By The Illinois Reform Commission
Editor’s Note: Next week we’ll post a five-part series excerpting the final report from the Illinois Reform Commission. We don’t necessarily endorse all parts of the report, but offer it up as a starting point to generate support for bringing real structural change to Illinois’s sordid political culture. Today we start with the Executive Summary. The rest begins on Monday.
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CHAPTER 1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
I. Introduction
In January, 2009, while late-night comics were heaping national scorn on Illinois in the wake of the arrest of then-Governor Blagojevich, then-Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn established the Illinois Reform Commission. Our mandate was as straightforward as it was daunting: recommend meaningful ethics reform for the State of Illinois in 100 days.
We recruited accomplished and independent men and women from a diverse variety of backgrounds to form a citizens’ commission. We enthusiastically answered this call to serve, some of us with extensive prior involvement in government, others with virtually none.
Although we were mostly strangers before this Commission brought us together, we shared an overarching desire to contribute to solving this unprecedented integrity crisis.
We undertook our task as a team with one singular purpose: to devote energy, insight and passion to seize the moment on behalf of the people of Illinois.
As we complete our 100-day journey, we are proposing meaningful reforms – virtually all of which other governmental institutions have implemented – to bring about an end to some of the insidious corruption that has pervaded this State for far too long.
Along with these legal and operational reforms, we are issuing a clarion call for a change of attitude in how we view our democracy.

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Posted on April 30, 2009

By Steve Balkin
The tradition of having an Olympics hosted in one city is outdated. The Olympics has grown too large to be hosted in any one city – with more than 10,000 athletes participating in 33 sports, in 400 events covered by 20,000 journalists and with millions of attendees.
According to the Olympic Charter, “The goal of the Olympics is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.” Harmonious means not just harmony between athletes but also harmony of the Games with the environment and local residents in the host cities.
Single-city hosting is inconsistent with the third pillar of the Olympics, protecting the environment. Constructing and maintaining additional buildings, using up parkland, high congestion, and the logistics of accommodating huge influx of visitors lead to environmental damage. Single-city hosting endangers the other two pillars, sport and culture (we can’t run and sing if we can’t breathe and drink the water). The environmental goal is derived from the generally agreed upon public policy principles of sustainable development: ecological balance, economic security, and social equity.
The Chicago Olympic bid could have been done in a way that seriously recognized environmental sustainability. It would have been good public policy and it would have given Chicago an edge to win. Rather than add to the economic and social problems of sport monopolization with its winner-take-all philosophy, Chicago could have been a global leader on how to manage big events that will be environmentally and socially friendly. Chicago could have emulated Beijing not in deed but in rhetoric in promoting a “Green, High-tech and People’s Olympics.”
If Chicago’s Olympic bid were truly a community-wide effort instead of a City Hall creation, ideas like the ten principles I will suggest below could have strengthened the city’s chances of winning the bid – or at least ensured that if we do, the Games will be mutually beneficial to Chicago and the rest of the Midwest.
Here are ten ideas that would have gone a long way toward creating a new-style Olympics consistent with the realities of contemporary urban life in the 21st Century, through a democratic, sustainable, and socially just Olympics. It’s too late now, but these ideas show just how deficient Chicago’s bid is, and how short-sighted civic leaders were when they left the public out of the planning process.
This is the bid we could have had:

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Posted on April 24, 2009

By Sam Singer
Just as I began to warm to the image of our former governor perched on a tree stump in the middle of the jungle, his face grimy and smeared with war paint, his balance wavering, it occurred to me: Will a court really let Blagojevich skip to Costa Rica to star in a “Survivor-like” reality TV series weeks before standing trial in a massive corruption case?

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Posted on April 16, 2009

By Housing Action Illinois
Housing Wage is $17.17 for Two-Bedroom Apartment
Chicago – According to a report released Tuesday, the Housing Wage for the state of Illinois is $17.17 for a two-bedroom apartment, while the average wage a renter in Illinois earns is $15.33.
The Housing Wage is the hourly wage a family must earn working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment renting for $893 – the average rent in Illinois. The Housing Wage in Illinois has increased 32.5% since 2000.

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Posted on April 15, 2009

Hope you enjoyed your visit!
Now let’s review.
1. IOC MEETS WITH NO GAMES CHICAGO
Organization Details City and State Budget Deficits, Corruption, and History of Construction Boondoggles
CHICAGO, April 7 – Members of No Games Chicago met today at the Fairmont Hotel with six representatives of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Following a number of actions aimed at pressuring the IOC to take note of community disapproval of the bid, the 30-minute meeting occurred on the last day of the IOC’s review of Chicago as potential host city.

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Posted on April 8, 2009

PUBLIC TO RALLY AGAINST CORRUPTION IN ILLINOIS POLITICS
Public, Civic, Business, Non-Profit, Philanthropic & Religious Groups to Converge in Chicago to CHANGE Illinois!
WHAT: On the heels of the indictment of former Governor, Rod Blagojevich, CHANGE Illinois! is holding a public rally calling for lawmakers to put an end to the culture of corruption. Voters, civic, business, non-profit, union and religious groups are set to gather in downtown Chicago, outside the Thompson Center, to say “Enough is
enough” – take big money out of Illinois politics by establishing campaign contribution limits!

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Posted on April 7, 2009

Dear Members of the International Olympic Committee:

Welcome – again – to the City of Chicago. Other than maybe forgetting to pick up a snow globe with the Sears Tower inside at the airport gift shop last time, I’m not exactly sure why you’re here a second time within a year or so. But I’m a fun guy, so I’m not going to raise a stink over anyone with enough clout to score a pleasant trip halfway around the world on someone else’s American Express card. You’re living the American Dream – having the rich, the powerful, and the beautiful cater to your every whim on someone else’s dime . . . and you’re not even American! So rock on, IOC folks! You’re without question the envy of anyone here who still has a job. We’re only a month or two into our nation’s hopeless slide into the abyss of socialism, so soak up whatever we still have left of the good life while you can.

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Posted on April 3, 2009

By The Beachwood Bid Bureau

In three parts.
1. I’m not here to tell you how paying for the games would cripple my hometown – if you want that, see chicagoreader.com/2016_olympics. This letter is about your needs, not ours. I’m here to tell you some things about Chicago you’ll never hear from Mayor Daley, who’s acting like a used-car salesman, trying to sell you an old beater without letting you look under the hood.”
– Ben Joravsky in his Open Letter to the IOC

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Posted on April 2, 2009

By The Illinois Campaign For Political Reform
LOBBYISTS PAID $6 MILLION IN GOVERNMENT FUNDS TO INFLUENCE STATE GOVERNMENT
But Private Sector Spending on Lobbying Remains a Secret in Illinois
CHICAGO – Local governments and public agencies spent more than $6 million to hire professional lobbyists to influence Illinois state government last year, according to a report released Tuesday by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
The non-partisan organization calculated the price tag after analyzing FY2008 lobbying contracts awarded by 115 municipalities, transit agencies, public universities and other units of government which were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

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Posted on April 1, 2009

By The Beachwood Bureau of Employment Affairs
Hopefully GM chief Rick Wagoner was just the start. Here’s who we hope the president fires next.
* Jim Hendry. For one of the all-time worst trios of outfielder contracts (Alfonso Soriano, Kosuke Fukudome, Milton Bradley).
* Bill Gates. Because Windows still sucks.
* Howard Schultz. Because Starbucks’ coffee still tastes like burnt toast.

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Posted on March 31, 2009