Pearson gone, Bonne charged with DUI, Syverson vs. Sweeny, another casino proposal

The bitch about vacation is that it isn't really a vacation. It's really more a matter of putting off the work, which compounds each day, until you return to pay the piper. This has been my life, for the most part, since my reluctant return from San Juan. I think I'm finally caught up now, though.

I apologize to readers who may have grown weary of infrequent posts for the last couple weeks, but I assure you we have much to talk about.

Where shall we begin?

How about the Metrocentre? When I last addressed this, it looked like the party was over for Corey Pearson, and that turned out to be the case. The way it appears, I'm willing to bet Corey was told to start looking for a job months ago so that he could resign instead of being fired. His house of cards has begun crumbling as questionable expenses have been discovered, but he's managed to sidestep the falling anvil.

He's someone else's problem now, so good riddance. Let us hope one or both of the mayor's new panels will take a good look at the Authority Board as well.
Mark Bonne, Republican turned independent, was arrested and charged Thursday night with DUI - his second. Based on his resemblance to W.C. Fields, I'm not surprised. Einar Forsman and Paul Logli, I've got my eye on you, too.

I wonder if Dave Syverson got a late-night phone call from a noisy holding cell early Friday morning, pleading to make Bonne's latest flub disappear.

Right now, a bill by Syverson aims to do away with the Cullerton ruling which resulted in so many recent candidacy objections, including one that backfired on Bonne when he applied the ruling to Democrat Bill Robertson's having voted in the previous GOP primary. In a comical twist, the same ruling knocked Bonne off the ballot after it was discovered he'd voted in the Democratic primary. Both ended up running as independents.

In an instance where justice prevailed, Robertson won the 14th Ward seat, and it looks as though Bonne may have been drowning his sorrows ever since.

By the way, Syverson's bill passed the Senate and is before the House.

Speaking of Syverson, I'll bet he wants to strangle Chuck Sweeny right about now. The Register Star stopped reporting on the controversy Sweeny started by painting Dave as a saboteur of W. State St.

As it turns out, Syverson agreed to a special meeting with residents on the west side who were pissed off by what Sweeny wrote. Of course, Dave said Sweeny used his comments out of context. All things considered, I think Syverson is right on this one. The weekly reported that Sweeny hightailed it out of the meeting early, and Sweeny hasn't uttered a word about it since.

My guess is that we'll see one or two apologetic pieces in the near future in the daily. Sweeny will latch on to some Syverson cause to make amends. Maybe it'll be the Bonne Bill.

Yesterday, RRStar editor Linda Grist-Cunningham broke the daily's silence by throwing stones at Democratic chairman Dan Lewandowski, who apparently - get this - sent text messages stating "brass" at the daily had killed the story about Syverson's appearance on the west side.

Because it didn't occur to editorial staff that a reporter should be sent to the meeting, Grist-Cunningham basically said Sweeny didn't report on it because he was a part of the story. Looks to me like they're too chicken to admit Sweeny was just plain wrong.

I've gone easy on Chuck in the past, especially considering he's made it particularly obvious he's getting many of his ideas from this blog, but I have little sympathy for him here. Aaron Chambers should have gotten Sweeny's job, but there can't always be justice.

Sweeny also wrote strongly in support of an additional subsidy for the Metrocentre this week. He pretended the city isn't already paying an annual subsidy of more than $900,000. That payment now goes toward paying down renovation bonds, but it is a subsidy nonetheless, based on lofty, undelivered promises made by the MC - that no other money would be required from the city. To date, no one has been held accountable for the broken promises.

The problem child wants another $1 million a year, and we'll be stuck paying it. The way Sweeny sees it, we have to take one for the team. But in professional sports, the owners aren't the ones who are asked to make the sacrifices.

If the shareholders aren't seeing a return on investment, management and coaching staff are the first to go, but that hasn't been the case in the Rockford fiefdom.

The taxpayers are the owners, city council is management and the Authority Board is the coaching staff. The shareholders think it's time for new leadership all around.

The situation begs another question: Would the Blackhawks organization pitch in on a bailout to keep the Metrocentre's doors open? Doubtful, but it makes one wonder what would happen if the Icehogs no longer had a facility to call home.

Back to likely 2013 mayoral candidate Dave Syverson.

Syverson's behind yet another bill that would bring a casino to Rockford. We've come to laugh at these over the years, but this is about the best chance a casino in Rockford has had yet.

All things considered in Springfield, I see more gaming licenses on the horizon. Republicans like this idea, because they can say they didn't raise your taxes to get at the extra loot.

A casino may cure what ails downtown, but if one happens, they're gonna wanna put it out by I-90. Under the circumstances, I guess I'd have to support the riverboat standard in Illinois to keep it downtown.

There will be a casino in Rockford, but it will undoubtedly be out by the tollway, because that's where all the private dollars are invested right now.

Mayor Morrissey oughta speak up on this issue now before his beloved downtown loses another golden opportunity.

With Doug Block in chambers, Democratic aldermen take shots at Morrissey

Another interesting pair I noticed at this week's city council meeting was Democratic mayoral candidate Doug Block and firefighter union president E.J. Dilonardo glowering together in the gallery.

Doug was the victor in the Democratic mayoral primary last week, at which time he removed himself from duties as a police union negotiator. But make no mistake - he's still representing the union's interests.

Despite the hundreds of members in the fire and police unions, Mayor Morrissey raised an interesting point when he noted many of the city's fire and police personnel live outside the city limits. He seemed to be saying: "If you don't like me, tough shit. You can't even vote me out."

While that may be true to an extent, in the end, citizens want to know they're protected. Public safety will be the No. 1 issue in the mayoral election. The unions will make sure of it, and they know how to get their own propaganda out, just like the Morrissey administration.

Late last year, Joe Bruscato's victory over Chuck Prorok in the state's attorney's race came as a bit of a surprise to some, but not me. I think the police union's endorsement of Bruscato made the difference in that contest.

When it was announced, Prorok responded by prattling on about how it wasn't appropriate for Bruscato to accept the endorsement, but he would have taken it in a second if the shoe was on the other foot. In the end, folks decided to shake the last Logli-remnants from the office.

Since the election, Prorok also applied for a judgeship, but was beaten out again.

Interestingly, prior to running for state's attorney, Bruscato worked labor negotiations on behalf of the city. I saw the endorsement coming the very day Joe announced his candidacy, because the police union's Aurelio Delarosa was pictured standing beside Bruscato in The Rock River Times.

If Block is elected, my guess is his first order of business would be to show Police Chief Chet Epperson the door. Beyond that, it's not clear yet what his vision is for the rest of Rockford.

Larry Morrissey's war chest dwarfs Block's campaign funds, but the type of campaign he'll run won't run on money - It'll run on fear.

Anyone who's followed city government in recent months has seen Dilonardo appeal directly to Mayor Morrissey to not reduce minimum staffing levels on fire trucks as a cost-saving measure. We've already begun to hear the grim, worst-case scenarios of falling skies resulting from the police and fire departments having to share in the sacrifices the rest of us are making in this economy.

That being said, Rod Lashock has had some interesting things to say at council meetings recently. Lashock is a city employee whose wife is running for alderman. He's been trying to convince aldermen to ask Mayor Morrissey what happened to the general fund balance accumulated in previous years - tens of millions of dollars that could come in handy right now. From what I can tell, aldermen haven't been listening.

Dilonardo also began to pick at that rainy-day-fund-scab in recent weeks, and I think they need to keep pushing the issue. Where is the money?

Mayor Morrissey had a particularly difficult night March 2. Now that a Democratic mayoral candidate has been decided, Democrats wasted no time before starting to throw stones at Morrissey.

Carl Wasco bitched about how city staff told him he didn't know what he was talking about, but I think they'd probably be right. In any case, Wasco's tirade about the incident was directed at the administration.

Ann Thompson-Kelly drilled the mayor a new one, too, because she feels he's not making much of an effort to seal a deal that would bring a huge development to the west side. Hours earlier, Block issued a press release arguing the same point, so it's clear Thompson-Kelly was just spinning things for the Democratic mayoral hopeful.

Linda McNeely? Of course, she levied some criticisms, too, but she doesn't limit that to election seasons, so I'll let her slide. It's truly been a treat to see everyone on the council roll their eyes when Linda takes the floor, because she's consistently a thorn in Morrissey's side.

By the way, did anyone snap a shot of Epperson and Delarosa shaking hands during the Distinguished Service Medal presentation? Priceless. That awkward exchange even had me cringing.

Mark Bonne was also seen at the meeting Monday night. He's been whoring his face anywhere TV cameras go, so that came as little surprise. More on his his story another time.