McHenry County Blog is a little late (well, two weeks late) in this hat tip to Cary School District 26 Board Member Chris Jenner.
Remember last September when Jenner passed a pay-to-play prohibition?
It prohibited school vendors from contributing to school board candidates or to referendum campaigns.
Jenner’s idea so impressed District 300 board candidate John Ryan that he put it in his platform.
Tuesday, Jeffery Gaunt of Daily Herald featured Ryan’s proposal. The article was headlined:
District 300 trustee-elect targets conflicts of interest
Interestingly, District 300 Superintendent Ken Arndt pooh-poohed Ryan’s attempt in the Daily Herald article:
“One board member’s idea does not carry more weight than any other’s,” Arndt said. “Sometimes board members fail to recognize that.”
Vendors contributing to District 300 “Vote Yes” committees has been a staple for at least this decade, as you can see from the links in this District 300 story show.
On second thought, I’ll put the links in this story:
1) Carpentersville District 300 (and here and here and here and here and here and here and here) and
2)Woodstock 200 (and here and here) helped finance their tax hike committees with contributions from school vendors and potential school vendors.
But the Northwest Herald editorialized against Jenner’s proposal.
Two weeks ago State Rep. John Fritchey, a Chicago Democrat, followed in Jenner’s footsteps and passed House Bill 1 without a dissenting vote.
The Associated Press’s lead sentence was
The Illinois House overwhelmingly backed legislation Wednesday that’s meant to combat Illinois’ reputation as a “pay to play” state where companies wanting government business are expected to donate money to key officials.
It would only apply to those doing more than $25,000 worth of business with a state official, but it’s a start.
Those bidding on contracts worth at least $10,000 would have to list all contributions to the statewide official in question.
The bill is now in the State Senate.
= = = = =
The photograph of the man sitting is of Chris Jenner representing District 26 in its fight to stop Cary’s Tax Increment Financing District across from the train station on Route 14. Newly elected District 300 board member John Ryan has his picture to the left.
One more thing. I have been calling Advance 300, the District 300 tax hikers since the group re-invented itself. Now I see that Jeff Gaunt refers to them similarly:
“pro-tax hike group Advance 300.”