Emil Jones says he didn’t know about his stepson’s contract with ComEd’s parent company, but if his credibility on the utility rate freeze issue was already in serious question because of personal friendships with utility execs and bigtime campaign contributions, it’s now teetering on the verge of extinction…
At the same time Senate President Emil Jones went to unusual lengths to block a Commonwealth Edison rate freeze, his stepson’s computer-consulting firm was on the payroll of the utility’s corporate parent. […]
The disclosure set off questions about why Jones did not publicly disclose his familial ties to the utility, and prompted a call from Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn for Jones to “abstain” from any further negotiations or votes on rate-freeze legislation this spring.
Sen Gary Forby, whose amendment adding ComEd to his Ameren rate rollback and freeze bill was killed by Jones, voiced his suspicions to the Sun-Times…
“I think my people would probably not like this and maybe think that’s one of the reasons President Jones done this to me,” Forby said.
A companion article reports that Jones’ stepson also is doing very well with a college that has received a ton of pork money from the Senate President…
A firm headed by the stepson of Illinois Senate President Emil Jones stands to be paid up to $45 million from a no-bid tech deal it recently won from the City Colleges of Chicago.
The contract, awarded three weeks ago, comes on top of $55 million that John Sterling’s company, Synch-Solutions, already has been paid by the college system since 1999. […]
Jones in the past has controlled state grant money to City Colleges. In 2002, he steered at least $4.5 million to the colleges for computer upgrades at the same time his stepson’s information technology firm was winning no-bid contracts from City Colleges trustees. […]
“John Sterling is a successful businessman who worked for major companies doing technology before starting [Synch-Solutions],” Jones said in a statement Wednesday. “I have never interfered in his business, and he has never sought my counsel or advice in reference to securing business.”
And a sidebar reminds readers of other recent revelations about the Joneses…
Lorrie Jones: The Senate president’s wife, a psychologist, has seen her state salary increase from $116,460 to $186,000 under Gov. Blagojevich, who in 2005 promoted her to head the Department of Human Services’ mental health division. The Blagojevich administration rescinded its rule that the state’s mental health chief be a medical doctor just before Lorrie Jones got the job.
Emil Jones III: Jones’ son, hired April 3 as manager of real estate development for the Blagojevich administration’s Commerce Department. Earns $57,360 in his new post — a 7 percent increase over his previous state job, which he held from 1999 to November 2006.
- Emil makes George Ryan look like a saint - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 8:43 am:
Well the truth comes out! When are the feds going to swoop down and nail this guy?
- Bill - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 8:57 am:
If he can’t help his family you can kiss his …
- Just a Citizen - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 8:58 am:
Truly demonstrates the old adage about getting ahead in this world, “it is not what you know but who you know” and I might add who you pay off.
- Drew - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 9:04 am:
Jones represents all of the negative sterotypes people have about politicians. I hope he spends his “golden years” in “club fed.” Gee..It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy…
- Crimefighter - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 9:07 am:
CONFLICT OF INTEREST. He now needs to resign.
- Papa Legba - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 9:24 am:
Bill,
There is helping your family and then there is knocking down old folks in walkers to get to the buffet table ahead of them. If you think abusing public money to enrich your family is OK then kiss my …
It makes one wonder even more about Obama when you read that Jones was his “key” mentor while in Illinois politics as stated today in the Tribune.
- GettingJonesed - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 9:25 am:
Let’s see, contracts awarded going back to 1999 Looks like the Sun Times was asleep at the switch again!
- Ravenswood Right Winger - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 9:41 am:
Emil Jones & Todd Stroger are competing for “Most Egregious Friends & Family Plan.” They are neck & neck! Someone cue Phil Georgeff saying “here they come spinning out of the turn!” as Derby Day approaches!
- Fire Ron Guenther - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 9:43 am:
The links between Emil Jones & Chicago State are intriguing.
- leigh - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 9:49 am:
First of all, I do not wear foil tin hats, but I am curious. The governor is now publicly supporting a rate freeze including ComEd. Is this because he has “seen the light” or is there a chasm beginning between Jones and the gov?
- Tea Leaves - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 10:03 am:
Sure hope Pappa Emil’s on Patrick Fitzgerald’s radar.
Bill sure gets a lot of latitude. Kissing and such.
- Napoleon Has Left The Building - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 10:16 am:
I have heard there are more ties yet to be revealed, similar scheme to the City Colleges scandal, several more contracts funded with earmarks.
- Team Sleep - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 10:18 am:
I hate to say it, but none of this would happen if Vince D. were still alive and serving in the senate. Emil’s main check-and-balance in the upper body is gone, and with Vince went accountability and integrity. Emil will stop at nothing to push his agenda down our throats, and because the GOP got lazy up in the collars we’re stuck with at least two sessions of his bloviating. If one positive comes out of all this, it’s that some of his members will (hopefully) stop bowing to him and start worrying more about their districts. And Emil is no “man of the people”; he is bought and paid for. We’re in for a long summer…
- Ken in Aurora - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 10:19 am:
No wonder Illinois politics are the laughingstock of the Nation. Get Emil out of here!
- Dieter - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 10:49 am:
Senate President Emil Jones needs to resign. He does not serve the people of his district or his state with honor.
- Punley Dieter Finn - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 12:25 pm:
I do not subscribe to the vile calumny of “Dieter.” President Jones serves the people of his district very well. He’s a Shakespeare and Latin scholar who treasures honor as the second most important political virtue.
- WARDOG - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 12:48 pm:
Jones should get out and take his hacks and cronies and Blagojevich with him. It is no wonder that indictments are not forthcoming, yet, the pot just keeps getting sweeter. The Feds are trying to decide where to start.
- Drew - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 1:46 pm:
So I take it that “Punley Dieter Finn” works for Jones…
- Cassandra - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 2:07 pm:
Of course, there are more contracts funded with earmarks. But why are there earmarks to be had?
Illinois taxpayers seem to actually enjoy grossing up the taxes that they pay in to Illinois state government so that there is enough “left over” to spend millions on Emil’s and others’ earmarks. There is no legal requirement that taxpayer monies be spent on them. It’s not written in the sky. We just like to.
I guess we just like to tax ourselves so much that we are willing to allow our legislators to put through a last minute tax bill in the absence of agreement on either a GRT or 750. Any other tax will do but we wouldn’t want our legislators to go home without giving them some more of our money to play with.
- anon - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 2:44 pm:
Unreal!
If his caucus does not stop drinking the kool aid and understand they are in deep doo-doo, they are idiots.
what about information on yet another jones family member: the daughter, renee rose?
Isn’t she a lobbyist now?
Hmmmm - I’m SURE she has not reaped the benefits that all jones family members seem to be enjoying. also, remember when she worked at dhs and they fired her? (they didn’t know she was related to emil.) how did she get her job back? me wonders how all that happened and wonder what she really did for the state…
- t vs. t - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 3:03 pm:
No wonder Corruptovich is pushing this Gross Revenue Tax so hard. They’re just giving the money away THROUGHOUT Illinois government.
Governor got gifts from indicted woman
Blagojevich declined to disclose what gifts were given.
It never ends with this bunch!
- A Citizen - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 3:12 pm:
We need to start electing last surviving members of families . . . course that would still leave the ghost payrollers. Emil’s hutzpah (sp?) is simply startling. The more he is exposed the more comes out and he continues, like the teflon don, unencumbered in his “deals”. Amazing !
- i d - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 3:39 pm:
Can anyone say that this is truly any different than what has been going on for eternity. This is not new! And, some people just have more friends and relatives than others.
- Lied to - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 4:16 pm:
Emil Jones should be IMPEACHED! How can the Justice Dept stand by and watch all of this
%#$& ???????
- Bill - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 4:29 pm:
Now, “lied to”, calm down.
President Jones hasn’t broken any laws. What does the Justice Dept. have to do with this,anyway? Besides, aren’t they all busy trying to not get fired or demoted by Bush?
- I want a raise - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 5:11 pm:
If Jones thinks that the public is going to believe that he had no prior knowledge of his stepson doing business with ComEd’s parent company, then we all need to go see his wife and make her earn her $70,000 pay raise at the mental health department.
- NIEVA - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 5:13 pm:
45 million in no bids!!!!
- I want a raise too - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 5:22 pm:
To “Punley Dieter Finn - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 12:25 pm: “ You state that Emil Jones is a “Shakespeare and Latin scholar who treasures honor as the second most important political virtue.â€
Is the first political virtue “Be bought-off by the highest bidder� Emil Jones should be ashamed of himself – but I don’t think he cares. How ironic that the mandatory ethics test just came out. The last one consistently stated that “if it gives the impression that the actions of state workers are improper or bad than those actions should be avoided.†Yet Emil’s wife, son and stepson all seemed to have profited from his state position.
- ILL in IL - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 6:22 pm:
Unbelievable! If Jones is honorable he would resign first thing in the a.m.. Every year thousands of state employees are required to take ethics training, and then have to witness this? The State of Illinois needs to change back to the ILL abrieviation, because that is what it is ILL!
- amos garcia - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 6:41 pm:
the criminality of this guv and jones should pput them in jail for along ime.
i hope starting tomorrow.
here we corruption that has turned criminal.
- What's in a name? - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 6:59 pm:
Emil is probably on the way out of his own accord. I heard this one a few days ago, maybe it started here,”Emil’s not getting around on the fast ball anymore.”
- Policy Wonk - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 7:25 pm:
You would think these guys would get the hint. George Ryan goes down for doing things the “old way”. The Governor is under a never-ending cloud of suspicion. Perhaps this stuff is too much of a drug for them to give up. His wife seems at least qualified for the job. But his son? No college degree? What is his real estate experience?
Rich - you should ask the director of DCEO if he even knew that his agency had a position as “manager of real estate development”, and if so, when was the last time it was filled? Maybe it’s the same position they put Blackshere’s son into…
- Republican Stateworker - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 8:58 pm:
I do not believe that Jones was unaware of his stepson doing business with ComEd’s parent company. Jones is nothing but a puppet who has been bought, wrapped and sold by ComEd.
Illinois also needs to do away with no “bid contracts.”
- In the Sticks - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 9:47 pm:
Take a look at Chicago State and the construction projects there - massive expenditures with significant overruns. And - of course - an important building named after Emile. All the while other state facilities (mental health, developmentally disabled, historic preservation)have leaking roofs and windows, buildings that can’t be used, etc., etc., etc.
- Holdingontomywallet - Thursday, May 3, 07 @ 9:48 pm:
The best part of this was listening to Emil Jones trying to talk when they asked him a question about it. No wonder nothing gets done in the Senate, no one can understand a word he is saying.
- Disgusted - Friday, May 4, 07 @ 12:11 am:
Amen, Holdingontomywallet. And this quote, “He’s a Shakespeare and Latin scholar…” makes your statement even funnier. He’s a scholar like Mr. Ed is a race horse. Someone I know actually saw him accept an envelope at a reception one time, weigh it in his hand and say, “It’s a little light.” What a scholar and a gentleman we have here.
- Criminal Enterprise Called Illinois - Friday, May 4, 07 @ 2:28 am:
I heard Blackshere’s son works in energy issues at DCEO. Better question: what are his credentials for THAT job? And we wonder why we can’t fashion a sane energy policy in this state!
- PalosParkBob - Friday, May 4, 07 @ 8:22 am:
It pains me to agree with Bill, but I think he’s right regarding his contention that Emperor Jones broke no laws in the reported “indescritions”.
The fact is simply that nepotism, cronyism,and creating high paying jobs for the politically connected is institutionalized in every State, County, municipal and public school bureaucracy in Illinois.
The only way around this quagmire is for the public and honest politicians (oxymoron?) to stand up and “throw the rascals out” through their individual votes and pressure on their representatives to elect new leadership in their parties.
The problem there is that campaigns have become so financially excessive that they’re bought and paid for, and without a LOT of money getting elected is practically impossible, even at the local municipality and school Board level.
For example, in the last election in my elementary school district, the winning candidates spent about $4 per vote JUST FROM CONTRIBUTIONS OVER $500. The actual number may be much higher when all expenses and contributions are reported.
I understand that state reps and senators typically spend about $10 per vote.
Few individual candidates can raise this much on their own, and they need to “kiss the ring” of people like Emperor Jones to collect what they need.
Whoever controls the party contribution funds controls the party and can do pretty much whatever they want. Filling the fund coffers is the easiest way to get control of the party, and people like the Emperor have a big “for sale” sign on them, as the recent Comed shennagans showed.
Dem Senators can’t stand up to him without losing the campaign funding and any possibility of moving forward with their pet legislation.
Money from party leaders wins elections, Party leaders sell out to special interests to get money to get the power, privilege, and patronage they crave.
Emperor Jones plays this system like a virtuoso plays a violin.
Legislation won’t solve this.
I wish I knew what would.