By
far, the most ironic aspect of this entire post-Rod Blagojevich push to reform
Illinois has to be the last paragraph of Gov. Pat Quinn's much-praised reform
commission report.
"All
Constitutional officers should issue executive orders, comparable to George
Ryan’s Executive Order #2 (1999), prohibiting their
campaign funds from accepting contributions from state employees under their
control."
Former
Gov. Ryan issued that executive order because his crooked campaign fundraising
operation at his old secretary of state's office had triggered a federal
corruption probe and he was looking for some political cover. That
investigation, of course, eventually put Ryan in prison.
Gov.
Quinn's reform commission chairman Pat Collins - who presided over the insertion
of that rare Ryan praise into the commission report - was the chief prosecutor
at Ryan's trial. Ryan's executive order didn't prevent Collins' feds from also
convicting his campaign committee.
A
few years before he issued that EO, Ryan pushed through widely hailed reforms
of the state's lobbyist registration and disclosure laws in the run-up to his
successful 1994 reelection campaign against noted reformer... Pat Quinn.
Several of Ryan's lobbyist pals got caught up in his federal prosecution.
The
irony just never stops in this state.
The
lesson from this ought to be that passing new laws, no matter how enlightened
and reasonable and strict, will not stop the bad guys from being bad guys. They
are what they are. George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich are living proof of that
hard and fast law of the universe.
Obviously,
though, we've got a real problem here in Illinois and some changes have to be
made. But making those changes - and making sure they actually work and don't
break something else in the process - isn't nearly as easy as the newspaper
editorial boards and some of the reformers always make it sound.
For
instance, last week, some members of the governor's reform commission testified
to the General Assembly's Joint Committee on Government Reform. The focus of
the testimony was the commission's proposal to revamp state procurement laws.
Stories
are legion of how Blagojevich and his goons shook down state contractors for
campaign contributions. Besides the really hinky stuff, they allegedly did
things like delay final contract decisions to at least make it appear as though
a contractor might not get the job, and then put the arm on nervous and
otherwise honest businesspeople. Those who had won new contracts reportedly
received phone calls from campaign higher-ups demanding tribute, with the
implication that this might be the last contract they ever got.
See,
you don't always need to steer a contract towards somebody to make out like a
bandit. You just have to make it look like you can give it to someone else.
That's
a big reason why the state needs a far more open, transparent and fair
contracting system. If the system looks and feels clean to contractors and the
state employees who run it, the goons will have a tougher time gaming it.
The
problem is getting there without harming the underlying system itself.
The
governor's reform commission found out last week that while their ideas might
address one problem, they could make another problem worse.
Their
proposal to centralize and insulate procurement directors was hammered by one
business consultant as a "waste" of money and effort because it could
exacerbate the far more pressing problems of bottlenecks and gross
inefficiencies in the system itself.
The farther procurement officers get from the agencies, the less they
may understand the urgency or importance of certain contracts. And since the
state lets $7 billion in contracts every year, this is a hugely vital function
of government which can't be trifled with.
The
reform commission's proposal to headquarter independent contract monitors in
the auditor general's office was thoroughly shot down by Auditor General Bill
Holland, a man of unquestioned integrity. Holland said the plan would drag his
office into policy-making, and that would directly contradict his
constitutional role in the auditing process.
Holland
also took a shot at the commission's procurement centralization proposal by
reminding everyone that Rod Blagojevich had once "reformed" the
system by centralizing procurement officers under one roof.
"The
process does not corrupt the process," Holland said. "People corrupt
the process."
Still,
it's beyond clear that we need a new process here. Just keep your fingers
crossed that the "fix" doesn't break something else.
-30-
Rich
Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com.