Your Illinois Progressive Machine's Steve and Eydie
Some years ago, both Chicago newspapers and the blow-dried blow-hards on the idiot box took up the sanctimony and faux outrage over some Father John Smyth* who could not say no to helping any child and the fact that Illinois Department of Child and Family Services heaped the work of caring for children on his broad shoulders. Illinois "thought" about the children -Oh, My God!!! They are being cared for at Maryville and so many mental health professionals linked to the Illinois Progressive Machine are doing without!
Recently, in the wake of post-Blago hand-wringing there have been a few morsels in print concerning the looting of tax-payers' dollars via grants to DCHS providers -absent Father Smyth. Perhaps it had more to do with the fact that Father Smyth wore a stiff collar and black suit, but I tend to think that some in the media were upset over the confusing spelling of the man's last name.
An easier to sell more familiar Smith contracted up for grants without oversight.
A new Smith emerged - Dr. George E. Smith - a mental health professional with at least four companies doing a husky business with the State of Illinois.
Back in October, Chris Fusco and Dave McKinney trotted out the tale of old school improprieties that were long in place, but rocked a tad when State Sen. Ricky Hendon abruptly resigned following his impassioned work on Greg Harris's Religious Freedom and Civil Unions legislation -
While introducing Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, Hendon told the crowd that he had "never served with such an idiotic, racist, sexist, homophobic person in my life... If you think that women have no rights whatsoever, except to have his children, vote for Bill Brady. If you think gay and lesbian people need to be locked up and shot in the head, vote for Bill Brady." Hendon's remarks were immediately disavowed by Governor Quinn, among others, and Hendon was sharply criticized by members of the Illinois media. Hendon later tried to apologize to Brady on the Senate floor, but Brady would not accept his apology
One hand soaps up the other and hearty foam makes for lathery larder of opportunity!
Gay Lesbian Transgender BiSexual and Questioning issues and agenda link up with public pension deals, woman's need to commit infanticide, avoid the death penalty, right wrongful convictions and make sure that needy children all over Illinois provide mental health professionals the opportunity to lift at least $18 million dollars in grants to nowhere. If it is Progresively sanctioned it is costly, useless, and divisively combative, it always seems.
Rep. Greg Harris got his Civil Unions and immediately conducted a Father John Smyth on Illinois Catholic Social Services -stripped Catholic Charities of the right to direct adoptions of children by a husband and wife. Thus, clearing the path for more systemic opportunities, like those enjoyed by Dr. George E. Smith, it seems, and other Progressively networked grant grabbers.
Let's take a gander at this weekend's unconnected DCHS dots by Tribune Investigative reporters. Rickey Hendon seems absent since October and just who were the legislative God Daddies at Chicago State University anyway? One mght ask.
But Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza said the wrongdoing may go further, as the state only investigated contracts Smith held dating back to 2008. Smith has been doing businesses with the state since 1986.
“This investigation could literally have taken us another year-and-a-half or two to uncover,” Meza told House lawmakers. “There had to be a point at our office where we decided that we thought that even though we did not fully uncover every piece of misconduct that Dr. Smith may have engaged in, we had to issue the report.”
Pressed if it was possible that more than $18 million in tax dollars were misspent, Meza said, “I think that’s a fair statement…we may never know.”
The Illinois attorney general’s office is investigating in an attempt to recoup some of the money, and federal grand jury subpoenas have named some of Smith's companies among records sought from state agencies, including Diversified Behavioral Comprehensive Care.
Meza said the investigation’s scope was limited partly because agencies are only required to keep documents for three years, a timeline lawmakers said they will push to extend.
Legislators also said they will also seek changes to the state’s Ethics Act, which prevents many cases of wrongdoing by state workers from being made public. The allegations against Smith’s were laid out in a report that contended former DCFS director Erwin McEwen failed to properly oversee grants. McEwen and Smith are longtime friends, and McEwen eventually refused to cooperate with investigators.
Under the law, reports are made public if it leads to an employee being fired or being suspended for three or more days. McEwen resigned, but a lower-level employee was suspended for five days, leading to the report’s release by the Executive Ethics Commission.
The commission could have redacted the majority of the report not dealing with the suspended employee, but decided to make the findings public.
Lawmakers also lashed out against Gov. Pat Quinn for not firing McEwen when the administration received the initial report last May. Instead, McEwen was allowed to stay on the state payroll through September.
Quinn general counsel John Schomberg said the administration wanted to give McEwen “due process” and “provide for additional transition time” as it searched for a replacement.
Schomberg said ethics laws also placed the governor’s office “between a rock and a hard place” because if they fired McEwen, they were not allowed to say why until the report was made public.
It was an argument Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, found lacking.
“What does one have to do to get fired working for Gov. Quinn?” Franks said. “If it was the private sector you would have opened yourself up to lawsuits for absolutely negligence. And I think that’s what’s happened here.”
What does it take to get fired by Governor Quinn?
Why, the Okay of Terry Cosgrove, Barbara Flynn-Burris-Currie, Greg Harris, Dawn Clark-Netsch, Dr. Quentin Young and the legion of lesser lights of Progressive Illinois, you silly man.
By the way, Diversified Behavioral Comprehensive Care. ain't that a company name that just cries out for Progessive approval?
However, the smoke screen is up and wafting cover for these committed ninnies and their attendant swag-grabbers -everyone is huffing and puffing about Speaker Madigan, the only competant adult in Springfield.
If the news media was in anyway concerned they would look carefully at the Progressive Machine and witness some real villians at work doing some lusty looting.
No outrage over this here financial mess at DCFS from any Public Guardian? Well, judge not the protected few and thou shalt be a judge, I reckon.
*
Murphy has called Maryville "a financial mess," and two monitors for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services have called for a financial audit of the institution, which got $62 million last year from taxpayers. Maryville also has a $100 million endowment.
Smyth said he welcomes any scrutiny of Maryville's books and plans to comply with other demands the monitors made in a report that criticized the institution's treatment model as outdated. DCFS Director Bryan Samuels said Wednesday the monitors' suggestions must be met within 60 days or the state will remove 160 wards it has at Maryville's main campus.
"I have no problem with the 10 or 11 things DCFS has put into the contracts," Smyth said. "We'll meet them within 60 days, and that's plenty of time."
Those issues include the audit, staffing levels and better employee-retention policies for Maryville
http://chicagoist.com/2010/10/24/rickey_hendon_blasts_bill_brady_cal.php
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/10/quinn-disavows-hendon-comments-rips-brady-on-social-issues.html
http://www.rickross.com/reference/maryville/maryville1.html
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