Daily Archives: February 18, 2010

League of Women Voters, State of Illinois

Redistricting reform effort kicks off Saturday

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From a press release:

PEORIA — The Illinois Fair Map Amendment will be the subject of a rally and talk at 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 20 at Childers Banquet Center at 3113 Dries Lane at Forrest Hill in Peoria.

The event officially begins the central Illinois drive to collect petitions to place the amendment proposal on the November election ballot. If approved by the voters, it will require that redistricting for the Illinois General Assembly by conducted by an independent commission, and not the legislators themselves, as occurs now.

Speakers will be Jan Czarnik and Brad McMillan.

Czarnik is executive director of the Illinois League of Women Voters. She is an expert in election law and worked to pass Illinois early voting and deputy registrar laws. McMillan, a former aide to Cong. Ray LaHood, now directs the Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Studies at Bradley University.

Petitions will be available for signing and for passing. The League, in a coalition with other groups in Illinois, hopes to gain 500,000 signatures by April 1 to place the proposal on the ballot.

This a meeting where breakfast is optional, at about $10. The sponsor of the event, the Greater Peoria League of Women Voters will appreciate reservations, which can be made by calling 309/674-5313 or sending an email to ehopkins7@prodigy.net.

The event is free and open to the public and the press. Information on the amendment is available at www.ilfairmap.com.

Peoria Public Schools

Finalist arrives to greet press, sees shadow; five more months of interim

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Like a shooting star, the finalist for Superintendent of Peoria Public Schools District 150 made a very brief public appearance Tuesday:

At a brief event billed as a “meet and greet” between Peoria School District 150’s finalist for school superintendent and members of the media, Grenita Lathan called on the community to get behind the city’s schools…. Lathan took no questions from the media Tuesday during the event, leaving after reading her minute-and-a-half speech.

That’s right. District 150 invited all the press down for a big “meet and greet,” and it consisted of the finalist coming in, reading a 90-second statement, then quickly leaving the room without taking any questions. No meeting. No greeting. Just reading and running.

*sigh*

You know, I really don’t go looking for negative things to say about District 150. In fact, I’ve been trying to be very positive about this whole superintendent search, and I’m still hopeful that Ms. Lathan will bring some stability and lots of improvement to the district.

But what exactly was the point of this falsely-advertised non-event? To tick off the press corp? To damage trust? To reinforce the culture of stonewalling and non-transparency they’ve worked so hard to establish? What? If all they wanted was to share a short statement and not take questions, why didn’t they just send out a press release and save everyone a bunch of time?

Also of note, citizen journalist Billy Dennis was denied entry to the press conference. From his description, it sounds like they spent more time arguing with him than the superintendent finalist spent reading her statement. I’m guessing this was just an attempt to make sure everyone went away disappointed.

I hope this is not indicative of district communication under a Lathan administration.