THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All...Mysterious resignations at Emergency Management Agency...Does Mapes verdict foreshadow the Madigan trial?...White Sox think they have leverage (they don't).
August 28, 2023
Good morning, Illinois.
Oftentimes, I give you a countdown to notable dates (primary date, how long it’s been since the Governor’s office treated us like we existed, etc.) Today, the only countdown that matters is 5. 5 days until Illinois Football kicks off. Can’t wait. I’m always far more excited for the start of college football than the NFL, but I think I’m a strange one in that regard.
The Governor speaks at the grand opening for the South-Central Illinois Training & Innovation Center in Litchfield at 2:15.
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Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
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Top officials out at state emergency agency (Chicago Sun-Times)
Three top officials at the state agency tasked with responding to disasters across the state — including the COVID pandemic and a record number of tornadoes this year — were pushed out late last month, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
The Illinois Emergency Management Agency has said the top two operations officials plus a legislative liaison who had worked as a confidential assistant to the agency’s director resigned “due to unique circumstances,” citing “personal reasons.”
Records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, however, show that chief of operations Marc M. Sullivan was forced out on July 28 “in lieu of termination for misconduct.” His boss, Scott Swinford, also stepped down the same day as deputy director, second in command only to agency director Alicia Tate-Nadeau, using an oddly identical letter citing personal reasons to resign.
The records show Sullivan wrote a second letter to Tate-Nadeau asking for “a copy of the investigation findings that drove me into administrative leave, as well as my last evaluations so that I may use those to understand my shortcomings and reference accomplishments for future employment searches.”
He also asked for a chance “to clear personal belongings from my office” he had been barred from as of May, when he had been placed on an administrative leave of absence. On July 11, that leave was extended through July 28, the date appearing on the resignation letter Sullivan signed.
Asked if he received those findings, Sullivan says, “I was not provided with anything besides my evaluations…. I resigned. I would prefer to not take this conversation any further.”
The liaison, Jennifer March, also was pushed out on July 27, according to documents that say she “resigned in lieu of termination due to poor performance.”
Documents signed by Tate-Nadeau show she and Sullivan are barred from working for IEMA again.
March could not be reached for comment.
In response to questions, IEMA spokesman Kevin Sur says, “IEMA-OHS does not comment on individual personnel matters. As stated previously, those three individuals independently resigned for personal reasons.”
Something is up here. We’ll be digging in to it today and try to have more in the newsletter tomorrow.
Mapes trial foreshadows federal case against Madigan, lifts veil on ex-speaker’s political secrecy (Chicago Tribune)
The conviction of former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan’s longtime chief of staff on perjury charges last week exposed more than just the extraordinary set of lies that Tim Mapes told to try to protect his boss.
The nearly three-week trial at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse also ripped a deeper tear in the veil covering the secretive Madigan political machine that prosecutors have called a criminal enterprise.
One FBI agent testified that Madigan’s style was similar to a mafia don. Wiretaps and email exposed the full extent of the panic that Madigan could have been toppled in 2018 over his allies #MeToo scandals. Evidence also captured the once-formidable speaker’s cutthroat moves to banish anyone who might hurt his struggle to hang onto power.
The Mapes trial also previewed the outlines of an ill-fated Chinatown land transfer deal that is included in the sweeping racketeering case filed against Madigan himself.
And it revealed a bizarre meeting Mapes had with the FBI in Springfield in January 2019, just days after different federal agents had knocked on the door of a top ComEd executive and pressured him into cooperating in the still-secret probe.
What’s clear from it all is that prosecutors still have not put all their cards on the table when it comes to the Madigan probe, which included more than nine months of wiretaps on the cellphone belonging to longtime Madigan confidant Michael McClain, as well as undercover video recordings of Madigan made by then-Chicago Ald. Daniel Solis.
Like the revelations in the Mapes case, a trove of additional evidence is expected to be unveiled in the months leading up to the April 1 racketeering trial of Madigan and McClain, who are accused of using Madigan’s official office to marshal power and enrich their friends.
Related: Three women who brought #MeToo allegations against Madigan circle find relief and hope in guilty verdict of ex-top aide (Chicago Sun-Times)
Following Tim Mapes’ conviction, lawmakers condemn his conduct, GOP renews call for reform (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: The Mapes trial is only the latest wake-up call for Illinois voters (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Reinsdorf has a strong hand in replay of White Sox stadium poker (Crain’s Chicago Business)
News that the South Side franchise is mulling leaving Guaranteed Rate Field, which Reinsdorf got built with public money in the early 1990s after threatening to move the team to Florida, gives the Chicago sports mogul multiple options for securing the team’s future — and the fortunes of his family and limited partners.
If past is prologue, the wallets of Reinsdorf and his family and investors will come first on the priority list. But how he achieves that is perhaps not as clear as it was in the late 1980s, when then-Gov. Jim Thompson twisted arms in Springfield to build the White Sox a new stadium with taxpayer money.
The quickest and surest route to a financial home run would be to sell the team. Experts peg the franchise’s value at around $2.5 billion, more than 130 times the $19 million Reinsdorf and his partners paid for the team in 1981. That translates to an annualized return of more than 12%, slightly beating the S&P 500 over the same period.
A more likely course of action, Reinsdorf watchers say, is pursuit of another new stadium deal. The club’s opinion of its home ballpark has been mixed at best, and it is beyond dispute that the stadium currently known as Guaranteed Rate Field hasn’t spawned meaningful development around it.
They may want public money, but I see no appetite for it.
Related: Chicago police are investigating a shooting at White Sox game at Guaranteed Rate Field (Associated Press)
Editorial: Bears, White Sox both at the former Arlington Park? It's worth some thought (Daily Herald)
Opinion: Sox join Bears trolling for help, lawmakers needn’t get involved (Shaw Media)
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