Mayor’s Row……by Ned Mitchell
Don’t you just love it when you are right? And everybody likes to be able to say “I told you so”. Two of my predictions came true since we met here last week. First, I correctly predicted that the Illinois Department of Corrections would be the next agency to be hit by the feds and then I predicted that consumer advocate Marty Cohen’s nomination to head the Illinois Commerce Commission was in trouble. Look for the Department of Human Services to become the next state agency to come under the eye of the U S Attorney and federal investigations. As a democrat I think we have been out of the loop so long in this state we have forgotten how to hire qualified employees. I understand the need for hiring political “hacks” both sides do it with zeal in this state. But there comes a time and place when you also must hire people with education, experience and plain common sense to run state government. This reformer/unreformer governor we have has confused the two. While the employees with experience, education, and common sense are in many of these agencies the governor has hired the “hacks” with no experience, no education, and very little common sense to run state government. One common thread here though is they have all without fail been contributors of the reformer/unreformer. Maybe that is the way it is supposed to be and if it is that needs to be changed. The problem with the reformer/unreformer governor is that he campaigned and was elected on the platform that he was going to change things and to quote him directly he said “it is not going to be business as usual”. I bought that line and he has failed miserably in my opinion. A common saying in Springfield is that it is no longer business as usual, now it is worse than usual!
On Cohen’s nomination to the ICC, an amateur political observer should have seen this one coming. The last thing Commonwealth and AmerenCips and their cohorts want is an ICC chairman who is on the side of the consumer. Regulation governing the price of utilities in Illinois is out the door in a little over a year and look out then. The only hope the average Joe has is a chairman of the ICC who will be a watchdog over the utilities. Otherwise they will run rampant over the consumer with no control over pricing. I pointed out last week those two utilities contributed over one million dollars in campaign cash to both democrats and republicans in Springfield in the past year and a half. Now here is where the common sense thing comes in. Do you think for a minute that a million dollars does not influence your senator or representative and how they vote? It was unusual to say the least. Here the democrats control everything in Springfield and the governor for once did the right thing in this nomination but he could not get the democrats in the Senate to go along with him. Do you think that a million dollars in campaign cash had anything to do with this vote? There was no intense lobbying effort by the utilities to kill this nomination. They did not have to. They had already paid their admission price to the statehouse. Another revelation here is more than likely the close vote was already counted before it was taken. I am sure both sides had a caucus prior to the actual vote for a head count. The way they do things in Springfield on a controversial vote like this is to look at the members who will be voting. They choose sides, much like a pick up basketball game. Those members who are in a marginal district are allowed to vote for the nomination that way they can go back home and tell us poor ignorant folks on the farm they did their part to protect us from the evil utilities. Never mind the fact that over a million dollars was handed over to them and their counterparts. Those members who are in safe districts, that is there is no chance they will ever lose an election, have to vote against this nomination. Now they have every excuse in the world about why they vote the way they did and if you believe that, go back and read again the part about how they have to vote. That is how our government works.
I served in the Illinois Senate for a short period of time and learned a lot about how government works. Before they opened the back door and booted me out I was able to grasp just how things really are. It was shocking! I served with a Senator who always told me he would check with his local barber on any new legislation to see if it would pass the barber test. He felt like he got a good, down to earth, honest opinion from his barber and I think he was right. Now that I am back in Sesser and in city government I like to give legislation the Sesser test. If the idea won’t work in Sesser, then most of the time it won’t work state wide either. For instance, what would happen if the Sesser city council decided that for the next two years we would just not pay retirement benefits for our workers? This bunch of merry makers in Springfield did just that. They took pension money from employee for the next two years and squandered it elsewhere.
Or what about the reformer/unreformer governor requiring his parole officers who are state employees to hand out at least five letters per week to churches, schools, and civic organizations telling what a great job he is doing? What if I sent city employees out to the churches and civic groups of Sesser with letters explaining what a great job I do every day as mayor? Employees and citizens would be up in arms and rightfully so. The next time you see some idea come out of Springfield, apply the Sesser test. Will it work in your community on a local level? If it won’t chances are it is a bad idea to begin with. Get rid of the campaign cash and you’ll get rid of most of the problems we have in state government. We’ll have better employees, better utility regulation and better everything.
Talk about putting your money where your mouth is! Benton resident Dave Bauer has made a huge donation, $50,000.00 to the Benton Park District in the way of matching funds. Dave has long been involved in his community in many aspects and also to this county, but this gesture is beyond description. Way to go Dave! Benton folks ought to appreciate Dave and his family’s generosity. We can all learn by it too! The next time I run into to Dave I’m going to pitch they idea that he and his family move to Sesser!
Finally, North Main Street in Benton is resurfaced and I can get rid of the tank I had to use to travel it and get back in the Ford. This was a project that was a long time coming but is now completed and makes a huge difference to folks who travel that route on a regular basis. A pat on the back from Sesser to whoever was responsible for getting it done! We can now get to grandma and great grandma’s house and Pop’s Bar B Q in comfort!
Sesser resident Justine Garner has taken a fall and ended up with some broken bones. I am not sure where exactly Justine is now but I am sure she would like a card, phone call or personal visit. Justine and husband Tony have been a part of the Sesser community for many years.
The constant noise of the pump motors has begun in Sesser in the alley just north of Lucretia Street as city workers are replacing a rapidly failing sewer main. We hope to have this costly project completed in two weeks and weather permitting and with a little luck we will be successful. This is the third block of sewer main in that area that we have replaced in the past three years. Each year we are doing a block of work in an attempt to head off a major failure of our sewer system. Our workers do an outstanding job on projects such as this and save Sesser residents thousands of dollars over what it would cost if an outside contractor was brought in to do the work. The cost would at least double. We appreciate all that our city workers do for us and I hope that you do too!
If you need us, give us a call at 625-3611, 625-5322 or 625-5788 or write us at nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org we will listen to what you have to say!
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