Thursday, August 20, 2009
Chicagoland / Politics / Clout City Mick Dumke vs. Bernard Stone
Posted by Whet Moser on Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 1:21 PM
It gets heated around the 11-minute mark.
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stone got dominated and embarrassed. should be mandatory viewing for all chicagoans -- THIS is your elected official.
THIS is who Daley dispatched to defend the ridiculous parking meter deal? Bernie Stone long ago outlived his shelf life, and needs to go away.
It's either a somewhat surprising display of hubris (even for the egomaniacal mayor), or a tacit admission that virtually everyone else considers this issue too politically toxic to support.
Laughable. It gets even more absurd toward the end of the segment: Stone's ultimate argument about why the lease was a good deal for the city is essentially that the aldermen (one of which is him) don't have the spine to vote on a rate increase, so they had to get a private company to do their bidding. Stone: "...you're assuming that people who are elected by the people, which are the alderman, are gonna easily raise the rates, because there has been so much pressure on them not to raise the rates, I don't think that individuals that are members of the council would have voted to raise the rates... so that's one of the reasons we never would have realized (the revenue that) the Inspector General said we would have realized." So let's blame democracy because, obviously, aldermen aren't elected to exercise any capacity for prudent fiscal management, but instead they are elected so that they can be elected again. Therefore, the city's solution is basically to contract with a bad guy to do their unpleasant work. Hmmm....that's not the sort of thing that would ever happen in CHICAGO, is it?
Stone is an embarrassment. Sad thing is, there are so many other aldermen just like him in their thinking. The people of this city really deserve better leaders. Stone's practically incoherent logic and the manner & tactics in which he defends the mayor's deal betray a level of incompetence that is, frankly, shameful. And it's about time the voters of Chicago start feeling ashamed for continuing to elect such hacks.
It would nice if Chicago Tonight hosted this same debate only featuring the parties in the Fix Wilson Yard lawsuit. The grounds are almost identical. It represents yet another citizen funded suit against the City for organizing a partnership between private and public interests without the participation of the local residents and merchants that aren't presently feeding at the TIF trough.
This video will have you wondering how many aldermen and other Daley administration lackeys the Chicago Tonight staff called looking for someone to agree to take the proponent side of the parking meter deal before they asked Stone.
Lots of good comments. I think Carol Marin, as good as she is, should allow the conversation to roll a bit. That is, she tends to interrupt to often. Also, why can't WTTW allow the conversation to go long and cut it for the broadcast, while giving a longer version for the web? WTTW isn't realizing the value of its web link.
Alderman Stone claims he has always done his job, yet admits that he couldn't do it, to raise taxes to meet the budget deficit. On that one, he and the council, dodged the bullet by using a private firm.
So, which is it, Alderman Stone, do you have the stones to tell you community that you had to raise their taxes or did you not do you job? I don't see how you can claim to have it both ways here.
Because this comment is incredibly important.
WTTW isn't realizing the value of its web link.
WTTW isn't realizing the value of its web link.
WTTW isn't realizing the value of its web link.
WTTW isn't realizing the value of its web link.
WTTW isn't realizing the value of its web link.
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