Crime and Politics
Crime and Politics
A short think-piece on when something is criminal and when something is political. A opinion piece for the weekend FOIA GRAS readers...
A few of my readers have chimed in lately regarding my story “Superintendent Steering Contracts to Business Partners” and asked (or alleged) that crimes are being committed. I’m no lawyer but I’ve spent a too much time thinking about this, reading statutes, and interviewing people.
Let’s zoom out and discuss the timeline;
We hold a school board election in 2019 (3 candidates for 3 positions). Voter turnout was a measly 9%.
COVID happens.
Dr. Horton is appointed as superintendent on June 30, 2020 by the board.
We hold a close school board election in 2021 (8 candidates for 4 positions). Voter turnout was 25%.
The result is a polarized voting pool here in Evanston, with a 60/40 split between the “Keep Schools Remote” and “Reopen the Schools” groups.
Dr. Horton executes contracts on behalf of the board.
The Board and District defends the awards. Look no further than the Board’s adamant defense in the case of Sagebird Consulting. This contract was awarded in exactly the same manner as the ones described in my story: awarded to a friend with no bidding (105 ILCS 10.21) and no public reporting (105 ILCS 10.44).
Unless there is additional foul play, such as a kickback scheme (which I have no evidence to suggest either way) then I’m not sure what type of criminal consequences you can expect. The consequences are mostly political; the ISBE has some removal powers but those are for very extraordinary circumstances, such as bankruptcies. The reason isn’t crazy, in a democracy, we don’t want our elected officials (and their appointees) to be removed by anyone other than the voters. If you believe in the legitimacy of our democracy and election system, then that’s the whole point!
If you recall, liberals (like me) spent the first half of the Trump administration fantasizing about the Mueller Report. He was going to deliver the goods. And he did! Obstruction of Justice is a real crime! Then we hit this roadblock; the consequences were mostly political; impeachment and removal. Or secondarily, Trump would be (and was) removed in a fair election.
In a system that is really polarized and divided, as we are across the entire political system, it feels like this massive injustice. David Axelrod used to make the argument that this by design, in a world that is highly 50/50 divided, it seems unwise to start using tools other than elections against your political rivals.
If you think the ethics violations here are unacceptable (as I do!) then you have some actual bonafide options to change the system:
Vote. The municipal election is coming up. Early voting begins in 9 days.
Learn the candidates and annoy your friends and advocate for those candidates. You can read about them on the Evanston Roundtable story. Some of the candidates running are incumbents responsible for the current situation and some have politics my readers may agree with. (I can’t make an endorsement!)
Speak out, like I am doing here. This is precisely why the first amendment is so valuable in our system.
4,736 unique ballots out of 52,645 registered voters = 9%
Cook County’s website reports voter turnout incorrectly in the case of vote-for-multiple positions.There were 13,469 unique ballots cast and 53,093 registered voters.
I had totally forgotten about the 2019 election that was uncontested.
A couple additions to your timeline: board member Mendoza quit mid term in April 2021, board member Tanyavutti quit mid term in 2022, Weatherspoon (lost the election in 2021, but selected weeks later to fill Mendoza's seat) quit mid-term.
For me, these things add up to a crisis in governance. It is no wonder that Hernandez and the board in 2020 felt comfortable conducting the superintendent search behind closed doors--they hadn't even faced contested elections, so why would they be concerned submit themselves to public scrutiny over the superintendent search?
We have seen in both the 65 and 202 boards over the last 5-7 years a number of people just quit midterm, or there being uncontested elections (like one of the 202 seats this time around).
I am wondering whether consolidating the districts into one district might improve governance as well as the student experience. The most recent joint meeting of the districts showed a large gulf between 202's expectations and 65's. It seems ridiculous to have an entire school district for just one school.
If we consolidated, maybe we would get better candidates. There may be more scrutiny placed on their backgrounds and policy positions. Right now you have so many people running for each board that it is hard for many voters to evaluate their fitness for office. Then there are all of the other curricular benefits and cost savings that could come with consolidation.
Are any of the current candidates even entertaining this possibility?
Many years ago someone explained to me that the reason we have unhelpful educationist-dominated school boards is the nature of the job. If you want to do a good job, you'll need to spend quite a bit of time at it. Regardless of what you do, a large part of the community will hate you. You won't be paid. The sort of person most likely to seek such a post is an insider who gets a living from something related to "education."
Occasionally an actual member of the public, a sensible person who likely has children enrolled in the schools but earns a living in some other business, will stand for election to the board. Having no interested organization behind them, such a person is unlikely to be elected. Example last election was Angela Blaising. This time, John Martin.
I suppose correlating school board election days with property tax billing dates might be of some help here, but the County has a lot of trouble getting bills out on time, and renters, tho many are affected by property taxes, pay them only indirectly.