I first met up with Tom Tresser when I went to my first Olympics town hall event in the summer. Tresser lead the citizen activist group, No Games Chicago. They opposed the bid, as most have probably figured out. Tresser represented No Games, and their position, in the forum. Here’s how I described Tresser’s best argument that night.

Tresser, on at least five occasions, referred to Daley by the moniker corrupt. No one
supporting the bid ever challenged this characterization. Instead, their defense was that the bid was a private non profit effort that is separate from the mayor’s office

The corruption in Chicago’s City Hall was the number one reason to oppose the Olympics coming to this city. While the Olympics aren’t going to be here, the corruption is a major reason, the corruption hasn’t gone away with it. In fact, it’s a part of daily political life in the city of Chicago, the County of Cook, and the state of Illinois in its entirety.

Tresser announced his candidacy for Cook County Board President back in October. With several scandals hanging over the head of Todd Stroger, the issue of corruption was going to be a major part of the campaign. It is, however, the central part of Tresser’s campaign. In fact, Tresser first made a name for himself, politically, here in Chicago fighting against privatization. Privatization and corruption are now mentioned in the same breath here in Chicago ever since the parking meter debacle. It was this debacle that gave all Chicagoans a first hand taste of the corrosive power of government privatization. Back in 2007, privatization was still being done at the margins. That was when the Chicago Park District tried to give away one of its parks to the private Latin High School. Tresser lead a group of citizen activists to stop this and he succeeded. He also got a first hand taste of Chicago corruption.

As such, I sat down with Tom Tresser this morning for a sweeping interview all about Cook County corruption, its roots, and what a politician dedicated to ending it could do. To understand how serious Tresser, who’s running under the Green Party ticket, takes corruption, you only needed to look at the table we had the interview on. On this table lay three manilla folders stuffed with paper work: folder 1) Chicago corruption folder two 2)Cook County corruption and folder 3) Illinois corruption.

I first asked Tresser how Chicago’s city hall machine is connected to the machine at the County level. Tresser first pointed out that John Stroger, the father of current Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, got his own political muscle when he supported then candidate Richard M. Daley for mayor over then Mayor Harold Washington in the mid 1980′s. That would have been something near scandalous then since both Stroger and Washington are African American and Daley is white. Second, Tresser pointed out that the most powerful Cook County Commissioner is John Daley, the brother of Richard M. Daley. Daley heads the finance committee on the Cook County Board. Through this chairmanship, John Daley is able to wield all sorts of power.

The connection between the Chicago machine and the machine of Cook County needs to be viewed through much of the levers of both its powers: patronage and contracts. Patronage refers to the cushy jobs that those in the machine get. Contracts are doled out by the billions and tens of billions by the city, county and state government in Chicago, Cook, and Springfield. So, if you’re a patronage worker, you can count on a cushy job not only with the city, but with the county if an opportunity arises. Furthermore, a business ally of Mayor Daley can not only count on the city getting them a sweetheart contract, but one with the county. As an example, Tresser showed me this article from the Sun Times earlier in the week.

A consulting firm headed by former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr.’s stepson John Sterling has been paid more than $787,000 under a Cook County contract funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, despite failing to provide required weekly reports — for 21 months.

That’s the key finding of a Chicago Sun-Times and NBC5 News investigation of the contract for the troubled Project Shield program, a $40 million federal initiative born of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Sterling’s company, Synch-Solutions, was hired by Cook County in March 2008 to maintain quality assurance for the program, which aims to place enough video cameras in police cars and at stationary locations throughout the county to be able to provide a web of live video to a central command in case of disaster, attack or other emergency.

Emil Jones is the former President of the Illinois Senate. This story details how his step son got a sweetheart contract from the County and the step son’s, John Sterling, company appears to have done no work. Jones was a part of the state government in Springfield. Yet, he’s able to use his clout to give his stepson a sweetheart deal with the County government. That’s how all three operate because all three are littered with corruption.

The other reality is patronage. That’s the process by which machine activists, cronies if you will, get cushy jobs. Tresser told me that he volunteered for Dick Simpson’s campaign in the early 1990′s when he ran against Dan Rostonkowski for the U.S. Congress. Tresser visited a handful of polling stations as part of his volunteer work. At each station there were a handful of Rostonkowski “volunteers”. In fact, they weren’t volunteers at all. These were government workers be it from Chicago’s city hall or some County office that were out campaigning for Rostonkowski. So, county workers are often asked to help out the campaigns of the machine on any level of government. (Rostonkowski later went to prison on corruption charges)

To put the corruption on the county level into context, Tresser next opened up the minutes to the last Cook County Board meeting held on December 2nd. The major news out of this meeting was the roll back of sales tax increase. What was of interest to Tresser was found in the first fifteen minutes of the meeting. According to the minutes, there was an approval of settlements of no less than eleven different court cases against the county.

Five of these settlements had to do with Shakman suits. What are Shakman suits? They’re named after Michael Shakman. Shakman fought a vicious battle in the 1960′s to make sure that city hiring and firing wasn’t politically motivated. There was little explanation of the settlements in these five cases but we can assume that someone was passed over for a crony of the machine, they sued, and this is the settlement. The other six settlements were suit settled to injuries that were job related. In one case, an individual received $1000 for spilling coffee on himself. Because John Daley runs the Finance Committee, he has great power in authorizing these settlements. When Cook County Commissioners Tony Peraica and Bridget Gainor each asked for explanations of these settlements, they were quickly summarized in two minutes and the meeting moved on.

This too is symptomatic of Cook County. Because hiring is often done with patronage, Shakman suits are a part of political life. We can all assume that there’s exponentially more patronage hiring than there are suits to stop such hiring. So, if five were settled in this one meeting, we can all only imagine how much patronage hiring there is. In fact, just in the city of Chicago, the city settled $136 million worth of lawsuits last year.

What is the end result of having a series of patronage workers in the County government? Tresser showed me this report from the local Fox affiliate. (embed doesn’t work on all browsers so please go to the link if that’s the case)

In the report, one County worker was caught napping. Another roads supervisor was followed and for three hours the supervisor never actually stopped to inspect any of the highway workers he’s supposed to supervise. Who is the government worker caught napping? His name is Alex Moreno and his brother is Cook County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno. In fact, according to the report, there’s 137 employees of the highway department that are “pushing paper” in the downtown office.

Finally, there’s the issue of TIF’s, tax incremental financing. This is the method by which Mayor Daley especially is able to create a slush fund for his corruption. TIFs were originally meant for development in low and moderate income areas, but Daley has put in such places as the posh South Loop area of the city. They’re now simply a means of securing financing for contracts for friends of Daley and hide the money well.

So, that’s how the corrupt city, county and state governments function, in a nutshell. How does Tresser propose to fix things? He would start with a forensic audit of the entire county government to see where each and every penny is going. That’s the only way to root out each and every corrupt contract. Next, Tresser would order a desk audit. By this he means that he would order a review of all the employees of the Cook County government. He would start with the top level managers, those making six figures. In the second year, he would look at the middle managers and in the third year he’d look at the “line employees”, the plumbers, construction workers, and contractors. Only with such an audit, in Tresser’s estimation, can the government root out the cronies, waste, and inefficiencies in hiring. The cronies would be replaced, the fut cut, and the inefficiencies combined. That’s a process that would take up to three years.

From there, the County government would look at strategic planning for the future. Once the waste and corruption were rooted out, Tresser would look to set goals for the government so that it’s again functioning on behalf of the people. He would implement simple things like a suggestion box and the so called secret shopper. The secret shopper is used by business who send in spies to check out their retailers to see how the staff provides service. Tresser would do the same thing only these “secret shoppers” would attempt to get property tax information, stamps, and other county related services. Tresser would also beef up the Inspector General’s office and give that office more support. Tresser would also use the so called power of the purse to lean on other departments of the county government. For instance, Democratic nominee for Cook County Board President Dorothy Brown is currently the Clerk of the Circuit Court. The Cook County Board President can’t force the Clerk to do a similar audit of their department, but the President can withhold funds from any other lever of the county government that they believe isn’t functioning properly. That’s what Tresser told me he intends to do.

Finally, I asked him what an honest and truly anti corruption crusader Cook County Board President could do to disrupt the power of the Chicago machine. Tresser said that there would be no more sweetheart contracts to Daley’s friends. Furthermore, Daley wouldn’t have the county workers to count on to do campaign work. Not only would this starve the Daley machine of its power to line their friends pockets, but this could open up much of city hall to challenges from insurgent candidates. Furthermore, if Daley is no longer to be counted on to deliver the votes to an ally, his own power diminishes.

We talked about some of Tresser’s potential opponents in the general election. We didn’t speak about Stroger since Stroger’s reputation preceeds him. Dorothy Brown is the current leader in the Democratic primary polling. Brown has made a name for herself in opposing Stroger, but in Tresser’s view, she’s still a part of the machine. She’s had her own taints of corruption. Another individual making a name for themselves is Toni Preckwinkle. Preckwinkle has made a name for herself taking on Daley in the City Council. Tresser pointed out that Preckwinkle supported the Olympics after first opposing it. Furthermore, Tresser said that he knows of no TIF that Preckwinkle has opposed.

The candidate that Tresser thinks will come out of the Democratic primary is Terry O’Brien. O’Brien is currently head of Chicago’s Water Reclamation District. He also runs a private consulting on environmental issues. Here’s how Andy Shaw of the Better Government Association explained this conflict of interest.

“It’s an outrageous conflict of interest and a dereliction of duty for the head of an agency responsible for ensuring that we have clean water to drink and play in, to work for a company that protects the polluters,” Mr. Shaw said. “It’s ‘dirty’ politics, literally and figuratively.”

O’Brien has promised to divest if he’s elected Cook County Board President but doesn’t see his dual role now as a conflict. Tresser scoffed at this notion. Tresser said he didn’t know any of the Republican candidates and didn’t give them much chance to win. Given the Republicans track record in Cook County, that’s assessment has historical backing.

Tresser ended the interview by pointing out the inherent conflict of interest of Cook County politicians taking money from PACs and corporations. (you can look each one up on ilcampaign.org) For instance, Todd Stroger received several thousand dollars from Ariel Capital LLC. How much, Tresser asked rhetorically, did Ariel receive in contracts from the county? Tresser pledged to take money only from individuals. This puts him at a decided disadvantage compared to the other candidates. He also pointed out that refusing to take corporate and PAC contributions is also a platform of the Green Party. In Tresser’s view, the only way to serve the people and not the special interests is not to take money from the special interests.

cross posted at The Provocateur

I first crossed paths with Dennis Lennox more than two years ago. At the time, he was a junior student at Central Michigan University. By the time I first spoke with him, he had engineered a near year long battle with the faculty at CMU over Gary Peters. At the time, Peters was running for the U.S. Congress and concurrently he was holding the distinguished Griffin Chair. (Peters eventually won his Congressional election) The Congressional district was about 400 miles from campus. If, and now when, Peters won, he would have had to give up Chairmanship. Furthermore, the Griffin Chairmanship was supposed to be non partisan and a Congressional candidate was hardly that. Subsequently, emails and other leaked correspondence showed evidence of a corrupt process in choosing Peters for the Chairmanship.

Lennox waged a battle to have Peters choose, the Chairmanship or his Congressional race. By May of 2008, Lennox had effectively won his battle and Peters was asked to resign and he did. Lennox was not unscathed from his battle. The administration threatened sanctions against Lennox on a number of occasions. Eventually, a letter of reprimand was put into Lennox’ university records. In fact, the school attempted to hold a number of disciplinary hearings at which the potential punishment of Lennox could have been expulsion. At one hearing, Lennox showed up flanked by no less than six members of the media. The administration quickly cancelled that hearing and held another in secret over Spring break a couple weeks later.

After this, Lennox flirted with a run for the State Congressional seat in his home district in Michigan. He eventually settled on running for drain commissioner in his home county of Cheboygan. Lennox ran on a unique platform, “Fire Dennis“. He was running not only to remove himself as drain commissioner of Cheboygan County but to remove the entire position of drain commissioner in Cheboygan County. Why would he run on such a platform? First and foremost, there are no drains in Cheboygan County. The drain commissioner of Cheboygan County was symptomatic of the problems of governance in Michigan. The state’s constitution requires that all counties have the same levels of government service. So, since some counties have a drain commissioner, all counties have to have a drain commissioner, even if Cheboygan County doesn’t actually have a drain to commission.

Currently, there’s a bill in the committee in the House and in the Senate to change the laws and allow for Cheboygan County to remove the position of drain commissioner.

For the last year, however, Dennis Lennox has been running for the State Legislature’s Michigan House Seat in his home district.

To understand Lennox platform, first everyone must understand the economic situation in Michigan. That’s where I began the interview. In fact, the state of Michigan has been in a perpetual state of recession/depression since 2001. Whereas most of the rest of the country recovered and boomed in 2002-2003, the state of Michigan continued to flounder. The maufacturing sector in Michigan never recovered, lead so to speak by the automobile sector, and it has kept Michigan in a near perpetual double digit unemployment. Call this past decade it’s own lost decade in Michigan.

As a result, the state has seen a max exodus out of Michigan. The state of Michigan loses one family every twelve minutes and the state has lost more than one million people since the beginning of the decade. Some of the problems are structural. The automotive sector is in a state of decline and Michigan is intertwined with that sector. The city of Youngstown was once sprawling when it hosted the steel sector. When that sector depresse, so to did Youngstown.

The problems are also structural in that the government of Michigan, municipal, county, and state, is terribly inefficient, full of red tape, and as Lennox characterized them “crippling taxes”. For instance, two years ago GM was looking to build a new plant. They were deciding between Michigan and South Carolina. It turned out that South Carolina could procure the building of this plant in half the time because Michigan carried so much red tape in terms of permits and other requirements. So, GM chose South Carolina. Michigan has its own OSHA (Occupational of Safety and Health Administration). The Michigan OSHA has its own rules and regulations that are stiffer than the national rules and it makes doing business in Michigan that much more difficult. The state of Michigan, between municipal, county and state offices, has more political elected offices than any state in the country. In his home county of Cheboygan, there’s one politician for every 156 people.

The overlapping and inefficient government leads to crippling taxes. The state’s personal income tax stands at 4.35%, the sales tax at 6%, and the state has recently instituted a privilege of doing business tax, a pseudo corporate income tax. That tax was instituted so haphazardly that forms and instructional materials weren’t prepared in time for the tax to be effective. So, not only were businesses made to pay more in taxes, according to Lennox the increase was 200-300%, but business owners were confused by what forms to fill out. In 2007, Governor Granholm instituted a $1.7 billion tax increase. At the time, she promised that this tax increase would once and for all balance the budget and lead to prosperity. It hasn’t and things have only deteriorated since. In fact, Lennox scoffed when I pointed out the commercials with Jeff Daniels

Lennox said that after spending millions on these commercials business hasn’t improved in the slightest.

So, to Lennox, to save Michigan the state needs a top to bottom reform of its entire government. Let’s start with his position of drain commissioner. This happens because the state requires that every county “provide the same level of services”. So every county has a prosecutor, a sheriff, a drain commissioner, etc. This is silly and inefficient. It creates a drain commissioner in a county with no drains. The biggest and smallest counties each have a sheriff. This is also inefficient. By changing the laws, smaller counties can combine some of their services. Other counties can remove unneeded offices like a drain commissioner in a county with no drains.

By changing laws, and in some cases the constitution, school boards can be combined, police departments, and many other government services that are currently being provided in an inefficient manner because that’s the way the law requires it. Lennox made sure to stress that he doesn’t want to close any schools. Instead, he wants to remove the layers of bureaucracy that govern the schools. For instance, in his county, there are six high schools and each has its own ELECTED school board. If the laws changed, those six school boards could be combined into one and a lot of government waste could be removed.

Lennox is a small government conservative which of course means he believes in lower taxes. The only tax he’s committed to cutting is the $1.7 billion tax increase instituted in 2007. He’s also taken Grover Norquist’s no new tax pledge because as he put it “taxes hurt not help businesses and people”. Lennox is focused on reforming government and making it more efficient because he believes a leaner and efficient government leads directly to lower taxes.

As for Lennox’ current job, both bills are currently stuck in committee. The Speaker of the House,Andy Dillon, pledged to give his bill an up or down vote but that hasn’t yet happened. The budget battle, which happens just about every year, put most other business on hold and the bill hasn’t made it out of committee yet in either chamber. Lennox pledged to me that he would continue to pursue having the position of Cheboygan County drain commissioner removed if and when he makes it into the state’s legislature.

Late in the afternoon of December 4th of 2006, laboratory staff of the Veterans Administration Pittsburgh Health Services (VAPHS) based on an order from Dr. Mona Melhem, the associate chief of clinical services, a few minutes earlier – in less than three hours destroying a unique collection of legionella and other isolates that had been collected by two prominent infectious disease researchers over their nearly three decades of research.

So starts a report following an investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology headed by Congressman Brad Miller of the 13th District of North Carolina. The events described in that paragraph were the unfortunate culmination of several months of what everyone describes as an acrimonious process. The “two prominent infectious disease researchers” are Dr. Janet Stout and Dr. Joseph Vu. Both were fired in July. Both had been working out of the lab at the Pittsburgh VA. Both had collected rare strands of legionella for nearly three decades. On December 4th, months after they were fired, the legionella they left behind was destroyed on the direction of Dr. Mona Melhem, the associate chief of clinical services at VAPHS.

The story behind the events that lead up to the destruction of legionella is a classic case of he said she said. VAPHS claims that Dr. Vu was running a private business out of the lab testing blood samples for legionella. Dr. Vu claimed that VAPHS knew this all along and had no problem with it until he and Dr. Melhem clashed in 2006. VAPHS claims that the legionella was destroyed because they were clearing the freezer where the samples were stored of biohazardous material and the specimens weren’t marked. Dr. Vu claims they were marked and they were destroyed out of spite. Dr. Vu claims that he was in the final stages of making arrangements to move the specimens to a lab at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. VAPHS claims that this wasn’t ever communicated to them. You can guess what Dr. Vu claims about that.

Where the truth lies is something I don’t know and am in no position to decide. The case is currently the subject of a civil lawsuit and so both sides are limited in what they can tell someone like me. What is without doubt is which side the committee blamed. The report was scathing in its treatment of Dr. Melhem. She was accused of being untruthful, vindictive, and not providing any good reason to destroy these samples. The report and investigation were both finished at the beginning of September of 2008. They received plenty of media attention including a report in the Pittsburgh Tribune, the Washington Post, and the Associated Press.

In the beginning of October of 2008, Dr. Anna Chacko arrived at the same VAPHS to become the new head of radiology there. Prior to arriving at the VAPHS she spent fifteen months at St. James Hospital in Butte, Montana. She replaced three radiologists, Dr. William Driscoll, Dr. Jesse Cole, and Dr. Dennis Wright, who had a combined seventy plus years of service to St. James. The radiology department enjoyed consistent seven figures of yearly profitability prior to her arrival. Dr. Chacko figured prominently in no less than four lawsuits while at St. James, including ones filed by each of the three radiologists she replaced.(though it’s important to note that she wasn’t necessarily a defendent in all three. Her actions however played a major role) She left in September with the department seven figures in the red. She took the other three new radiologists with her, and St. James was on the verge of defaulting on millions of dollars worth of radiology equipment payment for equipment Dr. Chacko ordered.

Prior to that, Dr. Chacko spent a year at the Boston University Medical Center until she was removed following complaints of sexual harrassment. She was carried out of Lahey Clinic, her employer immediately prior to that, by security while she screamed

Kiss my big Indian Ass!!

It’s unlikely that Congressman Miller knew any of this about Dr. Anna Chacko. In fact, it’s likely that Congressman Miller knew nothing about Dr. Chacko when their paths in April of 2008. Between October and April, Dr. Chacko spent the next series of months terrorizing the staff at VAPHS including Dr. Mona Melhem. For the next five months, Dr. Chacko’s behavior lead directly to a series of staff, including Dr. Melhem, complaining about Dr. Chacko to H.R. and even to the regional head of the VA Michael Moreland.

Then, at the beginning of 2008, an employee of VAPHS fell awhile in their driveway. Dr. Melhem approved for VAPHS to X ray the employees’ wrist even though their insurance wouldn’t have necessarily covered the X ray.

Again, whether or not Dr. Melhem actually did something wrong in this case is murky. An employee of VAPHS said that the employee health nurse would have, in their view, also approved this X ray. It benefitted the VA because the employee would not have had to take a sick day to have the arm X rayed.

What is without doubt is that Dr. Anna Chacko saw this as wrong. She called the VA whistleblower tip line and accused Dr. Mona Melhem of fraud. In fact, Dr. Chacko was so forceful in her accusations that 1) she got herself identified as a whistleblower and 2) an administrative investigative board was convened. Of course, by then, there were so many complaints about Dr. Chacko’s behavior that the tenor of the board wasn’t about any alleged fraud by Dr. Melhem but about whether or not Dr. Chacko’s behavior was worthy of her being removed from her post. Six of the fourteen radiologists testified. They testified to bullying, threatening, lying, and the creation of a department at war with itself all at the hands of Dr. Anna Chacko.

In April, the board recommeded that Dr. Anna Chacko be removed from her post. Dr. Chacko  hired a lawyer, was able to have the results thrown out, and then she reached out to Congressman Brad Miller. On May 15th of 2009, Congressman Miller sent this letter to General Eric Shinseki, the head of the Veteran’s Administration.

In the letter, Congressman Miller sides nearly exclusively with Dr. Chacko. He puts the entire blame for everything that lead up to Dr. Chacko being removed on the same Dr. Mona Melhem. He refers to Dr. Chacko as a “whistleblower”. He calls her allegations “corruption”. He references his own investigation and points out that Dr. Melhem was similarly at fault in that investigation. He says that Dr. Melhem was orchestrating Dr. Chacko’s removal because Dr. Chacko had blown the whistle on Dr. Melhem’s corruption.

Within weeks, General Shinseki’s office gave word to VAPHS to reinstate Dr. Chacko. Dr. Chacko was back at work on August 1. Her behavior was even worse following her reinstatement. The letter itself was used as a tool of intimidation. Her ability to circumvent the process gave her more power. Dr. Chacko was even more aggressive, more vicious and more intimidating. The environment at VAPHS was of terror. Finally, at the end of October, after much media attention here and a plethora of complaints that reached as high as the regional director, Michael Moreland, Dr. Chacko was put on indefinite administrative leave and another adminstrative investigative board was formed. While I have no confirmation of those results, a reliable source assured me that Dr. Chacko would never again work at the Pittsburgh VA. Her resume now indicates she’d like to go back to Boston.

At the bottom of Congressman Miller’s letter, Congressman Miller refers questions to his chief investigator on the committee, Edith Holleman. In fact, it was Ms. Holleman that confirmed writing the letter to Walter Roche of the Pittsburgh Tribune. The same Ms. Holleman was the lead investigator on the legionella investigation. She’s still employed in that capacity for Congressman Brad Miller. Ms. Holleman didn’t return an email for this story. Congressman Miller’s office has refused to return many correspondences in regards to this story.

What if a I told you a story about a corrupt politician that was bought off by multiple corrupt banks in order to procure a quid pro quo that was presented as a life saver to struggling homeowners but was in fact a payback in order to turn a merger into a financial boon. Furthermore, what if I told you that this corrupt politician was selling out his country’s tax payers to the tune of $300 billion. I bet you would say that this would be shocking and every media would be looking to uncover the next detail of the scandal. I bet you would say this politician’s colleagues would be outraged and looking for blood. I bet you would say this was the beginnings of a political thriller and everyone in the country would be engaged.

Of course, you would be wrong. Last night the Senate OVERWHELMINGLY passed the Dodd/Frank mortgage bailout plan. This bill is not merely corrupt. The corruption is obscene not only in its brazenness but in its scope. Furthermore, what is really troublesome is that the culture of corruption in D.C. is so engrained that politicians on both sides either didn’t know it is corrupt or simply didn’t care. This bill passed overwhelmingly 63-5. What’s more is that the obscene levels of corruption are a matter of public record. All one needs to do to know this bill is corrupt is be adept at Google or their favorite search engine.

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