Posting Date: July 12, 2008
Suburban communities under the radar screen
Many people who live in the suburbs fled Chicago's oppressive political system. They just didn't think getting a garbage can top and a weekly visit from the local precinct captain was really worth the thousands of dollars they paid in property taxes.
But many elected officials in the suburbs today, also fled the city, too, to settle and build small machines in the suburbs. They didn't want the Chicago news media looking over their shoulders if they were going to run a political machine.
The reality today is that while there is so much focus on Chicago political corruption and mismanagement, there is very little scrutiny of how the suburbs operate.
And some of them stink!
Take the Village of Orland Park, a place some 19th Ward Chicago precinct workers call their "second" home.
A few weeks ago, the Clerk of the Village David P. Maher issued a notice to call a special meeting to address "budgetary issues." Maher followed the most important parts of the Illinois Open Meetings Act by making sure the notice was posted and distributed to media that had requested to be notified of such matters 48 hours before the special session.
But like many Chicago politicians, Maher did so on a Friday, June 27, 2008, calling for a special meeting on Monday, June 30, 2008. Everyone in Chicago knows that if you want to kill the public awareness for a news story, do it on a Friday. That was former Mayor Jane Byrne's style and it is the same style of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.
But in issuing the public notice for the special public meeting, Maher also did one more thing. He wrote at the top of the notice in uppercase letters, "NOT FOR PUBLICATION."
As a consequence, a few reporters from the local papers showed up to cover the "special meeting" where Mayor Dan McLaughlin, a honcho at the pipe fitters union in Chicago, announced that the village had a $4.8 million hole in next fiscal year's budget.
For a village with a budget of only $127 million, the shortfall represented a 4 percent deficit, which is huge.
I won't knock the other community newspapers. We're all living in a world pressured by oppressive government officials, weak economies and staff shortages. But the headlines reflected the mayor's hope to play down the story.
One newspaper that reported online a "budget shortfall," later changed the headline in print to "budget issues." Another simply headlined the major tax shortfall story "Village reviews next year's budget."
The fact of the matter was that although a few reporters did attend the meeting, no one from the public showed up because there was no pre-reporting on the special meeting to address a hole in the village budget. Remember, a hole in a village budget is a huge story even before the mayor of the village starts hemming and hawing explanations and spin. There should have been a story that weekend before the meeting.
And you have to ask what was the rush for a "special meeting?" It's something I asked on my Orland Park blog, www.OrlandParker.com. I live there.
Let's face it, the village had a regular meeting set for the following Monday. The Village is insisting it's not such a big deal. Really? If that is the case, then why didn't they just convene a special discussing at the regularly scheduled board meeting where many members of the public would attend?
Only four months before, McLaughlin was boasting in his annual tea and crumpets speech to the Orland Park Area Chamber of Commerce that the village was doing great financially. And, he added, thanks to his leadership.
When I asked the Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan about the strange way the village posted its notice, instead of responding to my inquiry as a reporter on the important issue of the Illinois Open Meetings Act, Madigan reported directly to the politicians at the Village of Orland Park City Hall to tell them that the phrase "NOT FOR PUBLICATION" was, according to the village (since I have not yet received a response from Madigan), not a
violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act.
The fact that Madigan responded to the village of Orland Park first with her conclusion, is, in my opinion, now a bigger violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act.
You don't run to exonerate a local government, unless, of course, you are planning to run for governor of Illinois and you want to make sure to get the support of the Orland Township Democratic Committeeman- Mayor McLaughlin. And the support of his union, the Chicago Plumbing Council where he is executive Director. And the support of the 19th Ward which runs Orland Park's politics.
Clerk Maher had the courtesy to do what Madigan had not, telling me in an official letter that Madigan exonerated his office. He then explained in the most twisted "Government Speak" language I have ever heard - and I have heard a lot in 32 years of political reporting - that the phrase "NOT FOR PUBLICATION" doesn't mean that the information about the special meeting shouldn't have been published or kept quiet until the meeting.
He wasn't trying to keep the public from knowing, because maybe the public might have asked a few more, tougher questions than the local media that attended the meeting.
Maher wrote: "As for the 'not for publication' notation on the notice, this was not an 'embargo order' as assumed. This phrase is used to let the media know that paid space is not being purchased for publishing the notice."
Paid space is not being purchase for publishing the notice.
Wow. That is original.
It's not refreshing though, especially knowing that when it comes to political shenanigans, the suburbs are not much different than Chicago.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist and author. He can be reached at www.hanania.com.
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