Illinois House Floor Debate — May 6, 2009

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let the record reflect that Representative Coladipietro is excused today."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Point of personal privilege."

"Mr. Speaker, and Members of the Body, yesterday you will recall that we had two Death Resolutions in this chamber. At the outset of the House convening yesterday, I spoke to a senior Member of the podium staff and advised that Gentleman that we had these Death Resolutions. He advised me that as soon as appropriate, it would be addressed. Shortly thereafter, I got a call from the Senate asking me if the soldiers' families could come to the Senate side. And I said I would have to check because they wanted to pay tribute to them in the Senate. Ladies and Gentlemen, we had 19 members from two families of two fallen heroes in the gallery. At 17 minutes after the 09600049.doc 4  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 hour, I again spoke to a senior Member of the podium staff… let me correct that… I approached a senior Member of the podium staff, who knew what I wanted. And without allowing me to speak, simply stated 'the agenda is controlled from up here. I'll let you know when it's appropriate'. Accordingly, I took that as shut up and sit down, Sacia, and that's exactly what I did. Shortly thereafter, Senator Althoff came here and asked me if the members of the two fallen soldiers could come to the Senate. I again stated that I was awaiting word from the podium. The word didn't come. Now, I ask Members of this Body to remember the work that we did in here yesterday. We weren't moving Bills, folks. All we had done is Committee Reports, and Resolutions. Forty-four minutes into the hour, with nothing having transpired on this House Floor, forty-four minutes into the hour, after I had consulted with senior staff on this side of the aisle, finally the Speaker said 'would staff retire to the rear of the chambers for Death Resolutions'. As soon as the Resolutions were completed, I got on the phone to the Senate and was told, Representative, the Senate adjourned at 12:30. Why did this have to be? Why did 19 members of fallen heroes' families not be allowed to be acknowledged in the Senate? Why couldn't that senior spokesman from the podium staff had said Sacia, it'll be 5 minutes; it'll be 10 minutes; it'll be 15 minutes? No, it's I control the agenda. I'll tell you when it's acceptable. This isn't the first time that senior members of the podium staff have done this. And it isn't only to our side of the aisle. Last week, 09600049.doc 5  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 Wednesday, a Gentlelady from the other side of the aisle stood up to applaud Senator Specter for becoming a Democrat. That's okay. That's how it goes. And I stood up to make a comment about the fact that wasn't it disingenuous that just a week before that person, Mr. Specter, had come to Chicago and solicited large sums of money from Republicans, knowing full well that he was going to switch Parties. And all that's okay. That's part of the process. But a senior member of the podium staff had to strut in front of me making a driving motion. And perhaps he'll have Larry Trent drive him around. Larry Trent, the retired director of the Illinois State Police, an exceptional man that has given 30 years of his life to service of the State of Illinois and that gentleman got his cheap shot in at Larry Trent. Why do we, 118 Members of the House of Representatives, each of us representing 105 thousand citizens have to be told shut up and sit down? I don't mind. It isn't going to hurt Jim Sacia. I might never get another Bill called out of here. I don't care. That's how this place works. But what I do care is when two soldiers give their life for this country and 19 of their family members sit up there and cannot get acknowledged by the Senate because I'm told to shut up and sit down, we'll let you know when it's appropriate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I, too, would like to add my word of congratulations to the outstanding team from Richwoods. My children all went to Richwoods High School, and Richwoods High School is in my district. And I was especially enthusiastic to enjoy the success in a vicarious, but very happy way, the enthusiasm that you brought to the community. So, thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I could have the Body's attention. Yesterday's Death Resolutions… like all of you, I was… was and am, and will remain touched by the sentiment that this Body expressed to those families. And as is my 09600049.doc 7  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 habit, when I… when I can, I… I left the floor yesterday to be in the gallery with the families just in some small way, to remind them that we will not forget those soldiers. It's a small token to… to recognize them. I became aware when I returned to the floor of what I perceived to be indignities of senior staff on your side of the aisle. And I can't tell you… I can't describe the depth of my anger. I left the chamber yesterday. I left the Capitol in… in disgust. And I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt. I'd like to hear the rest of the story, but to those families of those two young men, I would say to senior staff, they are better men than you, Sir. They were better men than you."

"Thank you, Speaker. A point of personal privilege."

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, I stand simply to… to acknowledge my colleague, Representative Sacia's admonitions to this Body regarding your responsibilities as elected officials. Every single one of us make promises to the people that send us here. We work hard. The elections we're in sometimes are contentious. Sometimes they're very political. And sometimes they get downright nasty. We all know that. That's part of what we do. But having gone through the election process, and having the opportunity to serve the people in a capacity in this State House, should give us… should give us the opportunity, when we request it in a reasonable manner, to have the people that sent us 09600049.doc 8  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 here recognized, especially those who have given their last full measure. There should be nothing ahead of that agenda on this House Floor. When there is a family waiting for recognition of a loved one that has not returned, defending our freedom, and the votes that put us here and yesterday what happened was a travesty. It was a travesty that needs to be addressed. There should never be a time in this Body that we put aside, in any fashion, the request of an elected Representative to make sure that the family members of a fallen soldier are recognized in a timely manner. Shame on us. Shame on us for allowing it to happen. Shame on every single Member in here who isn't outraged at the fact that it occurred. And it better not happen again."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, I can't imagine, and I hope I never have to imagine what the families felt like yesterday in the gallery here of not… at being treated as secondhand citizens when it was their family member who has given the ultimate sacrifice to allow these freedoms to exist. A week from tomorrow I will be going out to spend a weekend with my son who will be going over in the next month. And so help me, as a parent… as a parent who has a son who is serving, if it would have happened to me, I don't know that I would have been as kind as those people were in the gallery, just to accept that they had been treated the way they did. Folks, we do a lot of things on this House Floor, and I… you've heard me yell and scream and argue and… and that's all part of what we do. But I'm 09600049.doc 9  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 going to tell you, those two men who were honored yesterday, they weren't… we don't know if they were Republican, we don't know if they were Democrat. What I know is, is they were soldiers; that they were willing to serve and they died doing that so that we can have these freedoms. And to be treated in the way they were, shame on us for allowing our staff to allow it to happen."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, I made a request of the parliamentarian to… I was looking for some basic information about what it takes to get a Bill posted and we left, and we adjourned to committees without having that question answered. And renewing my request of where in the Rules does it give guidance to the Members of how a Bill is to be posted. We do have a problem. We've been critical, no doubt, over a lot of Bills that have been buried in the Rules Committee. We're happy that some of them have been sent to substantive committees, but they're not being called because they are not posted. So, I'd like to get some guidance on how that process works, and how I can get a Bill posted, which otherwise is going to sit and die in a standing committee."

"I beg to differ with you, Mr. Speaker. House Rule 21(a)1 states as follows: The chairperson of the committee or the cochairperson from the Majority caucus of the standing or special committee shall, no later than six days before any proposed hearing, post a notice in the House bulletin board identifying each subject matter, and each legislative measure. Where do you read 'may'? I read 'shall', and I don't believe there's discretion involved. That's why when a Bill is posted, it's been referred to a standing committee. The rules state quite clear that it 'shall' be posted."

"Could you explain to me what then the purpose of having 'shall' in that sentence is, which is mandatory. It's not discretionary. It says 'shall' post."

"Well, Mr. Ellis, we've known each other for a long time and I have great respect for you and your… your abilities as a parliamentarian, but I… I disagree with your analysis. And I think it just gets back to the issue at hand that I think we're being played with. We've objected because we want hearings. You know, you've got the Majority in these committees. You can shoot our… our good Bills down. A number of them just die on the vine. They have been in the Rules Committee, but I think that we're being played with by having some of these Bills are being sent out to standing committees, but they're dying in those committees. So, I would rather you just keep those Bills in the Rules Committee and not play with us anymore and continue on with that charade. So, I… I disagree with your analysis on that. And I would just hope, at some point, that you'd give these Bills a fair hearing. I gave you a list of three pages of hearings… of three pages of Bills that were assigned to the Executive Committee that all on their own feet should be able to… they… they stand by their… on their own feet. They should be able to be flushed out or heard out before the committee, but unfortunately they're not. So, I know what's going on and 09600049.doc 12  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 so do the other Members here know what's going on. So, I appreciate your patience, but I disagree with your analysis."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Approximately a week ago, maybe less, I sent a letter to the Speaker's Office requesting a Committee of the Whole on the issue of Ethics Reform, and specifically, on the issue of whether or not it would be appropriate to have a Committee of the Whole on… on ethics and to have the Collins Commission appear before the House. We have subsequently filed a Resolution asking for the same approach. It's not unusual for this House to have Committees of the Whole. We've done it on Electric Rate Deregulation, Gross Receipts, Lottery Lease, Pension, Teacher's Retirement, SERS, Health Care, Teacher's Retirement, Health Care and Family Services, budgets vetoed by the Governor. So, my question before the… the House and to you, Mr. Speaker, is, what is the intention of the Chair with respect to Committee of the Whole? I've seen certain comments in the newspaper that we may not get one, but I'd like official word from the House, Speaker, on whether or not we're going to have a Committee of the Whole on… on ethics."

"Well, Mr. Speaker, I think, and this goes to my point on Committee of the Whole, Representative Durkin's point on posting, Representative Sacia's point on Resolutions, we have one man running Illinois Government, one man deciding whether or not a Bill gets called, a Committee of the Whole gets called, a Resolution gets called, a Bill gets posted, a Bill gets out of Rules. You might as well take the 118 names off of there, at least all of yours, with exception of the Speaker's, 'cause you don't run this place. One person runs this place. One person tells all of Illinois what's going to happen, and whether or not your idea, your concept, your proposal, your thought process, your constituent's idea is going to have a hearing or not. Not you. Not us. But one person, the Speaker of the House. And it brings me to the point on ethics, and the question of whether or not we can have a Committee of the Whole on ethics. It's the issue of the day. It is the issue for this state above all others. Someone's going to tell me capital is the issue. Someone's going to tell me budget's the issue. Someone's going to say what about teacher retirement? What about making a pension payment? All of that flows… all of that flows on whether we repair the damage this state has suffered ethically, and image-wise, because of the action of a number of people. On the budget… on the budget, you're talking about appropriating $55 billion… $55 billion. Why should the people trust us to do that with the image problem we have right now? We are the laughing stock of this country. We have got to repair the image of this state, and to ignore our requests 09600049.doc 14  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 to have a Committee of the Whole, because you're going to take it under advisement and give us an answer when you feel like it, is unacceptable. Now, yesterday a pretty strange phenomenon happened in this building. We have an Ethics Committee, a bi… a joint committee of Senate and House. And the idea of that committee, at least I was told, was to gather ideas for reform in the State of Illinois. And, yesterday, I would argue, that we went the exact opposite way of providing ideas for reform in the State of Illinois. Ought to be talking about redistricting. We ought to be talking about Primary date changes. We ought to talk about transparency. We ought to be talking about campaign finance laws, but not yesterday. What we did yesterday was, and should be an embarrassment to this Body. I have an Amendment to Senate Bill 1905. Senate Bill 1905 deals with the Health Facility Planning Board and it extends the life for the Health Facility Planning Board, something I think has to happen, and should happen. Our Amendment, coupled with Senate Bill 1905, says that two members: one staff member, one ex officio member of the Health Facility Planning Board, ought not to be involved in that process anymore. They were in their positions back in 2004. For those of you that don't understand or remember the significance of 2004 with the Health Facility Planning Board, that was a time when people like Stuart Levine, and Tony Rezko, and chairman at the time, Tom Beck, were running that board, irregardless of the rules, and telling people how to vote and saying we're going to do this or that for money. It was as corrupt a 09600049.doc 15  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 board as we've had in the history of the State of Illinois. And most anybody that's followed the CON Board would say we need to make changes. And the Senate took the first step in doing the right thing. Lisa Dugan is the House Sponsor, and she and I and Matt O'Shea, our Chief of Staff, have been working on some proposals to make it better and specifically one of those is to have these two positions eliminated or removed to eliminate the taints of the Health Facility Planning Board. Do what we can to clean it up. You may recall that about two weeks ago, in this same chamber and over in the Senate, we passed a Bill that took away the position or eliminated the individual in the position, Jon Bauman, of the Retirement System without any hearing, no hearing at all. We got an Amendment about five minutes before we voted on it and it said this position or Mr. Bauman is gone. Not a single hearing. And we voted on it and it passed. I think one person, who I think has strong convictions on why he did it, I respect that, didn't. But everybody else voted for it, 'cause we wanted to be at the go. We wanted to clean house. But yesterday, at the Speaker's request, a woman by the name of Pam Davis was summoned to the House and Senate Joint Committee on Ethics. Was called up and said, we want you to come down here. I don't know what all was said, but she came down because she's involved in somewhat of a major way on the reform of the Health Facility Planning Board. Her involvement in the Health Facility Planning Board was heralded as one of the… the bravest moves anybody's done in the State of Illinois and perhaps around the country in a 09600049.doc 16  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 long time. What she did back in 2004 was go to the FBI and say, 'I had some people involved with the Health Facility Planning Board come to me and say, Pam Davis, if you want a hospital sited in a certain spot, you have to hire certain construction companies and certain lobbyists, et cetera, and pay us a certain amount of money and you'll get what you want. So, she goes to the FBI, wears a wire, and as a result of that, several people have pled guilty, have been convicted and I would argue have been impeached, because of the courage of Pam Davis. Pam Davis is what we call a whistle-blower. It's not easy to be a whistle-blower. There's a lot of stress and tension being a whistle-blower. She wore a wire for eight months and she said it was so difficult and so stressful that her fingernails were actually cracking, her blood pressure rose and it was one of the worst times in her life, but it was something she felt like she needed to do and as a result of that, Stuart Levine, Tony Rezko and Governor… former Governor Blagojevich have all had their lives affected in a different way and rightly so. I'm not done yet, Mr. Speaker, I want to make sure people are listening. So, yesterday, you would have thought that Pam Davis would come done in support of this Amendment and argue why these two individuals, David Carvella and Jeffrey Mark, should be removed from their positions on the Health Facility Planning Board 'cause they were there at the time in 2004 when the corruption took place, did very little if anything about it and have remained there. It is an analogous situation to the TRS situation, if not even more so, if not 09600049.doc 17  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 even worse. But what Pam Davis had to go through yesterday is what's pro… what's troubling for me and when I suggest we're going backward on the issue of ethics and not forward is she had to endure several hours of questioning in a rather hostile way as to why she was there, why she thought these people ought to be removed, what lobbyists the hospital had hired, why did they hire them, how did they get those lobbyists. We treated this whistle-blower as if she had done something wrong. She's a hero. She's a hero and we said basically, don't you come down here and suggest that two people ought to be removed 'cause if you do, you're going to take a little grief. If you do, we're going to question your motives. If we do, you're going to get ridiculed. If you do, we're going to make it painful for you. She left yesterday, I would say, in a pretty sad state. I think disappointed, in despair, a little bewildered on why people on your side of the aisle were so difficult in the questions they asked. Now, but what's fascinating about this hearing and I beg… it really asked the question, why would the Speaker invite this woman down and have her treated that way. I'm still trying to figure that out. I'm… There are all kinds of motives; there are all kinds of theories. We all have great political minds around here. You figure it out, why she would get treated the way she would. But what's curious to me is the two people we're talking about mentioned, testified, or we found out afterwards were Democrats. And then we found out and this didn't happen 'til the very end of the committee yesterday, Repre… Senator Susan Garrett, to her credit, the 09600049.doc 18  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 very end asked one of these individuals, how did you get on the board? Who sponsored you? Who was behind you getting on the board? Of course, this hadn't been offered for… in the three hours and the individual gave an answer. And Susan said, well, you know, Mr. Carvella, you and I had a different conversation about six months ago and that's not how I remember it. And he said, well, how do you remember it? Susan said, you told me that Tony Rezko was your sponsor on the board. Now, this may come as a shock to everybody in this chamber, but within about 20 seconds after everybody gasped, the committee was immediately adjourned, no more questions. It was then, after the committee, that we found out Jeffrey Mark offered the fact to the media that Tony Rezko had also been his sponsor. Now, I have this committee hearing this afternoon, Lisa Dugan has this Bill, I've been told… we have at the staff level… that my Amendment's not going to get heard. Here we go again. One guy has said we're not going to hear your Amendment. Now, we have to make a decision in this state. Are we going to clean up, are we going to fumigate all these boards that are bad, or are we going to be very selective in how we fumigate and who we fumigate? Are we going to take care of just a few people? TRS was bad. Bauman was there when it happened, was there after it happened. Carvella and Mark, CON Board, were there when it happened, still there. We're going to treat the CON Board a little differently than we're going to treat TRS. That remains to be seen. I would hope at 2:00, before or when we go into committee, that my Bill will be voted on. I 09600049.doc 19  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 will hope that there will be some consistency in this chamber. I will hope that we really are going to move forward on ethics instead of backwards. I would hope that we would recognize that people like Pam Davis are good people, honest people, heroes and I, just as an aside, if you happened to be there yesterday and you really thought maybe it was a good thing to be a whistle-blower, I'm not sure you'd get that feeling after yesterday. You might say, well, I'm not so sure I want to do the right thing, not if this is going to happen. Not if people are going to question me in the style and the mode they did. But Mr. Speaker, it is time that we quit talking about ethics; it's time to quit nibbling around the edges; it's time to be serious about ethics, move forward on ethics, not take it under advisement 'til who knows when, not we'll get back to you, not when we're ready we'll do it, not you just wait there, when I tell you it's right we'll do it. People are starving for reform in this state. People are sick of this state. They are sick of the way it's been run; they are embarrassed and we need to take the bull by the horn and move forward. Enough is enough. Let's move forward in a real, real way on ethics and quit talking about it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My only point is the different approach we have to fumigating in the State of Illinois. I… if I recall correctly, we had about five minutes to consider whether or not Jon Bauman ought to be removed. We were asked… we asked both Mr. Carvallo and Mr. Mark, who were involved and at meetings where… this CON Board, for those of you that don't know, had some pretty shady meetings where hospitals in the suburban area were 09600049.doc 24  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 considered… some got approved some got denied and under some pretty questionable tactics, to say the least they were very questionable and these two gentlemen were at those meetings. And during the wiretaps that took place that Pam Davis wore, there were allegations by… or not allegations, statements made by Beck and Levine that we control Mark and he'll do whatever I say and we don't have to follow rules. The only reason this came to light is because Pam Davis wore a wire and the two individuals there at the time in a staff capacity didn't go to the Attorney General, didn't go to the state's attorney, didn't go to the United States Attorney. They said they talked to their ethics officer after some pretty questionable actions by these boards. The second thing that ought to be troubling to everybody in this room is that they were sponsored for these positions by Tony Rezko, a convicted felon in the United States Federal Court. So, I… I guess it begs the question of the previous speaker, are we going to have a different standard? Are we going to have a standard place to be that if you see something, but don't take the action of going to law enforcement that that's acceptable or are we going to clean house like we did with Bauman? And I think it's that simple. You've got a Rezko connection; you've got an inability to pursue this with law enforcement as opposed to the outside person that did it and we, unfortunately, as we fumigate… to use someone's term… we have to err on the side of caution and fumigate, I think, in a pretty broad stroke. Thank you." 09600049.doc 25  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009

"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. A point of personal privilege, if I might."

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, the previous speaker on the Democrat side of the aisle, I have great respect for, in fact, I consider him a friend. But Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm the only Member of the House that voted against the, what I call, the stealth Amendment that ended up firing Mr. Bauman. I did not use Mr. Bauman's name in that debate. I didn't think it was my point or my position to use someone's name, that was brought out by Speaker Madigan who brought the Amendment to the floor. I think any time you use the Illinois General Assembly to fire someone by name I think we exceed our ethical, if not moral authority. Sometimes I even question our legal authority to fire someone who was hired by a board of directors. And my good friend on the other side of the aisle said, and I wrote it down, there was no evidence, never any evidence of Mr. Carvallo and Mr. Mark doing any wrongdoing on the Certificate of Need or the CON Board. They weren't charged with anything. They might have been investigated, but no charges were filed. So, they should stay on the board. One of the reasons that I voted 'no' on that Amendment and was the only one to do so, there were no charges filed against Mr. Bauman, who has subsequently resigned. There was an investigation, no charges were ever filed, no serious allegations were ever used against him, but in your 09600049.doc 26  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 words, on your side of the aisle, he was there. He was there. We don't see any evidence that he did anything to correct it; however, he did say later, he told some of those characters, that are now appearing in Federal Court, that he wouldn't do some things. He wouldn't do that. I think he told somebody in your Party that he wouldn't do something; that's why he ended up getting fired. No allegations, no investigation, no conviction. He's a relatively young man. I don't know him. I'm not here to defend him. I just think what we did was wrong and to bring his name out on the floor was wrong. He didn't need to be in there. When you reconstituted the board by Amendment, the new board would have asked for his resignation or as my friend on the other aisle… side of the aisle just said, the Executive Branch could have fired him. Could have asked the board to fire him, no, we did that. We did that. A relatively young man, how will he ever find employment again in his life when he has to put on his résumé, and he better because he has to be honest to find any work, I was fired by the Illinois General Assembly. Oh, really? That'll be a little hard to explain. So, for a man who was never investigated, never convicted, never charged, never indicted, his life, for all practical purposes, in that career is probably ruined. And there was another thing in that Amendment and again, remember, I didn't even have a copy of the Amendment when it was proposed. We had to download it in the printer in the back and I got to… I got to look at it. Another thing in that Amendment and again, and I don't criticize you, but I'll 09600049.doc 27  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 bet you've heard some of the things I haven't heard in the last month. I know my teachers have written me letters of thanks that I didn't vote for that Bill or that Amendment, because, what did it do, it gave the Governor more appointment authority over members of the ITRS, not less. Isn't that what got us in trouble in the first place? A certain Governor, who's no longer Governor, grasped that appointment authority and put people on the board who systematically used it for their personal, financial benefit. So, that Amendment said, oh, let's give the Governor more appointment authority. Now, I understand we have a new Governor and I don't think Governor Quinn will abuse that authority, but I don't think that's what we should have done. I think the timing was wrong. We didn't have time to read the Amendment and Ladies and Gentlemen, in all due respect to my friend on the other side of the aisle, take a look… take a look at the Calendar. How many Bills have been assigned to committee but not posted? A question that Mr. Durkin, Representative Durkin, has asked the last two days and gotten an answer that would do great justice to a criminal justice show on television. In other words, an answer that isn't an answer, but it might be an answer depending on how you interpret the answer. Most of the Bills that are assigned to committee and not posted are Republican Bills. Mr. Bauman was fired… could it be because he was appointed by a Republican Governor? There were no other charges against him. Look at the Bills that weren't even released from Rules. Are there dozens of Democrat Bills on that list? No. So, in all due respect 09600049.doc 28  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 to my colleague on the other side of the aisle, the tyranny of the Majority, we're trying to make some cheap political statement about the tyranny of the Majority? How dare us do that? We're not… I'm not alleging anything. I've been telling you for two months. The tyranny of the Majority is here. It didn't just appear today or yesterday. We are not treated fairly; we are not treated equally. Our Bills are often sent to a siting never to be heard from again. For years I've worked against the ridiculous way that we get compensation, the Compensation Review Board. It's not something I just filed a month ago or two months ago. I've worked on it for years. You all know… the freshmen may not, but it is a convoluted way. We have to pass a Resolution; the Senate passes a Resolution to deny the raise. They must be identical in every respect. If one comma is changed, oops, the two chambers aren't in agreement and the pay raise goes into effect. All I did was have a Bill that said the Compensation Review Board should be abolished; it never went anywhere. So, I said, okay, how can I go home and tell my constituents that we're going to get a three percent pay raise in this economy? I filed a Bill that said we shouldn't get it. Vote 'yes' or 'no'. No, couldn't hear that. Couldn't prevail on a Motion to Discharge. A day later a Democrat Bill was filed that was almost identical to mine with one exception, it says Members of the General Assembly shall serve 'x' number of days as unpaid furlough or unpaid days. At some point I assume you'll fill in the 'x'. I've already talked to Kevin Schoeben in the Comptroller's Office. I know what a 09600049.doc 29  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 day's pay is. I will send my check and I won't hold a news conference on the front of the Capitol. I'll simply send a check for one day's pay in May to the Comptroller, can't write it off my taxes, don't expect to be… have a parade to come home. If that's what you want us to do and if you're all willing to do that and you want to follow suit, fine, but our ideas no, no, pooh, pooh, uh huh, can't hear that. The only response you told the media on my Bill to deny the one-year COLA was and I quote, 'We haven't had time to read it.' What is there to read? You're either going to take the raise or you're not and then you file an almost identical Bill the next day. Alleged the tyranny of the Majority? It's already here. It's been here all Session and it's getting worse not better. I just remind you to read the editorial from the February 20, 2009, edition of the Chicago Tribune. The silence of the Democrats… and this has gotten worse since this was written… folks, the people of Illinois, the people of this country are watching and waiting. They saw each of you alleging to the Democrats on national television during the Blagojevich fiasco. Now, you're ringside. The longer you tolerate this ridiculous climate of corruption and how to slip by and slip through and slip around the rules the longer… it's my words not the Tribune… the longer you tolerate this the more you own it. So, you're either going to be part of the reform process or you're going to deny us even the right to have a Committee of the Whole that would benefit all of us. It isn't going to go away, folks. You're not going to get away… we're not going to run away from it in the campaign 09600049.doc 30  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 of 2010. It's number one on the hit parade. And what have you done… what have… what position have you taken? No, we can't have a Committee of the Whole. Something embarrassing might come out. In due time, we'll have a reform package. Your time is passed. You better act this week. The people are watching. The whole world is watching and don't even talk to me about alleging the tyranny of the Majority. I've lived it every day of this Session. And like Jim Sacia said so eloquently earlier, I'm sick and tired of it and you should be too."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My friend on the other side of the aisle and I have worked together on the CON Board. We've spent many hours reading the literature and listening to the hearings that happened there. We now, also, serve together on the Ethics Reform Bill… Committee and where each of us can look at a meeting in a different light, I really must take exception to his comments. I was at that meeting yesterday and I will tell you that I was personally embarrassed at how a heroine was treated in that committee. I was not alone with that. I was stopped… I made comment at that meeting saying that I was embarrassed and disappointed that she should have been treated as a hero. We should have been asking her, how do you strengthen whistle-blowing? How do we protect whistle-blowers? None of that was even addressed. After being invited down by Speaker Madigan, she was treated harshly, in my view and I will tell you in the view of many other people who came up 09600049.doc 31  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009 to me after that meeting, people that are familiar with the State House and said, thank you for that comment. You are right. She was treated harshly. So, to call our Leader and accuse him of not telling the truth is disingenuous. Thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in a point of personal privilege. I, too, would like to recognize a former colleague from my class, Representative Pat Lindner, who we sorely miss, who's on the House Floor today. She's here to appear as one of the alumni in the COWL show tonight, which should be very good and interesting. We hope you're all coming. And she will be here and do her usual great job and I, personally, sorely miss her being here this year on… in part of this Body."

"Pat, did I…"

"Right. So, somebody said I did not say Representative Pat Lindner."

"I hope I did, but if not, I'll say it again. Representative Pat Lindner." 09600049.doc 32  STATE OF ILLINOIS 96th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 49th Legislative Day 5/6/2009