Something weird is going on up in Lawrence Township Schools.  I got several calls this morning that the school district issued a memo right before Thanksgiving banning all religious displays in classrooms and school buses this holiday season.   

That didn’t disturb me as much, but their defeinition of religious symbols, according to the callers, included Christmas trees, holiday wreaths , Santa hats and the Easter Bunny. 

Someone needs to tell the school officials that a Christmas tree is not a religious symbol.  Santa Claus is not a religious symbol.  But if they’re going to say all things Christmas-related are religious symbols then they may as well get rid of poinsettias, cut down any evergreen trees on school property, and take down any stars in the classrooms since the wise men followed the star to the manger where baby Jesus was born.

If you want the full scoop on what Christmas symbols mean, click here.

If you want the full scoop on what’s going through the minds of the Lawrence Township school administration, consult a psychiatrist.

In case you were wondering, my recent euphoria over getting engaged and the subsequent indictment of Illinois Governor has not distracted me from my primary task of gathering information and intelligence that may be of use to you who read this blog.   Here it is…

Not So Major Moves

• There are some changes taking place over at Marion County Democratic HQ.  Terry Burns is leaving to head over to Voter Registration.  He is taking the place of John Riordon who was fired December 2nd by the County party.  Taking Burns’ place at County party is Adam Kirsch.  If you’ve never heard of him, don’t feel bad.  Few people have.  His father however is Judge  James Kirsch who is a good friend pf party chairman Ed Treacy.   The first thing they may want to do is update the party’s website.

One of the first stories I ever wrote about soon-to-be former Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich was back in 2003 about the firings of dozens of state employees which were done in violation of the Illinois Administrative Code.  When I asked the Governor about it during an interview he said something to me to the effect   “I’m not going to let paperwork stand in the way of reforming this government.” 

So when I got word yesterday that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald filed a criminal complaint against the Governor  outlining allegations that even made me take a step back, I will freely admit  to doing a little happy dance.  Well to be honest I put on my tux, top hat and grabbed my cane and started tap dancing. I accept a certain amount of corruption in my politics, but Blagojevich took things to a whole ‘nother level and in the process alienated just about every elected official worth his or her salt in the entire state.

Governor Blagojevich was the embodiment of a phrase my father uses quite freely, “his arrogance exceeds his intelligence.”  Whenever we dealt with him in news conferences it was abundantly clear the Governor thought we were a nuisance.   This is not a good quality to have if you are prone to engage in wrongdoing because you are going to get caught.  And when you do it won’t be pretty and many people will celebrate; in fact there I got several e-vites last night to a bunch of parties back home.   Blagojevich never endured himself to the public.  He even skipped walking in this past year’s State Fair parade for fear of being booed or hit with something.

Blagojevich would always pull a bait and switch.  There was no promise that wasn’t above breaking.  And the height of his shamelessness was while at an event with his family, Blagojevich tried to show off in front of the press.  He then started getting peppered with questions about one of the many criminal investigations of his administration, he picked up his daughter and told the media they were making cry.  Typical.

Ironically though, this was never an issue about Republicans versus Democrats or liberal versus conservatives.  This was good versus annoying, stupid evil. Blagojevich was the classic politician who believed his own press and thought he could get away with anything.  Nice to know he couldn’t.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting this morning that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was taken into federal custody this morning on alleged corruption charges and reportedly trying to sell Barack Obama’s former Senate seat to the highest bidder.

If there is a God, this will be true.  My old boss, former Attorney General Jim Ryan, ran against Blagojevich for Governor in 2002.  We tried to warn the people of the Land of Lincoln what this guy was going to be like and it fell on deaf ears and we lost.  

But now it looks like chickens have come home to roost.

Who’s up for a big omelet!

UPDATE:

IT’S TRUE! IT’S TRUE! IT’S TRUE! 

I didn’t get much sleep last night.  I was at City Hall until midnight covering the last meeting of the City-County Council and didn’t get back until 1 a.m.  Part of the problem was trying to figure out who to blame for the soon-to-be out of work Marion County Township Assessors walking out the door with $54,000 in their pockets and taxpayer-funded health insurance and benefits for the next two years.

When the Assessors were eliminated back in November, there was a question about what to do with their salaries.  The law would not allow for the elimination of their pay, so the City-County Council had three options.  First, it could continue paying them their current pay averaging $60,000 annually for doing nothing.  They could pay them what they made in the early 1980s, which was based on the number of parcels of land in the township, and the Assessors still wouldn’t do any work.  Or they could come up with some figure in-between, still the Assessors wouldn’t have to do any work.  The CCC chose the latter and by a vote of 22-3, decided to pay each Assessor $27,000 a year for the next two years when their terms expire.

What’s annoying  is that this was a bad situation from day one.  No one should be paid for doing nothing. And while the CCC’s hands were tied, it could have at least tried to loosen the ropes a bit by lowering the Assessor’s pay as much as possible.  And three of them tried to, but they were defeated by people who believed the Assessors were entitled to “severance” pay and recognition for their service, some of whom had 20 years.  

I honestly can’t believe the taxpayers of Marion County are being forced to pay two years worth of salaries and benefits for people they fired this past November.  I guess it is ironic in the  sense that some former elected officials are being paid to do nothing, seeing you could argue that’s all some of them did to begin with and now their job duties have caught up with their pay.

It’s 11:23 p.m.

We’re in the final stretch. The CCC is debating the removal of several security cameras from across the city to the Monon Trail. A lot of CCC’s are furious that cameras are being moved from high-crime areas to the Monon. While I think there is some legitimacy to the argument, maybe if this city didn’t just vote to spend almost half a million dollars to pay people not to work, they could afford to spend money on more security cameras. Ah, the irony of it all. No one has postured on hybrids, so I will do it for them and close up. BUY AMERICAN! See you in the morning.

It’s 11:00 p.m.

Although they are out of a job, Marion County’s Township Assessors will each get a golden parachute as they walk out the door. The CCC voted tonight to reduce the pay of the assessors from their current levels to $27,000 annually until the end of their terms. The CCC beat back an amendment by Republican Ryan Vaughn which would have be reduced the salaries to 1980 levels. The assessors will also continue to get all their county employee benefits like health insurance and pensions. Supporters of giving the assessors a flat salary said the $27,000 would show the assessors compassion and the CCC needed to honor the social contract. In addition, some Councilors said some of the assessors had been in their positions for 20 years and were entitled to a severance package and despite the across the board $27,000 salary, the taxpayers will save more than $400,000. And for the record it was a bi-partisan golden parachute. The measure passed 23-2. But to be fair one Councilor, told me had the amendment not passed the Assessors would have been paid their current salaries, averaging $60,000 a year. Regardless, their no-time job probably pays more than your part-time job, and for some, their full-time jobs.

Still to come, hybrid vehicles.

It’s 10:30 p.m.

The CCC voted to censure former Council President Monroe Gray for past alleged ethics violations. The vote was 15-7. Originally the vote was 14-8, but Democratic CCC member Paul Bateman changed his “no” vote to a “yes” saying he wanted to put the matter to rest. Several Democrats who were not on the Council at the time (Brian Mahern, Jose Evans, Maggie Lewis) chose to abstain from voting. Gray was accused of being unethical for voting on a matter to prevent a special committee from being formed to investigate past alleged wrongdoing.

It’s 10:00 p.m.

The CCC just approved the Mayor’s plan to reduce the COIT. The vote was 20-6 with Councilors Bateman, Gray, Mansfield, Nytes, Oliver and Sanders voting “no”. The CCC is now taking up the censure of Monroe Gray.

It’s now 9:24 p.m. Here’s what I’m hearing…

1. The COIT decrease will probably pass with all Republicans voting yes maybe up half a dozen Democrats getting on board.
2. The Monroe Gray censure vote will likely fail for lack of a majority and come back next year, but not without some fireworks.
3. The clock is still ticking on grandstanding, Joanne Sanders has filed a Freedom of Information request with the Mayor’s Office asking for any and all documents and correspondence regarding the purchase of the 85 hybrids.

More to follow. My guess is we will get out of here by 11:30 p.m.

It’s 90 minutes into tonight’s last CCC meeting of the year. This thing is really going to be a long one. Two Republicans are missing; Kent Smith and Barb Malone. Smith is fulfilling his military obligations while Malone is AWOL.

That could be a problem for the GOP tonight because of two measures on the agenda. The censure of former Council President Monroe Gray, which I’m told led to an “interesting discussion” in the Rules and Policy Committee meeting, or so I’m told. As well as the proposed cut in the County Option Income Tax. Due to Smith and Malone’s absence, the GOP only has 14 votes tonight.

They have a good chance of getting the 15th vote on the tax cut from Vernon Brown. Things aren’t so clear on the Gray censure. There had been some speculation that Malone did not want to be put in the position of voting against Gray. I sent her a text message tonight, but received no response.

Also in limbo tonight is a proposed amendment to an ordinance that would cut the pay of the township assessors. Republicans from Perry Township reportedly don’t want the current assessor, Katherine Price to take such a steep pay cut. Price currently makes nearly $60,000 annually and her pay under the new ordinance would be reduced to about $23,000.

There are couple technical issues that are important tonight. If a measure only gets 14 votes for it and fewer votes against it, it doesn’t pass and can be brought up again. But since this is the last CCC meeting, nothing could be re-introduced until next year. And since it will not be a new CCC, but the same, the body can take up the matter.

The measure that this would have the biggest impact on is Mayor Greg Ballard’s plan to cut the COIT. For the tax cut to go into effect in January it would have to pass tonight. If it passes next month, it could not go into effect until October.

And we still haven’t heard any grandstanding on the hybrid vehicles yet, but this meeting is nowhere from being over.

FYI, for those of you who care, Smith is stepping down as Council Vice-President.  Taking over his place will be Ryan Vaughn.

I’ll post more when something major happens.

I’m off to go cover tonight’s City-County Council Meeting.  Here’s what I’ll be paying attention to…

1. Will more than one Democrat vote with Republicans to pass the Mayor’s proposed cut in the County Option Income Tax?
2. What will the final pay of the township assessors be?
3. Will some Democrats use tonight to grandstand on the issue of Toyota Hybrids and shout “Buy American!”
4. Mike Speedy is introducing an ordinance to deal with firearms on some city properties, so i have to get the full scoop.
5. Bob Lutz wants to put metered parking all under one person’s control.

The meeting will probably go late so I’ll have a full recap in the morning.

The head of General Motors is apologizing for “betraying” and “disappointing” consumers, Reuters is reporting this morning.

In a full-page ad, GM CEO Rick Wagoner says “We violated your trust by letting our quality fall below industry standards and our designs became lackluster.”

The ad ran in Automotive News, a trade journal of the auto industry.

Wagoner went on to say, ” “We have proliferated our brands and dealer network to the point where we lost adequate focus on the core U.S. market.”

While also acknowledging that there were market forces beyond their control, this is the first time a U.S. automaker has been this candid about its screw ups.

Maybe had they been this straightforward years ago they wouldn’t be in the predicament they are in today.

And for the record, these are the same people that CCC Democrats wanted the city to spend millions on for hybrid vehicles as opposed to a better product that was more expensive in the short run, but had better savings in the long haul.

Maybe they should apologize too.

I am still scratching my head at my Democratic friends who are still upset over the city purchasing 85 Toyota Hybrids for its Department of Public Safety as opposed to the Chevy Malibu.  They complain about the city buying a “foreign” vehicle and the bidding process.

They assume that because the Chevy Malibu is cheaper, it’s automatically a better deal.  They obviously didn’t do their homework.  I did some more research on comparing the two hybrid vehicles and here’s what I found.

City mileage (where most of the cars will be driven)

• Toyota – 33 mpg.
• Chevy – 24 mpg.

Cost to drive 25 miles (based on gas at $2.79 per gallon)

• Toyota – $2.05.
• Chevy – $2.51.

Average miles per tank

• Toyota – 585.
• Chevy – 432.

Annual Fuel Costs

• Toyota – $1,230.
• Chevy – $1,548.

Emissions Output per year

• Toyota – 5.4 tons per year.
• Chevy- 6.8 tons per year.

So let’s see, the Toyota is more expensive, but it gets better mileage, has a bigger gas tank and puts out less pollution into the environment  and Democrats are complaining?  Instead of getting mad at the Mayor, they should be getting mad at Detroit and tell the Big 3 to go build a better vehicle.    And someone should tell the UAW braintrust in this town that if you’re going to try to flood city hall with calls about 85 hybrids, make sure the calls come from Marion County  because Kokomo shows up on caller ID.

The job of the government is to get the most use of the taxpayers’ money.  And I can’t believe CCC Democrats would promote buying a car that gets less mileage and is a bigger polluter of the environment. With message management like this,  it’s no wonder the party’s County spokesman is reportedly leaving his job.

But then again, none of these guys raised a peep about bidding or costs when Sheriff Frank Anderson spent millions buying cars from his former campaign treasurer Peyton Wells who is now out of business so I guess anything is possible.

Come to think of it, I could be wrong about this, but I think the Penske dealer that bid on the hybrids is in Carmel.  Wow, CCC Democrats going to bat for a business that may be located in Carmel, anything really is possible!