Violence in Chicago and economic stalemate in capitol dominated 2016

Rahm Emanuel

As 2016 comes to a close, let’s take a look at some of the top political stories for Chicago, and Illinois. If there ever was a year for pivotal events, then this  was one of them; from City Hall to police headquarters, from the State House to the governor’s office,there was never a time when news events took the road less travelled.

Number One: The continued fallout of the Laquan MCDonald dash cam video from 2015 led to the fall of State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez in the general election, and the election of Kim Foxx, former chief of staff for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. Alvarez had been accused of withholding the tape (showing the black teenager shot 16 times by a white policeman) during last year's re-election of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and being less concerned with outcome than process, said voters; and by this they meant justice. She had also been sued by the two reporters that broke the story of obfuscation, and possibly collusion, between her office and that of the mayor's. Aded to that were continued calls for the resignation of Rahm Emanuel. To stem the tide, after a U.S. Department. of Justice civil rights investigation for the CPD, Emanuel called for over 970 new police, but critics say the full effect, after training might not be seen for over a year. There is also no clear cut path to how the increase will be paid for. The city also paid out $5.5 million in reparations, decades later, to black men tortured by Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge.

Number Two: the increasing crime in Chicago, homicides topped 700 for the year, the first time in nearly 20 years; in November alone, the total was 77, the worst for that month, since there were 78 in 1994. While restricted to mainly two areas, and certain neighborhoods, the perception of the city as violence plagued, has not abated. Earlier this month Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson denied the claim that the city was out of control. He said, “The truth of the matter is Chicago is not out of control. There’s certain parts of the city that we have to address the violence.” He also said that there need to be harsher penalties for repeat gun offenders. Meanwhile Mayor Emanuel has stated that all residents must come together to help solve the problem.

Number Three:The Task Force on Police Accountability released a scathing report on police: “A 200-page report on police accountability found that 74 percent of people shot by Chicago police over the last eight years were black, prompting the leader of the city’s task force to call the revelations "a day of reckoning for all of us." It also said that police must acknowledge their racism when it also said “The department must acknowledge its sad history and present conditions, which lave left people totally alienated from the police, and afraid for their physical and emotional safety.”

Eddie Johnson

Number Four:  Mayor Emanuel had the 2017 Chicago budget passed unanimously by what many are seeing as a rubber stamp by the city council, redolent of former mayor, Richard M. Daley. The core of the budget contains two of the highest property taxes Chicago has ever seen, coupled with a shipload of regressive taxes that critics say will do nothing in the long run to solve the city’s financial problems, mostly due to having to meet mandated pension payments. Recent reports also say that Emanuel is preparing a run against challengers for the next general election to the tune of $1.5 million. Last year, he was challenged in a runoff, a historic first for a Chicago mayor.

Number Five: Both Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s gave the state’s bond ratings two levels above junk status due to the lack of a budget from Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic state legislature, whose powerful head Mike Madigan has made head-butting, grandstanding, and plain old standoffs a new gold standard. Illinois’ unpaid bills could hit $14 billion in 2017. Much of that is due to the “rollback of a 2011 temporary income tax increase that’s resulted in revenue dropping by several billion dollars the last two years,” noted the Chicago Tribune. Rauner’s insistence on changing tort law for worker’s compensation coupled with union busting measures, to agree on a budget, in this bluest of blue states, has led to a stalemate between he and the Democratic legislature.

Number Six: No claim for transparency can be made by Emanuel as a lawsuit by a watchdog group, prompted a lawsuit and the release of emails from his private email domain. In an odd legal twist there is no ruling on the legality of his using the private account, leaving a troublesome ambiguity. In another departure from such cases Emanuel’s lawyers made the decision which emails to release, and not, as customary, a judge. Much of what was released was smaller than was sought by the Better Government Association which brought the suit. During his first mayoral campaign Emanuel said that he would create, “the most open, accountable and transparent government that the city of Chicago has ever seen.”

Number Seven: Uniform pot laws came to the state courtesy of Rep. Kelly Cassidy who long thought the patchwork of laws were unfair, and treated some people,especially minorities unequally. The result was House approval of Senate Bill 2228.

Tammy Duckworth

Number Eight: Tammy Duckworth elected to the U.S. Senate defeating Republican Mark Kirk for the 8th Congressional District in Illinois, and after a bruising national elections with Republicans in control of both the White House and the Congress. Her victory gives both Senate seats to Democrats, one bright spot for a defeated party.

U.S. lawsuit has national implication for LGBT employment rights

Kim Hively

 When the Supreme Court struck down the state bans against same-sex marriage, last year, many observers, amidst the hurrahs and cheers, assumed that the gay and lesbian community had hit the final frontier in their struggle for civil rights. Yet, wiser heads had deemed that while the United States had come of age, in this area of human rights, there was much more work to be done, to secure full rights for that community.

Almost forgotten last week, with speculation about the cabinet of President-elect Donald J. Trump, was the Wednesday hearing of the whole court of the Chicago based Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in one of the most salient cases, in fact, what could best be the last test case against LGBT employment discrimination.

The federal lawsuit, at hand, is Hively v. Ivy Tech, where a lesbian part-time adjunct faculty member, named Kim Hively, taught at a South Bend, Ind. community college, Ivy Tech, where she  had repeatedly tried for a full-time promotion, and was repeatedly rejected; despite concurrently earning a master's degree. She claims that she was rejected because she was gay; then the school, did not schedule her to teach any classes, thus in effect, firing her.

In a statement given to the South Bend Tribune, college spokesman, Jeff Fanter, said: “Ivy Tech Community College rejects discrimination of all types, and in fact explicitly prohibits, employment discrimination based upon a person’s sexual orientation. In 2014, Kimberly Hively alleged that she was not promoted due to her sexual orientation. Ivy Tech takes such a claim very seriously and steadfastly denies Hively’s allegations.”

At the heart of the case is whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 says that there can be no discrimination in the workplace based on sex. Yet, that definition has never been expanded to include sexual orientation, with a series of earlier decisions.

As Slate noted in its coverage,”Title VII has, from the start, included a ban on discrimination “because of sex.” In 1989’s Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, the Supreme Court defined sex discrimination to include sex stereotyping—mistreating employees because they fail to comply with gender norms. Since then, a number of courts have held that this expansive definition of sex discrimination may also encompass anti-gay discrimination.”

To cloud the judicial waters, “In 2015’s Baldwin v. Foxx, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission declared that sexual orientation discrimination is sex discrimination under Title VII.”

Representing Hively is Greg Nevins, director of the Workplace Fairness Program at Lambda Legal, who has noted in numerous media interviews the importance of seeing this as landmark case, As he told the South Bend paper: "You can't fail to promote a woman for doing the exact same thing a man could do," meaning dating a woman, the attorney said by telephone after the hearing. "They understand the argument," Nevins said. "A few years ago, this argument wasn't getting much currency."

WIth the current climate of uncertainty, vulnerable groups, such as gay people, in advance of the incoming Trump administration, have wondered if their past gains would be compromised. In an interview with the Chicago Reader, Nevins said: “The federal appellate courts have not agreed with that interpretation with respect to sexual orientation. With gender identity there's actually a lot of overlap—there are two federal circuits that have ruled in employment cases and two others that have ruled in other [cases] under other federal statutes that sex discrimination includes discrimination against transgender individuals.”

Greg Nivens

While the timeline for a decision, is anyone’s guess, the decision could affect the entire country.  Nevins did say that with the incoming Trump decision, there might be a blowback, but trusts in judicial thoughtfulness, when he notes, ”I guess the real question is: Are they thoughtful? If they're thoughtful judges who follow the law, then I wouldn't be worried about it. If they were ideologues with a record of railing against things from a political standpoint and not from a carefully reasoned judicial standpoint, obviously we would be concerned,” he told the Reader.

During the oral arguments, of the eleven judges there was evidence of that when Judge Diane Wood said,  after Nevins’ opening statement: “Isn’t there a stereotype built into” all anti-gay discrimination”, and, furthermore, “That if you’re biologically female, then you must be attracted to men?”

Building on that statement, Nevins pointed to the Baldwin case of sex stereotyping, and if it could play a role in discrimination, then why not sexual orientation?  While cautiously optimistic regarding the case, Nevins does not rule out the possibility of taking, if rejected, the case to the United States Supreme Court.

Betty Tsamis, a Chicago based employment rights attorney, who has been both advocate, and attorney on cases involving LGBT rights, told me, in an emailed statement, “Gay and lesbian employees in Illinois already have protection against job discrimination through the Illinois Human Rights Act. But this is not sufficient and federal law provides for more uniformity and a wider array of damages.”

Nivens concurs when he emphasizes that “Judges shouldn’t ignore the plain meaning of a statute just because Congress is not sure what when it wants the statute to mean.”

Betty Tsamis

Tsamis predicts that,  “If Hively's appeal is granted she will either have to proceed at trial and win, or settle her case prior to trial. A win for Hively will extend protection to gay and lesbian employees in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Notwithstanding, the 7th Circuit will issue an opinion making clear whether or not the 7th Circuit believes that federal law enjoins adverse job action because of sexual orientation.”

Chicago is not broke, says public interest defender Tom Tresser

Tom Tresser

 Chicago’s latest budget, resting as it does on a variety of regressive taxes, and increased property taxes might have made Mayor Rahm Emanuel happy, yet for many there is more than simply dodging the bullet on pension payment backlogs and higher taxes than the 2017 budget does. For so long, and for so many, the mantra, has been that the city was broke, and beyond repair.

But others wanted to take a creative and imaginative approach to city finances, infrastructure and financing. Leading the pack is Tom Tresser who has brought together a collection of opinions into one slim volume titled, “Chicago is Not Broke”, an analysis of why and how things went wrong, but also prescriptions for how it can, and should get better for all residents. I spoke with him in a rollicking, anecdote filled, and impassioned interview; one that had me in thrall with his commitment, and vision for a better Chicago.

First on the table was the 2017 budget that was recently, and unanimously passed by the City Council, which pleased the mayor to no end. While Tresser ruefully acknowledges the ability of the mayor to pass a budget with no dissents, he feels that “it really supports 5 or 6 wards; 45 out of 50 are not doing that great. Look at the  unemployment figures among African American youth; and look at the 160 schools where there is no library, or no librarian, that is not investing wisely.”
For many progressives and community leaders, especially those on a grassroots level, the election of Donald Trump has caused concern if there will be continued support, for the more vulnerable members of society, and Tresser too is concerned, whether there can be “justice and equity” for civic projects.

Tresser stresses that “in the civic imagination, we’re broke, but we have no ideas to solve our problems,and we tend to run around like hamsters.” And, one of the things that makes him angry is that all too often Chicago has been hellbent on “creating debt to enrich the insider that [in turn] enriches the bankers, but not for the rest of us.”

The book is divided into five sections; the first is an introduction to the budgetary process by local economist Ralph Martire,and an overview of the Chicago budget.and an examination of some of the steps that can be taken.  In the second, section, there is an examination of the cost of corruption -- since Chicago is frequently cited as one of the most corrupt cities in the nation.

Martire’s detailed breakdown of the city budget is must reading for everyone concerned about city finances. For the 2.7 million residents it reads like a Rosetta stone for the series of documents that make up the entirety of the budget, and one whose complexity, can make such an examination daunting.

Looking at what are essentially six separate budgets, Martire acknowledges that there is “no one element a citizen can review to analyze the city’s budget,” and asserts that this complexity hinders transparency. Not included in the $9.32 billion budget, for 2016, were amounts for Chicago Public Schools, the police department, the Chicago Housing Authority, the CTA, and the city’s community college system; with amounts ranging from $ 5.7 billion to $696 million.

He leaves the readers with one salient point:  the budget is essentially a political document, and “rarely highlights controversial decisions.”

Dick Simpson, former aldermen, and now political professor at University of Illinois at Chicago, and coauthor Thomas J. Gradel, notes that  corruption costs [the city] about $500 million a year,” say Tresser and also cites, as an example, the enormous cost to the city of the Barbara Byrd Bennett debacle where she was charged, as Chicago School Board Superintendent, with ripping off Chicago Public Schools for over $2.3 million in kickbacks to her former employer, in exchange for a $2 million bribe from them.

The end result was more monies lost to the nation’s third largest school district, and also a huge loss of confidence. Most importantly he notes that “Political corruption in Chicago is extensive and persistent,” but so are the “tax dollars, in lives ruined or lost and in the loss and faith in government.”

While this may not be news to many city residents, and observers, the costs for other scandals, when tallied, add up to even more: $500 million per year, with the Jon Burge monies at $100 million and counting, and from the past, $100 million in 10 years, for the Hired Truck scandal.

As Simpson states, “All these forms of graft and corruption, large and small add up. To paraphrase U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen, a million stolen there and a million stolen there, and sooner or later it adds up to real money.”

Next up, says Tresser, is Jackson Potter with high finance, some would say hijinks, of toxic interest swaps from the hands of former Chicago Board of Trade, CEO, David Vitale, to deal with abandoning old-school budgetary practices. As he told the Chicago Tribune, a fix was needed and with that in mind, he suggested a new method that, would trade one liability for another, or “whatever the market would bear in return for cash up front.”

The end result was that the school district would pay a fixed interest rate, and in return the banks would pay a variable interest rate to bondholders, a move that Vitale felt would save the district a lot of money. But, it was a gamble that didn’t bargain with the collapse of the global market, in 2008, and “the CPS could not longer cover the interest on their bonds for the swap.”

Unfortunately, banks have not been held accountable, and the loss of $582 million, spent on payments, could have “filled the entire $480 million budget deficit and avoid devastating classroom cuts that include 5,000 teacher layoffs and cuts to special education.”

Perhaps no story of 2016 got more media attention than that of the Laquan McDonald case; and those of the by now, infamous, and tragic, shots that killed the black teenager, as he was walking away from police. The aftermath, the suppression of the dash cam video, the alleged  collusion between the mayor’s office and that of former Cook County State's Attorney, Anita Alvarez, who received a punishing defeat at the hands of Kim Foxx  in the primary leading to the municipal election.

For Tresser the cost of this police abuse, and the lies of police officers, again hits the cost of corruption, this time “the nearly $600 million in settlement to the victims families for wrongful convictions and paying Jon Burge’s bills, for consistent patterns of abuse; what does it take to move beyond these patterns of abuse?”, says Tresser.

The amounts spent have proven to be a never ending loop of payments that could have been used citywide for a variety of debts, and costs.in social and human capital, for the aleintatin of communties - especially those of color, in asking for protection, and seeking redress of police abuse.

But, the kicker, the standout problem of Chicago finances, for Tresser, is that of TIFs Tax Increment Financing  - a program designed to freeze taxes in poor areas, for a specific period,and then use those monies to build resources, both commercial and community, in low income, often blighted, neighborhoods.

As with so many things that look good on paper, ,the practice soon became one that enriched posh neighborhoods, for such building as the posh French Market, in the West Loop, hardly a blighted area, and a cash cow for investors and construction companies.

They also, as Tresser notes, became a slush fund for Chicago mayors, that they could dip into as needed. As he claims,”there are 164 TIF districts with $1.4 billion, and one of my goals is to educate the public on what is a TIF.” He  feels that the average citizen needs to know where they are, and all politics being local, that this information is vital. He held a grassroots meeting this past February, at the Chopin Theater, in the 27th Ward and there was record attendance.

Some numbers: a diversion of $7 billion in taxes to questionable projects that are “off the books,” so to speak, and $850 million to the city’s business district, the Loop, and not to blighted sections, as designed. It’s important as Tresser notes, that “TIF dollars are gifts, not loans.”

He has also begun the TIF Illumination Project to address the issues of what can be done, if anything to renegotiate some of these deals, identify the profits and maybe change the “process of bonding” for “capital costs, such as infrastructure or city buildings.”

These are but some of the most salient chapters of “Chicago Is Not Broke”, for a copy of the book, go to the book's website,  or through Amazon, for a Kindle version only, and select local bookstores in Chicago..