I have a head cold that is getting worse as the day wears on. So, while I had hoped to do some blogging tonight and tomorrow, it’s probably not going to happen.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the beautiful weather for me. And, if you find a spare moment and want to comment on anything that comes to mind, you can use the comments section of this post as an open thread.
Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I mean, the guy got a ton of votes, came in third place, and bested one of the three incumbents. What’s there to contest?
Answer: Whether state law will allow him to serve.
There’s this part of Illinois law called the “Prohibited interest in contracts” clause (50 ILCS 105/3) that says:
No person holding any office, either by election or appointment under the laws or Constitution of this State, may be in any manner financially interested directly in his own name or indirectly in the name of any other person, association, trust, or corporation, in any contract or the performance of any work in the making or letting of which such officer may be called upon to act or vote.
Ryan Spain works for Heartland Partnership, a private company. The City of Peoria has a contract with the Heartland Partnership for $50,000 per year through 2008 (it was passed by the council on 4/19/05). Spain has an indirect interest in that contract since he is an employee of Heartland Partnership.
The Illinois Attorney General’s office published an opinion in 1996 that said employees of contracted organizations benefit indirectly from those contracts, and are thus prohibited from serving on municipal councils. They quote People v. Sperry (1924) as precedent:
If we attach any significance to the words used by the statute, “directly or indirectly interested in the contract,” we think the conclusion cannot be escaped that the officers of the city, who are also employees of the contractor, must be considered as indirectly interested in the contract, without regard to the fact that they derived no direct benefits from the contract itself.
I don’t know if anyone will actually contest it, but one would think it’s likely. I don’t imagine the council wants to take the chance of being in violation of state law. I’ve sent an e-mail to city attorney Randy Ray seeking comment. I’ll post his response as soon as I receive it.
If my interpretation of the law is correct, this situation raises a lot of questions. For instance, could this problem be removed if Heartland Partnership cancels their contract with the city before Spain takes office? I don’t know if that’s even possible, but if it is, I guess we’ll see what is more valuable to the Heartland Partnership — Spain on the council, or $50,000/year from the city.
Another question that arises is what will happen if Spain is found to be disqualified from service. Will the city try to get state law changed to allow him to serve, like they did with George Jacob? Jacob was originally ineligible because he held a liquor license, but state law was changed to allow him to serve as long as he abstained from any liquor-related decisions. If Spain ends up not being able to serve, would the sixth-place finisher (Dan Irving) be installed as a councilman instead?
Interestingly, this is not the first controversy surrounding Spain’s campaign. He set up a campaign teleconference event — a virtual town hall meeting — that took place at the Workforce Development Center at One Technology Plaza. Several people questioned whether tax-payer money was used for the event, but Spain says the meeting was paid for completely by his campaign, and that his forthcoming campaign disclosure reports will show this.
UPDATE: I’d just like to say, as far as communication goes, Randy Ray does a great job. He’s always timely and informative in his responses. Here is what he had to say on this issue:
Thank you for the question. I do my best to answer citizens’ legal questions concerning their city government, and I intend to answer this one. I have always addressed conflicts first with the affected official, and then, if no resolution is reached, with others. Accordingly, I will address this issue first with Mr. Spain, and then with you. Obviously, the time frame is short, so you can expect to hear from me on or before May 1.
I think that’s a fair way to handle the situation. Of course, I will post Mr. Ray’s follow-up when I receive it. As you can see, it may be a few days. Legal stuff always takes a while.
I’m not going to be able to blog much today. So, here’s an open thread for you — feel free to discuss whatever you’d like! You always come up with great topics.
I received this e-mail today from Amy Irving, wife of City Council candidate Dan Irving:
CJ,
I am writing to ask if you could somehow post on your blog my heartfelt thanks to George and Jeannine Jacob who were so gracious to me and my family after the sudden death of my dad on Monday morning, the day before elections.
During this extremely difficult time for all of us, George, Jeannine and his crew offered to post Dan’s signs at several pricinct locations, and even made a follow-up phone call Monday evening to tell him they were done. They also arranged to have meals from Basta restaurant delivered to my mother’s house, along with other sincere acts of concern.
Thank you, again to the Jacob Family.
Amy Irving & Family
My wife and I also offer our deepest condolences to Amy and her family. Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this time of grief. I commend George Jacob and his family for their selfless acts of compassion; they’ve provided a great example of what it means to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Terry Beachler has a tentative court date of May 1 stemming from his arrest for obstructing an officer. No charges were formally filed in the March 26 incident, and the whole thing would likely have been forgotten if it hadn’t garnered such a strong public reaction. Now, the possibility exists that charges could be filed after all.
I talked to Beachler’s attorney Drew Parker. Parker confirmed that no charges have yet been filed, and charges may or may not be filed on May 1. So until then, he’s advising his client to not make any further statements about the incident.
Incumbent Tim Cassidy easily won reelection as president of the Park Board over sitting board member Robert Johnson. The vote wasn’t even close:
| Tim Cassidy | 9,200 | 72.46% |
|---|---|---|
| Robert Johnson | 3,496 | 27.54% |
There wasn’t a lot of controversy surrounding Cassidy; he endeared himself to many voters by voting against the land-sharing deal with District 150 for a new school adjacent to Glen Oak Park. Robert Johnson was outspoken in his criticism of Cassidy’s vote on that issue and intimated that the decision could be reversed if he were elected president instead of Cassidy. I think that hurt him. Also hurting him was his off-the-cuff remark that the Junior League wouldn’t be able to build their children’s museum if the City Council approved historic landmark designation for certain elements of Glen Oak Park. He later retracted that statement.
The ultimate result is that the Park Board remains completely unchanged.
The referendum to spend $35 million on the Peoria Public Library system passed overwhelmingly:
Advisory Proposition To Issue $35,000,000 Library Bonds
| Yes | 9,951 | 71.59% |
|---|---|---|
| No | 3,949 | 28.41% |
The referendum was advisory and non-binding, so the next step is for the library to get City Council approval for their plans.
City council members are usually reluctant to raise property taxes, fearing voter backlash. But last night, the voters showed that they don’t mind having their taxes raised for basic city services (in this case, library service). I think the council should consider that as they start working on the budget.
The other referendum on the ballot was, “Should the State of Illinois Prohibit Smoking In All Indoor Work Places and All Indoor Public Places?” Results:
Advisory Proposition To Ban Smoking In All Indoor Work Places And All Indoor Public Places
| Yes | 9,191 | 66.84% |
|---|---|---|
| No | 4,560 | 33.16% |
This was the most meaningless referendum on the ballot. As originally proposed by Councilman Chuck Grayeb, it was supposed to ask voters if they wanted a smoking ban in Peoria. Grayeb didn’t have the votes to get that question on the ballot, so this question was substituted. These results will be put in the form of a resolution that will be forwarded to Springfield, where it will be received, filed, and ignored.
Perhaps the most surprising returns of the night came from the District 150 School Board election (winners in bold):
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linda Butler | 1,439 | 24.87% |
| 2 | Rachael Parker | 1,277 | 22.07% |
| 3 | Bill O’Brien | 1,243 | 21.49% |
| 4 | Alicia Butler | 962 | 16.63% |
| 5 | Beth Akeson | 864 | 14.94% |
I was not surprised that Alicia Butler didn’t win. On her campaign postcard, the very first bullet point reads, “Open, honest communication with the community.” Kind of ironic, isn’t it? Since the charges were levied that she did not have the degrees she claimed to have, she’s not had open communication with anyone (we’re still waiting for a comment from her lawyer), and obviously her honesty is the very thing at issue.
I was surprised that she didn’t come in last. Beth Akeson tied for first place in my precinct, but in district 2 at large she came in dead last, even behind Alicia Butler. I’m not sure I understand why. I guess her message just didn’t resonate with the voters. Maybe this is for the best — now she can continue to focus on the Heart of Peoria Commission instead of having her interests divided.
Bill O’Brien was interviewed on WCBU after the final numbers came in. Even though he only lost by approximately 30 votes, he was willing to graciously concede rather than pursue a recount. We all thought that was very gentlemanly of him.
Rachael Parker was one of my endorsements, so it’s good to see her win, of course.
The biggest surprise to me was that Linda Butler came in first. I’m clearly out of touch with other voters in the second district because I didn’t see that coming at all. I felt Linda Butler was the status-quo candidate; she’s the only candidate that didn’t take a hard stance against the school in the park idea. I never would have expected her to come in first.
I’m going to predict that this will not represent much of a shift for the school board.
With the exception of Turner moving from fourth to second place, the general election results for the top five vote-getters were exactly the same as the primary election. Here are the final results (winners in bold):
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gary Sandberg | 13,767 | 18.84% |
| 2 | Eric Turner | 11,912 | 16.30% |
| 3 | Ryan Spain | 11,894 | 16.27% |
| 4 | George Jacob | 9,656 | 13.21% |
| 5 | Jim Montelongo | 7,773 | 10.63% |
| 6 | Dan Irving | 5,136 | 7.03% |
| 7 | Gale Thetford | 4,915 | 6.72% |
| 8 | Patti Sterling-Polk | 4,313 | 5.90% |
| 9 | Gloria Cassell-Fitzgerald | 2,172 | 2.97% |
| 10 | Dan Gillette | 1,552 | 2.12% |
This is not a big surprise. There was some question as to whether Montelongo could hold on to the #5 spot, but the top four winners were solid. I was impressed with Dan Irving’s final showing. He was eighth in the primary and moved up to sixth. Even though the margin between fifth and sixth place was approximately 2,600 votes, that’s still not bad for an at-large election. I’ll bet if he would run again in two or four years, he would win.
Don’t you just hate it when you search the Journal Star’s archives for a story that’s more than two weeks old and they want to charge you $3 per story to download the full text? You can always go to the library and look it up on microfilm (any year) or through their subscription to NewsBank (articles from 1991-present). Either way, you have to go to the library, probably spending $3 in gas right there. Then, if you use the computer, you have to sign in and wait for a computer to become available.
But not anymore.
The Peoria Public Library has unveiled, as of April 6, a new service called “NewsBank from Home.”
The Peoria Public Library databases have always provided information for users over the internet at the library. Now a new addition allows patrons to access newspapers from home with their library card. Newsbank contains The Peoria Journal Star, The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and almost 30 top news magazines like Fortune, People Weekly, Real Simple, Newsweek, Time, Popular Science and Sports Illustrated.
Newsbank is searchable and contains full-text articles that are available without charge through this database. In most cases, newspaper and magazine websites charge for full-text articles. In addition, Newsbank returns search results from the entire database at one time and allows the viewer to save the articles to a “saved articles†folder.
This new feature for Peoria Public Library patrons will allow students, the business community, educators and hobbyists to find the information they need from any Internet-connected computer. Schools and business that may have subscribed to their own electronic versions of these databases in the past may find they no longer need those subscriptions.
All I can say is, this is FANTASTIC news. Now, that’s the kind of 21st-century library service we need around here. I’m so excited — it will make researching so much easier for me.
In order to use it, you have to have a library card. If you live in West Peoria or some unincorporated areas of Peoria County that don’t pay taxes to any library system, a library card will cost you $103. But for everyone else who pays taxes to the library system, it’s free. You just have to go down to your local library and sign up for it.