Monday, April 02, 2007

Better than Florida V. Ohio State: A Post Seder rumble with Peraica v. Quigley, Cable and Streaming, asking their own Four Questions.

Mike Quigley: There was no flip of the vote. We passed a third measure and you’re just spinning: this is Tony Peraica launching his 2010 race for President of the County Board.
*****************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Just on reform issues, Mike, on economic issues, that you pushed for four years by yourself—and then four years with Peraica, Claypool and Suffredin—if you had to choose on those issues between Todd Stroger and Tony Peraica, who would you go with?
************************************************************
Tony Peraica: ... This [County Board Vote in favor of the Stroger budget] happened at about 1:00 am and Larry Msall [Civic Federation] wasn’t at my left hand to ask questions about what we were going to do. The fact of the matter is--

Jeff Berkowitz: Liz Gorman [Cook County Commissioner (R-Orland Park) and Republican Cook County Chairman] now is citing the Civic Federation as saying that the Stroger budget she voted for was okay.

Tony Peraica: Liz Gorman, please. Let’s not go there.
****************************************************
Tonight's City of Chicago edition of "Public Affairs," features Cook County Commissioners Tony Peraica [R-Riverside] and Mike Quigley [D-Chicago], previously allies as one half of the Four Horsemen on the Cook County Board-- but now at odds with each other over Commissioner Quigley's decision to join with President Stroger, et al on his 2007 Budget. Quigley and Peraica discuss and debate whether the Alternative Budget was balanced, whether too many patronage jobs were kept in Stroger's budget at the expense of frontline workers and much, much more with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.You may also [Go Here to watch the "Public Affairs," show with Peraica and Quigley, this week's suburban "Public Affairs," show with Illinois Chief Operating Officer John Filan as well as other shows with such notables as Schakowsky, Obama, McCain, Giuliani, Barrett, Syverson and many others on your computer; .
******************************************
Go here for more about tonight's show and another partial transcipt of the show.
*************************************************
The "Public Affairs," cinema page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five episodes of “Public Affairs," to watch on your computer , including interviews, discussions or remarks with or by U. S. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani and many, many more pols on our video podcast page[Go Here to Watch the Shows on your computer; you can drag the dial on the bottom of the screen to watch only portions of the thirty minute shows].
***************************************************
Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley [D-Chicago]:… Let me tell you when you get something like that for the Forest Preserve, in exchange for what they did, it is at least getting something back for the public.

Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica [R-Riverside]: There is no guarantee that that’s going to happen. That’s wishful thinking.

Mike Quigley: It’s going to happen. In fifteen years, in a hundred years, that land will be open for kids to play on…

Tony Peraica: Is that the reason why you flipped your vote?

Mike Quigley: There was no flip of the vote. We passed a third measure and you’re just spinning: this is Tony Peraica launching his 2010 race for President of the County Board.

Tony Peraica: [Laughter]

Mike Quigley: It is now—

Jeff Berkowitz: Would that be bad, Mike? Don’t you agree with Tony Peraica a lot on reform? You were supporting Todd Stroger [but] would you rather see, in terms of reform issues--

Mike Quigley: If he [Tony] were President of the County Board, I would work with him, too.

Jeff Berkowitz: But on reform issues—put aside the social issues, I know they are important to you--

Mike Quigley: I work with him on those two.

Jeff Berkowitz: Just on reform issues, Mike, on economic issues, that you pushed for four years by yourself—and then four years with Peraica, Claypool and Suffredin—if you had to choose on those issues between Todd Stroger and Tony Peraica, who would you go with?

Mike Quigley: I’m not going to make that choice now because there is no race

Tony Peraica: [Laughter].

Mike Quigley: But, let me just tell you--

Jeff Berkowitz: Make that choice.

Mike Quigley: [Jeff], these folks restored political jobs for their budget. Don’t give them a duck on this.

Jeff Berkowitz: Who are “these folks.”

Mike Quigley: These are folks that called—

Jeff Berkowitz: When you say, “these folks restored,” which folks are you talking about?

Mike Quigley: The commissioners supporting the Alternative Budget.

Jeff Berkowitz: Who are they? Just name them. Who are they?

Mike Quigley: All the ones supporting the—

Jeff Berkowitz: Claypool, you are saying?

Mike Quigley: Absolutely.

Jeff Berkowitz: Peraica, you are saying?

Mike Quigley: Yes.

Jeff Berkowitz: Suffredin, you are saying?

Mike Quigley: Yes.

Jeff Berkowitz: Schneider, you are saying?

Mike Quigley: Yes, don’t—[Tony], you’re going to tell people that no Democratic Committeeman, no Republican Committeeman had their folks in— You didn’t see Commissioner Murphy go in there and say we have to restore these jobs and these jobs. You didn’t hear Larry Suffredin say, “Mr. [Illinois House Speaker Mike] Madigan wants us to restore these jobs.”

Tony Peraica: No, I didn’t. I didn’t.

Mike Quigley: Well, he said that in front of a lot of folks.

Tony Peraica: You know more than I do.

Mike Quigley: So, this [the alternative County Budget] is a political document, as ours was.

Jeff Berkowitz: I think both of you might agree there are problems with both of them [the budget and Alternative Budget], but Peraica is arguing that there are 400-500 positions there [in the Todd Stroger budget] that shouldn’t be there—that could be used to fill front line positions. Are you saying unequivocally that’s wrong?

Mike Quigley: I am saying they are factually wrong and because they wouldn’t say no to anybody, their budget was 90 million dollars short—

Tony Peraica: No, no.

Mike Quigley: It was an illegal budget.

Jeff Berkowitz: Address that issue, Tony.

Tony Peraica: Listen, we built into our omnibus budget amendment a 2 ½% turnover adjustment. Last year in the 2006 budget, we had a 3% turnover adjustment.

Jeff Berkowitz: What does that mean in terms of dollars?

Tony Peraica: It means about 65 to 70 million dollars [of the budget will not be spent because at any point in time 2 ½% of the positions are not filled]

Jeff Berkowitz: So, most of that budget hole is taken care of by that--you are saying?

Tony Peraica: Exactly. Exactly. Which was less than that—it was less than what we provided for by turnover adjustment. This is an acknowledgment of the reality that in any budget in a government of the size of 26,000 people that Cook County has, you are never going to fill 100% of the allocated positions 100% of the time.

Jeff Berkowitz: Did you tell Lawrence Msall of the Civic Federation—

Tony Peraica: Of course, of course.

Jeff Berkowitz: What did he say when you told him about this.

Tony Peraica: We didn’t discuss the particular point, but our budget is there. —

Jeff Berkowitz: It’s a pretty big point.

Tony Peraica: It was in black and white. We didn’t hide anything.

Jeff Berkowitz: He [Msall] is saying that’s why the Civic Federation is opposed to the Alternative Budget. Did you argue with him and say he shouldn’t even—

Tony Peraica: No, we didn’t even discuss it. This [County Board Vote in favor of the Stroger budget] happened at about 1:00 am and Larry Msall wasn’t at my left hand to ask questions about what we were going to do. The fact of the matter is--

Jeff Berkowitz: Liz Gorman [Cook County Commissioner (R-Orland Park) and Republican Cook County Chairman] now is citing the Civic Federation as saying that the Stroger budget she voted for was okay.

Tony Peraica: Liz Gorman, please. Let’s not go there.
**********************************************
Tony Peraica and Mike Quigley, as they are airing tonight on Public Affairs [8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21, CANTV] on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs. The show was recorded on March 18, 2007. You may also[watch the show with Cook County Commissioners Peraica and Quigley here].
***************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************