Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Winnetka School Board and Schools Supt.: impeding democracy?

The Winnetka School Board for School District 36 and the Winnetka Public Schools Administration are now being accused of doing their own form of political gerrymandering. Gerrymandering, which has become so popular on the Congressional House and state legislative level, is when pols arrange district boundaries so that politicians, especially incumbents, can pick their own voters instead of the voters picking their representatives.

What a number of residents in Winnetka think is happening is that existing Winnetka School Board members and perhaps the Winnetka Public School Administration are interfering with the process that results in the re-slating of incumbent school board members or the selection of new board members to replace them. That is, the Winnetka School Board members and the Administration they are supposed to oversee are picking the School Board Members, or so a number of residents think.

Moreover, what Winnetka, an affluent North Shore village of about 12,000 located about twenty miles north of the Loop, is doing is relevant not just to its own residents, but also to many other suburbs. If it is happening in Winnetka, it could be happening in Lake Forest, Naperville, Barrington, Arlington Heights, etc. The central idea of such suburban school districts, especially small ones [Winnetka’s school district has about 2000 students, or so, scattered among five schools that collectively instruct students in grades K-8], is that parents are empowered, thru the geographic and communal proximity to their elected school board members, to produce better, more accountable education than might be the case in school districts of say 50, 000 or 400,000 students [the Chicago Public School model].

In Winnetka, they add a somewhat novel twist. The Winnetka Caucus Council [74 residents, or so] is charged with slating candidates for the School Board, Park Board, Village Board and Library Board. The Council forms itself into subcommittees, e.g., the school board candidates’ committee, for each board candidate selection process and those committees pick a slate of candidates, which must be ratified or rejected by the Caucus Council and ultimately by a vote of residents at the town meeting. The candidates slated at the town meeting will be placed on the ballot in the Spring election, and residents who wish to challenge such candidates, may also be placed on the ballot if they can get 50 residents to sign their nominating petitions [which, of course, the caucus slated candidates must also do].

What is newsworthy in Winnetka this month is that the Caucus Council chose not to slate for a second term, the sitting Board President, Anne Kelly. The town’s establishment, including eleven former Winnetka school board members [President Nancy Kurz, President Susan Lumpp and Huck Hindsley, among others] with seventy four collective years of experience, lobbied hard with Winnetka Caucus Council members to persuade them to overturn the Caucus school’ committee and put Anne Kelly on the Caucus slate. One of the arguments of the former school board members gives some insight into the Establishment’s thinking: “ …future school board members… may not be willing to serve if they run the risk of the later public embarrassment of not being re-slated.” The Winnetka former school board members did note that perhaps “egregious errors by incumbent school board members during their tenure,” might justify the decision by the Caucus not to re-slate.

As has been noted previously on this blog, Kelly’s general approval, along with her fellow board members, of Superintendent van der Bogert’s egregious error in her failure to inform the Board of relevant personnel information, might in and of itself be viewed as an egregious error. [See here and the links cited therein]] But, the establishment board members did not see fit to get into that issue. Many Winnetka residents might wonder if that is the way democracy should work. Shouldn’t that kind of error be addressed, openly and publicly, by Kelly and her supporters, in their supporting letters?

School Board President Kelly, at the Caucus Council meeting on November 15, implicitly discussed the issue of Supt. van der Bogert’s decision not to tell the Winnetka School Board that a person she was recommending to be a principal at one of the District’s schools, Greeley, was a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the Glenview School District. Kelly, after that failure to disclose became known in May, 2005, expressed no public dissatisfaction with the Superintendent’s decision. At the November 15, 2006, meeting, Kelly said, “In the future, we’re going to be spending a lot more time with Google.” The statement that various Caucus Council members seemed to be looking for from Kelly was, “In the future, we expect our Supt. to disclose all relevant personnel information to us.” They didn’t get it.

However, School Board President Kelly did manage to edge herself back on the Caucus Council slate, just barely [See here]. Further, one of the Caucus Council and schools’ committee members, Mary Ward, was squeezed off the Council in the process, and she fired back, accusing at least one school board member of putting pressure on her to get off the council [See here]. In a letter of November 11, 2006, sent to the Winnetka School Board, Ward said she was accused by a group of people “including members of the [Winnetka] school board,” of “acting with an agenda in slating school board candidates because I voiced an opinion 18 months ago that differed from the Board’s view regarding the Winnetka Public Schools Superintendent’s [Dr. Rebecca van der Bogert] actions in hiring a Greeley Principal.”

Of course, to the Winnetka establishment, as in many other small suburbs, the most poisonous accusation you can make about a resident is that the resident has independent ideas about the public schools [an agenda, as they call it in Winnetka] and is willing to express them publicly. That trait alone, in the eyes of many on the Winnetka School Board, past and present, would be enough to make Mary Ward a marked woman. Apparently, Caucus Council Co-Chair Joni Johnson bought into that way of thinking and Johnson asked Ward for her resignation, while acknowledging that there was no actual impropriety on the part of Ward.

But, dissent on the Winnetka Caucus Council regarding Winnetka Schools issues continues. Caucus Council member Michael Finnerty wrote a letter, before the November 15 meeting, to his Caucus Council Colleagues, stating:

I was very disturbed to hear that, after the slate had been voted upon [by the Schools Committee], an existing Winnetka School Board member attempted to impeach the impartiality of one of the Caucus School Committee members using information that I believe should have been confidential. I understand that this school board member produced [shared with certain Caucus Council members] an email between a Caucus Schools Committee member and the School Board President, Anne Kelly, regarding the Schools Committee member’s child and suggesting that this Committee member was biased in the selection process. I say, again, these emails were parent /School Board communications, were sent months earlier and had nothing to do with the School Committee slating process.
***************************************************
I believe this event and the way in which School Committee members were treated illustrates the “us and them,” mentality that currently pervades the Winnetka School Board. I further believe it is encompassed in the school board’s relationship with the Superintendent [van der Bogert]who transfers it (perhaps unknowingly) to the teachers in our schools.

Further, the Winnetka Public Schools has now received a Freedom of Information Act request [FOIA] for emails and documents relating to communications among the Winnetka School Board members and between the Winnetka School Board, Administration and/or faculty relating to many of the issues discussed above. Superintendent van der Bogert confirmed, last Wednesday, that a FOIA was received by the Winnetka School District 36 about ten days ago, but she would not disclose the identity of the person submitting it, saying she would have to check with counsel as to whether that could be released. Dr. van der Bogert did state that the FOIA would be announced [and perhaps discussed] at tonight’s Winnetka School Board Meeting at 7:15 meeting at Greeley School, 275 Fairview, in Winnetka.

Winnetka Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Rebecca van der Bogert denied, last week, that any Winnetka School Board members had shared confidential parent-board member communications about students with any Caucus Council members. Such disclosure would seem to violate various state and federal laws regarding student-parent privacy. Winnetka Public Schools Superintendent van der Bogert would not, however, explain how she could make that denial with confidence, and would not answer questions as to whether she had investigated this issue.

Dr. van der Bogert also indicated that she had not been involved in any efforts to influence the re-slating of Winnetka School Board President Anne Kelly, although van der Bogert confirmed that she attended the Winnetka Caucus Council meeting on November 15, 2006, which she said she has always done in prior years. Dr. van der Bogert is not a resident of Winnetka.

So, did a Winnetka School Board member break the law by sharing with third parties confidential parent-Board member communications about a student? Did the Winnetka Public Schools Superintendent or the Winnetka School Board members inappropriately interfere with the democratic process in Winnetka? Are these kinds of alleged activities commonplace in other suburban public school districts? Stay tuned.
*************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************

Monday, November 27, 2006

Better than Monday night football: Hamos on Veto Session

Watch a "Public Affairs," exclusive this week in the Chicago metro suburbs with State Rep. Julie Hamos [D-Evanston] debating and discussing extremely topical issues with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz. The show focuses on the issues being kicked around this week in essentially the second and final week of this year's veto session in Springfield, IL: a proposed increase in the State's minimum wage from $6.50 to $7.50 [the national minimum wage is $5.15], with a Cost of Living Adjustment, and the impact of such an increase on employment; a proposed extension of the decade long freeze on electric power rates; a renewal of the option for counties to adopt a 7% per year cap on real estate tax assessment increases, and the impact of such a renewal on keeping businesses in Cook County. This show was recorded yesterday.

Also discussed by Hamos and Berkowitz are the topics of mass transit reform and additional revenue sources, education funding reform, the likelihood of major tax increases in Illinois in 2007 and one of the show's weekly [and Illinois Pols' daily] favorites, "Pay to Play in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois state government."
*******************************************************
See, below, for the Public Affairs suburban airing schedule.
****************************************************************
Next Monday night's City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs will feature Chicago Mayoral Candidate Dorothy Brown at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV] . Dorothy Brown will also be the featured guest on next week's suburban edition of "Public Affairs."
*************************************************
The "Public Affairs," podcast page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five episodes of “Public Affairs," including our show with Sen. del Valle [D-Chicago], as well as interviews, discussions or remarks with or by U. S. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Governor Rod Blagojevich, Mayor Candidate Dorothy Brown, Ald. Joe Moore, current State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, 27th District Senator Elect Matt Murphy [R-Palatine], newly re-elected 8th CD Congresswoman Melissa Bean , 9th CD Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Cook County Commissioners Tony Peraica [R-Riverside] and Forrest Claypool [D-Chicago] and many, many more pols on our video podcast page[Watch here]. The show with State Rep. Julie Hamos will be posted later this week.
***************************************************
In twenty-five North Shore, North and Northwest suburbs, the "Public Affairs," show with Rep. Julie Hamos airs tomorrow night in the regular weekly Public Affairs slot, 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 or 35, as indicated, below.

In ten North Shore suburbs, the show is also airing in its regular airing slot at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 this week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, as indicated, below.
******************************************************
The suburban episode of Public Affairs, featuring State Rep. Julie Hamos, airs tomorrow night:

at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette

And at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.

and tonight, Wednesday night and Friday night at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.
****************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************

Better than Monday Night Football: del Valle on HDO and School Vouchers

Jeff Berkowitz: So, they [two of your kids] had a choice [of private or public schools]. They had a choice because you thought it would be better for them. And, they went out--

Sen. Miguel del Valle: That’s right. That’s right.

Jeff Berkowitz: Wouldn’t you want to give other people who couldn’t afford that choice the ability to take the money we’re currently spending on them and spend it where they want. Your daughter, you’ve told me—and you should be a proud dad—is now at Yale. One of your kids, your youngest daughter.
*****************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: So you were at odds with the HDO. Have you since joined? Do you find yourself working with HDO some of the time?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: I have relationships with—even during that time, I had relationships with individuals who were members of HDO, who grew up with me, who grew up in the neighborhood that I grew up in. Individuals who knew of my work and who supported me, even though, as a group, they were taking political positions that were different from mine...
******************************
Chicago City Clerk Designate and State Senator Miguel del Valle [D-Chicago] is the featured guest on tonight’s City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs, airing at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV]. Go here for [1] a link to watch podcasts of State Sen. and City of Chicago Clerk Designate Miguel del Valle, Senator McCain, Senator Obama, Cong. Schakowsky, Chicago Mayoral Candidate Dorothy Brown, Cook County Commissioners Claypool and Peraica and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, Ald. Joe Moore and many other pols and [2] to learn more about tonight’s show with Sen. del Valle and to read a partial transcript of the show.
************************************
Sen. Miguel del Valle has been nominated by City of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley to replace City Clerk Jim Laski, who resigned his office and then pled guilty to federal corruption charges earlier this year. Del Valle has been confirmed and will take office on Dec. 1, the day after the legislative Veto session [essentially] concludes in Springfield.

Senator del Valle, for whom the Mayor's crack political team and others are circulating petitions to get him on the Feb. 27, 2007 ballot to win election to the City Clerk position in his own right, will be running on a ticket with Mayor Daley and his recently appointed City Treasurer Stephanie Neely. Sen. del Valle needs 12,000 good signatures to get on the ballot for the City Clerk position, so they will seek to collect about 24,000. Mayor Daley sought del Valle, in part for racial reasons, to round out his rainbow [White, Black, Hispanic] ticket when Daley thought he might face opposition from African-American Cong. Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Hispanic Cong. Luis Gutierrez. Democrats Jackson and Gutierrez have both now declined to run for Mayor, in part because of their new Majority Party status in Washington.

Daley is now left with two long shot challengers: African Americans Dorothy Brown, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County [Our guest next week in the suburbs and in the City] and Bill [Doc] Walls [A prior guest of Public Affairs]. The Dorothy Brown show is also available now on our podcast page [See here].

Sen. del Valle brings a reputation for independence and honesty [Mr. Clean, so to speak] to the Daley ticket, so we asked him a bit about his independence from HDO and Daley [see partial transcript, below]. Daley also said Sen. del Valle would be his informal advisor on education, as that has been a focus of the Senator's for two decades in the State Legislature. So, we spent some time on tax swaps and school vouchers-school choice, see partial transcript, below.
*****************************************************
Sen. Miguel del Valle, the Mayor and HDO: How independent are they?

Jeff Berkowitz: You were inspired, in part, by Harold Washington, as an Independent, and Harold Washington was first elected [Mayor of Chicago] in 1983.

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Inspired by the independent politics of that movement at the time.

Jeff Berkowitz: Were you part of that Harold Washington movement?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Yes.

Jeff Berkowitz: Of course, Harold Washington was re-elected [Mayor] in 1987. You were elected to the Senate in 1986 and took office in 1987. But, you continued to challenge, until just a few years ago-- challenging Daley candidates or at least supporting candidates who were running against Daley incumbents in the City Council, right?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Well, in the political arena, locally, we had lots of challenges, but--

Jeff Berkowitz: You supported Rey Colon?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: That’s correct, but, I want to go back further [del Valle talks about bills that he worked on, closely, with State’s Attorney Richard M. Daley’s office and the State’s attorney when del Valle was first elected to the Senate]

Jeff Berkowitz: But, you can turn around and subsequently, years later, you were supporting aldermanic candidates who were challenging Daley supported incumbents, right?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: I did.

Jeff Berkowitz: Rey Colon was one.

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Not only individuals that Daley supported, but also individuals supported by other local alderman.

Jeff Berkowitz: By the Democratic establishment?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Who were part of the Regular Democratic Organization.

Jeff Berkowitz: But also supported by the HDO, sometimes known as the Hispanic Democratic Organization-

Sen. Miguel del Valle: That’s right.

Jeff Berkowitz: But also sometimes known as the Hispanic Daley Organization. Would that be fair?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: We would at times be at opposite sides, yes.

Jeff Berkowitz: But would it be fair to call the HDO the Hispanic Daley Organization?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: HDO is a group of Hispanics who work for the city.

Jeff Berkowitz: Were they controlled by Mayor Daley?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Who run campaigns and get involved in campaigns and have been involved in many campaigns over the years and have been very supportive of not only Mayor Daley, but other local politicians as well.

Jeff Berkowitz: But have they [HDO] been controlled by Mayor Daley?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: HDO is controlled by the leadership within HDO. They have supported other candidates. They have supported the Mayor, of course; They have supported candidates for Congress. They have supported candidates for Governor and for other offices.

Jeff Berkowitz: Did they support Ald. Vilma Colom?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: At that time? Yes, I think they did.

Jeff Berkowitz: You supported Rey Colon?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Yes, I did.

Jeff Berkowitz: He beat her?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Rey Colon won.

Jeff Berkowitz: You supported Manny Flores?

Sen. Miguel del Valle [D-Chicago]: That’s correct.

Jeff Berkowitz: HDO supported Ald. Jesse Grenato?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: That’s correct.

Jeff Berkowitz: Manny Flores won?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Yes, he did.

Jeff Berkowitz: So you were at odds with the HDO. Have you since joined? Do you find yourself working with HDO some of the time?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: I have relationships with—even during that time, I had relationships with individuals who were members of HDO, who grew up with me, who grew up in the neighborhood that I grew up in. Individuals who knew of my work and who supported me, even though, as a group, they were taking political positions that were different from mine. [Ed. Note: Although Sen. del Valle seems to be minimizing his historical differences with HDO, some suggest that congruence of interests is a more recent phenomenon, See here; for more about a current connection between del Valle and HDO’s Chairman, Victor Reyes, see here].
**************************************************
From tonight’s City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs with Chicago City Clerk Designate and State Sen. Miguel del Valle. The show airs throughout the City at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV]. You may also watch it by [Going here]. The show with Sen. del Valle was recorded on Nov. 19, 2006.
**************************************************************

Sen. del Valle likes options and competition among schools, but does he like school vouchers- school choice?
***********************************

Jeff Berkowitz: What about competition? Would that be good? In the schools? Schools competing with each other for students?

Sen. Miguel del Valle [D-Chicago]: Oh, I think we have that now.

Jeff Berkowitz: We have that now? No, it’s a monopoly.

Miguel del Valle No, as a matter of fact, I think that--

Jeff Berkowitz: You have to move [from one location to another] to go to another school.

Sen. Miguel del Valle: We’re well on our way towards creating competition. We’re doing it with charter schools, Renaissance 2010, in the city of Chicago, where kids today have more and more choices in terms of where to go for their elementary and secondary education. And so we’ve got quite a bit of competition. We have more competition today than ever before.

Jeff Berkowitz: ...Here’s that cash again. You know we spend about eleven thousand dollars per kid, per year, in the Chicago Public Schools. Put that eleven thousand dollars in a backpack. You’ve got a lot of constituents in your area. Across the city of Chicago, we can have four hundred thirty five thousand backpacks. Give it to the parents of each of those kids in the public schools. Strap it on the kid. If the parents are satisfied with the public schools—and many are—they stay. The kid turns around and goes right back to that public school. The kid stays there, the backpack stays there and the cash stays at the public school. But if they want to try a private school, if they want to try an alternative that they think can do better—out goes the backpack, out goes the kid, out goes the eleven thousand dollars per kid per year. And we get to see whether someone else can do better [in terms of teaching the students]. You’d like to give people that competition? That choice? Would you take those backpacks? Would you like to do that? Would you support that?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: We are in the process of giving people more choices.

Jeff Berkowitz: School Vouchers? Would you support school vouchers?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: No. I don’t support school vouchers.

Jeff Berkowitz: You don’t support giving them that choice?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: I support choices. And, I think that what we need to do is to continue to improve the public educational system.

Jeff Berkowitz: Why not give them the choice?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: In my district, I have several buildings that were operated by the archdiocese that today are used by charter schools. We have fewer parochial schools in my district today, but those buildings are now being used, and in some cases purchased, by charter schools that are offering wonderful programs. So I think we’re creating more choices for these parents.

Jeff Berkowitz: Where did your own kids go? Did your own kids go to public schools?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: My kids went to grammar schools, public grammar schools, yes.

Jeff Berkowitz: What about high school? Did your kids go to public schools for high school, too?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Two went to private schools, high schools.

Jeff Berkowitz: So, they [two of your kids] had a choice [of private or public schools]. They had a choice because you thought it would be better for them. And, they went out--

Sen. Miguel del Valle: That’s right. That’s right.

Jeff Berkowitz: Wouldn’t you want to give other people who couldn’t afford that choice the ability to take the money we’re currently spending on them and spend it where they want. Your daughter, you’ve told me—and you should be a proud dad—is now at Yale. One of your kids, your youngest daughter.

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Yes.

Jeff Berkowitz: That’s a private school. There’s competition between public universities and private universities. They both do better as a result. Why not do that? Why not support that school voucher/school choice program?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Well, I know you’re a strong proponent of vouchers. And, that’s been one of your—your crusade for a long time. But, I think that we are creating more choices and I think that we need to focus on making the public system [of schools] stronger. Stronger.

Jeff Berkowitz: So you buy in to charter schools, but not school vouchers?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: I’m looking for options, creating as many options for parents and children as possible. Quality options.

Jeff Berkowitz: So maybe school vouchers. Maybe you should think about school vouchers?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: No, not vouchers. Options.

Jeff Berkowitz: That’s an option. That’s an option.
**************************************************************
From tonight’s City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs with Chicago City Clerk Designate and State Sen. Miguel del Valle. The show airs throughout the City at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV]. You may also watch it by [Going here]. The show with Sen. del Valle was recorded on Nov. 19, 2006.
*****************************************
Above transcript drafts prepared by Amy Allen, who also does research for “Public Affairs,” and has her own political blog [See here].
***************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Better than Tuesday night Football: Sen. del Valle streaming/on cable

Jeff Berkowitz:...[T]he Mayor had Robert Sorich as his patronage chief—so what people are saying to you perhaps is that you are running for City Clerk, aligned with the Mayor, how could the Mayor not have known about this stuff [the public corruption in the City Government], that was going on? What are you telling people …when they ask you—did the Mayor know what was going on with Sorich? What do you tell them?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: I am not going to speak for the Mayor or for anyone else. I do know—

Jeff Berkowitz: But, what do you think? Do you think he [the Mayor] knew what was going on?
************************************************
Watch a "Public Affairs," exclusive this week in the Chicago metro suburbs with State Sen. and Chicago City Clerk designate Miguel del Valle [D-Chicago] debating and discussing the issues with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz; Topics range from Public Corruption, transparency, and Pay to Play in City, County and State Government to School Vouchers/School Choice and school funding to Sen. del Valle's plans to stream City Council meetings on the Internet.
*******************************************************
See, below, for the Public Affairs suburban airing schedule.
****************************************************************
Next Monday night's City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs will feature the same show with Sen. del Valle at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV]
*************************************************
The "Public Affairs," podcast page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five episodes of “Public Affairs," including our show with Sen. del Valle [D-Chicago], as well as interviews, discussions or remarks with or by U. S. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Governor Rod Blagojevich, Ald. Joe Moore, current State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, 27th District Senator Elect Matt Murphy [R-Palatine], newly re-elected 8th CD Congresswoman Melissa Bean , 9th CD Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Cook County Commissioners Tony Peraica [R-Riverside] and Forrest Claypool [D-Chicago] and many, many more pols on our video podcast page[Watch here].
***************************************************
Sen. Miguel del Valle: I think it is safe to say that the U. S. Attorney has redefined how government at all levels should operate when it comes to awarding contracts and distributing jobs and I think it is right. I think the State’s Attorney [sic] is right.

Jeff Berkowitz: Well, it has been that way for a long time. The Shakman decree [for the City], the Rutan decree on the State side.

Sen. Miguel del Valle: That is correct.

Jeff Berkowitz: Similar …in the County, for a long time, not just recently, it has been illegal to use people, to use their work and what they did politically to decide whether they would get a job and whether they would be promoted …it was Tomczak, who was running the [City] Water Department under Daley, running this vast political army [on City time] that helped elect Rahm Emanuel, who now has helped elect a Democratic Majority in the U. S. House. Rahm Emanuel says “I didn’t know about it,” and maybe he didn’t—but Don Tomczak, working in the Water Department in the City of Chicago under Mayor Daley was going out and using city government employees [on city time] to help elect Rahm Emanuel in his Democratic Primary [in 2002], which was relatively close [51-42].

Sen. Miguel del Valle: The old way of doing things is no longer acceptable and I think that that is correct. What the U. S. attorney has done and what they’ve determined is the correct way.

Jeff Berkowitz: Here is the old way. Here is some money [Berkowitz puts a wad of cash on the table]. You want to play ball? You pay the money.

Sen. Miguel del Valle: And, that’s wrong. That’s wrong. That is absolutely wrong.

Jeff Berkowitz: So, this is what is known as Pay to Play in Illinois. It seems to have infected County Government, City Government, State Government—It is a bi-partisan effort.

Sen. Miguel del Valle: And, all of that has to change.

Jeff Berkowitz: So, you’re going to take the ball and you are going to do something different with it?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: I am going to run an office [City Clerk] that is transparent. I am going to be in charge of records for the City Council. We are going to put the City Council meetings on the internet, live streaming video so that people can watch the [City Council] sessions. I am going to make more information available about the workings of the City Council. We are going to increase transparency all the way around. I think that the old way of doing things, again, is no longer legal. And, so, things have to change and I think it is for the better.

Jeff Berkowitz: And, you’re the guy to change it?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: Well, I am changing it within the City Clerk’s office and increasing transparency and making sure that the light is there on all the workings of the City Clerk’s office. I will be doing my part. Can I change the entire city? That’s not my responsibility. But, I will be an advocate for reform at all levels. And, so I expect to see reform at the County level- now that we have a Cook County Board President [Todd Stroger]; I expect that the Governor will make some changes now…I sponsored a bill a couple of years ago to ban political contributions from anyone doing business with the state, not only [applying] to all Constitutional officers, but to all members of the General Assembly. I think we ought to re-visit that…there cannot be any connection between a contract or a job and the actions of city government.

Jeff Berkowitz: Has Rod Blagojevich done that in the State of Illinois?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: I think he has to move in that direction.

Jeff Berkowitz: Is it too late, though. As you know, right now, he is the subject, or people close to him, are the subjects of multiple investigations—whether it is in hiring, where people presumably are using rigged tests for hiring in the State; Tony Rezko, his close friend, has been indicted for basically a kickback scheme, which they have hinted, if not alleged, involved campaign contributions and the TRS, the Teachers’ Retirement system, saying once again, if you want to play ball, if you want to do business with the State, then Stuart Levine, Rezko and others were involved in this effort to say, here, you can do business, but then you need to pay people who are doing nothing and some of that ends up going into the Governor’s campaign contributions. That is at least reported, if not alleged…The Mayor had Robert Sorich as his patronage chief—so what people are saying to you perhaps is that you are running for City Clerk, aligned with the Mayor, how could the Mayor not have known about this stuff [the public corruption in the City Government], that was going on? What are you telling people …when they ask you—did the Mayor know what was going on with Sorich? What do you tell them?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: I am not going to speak for the Mayor or for anyone else. I do know—

Jeff Berkowitz: But, what do you think? Do you think he [the Mayor] knew what was going on?

Sen. Miguel del Valle: What I am going to say is that I think one of the reasons the Mayor appointed me [City Clerk] was because of the history of the City Clerk’s office [two indicted City Clerks in the last 12 years] …and his desire to put someone in place that is going to do an effective job
**********************************************
From this week's suburban airing on Public Affairs of State Sen. and Chicago City Clerk designate Miguel del Valle [D-Chicago], recorded on November 12, 2006, as it is airing tonight and this week in 35 Chicago Metro suburbs on Comcast Cable.
*********************************************************
In twenty-five North Shore, North and Northwest suburbs, the "Public Affairs," show airs tonight in the regular weekly Public Affairs slot, 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 or 35, as indicated, below.

In ten North Shore suburbs, the show is also airing in its regular airing slot at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 this week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, as indicated, below, as well as in a special airing tonight at 9:30 pm
******************************************************
The suburban episode of Public Affairs, featuring State Sen. and Chicago City Clerk Designate[D-Chicago], airs tonight:

at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette

And at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.

and tonight at 9:30 pm in a special airing and on Wednesday night and Friday night at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.
****************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************

Monday, November 20, 2006

Beats Monday night football: Ald. Moore streaming/ cable

Chicago Ald. Joe Moore [D-Rogers Park, 49th Ward] is the featured guest on tonight’s City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs, airing at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV]. Go here for [1] a link to watch podcasts of
Ald. Joe Moore, State Sen. and City of Chicago Clerk Designate Miguel del Valle, Senator McCain, Senator Obama, Cong. Schakowsky, Cook County Commissioners Claypool and Peraica and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger and many other pols and [2] to learn more about tonight’s show with Ald. Moore and to read a partial transcript of the show.
************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************

Obama's Iraq Exit Strategy and Iran

Jeff Berkowitz: Well, we understand there is Iranian and Syrian support for Iraqis or certain insurgents now. What if they start making that [support] stronger?

Senator Barack Obama: This is not a secret.

Jeff Berkowitz: Could they increase that?
**********************************************
Senator Barack Obama [D-IL] spoke to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs [previously the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations] at a luncheon program today. Obama, for his first two years as a U. S. Senator, has sat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Barack Obama, 45, a likely candidate for President in 2008, spoke to a sell out crowd of 1400, calling for a "phased redeployment" or “phased withdrawal,” of troops from Iraq within the next four to six months.
[See here for an article about today’s talk, which spanned almost an hour, including audience Q and A, after the speech. The press conference, after the program, ran about ten minutes. See here for a full transcript of Senator Obama’s speech that preceded the audience Q and A].

Senator Obama, who was a State Senator from the south side of Chicago for eight years prior to his election to the U. S. Senate in 2004 and was the first African-American President of the Harvard Law Review, was a forceful and vocal opponent of the Iraq War six months before the U. S. took military action to enter Iraq in March, 2003.

A month before U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was at the U. N., making the Bush Administration argument for taking military action, in part based on the dangers of WMD, Barack Obama was arguing, at an anti-war protest rally at the Federal Plaza in the Chicago Loop, against the U. S. taking military action in Iraq.

As was noted by some of the thirty, or so, journalists in attendance, not much new ground was broken today, either compared to what Senator Obama has said previously or compared to what most of the Democratic leaders are saying now about beginning a phased re-deployment or withdrawal of troops by April, 2007. However, it was said better and more coherently than it has been said by most of the other Democratic Leaders.

Further, what is new, relative to Pre-Election Day, is that Senator Obama’s line of advocacy is definitely now the majority leadership view in the House and Senate [or at least it will be in January, 2007] and perhaps the only view you will here from the likely Democratic Primary Candidates for President, e.g., Senators Clinton, Kerry, Edwards, Feingold, Biden and Bayh and perhaps former VP Gore. Further, in response to a question from the press, Obama emphasized his intent was not to state something new, novel or to score political points, but “to present what I think is right.” Obama said at the presser, “there are a restricted number of options, there is no magic bullet in Iraq.” Also, by next spring, if not before, there may be some influential Republicans towing the current Democratic Leadership line.

Also, you can almost certainly include Senator Obama in that list of extremely likely Democratic Primary Presidential Candidates. Senator Obama said today he would announce a decision on that matter in the next few months, but those close to him have implied that decision will more likely come by the middle of December, which perhaps not coincidentally is the scheduled time for the lame duck session of the U. S. Senate to adjourn.

To provide some perspective on the well known draw and appeal of the Junior Senator from Illinois, today’s program attendance was originally closed at 1000, and then opened again due to popular demand, and closed about a week ago, with 1400 signing up for a downtown Chicago lunch that cost $60 for CCGA members and $100 for CCGA non-members. Not a bad day for the not for profit CCGA. When Madeline Albright spoke before the CCGA not too long ago, it was a bit less elaborate event- a book signing—and drew about 500.

On the other hand, on the day before the election, Senator Obama spoke at a 10:00 am morning rally for 10th Cong. Dist. Democratic Challenger Dan Seals at the Waukegan airport, in a room that would have held a thousand, and attracted only about one hundred thirty of the Party Faithful [and one Cong. Mark Kirk [R- Highland] supporter [who was escorted out, with his Kirk sign]. Further, there was neither a meal served, nor a charge for attending the Seals-Obama event- other than the implicit charge for the value of one’s time. And, the Obama magic worked neither in the 10th CD [Seals lost to six year Republican incumbent Kirk 53-47] nor in the 6th CD [Democrat Duckworth lost to state senator Peter Roskam in a Republican open Seat, 51-49, notwithstanding Obama’s attendance at an afternoon rally on that pre-election day, filling up about half of the 500 seats].

The CCGA talk was extremely well received, with Obama being greeted with a partial standing ovation—but the CCGA leans left and Democratic, and the questions from the audience were not what you would call hostile or even challenging. Of course, the Senator gave his usual thoughtful, articulate and impressive talk and answers, but make no mistake about it, this was a love fest-- not so different from a Democratic Party rally.

A brief exchange on Iran and Iraq between Berkowitz and Senator Obama at the presser is included, below.
************************************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Senator, what if Iran abuses the situation. How would you adjust to that if they interpret this as a “cut and run,” not as a phased redeployment?

Senator Barack Obama: Well, they can interpret it any way that want, as long as we’ve got some presence on the ground [in Iraq].

Jeff Berkowitz: But, what if they abuse it and they take advantage—

Senator Barack Obama: Well, Jeff, you’ve got to be more specific when you tell me, “What if they abuse it.” What do you mean, specifically?

Jeff Berkowitz: Well, we understand there is Iranian and Syrian support for Iraqis or certain insurgents now. What if they start making that [support] stronger?


Senator Barack Obama: This is not a secret.

Jeff Berkowitz: Could they increase that?

Senator Barack Obama: I think it would be hard at this point for Iran to increase its influence over the Shia population in Iraq right now. I think every intelligence officer that I have spoken to would tell you that Iran is a major power broker in Iraq as a consequence of our invasion. They have direct lines to the Shia militias. They are helping to foster the environment that we are seeing right now. I think the thing that could change the dynamic if they start realizing that if this thing collapses, they are going to have heck to pay on their own border. And, that is something right now that they don’t feel obliged to take into account because they know the U. S. troops are going to be there to, at least, hold things together.
*************************************
Senator Barack Obama, answering questions today at a press conference held after his lunch speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The program was at the Hilton on Michigan Avenue in the Loop.
*******************************************************
For a precursor of a potential McCain-Obama Presidential match-up, [Watch the July 22 Public Affairs show].
That show includes a virtual McCain-Obama debate. You can also watch an April 17 Sen. Obama- 8th CD Cong. Melissa Bean joint presser by going to that same podcast page. Cong. Bean is a Democratic incumbent for whom Senator Obama helped attract about 600 troops to a College of Lake County Bean rally the day before the election—and Bean won a second term, 50-44 over Republican challenger McSweeney, with third party ant- War and anti-CAFTA candidate Bill Scheurer winning six per cent and a place on the 8th CD 2008 ballot, along with the other major party candidates.
********************************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************

Friday, November 17, 2006

Milton Friedman, RIP

Milton Friedman was one of the three great economists of the last three centuries, measured both by his contribution to the development of economics and by his influence on public policy, in this country and around the world. In the 18th Century, there was Adam Smith; in the 19th Century, it was Alfred Marshall and in the 20th Century, it was Milton Friedman.

Smith, Marshall, Friedman, price theorists all. But, as every good economist knows, especially those who spent time at the University of Chicago in the last eighty years, all of economics, micro and macro, has its roots in price theory. This was the great oral tradition at the University of Chicago economics department in the last century, and especially from about 1930 to 1980, with much of that period dominated by Milton Friedman and his friend, colleague and professional ally, George Stigler.

On the other hand, Friedman was one of the few great economists in recent times who spanned both micro and macro economics, or as we called those fields at Chicago, price theory and “money.” Most academics outside of Chicago know Milton for his work in the area of Monetary Theory or the Quantity Theory of Money, i.e., MV=Py. That equation of exchange, as graduate students at the University of Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s knew it, could be used for all sorts of handy predictions. If V, that is the velocity of money were relatively constant and y, or real gross national product for the economy, was determined by other factors, we could predict that increases in M [the nominal money stock] by the Federal Reserve System would result in commensurate increases in the price level or inflation. Similarly, reductions in the rate of growth in the nominal money stock by the Fed would result in reductions in the rate of inflation.

The above described quantity theory of money led Friedman to advise President Reagan and Paul Volker, Reagan’s Federal Reserve Chief, in the early 1980s, to control and restrain the growth of the nation’s monetary aggregates. They followed Friedman's advice and rampant inflation was brought under control. Following Friedman’s and supply siders’ advice, Reagan successfully argued for tax cuts, and the economy boomed throughout the 80s: The result of sound economic theory and good economic policy.

Unlike his Keynesian competitors, Friedman saw macroeconomics, or Money, through the prism of price theory. He thought not so much about velocity or the “turnover,” of money, but of its inverse—the demand for real cash balances. When the government increased the supply of money, individuals would find their supply of cash balances exceeded their demand for real cash balances, so they would spend their excess balances. As they did so, if real output did not change, they would bid up prices, causing an increase in inflation. When government contracted the growth of the money stock, the reverse ensued and people would cut back on their spending to build back their real cash balances to their initially desired level, causing a decline in the general price level, i.e., a reduction in inflation or deflation.

When government contracted the growth of the money stock sharply as it did in the early 1930s, it would produce not only a reduction in prices, but also a reduction in real output, or y, in the above discussed equation of exchange. Thus the U. S. Government, not the private sector, was responsible for the great contraction in output and employment in the 1930s—and we at Chicago were careful not to refer to the collapse of the economy in the 30s as the depression, but the great contraction.

Much of the above, and much more [including how monetary policy in the U. S. helped contribute to China going communist], is chronicled in Friedman’s [and Anna Schwartz’s] treatise, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960.

Friedman was always the empiricist. He had a collection of notes that he distributed for his class on price theory at the University of Chicago. For quite a while, he declined to publish the notes, stating that he would soon prepare a more formal version of his notes and then have that version published. After a while, he said the empirical evidence was strong that he would not devote the time to publishing that item-- instead focusing on many others—and he relented and agreed to publish the notes as they were, putting a title on the notes: “Price Theory, a Provisional Text.”

That item, along with a book titled, “The Theory of Price,” by Friedman’s colleague and friend at Chicago, fellow Nobel Laureate in Economics George Stigler, became the collective bible for students studying price theory to prepare for Ph. D. prelims at Chicago.

Most of the non-professional economist individuals in the world touched by Friedman felt his impact in what he said and wrote about the applications of basic economic theory, i.e., price theory--- or as he would put it, thinking like an economist. They found this wisdom in Capitalism and Freedom [two sides of the same coin, he said], an Economist’s Protest [a collection of Newsweek essays], Freedom to Choose [the book or the 13 part PBS series of the 80s] or in one of many other items Milton Friedman published or in his speeches given or classes taught around the world.

Friedman was the father of the school voucher-school choice movement, going back at least to his writing of the 1950s. That movement has blossomed in this century, with the Supreme Court confirming the constitutionality of School Vouchers in 2002, and strong voucher programs moving forward in Milwaukee, Cleveland, Florida and Arizona.

Milton Friedman denies it, because of his modesty, but he was the driving force behind Nixon’s and the country’s adoption of our all volunteer military in the early 1970s, an experiment that has worked well in terms of individual freedom, fairness, efficiency and in producing a stronger military.

Although not the only force, Friedman was a major force in the development of freer markets in several Latin American countries, including Chile; Eastern Europe, including Estonia; China, Russia, South Korea and Taiwan.

The most important notion that Milton Friedman staked his academic reputation on and that has been adopted in a variety of countries around the world is that societies that rely on the free market will improve the material well being of their people, much more so than if they relied on government to plan, motivate and guide their economics and the industry within those economies. Moreover, those free markets will be more conducive and compatible to the development of individual freedom and democracy.

So, students and readers of Milton Friedman tended to develop a belief in free markets, less government spending, lower government taxes, stronger property rights, more freedom for individuals, fewer restraints and regulation by government and in general an empowerment of the individual and a curtailment and distrust of government power.

In short, Friedman would say if you want to help people—give them the Freedom to Choose. Don’t spend money on a public school and require the parents to send their kids to that school. Instead, give them a school voucher for a little less than is being spent by the government on the child in the public school and let the parents choose which school is best for their child. Schools will compete for the right to serve that child and that competition will improve the choices of the parents.

If you want to help low skilled labor, don’t impose a minimum wage. Price theory and Friedman tells us that law will drive down the quantity demanded for labor and increase the quantity supplied, causing a surplus of labor or unemployment. Instead, through a negative income tax or earned income tax credit, supplement the low skilled worker’s income from what he can earn in the free market, without pricing him out of the market.

If you want to increase the availability of housing for low income people, don’t impose rent controls or price ceilings. Price Theory and Friedman tells us that will cause the quantity of housing supplied to decrease and the quantity of housing demanded to increase, causing a shortage.

On and on Friedman went, applying and inspiring students at the University of Chicago to apply Chicago School Economics, essentially price theory, to every nook and cranny of the real world. Theories were only as good as their testable implications. And, Friedman required his students to think logically and rigorously, and to always think about testing their theories. If the empirical evidence did not support the theory, it was the theory that was wrong, not the real world.

Always civil, always respectful and always demanding—of himself and his students. Milton Friedman will be missed deeply by his friends, colleagues, students, wife [Rose], children, readers and so many others around the world. Sadly, Milton Friedman, dead at 94, yesterday, in San Francisco, California.
*******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Winnetka's Public Schools, School Board, Supt. and Democracy

About 18 months ago, the Winnetka Public School Board and the Winnetka Public Schools Superintendent, Dr. Rebecca van der Bogert, acted as if they were unfamiliar with how democracy should work, appropriate actions by a School Board, and the appropriate interaction between a school board, the District’s Superintendent and the Community they are supposed to serve. See here and here. The District Superintendent, in this affluent, Illinois, North Shore suburb withheld from the Board relevant, publicly available information about a candidate [Kevin Dorken] for Principal for the District’s Greeley School.

The Principal candidate,Dorken, had been named as one of the defendants in a civil wrongful death action filed by the parents of one of the students at the school where he taught, and Supt. van der Bogert decided not to disclose that to the Winnetka School Board-- or to the Winnetka community. When this breach of community trust was disclosed, the Winnetka School Board essentially said, “so what, we trust our School Superintendent to make assessments of those types of things, we don’t need to know this stuff.”

The Winnetka Community reacted differently and after a number of community interactions with the Administration, Board and newly hired Principal, the School Superintendent, Dr. van der Bogert, sort of apologized to the Community and perhaps the Board in a weepy, tearful school board meeting and subsequently the newly hired Principal [Dorken] decided, before his official start date, that the whole thing was not working and he resigned.

Most of the parents and community breathed a collective sigh of relief, although the distrust of the $300,000/ year Superintendent seemed to linger among many, and the Superintendent was to leave by the end of the last academic year, but that did not happen.

Now, two of the Board members involved in the above fiasco are seeking re-slating by the Winnetka Caucus Council for another four year term on the Board. One, Jeff Hoch, was reslated, but another, Anne Kelly, who was President of the School Board during the above described mess, was not recommended for re-slating by the Caucus School Board Candidates Committee. No official reasons were disclosed, but could it have something to do with Ms. Kelly’s rather aloof, unwillingness to engage the community or the press on the above matters. And, did that attitude manifest itself more generally during the course of the caucus interviews?

Here is a description of one of my exchanges with Ms. Kelly during the height of the fiasco:

The Winnetka School Board President, Anne Kelly, taking a page from her superintendent, said to me [on May 25, 2005] she had only one thing to say to and then read a statement, saying, “As a Board, we were unanimous in acting on Dr. van der Bogert’s recommendation to hire Kevin Dorken last December and after lengthy consideration we remain unanimous in our support of the Superintendent’s hiring process of Kevin Dorken as the next principal for the Greeley school.” When I started to ask Ms. Kelly, “when did you first learn--” Kelly cut me off and said, “That is the only statement I am prepared to make and I really appreciate your calling to get our perspective, but that’s all I am going to say at this time. Beyond that, we will speak to the Greeley community directly.” I responded by saying, “this is a part of the public record. When did you vote—" Again, School Board President Kelly cut me off with, “I really appreciate your call, Goodbye.” [See here]

As reported here, Ms. Kelly, with her supporters, is arguing the Caucus Council should reject, tonight, the Caucus School Board Candidate Committee’s recommendation and slate her for another four year term on the School Board. The 72 member Winnetka Caucus Council will make a decision when it votes tonight at its 7:30 pm meeting at the Little Theater in Winnetka’s Washburne Middle School, 515 Hibbard Road, Winnetka, IL

Whichever way the Caucus Council goes, that decision will be either confirmed or changed at the Winnetka Town Meeting on January 18, 2007 at 7:30 pm at the Skokie School in Winnetka.

Of course, whoever the full Winnetka Caucus, i.e., the town of Winnetka [about 12,000 residents] decides to slate in January must be elected in the village wide Spring election. And, anyone can contest that election by getting 50 valid signatures of Winnetka residents to support placing that person on the ballot.

As Speaker Tip O’Neill once said all politics is ultimately local and there is nothing more local than your local school board. National, state and city of Chicago politics may be a pretty good spectator sport, some would even say "bloodsport." But, Winnetka School Board politics—that’s where the rubber really hits the road.

Has the Winnetka Public Schools Administration involved itself in tonight's consideration of the Caucus School Board Slate and therefore wrongfully entered town politics? That's a good question. Stay tuned.
*********************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Better than Monday night Football: Ald. Moore, Streaming and on Cable

Ald. Joe Moore: That’s $10 in wages, and the equivalent of $3 in benefits.

Jeff Berkowitz: So that’s almost doubling the [6.50 Illinois] minimum wage in the City of Chicago for Big Box stores, because there is no minimum as to benefits.
*********************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Joe Moore, do you believe in that? They buy more [at lower prices]?

Ald. Moore: Well, I think as a general principle, that may work.

Jeff Berkowitz: Okay, all right. There you go. There you go.
***********************************************
Watch a "Public Affairs," exclusive this week in the Chicago metro suburbs with Chicago Alderman Joe Moore [D-Rogers Park] debating and discussing the issues with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz; Topics range from a Living Wage and its impact on employment to School Vouchers to Possessing Guns to eating Foie Gras.
*******************************************************
See, below, for the Public Affairs suburban airing schedule.
****************************************************************
Next Monday night's City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs will feature the same show with Ald. Moore at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV]
*************************************************
The "Public Affairs," podcast page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five episodes of “Public Affairs," including our show with Chicago Ald. Joe Moore [D-49th Ward], as well as interviews, discussions or remarks with or by U. S. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Governor Rod Blagojevich, current State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, 27th District Senator Elect Matt Murphy [R-Palatine], newly re-elected 8th CD Congresswoman Melissa Bean , 9th CD Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Cook County Commissioners Tony Peraica [R-Riverside] and Forrest Claypool [D-Chicago] and many, many more pols on our video podcast page[Watch here].
***************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Living wage-- Were you the lead person pushing that?

Ald. Joe Moore: I was a lead sponsor. I had a number of co-sponsors, and, as I indicated, about two thirds of the City Council supported a living wage ordinance for workers at big-box retailers.

Jeff Berkowitz: “Big box,” that would be Target, who else?

Ald. Moore: The ordinance applied to any retail establishment with 75,000 square feet or more in retail space. So that covered the Wal-Marts, Targets, Home Depots, the leading stores in the retail industry.

Jeff Berkowitz: And that would ratchet, essentially, the minimum wage for employees working in those stores, from the current state minimum wage, which is $6.50 an hour, to $10.00, by the year 2010.

Ald. Moore: By the year 2010.

Jeff Berkowitz: Plus $3 in benefits, so that’s $13 an hour.

Ald. Moore: That’s $10 in wages, and the equivalent of $3 in benefits.

Jeff Berkowitz: So that’s almost doubling the [6.50 Illinois] minimum wage in the City of Chicago for Big Box stores, because there is no minimum as to benefits.

Ald. Moore: Well, this ordinance was going to be phased in over the next few years. [The living wage law in Chicago was vetoed by Mayor Daley and the City Council failed, earlier this year, in its effort to override the Mayor]. And, what we did was we took what one of the big-box retailers pays their employees today—which is Costco. Costco pays their employees a starting wage of $10 an hour and actually provides more than $3 an hour in benefits. So the idea was, if Costco can afford to do this, and they are a profitable business—they earned over a billion dollars in profit last year—and they provide consumers with good products at affordable prices—if they could do it, then the other guys could, as well. And we wanted to use Costco as the standard, rather than one of the other big-box retailers who are paying their employees subsistence wages, and not providing them with any benefits, or providing them with very few benefits.

Jeff Berkowitz: Did you take some economics along the way, when you were doing your undergraduate work and law school?

Ald. Moore: I did, indeed.

Jeff Berkowitz: And, you learned something about the free market, right?

Ald. Moore: I sure did. And I also learned about the need for government occasionally to step in, to curb the excesses of the free market. The minimum wage has been in effect in this nation since the 1930s. And many of the economists of the 1930s warned that the minimum wage would cost jobs and lead to economic calamity. As a matter of fact, having a minimum wage in place has helped to rebuild the economy out of the depression of the 1930s and has provided the economic stimulus that has led to the greatest economic expansion this world has ever seen in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

Jeff Berkowitz: Well, I think the overwhelming majority of economists would say that’s not the case…there are a number of economists who favor a minimum wage and a number who disagree-who would oppose it. I think the majority would oppose it…but what you said was that the minimum wage was responsible for bringing this country out of the great depression?

Ald. Joe Moore: Well—

Jeff Berkowitz: I mean I don’t think there is an economist worth his salt who would say that-

Ald. Joe Moore: I beg to differ—

Jeff Berkowitz: Give me [the name of] a Nobel Prize Laureate [in economics] who would say that.

Ald. Joe Moore: I would challenge you to look at the facts.
************************************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Do you know about the law of Demand? You have heard that expression in economics?

Ald. Joe Moore: The laws of supply and demand?

Jeff Berkowitz: No, there is a law of supply; there is a law of demand. Then, there are laws of supply and demand. But, the law of demand simply says that at higher prices, people want less [of something] and at lower prices, people want more. That’s what we call a demand curve in economics. Graphically, we would say there is a line that slopes downward to the right if we were graphing it [a negative slope]. Do you believe in general in the Law of Demand- that at higher prices, people buy less and at lower prices, they buy more?

Ald. Moore: Well,

Jeff Berkowitz: Joe Moore, do you believe in that? They buy more [at lower prices]?

Ald. Moore: Well, I think as a general principle, that may work.

Jeff Berkowitz: Okay, all right. There you go. There you go.

Ald. Moore: But, there are other factors you have to look into. If we wanted to have automobiles cost a lot less, then maybe we should pay automobile workers a minimum wage.

Jeff Berkowitz: No, their wages are set by the market.

Ald. Moore: Henry Ford knew something. He was a capitalist.

Jeff Berkowitz: Yes, yes.

Ald. Moore: He knew that if you paid your workers a decent wage, they’d go out and buy cars.

Jeff Berkowitz: He paid them a market wage- their marginal product was [equal to their wage]. And, there are people who aren’t very skilled. It’s sad, but true. And, if you take someone who is not very skilled and, say, their marginal product [per hour] is seven dollars, and the government requires that employers pay that person ten dollars, they are going to be unemployed at $10/hour, as opposed to employed at $7/hour. And, the group of people in society on which that law falls most heavily are the people with low skills, which is correlated with low education, which is correlated with race. So, you are outpricing low skilled, low income blacks [and Hispanics], and you are benefiting high skilled, high income whites [the competitors to minorities for those jobs]. You understand that?

Ald. Joe Moore: Jeff, you are generally a political conservative. Don’t conservatives believe in the value of hard work?

Jeff Berkowitz: Of course.

Ald. Joe Moore: Of course you do. Shouldn’t hard work be valued? Shouldn’t we reward hard work with at least paying someone a wage on which they can at least support their families?

Jeff Berkowitz: But, the labor theory of value went out [of favor] about two hundred years ago [Ed. Note: See Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations]. Currently, we understand, from economics that work and skills are valued by demand and supply. If we want to help those people-- and Joe, I don’t doubt for a minute that you do, I know you are sincere-- but if you really want to help those relatively low skilled minorities, go out and figure out ways to improve their skills. [Then], the free market will reward them and give them higher wages, which is a good segue into our next topic, which is education. What are the Chicago Public Schools doing to improve the quality of education, especially for minorities, since about 85% of the kids in the public schools in Chicago are minorities, right?
***********************************************
From this week's suburban airing on Public Affairs of Chicago Ald. Joe Moore [D-Rogers Park, 49th Ward], recorded on November 5, 2006, as it is airing tonight and this week in 35 Chicago Metro suburbs on Comcast Cable.
*********************************************************
In twenty-five North Shore, North and Northwest suburbs, the "Public Affairs," show airs tonight in the regular weekly Public Affairs slot, 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 or 35, as indicated, below.

In ten North Shore suburbs, the show is also airing in its regular airing slot at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 this week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, as indicated, below.
******************************************************
The suburban episode of Public Affairs, featuring Chicago Ald. Joe Moore [D-49th Ward], airs tonight:

at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette

And at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.

and Monday night, Wednesday night and Friday night at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.
****************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************

Monday, November 13, 2006

Better than Monday night Football: McCain Streaming

Tonight’s City of Chicago edition of “Public Affairs,” [8:30 pm, Cable 21, throughout the City of Chicago] features Senator John McCain, speaking and answering questions at a fundraiser for 8th CD Republican candidate David McSweeney. Although the small portion of the show that relates to the 8th CD race, won last week by about 7000 votes by first term Democrat incumbent Melissa Bean [Barrington], is not very relevant at this point, the primary portion of the show, which relates to Senator McCain, is quite relevant.

[You can also go here to watch tonight's show, as well as other shows with Obama, McCain, Schakowsky, Bean, McSweeney, Scheurer, Radogno, Peraica, Stroger, Blagojevich, Topinka and many, many others].

To read more about the show and for a partial transcript of Senator McCain's and David McSweeney's comments, go here. For an additional partial transcript of Senator McCain's comments, see below.

Senator McCain [R-AZ] is currently the frontrunner to lead the Republican Presidential ticket in 2008, should he decide to seek that position. Odds are that Senator McCain, now 70 years young, will run for President and odds are that he will announce that shortly after Thanksgiving. Senator McCain had a 22 year naval career, starting with his graduation from the Naval Academy. He was well decorated in the military with a number of honors, including the Purple Heart, and he retired as a Captain [See here].

A year after he retired from the navy, McCain was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives, and four years later, he moved over to the Senate, taking Barry Goldwater’s [“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”] seat when he retired.

As Democratic campaign consultant Pete Giangreco, a veteran of six presidential campaigns and even more episodes of “Public Affairs,” will tell you—If one is going to run for President, he or she needs troops on the ground in Iowa by December, 2006. Having told us that the U. S. made a mistake by going into Iraq with too few troops, and that that mistake should be remedied right now— 5 ½ year POW McCain will not send too few troops into Iowa, nor will he be tardy in getting those “boots on the ground.”

Old naval aviators never die, they just continue to seek new leadership positions-- in this case a run for President.
************************************************
Question from audience: We have friends in California who are telling us hospital emergency rooms are shutting down. Also, a cousin is an emergency room doctor in Arizona-who tells us because illegal immigrant [patients] can’t afford to pay, it is hurting the entire public. What can and should be done about that situation?

Senator John McCain: Secure the border, secure the border, secure the border [big time applause from the seventy, or so, David McSweeney/John McCain supporters in attendance], but you also need a temporary workeryou may not like the second part of the answer—you gotta have a temporary worker program and you gotta do something about the twelve million people who are here illegally. You can’t just leave them washing around America. Some of them have been here forty or fifty years, some came yesterday. And, to think they are all just going to go away just because we secure the border—and by the way, we can’t seal the border—ask the Israelis, they will tell you that you can’t seal the border.

Senator John McCain [Cont.]: So, this idea that somehow we are just going to seal the border—we’ve also got a northern border. David [McSweeney] made mention that three of the nineteen [on 9/11] came across the northern border, not the southern border, okay? So, we need to secure the border, we need to secure the border, we need to secure the border, but don’t think that that’s the only answer. It’s foolish to think that somehow—and by the way—according to our Constitution, someone who is born here is automatically a citizen [aka an anchor child]. I’m not interested in calling a soldier fighting in Iraq and telling him I’m deporting his parents who have been here forty or fifty years. Okay?

Senator McCain [Cont.]: And, also, finally, finally, speaking as a Republican, we better be careful how we handle this issue. There is a very large bloc vote out there called the Hispanic voter and they don’t like illegal immigration, either. But, they want this issue handled with some sensitivity—as the Irish wanted it handled, as the Italians wanted it handled, as the Poles wanted it handled, and every other wave of immigrants that has come to our country, so I hope that we can stop this illegal immigration—Arizona has it worse than anybody and we’ve got to secure the borders and a lot of that by the way is not a fence. A lot of this is UAVs, sensors, more border control, boots on the ground [like Iraq] and those kind of things because there are trackless parts of Arizona desert. Build a fence? So what. They will dig under it if there is nobody there to enforce it. So, a UAV can cover a couple hundred miles of a border and you can detect them and then dispatch a strike force to apprehend them. That’s an effective way to-- [The "Public Affairs," program with Sen. McCain concludes].
*****************************************
Senator John McCain, speaking and answering questions at a lunchtime fundraiser for 8th CD Republican candidate David McSweeney at the Chicago Club on October 30, 2006, and as is airing, almost in its entirety, tonight as the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV]. [You can also go here to watch tonight's show, as well as other shows with Obama, McCain, Schakowsky, Bean, McSweeney, Scheurer, Radogno, Peraica, Stroger, Blagojevich, Topinka and many, many others].
***************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************

Friday, November 03, 2006

Watch 6th CD candidates Roskam-Duckworth streaming

Missed the WBEZ Chicago Public Radio 6th CD Sen. Peter Roskam [R-Wheaton] and Tammy Duckworth [D-Hoffman Estates] Debate? Not to worry, you can go to the Illinois Channel [Click on the picture of Roskam] to watch key excerpts of both the debate and press conferences that followed the debate, which first aired as a twenty-seven minute segment of Steve Edward's popular magazine format Chicago Public Radio "Eight Forty-Eight" program, which is on every weekday, at 9:00 am.

Go here for partial transcripts of the debate and pressers and for links to posts that discuss the debate and take you to the WBEZ audio library, where you can listen to the debate in its entirety.

Further, the above referenced excerpts of the WBEZ 6th CD debate and pressers will soon be posted, as well, on the "Public Affairs," podcast page[You can now watch Obama, McCain, McSweeney, Scheurer, Bean, Radogno, Peraica, Stroger, Blagojevich, Topinka and many, many others here].
********************************************************

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Giangreco and Berkowitz on cable: 6th, 8th and 10th CD Predictions

Jeff Berkowitz: There is no way that you can tell me that Tammy Duckworth would have been the [Democratic] candidate [in the 6th CD], but for Rahm Emanuel, Dick Durbin and Barack Obama supporting her. It would be Christine Cegelis, who sat in your chair [on this set] many times, who won the Democratic Primary previously [2004] and who almost won this Primary.

Pete Giangreco: It wasn’t all that close.

Jeff Berkowitz: She was two or three points away [about 1200 votes].

Pete Giangreco: Tammy Duckworth won the primary for a lot of reasons. I think she will win the General Election.

Jeff Berkowitz: But, her independence is an issue. That is all I am saying.

Pete Giangreco: As the Tribune said, she is going to shake up these comfy politicians in Washington. The Pioneer Press. The Sun-Times. The Daily Herald [all endorsed her]. The Daily Herald and the Chicago Tribune, these are Republican papers.

Jeff Berkowitz: Not any more.

Pete Giangreco: No, the Tribune has never endorsed a Democratic candidate for President.

Jeff Berkowitz: Yeah, President. But, once you get past that office, they deviate all the time.

Pete Giangreco: They have not endorsed a Democratic candidate for Governor since Pearl Harbor. This is a Republican newspaper.

Jeff Berkowitz: They are unlikely to endorse anybody who is Pro-Life-- so how Republican can they be? Other than for President.

Pete Giangreco: They endorsed Henry Hyde.

Jeff Berkowitz: Well, incumbents. They endorsed Cong. Bobby Rush, probably. They endorse incumbents.
********************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: [in the 10th CD], I am saying Kirk wins this 55 to 45 %. It’s a better race for Seals [than the Dem. Candidates in 02 and 04], but it is still Kirk’s seat. You agree?

Pete Giangreco: No, I don’t. I think Seals has a shot.

Jeff Berkowitz: So, you are predicting Seals will win?

Pete Giangreco: I think it is going to be very close.
***********************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Let’s go over to the 8th CD, I’m saying McSweeney comes back. He has been for the Bush tax cuts. He says you have got to make them permanent.

Pete Giangreco: So does Bean.

Jeff Berkowitz: No, she doesn’t want to make them permanent or she won’t say what her position is on them. She is now backing away on the war. I am saying he wins that race in a very close race.

Pete Giangreco: You’re saying McSweeney wins that race?

Jeff Berkowitz: Six percent goes to Bill Scheurer [The third party anti-CAFTA and anti-War candidate, who lost to Bean in 2004 Democratic Primary] and that hurts Bean.

Pete Giangreco: Bean wins in a walk.

Jeff Berkowitz: The Democratic Congressional Campaign committee did a poll [two months ago], but they didn’t tell folks, although they told me, that Scheurer got 6%. If Scheurer gets 6%, then there is 94% left for Bean and McSweeney, I think McSweeney wins by a point or two. [Ed. note, Scheurer was up to 8 percent in last week's Daily Herald/ ABC-7 poll, which has the race as a statistical tie].

Pete Giangreco: She is up double digits. She wins in a walk.

Jeff Berkowitz: [in the Sixth CD] Roskam squeaks by 54 to 46.

Pete Giangreco: Oh, my God, there is no chance he gets to 54. I say …it’s Duckworth by a thousand votes.

Jeff Berkowitz: By a thousand votes. Close.

Pete Giangreco: Very close.
*****************************************************
Pete Giangreco, Democratic Campaign Consultant and partner at The Strategy Grooup, joins Jeff Berkowitz tonight and Friday night for predictions and analysis of the 6th, 8th and 10th CD races. See below for the suburban air schedule of Public Affairs for this episode of Public Affairs, which was taped on October 29, 2006.
********************************************************
This episode of Public Affairs airs this week on Monday night, Wednesday night and Friday night at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.
****************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************