BPI Fights for Government Ethics Reform with
CHANGE Illinois!
CHANGE Illinois! is a coalition of civic, business, labor, professional, non-profit and philanthropic organizations advocating for comprehensive political reform. Created a year ago, the coalition identified contribution limits, combined with more frequent public reporting of contributions and strengthened oversight of campaign finance laws, as its first priority in its effort to reduce the influence of large contributors. The coalition's work led to passage of the state's first contribution limits system, which will take effect next Jan. 1.
BPI staff and directors are playing an active role in CHANGE Illinois! BPI Vice President Deborah Harrington serves as Co-Chair of the Coalition; Executive Director Hoy McConnell and Directors Dawn Clark Netsch and Tony Valukas are members of the Steering Committee; and Director Frank Beal is an active member.
CHANGE Illinois! continues to build a statewide grassroots network to advocate additional reforms, including expansion of the limits law to include party and legislative leader contributions in general election cycles. For more information, go to www.changeil.org.
Click here to see the latest press release from CHANGE Illinois!
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BPI Representing City of Chicago
Inspector General in Litigation
BPI is representing the Inspector General for the City of Chicago in a suit to enforce a subpoena served upon the Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago. The subpoena seeks documents in an ongoing investigation into possible misconduct in the award of a sole-source contract to a former City employee. The Law Department has withheld production of several documents unredacted, asserting they are protected by the attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine. The underlying issue in the case is whether in the context of an official investigation of possible government misconduct, government lawyers may properly refuse to disclose relevant information on these grounds. The suit was filed on November 4th, 2009. You can read more about the litigation in this Sun Times article by Carol Marin.
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BPI Releases New Public Housing Report
The Third Side:
A Mid-Course Report on Chicago's
Transformation of Public Housing
Click here for CHA's response to BPI's report
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BPI's 2008 Annual Report is now available.
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Our 40th Anniversary Celebration
BPI’s 40 Who’ve Made a Difference Honorees
In celebration of our 40th Anniversary of public interest service to the people of the Chicago region, BPI honored the extraordinary public interest accomplishments of 40 individuals whose vision, tenacity and courage have contributed so much to the people of the Chicago region. The 40 Who’ve Made a Difference Awards were presented at BPI’s 40th Anniversary Celebration Dinner on Friday, May 1 at the Fairmont Hotel. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick delivered the keynote address.
Click here for our 40 Who've Made a Difference Commemorative Book with profiles and photos of all the honorees.
Event Photos
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick - Keynote Speaker
L-R: John Schmidt, a 2008 recipient of BPI's Champion of the Public Interest Award, introduced Gov. Patrick.
BPI Board President Steve Kersten and Executive Director Hoy McConnell
L-R: BPI Directors Nick Brunick, Event Co-Chair, and Rosanna Marquez, 40 Award Committee Chair,
introduced the 40 Who've Made a Difference Honorees.
Left: Honorees Raul Raymundo of The Resurrection Project (far left) and
Josh Hoyt (Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights) (far right)
Right: Honorees Kale Williams (Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities) and Marca Bristo (Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago)
Left: (L-R) BPI Director Deborah Harrington, Daniel Levin and Gov. Patrick
Right: (L-R) Dan Casey and Honorees Dawn Clark Netsch and Bud Lifton
Left: Honoree and former BPI President Elliot Lehman
Right: (L-R) Gov. Patrick and Honorees Abner Mikva, Bettylu Saltzman and Zoe Mikva
Left: Honorees Rev. Willie T. Barrow (RainbowPUSH Coalition) and Bernie Wong (Chinese American Service League)
Right: (L-R) Illinois State Sen. Kwame Raoul, Rev. Calvin Morris (Community Renewal Society) and Dr. Gary Slutkin (Chicago Project for Violence Prevention/CeaseFire)
U.S. Senator Roland Burris talking with Mikva Challenge alum Darius Lyles
Left: Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Honoree Dawn Clark Netsch
Right: (L-R) Gov. Patrick, BPI Director Ann Smith and Sen. Raoul
Left: Gov. Patrick and Honoree Alex Polikoff
Right: (L-R) Jenny Salvatore, BPI's first Polikoff-Gautreaux Fellow, Susan Kaden and BPI Director Jonathan Kaden
BPI'S 40 WHO'VE MADE A DIFFERENCE HONOREES:
Kimball R. Anderson
Winston & Strawn LLP
Ben Applegate and Tom Thorne-Thomsen
Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, P.C.
Joy Aruguete
Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation
Rev. Willie T. Barrow
RainbowPUSH Coalition
Scott Bernstein
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Barbara Bowman
Chicago Public Schools/ Erikson Institute
Marca Bristo
Access Living
Thom Clark
Community Media Workshop
Leon M. Despres*
Civic and Government Leader
Sunny Fischer
The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation
Jesus "Chuy" Garcia
Enlace Chicago
Samir Goswami
Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation
Ronald Grzywinski
ShoreBank Corporation
Joan W. Harris
Civic Leader
Joshua Hoyt
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Richard P. Kiphart
Civic Leader
Elliot Lehman
Civic Leader
Robert "Bud" Lifton
Civic Leader
Harriet Meyer
Ounce of Prevention
Zoe Mikva and Hon. Abner Mikva
Mikva Challenge
Rev. Calvin S. Morris, Ph.D.
Community Renewal Society
Thomas H. Morsch
Northwestern University School of Law
Dawn Clark Netsch
Northwestern University School of Law
Eboo Patel
Interfaith Youth Core
Alexander Polikoff
Business and Professional People for the Public Interest
George Ranney
Chicago Metropolis 2020
Raul Raymundo
The Resurrection Project
Leonard S. Rubinowitz
Northwestern University School of Law
Jane M. Saks
Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of
Women and Gender in the Arts and Media,
Columbia College Chicago
Bettylu Saltzman
Civic Leader
Dr. Gary Slutkin
CeaseFire/ University of Illinois at Chicago
Robin M. Steans
Advance Illinois
Randolph Stone
University of Chicago Law School
Jackie Taylor
Black Ensemble Theater
Carlos Tortolero
National Museum of Mexican Art
Lois Weisberg
City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs
Kale Williams
Social Activist
Judy Wise
Facing History and Ourselves
Bernie Wong
Chinese American Service League
Dr. Quentin Young
Health and Medicine Policy Research Group
*Deceased May 5, 2009
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Executive Director Hoy McConnell's Letter on
Campaign Finance Reform
Chicago Tribune
May 4, 2009
Campaign Caps
The Tribune deserves plaudits for its "State of Corruption" series and its call to "drain the swamp of corruption that has made Illinois famous." A comprehensive set of reform measures are desperately needed in Illinois today. And the single most important -- the cornerstone for all ethics reform -- is strict limits on political campaign contributions.
Big money needs to come out of Illinois politics. It's a corrupting and corrosive influence. Under our state's totally unregulated system, big campaign contributions can out-muscle and, in effect, trample the will of the public by boosting candidates beholden to these huge donors. Campaign caps on individuals are not enough, however. Reasonable limits need to be set for contributions to candidates and parties by political action committees. More important, Illinois needs to impose limits on transfers of funds from legislative caucus committees to individual candidates. PACs controlled by the four Illinois legislative leaders have been making six-figure contributions to candidates in targeted races.
The April 23 front-page story "Campaign cash hard to curb; State of corruption: Money spigot could still flow under proposed reform" has it right that "where caps might have the biggest impact is in the legislature, where party leaders have kept a tight grip on power by underwriting the campaigns of many rank-and-file loyalists."
In the face of public outrage, Illinois' political leaders seem poised to allow some campaign contribution limits. But beware of watered-down legislation with loopholes, omissions and limits that won't really matter. The devil is in the details. And in Illinois politics, the devil needs minding.
-- Hoy McConnell, Steering Committee, CHANGE Illinois!, executive director, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, Chicago
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Governor Quinn Makes Education Funding Advisory Board Appointments
On May 5, in direct response to a lawsuit brought by BPI, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn appointed five new members to the Educational Funding Advisory Board (EFAB). EFAB plays a key role in the Illinois education funding system by establishing the "Foundation Level"—the minimum amount required to provide a basic education to an Illinois student.
EFAB had not met or made recommendations since 2003, because former Governor Blagojevich had consistently failed in his statutory duty to make appointments to the Board and convene it to make its recommendations. BPI sued then-Governor Blagojevich over these failures in January 2009, and Governor Quinn stepped in where his predecesor had not and made the appointments so that the Board can once again do its important work.
Click here for press release announcing the EFAB appointees: Sylvia Puente, EFAB chair, and members Dean Clark, Arthur Culver, Ed Geppert, Jr., and Ken Swanson.
