hands. Make no mistake about it,” she added.

“We do need help from Springfield. We’re looking at a variety of options,” she said.

“I’ve had extensive personal conversations with the governor and the legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle. We are actively engaged with them and looking at ways we can get some relief from Springfield and we hope that will happen — whether it’s this session or in the fall veto session.”

In a recent move she has suggested that the state take a much larger role, and consolidate suburban and downstate pension funds in a new system, in exchange for Chicago foregoing  “some revenue the city now gets.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has shown some reluctance to this idea, and some observers feel that he has bigger fish to fry, but Lightfoot, who was once a prosecuting attorney, has countered that if this is a definite no, from the governor, then she may be forced to add another huge property tax increase, to address the deficit, with the result that Chicago residents may be reluctant to vote for the graduated tax structure, on the upcoming November 2020 referendum, that Pritzker recently shoehorned through the state assembly.

As The Chicago Tribune noted, at the time of the Emanuel hike, “That won't be the end of the pension-related property tax increases. Total property tax increases of $106 million for the police and fire pension funds are slated for 2018 and 2019.”

Moving on is the concern of the business community, which Lightfoot needs the support to harness most of her agenda, including reform of the public school system, (the nation's third largest), and most importantly, expanding economic development to include areas, long neglected, in employment and housing.

The move to go beyond business growth only in the Loop, is a hallmark of her progressive agenda, and while no one's expecting that this will be accomplished in a year, resetting the “business as usual” plan, to include, this change, has created what some have dubbed her “Marshall Plan”  a “promise to attack racial and financial inequality by focusing more economic development in neighborhoods, “south of Roosevelt and west of Ashland.”

To note, the Englewood neighborhood, one hit hardest by poverty and violence, has an unemployment rate increase to 34 percent in 2017 from 24 percent in 2011, Crain’s reported from the research of Mike Rothschild, “a data scientist in Chicago.”

One area that lies outside of the data, and has faced continued calls for an increase is taxing high-end services, mostly on accounting and legal services, but some see this as insufficient to enrich the city coffers, unless tied to other efforts, and services, to gain more than a million, noted Crain’s editorial board, and supported by columnist, Joe Cahill, who also notes that this is now “a faster-growing segment of the economy than merchandise sales.”

In comparison to other neighboring states, Illinois falls behind, by taxing only “17 services, most of them related to utilities and telecommunications.”

Chicago needs approval from Springfield; but here is a look at what others have on their books: Iowa taxes 100 services, Wisconsin 14, more than Illinois, and Indiana, seem as low tax, gains with an additional eight., says a 2017 report by the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting & Accountability.”

Cahill sees that Lightfoots’s reluctance to do so, as a failure of leadership, perhaps, say some of her concerns of the long tally of regressive taxes, from her predecessor, might poison even the best of her future intentions, despite his tag of “revenue stagnation.”

Earnest and stalwart, the new mayor faces not only the road less traveled, but the well-worn path of yesterday, in her quest for Chicago’s financial reformation.

Lightfoot hits the ground running as new mayor of Chicago

In less than the three weeks that Lori Lightfoot was inaugurated as mayor of Chicago, she has shown a propensity for tackling the hard work ahead, and her unenviable task list, for taking America’s third largest city from a sea of financial red ink, and the burden of high crime, weakened schools, (with a wobbly reputation), and pension indebtedness, among others; and has made some fast enemies, yet seems to care less about them, and more about the future of the city.

To wit, she has called for the disgraced, and now indicted, longtime alderman Ed Burke to resign, after he was fried by the feds for trying to shake down a Burger King franchise in exchange for a bribe, targeted to defeated mayoral rival, Toni Preckwinkle.

Lightfoot’s swift actions have gained her some enmity from long-time Chicago “machine” fans; and, to wit, one 60ish, black woman, and self-styled politico, told me in an off-hand comment,“I can’t stand her,” and exclaimed, with outstretched hands,  ”Look at what she has done to Beale!”

What she did to earn that woman’s ire was to push aside a Burke crony, Ald. Anthony Beale, from a key position in favor of a younger and fresher, read, “non-machine” colleague, Scott Waguespack, and accepted the reality that she was not going to have control over a casino, (designed to help fill the city coffers), and prepared an interim school board, as the Chicago Teachers Union, wrung its collective hands at not having an immediate elected school board, and most significantly signed an executive order to not allow aldermanic privilege to go unfettered, in the shadow of Burke’s shenanigans.

For a woman that is shorter than most of her colleagues, and even her own wife, she seems to brook no nonsense as she tackles Chicago’s problems systematically and methodically, and in less time than many of her rivals, who might have wallowed in the perks of office.

As we noted previously the job of Chicago mayor is often death by a thousand blows, and those who want the job either have to be mad, or are a crusader, and Lightfoot seems to be the latter.

Ending aldermanic privilege

Facing down the alderman and their “life, or death, privileges”, and also their side hustles, may give her street cred among progressives, but also is likely to increase the challenges to that effort, but as The Economist noted earlier this year, after the raid on Burke’s office, these building permits, and development requests, are best handled by city departments rather than through their hands. And, their power often hinders the effort to gain affordable housing, and re-enforces Chicago’s long held racial segregation.

“Under Lightfoot’s plan, the old system would be replaced with one where departments underneath the mayor’s purview would establish uniform criteria to decide who gets permits, licenses and more,” according to local PBS affiliate, WTTW.

“It’s really a simple change,” said Ald.Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, who says he enthusiastically supports the measure. “Rather than an alderman just picking up the phone and saying, ‘Stop that permit,’ it means the aldermen has to answer to a commissioner.”

Then on the other hand, there is blowback, and,  “She might as well say she doesn’t need aldermen anymore,” said Ald. Ray Lopez, 15th. “There is no cookie cutter solution to answer the issues in every neighborhood, and to try to use this to force aldermen to give up their duty to be advocates for their community is not only distressing, it is wrong.”

Ald. Lopez

“Still, there are some incoming aldermen who like Lightfoot won in part by campaigning to take power away from individual Council members. Some of them say they’re not quite sure that what they heard today from Lightfoot’s staff goes far enough to change the system.”

“For example, they point out that the issue of zoning is not included in Lightfoot’s planned executive order, meaning that aldermen will still have final say about which parcel of land can be zoned for residential, commercial or other types of use.”

“These kinds of decisions have, in the past, facilitated a pipeline for campaign contributions and corruption. Therefore, some aldermen say that Lightfoot will eventually have to take bolder steps to change the system.”

As the Tribune Editorial board reminded readers, “Remember, this is a body that brazenly avoided filling the position of legislative inspector general, a post that was created to investigate complaints against City Council members. When aldermen finally settled on New York attorney Faisal Khan to fill the role, they swiftly discredited him, mocked him, refused his requests for paperwork and ignored his demands.”

“I believe that it was abuses of prerogative around zoning that brought us to this point, to this call of reform,” said Ald.-elect Daniel LaSpata, 1st.  “And I think that’s going to have to be an ongoing conversation.”

“When public officials cut shady backroom deals, they get rich and the rest of us get the bill,” Lightfoot said in her inaugural speech., adding that “It’s in the City Council’s own interest.”

Lightfoot  also has plans to replace longtime politico Carrie Austin, another African American alderman, “from her long-held perch as chairman of the Budget Committee, instead giving that high-power assignment to Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd.”

“The mayor wants to create a new Committee on Contracting Oversight and Equity and let Austin chair that one instead, in a bid to temper Austin’s anger over losing the Budget post.”

“My decision is going to hinge upon Mayor Lightfoot,” Austin said [last] Thursday. “I will say this throughout my term with her: If it’s something you want me to support, you’ve got to ask me. You’ve got to ask me. That’s the one thing I can say about Mayor Emanuel. He asked me for my support.”

“Lightfoot said Friday that she had asked Austin for her support. Asked whether she expected to get it, Lightfoot replied “I do.”

On a purely operations level, the mayor won as she “managed to reshape the City Council in her reformer image — installing new chairmen and new operating rules to prevent aldermanic conflict of interest — by a voice vote,” reported the Sun-Times.

“Only three aldermen could be heard shouting “No”: Anthony Beale (9th), Edward Burke (14th) and Ray Lopez (15th).

“I think it went fine,” a self-satisfied Lightfoot said, in a dramatic understatement.

Here a TIF, there a TIF

Next up on the “must do” agenda that helped propel her to City Hall, and also the progressive agenda that she backed, is reforming the TIF program -- Tax Incremental Funding -- that was designed to benefit low income areas, and encourage economic development, but which became under Mayor Richard M. Daley, and Emanuel, a slush fund, of sorts, that helped open the French Market, and other posh establishments, in rapidly gentrifying areas of the Loop.

Using the backdrop of an internal investigation by Inspector General Joe Ferguson, the Chicago Tribune reported that it was established to see “how well the city had enacted the recommendations made in 2011 by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Tax Increment Financing Reform Panel.

Mr. Ferguson

The inspector general found the city has only partially followed through on setting multiyear development plans and capital budgets for the money, which gets diverted into infrastructure spending accounts within TIF districts all over the city instead of going to traditional property taxing bodies such as Chicago Public Schools and the annual City Hall budget.”

“Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s report reveals what many of us have long suspected: Behind closed doors, City Hall has made decisions on how to spend TIF dollars without documented justifications or clearly articulated goals to guide the spending,” Lightfoot said in a statement.

“The report makes two things clear. First, the TIF system needs far more transparency in how it makes decisions and who receives money. Second, the City must commit to publicly-available, community-driven plans for which economic development and capital improvement projects should be approved.”

“Emanuel’s agreement to earmark up to $2.4 billion in tax increment financing money to support megadevelopments The 78 and Lincoln Yards just before he left office this year brought particular scrutiny to the city’s TIF process,” the Trib added.

Despite those assertions, Lightfoot was criticized by some of the more progressive groups and media for accepting the deal negotiated by the outgoing administration of former mayor, Rahm Emanuel; and, in another blow to reality, Lightfoot had to accept that she did not have the votes to forestall the project,and instead let it continue with the promise of increased contracts for minority and women owned projects.

“But progressives see it differently. Talk to them and they say that they took Lightfoot at her word when she frequently said during and since the campaign that the Lincoln Yards deal in particular needed lots of work and that a final decision should be left for a new mayor and City Council,” reported Crain’s Chicago Business, also noting that the Chicago Teachers Union criticism was misplaced.

"Her consent for these deals will cost our schools, our parks, and our public services literally billions of dollars in deflected funding," thundered the Chicago Teachers Union in a statement shortly after the City Council vote. "The City Council and the new mayor will have to answer to the people occupying a packed City Council chambers who are jeering their maneuvers."

Crain’s columnist Greg Hinz opined, with accuracy, “I think the progressives really are way, way off base in much of their opposition. The $2 billion-plus in subsidies mostly is for transportation infrastructure, the type of thing government generally pays for. And that money won't "come from" public schools, however much the CTU screams. It will come from property taxes paid by the developers. With few exceptions, the schools will get that money back by raising their property tax rate a little higher on landowners not located in the TIF districts.”

All of this before the inauguration, to boot, but it shows that the 56-year-old, and former corporate attorney, will have to maintain a tough stance, as she faces criticism from many sides, in her effort to reform Chicago; or to paraphrase Lincoln’s famous stance of not being able to please all of the people, all of the time.

On the heels of that action Hinz added: “But Lightfoot is the one who said she opposed action now. And she's the one who acted very much like the Emanuel she criticized in releasing terms of the deal under cover of night—in this case, a 10:45 p.m. email—too late for morning media coverage and too late to really have much impact before a 9 a.m. City Council meeting.”

There was good news in the shuffle: “The new Finance Committee also has been stripped of control over tax increment financing subsidies, like the record $1.6 billion package for Lincoln Yards and “the 78” Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushed through shortly before leaving office.

The power over TIF subsidies has gone to the Economic Development Committee, to be chaired by Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th), Lightfoot’s floor leader.”

With her support for affordable housing, which is at a dearth in the city, and those calling for rent control, which the local realtor association definitely does not want, the balancing act between a progressive agenda, and not wanting to totally alienate the business community, will be a challenge.

Violence they say, stop, she says

Gun violence has been in the headlines for Chicago for months, even years, and there seems to not be a day that there are not headlines proclaiming the latest murders and shootings.

“In an interview with CBS News national correspondent Jericka Duncan, Lightfoot said she plans a proactive approach to tackling gun violence as a public health crisis by better investing in neighborhoods to address the causes of violent crime,” reported CBS Chicago.

“It means we bring resources to the communities so that they can grow; that we bring economic development opportunities to neighborhoods; that we work on providing wraparound services and job training in the neighborhoods so that people in those neighborhoods who don’t have a history of work actually have a pipeline to good paying jobs,” she said, and noted that fighting violence was the biggest challenge of her new role.

“You have to bring people together. They have to get comfortable with each other, which is why we are encouraging our officers to get out of their cars, walk the beat, get to know the community that they’re in. We will be bringing some additional changes both in training our new recruits and our veteran officers,” she said, just ahead of the Memorial Day holiday, an annual launch to a new round of violence, and associated with warmer weather.

Tragically, her intentions aside, “After “flooding the zone” over Memorial Day weekend with 1,200 more police officers and dozens of religious leaders — and touting more than 100 events and youth programs as alternative activities — Lightfoot came away with results tragically similar to previous years, according to the Sun-Times.

“Seven dead, same as last year. And 34 wounded, two more than last year.

That’s apparently why Lightfoot is now attempting to lower the bar that she herself raised by putting so much of her early political capital on the line over Memorial Day weekend.

“I didn’t come into this with any illusions that we were gonna be able to wave a magic wand and reverse trends that have been in the making for some time. We were down on homicides from a year ago. But, we were up on shootings—and that’s clearly unacceptable,” the new mayor said.

It's been widely acknowledged by academics, sociologists, and others who study America’s core cities, that violence is underscored by the lack of opportunity that Lightfoot has seen.

She has noted that “a lot of what we’re seeing out there are crimes of poverty.” That underscores the need to invest heavily in the South and West side neighborhoods suffering from “systemic disinvestment” that has dragged on for decades.”

“There’s young guys out there who get a small amount of money to essentially patrol their streets, but are telling me, ''We have nothing.’ It’s difficult to make a persuasive argument not to be involved in the illegal drug trade, for example, when there are no other economic activities and opportunities out there for young men and women to participate in,” she said.

Show me the money

Of course, as critics have pointed out, none of these changes are possible without money; and the debt, especially the pension debt the city has endured, plus the high interest loans the city took out, under Emanuel, have made things better and Lightfoot's transition team demurred on the question of city finances, and what is known is a $700 million budget shortfall.

According to The Civic Federation, Lightfoot faces a $277 million increase in pension payments and “payments that will rise by $1 billion in 2023 — as a five-year ramp to actuarial funding ends and the road to 90% funding begins.”

“Whether it’s the structural deficit for next year, the pension obligations that we have to meet, the service on the debt, open police, fire and teachers contracts and a range of other issues, we have a significant challenge on our hands. Make no mistake about it,” Lightfoot said.

“We will talk about what that challenge is. But I also believe you have to talk to people about solutions. We’re not there yet. We’re looking at a range of different options. . . . But it’s important for us to actually get in and see the books for ourselves so we can understand what the magnitude of the challenge is.”

The dean of Chicago political reporters, Fran Spielman, of the Sun-Times, said, in her coverage that “Newly elected mayors routinely paint the worst possible picture of the budget shortfalls they inherit, then blame their predecessors for leaving behind a bigger mess. That frees them to make the painful choices on taxes and budget cuts early in a first term in hopes that Chicago voters forget about it before the next election.”