Jeff Ward: Why You Should Care Who Serves on the Metra Board
Why is it some folks can't even say the word "accountability" these days!
Commuters board the Metra in Elmhurst. Officials say Metra's on-time record will improve with the ability to run more trains simultaneously.
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“But, Jeff! Why should I give a bleep about the Metra Board or who serves on it? I don’t even use Metra!”
Well, dear reader, that answer is simple. Metra is far from a private company. Whether you choose to ride those commuter trains or not, you’re footing a full 40 percent of their bottom line.
And if that board fails do its job, as we’ve so recently seen, you may as well just throw a couple of your paychecks into that backyard Weber barbecue.
That board’s complete incapacity to implement any kind of reasonable oversight set the stage for former Executive Director Phil Pagano to abscond with $475,000 in unauthorized vacation pay. That’s $190,000 of your money!
Once cornered, Pagano committed suicide by jumping in front of one of his own trains knowing full well how that would affect the engineer.
What’s fascinated me most as the fallout from this theft has unfolded, is how our illustrious Metra Board members have responded to Springfield’s call for their resignations.
First they balked at the mere thought of stepping down, somehow believing they could weather the storm. More than one board member claimed their persecution was the result of a political witch hunt. Right!
Then, apparently, the dog ate their homework.
Before she finally agreed to step down, Arlington Heights Mayor Arlene Mulder actually had the nerve to say that Metra’s past problems are the very reason current directors like her should stay on the job. “We’ve worked very hard to correct it,” she said.
So, in essence, because they screwed up so badly, they’re the only ones who can fix it? Incompetence as job security! You gotta love that logic.
Though DuPage County Metra Board appointee and chairman Carole Doris had the good sense to resign early, her excuses were no better than Mulder’s. “There was no reason to think he was doing that,” Doris told the Daily Herald, “It didn’t appear he was living beyond his means.”
Oh! So, we should only suspect stupid executive directors of duplicity? If I was siphoning money from my company, the last thing I’d do is buy a Bentley.
But the worst example of this kind of Teflon thinking comes from Kane County's former Metra Board member, Caryl Van Overmeiren. “Pagano was very secretive, and when he was asked to provide things it was very minimal,” Van Overmeiren said, “He managed that whole agency by intimidation and embarrassment.”
Pardon my keen perception of the obvious, but shouldn’t that have been your first clue? So much for Doris’ contention there was no need to be suspicious! And wouldn’t it have been in the board’s best interest to remove any executive director who’s “secretive” and rules by “intimidation?”
Sometimes serving on a board means making the tough decisions.
Then Van Overmeiren tried to take credit for a new Metra policy requiring pay and benefit changes go before the board for approval. Call me crazy, but shouldn’t that have been the case from Day One?
And you know what that all-too-obvious procedural maneuver cost Illinois taxpayers? A cool million! That’s right folks! The Metra Board doled out $2 million to consultants to determine how Pagano stole the money and then another half-million on spin control. Remember! We pick up 40 percent of that tab.
Wouldn’t it have been a heck of a lot cheaper if we just let Pagano get away with it?
This utter lack of Metra board accountability makes me want to run naked and screaming down the Downers Grove portion of Ogden Avenue with “The end is near” painted on my chest in bright red letters. (Don’t worry! Burr Ridge Patch Editor Sabrina Wu said she’d bail me out.)
Did any of these board members do anything overtly “wrong?” No! But this kind of blind incompetence bothers me far more than any nefariousness. I’d feel a lot better if the board had been in cahoots with Pagano all along.
And that accountability doesn’t end with the appointees. The appointers should be feeling some of the heat, as well! It took the Springfield threat of removing their appointing powers before some of our county chairmen suddenly got religion.
Suburban mayors and former county board members generally haven't had to deal with $600 million budgets and thousands of employees. But that doesn’t stop our county chairs from setting up their cronies and then attempting to absolve themselves when it blows up in their faces.
Who says “no” to a 15-grand-a-year-plus-benefits patronage plum?
Ah! But there is one bright spot in all this. Dan Cronin, your new DuPage County Board chairman, just pushed through some legislation that allows Patchland county boards to demand financial and other pertinent information from the appointed boards they oversee.
It doesn’t yet apply to multi-county boards like Metra, but if I were Mr. Cronin, that would be my very next step. If I’m going to have to take heat for my appointees, then I want to be right there looking over their shoulders!
Here’s our bottom line. When a baseball team loses, they don’t fire the fans, the players or the owners. They fire the manager! When a board fails to understand the simple concept of oversight and then spends five times what was stolen to make it “right,” in the immortal words of White Sox announcer Hawk Harrelson, “They gone!”
Editor's note: See Marni Pyke's outstanding reporting on the Metra Board in a number of articles in the Daily Herald.
dave
5:56 am on Friday, July 15, 2011
Why, Jeff, this is Illinois where "surprisingly" the spouses of elected officials become members of boards with six figure salaries all the time. Illinois, where, regardless of party, in the past sixty years more governemors have been sent to the big house than not. his is Illinois where vote fraud is an art form, where the debt is placing the state near default. This is Illinois where this can only take place because most citizen really don't care or else thay would want to know more about candidates, appointed board members, why so many tax payer funded projects seem to go over budget.
Liz Chaplin
8:35 am on Friday, July 15, 2011
Jeff, What law prevented the Chairman from doing this in the first place?
Jeff Ward
9:36 am on Friday, July 15, 2011
Liz,
Nothing! Other than maybe the Metra Board felt intimidated by Pagano. Keeping a constant eye on benefit and pay changes seems like a no-brainer to me!
Jeff
Joseph R. Martan
1:03 pm on Friday, July 15, 2011
You don't get these plush appointments unless you buy into the "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" philosophy. That is why you see the same names - and families - serving on all the boards and commissions. It is WHO you know, not what you know. It is also the reason why so many people with integrity want nothing to do with these shenanigans. How many times have we read over the years of a "reformer" or person with integrity trying to do the right thing - and end up being ridiculed and condemned by the other members of these boards/commissions for "not going along." Politics is dirty - and Illinois politics is a particularly filthy and venal variety.
Liz Chaplin
1:56 pm on Friday, July 15, 2011
Joseph,
As a former DuPage Water Commissioner and one of the two commissioners singled out in the forensic audit for repeatedly warning the other commissioners about the misuse of tax dollars, being out of compliance with our bond ordinance and the operating loss mentioned in the yearly audit your assessment of these appointments is spot on. I asked not to be reappointed when my term was up last June.
Joseph R. Martan
12:57 pm on Monday, July 18, 2011
Liz:
You prove my point. How much support did you get when you made your warnings? Little, if any. Can't blame you if you don't want to be reappointed - I'm sure the shenanigans that go on required a strong stomach.
J
3:19 pm on Friday, July 15, 2011
Before we annoint Cronin, let us all ask why he hasn't found the time to trash can Jack Tenison at the Dupage Technology Park.
Jeff Ward
6:42 pm on Friday, July 15, 2011
Jeff,
I'm not annointing him just yet. All I'm saying is the step he's take to oversee some of those DuPage County boards is a good one.
Now let's see how well it works!
Jeff
Liz Chaplin
3:36 pm on Friday, July 15, 2011
Or why some long term water commissioners were reappointed with some of the sponsors of this legislations blessings....
Liz Chaplin
7:07 pm on Friday, July 15, 2011
Jeff,
The legislation lacks substance. It does not mandate that the County Board Chairman keep tabs on the financials it only gives them the authority to do so which they have always had. The legislation still leaves the door wide open and still holds no one accountable.
Jeff Ward
7:20 am on Saturday, July 16, 2011
Liz,
I may be wrong, but I believe in the past they could ask for those financials, but those boards could ignore the request. Now, they must pass along the requested information.
If Pagano faced a similar threat, he might not have taken the chance.
Again, it's not perfect, but I love the theory behind the legislation.
Jeff
Melanie C
11:29 pm on Friday, July 15, 2011
This is all very disturbing. No wonder why the average citizen does not show much interest in some elections and/or appointments. Some of this stuff is so corrupt that I would be hard pressed to even see a way out. What a daunting task it is trying to ensure that individuals are honest and have integrity. I suppose the more pressing question would be why are so many people able and willing to steal, lie and cheat without so much as a guilty conscience? Did Mr. Pagano kill himself because he felt guilty or because he got caught? I would suspect it was because he got caught and wasn't man enough to take the responsibility for his actions. This type of behavior is all to common these days. What a sad world we are becoming!!!!
J
9:18 am on Saturday, July 16, 2011
Jeff, What I'm saying is that we should know better than to put PT(Part-time) Cronin out there as doing ANYTHING for the citizens of DuPage County. If he was about reform, at all, Jack Tenison would be on a spit, rotating about right now.
Cleaning up DuPage is a full-time job. Mr. Cronin is getting 6 figures, plus the pension and goodies and his priority has never been his public job.
You are right about caring who is on Metra and the other public boards.
People need to start giving a darn about this kind of stuff, after all whose tax bills pay for it all?
The DHC mess is partially responsible from the Elmhurst board contingent-Tom Myers and Ed Merkel. Their lack of oversight allowed the fiscal irresponsibility to go on there. Of course, Bill Maio was on that board. You should write an article on all the pies that Maio has had his fingers in. And, top it off with a picture of the street sign with his name on it in Itasca & WoodDale. It's a testament to having put one over on the citizens.
Joe O'Malley
2:23 pm on Saturday, July 16, 2011
Accolades to Mr. Ward's Opinion piece. What is refreshing about this information in the article is that the most politicians, elected or appointed, are unable to stifle the concerned publics interest and their ability to react with opinion due to the viral nature of todays' information technology.
It's velocity is overwhelming compared to the printed media. Most politicians are ignorant of it's power. Now at least corrupt political players will have to look over their shoulder as to who may be watching when "taking the envelope".
Good job Mr. Ward.
Jon Cunningham
10:28 pm on Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Jeff Ward, You da man! Please keep these "eye on the local governments" pieces coming. We sure need them. The newspapers have been failing us in that area.
George Swimmer
4:24 am on Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Metra's horrible accident record, nearly 600 Metra accidents in 20 years with many killed and injured should by a concern to all, not only Metra's Board.. Many Metra locomotive engineers work split shifts, over 70 hour weeks, and work alone in their locomotives (other major railroads have 2 people in the locomotive compartment taking part in operating their trains). The National Transportation Safety Board estimates operator fatigue as a major contributing factor in about 1/3 of all transportation accidents. Safety experts know that operator redundancy reduces accidents. Regarding Ms. Doris, she gave me the opportunity to address Metra's Board about 9 months ago knowing beforehand how I felt. I am not sure my addressing Metra's Board did much good, but I appreciated the opportunity to do so..
Bob LeMay
9:00 am on Friday, July 22, 2011
Jeff,
I live near Ogden in Downers Grove. Could you please choose a different stretch of Ogden if you get that urge?
Oh, and thanks for voicing what many of us feel about the cronyism of public boards. (Of course, many private boards are as bad or worse, but it's the stockholder's money, not the taxpaying public.)
Amanda Z
3:47 pm on Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Village President Arlene Mulder is the worst mayor in the history of Arlington Heights. She doesn't even shop in her own town. Can't wait till she voted out.