Many Ill. boards stymied by vacancies
CHICAGO – When Illinois lawmakers began talking early this year about possibly slashing services to the poor, the state’s Poverty Commission was silent. Officials hadn’t appointed enough members for the panel to function.
As the economic crisis claimed several Illinois banks, the state Banking Board – formed to advise state officials about industry concerns – was essentially defunct. It has two members and 15 vacancies and hasn’t met since 2003.
An Associated Press review of Illinois’ nearly 300 boards and commissions found that about two-thirds have vacancies, members serving on expired terms or no members at all.
The result can be delayed decisions, missed opportunities and ineffective advocacy for millions of Illinois residents, organizations and businesses.
“These board and commissions were created for a reason – because there is something they should be doing,” said David Morrison, deputy director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. “If not, then why have them?”
State officials and advocates place much of the blame on former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, saying he often ignored or delayed appointments.
“My predecessor after a while just decided not to appoint anybody,” Gov. Pat Quinn said.
But Quinn and other lawmakers also have yet to make or renew many appointments. Quinn says the chief reason is that he wants to be extra careful to vet new appointees in the wake of a scandal involving his predecessor.
Blagojevich, indicted on corruption charges in April, is accused of trading appointments to powerful boards in exchange for political contributions and stacking some – including the Teachers Retirement System and Health Facilities boards – to shake down businesses.
The Health Facilities Board, which regulates the construction of health care facilities, currently has two vacancies and two members with expired terms, according to a state appointments Web site that Quinn’s office set up in April.
The site allows the public to apply to boards, and has received more than 3,000 online applications, officials said.
Quinn said appointments also were delayed while the state addressed other pressing issues, including passing ethics laws and a jobs bill. But he said he plans “in the next 90 days to be quite aggressive at making appointments.”
The state’s Medical Disciplinary Board – which hears complaints against physicians and recommends action that could include revoking their licenses – should have 11 members appointed by the governor but only has six. That’s enough to make decisions, but cases that sometimes take months might be resolved more quickly if the board were fully staffed, said the panel’s chairman, Belleville physician Edward Rose.
“When there are more than six members, it’s easier to do the job,” Rose said. “We have six really good people ... but there are delays, obviously.”
Some boards allow anyone to serve, while others require special qualifications, such as being a lawyer. Compensation varies. For example, members of the powerful Illinois Commerce Commission, which regulates utilities and intrastate motor carriers, are paid more than $100,000 a year; members of most boards only receive reimbursement for expenses, such as travel and meals.
There have been attempts to streamline the number of boards and commissions. Former Gov. George Ryan in 2001 recommended eliminating 81 panels he said were defunct or no longer needed. In 2006, Blagojevich abolished 11, though lawmakers have since created several more.
Quinn said he also will consider whether some panels should be disbanded.
That could include the Downstate Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, formed in 2003 with the power to acquire land for new sports venues. Blagojevich never appointed anyone, and the board is still vacant.
Former state Sen. Richard Winkel, who sponsored the bill creating the authority, said the opportunity to enhance economic development “probably has come and gone.”
“I don’t know at this point if it is important,” said Winkel, director of the public leadership office at the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government & Public Affairs. “Probably in today’s economic environment, no.”
Other boards, however, might get new life.
Officials say Quinn has indicated interest in reconstituting the Banking Board.
Not having a functioning board over the past six years probably didn’t hurt the industry, said Thomas W. Hough, chairman of the Illinois Bankers Association. But “in these troubled times, I would think it would be the real time to have it fully staffed and functioning,” he said. “I think it would give the macro perspective on things.”
Brent Adams, acting secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, whose oversight includes banking and physicians, said Blagojevich sometimes delayed appointments so long that candidates lost interest, moved or changed jobs.
But that wasn’t the case with the Commission on the Elimination of Poverty, charged with formulating a plan to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015. It was created in August 2008, with 26 appointments to be made within 60 days.
Blagojevich quickly made his five appointments, but advocates say they cajoled other lawmakers for months before the panel finally had half its appointees – enough to hold a meeting – in March. By then, the state was locked in a budget fight, so the commission canceled its first meeting, scheduled for May, and isn’t expected to meet until the fall.
“You can’t solve poverty when the state is talking about cutting services. It wasn’t the best scenario,” said Doug Schenkelberg, associate director for policy and advocacy at the Chicago-based Social IMPACT Research Center.
But the delay “was a missed opportunity, I think,” said Schenkelberg, who is not on the board. “Without (the commission) up and running, their voice was not part of that.”
