I am more than a little shocked at the contents of an email forwarded to me by a reader.
The newsletter was sent out by an outfit I’ve never heard of before, Ed-Red. Evidently, this is a “private” group that is supported by dues from member school districts. That’s your money, in other words. What do they do with this money? From their website, it appears that mostly what they do is hire lobbyists.
The newsletter that was forwarded to me is the edition from March 19. Here’s the part that shocks me:
HB 261 (Eddy, R-Hudsonville) is a companion bill to SB 48…which increases the limit for districts to competitively bid contracts. Thanks again to Kevin Nohelty from CCSD #15 and Steve East from Township HS #211 for trekking to Springfield twice to offer testimony in support of the legislation.
Steve East is an administrative employee of District 211.
Do you think the parents of District 211 are underwriting Mr. East’s generous salary so that he can lobby in Springfield? Perhaps he lobbied on two days that he took as vacation days or personal days. I”ll email him to find out.
If Mr. East is lobbying on the taxpayer’s dime, that needs to stop, and the members of the school board need to be held accountable to ensure that such behavior doesn’t continue.
Regardless of whether Mr. East’s little trips to Springfield were paid for by the taxpayer, the organization that sent out this email bragging about his trips is sponsored by the taxpayer.
And the bill they’re both in favor of? HB 261 changes Illinois law so that the law requiring school districts to obtain competitive bids for services and contracts is suspended for:
…contracts for utilities and related services when the cost is less than that offered by a local distribution company.
Hm. Utilities. Isn’t District 211 currently being sued because it entered into a no-bid contract for electricity with the Illinois Energy Consortium?
Why, yes.
How convenient and interesting that an employee of District 211 is heading down to Springfield to try to get the law changed so that school districts would be allowed to enter into utility contracts without getting a competitive bid as long as the electricity provider it contracts with charges less than “a local distribution company”.
Why does anyone support this bill?
If you’re of a generally conservative disposition, as I am, you’ll be even more sickened to see that the two sponsors of HB 261 are Republicans: Roger Eddy and Suzanne Bassi.
According to his Wikipedia entry, Roger Eddy used to be a public school superintendent.
Suzanne Bassi represents Palatine. Check out her healthy list of corporate and union donors.
The state’s website for representatives doesn’t provide email addresses for representatives. (Pretty dark ages.) Suzanne Bassi’s campaign website does provide an email address for her. I’m writing. I hope you will, too.
March 21, 2007 at 11:19 pm
The people reading this blog need to burn up the phone lines to kill this bill.
It corruption in action, and every single caller to Eddy and Bassi need to call it exactly that.
Note that corruption need not be “illegal” as to the letter of the law.
In the case of the IEC, you have a class of people who neither know (nor care) a whit about electricity policy but are enriching themselves and their organizations at the public’s expense.
Layered on top of the illegal (against the school code) no bid contracts, you now have two bought and paid for legislators acting as shills for the IEC, floating bills that legalize illegal behavior after the fact.
If they aren’t challenged and voted out of office for even proposing this bill, it is clear that nothing will change Illinois politics.
It will be proof that people are too mindless to care, or just as bought off as Bassi and Eddy.
March 28, 2007 at 5:20 am
[...] I previously wrote about HB 261 here. [...]
March 28, 2007 at 5:54 am
[...] week, District 211 lobbying firm Ed-Red sent out an e-newsletter congratulating District 211 administrative employee Steve East for spending two days in Springfield lobbying on behalf of HB 261. HB 261 is a bill that would [...]
April 2, 2007 at 10:43 am
[...] at 10:43 am by district211 A reader was the source for this blog’s revelation last week that paid administrators working for District 211 and District 15 spent two days in Springfield lobbying for the atrocious HB 261, a bill that would exempt school [...]