My Reform Recommendations for those who seek to lead Illinois

Real, meaningful reform requires bold moves. I recommend the following items as a start and believe they should be done NOW. No more protecting or covering for political friends and insiders, its time to do what needs to be done for the good of the people of Illinois even if that means firings and criminal prosecution. Heaven forbid, the political insiders might have to go find a real job!!

Isn't Governor Quinn sweet!! He adopted all the poor scared Blagojevich cronies.

1. Remove Blagojevich/Quinn cronies Now starting with agency directors, deputy directors and lackey support staff! (Begin at CMS) There is no reason to keep the Blagojevich appointed staff which helped carry out the former governors bidding. CMS has been the center of much action including the IBM Technical Services (TSP) Program, big contracts to companies like Accenture, Audit issues and arrogant attitudes so it is the best place to start the agencies fumigation! Give me a can of bug spray!

  • Unpaid Leaves - In cases where there is some question regarding retaining a Blagojevich appointed (Quinn Adopted) person, put individuals on unpaid administrative leave pending investigation.
  • Start with Central Management Services (CMS) - Ask any state worker about this state agency and you will certainly get a reaction, most likely BAD and possibly including some four letter words. CMS is overdue for some serious house cleaning!!
    How to Cleanup Central Management Services

2. Analyze and prioritize the most important data to be made available to the public. While making ALL data easily available is an almost impossible task there is key data which can be brought into the light quickly. For instance, analyze the FOIA requests for the past 6 years and target that data as a priority.

3. Provide all FOIA requests submitted to state government entities on a single public web site in PDF and other applicable formats. Pick a day and from that day forward add ALL requests as well as ALL results as they are fulfilled. Use the site to assist in fulfillment. I invite legislators who really care about reform and government transparency to work with me, Patrick Beaird to draft and sponsor a bill requiring that all FOIA requests and fulfillment under state government be made available in this manner. (The web site should include such functionality as E-mail notification, powerful search capability, customization and request status) Other details such as training and communications plans will ensure optimal efficiency. Note: This can be accomplished now by retasking existing resources and using state owned technology, OR current leadership and management can screw the entire effort up. Appropriate authority must be defined and maintained in order to get past the cronies, feet draggers and dead weight.

4. Review ALL contracts i.e. master contracts, consulting, leases, etc. to ensure that they are in the state's best interest.

5. Investigate and prosecute those who, in any way have defrauded, overcharged and/or misappropriated public funds and misled the people of Illinois.

6. Rethink and Revamp the Ethics Training game plan. It has been a bit of a hypocritical joke under the Blagojevich administration given they pushed for it and broke it at the same time. Its time to have leadership lead by example from the Governor down.

7. Consider Zero-Based Budgeting - Study and adopt as possible throughout state government to help better ensure frugal use of public funds. Definition: A method of budgeting in which all expenses must be justified for each new period. Zero-based budgeting starts from a "zero base" and every function within an organization is analyzed for its needs and costs. Budgets are then built around what is needed for the upcoming period, regardless of whether the budget is higher or lower than the previous one. (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/z/zbb.asp)

More to come!!!
Copyright 2010 Patrick Beaird