Friday, October 10, 2008.

You might recall this past April when I posted about the new sign at the Champaign County Nursing Home.  I finally got around to finding out the cost of it a month or so ago and am just now posting about it.  The sign cost $16,088.  I think that amount is pretty ridiculous for a sign on an operation that's bleeding money every month, but apparently it's fine for the Auditor who didn't peep a bit.

What's most remarkable is that the purchase didn't follow the County's purchasing policy. 

B.  CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION OR FACILITIES MAINTENANCE PURCHASES EXCEEDING $5,000 AND LESS THAN $20,000
1.  Shall be submitted to the Purchasing Division on a Purchase Requisition, including detailed information of items to be purchased.
a.  If the good or service is in a category covered by the Pre-qualified Vendor List maintained pursuant to Article IX, the County Administrator shall first set a reservation price less than $20,000. The County Administrator shall then attempt to obtain quotes from at least three vendors from the Pre-qualified Vendor List. The County Administrator may award the contract to any of the vendors from the Pre-qualified Vendor List who provide a price less than the reservation price.

You'll recall I've written a few times about the prequalifed vendor program that was the brainchild of Steve Beckett in an attempt to steer more contracts to minority contractors.  Like so many actions by government, it made for nice press and looked good on campaign brochure, but there has been absolutely no follow up on it.  Now you can put Fabri in that category too.  This bid clearly fell under the prequalified vendor area of the purchasing policy yet no one decided to act on it and contact any of the vendors that are on the list that Inman has, which hasn't even been properly formed.  And Inman's failure to follow the purchasing policy got nary a complaint from Fabri.  He routinely touts that he makes sure the county's purchasing policy is followed, but he's done nothing to enforce this particular provision.

SmilePolitely.com has some suggestions for how John McCain can improve his campaign's fortunes.  A few of my favorites:

• Without advance word, completely disappear from the world for a few days, and create a storm of speculation and intrigue. Emerge three days latter, scratched and bloody, with the dead carcass of Osama Bin Laden across his back. [Note: This will take some embalming work, since Bin Laden has been in deep freeze in US government storage since 2005. He will need to call in some favors from his mortuary friends.]
• During next debate, slap Obama with a leather riding glove and demand satisfaction for the restoration of McCain’s honor. Offer choice of fencing epee, dueling pistol, or full javelin and riding horse. If Obama claims this is illegal, simply question his manhood, and choose riding horse, since Obama is known to be a poor equestrian.
• Announce that the election is now a raffle, and that anyone who votes for him can win up to six of his twelve houses. Have Sarah Palin make the announcement, and have her wink a lot, implying that she or Todd just might come with the deal, depending on which way you swing. If Obama complains that this is illegal, slap him with a leather riding glove and see above.

After all, if you can't laugh at the absurdity of this year's Presidential campaigns, then what can you laugh at?

Thursday, October 9, 2008.

Gov. Blagojevich has signed the funds sweeps bill, which means that state parks and historic sites will remain open, and other funding cut by the Governor earlier this year is restored.

Details at Capitol Fax Blog.

Linda Abernathy is working very hard to win allies in advance of her referendum effort in November, and a potential re-election battle in 2009:

City of Champaign Township Supervisor Linda Abernathy accused the town board of racism and partisan politics Tuesday night, after the board voted to freeze the township supervisor's salary for the next two years.

Abernathy said she saw ulterior motives behind the vote because, at the same time as the salary for her office was being frozen, the board voted to grant annual 2 percent salary increases to the township assessor position, currently held by Republican Brian Christie. Both officials currently make $58,994 annually.

Abernathy is black and a Democrat.

"There's always been a racist undertone," Abernathy said about the town board. "They've never really had any real desire to work with the poor."

Wow.

Today's Daily Illini:

Members of the Illinois Student Senate are opposing an upcoming referendum.

This November, Champaign County ballots will have a referendum item asking voters to raise the sales tax by one percent to benefit school districts.

Sean Mills, co-chair of the Senate's governmental affairs committee, said property owners in Champaign will get a rebate from the tax, but students do not generally own property. Students will have to pay the sales tax but will not get the rebate that other residents will receive, he said.

Discuss.

The server was down again when I awoke this morning.  I don't know why, but I've asked why there have been so many problems over the past few weeks despite our not making any changes to the machine or its configuration.  It's probably due to the increased load from higher traffic, but it should be more than capable of handling the load, so I'm trying to figure out if there is anything I can do increase stability.

Thanks for your patience, and sorry for the inconvenience.

UPDATE:  The massive spike in traffic from our first Insta-lanche is probably the culprit.  Thanks Mark!  And thanks Glenn!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008.

I've been fiddling with this book review for over a month now.  But I think I'm out of renewals at the library so I better get it done.

Two writers for the Atlantic (Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam) have written a book titled Grand New Party.  It seeks to lay out a road map to Republican electoral success.  I wouldn’t have known about the book but for The Corner, where more than a couple writers have given kind reviews (Rich Lowry for example).  Consider this one mixed.

The first half of the book is a good read for anyone interested in politics.  Douthat and Salam have some great insights on the ascendance of the middle class in America and the constant flux of its political allegiance.

The second half of the book has some policy suggestions, relatively few actually, and some of which the authors concede are somewhat far fetched.  In sum, the book suggests more government, in an effort to appeal to the “Sam’s Club” voters.  The authors don’t differ much from the guys already in Washington in that they don’t offer much in the way of paying for the largesse that they intend to pour down upon the working and middle class voters they target.

The cornerstone of their policy is to raise the Child Tax Credit to $5,000, making the income tax even more progressive than it is now.  There’s plenty of merit to this idea, but once again, how it is paid for is left out. 

On health care they suggest a combination of reforms that are pretty much already in place (health savings accounts, for example) and new ideas such as limits on health care deductibility for the rich (caps on how much employers can pay for in health insurance).  They also tack on means testing for social security and reductions in Social Security contributions for the working poor.

They love the Earned Tax Credit so much, and think that it works so well, that they want to fix it.  Essentially, their new program of wage subsidies gives the money up front instead of at tax time.  The authors project the cost to be $85 billion.  Workers get to walk into an employer with a government subsidy agreement, let’s say, $3 per hour.  If you hire the worker, you’ll get that much from the government.  In their vision, incarceration and welfare rates drop.  It’s hard to see how the reality would be so neat.  You’ll have a new class of workers without subsidies that won’t be as desirable to hire.  This is just one of half a dozen areas where the authors seem to have forgotten the laws of unintended consequences, especially when it comes to government programs.

They call for school choice, but in recognizing the political obstacles suggest other ideas including lump sum payments to schools (not districts) free (or at least eased) of regulation.   They call for more cops on the street, not only for safety but also as a jobs program for the children of Sam’s Club voters.

In two ideas that the authors concede are visionary (or far fetched) I see expansive government and not much benefit. 

On the environment they suggest swapping ag subsidies for “green” subsidies in a scheme that still doesn’t make much sense to me after a third reading.  “Instead of paying farmers to grow surplus crops, the federal government could pay them to turn biomass into charcoal,”.  (P. 217)  It’s hard to imagine how much would have to be offered a farmer to drop corn production and switch to charcoal production.

In the area of higher education, the authors suggest that we “roll back our current credentialing regime completely.”  In its place, they suggest that we have tests to demonstrate proficiency in the skills that would be acquired through the University.  I think that most would agree that this is a fairly narrow view of what a college education means.

We can use more books from Republicans and/or conservatives on how to turn around our party.  This is certainly a valuable addition to the debate, if for nothing else than its insightful look at middle class anxiety.  But the book seems centered on trying to get elected (the worst ailment of our party) and less on developing core principles and winning over the minds of voters.  Perhaps others don't see a distinction, but I'm still looking for that book.  (I haven't read Frum's Comeback).

For another book review you can go back and look at my review of Heroic Conservatism

I got a call yesterday from Steven Gray, a reporter for Time magazine who was in town today doing an article on student voter registration.  He left a message on my voice mail asking for ten minutes of my time.  I didn't get back to him so he showed up in my office today.  He asked for five minutes, no doubt noticing how busy I was and I politely said no.  He comes back with..."come on, just five minutes?"

I told him no, because first, I was busy, and two, I really had no idea what he would do with the video he was planning to shoot of me.  He gave a little roll of the eyes and so I asked if I could have an unedited copy of the entirety of what he taped of me.  He said "No one does that!"  That was the end of the conversation.

He seemed like a nice guy and I have no particular reason to doubt his integrity as a reporter.  Except for his instant negative reaction to my request. 

Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, has suggested that everyone bring their own cameras to interviews.  I was a little busy to try that stunt, so I went with the next best thing.  I wasn't surprised that the reaction was negative, if for no other reason than I expect my response was pretty much out of the blue. 

Not doing the interview is probably a good career move.  After all, if Time does you right, you get 15 minutes of fame.  If they do you wrong, you get a lifetime of infamy on their website. 

No hard feelings Mr. Gray.  Next time I won't ask for the tape, I'll take Reynolds' advice and bring my own camera.

UPDATED by IP:  Welcome, Instapundit readers!  This is our first Insta-lanche, so forgive me for the crashed server this morning.  While you're here, I hope you'll take a few minutes to stick around.  (And thanks to Mark for taking the actions and writing the post the got us buried with traffic.)

As discussed earlier, now that the teachers' union has ratified the recently negotiated contract with Unit 4, a little more information is being made available.

Champaign teachers voted Tuesday afternoon to ratify a new three-year contract that includes raises of 4.5 percent per year for each of the next three years for most teachers, and increases beyond that for teachers with more than 21 years of experience.

"I'm happy with what they've put up for us," said Franklin Middle School teacher Cindy Stein. "They've got some good proposals that I think, outside the salary, are nice additions."

Hundreds of Champaign's 700-plus teachers showed up at Centennial High School to vote, and they approved the contract – retroactive to July 1 – by about a three-to-one margin, said Bottenfield Elementary librarian Patricia Plaut.

The Unit 4 Board will vote on this contract later this month.

Today is the last day to register to vote in Illinois, with the exception of the "grace period" registration/voting. 

What is “Grace Period” Registration?
“Grace Period” Registration is an extension of the period of time for a voter to register to vote, or to update their registration information. This “Grace Period” Registration extends registration from the normal close of registration up through the 14th day before the election. Once registered, this voter may cast a ballot during this “Grace Period” at the election authority’s office or at a location specifically designated for this purpose by the election authority, or by mail, at the discretion of the election authority.

If you haven't already, please be sure you're registered and at the correct address.

Early voting starts one week from today.

Last night the Urbana City Council was very interesting.  

The council was voting on a motion to designate 508 W Elm as "historic" against the will of the property owner.    Since the owner objected to the motion, 5 votes are required for this motion to pass.

At the last meeting 3 weeks ago, Dennis Roberts recused himself because of a conflict of interest.  It is assumed he is somehow affiliated with the Urbana Development Corporation who became interested in the house once they learned a developer wanted it.

During the vote Dennis Roberts did NOT recuse himself and voted "present".    According to city code when you vote present because of a conflict of interest, the vote counts for the side of the minority.    The city attorney was asking the mayor not to rule and she did so anyway, ruling the present vote was not a result of a conflict of interest.

This is just another example where rules, plans, guidelines, etc. don't mean anything in Urbana and the council will make up the rules as they go along....or simply ignore them for convenience. 

It is one thing to discourage investors from entering the community when they can't rely on guidelines and laws.   It is another thing to ingore the direction of the city attorney so blatently and expose the citizens to liablity.   I bring this up because there was a closed-door meeting to discuss pending litigation just before they took up old business.  

It is one thing to disagree on an issue.   It is another thing to ingore the law.

I'm wondering if Dennis Roberts was acting as an agent for the Urbana Development Corp or the City of Urbana when he voted "present".   This could be a big deal.   I hear he looked very uncomfortable during the vote...

The UI, in the wake of national criticism (and a substantial amount of mocking) for its clumsy ethics decree banning political activities by faculty, staff and student, is still groping around trying to find a coherent policy:

In Monday's e-mail, White promised "the leadership of the University of Illinois, will preserve, protect and defend the constitutionally guaranteed rights of every member of our University community, including, of course, freedom of speech and assembly. We will also preserve, protect and defend academic freedom, which is a core value of every great academic institution."

White said he was sending out the message because the University Ethics Office, which reports to him, had sent out the newsletter with a briefing on the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act.

The briefing "is not a University policy statement. The purpose of the briefing was to familiarize us as state employees with the prohibited political activities section of the Ethics Act," White wrote.

He said the briefing was important for explaining that it is not proper to use UI resources to conduct political activity or to solicit contributions for a party or candidate on university time.

But White differentiated those activities from what he described as "fundamental freedoms," such as wearing a pin or T-shirt in support of a political party or candidate or attending a rally on UI property.

Discuss.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008.

PKD got the lawsuit against them by Otto Baum, 08-L-70, dismissed last week.  It was "dismissed with prejudice"  You lawyers can help us understand what that means.  My understanding from talking to someone in the courtroom was that it really revolved around whether Otto Baum had a contractual relationship with PKD which they basically did not. 

Of course, the dismissal really has no impact on the County's settlement negotiations with Otto Baum and we can still expect Otto Baum to continue to point the finger of blame at PKD.  Of course, since we've already settled with PKD, it doesn't really matter to PKD how much blame they end up accepting.  With this dismissal, it seems they are in the clear.

Otto Baum's  case against the wood supplier and the County's environmental engineer is still alive. 

Beth Shepperd sent out the attached Fact Sheet (in MS Publisher, which I converted to MS Word) to the Key Communicator Network

Ken Pirok, Champaign City Council member for District 5 (south and southwest Champaign) has posted on his blog that he will not run for re-election in 2009:

Today, I am announcing that I will not seek a third term on the Champaign City Council.

I am virtually certain to move during the next four and a half years (probably in the near future).  The last thing I want to see is someone appointed to fill my spot in either this term or the next.

Good luck to Mr. Pirok, and many thanks for his service. 

There is at least one other candidate (Dave Johnson) already running in District 5.