In response to today’s guilty verdict in the federal corruption of former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, lobbyist Mike McClain, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker, and former lobbyist and City Club president Jay Doherty Better Government Association President David Greising said the following: 

“The jury’s guilty verdict on all counts strikes a blow against the culture of corruption that for years has robbed Illinois residents of their right to an honest and accountable government. It is a flat rejection of the claim that the systematic effort to corruptly influence House Speaker Mike Madigan was just ‘politics as usual.’ The jury spoke for all Illinoisans in demanding better from government officials, as well as from businesses and lobbyists who seek to influence policies that affect all Illinoisans, not just the connected, powerful and wealthy among us.”

The trial hinged on detailed arguments of what constitutes a bribe versus what is simply the normal order of doing business in Illinois. Central to the government’s case against ComEd executives and lobbyists was an allegation that the utility improperly sought to influence Michael J. Madigan, then Speaker of the Illinois House, by creating no-work lobbyist jobs and other inducements, all made possible by the revolving door between legislators, their campaign and office staff, lobbyist payrolls and the boards of state-regulated industries during Madigan’s long reign as Speaker. Jurors found the defendants guilty on all counts.

While the state’s lobbying oversight and transparency laws have been strengthened somewhat since the conduct that was put on trial, far more needs to be done. The defendant’s case relied heavily on the blurry lines between illegal influence and legal lobbying activity. Limited financial disclosures, short cooling-off periods between elected office and lobbying jobs, and “honor system” conflict-of-interest recusals in the legislation all contribute to the overly cozy relationships in Springfield between regulators and the regulated that were put on display at the “ComEd Four” trial.

Recommendations from the Better Government Association’s state policy agenda would strengthen public disclosure for lobbyists and legislators, lengthen the cooling-off period before former legislators can lobby their onetime colleagues (and be hired by state-regulated industries to do so), and require legislators with an economic interest to publicly recuse themselves from relevant votes. 

“This is about both conduct and culture,” said BGA Policy Director Bryan Zarou. “Legislators need to be kept in the public spotlight. It shouldn’t be just a question of what’s federally prosecutable. Transparency and disclosure can do as much to set clear, bright lines between legislative, regulatory, and lobbying work as criminal charges, and that’s what the BGA’s policy agenda is all about.” 

The Better Government Association is a 99-year-old civic watchdog that seeks better government through investigative journalism, policy reforms and civic engagement efforts that lead to more open, equitable and accountable government. The policy team and investigative unit operate independently of one another, while both seek to advance the cause of better government in Chicago and across Illinois.

The Better Government Association has named eight investigative projects as finalists for the 2023 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Investigative Reporting.

The annual awards highlight the impact of Illinois investigative and enterprise reporting as a reform tool within the context of state and local government waste, fraud, and corruption. Winners will be announced at a live ceremony at 5:30 pm Wednesday, May 24 at City Hall Events, 838 W. Kinzie St, Chicago. Tickets are now available.

The evening will be a celebration of awardees and include a conversation between BGA President David Greising and Megan Twohey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and a best-selling author who has focused much of her work on the treatment of women and children. 

Twohey, along with investigative reporter Jodi Kantor, broke the story of decades of sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein in 2017, helping to ignite the #MeToo movement. Twohey and Kantor co-authored “Chasing the Truth” and “SHE SAID,” inspiring the 2022 film by the same name.

Awards will be announced in two categories: Large Newsroom and Small Newsroom. In addition to the prestigious awards, winners will take home $27,000 in cash prizes. 

The finalists for the Large Newsroom (newsrooms with editorial staffs of more than 10) category are:

• Capitol News Illinois / Lee Enterprises / ProPublica; “Culture of Cruelty” by Beth Hundsdorfer, Molly Parker
• WBBM-TV; “DCFS Survivors” by Dave Savini, Michele Youngerman
• ProPublica / Chicago Tribune; “The Price Kids Pay” by Jodi S. Cohen, Jennifer Smith Richards
• Block Club Chicago; “Problems at COVID-19 Testing Pop-Ups” by Kelly Bauer

The finalists for the Small Newsroom (newsrooms with editorial staffs of less than 10) category are:

• Injustice Watch; “Chicago police denied scores of undocumented crime victims a path to citizenship” by Carlos Ballesteros
• Investigate Midwest; “How Illinois’ ‘fragmented system’ of pesticide monitoring exposure ‘allows individuals to get poisoned over and over without any brakes” by Sky Chadde, Amanda Perez Pintado
• Injustice Watch; “Illinois changed its controversial ‘felony murder rule.’ Here’s who the reform left behind.” by Rita Oceguera and Chloe Hilles
• Injustice Watch; “Investigation of SCRAM devices in Cook County courts” by Maya Dukmasova

Entries were judged by a panel of journalists and educators. For each category, two winners will be selected from the finalists.

Judges for the 2023 awards are Christopher Bury, senior journalist in residence at DePaul University; Brant Houston, professor and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Charles Whitaker, dean and professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media Integrated Marketing Communications; Jackie Spinner, associate professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago; and Jesús Del Toro, director and general manager of Chicago’s La Raza newspaper and editorial director of San Francisco’s La Opinión de la Bahía.

The awards are generously sponsored by the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, which supports investigative reporting that fosters greater transparency, accountability and effectiveness in government institutions at the local level.

With more than 300 in attendance for the BGA’s first fully in-person luncheon since 2019, the BGA’s Demanding Answers-themed luncheon held on September 28 was a rousing success.

The Better Government Association’s signature fundraising event raised more than $1.1 million.

Board Chair Paulette Dodson kicked off the festivities by acknowledging those who have made significant philanthropic gifts to support the BGA’s work, those who have championed its mission to friends and those who have answered the call to serve and to strive to make a positive impact on our state.

David Greising, BGA President and CEO provided the year’s highlights. The year’s seminal achievement was receiving the Pulitzer Prize for the first time in the BGA’s history. That high honor recognized the BGA and its partner, the Chicago Tribune for the powerful story about negligent oversight of fire safety in Chicago that led to 61 deaths.

Greising also spotlighted:

• The Milking Medicaid series which uncovered ways that insurance industry behemoths unfairly denied and delayed payments, putting safety-net hospitals on the verge of insolvency and their patients at risk.
• The Circuit: A database developed in partnership with Injustice Watch, turned up new revelations about injustice and inequity in the Cook County Courts.
• BGA Policy played a key role in the passage of the Chicago City Council’s 2022 ethics ordinance. Starting as a draft from the BGA’s policy experts, City Council unanimously passed the overhauled ethics ordinance in July 2022.

Greising also announced the BGA’s new journalism venture, the Illinois Answers Project. Transformative support from the Robert H. McCormick Foundation is funding this pioneering project that will showcase some of the most powerful investigative and solutions journalism in the state of Illinois.

Longtime supporter and former BGA board member, Dan Goodwin, Chairman and CEO of the Inland Group, LLC presented the Daniel L. Goodwin Watchdog Award to the Chicago Community Trust for providing over $2.3 million to 21 organizations– including the BGA–to ensure that community-centered media are able to fully participate in Chicago’s news ecosystem. Chicago Community Trust Interim President Andrea Saenz accepted the award on behalf of the Trust.

The event also featured a discussion between Greising and The New Yorker journalist and author Evan Osnos. In a surprise gesture, Osnos closed the discussion by presenting Greising with a commemorative matchbook from the BGA’s heralded 1977 Mirage Tavern sting operation.

View the year in review highlights video, Griesing’s remarks, and the Demanding Answers Conversation between Evan Osnos and David Greising.

We are grateful to the following BGA luncheon supporters whose generosity directly funds the BGA’s general operations.

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Steve Warmbir, former interim editor in chief of the Chicago Sun-Times, is joining the Better Government Association as its investigations editor, the BGA announced today. Warmbir has more than two decades of experience reporting and editing some of the most high-impact investigations in the storied history of Chicago journalism.

Warmbir and reporting partner Tim Novak produced the Hired Truck series, a legendary case of insider dealing and corruption in Chicago city government. The series won a national George Polk Award, among others, for local reporting. Warmbir also produced numerous exclusives about the federal government’s Family Secrets investigation into murder, loan sharking and gambling by the Chicago mob.

As an editor, Warmbir oversaw Sun-Times investigations including a series that detailed the federal probes of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and Chicago Alderman Ed Burke. He also led the Sun-Times through its 2022 merger with Chicago Public Media, parent of public radio station WBEZ.

At the BGA, Warmbir will help lead the newsroom of a 99-year-old organization that is expanding its investigative staff and making a substantial commitment to solutions-focused journalism. The BGA this year won its first Pulitzer Prize, for local reporting, in partnership with the Chicago Tribune. The BGA and Tribune investigation revealed that dozens of Chicago residents died in fires at buildings where the city failed to address known fire-safety dangers. A solutions story on the package focused on fire-safety policies in nine cities that could be relevant to Chicago.

The BGA’s growth and solutions focus is funded in part by a five-year, $10 million commitment from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation announced earlier this year.

“We are thrilled Steve Warmbir is joining us. His proven track record leading investigations and a leadership style that motivates and develops the talents of journalists will be game changers for the BGA,” said Reinaldo “Ronnie” Ramos, the BGA’s editor in chief. Ramos joined the BGA in early 2022 from the Daily Memphian, a leading digital startup.

“Steve’s deep knowledge of Chicago, strategic vision and strong management skills will strengthen the BGA. He joins us as we accelerate our growth at this historic period of reinvention in the Chicago news ecosystem,” said David Greising, president and chief executive of the BGA.

“I’m thrilled to be joining the BGA and working with their talented crew of reporters and editors to build on a track record of excellence in uncovering wrongdoing, spotlighting inequities and exposing flaws in the system — all with a focus on finding solutions for Chicago and the state of Illinois,” Warmbir said.

Warmbir served as interim editor in chief of the Sun-Times for nearly two years, beginning in September 2020. He previously had served as managing editor. During Warmbir’s tenure as interim editor, the Sun-Times won three National Headliner Awards, 17 Peter Lisagor Awards from the Chicago Headline Club and other honors. The Sun-Times also shared national awards with the BGA for a recent series about dead-end drug arrests in the Cook County courts.

In the Sun-Times’ Polk Award-winning Hired Truck reporting, Warmbir and Novak exposed how the city of Chicago rented out private dump trucks — many owned by people with political clout or ties to organized crime — that were paid to sit idle at city job sites. Fallout from the Chicago Sun-Times series led the city to shut down the program, which had cost taxpayers $40 million a year, and federal prosecutors criminally charged more than 40 people in the ensuing scandal.

Warmbir earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Warmbir lives on the Northwest Side of Chicago with his family. He plays piano and ukulele and habituates many of Chicago’s great restaurants.

ABOUT THE BGA:

Founded in 1923, the Better Government Association is a nonprofit news and government-accountability organization based in Chicago. It uncovers waste and wrongdoing in government, holds elected officials accountable, litigates for open records and meetings, advocates for good government and empowers residents to engage and act.

CONTACT:

Ronnie Ramos: rramos@bettergov.org and (312)-873-1115

David Greising: dgreising@bettergov.org and (312) 404-8678

The National Association of Black Journalists has awarded the Better Government Association and Chicago Sun-Times for publishing the best news series of 2021.

The annual Salute to Excellence awards — announced at the NABJ annual conference in Las Vegas on Aug. 6 — honors journalism that “best covers the Black experience or addresses issues affecting the worldwide Black Community.”

The award marks the first time the BGA has received the NABJ honor.

The series, The Costly Toll of Dead-End Drug Arrests, was published in December and examined how minor drug possession cases are routinely tossed out in the courts, but not before adversely impacting thousands of lives.

The investigation was a collaboration between the BGA and Sun-Times and was authored by the Sun-Times’ Frank Main and the BGA’s Casey Toner and Jared Rutecki.

The reporters analyzed 280,000 drug possession cases using nearly two decades of court data compiled by The Circuit, a collaborative of news organizations, including the BGA and Injustice Watch in partnership with civic tech consulting firm Datamade. The University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center for Health Journalism provided support for the project as well through a 2021 National Fellowship.

The investigation revealed about half of the drug possession cases in Chicago between 2000 and 2018 — about 140,000 — were dropped at their earliest stages.

The dropped cases were the result of a long-standing, commonly understood rule among prosecutors not to pursue criminal charges against anyone caught with user-level amounts — around a gram, according to interviews with judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys, as well as an examination of hundreds of case files.

And the dismissal rate has soared in the most recent years. In 2018, almost three quarters of drug possession charges were dropped.

The investigation examined the toll of the lives of tens of thousands of Chicagoans — mostly Black men — who have been jailed on drug charges everyone knew from the beginning were never going to stick. The series also examined how other parts of the country have worked to resolve these inequities.

The NABJ is the premier organization supporting the work of Black journalists throughout the nation, advocating on behalf of media professionals worldwide and supporting equity in the workplace and in the media. It is headquartered on the campus of the University of Maryland-College Park. For a complete list of winners go here.

 Check out the following “musing” by Maywood Village Clerk Gary Woll, a veteran political figure in the near western suburb.

We knew Maywood was hairy in various ways, but politics is literally a blood sport in town, it seems.

Below is an edited excerpt from Woll’s most recent village newsletter, which is called “Gary’s Musings” and is sent out to hundreds of residents and others via email.

Stranger than fiction:

My endorsements come later but let me start my “memoirs.” I will begin with the negative. The following are some of my worst personal memories of being a local elected official and/or candidate. Violence seemed, at times, to follow me. When I was running for re-election one year. The daughter of my opponent was arrested, with two friends, having been caught spraying three of our large yard signs with some horrible filthy words. Shortly after being bailed out, someone threw a brick through the back window of the car in our driveway with a “re-elect Woll” sign on it, but not the other car. Why did I stop anti-crime patrol and making lists of street lights out? The last time I went out a couple of years ago, I slowed down, stupidly, to urge some middle school kids to stop their fighting. A kid jumped in the car and hit me in the face with a baseball bat!! Fortunately it struck exactly between the jaw line and the cheek bone! Once, in a closed session of a board meeting, a trustee got so mad at me, that he started choking me up against the wall but Trustee Casteel came to my rescue (my knight in shining armor). Another time I was conducting a hearing of the Law Enforcement Committee regarding our local gun laws and a neighbor came in with his tape recorder (that’s fine) but he stood up and shouted out physical threats against me if we banned gun shops in Maywood. The police had to escort him out when he started to accost me on my way out. Many years ago I saw someone breaking into [a home] when I was driving around (middle of the day!) and when I got out to investigate, remember this is before cell phones, he ran away with me huffing and puffing after him. In a back yard on the 600 block he turned and pulled out a long knife. I kid you not that I backed up and let him run out to 4^th. As a note, I got in my car and went over to 5^th where I saw him enter [an apartment building] which is no longer there. I got the police and they arrested him.

For the most part, I have not been the “victim” of hate campaign literature. But, during the same election where my signs and car were vandalized, on the Friday before the Tuesday election, an unsigned campaign piece arrived in the mail delineating a case, where I had been falsely accused, then found innocent of hitting a woman. Of course the literature did not mention the “not guilty” verdict. Another time similar literature was distributed to the audience at one of our board meetings. Am I a third rail?

Once when the elected officials first started insisting that our employees do random drug tests a rumor circulated that I was a “coke” user!! Interesting since what really happened was that my doctor had prescribed, for a bad cold, the use of a cough syrup which contained a tiny amount of codeine. Let me close this with funny one. A 5^th avenue neighbor was threatening to call a TV station if we, the village, did not get a cat down out of a very high tree at 5^th and Walton. The high ranger was sent over there but the public work’s employee was afraid of cats so I went up in the bucket with him, got scratched but got the cat down to safety. All of the above are true stories but stay tuned to the many, many more positive experiences I have had.

We look forward to the next entry – if Woll makes it that far in this rough-and-tumble business.

This blog post was compiled by the Better Government Association’s Robert Herguth, who can be reached at rherguth@bettergov.org or  .

The BGA congratulates the winners of The 2011 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Investigative Reporting. To learn more about the Awards and to see previous winners, visit our website www.bettergov.org.

First Place Award

Bob Segall, Bill Ditton & Cyndee Hebert

“Reality Check: Where are the Jobs?”

WTHR-TV Indianapolis

>During the worst recession of our lifetime, Indiana’s Economic Development Corporation boasted about creating 100,000 new jobs and billions of dollars in economic development deals for the state. After the state denied records requests, three journalists at WTHR-TV in Indianapolis decided they had to see it for themselves to believe it. The crew hit the road, logging 8,000 miles visiting Indiana’s economic success stories. What did they find? Abandoned factories, empty cornfields, and laid-off workers! This 18-month investigation exposed how state leaders inflated Indiana’s job numbers, and how companies that received publicly funded tax incentives had actually laid off hundreds of workers. The investigation and the creation of a massive job-numbers database prompted reforms and demanded transparency.

Second Place Award

Mick Dumke & Ben Joravsky

“The Shadow Budget: Who Wins Daley’s TIF Game”

Chicago Reader

>In Second Place, a piece about a hidden budget in Chicago worth more than $500 million dollars a year. There was no public budget for the TIF Fund. No itemized expenses. So when reporters got a tip that a secret ward-by-ward budget existed, they jumped on it. For the first time ever, the city’s secret slush fund was exposed. The Chicago Reader investigation revealed that 60 percent of the money raised through the anti-poverty TIF program was actually spent in the some of the city’s wealthiest communities.

Last year, Mick Dumke and Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader won third place for their investigation into the privatization of Chicago’s Parking Meters. This year, they take home second place for “The Shadow Budget: Who Wins Daley’s TIF Game.”

Third Place Award

Brian Brueggemann & Mike Fitzgerald

“Tax Buyers, Politicians Benefit from Tax Sales”

Belleville News-Democrat

>In Third Place, the story of an elected official who allegedly cashed-in on hard times.

Imagine this, the recession hits and you can’t afford to pay your property taxes. An investor or tax buyer comes along and purchases your delinquent tax debt. You pay a penalty interest rate. The legal limit is 18 percent interest. But in Madison County, Illinois, hundreds of property owners were paying as much as 100-percent interest. In 2009, that added up to $2 million dollars in interest to tax buyers. Conveniently, those same tax buyers contributed heavily to the campaign of the man who arranged the tax sales… Madison County Treasurer, Fred Bathon. As a direct result of “Tax Buyers, Politicians Benefit from Tax Sales,” the US Attorney for Southern Illinois and the Illinois Attorney General are investigating.

Meritorious Award for Commitment to Investigative Journalism

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

>For the first time, we honor a single media outlet for dedicating a significant amount of resources to in-depth investigative journalism. While many news organizations have limited or abandoned investments in investigative reporting, this year the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel submitted three notable entries by five journalists:

• “Side Effects” by Greg Borowski
• “Patients in Peril” by Meg Kissinger and Steve Schultze
• “Wiped Clean” by Jon Diedrich and Ben Poston

Englewood resident and watchdog Theresa Jones got new neighbors a few weeks ago: bags and bags of garbage. Like any rotten neighbor, the trash attracted squatters—rats big and mischievous enough to trip Jones’ home security alarms and leave “droppings on her daughter’s bed.” That was the last straw for Jones. The BGA and FOX Chicago News’ Dane Placko report:

CHICAGO—Cleanup crews began removing bags of garbage and piles of yard waste from two vacant lots in the Englewood neighborhood on Monday. But neighbors said that—ironically—the cleanup crews are the same people who dumped the garbage in the first place.

Air Force veteran Theresa Jones bought a house next door a year ago. She said that last summer, the city left piles of tree debris on the vacant lot, which then began accumulating garbage. Then a couple weeks ago, she said a man showed up with his crew and began dumping bags of garbage and yard waste onto both empty lots.

“They were bringing garbage over and when they saw me taking pictures they got belligerent, called me names,” Jones said. “I said, ‘I’m taking pictures because I pay taxes here. I’m a resident here. And just because this is Englewood doesn’t mean you can come here and trash the place.’”

Shortly after the garbage arrived, so did the rats—some so big they tripped her home’s security alarm and left droppings on her daughter’s bed.

Jones said when the crew returned over the weekend to dump more garbage on the lot, she called the police.

“They said we can’t do anything about it—he has the paperwork,” said Jones.

She assumed the dumper had a permit, but then he told her he owned the property and he could do whatever he wanted with it. Jones had enough, and sent out an e-mail blast to city agencies and news media, which may have prompted Monday’s cleanup.

We tracked down the apparent dumper/owner, Kato Tamras, and he refused to talk.

Jones said she’d asked him if he would dump garbage like this next to his own house.

“He said, ‘Oh well, I don’t have a lot next to my house,” she said.

Indeed, we found nothing but pristine property surrounding the Tamras family’s massive home in Lincolnwood. Unlike Englewood, nobody was dumping garbage there.

If you have information or a similar encounter relevant to this article, share your stories and experiences with the BGA.

>

The Chicago Park District isn’t all fun and games—unless you’re a bureaucrat there, and then it’s an endless game of duck-and-dodge. Which is why the agency is in desperate need of some internal landscaping, and an independent inspector general.

In just the past couple of months, the Better Government Association has conducted three investigations that found, among other things, that:

• A high-ranking official had a hand in a contract awarded to a woman he apparently lives with (Dec. 21, 2010: “Chicago Park District Supervisor Resigns After Questionable Contract”).
• Another high-ranking official was put on the payroll despite smashing up a city car while drunk, then trying to cover it up, while working for the Daley administration (Jan. 14, 2011: “Clout Trumps Consequences: New job for Insider Despite DUI, Cover-Up”).
• A teenager who applied for a summer job at the park district was sent a W2 form – even though she never got the job, never received a call back and never cashed any paychecks. (Feb. 11, 2011: “Chicago Park District Investigates a Paycheck Mystery”).

That last investigation was highlighted this past Friday on FOX Chicago News, and raises questions about whether this was a clerical error—or a scam by government workers.

Tough to know because the agency hasn’t provided all the paperwork needed to make a judgment. But this much is clear: the oversight at the Chicago Park District is crummy.

A public body that big and politically piggish needs somebody (other than us) keeping an eye on things. It needs an inspector general.

If you agree, here are the commissioners who are supposed to oversee the park district. Give ‘em a jingle and let them know your thoughts:

• President: Bryan Traubert
• Vice President: Bob Pickens
• Commissioner Dr. Scott Hanlon,
• D.O.Commissioner Martin Laird Koldyke
• Commissioner Juan R. Rangel
• Commissioner Rouhy J. Shalabi

Here’s the main number: 312.747-2001.

The address is 541 N. Fairbanks, Chicago, IL 60611