74 thoughts on “Case against Ardis — substantive or political?”

1. So Cj what do you think, Using his office and city logo to forward a political person or a stand on a issue is OK? If so let the games begin, all council persons, treasurer, city clerk, on and on can use there office and city logo to promote anyone and anything since they are not an “employee” just elected. Putting the city logo on a letter infers city support or sponsorship.

2. Ardis and Vespa should have known better.
   Consider the implications of this: you get the letter, and think… “uh oh… I better pay up.” That is, if you ever want a contract, a job for yourself or a relative, a zoning issue resolved, etc.

   Is this pay to play? Didn’t Blago get in big trouble for the same thing?

3. Neither you nor Ardis may be attorneys, but Vespa is. And now he wants to be a judge. Scary! Elaine is right! Both of them should have known better!

4. Elaine, why wouldn’t you also give the the same critique to the Obama Administration, who flies around the country on Air Force One promoting only DEMOCRAT candidates. Ardis action was zero cost to the taxpayer, Obama costs us billions. Also, Spanos sits on a school board and a large part of his supporters are his teachers in the same District. Is that pay to play? I wonder how one of them would feel if they visibly did not support the candidate that had power over their very employment. This seems like a MUCH larger can of worms, as my guess is that human nature would have them (the teachers) expecting some kind of pay back for their support. Pekin taxpayers grab your wallets. In fact maybe they already got it cause I was told they had the best contract ever the year Spanos was prez of the school board. Also, Spanos recently had a commercial on TV where a teacher in the same district, Camille McCarty, was praising Spanos for his work with children. She was identified as a teacher in this commercial. Spanos is technically one of her superiors. Doesn’t look right to me. Look into that will you, Elaine?

5. I don’t get the hullabaloo. City officials endorse candidates all the time. Ardis IS the Mayor, and it appears the city ordinance doesn’t apply to him since I don’t think people in general would consider him an “employee”. Seems likely its the last ditch efforts of a desperate opponent.

6. Legal or illegal it’s poor judgement by both men. I try not to vote for poor judgement.

7. deebie47 sez: “Legal or illegal it’s poor judgement by both men. I try not to vote for poor judgement.”

   I sez: Which two men? Ardis and who? I don’t see the Vespa campaign directly involved, here.
   Ardis “paid for the copies, envelopes and postage and the city letterhead was from a Word document on his home computer,”
   This did not come directly from the Vespa campaign.
   Now, it is probable that the Vespa campaign asked Ardis to send out a letter of support. Still, I don’t see anything that says the Vespa campaign told Ardis to use letterhead or that they actually saw the letter before Ardis dropped them in the mailbox.
   Maybe they did – but don’t see that in CJ’s post or in the PJS article, anywhere.

8. What About This?,

   Since you are being critical about the Obama Admin campaiging for Dems, can I also assume you were equally critical of the Bush Admin for doing the same thing for Republicans?

   Besides who payed for the paper Ardis’s letter was printed on? Printer Ink? Postage? Ha!

9. The way I see it, if Mayor Ardis’s regular payroll paychecks are signed by the City of Peoria, he’s a city employee.

   That being said though, there’s a big difference between a janitor at City Hall soliciting for funds on City letterhead and the Mayor doing a little political fundraising. Most politicians do use their clout to try to get other politicians elected, easy as that.

   It’s mostly a matter of semantics. If Ardis writes a letter as the Mayor of the City of Peoria, I think of it as a private citizen who happens to be the Mayor soliciting endorsements for a politician. If, on the other hand, Ardis wrote the letter intending to officially represent the City of Peoria and saying that the City government as a whole endorses the candidate, then that’s a different ball of wax.

   Sounds like he did this on his own time, from his own home, without using City resources (other than the City seal on his home computer’s letterhead). It’s probably a pretty stupid thing to do as most local residents already know who Mayor Ardis is, no need for City letterhead, but ultimately I think it’s a non-issue.

10. Sigh. So I guess NV thinks it’s ok that Obama is running around wasting taxpayer dollars campaigning only for one party when he is supposed to be the president for ALL Americans. nice logic. i guess it works if it involves the political party you happen to like. As for me I don’t like it regardless of which party it is. And regarding the Ardis thing, I like Ardis but I agree that ignorance is no defense. He or at the very least Vespa, should have known better! And Vespa wants to be a judge? There’s usually some reason why judicial candidates score low in bar polls.

11. NV asked “who payed for the paper Ardis’s letter was printed on? Printer Ink? Postage?

    The article already adressed this question:

    “He noted he paid for the copies, envelopes and postage and the city letterhead was from a Word document on his home computer.”

12. What I really like about CJ is that he has looked at this issue in a very objective way, even though he obviously is not a big fan of Mayor Ardis. We ought to all be able to do that….

13. What About This? Every President has traveled around the country, on Air Force One campaigning for candidates of their party. Amazing how you were able to turn around an issue with the Mayor of Peoria and put blame on President Obama.

    I don’t think the mayor did anything illegal, but I do not think he should be using city letterhead for anything but city business, even if it was just a copy of the letterhead.

14. I was going to comment about how obvious it is that the mayor shouldn’t have done this, but after looking at the ordinance online I have to agree with you CJ. This is confusing and so unclear. The PJS article tries to link two sections together and a reference to state law. The section 2-341 that refers to officers doesn’t seem to apply to the section you cited, 2-336.

    This supports the argument that there are too many laws and too many regulations.

15. Wow. What gets me is how many people, regardless of the vagueness of the law, just don’t appreciate the error of Ardis’ ways.

    Whether it be a philosophical argument or not, it is an important one that seems to be missing.

    And I think it is clear what he was doing – he was trying to use the city of Peoria as an endorsement, otherwise he would have signed his own title on his own personal letterhead.

    But the part that really bothers me is his arrogance when called on it. It is clearly an above the law type attitude and how it’s not for him.

16. I wonder if the Vespa campaign even requested his endorsment, if that is the campaign they are not naming? Vespa doesn’t need it and it seems like Ardis would be more of a negative than a positive.

17. “I can find no reference to the Mayor as a “city employee.””

    Let’s see… he is employed to work for the city. The city pays his salary.
    The city pays his benefits. He is listed in the city budget as administrative.. right?

    You pick the gnat sh*t out of the pepper all day long and you will still end up with a government official using his position for personal gain.

18. Well, it appears that one could argue that Spanos violated Pekin 108 School Board Policy 2:105 which states “No Board member or employee shall intentionally use any District property or resources in connection with any-political activity”. IF a District 108 teacher appeared in one of his commercials on TV, I believe it is a violation of their policy. Teachers are a resource.

19. If he knew enough to pay for the copies the envelopes and the postage, he knew he shouldn’t sign as the Mayor.

    Ignorance on this level is no defense.

20. The PJStar said it was a letter for the Vespa campaign.

    Isn’t the Mayor of Peoria ‘part-time’? This is not his sole or primary source of income.

    The Obama on Air Force One argument is a red herring.

    Does Ardis send his Christmas Newsletter to family with the letterhead? Does make grocery lists on this ‘stationery.’ It is a Word template on his home PC. It didn’t cost the city dime.
    I agree that he should have left the city logo off of a campaign letter. It’s wrong. Maybe he was just lazy or technically inept at changing templates.

    Anyway, signing it as “Jim Ardis, Mayor or Peoria” is fine.

21. Putting the city logo on a letter infers city support or sponsorship.

22. If he knew enough to pay for the copies the envelopes and the postage, he knew he shouldn’t sign as the Mayor.

23. Ardis confirmed that on Oct. 8, on paper with the city of Peoria letterhead, the city logo and “office of the Mayor” across the top, he wrote and mailed a letter requesting money for John Vespa’s campaign for 10th Judicial Circuit Judge against Democrat Chris Spanos. The letter, distributed to 200 people from Ardis’ personal campaign database, is signed by him and followed with the City Hall address.

    When first asked by the Journal Star why he sent the fundraising request on city letterhead, Ardis responded, “Because I support (Vespa). I’m the mayor. Why not?”

    … “That’s not the first time I’ve sent out letters asking for support. I use mayor letterhead for a lot of stuff,” Ardis said.

24. I have a problem believing these letters were done from his home and his computer, why should we believe that? Sounds like somebody needs emergency counciling from the local ethics expert-Brad McMillian

25. Ardis confirmed that on Oct. 8, on paper with the city of Peoria letterhead…

    October 8, was a Friday, most people hit happy hour on Fridays. Our mayor goes home to send out letters asking people to send his buddies money for their campaign. What a guy.

26. Mayor Jim Ardis is a very honest man and i feel if he thought he was breaking the law, he wouldn’t have done it , for any one .. We all make mistakes. I know i did a long time ago when i put campaign flyers in mail boxes. That is a big NO,NO, We all learn from our mistakes, God, our Mayor is human.. Cool…

27. I agree with O’Brien [gasp] but still think it’s a tea-cup tempest.

28. I can’t believe that any of this is even news worthy…..but then again, the Democrats are throwing out everything…..hoping something will stick! News Flash: Democrats are out of office come November 2nd. Making something out of nothing will not work. Jim Ardis is a man of integrity and in no way would jeopardize his position or John Vespa intentionally. Oh, by the way, Spanos’ wife is a teacher in the district that he sits on the school board. She was hired AFTER he was elected, also information found on the champion.org. He was a board member when the teachers of this district received the highest raise ever and even approved it for 5 years. 3 and a half percent raise EACH year, plus step. Now tell me that he doesn’t directly benefit from his wife’s fantastic raise. Close to 18 % raise in 5 years. NO school district in central IL has given such a good contract in the past few years….. btw, this information can be found on the district’s website…No wonder he has teachers in district 108 supporting him….wouldn’t you!

29. If you can’t blame Obama then you aren’t a wingnut. Bush flew around the country for republicans. So What? They all do it.

    Get Real: You are a wingnut. I’ll wait until Nov 3rd to see what happens. You may be surprised.

30. Better to be a winning wingnut then a losing liberal! lol There will be NO surprises, the country, including the people of the state of IL are tired of the Democrats giving away our money……we want it back and you will see that on November 2nd.

31. Getting back to CJ’s original question, this is, indeed, political.

    …and Emtronics – please go read the latest Peggy Noonan column

32. Wow, Just Commenting,

    I was merely pointing out that if you are going to be critical of Obama, you have to be critical of Bush [and every other political figure]. Don’t know where WOW gets the idea that I approve of this sort of thing just because Obama is doing it, etc…

    I was being sarcastic when I questioned who paid for Ardis’s mailings.

    I agree with most who post here… this is really a bogus issue.

33. My opinion remains that the Mayor exercised poor judgement and if Mr. Vespas campaign does not proofread literature sent on his behalf., well…that is more than poor judgement. Hopefully Mr. Lyons will use appropriate judement.

34. I found this on the Hinshaw and Culbertson website. The law firm that employs Spanos. Is this the SAME Retired Judge Richard E. Eagleton that has “endorsed” Chris Spanos? If he is, then they are lawyers working for the SAME firm. Hmmmmm. Jeesh, no wonder he “endorses” him. Kinda like me endorsing one of my buddies for an elected position. What time do we tee off fellas?

    Hinshaw and Culbertson, LLC.
    Richard E. Eagleton
    Of Counsel
    309-xxx-xxxx

35. In the whole scheme of things, this issue is a ripple that is of no consequence to the future of politics, here or anywhere else. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m sick to death of the same old rhetoric, day in and day out. It does’t matter if it’s an election year or not. Both parties act like an old married couple: they constantly bicker and carp at each other (familiarity breeds contempt), but at the end of the day, they still end up in bed together.

36. WOW. Lyons has nothing better to do? Guess he is done oiling the revolving door that lets our area criminals get back out on the streets faster than they came in.

37. here are the evaluations for judicial candidates by county so you can make your own determinations: http://www.isba.org/judicialevaluations/bycounty

    Spanos’ margin is large enough to diminish the possibility of undue influence on pollsters.

    It is astounding that the Mayor would not know he should not use official letterhead to endorse political candidates. Statutorily, it may rise to the level of crime. I do not know that it deserves criminal prosecution; however, criminal prosecution may be necessary to ensure the proper outcome of such an offense occurs (Ignorance of the law, mayor? come to a misdemeanor court call and see how that defense works and you should be treated no different), which is the mayor stepping down. Stepping down in lieu of a criminal conviction seems the proper middle road. I say that despite liking Mayor Ardis and seeing him regularly at mass on saturday evenings. He is a good man, but this incident shows he is too easily swayed by friends and unable to properly seperate his elected office from personal affiliations.

38. As quoted from the PJSTAR.com blog: FYI aaron
    John Vespa has a significant number of lawyers and judges supporting his candidacy. Contrary to what the Spanos campaign would like you to believe, only about 8% of lawyers in the 10th Judicial circuit gave a negative response about Vespa.

    The Bar poll percentage results in this race represent 16% of lawyers in the circuit. Why? Not all lawyers in the 10th judicial circuit are Ill State Bar Association members. There are about 900 lawyers in the 10th Judicial Circuit. Although any lawyer can vote, only about 600 ballots were sent out. Of those 600 sent out, about 150 commented on this particular race. Since less than half of those responses were negative, it means at best, barely 8% in the circuit have strong negative feelings about Vespa.

    It would be pretty easy to get 70-75 of your lawyer buddies to get together and send back negative responses about one particular candidate!! There are probably that many lawyers in the firm Spanos works for. It’s probably not be the case, but the real point is –70-75 negative responses certainly doesn’t represent an overwhelming majority of the lawyers in the circuit, as Spanos supporters would have you believe.

39. FOIA the Maloof Realty commission on a public purchase/sale of land funds that was not disclosed. Maloof was not threatened with prosecution for this public corruption felony, even though the statute had been so clearly violated that the deal had to be rescinded and then re-voted with a “disclosure” and abstention by the interested elected officials. This was before the blogs broke the monopoly that the Journal Star had on local media. This was during Maloof’s last month in office. Sandberg probably has the paperwork docs in his personal archives.

    Public office, like wealth increases a man’s testosterone and arrogance. This would apply to both Lyons and Ardis. Recalling the many times Lyons publicly accused me of felonies (this was a violation of prosecutorial ethics rules) but who the hell was going to do anything about it….I wouldn’t hold my breath on him charging Ardis when there was no spending of public money and Ardis’ campaigning is something that all elected officials do for the candidates that they favor.

    Also, recalling my first lawsuits involving the City (denying me the mugshots) and State Attorney trying to have my drug nuisance suits dismissed, Judge Joe Vespa……I could tell that he was no fan of the old boys in the City Legal Dept or the State’s Attorneys Office. But Judge Joe Vespa was so well liked throughout the bar and community that he was too strong for Lyons to go after, and probably never put himself in a position where he would need to defend himself. So he could get away with talking down to and ruling against Lyons and the City. I’m certain that John Vespa has a lot of the same contacts and popularity AND independent streak of his brother Joe, so Lyons would be motivated to undermine Vespa by accusing Ardis. And don’t forget what Ardis was saying about Lyons in the last election.

    The following rule of professional conduct as to prosecutors……apply it to Lyons. Many of you will find it just as nebulous as a charge against Ardis.

    Illinois RPC 3.8 addresses the special duties of a prosecutor. Subsection (e) provides as follows: “The prosecutor in a criminal case shall refrain from making extrajudicial comments that would pose a serious and imminent threat of heightening public condemnation of the accused, except for statements that are necessary to inform the public of the nature and extent of the prosecutor’s action and that serve a legitimate law enforcement purpose.”

    Where’s the law enforcement purpose in doing this publicly. Investigations…and you know this from police reports that are not released because they are “still in investigation” and the police won’t even comment in a lot of situations other than to advise us to look for a report if one is ever filed. Lyons would know that he can get away with violating Rule 3.8 above because he is never actually going to file a charge that would then subject the defendant to the prejudice of the pre trial publicity. So basically Lyons has legal cover with “soverign immunity” to level charges of criminal conduct against individuals – basically slander whomever he doesn’t like.

    But hey – you keep re-electing him.

40. Don’t you work in Lyons’ office?

41. Well the trial for 3 Peoria Officers for alleged excessive force will finally start on Nov. 1st. Let’s see how that goes for Lyons since it seems hes on the side of the biggest heroin dealer in Peoria County’s history. (i.e. Bryce Scott who is serving 17 yrs for heroin trafficking)
    Who’s side is Lyon’s really on?

42. Not to get side-tracked — but I had to respond to Anonymous Cop.

    Just because Mr. Scott is a heroin trafficker, doesn’t excuse what the officers did (allegedly). Excessive force is excessive force and Police brutality is Police brutality. You don’t get to choose who gets abused or not abused based upon your perceptions of their innocence or guilt!

    Lyons did the right thing in charging in this case, now it’s up to the jury to decide if the officers are guilty or not.

    My larger concern is that at the end of this trial, the Police Department is not going to be ready to handle whatever decision comes down. Many are viewing this inappropriately through the perspective that “Kevin Lyons hates cops and is out to get us.” rather than “We need to be role models and maintain the highest standards.” If the police can’t police themselves, we have no hope for them to police the community.

    I’m fearful that if the Officers get a not guilty decisions, that it will be viewed not just as vindication but as endorsement of their actions which will lead to many more uses of excessive force against non-resistant individuals. This is a case not about Kevin Lyons but about whether the Police Officers acted within reason in employing force to control the situation and in accordance with their training.

43. Bottom line is this just arrogance on the Ardis front. If not doesn’t it make you wonder what other details(Hotel, Museum, Fire Fly, etc) he just doesn’t pay attention to? Ardis is such a horrible mayor. Get him out.

44. Legal Beagle said above: “It would be pretty easy to get 70-75 of your lawyer buddies to get together and send back negative responses about one particular candidate!! There are probably that many lawyers in the firm Spanos works for. It’s probably not be the case, but the real point is –70-75 negative responses certainly doesn’t represent an overwhelming majority of the lawyers in the circuit, as Spanos supporters would have you believe.”

    Don’t forget that in addition to Spanos, Vespa had two other opponents as well – wife of Tazewell County States Attorney Stu Umholtz – Val Umholtz, and Bruce Thiemann. Vespa defeated them both soundly in the primary, but the same bar poll was in play for that race. So it would certainly be conceivable that lawyers in the Taz States Attorneys office as well as Theimanns office could have punched voted against him. Not that lawyers would do that though.

45. With all the amateur lawyers in here I’m surprised that no one has caught this …

    “City employees shall not INTENTIONALLY perform any prohibited political activity …”

    It’s clear that Ardis is off the hook. He made a plausible explanation of how he thought he did nothing wrong. So he surely did not INTENTIONALLY do a prohibited activity.

    Now we can debate whether it is a wise move on his part or a political move on Lyons part, but there is nothing here to waste more taxpayer dollars on.

46. Did he print the letters by accident???

    Perhaps you need to investigate the word “intentional”?

    The only thing clear is he didn’t “intend” to get in trouble over it…

47. PeoProud is an apologist for Lyons. Unless he was there, he has no idea what happened. The YouTube video does not show what Bryce was doing. Hell, it does not even show clearly what the officers were doing. And being opposed to police brutality doesn’t translate into “Cops are always guilty when accused.” That’s a difficult concept for some to understand, apparently.

48. And Back to the main topic of this post. It’s no secret I backed Ardis during the previous two elections. Not happy will a majority of his votes, obviously. He’s a vast improvement over Dave “the Liar” Ransburg. But no one who’ve been around as many campaigns as he has should have gotten caught up in this. Of course you don’t put purely political material on city letterhead. And it wasn’t necessary. I doubt anyone who received the letter needed to be reminded Jim Ardis is the mayor of Peoria. If he had used a blank sheet of paper but mentioned that he was the Mayor and was endorsing the judicial candidate in the interests of the city, there would be nothing to complain about.

    Bloggers have written volumes abut how Lyons has scolded politicians for violating the rules (erasing recordings of meetings, holding closed meetings, etc.) and not actually sought to prosecute anyone. I was the victim in one such case, as I was denied entrance into what was technically should have been an open meeting). At that time I advocated against trying to prosecute because I thought it was an innocent mistake.

    I think Ardis is is trouble. But I would advice Lyons to be lenient. Ardis needs to give a HUGE apology to the public.

49. Billy — I’m hardly an apologist for Mr. Lyons; I think he can handle his own defense of motives. And I’ve never said, indicated or even implied that the police are “always guilty when accused”. I simple indicated that I find fault with an Officer indicating / implying that Lyons supports a heroin trafficker over police officers. If I’m not mistaken, Mr. Scott is in JAIL — meaning he was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced for his crime. Just because the SA also chose to charge the officers for their action DOES NOT mean that the SA was soft on the crimes committed by the subject of the (alleged) police brutality.

    I can understand easily the “difficult concept” you feel I miss. Interesting though that you are very sensitive to holding police accountable. Almost seems like you feel they should get a pass because the subject of their efforts was a criminal. Last time I read, equal protection under the law (and the presumption of innocence) applies to ALL americans – including those with prior criminal histories.

    I prefer to hold everyone to the SAME standard and don’t make apologies for the actions of my “friends” just because they may be connected or I want to shill for them. The number of posts that you start with “it’s no secret I backed….” or “I’m friends with….” and then claim you’re objective in your assessment of the situation is laughable. Interesting how you can bash the PJS for not being objective and attribute ulterior motives to their every story, but fail to see the hypocrisy in your postings. Pot. Kettle. Black.

50. Ardis was just being part of the good ol boy network and he used the letterheads to show HE was the Mayor and HE was asking to support Vespa. Plain and simple. So Lyons, if Ardis broke the law,charge him. Otherwise STFU!

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