Details of Saturday's Chicago Heights Meeting leak out

While I tried to attend Saturday's meeting at the Chicago Heights Country Club (I was told I could not enter, and then told that I'd have to leave the parking ), called by mayoral candidate Dave Gonzalez who mandated that all city employees attend or "face the consequences," I have gotten word back on some details.

City employees have been instructed to turn in contact sheets of 40 names by Friday. A vague threat was made about not turning them in, but Gonzalez is clearly trying to stay under the radar of the U.S. Attorney General's Public Integrity Section of its Criminal Division.

City Employees were told that they would be responsible for getting the names of their contact lists to the polls for Gonzalez, with a goal of perhaps half those names voting either by absentee or early vote.

Several Chicago Heights employees have complained to me about the stressful conditions they now work under. Gonzalez has placed apologists throughout the departments, and workers thought to be independent or non-partisan have received extra attention.

Again, it is illegal to condition employment at Chicago Heights' city hall upon political work for any candidate or party. It is interesting to me that while the County is moving away from openly violating Shakman, and I'd expect the city of Chicago to be less resistant to Shakman under a new mayor and city council, the South Suburbs is belatedly falling into a gray area -- openly violating Shakman and Rutan, but trying to obfuscate those violations. I'm not sure how the city -- well, the taxpayers -- of Chicago Heights can afford these corrupt practices, but until people stand up against the corruption, their tax bills will only get higher and higher.

If you are a Chicago Heights employee (or the employee of any city) who felt intimidated or forced to participate against your will, please call the Public Integrity Section at (202) 514-1412. You won't have to give your full name to express your concerns. They are eager to hear from you. I will follow up on this on Saturday, and afterwards...

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Chicago Heights' mayoral candidate Dave Gonzalez crossing the Shakman line

I got word yesterday that Dave Gonzalez, a current vendor (he has some kind of contract with the city) and candidate for mayor in Chicago Heights, has called a meeting for this Saturday of *all* department heads and employees who work for the city. Department heads made phone calls -- on city time, using city resources -- demanding that employees attend this "mandatory meeting." According to one source, they were told that there would be "consequences" for those who didn't show up.

This is, of course, illegal. Municipal employees are protected by both Shakman and Rutan, according to election law expert Richard Means. Means was the lawyer who had an election overturned in Gary, IN and literally wrote the book on election law in Illinois.

According to Means:

Of course it is illegal to condition future public employment on political work for a mayoral candidate regardless of whether he is an incumbent or aspirant. Depending on the precise facts and how the threat was communicated and by whom, it is likely both a federal and state crime and a civil violation of numerous federal and state civil rights laws.

Many people associate Shakman with the City of Chicago and Cook County. But it also applies to Chicago Heights. Shakman strictly prohibits politically-based hiring, firing, promotions and/or other job actions for municipal positions where political considerations are not expressly exempt. Virtually every Chicago Heights employee contacted on Wednesday or Thursday at the bequest of Dave Gonzalez falls under the protection of Shakman (and Rutan).

Department heads, because they used city resources and workday to demand employee's participation, are particularly at risk. One explanation of Shakman [PDF] says that it:

prohibits the conditioning, basing, or knowingly prejudicing or affecting any aspect of employment of any person as a Governmental Employee (other than Exempt Positions), upon or because of any political reason or factor including, without limitation, any Employee’s political affiliation, political support or activity, political financial contributions, promises of such political support, activity or financial contributions or such Employee’s political sponsorship or recommendation is prohibited.

Further, it prohibits any employee (exempt or not exempt):

from knowingly inducing, aiding, abetting, participating in, cooperating with the commission of, or threatening to condition, base or knowingly prejudice or affect the employment of any County employee or applicant based upon political factors.

It is not Gonzalez, of course, who is likely to bear the brunt of additional Shakman litigation. The city of Chicago Heights would do so -- both financially and, additionally, to it's reputation -- of the possible Shakman violations.

In Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois, "The [U.S. Supreme] Court found for the petitioner, expanding the First Amendment protection against dismissal from low-level government positions based on party affiliation, which had been established in two earlier cases." In other words, municipal employees cannot be forced to participate in party activity.

I talked yesterday with people I know in the U.S. Attorney General's office about Saturday's meeting in Chicago Heights. Because of my involvement in the Obama campaign and the transition, I was aware that public corruption -- as seems to be manifesting itself with this week's incident in Chicago Heights -- is a key concern of the Obama Administration. I was referred to the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division within the department:

The Public Integrity Section (PIN) oversees the federal effort to combat corruption through the prosecution of elected and appointed public officials at all levels of government. The Section has exclusive jurisdiction over allegations of criminal misconduct on the part of federal judges and also supervises the nationwide investigation and prosecution of election crimes. Section attorneys prosecute selected cases against federal, state, and local officials, and are available as a source of advice and expertise to other prosecutors and investigators.

I was specifically asked to relay their phone number to anyone who felt they had been forced to participate in political activity (such as the meeting called for Saturday by Dave Gonzalez). If you are a Chicago Heights employee (or the employee of any city) who felt intimidated or forced to participate against your will, please call the Public Integrity Section at (202) 514-1412. You won't have to give your full name to express your concerns. They are eager to hear from you. I will follow up on this on Saturday, and afterwards.

We need to stem the corruption here in the South Suburbs. We can no longer simply overlook corruption just because that's the way it's always been. We're better than that. We *deserve* better than that...

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Implications of Daley's Decision in the South Suburbs

'OMG! Rich Daley isn't running for re-election! The fallout will reverberate all the way down to the South Suburbs!'

Sometimes people over-exaggerate Chicago's influence on the suburbs. Anybody who even considered the above (I paraphrased from a conversation I had yesterday, but don't recall the words exactly -- or possibly even closely) really doesn't understand what's been happening down here.

Alex Lopes, mayor of Chicago Heights, just died, leaving that city in turmoil. Doug Price argues that this is the only thought on the minds of the political elites in the Heights, and he's probably right.

Linzey Jones, long-time mayor of Olympia Heights, is moving on to the bench, and the village trustees are currently trying to figure out who (amongst them) will succeed him.

Lopez' death and Jones leaving politics may have as big an impact on the South Suburbs as Daley's retirement. Two big holes were already here to be filled, and we don't have a clue who's going to step up in the South Suburbs.

Well, that's not exactly true, but let me continue the thought. Because the impact of the 2008 campaign continues to reverberate in the South Suburbs, as well. Oh, we definitely have people whose sole political interest is in Barack Obama -- and more than a few who are waiting for the next Obama for President headquarters to open so they can go volunteer down there.

But there are even more people who first got involved in Barack's campaign who are eager to get involved in elective politics. And the sudden openings in Olympia Fields and Chicago Heights, as well as the attention devoted to the Big Opening in Chicago, will only spur their thoughts.

You can, however, get a glimpse of who is likely to step up and fill the power vacuum(s) in South Suburban politics. Toi Hutchinson is building a grassroots-driven campaign that is basically devoid of message but focuses on her biography. Which is also kind of sad, because Hutchinson may be one of the few politicians in Illinois who has Chris Christie-like credibility talking about the problems we face and the solutions needed to get us out of the hole we dug. Running a campaign on her biography is a safe choice -- except the fact that her district stretches all the way down to Iroquois county.

Toi's opponent (presumably) sought to take advantage of that choice by inserting the following into her Wikipedia entry: "Mrs. Hutchinson is an African-American Democrat in a 90% white district. Many Illinois political pundits believe she will lose re-election in 2010 to a white candidate."

That's utterly false -- not a single "political pundit" in Illinois believes that Toi will lose "re-election" simply because she's an "African-American Democrat in a 90% white district." (They forgot to add "largely rural" to that description.) Some have argued that it is a more conservative district than Toi personally is, but that doesn't have anything to do with her effectiveness in representing the people of her district!

I have long observed the difference between the right and the left on this particular question. The conservative movement has argued for decades that they can win virtually anywhere, if they can mobilize their activists and get their message out. It's one reason why over 100 Congressional Districts are "in play" in this general election, because Republicans have effectively recruited strong candidates who are waging strong campaigns just about everywhere. So why can't progressive Democrats win in "largely rural" districts, as long as they take care of the people's business? It's an ideological difference in assumptions that defies reason (but also a cultural peculiarity to Madigan-style politics where the party seeks out "the perfect candidate" for the district). Elections at this level are decided by personal contacts and message delivery.

Which brings me back to the void in the South Suburbs. It's probably less a vacuum than a changing of the guard. Mayor Jones moves on to a different career path, but Olympia Fields remains a rich pool of political talent, from which someone will no doubt emerge to replace him. They may even be able to replace him in regional politics and leadership. If not, someone else will. And Mayor Lopez' tragic death unleashes the undercurrents that had been bubbling up to the surface.

There still remains a tension in the South Suburbs between those who want to follow the "soak the taxpayers" model of government, with elected officials getting their's and not really worrying too much about the people's business and the sustainable model of governance where elected officials are careful of the people's money and try to improve their communities. We are still -- but less so -- influenced by the great city to our north. And that conflict remains. (One reason that Flossmoor has weathered the current economic storm is that we had strong reserves from which to draw on -- and save people's jobs. But you don't find village trustees making a mint, either, as trustees!)

This is likely to be resolved as more people get involved from outside the "regular" organization...

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Sen Hutchinson Speaks on the Passing of Chicago Hghts Mayor Lopez

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