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.

Threatened with a tantrum, council succombs to demand for raise in allowance

Trying to save face in front of an enraged citizenry, aldermen perpetrated the oldest confidence game in the book Monday night, with taxpayers as the mark (no pun intended).

Despite quick hands, the council gave the Metrocentre exactly what it requested.

Completely unreliable sources tell me Andres Sammul and Corey Pearson exchanged briefcases in an elevator after the meeting. The briefcase Pearson walked away with allegedly had $250,000 cash, while Sammul's case only had a crudely scribbled note on a strip club napkin that read, 'Thanks, Pops."

The council decided: "Aw, shucks. OK, we'll 'loan' you some more money for old times sake, but we can't keep doing this. I mean, what if my wife finds out?"

Well, the bitches (that is, we the taxpayers) did find out, but I'll bet a good number of folks around the horseshoe are glad to have kept it under wraps until after the elections.

There were whispers, just prior to the April 7 election, that the Metrocentre wouldn't last through June. Doug Block's camp was talking about it, but they never pushed it beyond the rumor stage.

Then again, it wasn't only Morrissey who'd stand to lose if Block brought it to the forefront. Plenty of Block's fellow Democrats share the blame with Larry, and that's my best guess as to why Block backed off.

So, what will we get to show for the latest $600,000 we'll never see again? Two new appointed committees adding more layers to the bureaucratic kangaroo court of city government. If all goes well, they may even get budgets of their own.

One committee will focus specifically on the Metrocentre, making sure the big orange problem child behaves while the city dangles the remaining $350,000 like a carrot on a stick.

The other committee will make sure the whip is cracked on the asses of the Coronado, On the Waterfront and others. Essentially, the city is pretending to be strict disciplinarians when it comes to taxpayer dollars, but their unwillingness once again to teach the Metrocentre Authority a hard lesson only proves they are pushovers.

Let 'em shut down for the rest of the year if they can't learn to run the place like a business. The only way to burn money that fast is on strippers and blow. The Metrocentre made lofty promises they did not deliver, and I've yet to hear any council member question the leadership over there.

I suspect that's because the MC board is led by the police chief's wife. Still, Pearson has always come across as a real punk and I suspect his salary far outweighs his actual contributions to the cause. I'll be curious to see what the new committee will have to say about the MC officers and command staff, if anything at all.

I finally got around to watching my tape from Thursday's county board meeting. When Karen Elyea announced it would be her last meeting, colleagues responded with a standing ovation.

After having conducted an unscientific, anonynous poll, Rockford Rhetoric learned most board members just seemed glad to see her go.

I'd wager Tuffy Quinonez is demanding the appointment as reparation after being scorned by Elyea in the Democratic primary for the 11th Ward city council seat, but my money's against him.

Jim Hughes has an especially heavy pimp-hand in the 11th Ward, and I suspect Tuffy is not on the Irishman's short list of flunkies to finish Elyea's term. I can't wait to see who he digs up.

Speaking of Hughes, a little bird told me an interesting story that this blog's Site Meter data appears to corroborate after I physically verified locations of several interesting publicly-funded IP addresses frequenting this site.

I'll save that for another day.