Illinois Senate Floor Debate — February 3, 2005

Personal privilege. Madam President and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate -- could I have their attention? I have a very sad message. I received a call that Sean Maher, S-E-A-N, Maher of Grayslake, Illinois - my constituent - lost his life yesterday in Iraq attached to mortar fire propelled rockets. He was a Marine who graduated from Warren High School, 2003, a fabulous athlete, wonderful person, an outstanding soldier. The family would like him to be recognized on the Floor of the Senate today. And I ask for a moment of silence for my good constituent, a wonderful boy, Sean Maher - M-A-H-E-R, S-E-A-N.

I’m sorry. That was pressed by mistake. I apologize.

A point -- a point of personal privilege.

3  STATE OF ILLINOIS 94th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 7th Legislative Day 2/3/2005 Today, my friends, today is the day that my long, long- valued friend, my -- our most competent Chief of Staff, Courtney Nottage, will be leaving us. It’s -- this is the last day we will be in Session this week, so he’ll -- it’ll be the last day he’ll be serving with us while we are in Session. Courtney Nottage, who -- who was my legal counsel from the years 1993 through ’98, he -- he did a brief stint in the House but he recognized that the Senate was the best Chamber to be in, and he served as my legal counsel on this side for many years and then became Chief of Staff. He’s a person of -- of strong will; at the same time, a very fair individual. He worked on many key pieces of legislation in the past: the ethics reform legislation, the death penalty reform legislation. He’s our Ethics Officer, as well as the Freedom of Information Officer, for the entire Senate. He’s a person that I have the utmost trust and confidence in, and the Members do likewise. He’s a very fair person. It’s a great loss, but also a gain. The job of Chief of Staff, as you know, is one that require a person to be available at all times: the day, night, on weekends. He has -- has two lovely daughters. I know he’d like to spend more time with them. But I hate to lose him, but again, we do wish him well in his new endeavor. Today is his last day. And, Courtney -- where are you my friend? He -- a very fair, ethical person, one who is levelheaded. And sometimes I know individuals don’t get all that they want, but he tried to keep us on -- on key, or keep us -- keep us pointed in the right direction. He’s done such a tremendous job as Chief of Staff. Courtney, we’re going to miss you, but I know you still will come around once in a while to see us. We will have a sign on the rail, in case you decide to come on the outside there, with your name on it. But we wish you -- well as you move to the private sector, and thanks for all that you’ve done for us on this side of the aisle. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for being our great Chief of Staff, and thank you for being the Ethics Officer, and I thank you for all the service you’ve given us.

Yes. Thank you very much, Madam President. And -- and those of us on this side also want to pass on our good -- best wishes to Courtney. He was -- he worked well with us. It’s -- it’s lonely being at the top. I know that being Chief of Staff - - difficult times. Brian and I’ve discussed that even as -- today. It’s kind of a bumpy road sometimes, and I -- but you’ve done a great job. You’re highly respected by your Members. You’re highly respect -- respected by your staff, and that’s -- that’s an important quality that you -- you have to do what you have to do, but still everybody understands and respects the decisions that -- that you have -- that have to be made. I wish you well, obviously, as you go. We’re going to see more of you on this side now that you’re going out there. So we’ll be looking forward to having you in our office, and -- and I -- we know you’ll do well in that, Courtney, ‘cause you’re -- you’ll do the same type of quality work when you come to see us and give us the information that we need to have as you’ve done as Chief of Staff for the Democrats. And we thank you for -- for everything you’ve done for us, and you’ve been very fair, and we wish you well. 5  STATE OF ILLINOIS 94th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 7th Legislative Day 2/3/2005

Madam President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate. Courtney, I want to thank you for your many, many kindnesses and help. You’ve been a real gentleman and you have certainly been a most capable right hand to Emil Jones. And I want to wish you the best. You are not only a gentleman, but you’re a caring gentleman and you’ve been very fair to us too on this side. And, again, I wish you the best in life. And, God bless you and your family and keep you well.

Thank you, Madam President. I just want to echo what many others have said, and part of Courtney’s strength was his just incredible charm. And there was always that feeling when you would approach Courtney and he’d have some version of the Rules Report in his hand, and he and Dave Gross would be working together on it and you’d come up and kind of, “Hey, Courtney, you got a minute?” And, you know, and we’d ask, “Hey, is such and such a bill?” or “Can we get such and such a bill on the Rules Report, or is it on the Rules Report?” He just had this way about him, his looking, and this, kind of, being fairly sympathetic, actually, in saying, “Wow, it just didn’t make the Report and there’s, you know, there’s nothing I can do about it.” So he had -- even though he was complicit in having us be roadkill basically for the past two years, he -- he would come at us with a real smile on his face and it made it a lot easier to take. So, Courtney, you’re a star and you’ve got twenty-seven friends over here who will do everything we can to make you to continue to be a big, big success. 7  STATE OF ILLINOIS 94th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 7th Legislative Day 2/3/2005

Yeah. Thank you, Madam President. Recognizing it is a loss and but I know we will still be seeing quite a bit of Courtney. But a person whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with when I chaired the Insurance, Pensions and Licensed Activity Committee, one whom I requested to be my staff person at that time, and she is now my assistant -- special assistant, but she’s equally qualified, knows the system, very fair, and this is the year of the lady -- of the women, and Jill Rock will assume the position of Chief of Staff on this side of the aisle. And she can be tough. She can be tough. But Jill Rock will be our new Chief of Staff to assume the duties that Courtney is -- is leaving.

Yeah. Thank you, Madam President. You know, he -- Senator Jacobs tried to slip one in on us, as always, and he and I had a long talk this morning and we didn’t discuss this departure. We knew it was coming. He said what prompted him to do it now is that when the Tribune had him on the front page exercising his constitutional right and we passed a memo to curtail those constitutional rights on the Senate Floor. And so he’ll be leaving us, and -- but he -- he didn’t want us to tell you all the great things about him, including the bad things. He didn’t want to go through that. And he told me just a few minutes ago, he said, “I know what they’re going to say about me, so I don’t want go through that. I went around and told everyone I was leaving. That’s -- that was good enough”. And he slipped that resignation letter in so he could sneak away from us. And Rick Pearson used to sit in that box right there, Denny, and I know you got cigarettes from him. And -- and you -- and you contaminated Tony Munoz, even myself, as you passed ‘em out. But it -- it’s been great serving with you, Denny. Denny’s -- in Denny’s family, I knew his father quite well. I know his son. I know his grandson. All that -- all in -- those generations I know in your family, Denny. It was a great honor serving with you and your father, and I look forward to serving with your son. I think he will be a great, great Senator. And that’s one thing I say about this university: You have a opportunity to meet people from all walks of life. And you are a great representative for the -- the Quad City area, coming in behind Clarence Darrow. But you’re not going to get away; you’re not going to get away without the Members of this Body saying all those good things about you. And the words of Kenny Rogers, you say, you -- you know when to fold. You got to know when to hold, 10  STATE OF ILLINOIS 94th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 7th Legislative Day 2/3/2005 know when to fold, know when to walk away, and know when to run. And -- and you almost ran away from us, but you got caught. You got -- you got caught. You didn’t quite get away. If you would have waited till we adjourned to slip that in, then we would have read that when we came back. We’re due to come back here in two weeks. But we wish you well in your endeavor. It’s been great serving with you. Your specialty in the area of -- of gaming, you knew it quite, quite well. You done a tremendous job not only in that area, but many other areas. And we worked hard on you. Senator Watson asked me about a piece of legislation, but you -- you held firm. I didn’t say anything to you about it. I tried to get that legislation out, but it never got out. And, so -- but we wish you well in -- in the new endeavor. And I don’t want to see you hanging on that rail out there. If you’re out there, we’re going to put a name plate with your name on the rail. And I think we should pass a resolution: all lawmakers and Senators that leave, if they go into the lobbying business, their -- their name plates should be on the rail out there, so you have your permanent station as you continue. But we wish you well in your new life. And when you go home, I guess you can have a cigarette then. Now that -- no more cigarettes at home. But we wish you well in -- in your new endeavor and so forth. Good luck to you and God bless you, old friend.

Madam President and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate, I served with Senator Jacobs’ father before him, and I can tell you right now, I have enjoyed serving with Denny. Denny, you’re outstanding, you’re a real gentleman, you’re a caring person, and we love you. God bless you. Whatever you do, I hope you’re very successful and healthy.

Thank you, Madam President. I’ve known Denny for almost twelve years now. We’ve had the pleasure of serving on committees together, and I just want to say, I can’t think of an individual who’s ever served in the Illinois General Assembly 11  STATE OF ILLINOIS 94th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 7th Legislative Day 2/3/2005 who’s served with more honor and honesty than Denny Jacobs. He has truly been a colleague to all of us. Someone we could trust, and someone that has left this place a better place because of his honesty. We also know that he brought with him a family tradition. We are pleased to see he’s likely to leave a family tradition here with us. We look forward to working with him in whatever future endeavors he engages in, because we know he’ll do that honorably and honestly. But, Senator Jones, I understand that part of the reason Denny is leaving is the smoking issue, but a lot of us over here think he just didn’t want to sit through another State of the State address. So he’s getting out early, I think he is going to run. Denny, thank you and God bless you.

Well, thank you very much, Madam -- Madam President. Denny, when -- when did your dad leave? What year? Can’t remember. Well, maybe it is time for you to go. Jeez. I’m just thinking of -- I’m just thinking over here, I’d be three generations I would have served with, ‘cause I think your dad might have been here when I came in and then your son’s going to follow you. I - - I do think it’s wonderful and -- and Miguel made a great comment about that. And -- and we are going to miss you, Denny. You’re one of the class acts here. And -- and we are going to miss you on this side, especially, ‘cause every now and then, we were able to, kind of, bring you over, you know. So we’re hoping that your son didn’t fall too far from the tree, because we need help over here every now and then on some issues and you did -- you worked with us well. And you worked with our side and -- and we appreciate that. And -- and we know you’re going to -- to be back and visible around here in -- in Springfield. And we’ll look forward to serving with your son. I think that’ll be -- that’s a -- what a -- what a great honor that is for you, to have your son follow you as you did your father. I just think that’s wonderful. So, good luck to you.