If You Like Shakman Monitors, You Gotta Love Todd Stroger!

That's Boss Shakman! Right there in the Middle! Boss Shakman!

In fact, the revolving door of employees has picked up speed in the wake of Stroger losing the February primary, according to a report issued Tuesday by Mary Robinson, the Shakman compliance administrator charged with ensuring the county adheres to a federal court-ordered ban on political hiring.

Todd Stroger is where he is today thanks to more than forty years of Shakman! In fact, young Todd is a Shakman Baby - born of the death of the vile but effective Cook County Machine!

Wait a minute, hold the phone - Shakman Monitor's have been on the case saving all of us from poiltical crooks, cut-purses and ne'er-do-wells!

Really, Murial?

Shakman, Michael Shakman, the Cook County Michael Shakman Decree, like Andy Shaw on the case for the BGA, is the best bet for tax-payers to not get good government and have their wallets lifted.

Michael Shakman was running to join the Illinois Constitutional Convention, CON-CON - Dig this from Chicago Encyclopedia - afixed bag of special interests re-telling history. Fixed you say? Yes, read on!

Shakman Decrees
In 1969, one man made his stand against the Chicago political machine. Michael Shakman, an independent candidate for delegate to the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention, battled against one of the most enduring traditions in Chicago's politics: political patronage, or the practice of hiring and firing government workers on the basis of political loyalty. With many behind-the-scenes supporters, Shakman's years of determination resulted in what became known as the “Shakman decrees.”

Shakman filed suit against the Democratic Organization of Cook County, arguing that the patronage system put nonorganized candidates and their supporters at an illegal and unconstitutional disadvantage. Politicians could hire, fire, promote, transfer—in essence, punish—employees for not supporting the system, or more particularly, a certain politician. The suit also argued that political patronage wasted taxpayer money because public employees, while at work, would often be forced to campaign for political candidates.

In 1972, after an exhaustive court procedure and much negotiating, the parties reached an agreement prohibiting politically motivated firings, demotions, transfers, or other punishment of government employees. A 1979 ruling led to a court order in 1983 that made it unlawful to take any political factor into account in hiring public employees (with exceptions for positions such as policy making). Those decisions along with companion consent judgments—collectively called the Shakman decrees—are binding on more than 40 city and statewide offices.

Roger R. Fross

Now that's historical, Roger - you were co-counsel on the Shakman case and yet you do the that patented Movie Preview "ONE MAN" in your opening sentence! Que Hombre!
More than One Man, Rog - as you make two and two makes a . . .conspiracy? No, an enterprise.

Roger Fross has extensive experience handling mergers and acquisitions, financings, business successions, and general corporate matters for privately-held firms, not-for-profits and high net-worth owners.

He approaches estate planning from a business planning perspective whether it is dealing with the personal and generational issues of business succession or the dollars and cents’ objectives of minimizing wealth transfers.

Mr. Fross’ clients cut across many segments of American industry and are geographically dispersed throughout the United States. He has worked with numerous individuals and companies on their capital-raising, disclosure, compliance, and securities matters. Much of Mr. Fross’ work has addressed the day-to-day concerns of corporate ownership, such as customer, supplier, and distributor arrangements; key employee contractual and compensation matters; licensing of property rights; joint ventures and ownership succession and wealth-transfer strategies for privately owned businesses.

His experience also includes representing marine transportation companies in financing and operating matters, insurance companies in capital-raising transactions, and community banks with acquisition, regulatory, and Community Reinvestment Act problems. He has also been active in the demutualization of insurance companies and representation of nonprofit organizations.
Mr. Fross serves on many boards of directors and committees, including The Joyce Foundation, the Chicago Metro History Fair, and the Southeast Chicago Commission. In addition, for more than 30 years, Mr. Fross has participated with co-counsel in the landmark anti-patronage case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Shakman v. Democratic Party, et al. He is listed in Who’s Who in America.

Mr. Fross served as managing partner of the Firm from 1981 to 1987, and has served four terms on the firm’s executive committee.

Education
J.D., University of Chicago Law School, 1965

B.A., Mathematics and Physics, De Pauw University, 1962
Gold Key, Rector Scholar

Talk about cozy insidered, Roger and Michael. You boys must have known one another and that's Anti-Shakman . . .well, now.

The Shakman Decree ham-strings good government services and opens the public troughs to real cretins, feebs, dummies and crooks.

Here's the deal -

1.Good people can not be hired to serve Cook County and Chicago government if they are in any way related, familiar with, hold a nodding acquaintance or brushed up against the hiring boss at church, thanks to Michael Shakman.

Shakman is a straw dog. It is a phony dodge that kills political organization and the precinct and Ward levels.

The intent of Shakman was the goof could not get himself elected to CON_CON in 1969 and was percieved by the outsiders who wanted to get inside as a means of power.

Take it to the streets? Hell, no take it to a Judge. Courts gave us Shakman - not a vote.

Our Shakman monitors help the Chicago Media tell us who received . . .gasp! . . .Overtime! Everytime stories appear about how much some poor slob is paid and who put in a seventy-hour week and finds that he is portrayed as Todd Stroger's boot-black, you can bet that Shakman Industries - Monitors, Goo-Goo Clusternuts, Media darlings and sharp University of Chicago trained activist lawyers are amassing more power to prevent good government services.

My precinct captain, my Ward Committeeman knows my neighbors and their needs. Michael Shakman? Noelle Brennan? Roger Fross? I don't think so.
Instead Shakman Industres has become the clearing house -paid mightily don't you know-for political hiring and outsources to Public service unions (SEIU & etc.).

Ain't that nice! Oh, Tut! They'll protest - "we only monitor!" Now, I know that common sense is a stretch, but let's try this.

Look Goo-Goos -People who worked more hours than they are normally asked to work get OVERTIME! News Flash?

If a Metra cop is told that due to cut-backs, he must work more hours -OVERTIME

If a Streets and Santitation Snow Plow Driver is told by Tom Skilling that a blizzard will last 48 hours -OVERTIME!

Who hired the Shakman Monitors? Who's their clout? Why can't my alcoholic, half-wit, and larcenous pals get jobs with Shakman?

Why is the Shakman Machine doing all the hiring? Who pays Shakman? I do.

But after five years under the shackles of a federal hiring monitor, aldermen said Thursday they no longer have a dog in this fight.

“We can't touch hiring. [Daley] can't touch hiring. [Monitor] Noelle Brennan does the hiring, so what do we care?” said Ald. Tom Allen (38th).

Sun Times, June 24, 2010.


Shakman Decrees and all of their nepotism and in-bred pay-to-play looters of the tax-payers need to go!

Click my post title and monitor YOUR Cook County Shakman Monitors!!!

Shakman Gave Cook County Our Gang, Abortion and SEIU Political Landscape

Thanks to Michael Shakman and the Shakman Decrees a Veteran Gangster Disciple can be an Impact Political Player! Hal Baskin with the late Judge R. Eugene Pincham and former United States Senator Roland Burris.













In 1969 Michael Shakman and other Hyde Park lawyers, along with the long-dormant Progressive political players indigenous to that Chicago community, went shopping for a judge.

The nature of that legal marketing expedition evolved from sociological laboratories around the University of Chicago sparked by John Dewey and other long haired gentlemen and short-haired females. This particular push against the Democratic Political Machine affected our political psyche once it was determined by the right judge that political hiring is an intrinsic evil.

The Shakman Decrees* did nothing to end corruption; rather, they made a transfer of power from a Political Machine to Progressive Coalition Machine. Shakman Decrees created the political landscape that elected a President. All the graveyards in Cook County could not create more votes than Shakman - SEIU, ACORN, Progressive Coalitions Universal and political power remained in the hands of the very few.

Barack Obama could not have vaulted over the political gradus to the White House without Shakman.

Like Hyde Park itself, the Shakman victory is unique. Only in Cook County and in some few Illinois towns did this Dewey shower of Inquiry is Truth blossom and grow. No where else,in America, can or will Michael Shakman Enterprises flourish. What Shakman hath wrought is this:

1. Planned Parenthood's Personal PAC Has More Money and Muscle Than the Teamsters

2. SEIU and the less Public Salary Unions are Ward Organizations

3. Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, Latin Kings, Four Corner Hustlers, Mickey Cobras
are precinct captains

I find it . . .consistent that no newspaper, or media outlet is finding journalistic grist for the mills in Chicago Magazine's well-crafted investigation into the association of gangs and political hacks.

However, my concern lies in the authors' dismissal of gang-banger activism in Chicago as a mere homage to Bathhouse John and Hinky-Dink's high-jinks, instead of a wormy Progressive abortion of political honesty rooted in Shakman and the Shakman Decrees.

Here is Shakman's effects upon our political life in Cook County

Many forms of political corruption—taking bribes, rigging elections, engaging in pay-to-play deals—are plainly unethical, if not illegal. But forming political alliances with gangs isn’t a clear matter of right or wrong, some say. In many Chicago neighborhoods, it’s virtually impossible for elected officials and candidates for public office not to have at least some connection, even family ties, to gang members. “People try to paint this picture of bad versus good—it’s not like that,” says a veteran political organizer based in Chicago who specializes in getting out the vote in minority areas. “Everybody lives with each other, grew up with each other. Just because somebody goes this way or that way, it doesn’t mean you’re just gonna write them off automatically.”

For better or worse, gang members are constituents, the same as businesspeople in the Gold Coast. Says Aaron Patterson, an imprisoned gang member: “It ain’t like gangs come from another planet.”

For some politicians, gang members can be a source of political strength—all the more so given that the once-formidable City Hall–Cook County patronage system, the lifeblood of the old Machine, is mostly gone. In the heyday of the Machine, recalls Wallace Davis Jr., a former 27th Ward alderman, political chieftains could simply snap their fingers and marshal a large cadre of city workers to go door-to-door with “a pint of wine and a chicken” to turn out the vote.

Few politicians nowadays have such armies at their beck and call. To win elections, many officeholders and candidates—especially those who represent parts of the city with high concentrations of street gangs—turn to those gangs as their de facto political organizations. “It went from wine and a chicken to hiring a gangbanger,” says Davis, who served from 1983 to 1987. “It’s unfortunate.”

Though estimates vary, most authorities and criminologists agree that there are 70,000 to 125,000 gang members in the city. In the numbers game of Chicago politics—in which, as the old joke goes, a one-vote victory constitutes a landslide—a constituency of that size gets noticed. (Keep in mind that in Illinois convicted felons can vote once they are released from prison.)

Yet, Shakman goes unidentified.

Would that the authors went further -Inquiry is not Truth; John Dewey notwithstanding.



*

Shakman at work from todays's Chicago Tribune:. . .The concession deal was struck between the Park District and the restaurant operator under then-Mayor Richard Daley. Investors in the restaurant venture included Daley friend Fred Barbara and city contractor Raymond Chin. The city is now trying to undo the 20-year deal.

The Park Grill's lawyer, Michael Shakman, called the city's lawsuit "way off base" and said the restaurant's ownership group "was not selected through political connections."

The city's lawsuit "punishes honest people who created a restaurant that was risky and uncertain when the Park Grill agreed to go into Millennium Park," Shakman said in a statement. "Now that Millennium Park is successful, the city wants to redo the deal and wants money to which it has no right. That's not fair. A deal is a deal."

The city's Law Department is reviewing the countersuit, spokesman Roderick Drew said. The city maintains that the Park District did not have the authority to reach agreements for the use of the land, said Drew, who added that the deal was not approved by the City Council, which he said is required for approval of a concession permit.

rhaggerty@tribune.com

Twitter @RyanTHaggerty

Our Public Imagination Shakman
Shakman Decrees
In 1969, one man made his stand against the Chicago political machine. Michael Shakman, an independent candidate for delegate to the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention, battled against one of the most enduring traditions in Chicago's politics: political patronage, or the practice of hiring and firing government workers on the basis of political loyalty. With many behind-the-scenes supporters, Shakman's years of determination resulted in what became known as the “Shakman decrees.”

Shakman filed suit against the Democratic Organization of Cook County, arguing that the patronage system put nonorganized candidates and their supporters at an illegal and unconstitutional disadvantage. Politicians could hire, fire, promote, transfer—in essence, punish—employees for not supporting the system, or more particularly, a certain politician. The suit also argued that political patronage wasted taxpayer money because public employees, while at work, would often be forced to campaign for political candidates.

In 1972, after an exhaustive court procedure and much negotiating, the parties reached an agreement prohibiting politically motivated firings, demotions, transfers, or other punishment of government employees. A 1979 ruling led to a court order in 1983 that made it unlawful to take any political factor into account in hiring public employees (with exceptions for positions such as policy making). Those decisions along with companion consent judgments—collectively called the Shakman decrees—are binding on more than 40 city and statewide offices.

http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1138.html

Michael Shakman -The Man Who Bought Chicago -Explains 'Ethics' to Steve Rhodes of the Beachwood Reporter

Photo of Michael Shakman sitting in his office in the late 1970s. Since then, everything has been riding on his hip.

. . .And now from the Way The World Really Works desk here at Grub Street Chicago: Mayor Emanuel is suing his own park district. Why? Because it's part of a strategy to bust up a Daley-era sweetheart deal involving the Park Grill food concession in Millennium Park, which even the Daleys eventually realized was a lousy deal partly owed to the fact that the connected insider behind the restaurant was, well, really inside a female Park District official, ultimately making her pregnant. (The Daleys were always strongly against literal screwing on city business.) The Daley administration argued that the Park District had made a deal that they weren't authorized to make, involving city-owned land, and tried for six years to negotiate a better one (or one that let them in on the action), but didn't get anywhere. Now that the restaurant is negotiating its sale to the Levy Group, Rahm's taking it (and his own Park District) to court to turn up the heat. . . .While we're shedding all our naive illusions, it's worth mentioning that the attorney making this preposterous claim on behalf of well-connected profiteers is none other than Michael Shakman... yes, that Shakman*. Consider this lawsuit just one more skirmish between factions in the eternal struggle for power deep within the Machine."

Chicago Grubstreet


WBEZ, Crains, and the supine Chicago media hoo-hummed a tune of hypocrisy.

God's last honest man, Steve Rhodes, publisher of the Beachwood Reporter, journalist, and tapmaster smelled old halibut in the potpourri

Shakman? Michael Shakman?

Wait a second. Is the Park Grill's lawyer the Michael Shakman?

Readers want to know, WBEZ!

Same to you, Tribune!

Same to you, Sun-Times!

Same to you, Crain's!

(See Ryan C.'s comment.)

*

Answer: It is.

Steve Rhodes of the Beachwood Reporter


Michael Shakman explains


See? "If you can't trust a fix, what can you trust?" Nobody steals like a Goo-goo!


*

Shakman Decrees
In 1969, one man made his stand against the Chicago political machine. Michael Shakman, an independent candidate for delegate to the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention, battled against one of the most enduring traditions in Chicago's politics: political patronage, or the practice of hiring and firing government workers on the basis of political loyalty. With many behind-the-scenes supporters, Shakman's years of determination resulted in what became known as the “Shakman decrees.”

Shakman filed suit against the Democratic Organization of Cook County, arguing that the patronage system put nonorganized candidates and their supporters at an illegal and unconstitutional disadvantage. Politicians could hire, fire, promote, transfer—in essence, punish—employees for not supporting the system, or more particularly, a certain politician. The suit also argued that political patronage wasted taxpayer money because public employees, while at work, would often be forced to campaign for political candidates.

In 1972, after an exhaustive court procedure and much negotiating, the parties reached an agreement prohibiting politically motivated firings, demotions, transfers, or other punishment of government employees. A 1979 ruling led to a court order in 1983 that made it unlawful to take any political factor into account in hiring public employees (with exceptions for positions such as policy making). Those decisions along with companion consent judgments—collectively called the Shakman decrees—are binding on more than 40 city and statewide offices.

Roger R. Fross

http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1138.html

mlshak@aol.com

Mr. Shakman serves as lead counsel in a wide range of litigation including corporate, contractual, commercial and partnership disputes, professional liability matters, construction disputes and arbitrations, antitrust, trade regulation and product liability litigation. In addition, he has served as lead counsel for public bodies and private citizens interested in cases concerning public housing practices and land-use control issues.

Mr. Shakman routinely represents attorneys, law firms and other professionals in partnership and professional responsibility disputes. He may be best known for the federal court Shakman Decrees, which have enjoined patronage hiring and firing of public employees in Chicago and Illinois.

Education
B.A., University of Chicago, 1962.
Graduated with honors
M.A., University of Chicago, 1963.
J.D., University of Chicago Law School, 1966.
Graduated cum laude
Order of the Coif
Managing Editor and Articles Editor of the University of Chicago
Law Review.
Experience
Admitted to the Illinois Bar, 1966.
Served as law clerk to the Hon. Walter V. Schaefer, Justice, Illinois Supreme Court, 1966-1967.
Practiced as an associate with this firm, 1967-1972.
Partner, 1972.
Selected Engagements
Numerous representations defending large law firms against allegations of transactional and litigation legal malpractice. These matters have involved lawsuits, arbitrations and mediations.
Defended parties in antitrust litigation involving price fixing, territorial allocations and related claims in direct and class action litigation.
Represented directors and special litigation committees of corporate boards in responding to shareholder litigation.
Represented international energy industry contractor in state and federal court litigation involving power plant construction, ownership disputes and environmental remediation work.
Represented the trustee in bankruptcy in a large Chapter 7 proceeding, which involved over 70 adversary claims removed to the District Court.
Represented investors in broadcasting business in disputes involving accounting issues, RICO and allegations of fraud.
Represented purchasers and sellers of business entities in a wide range
of disputes.
Served as Special Assistant Illinois Attorney General in representing state government agencies in disputes over land use and operations, including representation of the State of Illinois in disputes with the City of Chicago over the closure of Chicago’s Meigs Field airport.
Selected Publications
“How to Respond to an ARDC Complaint,” Illinois Bar Journal, Vol. 92 #10, October 2004. Written with Arthur W. Friedman.
“There But for the Grace of God Go I: A Look at the Modern Transactional Legal Malpractice Case...” Chicago Bar Association Record, April 2004. Written with Stephen J. Bisgeier and Edward W. Feldman.
“Reporting Your Partners and Associates to the ARDC,” Illinois Bar Journal, Volume 90, March 2002. Written with Arthur W. Friedman and Thomas M. Staunton.
“Can Lawyers Protect, and Sell at Premium, a Secret and Valuable Idea?” Chicago Bar Association Record, June/July 2001. Written with
Marc O. Beem.
“Trust Us: How Rules on Referral Fees Influence the MDP Debate,” Chicago Bar Association Record, September 2000. Written with
Diane F. Klotnia.
“Ethical Duties Remain Unclear In Online Realm: Rules of Law,” Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, April 12, 2000.
“Primer on Acting Rationally When Lawyers Relocate,”Chicago Bar Association Record, February/March 2000. Written with Geraldine Soat Brown and Barry A. Miller.
“Mediation of Business Disputes,” Alternative Dispute Resolution, Illinois Institute for CLE, 2001. Written with Diane F. Klotnia and
Edward W. Feldman.
“Flynn v Cohn: Payment of Overhead in Winding Up a Partnership,” Illinois Bar Journal, October 1993 (81 Ill. B.J. 530). Written with
Barry A. Miller.
Memberships
American Bar Association
Illinois State Bar Association
Chicago Bar Association
Chicago Council of Lawyers
American Law Institute
Board member and officer of the Southeast Chicago Commission
Board member and chair of the Institute for Psychoanalysis

http://www.millershakman.com/bio.shakman.html

Shakman, Grid and Progressives the Imperial Triumvirate of Chicago

"The aldermanic role in service delivery should be ended and the focus of aldermanic activity shifted to legislation and oversight functions," the report says. Amen. Yes, those high-maintenance constituents will howl, but that's not what aldermen fear most. They're afraid taxpayers who learn they don't need 50 garbage districts will realize they don't need 50 aldermen.

Chicago Tribune Editorial Ending Any and All Debate on the Grid System


In Republican Rome, after each abuse of power by political strongmen( Marius and Sulla)and civic turmoil, arose a committee of three - a Triumvirate - literally three men. There were two Triumvirates - the first was Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey.

Caesar was a class warrior who took the side of the lower classes over the rich, though Caesar was a Patrician (rich guy) himself. Caesar managed public opinion and then exercised public control He was the original Op Ed opinion maker - Commentarii de Bello Civili et Commentarii De Bello Gallico - were Caesar's Dreams from My Father and Audacity of Hope.

Caesar ruled. Here in Chicago, Mayors came and went, until the 1950's and the decades of Mayor Richard J. Daley. Like Caesar Daley was popular and powerful. Mike Royko's book Boss portrayed Mayor Richard J. Daley as Caesar.

Caesar amassed power with the full approval of the Senate of Rome. Some Progressive Senators did not like that and sought to end one man rule. They Shakman'd Caesar.

When Mayor Daley died our home-grown idiots wrung hands and rent garments about such one man power emerging again and employed the Shakman Decrees - in my opinion the most moronic, mealy-mouthed and cynical dagger to the kidneys of the body politic ever crafted by a legal sneak. Nothing against the corporeal Michael Shakman, mind you, he had his agenda and shopped for the right judges. He and his enterprise is doing swell. The City of Chicago Post-Shakman? Not so hot.

Policy,not politics was the true exercise of power - Shakman was the knife. Progressives palmed that shiv and will twist it home with the Grid System that will effectively end any and all power within the City Council.

This is a Triumvirate of Power - Shakman, Progressives and the Grid System.

Chicago Aldermen, or City Council Members as they like to be PC addressed, have historically handed power over to anyone.

Question: What is an Alderman?

Answer: The City of Chicago is comprised of 50 wards or legislative districts, determined by census of the population. Each ward elects one alderman - at times there two. The 50 aldermen comprise the City of Chicago's Council, who with the Mayor of Chicago, are charged with governing the city. An alderman's term is four years. The Chicago City Council is gaveled into session regularly (usually monthly) to consider ordinances, orders, and resolutions whose subject matter includes traffic code changes, utilities, taxes, and many other issues

The Mayor of Chicago appoints. He appoints Department Heads - Water, Police, Fire, Streets and Sanitation City Departments. Likewise, the Mayor appoints the boards that govern Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Library, Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago Transit Authority, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, et al and thanks to Richard M. Daley and Illinois Legislature the the heads of the Chicago Public Schools.The Mayor is the President of the City Council and the City Clerk is the Secretary of the City Council.

The Mayor and the Aldermen serve four year terms following an April Election per the 1872 City and Villages Act.

Sounds simple? Read the papers. Read Chicago history. Chicago city government is designated a 'weak Mayor' system by Charter. Still is.

In practice, the Mayor's Office is virtually Imperial. Old Mayor Daley took the power of Budget from the City Council. Mayor Harold Washington signed the idiotic and Chicago Metro Unique Shakman Decrees. Shakman* killed Jacksonian democracy in Chicago.

That was the end of the Jacksonian intent. Andy Jackson, the Pappy of the Democratic Party, believed that if elected officials had more 'checks' on them, the less harm they could do - it is to giggle, Old Hickory.

Coming soon, will be the end of the City Council. The American Media have been at war with legislatures for decades. When the people vote, overturn the will of the people by Executive fiat or Shop for a Judge. Witness California's recent Defense of Marriage Vote. People 0; an openly Gay Judge 1.

Here in Chicago "Everybody Hates Alderman." You can see an Alderman; not so a Chicago Mayor. Aldermen go to jail ( 30 since 1972). Governors of Illinois go to jail ( Kerner, Walker, Ryan, Blago soon), but Mayors do great.

I know a couple of Aldermen. They are very hard working people. They are accessible. My Alderman is all over the Ward. Most voters like and appreciate him and some do not. I like my Alderman very much. Matt O'Shea elected last April to serve the 19th Ward. I see him out in the Ward almost every day. He knows what the needs and problems are and he can solve a few of them. Most of what can not be solved are due to the historical context into which he was elected.

The Grid System being considered for garbage collection in the City will most likely be a reality.

Waste Management, or some other private company, will be awarded a City Contract, much like the Parking Meter deal, or the one that went to the Australian Company that operates the Skyway Toll Booth, both were said to be Revenue Boosting and dollar smart. The Media wanted those; the BGA approved, and Progressives and Goo-Gos gushed! Executive Fiat!

Shakman and the Grid and the Progressives are the Triumvirate.

If you think Chicago has been an Imperial City, stick around.


* Shakman Decrees

In 1969, one man made his stand against the Chicago political machine. Michael Shakman, an independent candidate for delegate to the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention, battled against one of the most enduring traditions in Chicago's politics: political patronage, or the practice of hiring and firing government workers on the basis of political loyalty. With many behind-the-scenes supporters, Shakman's years of determination resulted in what became known as the “Shakman decrees.”

Shakman filed suit against the Democratic Organization of Cook County, arguing that the patronage system put nonorganized candidates and their supporters at an illegal and unconstitutional disadvantage. Politicians could hire, fire, promote, transfer—in essence, punish—employees for not supporting the system, or more particularly, a certain politician. The suit also argued that political patronage wasted taxpayer money because public employees, while at work, would often be forced to campaign for political candidates.

In 1972, after an exhaustive court procedure and much negotiating, the parties reached an agreement prohibiting politically motivated firings, demotions, transfers, or other punishment of government employees. A 1979 ruling led to a court order in 1983 that made it unlawful to take any political factor into account in hiring public employees (with exceptions for positions such as policy making). Those decisions along with companion consent judgments—collectively called the Shakman decrees—are binding on more than 40 city and statewide offices.

Roger R. Fross Chicago Encyclopedia

Shakman Exempt Career Grifter Forrest Claypool Explains The Pad in The Sun Times

 Career Grifter and Shakman exempt Forrest Claypool CPS Boss and Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney are amused. So would we all, were we oligarchs and not helots.

To be "On the pad" means that someone, usually in law enforcement or other position of authority, regularly takes bribes.Detective Dolan was kicked off the force because he had been on the pad to local wiseguys for years.Urban Dictionary

Shakman Exempt - Anyone Micheal Shakman deems to be

• A-OK, on-the-level, a stand-up Progressive, really great person, who will feed all news outlets precious pieces of propaganda to ensure that no helots, their fat breeder wives, or horrible kids ever get a fair shake, much less a job dragging a shovel behind a big, blue City, operated Garbage truck and just keep their damn traps shut about how good Shakman Exempts have it . .  . well, not as good as Michael Shakman, but then again, Michael was blessed by the late Abner Mikva

• Necessary to maintaining "Our Village City," for US, By Us and only US in this urban Banana Republic

Forrest Claypool, more than any other public person in Chicago, is the perfect Progressive Shakman Statesman.

Since the fabled and idiotic 1983 Federal Decree, limited to Cook County, gelded the Cook County Democratic Committee and made a Committeeman as useless as a mint flavored suppository.

Claypool boarded the Cook County Ship of State,right after law school where he branded himself as "an attorney and served in several non-elected positions in state and county government, including deputy commissioner of the Cook County Board of Appeals and as Deputy State Treasurer " and yadda, yadda, yadda from meeting Dave Axelrod to Kopping a plea in the Chicago Sun Times this morning, and has been looting it to the scuttles ever since.

Today, Forrest fogs the facts with his love of children and heroic chinless jaw thrusting in the name of the people, as well as working his Huckleberry Hound-like-Carbondale Hillrod eyes in perplexed self-pity at being caught out.

In response to your editorial (CPS can’t afford to flunk ethics, transparency class — Aug. 12), as CEO of Chicago Public Schools, I take seriously the trust the public places in us and my responsibility to protect every dollar for our classrooms. ( scan for giggles, tittering, or rolled eyes and go thundering!)
That’s why my administration pursued (BUT never brought) a potential ( Yeah, I said Potential) civil rights lawsuit against the state of Illinois. With the district’s very survival at stake, and years of academic progress at risk because of a racially discriminatory funding system, retaining the finest legal counsel was paramount.
A last-minute settlement by Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislators altered the need for such a drastic measure. However, had the lawsuit been necessary, the skills of outside counsel could have been the difference between defeat and victory. That’s why, with the concurrence of CPS Board President Frank Clark ( AKA- The COMEd Mailroom Guy), I sought out Jenner & Block, perhaps the nation’s leading litigation firm with a proven track record in civil rights cases. CPS’ general counsel himself ( Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney).is one of the country’s preeminent litigators,( Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney.).having served as the American Bar Association’s litigation chair.
The Sun-Times’ character aspersions are beneath the well-considered views of this editorial page. Our general counsel ( Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney).earns a tiny fraction of his private-sector pay and the attorneys at Jenner & Block took this case at steeply discounted rates, because of their belief in the cause. Few attorneys (Ron Marmer, CPS’ top attorney). or firms of this stature and expertise would do so. . . ."

And so on with the firm belief that everyone in Cook County is a dope and  Forrest Claypool is not - he's a Shakman Exempt!

The Inspector General told the Sun Times these pearl onions of interest left out of Claypool's gimlet:

• Acting in closed session on July 27, the school board voted to pay as much as $250,000 to Jenner & Block, which spent months preparing a never-filed lawsuit against the state seeking increased funding.
• The Sun-Times reported Marmer left the law firm in 2013 but has continued to receive yearly payments of $200,000, which are to end in 2018.
• Under CPS’ code of ethics, school officials can’t have any “contract management authority” over any deal with a contractor “with whom the employee has a business relationship” — defined as any transaction worth at least $2,500 in a calendar year to the school system employee.
• According to Claypool, Marmer wasn’t involved in hiring Jenner & Block, which he said “was my decision” along with Frank Clark, the board president.
• A CPS spokeswoman declined to comment Monday. ( You Know It, Mabel!)
• The lawsuit Jenner & Block was preparing didn’t get filed because legislators and Gov. Bruce Rauner agreed on a stopgap budget deal on June 30 that’s to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding to CPS.
• Marmer and Claypool once worked together at Jenner & Block. Claypool worked there in 1982 — his first job out of law school. Marmer was at the firm from 1978 to 1993 and 1997 until 2013.
• Marmer — who had a solo law practice after leaving Jenner & Block and started his $185,000-a-year job at CPS on Nov. 2, 2015 — has made $29,000 in campaign contributions to Claypool’s bids for elected office since 2003. That includes $10,000 toward Claypool’s unsuccessful run for Cook County assessor in 2010. Marmer also gave $5,000 to Rahm Emanuel’s first campaign for mayor in 2011. (And Forrest Got the CTA! Ventra and Bomdardier!!!)
• Jenner & Block began working for CPS on March 3, though the contract with the firm that Claypool’s administration released last month was dated June 20.
• Through June 30, the firm had billed the school system for more than $182,000.
• CPS had refused to release any of the firm’s invoices for more than two months after the Sun-Times filed a public records request seeking them in May.
• The Jenner & Block lawyer who signed the deal with CPS was Randall Mehrberg, who worked for the Chicago Park District in the 1990s when Claypool was parks chief under then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. State election board records show Mehrberg contributed a total of $30,500 to Claypool’s campaigns and $10,000 to Emanuel.

Let's all join hands and sing the joys we all share in our Chicago oligarchy and let's try to remember that Forrest Clypool, really, really  "takes seriously  the trust the public places in us and my responsibility to protect every dollar for our classrooms."

Stosh and Stella in Garfield Ridge can't call Cap Mizenshky, over by the Ward, to see, if, maybe, their son Marek, in the Marines after St. Rita, can get a job on the trucks, when he gets back from KAIA by the Kabul airport this September, because no that would be just Shakman wrong.  Ask Forrest Claypool.

Shakman Begat Simpson - Corruption, or What's in Your Wallet?

Corruption!  Like household mold, the very thought of it sends crowds of folks scurrying for the last boat out.  Corruption, like house-hold mold Stachybotrys (chartarum/atra), allows panels of experts to prove with scientific certainty that "it must be!" even though only in court is that true.  Science finds it very hard, if not impossible,  to prove a negative, but judges do so all the time.  The mold epidemic grew out of the hysteria of early 1990's in the Cleveland era, when insurers were brought to court and forced to pay huge damages to folks who purchased homes where molds were detected - causing them life-threatening harm.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) needed back off the Cleveland hysteria - toxic mold just ain't*  Nevertheless, lawyers find judges and judges make judgments.


Only in court can one prove a negative, to wit,  Michael Shakman :

Shakman filed suit against the Democratic Organization of Cook County, arguing that the patronage system put nonorganized candidates and their supporters at an illegal and unconstitutional disadvantage. Politicians could hire, fire, promote, transfer—in essence, punish—employees for not supporting the system, or more particularly, a certain politician. The suit also argued that political patronage wasted taxpayer money because public employees, while at work, would often be forced to campaign for political candidates.
In 1972, after an exhaustive court procedure and much negotiating, the parties reached an agreement prohibiting politically motivated firings, demotions, transfers, or other punishment of government employees. A 1979 ruling led to a court order in 1983 that made it unlawful to take any political factor into account in hiring public employees (with exceptions for positions such as policy making). Those decisions along with companion consent judgments—collectively called the Shakman decrees—are binding on more than 40 city and statewide offices. Encyclopedia of Chicago

Yea!!! Patronage Bad!!!!! The Progressive Lexicon grows like household mold! Mold is determined by climate -just the right of moisture with the right temperature and mold goes gangstah!

N.B. - Here is a political bonbon doillyed and dropped by Dan Kelley on Progressives and Patronage:

Berny Stone relates a story about dealing with a (future) Progressive politician:
I was in charge of 8 precincts with guys like Dick Elrod and Howard Carroll. I made sure everything ran smoothly in their precincts. Dick Elrod ran for Alderman and lost. But then he ran for Sheriff and won. I worked for him when he was Sheriff. For two years prior to the special election (Stone succeeded 50th Ward Alderman Jack Sperling resigned  when he was appointed to a judicial position) I was his Assistant Chief Deputy Sheriff and I handled all of the foreclosures of the office. At that time the amount of foreclosures that we had in one year we have now in a month. Dick asked me to take the job. We lived very close to each other. My specialty as a lawyer was real estate and he knew he could trust me.

In my opinion it was about picking a good qualified person. A young lawyer came to me who never handled foreclosure before so I helped him. I took him all the way through. Later I met him again when he became an Alderman, his name was Larry Bloom. I said Larry you rail against patronage but I was a patronage appointed employee and I helped you.

Yea, Patronage begat Bosses who begat Racist Bossism which begat Systemic Torture, which begat Systemic Racism, which begat Pan-Sexism, which begat Homophobic Bullies ad infinitum.

Michael $hakman and $hakman industries ( decrees, monitors, consultants, media stooges, lawyers and tax-funded panels) were the moist climate that gave us our unique Chicago brand of Progressive government. The day that Richie Daley, while in political exile circa 1980's after defeating the Shakman Decree signing Republican Bernie Carey as Cook County States Attorney:

 By what rules had the 11th Ward machine always lived? Now that Daley and company were out of power for the first time in half a century, were patronage hiring and firing no longer nice?
The Tribune wondered aloud, "How far will the 11th Ward carry its campaign for civic purity?" Suggesting that Daley embrace the Shakman ruling against political firings, the paper sneered, "Stranger things have happened, though we can't at the moment think of any."
But the strange thing did happen. Shortly before leaving office, Bernie Carey had agreed to sign a second Shakman decree. The original decree, signed by Carey in 1973, banned political firing; the new decree would ban political hiring as well. Soon after taking office, Daley became the first county official to sign the new decree. During the campaign--in which he had also come out in favor of merit selection of judges, a machine curse--he had pledged, "This office will be professional. I will not take a letter from any ward committeeman."
According to John Schmidt, who has served since 1980 on Daley's professional advisory committee, Daley has kept that pledge. Daley did have to settle a lawsuit brought by five former Carey employees whom he had fired (including Carey's brother-in-law); they had held policy-making positions exempted from Shakman restraints, but they contended that they had first been demoted to nonexempt positions, and then fired, so that the decree was violated. Daley has also hired some politicians not known for their professional skills, like former alderman and now state representative Miguel Santiago. However, the Shakman decree does not mandate that public officials hire only persons of consummate professional skill; it merely prohibits political hiring and firing of non-policy-making employees. And Daley has apparently never been found in violation of the Shakman decree.

Only a few years before hugging $hakman, while giving a talk at University of Chicago, Richard M. Daley bemoaned the fact that "One of the real problems of government is (was and continues to be) the decline of patronage" (parentheticals my own). While an Illinois Legislator, Daley began to play soft ball with and for Dawn Clark Netsch, literally and figuratively, as team mate of Don Rose, Dr. Quentin Young, Marty Oberman and Thundering Dick Simpson.  Daley opened the doors of power to people who really knew how to not only wield it but hang on to it. The Hyde Park Mafia killed the Cermak Machine: The City that Worked, became the City that Shrinks.

Dick Simpson waddles through the corridors of power like a later day Sir Robert Cecil.  In fact, the Richard M. Daley years often reminded me of Elizabeth Tudor's reign - the complete and utter destruction of the Catholic aristocracy and the ultimate ascendancy of a singularly secular state. Dick Simpson, like the patiently sebaceous and splenetic Earl of Salisbury, followed his political pops Abner Mikva - identical the transformative and conniving Sir Francis Cecil, 1st Baron of Burghley.  Daley's Good Queen Bess Reign were marked by public executions of loyal kinsmen, competitors and courtiers ( Ald. Pat Huels, Miriam Santos & Paul Vallas e.g.) and odd alliances ( President GW Bush was not unlike the Virgin Queen's friendship with French King Henry IV).

The New Stuart, Rahm Emanuel, is very much like Scottish-born King James I, who was a Renaissance chameleon like no other.  The Progressive Stuarts will prove to be as toxic and ultimately self-destructive as their historical parallels.

The toxic shock value works wonders as long as their is an unpinched mu$hroom growing out of this political mold.  Corruption!

Thundering Dick Simpson is poised to contaminate the Chicago suburbs to fight Corruption - whatever the hell that is supposed to mean - with lawyers and judges who will determine Dick's terminology and prove his negative.

Shakman begat Simpson.  Household mold begets mushrooming household insurance rates.

History works. Science?  Nice for making better cheese, beer and Progressive nonsense. Courts give us the mandates, taxes and confusion we live with everyday.

*The term "toxic mold" is not accurate. While certain molds are toxigenic, meaning they can produce toxins (specifically mycotoxins), the molds themselves are not toxic, or poisonous. Hazards presented by molds that may produce mycotoxins should be considered the same as other common molds which can grow in your house. There is always a little mold everywhere - in the air and on many surfaces. There are very few reports that toxigenic molds found inside homes can cause unique or rare health conditions such as pulmonary hemorrhage or memory loss. These case reports are rare, and a causal link between the presence of the toxigenic mold and these conditions has not been proven.In 2004 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found there was sufficient evidence to link indoor exposure to mold with upper respiratory tract symptoms, cough, and wheeze in otherwise healthy people; with asthma symptoms in people with asthma; and with hypersensitivity pneumonitis in individuals susceptible to that immune-mediated condition. The IOM also found limited or suggestive evidence linking indoor mold exposure and respiratory illness in otherwise healthy children. In 2009, the World Health Organization issued additional guidance, the WHO Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality: Dampness and Mould [PDF, 2.52 MB].
A common-sense approach should be used for any mold contamination existing inside buildings and homes. The common health concerns from molds include hay fever-like allergic symptoms. Certain individuals with chronic respiratory disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, asthma) may experience difficulty breathing. Individuals with immune suppression may be at increased risk for infection from molds. If you or your family members have these conditions, a qualified medical clinician should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment. For the most part, one should take routine measures to prevent mold growth in the home.

 http://www.cdc.gov/mold/stachy.htm

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1138.html

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&case=/data2/circs/7th/951929.html

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/is-rich-daley-ready-for-reform/Content?oid=873372

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cecil,_1st_Earl_of_Salisbury

Feeding the Watchdog after Waking Andy from His Snooze - It's a Shakman Thing

Pre-Metra Madigan Missive (above); Immediate Above Andy Epic Fail Shaw of The BGA!

If Andy Shaw told me that I was ' the coolest guy, that is what am,'  I'd leap as lordly as my lard-ass would allow away the pit of Despair and hit the nearest confessional and hope that the priest could talk me out of taking a Brodie off of the Skway Bridge into the 10th Ward.

More so, I have empirical knowledge of Andy Shaw's capacity for in-depth reporting, dating back to Terry Teel's resignation announcement.  Andy and his poor but amused cameraman for ABC burst into the Department of Planning and Development on the 10th floor of City Hall and Andy bleated to the patient woman manning the sign-in desk, " Andy Shaw, ABC 7 for the Teele Resignation."

The lovely woman smiled, " You are on the wrong floor."

Andy shrilled, as is his wont, " Terry Teele!!!  The Mayor's Zoning and Development Man!" and again the lovely woman softly informed the news hound, " Mr. Teele works for the Mayor and that would be on the 5th Floor?"

Can you say MICROPHONE!!!????


Of course not; nor would you.  Andy Shaw is the media, writ nasty,. . .well, the media without work which means a padded sinecure - The BGA. What set me on the Shavian Media-tation was Andy's cuddles with 560 Am- WIND's Joe Walsh Show which struck my fancy while returning from a wake in Indiana.  Giggled me up no end, it did.

On June 24th, as the saga goes Andy of BGA knocked the Bosses of Illinois to canvas with his exclusive Sun Times write up breaking wind all over the Land of Lincoln! I remember it like it was three weeks ago.
It's Metra scandal, I guess.  The California CEO Alex Clifford was sent packing with a chute full of moolah.

Heavens.  It turns out that patronage is the root of this evil. Mercy sakes.

Alex Clifford lawyer ed up with Goo-Goo Mogul and past master Machine Baiter Michael Shakman, LLc.

Michael Shakman is founder of Shakman Industries based upon the fairy tale notion that Government can be good and Politics well-scrubbed . . . of people who actually know what the hell they are doing. I can well imagine plutocrat Good Seal of Shakman kicking wideawake Andy to another Call to Doody,   " Howdy Andy, Andy, Andy Shaw!  Rouse yourself, gird your loins . . .your loins . . .there's mischief afoot and scoundrels abounding the rails . . .open wide; here's your feed. Now, scurry and scat!"

Alex Clifford has Michael Shakman and Andy Shaw on his side, which means that he has deep thinkers like Carol Marin, WTTW, WBEZ, and the Abner Mikva Coalition of Hand-Wringers, Whistle-Blowers and Ambulance Chasing Bottom Feeders with his back Rep.Deb Nepotism (LGBTQ and 33rd Ward Landfill Blind Girl) with his back.

The way I see the Metra mess is this.

• A CEO with an Italian name does the Dutch Act
• Metra needs a Goo-Goo approved suit -Alex Clifford
• IL GOP is so screwed up it will nod with conviction when Andy announces a chance to hack Mike Madigan 
• The IVI-IPI already agreed to play nice with the IL GOP to beat the BossesIllinois newspapers will have Mike Madigan bon fire until Labor DayAlex Clifford will speak nasty about Metra Board, Madigan, Ward Bossism, Culture of Corruption
• Gov. Pat Quinn will attempt to kick Mike Madigan ala Charlie BrownThundering Dick Simposn will join Andy Shaw with a press conference about the latest UICC study Metra Bad/Mell Good/Mikva Good/ Paul Simon Institute polling
• The Red Line will be closed to working folks, without access to millionaires and lobbyists
• Andy Shaw will rail.in Pullman with the banjo activists Sheila Simon and Eric Zorn doing BoxCar Willie Hits in a display of Railroad Solidarity with Hobo-sexual panhandlers - A two disc set and video of this event for donations to BGA's RTA
• Carol Marin will narrate The Life of Alex Clifford by Michael Shakman
• Metra will provide transportation for summer travelers and working folks just the people Pat Quinn buys beers for at Stash & Stella's Stardust Saloon over by Midway.
• Mike Madigan will cut his lawn, go by the  Jewel on Pulaski over by Midway, smile wryly, because he is the only non-dope in Illinois government.
• Illinois Dems will continue to back dopes like Deb Mell, Toni Preckwinkle, Pat Quinn and whomever Boss Terry Cosgrove deems suitable to screw up Illinois further - Out of Chaos Comes More Chaotic Orders
• Illinois GOP will back dopes with less gravitas than Democrats.  BTW_ Personal PAC is pumping tons of moolah into the coffers of souless suburban GOP phonies (38.8%).
• Francis Cardinal George will continue to lead with his heart and head and maintain grace, calm and dignity amongst a Brookfield Zoo of ninnies clerical and lay
• Mount Carmel/St. Rita/Loyola and west suburban Montini will begin double sessions in August

I will continue to recover my breath after scanning the my pay stub choc full of Obama care padding to tune of less-$145 than the previous two weeks after taxes and marvel that a nice salary ain't what it used to be, while awaiting the next property tax payoff to Karen Lewis and Speed cameras every twenty feet on Western Ave..  

Like I said, if Andy Shaw said that it was hot today, I'd bundle up like Quinn the Eskimo . . . no relation to  Quinn the Governor. If Andy Shaw informed me that a bird pooped on my head, I'd say, "Call Me Blondie!"

COPA Opens a New Shakman Industry: Chicago Values the Chatham House Rules

“I don’t understand how every good cop would not want a very harsh, strong police board,” Pfleger August 2016

The Fraternal Order of Police and its City Council allies opposed Emanuel’s plan to replace IPRA with COPA because they were afraid the new agency would be stacked against rank-and-file officers. But the extensive training in police organization, general orders and techniques could help ease those fears.Fran Spielman and Frank Main

I don't know a Cop who is afraid of anything - including the creeps that will crawl up his/her rump 'after weeks of COPA training on “vision and culture” of the new agency for all 140 of COPA’s full-time employees.

But, I interrupt Fran and Frank - 

Advocates have complained that the $8.4 million IPRA budget virtually guarantees that investigations of police wrongdoing will drag on for months or even years.
COPA’s budget will now be “closer to $17 million,” Fairley has said. The influx of resources is particularly important, considering the fact that COPA will inherit an expanded annual caseload tied to its broader powers to investigate false arrests, illegal searches, denials of counsel and other constitutional complaints. Sun Times

More money for Advocates!  One could build an empire being an advocate in Chicago.  One do! Michael Shakman!  Shakman
Advocates?  You mean Jamie Kalvan and Pastor Pfleger?  Why unnamed 'Advocates,' Dear Read?

You know.  Progressive Transparency means that everything is coming Sub Rosa! The Old Chatham House Rules,* doncha new?

To all of us helots that means, Move on.

Last week, I noted that my hometown is the only place in the Fifty States completely unaffected by President Elect 45's landslide. As well as voting in a fake judge - Cook County - Chicago presents more!

• Rahm Refuses to abide by Sanctuary City Laws
• Toni Preckwinkle Raises Taxes Again
• CPS Grifter-in-Chief Claypool offers kids Trump Trauma
• Cook Count Sheriff Tom Dart refuses to abide by Immigration Laws
• Chicago Media Refuses to Connect the Dots on Protestors and Source Funding
• Bishop Cupich adds a Red Hat to his Pallium after demanding that Marist deal with texting girls  and "take the necessary steps to deal with this situation swiftly." What would Pope Francis Do?
• CPD remains demoralized, understaffed and gripped by corrupt politics
• COPA will make sure Jamie Kalvan's Invisible Institute makes Progressive transparency the key to the treasure chest - just like Shakman Industries

Gee, why is everyone crying?  Nothing has changed.

The Shakman Decrees are idiotic but lucrative for Michael Shakman.

Police Officers will know operate under the yoke of Jamie Kalvan, Mike Pfleger, and the columnists still giving cover to half-truths and out and out lies.

Good morning, Chicago! Chatham House Rules Everywhere!  It is another Boondoggle of a Day!

*Chatham House Rules:"When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed. " Royal Institute of International Affairs