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Competitive City Treasurer race features local State Rep, North Side Alderman
Gazette Chicago - March 30, 2019
By Rick Romano
The City Treasurer race has not been considered competitive for more than a decade, but now two candidates—Near West Side 10th District State Representative Melissa Conyears-Ervin and North Side 47th Ward Alderman Ameya Pawar—are vying for the post.
In the first electoral round on Feb. 26, Conyears-Ervin received 224,183 votes for 44.3%, Pawar received 210,356 for 41.6%, and Peter Gariepy received 71,479 for 14.1%. Because nobody received more than 50%, the top two vote recipients, Conyears-Ervin and Pawar, moved on to the next round.
In preparation for the April 2 election, the candidates outlined their respective backgrounds and what they expect to bring to the office.
Melissa Conyears-Ervin.
Melissa Conyears-Ervin
Melissa Conyears-Ervin was elected State Representative in 2016. She sponsored the improved Illinois education formula bill, directing $221 million in additional funding to the Chicago Public Schools. She also was the chief sponsor of bipartisan legislation that protected funding for child care assistance to help working parents.
Conyears-Erwin serves on several legislative committees: Appropriations for Elementary and Secondary Education, Business Incentives for Local Communities, Economic Opportunity, Health Care Availability and Access, Property and Casualty Insurance, and Transportation.
Prior to her State post, Conyears-Ervin served in multiple managerial jobs at Allstate Insurance. During her Allstate stint, she earned a master’s degree in business administration and finance at Roosevelt University to add to her previous bachelor’s of science degree in finance from Eastern Illinois University. Also at Allstate, she became executive-in-residence, working at Breakthrough Urban Ministries, a charitable organization in Garfield Park.
She said the experience opened her eyes to the plight of the homeless and others affected by poverty.
“I knew then that I had to have a more direct effect on what was going on around me,” she said.
Conyears-Ervin was born on Chicago’s South Side and raised in the city’s Austin neighborhood. She and her husband, 28th Ward Alderman Jason Ervin, and their young daughter live in Garfield Park.
Her Treasurer approach
“I bring a unique perspective because of my background in finance,” she said. “I’m looking to expand the office.”
That expansion hinges on four key points.
First, have the treasurer’s office responsible for the Council Office of Financial Analysis (COFA) to better provide the mayor, City Council, and public with critical information about the City’s finances and budget. This would be designed to improve analysis of bond issues, revenue projections and budget impact statements.
COFA analyzes and reviews the City’s annual proposed budget and makes recommendations on spending reforms. “Right now, it’s part of the mayor’s administration,” Conyears-Ervin said. “That’s like the fox watching the henhouse. We need to look at what’s under the hood.”
Second, the treasurer’s office would conduct a financial analysis – including audits – of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and sister agencies.
Third, have the treasurer’s office perform audits and financial reporting of Chicago’s pension funds.
“That’s because we want to know how those funds are being invested and ensure that we are getting the best possible return on those funds,” Conyears-Ervin said. “That has been an important issue for the City, so we need to get a handle on that.”
Fourth, the treasurer will create and utilize a web portal containing all past as well as future financial analysis, audits and related material of all city financial bodies.
Because she focuses on fund investment, Conyears-Ervin favors banks supporting the needs of residents throughout the city.
“There has been a lot of talk about a public bank in the city created through the State Legislature,” she said. “I am more interested in help for right now. On day one, I will begin talking to bank CEOs about meeting the needs of those who don’t have access to the banking industry.”
Conyears-Ervin said she wants to fight against certain populations’ perceived lack of access to capital and financing.
“We want to make sure that we are investing so money is working for us and that all communities are represented,” she said.
For more information, go to www.melissaforchicago.com.
Ameya Pawar.
Ameya Pawar
Ameya Pawar was elected Alderman of the North Side 47th Ward in 2011, making him the first Indian-American and Asian-American elected to Chicago’s City Council. He was re-elected in 2015.
As Alderman, Pawar said he has led 12 pieces of legislation on tax increment financing reform, guaranteeing earned sick time, combating wage theft, and protecting and preserving affordable housing “for Chicago’s most vulnerable.”
Pawar’s City Council committee memberships are Budget and Government Operations; Council Office of Financial Analysis Oversight; Economic, Capital, and Technology Development; Special Events, Cultural Affairs, and Recreation; Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards; Public Safety; and Rules and Ethics.
In his ward, Pawar launched Grow47, a comprehensive initiative to link local schools with their respective neighborhoods. The stand-alone nonprofit now works with schools across the North Side.
While in office in 2014, he authored a textbook on the connection between disaster and poverty and a socially constructed narrative around deserving underserved populations.
Pawar earned a bachelor’s degree in religion and philosophy from Missouri Valley College and a master’s degree in public administration from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also has two master’s degrees from the University of Chicago, one in threat and response management, the other in social service administration. He also is a U.S. State Department Critical Language Program alum and a fall 2018 McCormick Foundation executive fellow.
Pawar was born in Chicago. As a youngster, his family moved to unincorporated Des Plaines, IL.
He lives with his wife and their young daughter in the city’s Lincoln Square neighborhood.
His Treasurer approach
Pawar said he is running for City Treasurer to drive reform and social change after tackling those issues from a legislative perspective.
“The first thing I would do is divest from fossil fuels and begin working on where all of our fees go—what big fees we pay to big banks and how we invest our pension funds,” he said.
Noting “we need to go big and bold,” he said he would “democratize” investments, focusing on green initiatives while providing relief to students with loans and to those who want to create businesses that are good for neighborhoods.
“When we invest in green infrastructures and affordable housing, we get denser and more affordable housing options,” Pawar said. “Support for small business creation is important because small business creates the most amount of jobs. We need to get funds into the hands of entrepreneurs.
“We also will work for those who want to go to college,” he said. “We want to lower the cost of loans. Imagine the difference it would mean if we could lower rates from 7.5% to 5%.”
Pawar also notes the importance of getting the most out of investing pension funds, focusing on improving the quality of life for those who depend on that income.
One of his initiatives, Pawar said, is selling shares of a major Chicago asset: water.
“We want to take that asset and make it public so that everyone in Chicago can benefit from ownership” he said, noting he would base this policy on a model in which Alaska shares oil revenues with residents. He also noted Norway uses its oil revenues to convert to clean energy.
“These are the kinds of initiatives that we can follow,” Pawar said.
For more information, go to www.pawarforchicago.com.
This story appeared in the winter 2018 edition of the Tosa Connection, a local pub I contribute to on a regular basis.
I
Unforgettable
The story of an orphan, a saving grace, a parental search and an attempt to preserve dignity.
By Rick Romano
Forgetting is not an option for Jim Lombardo.
The 78-year-old Wauwatosa resident recalls his life in mostly vivid details, a skill honed through multiple interviews and his self-published autobiography. It is a life worth telling and considering because it is more than personal background; It is a window into unvarnished local history that begins to beg for answers to fresh questions.
An orphan’s life
It all started in a most unseemly matter with a young woman being gang raped on Milwaukee’s East Side. As Lombardo tells it, his birth mother, Mary O’Neil, was a Wisconsin transplant from Missouri, of Irish and Native American descent and the offenders were mostly of Italian descent.
With his mother deemed by local courts as unfit by mental deficiency and therefore institutionalized in Chippewa Falls far from Milwaukee, James Lawrence O’Neil spent most of his first three and a half years orphaned at the Milwaukee County Children’s Home on county grounds north of Watertown Plank Road. There, he recalled several key memories.
“I remember sitting in a field with one of the workers and watching children around me running and playing,” he said. “I remember playing on the floor in a stainless-steel room with windows all around me.”
Saved by love
He also remembers the day Carl and Lydia Lombardo, a childless couple from Milwaukee, peered through one of those windows. On Christmas Eve of 1943, Jim went home with the Lombardo’s, first fostered and then adopted.
Jim had entered into a whole new phase of his life. Because he could hardly walk or talk above a baby’s vocabulary, county workers labeled him mentally challenged. But Lydia nurtured him.
“I was helped by the nature of her love,” Lombardo said. “Once I started talking, I couldn’t stop. I was a chatterbox”
Despite the affection he felt from his loving parents, Lombardo lived with a chip on his shoulder.
“I had a rage in me,” Lombardo said. “I can’t fully explain it.”
That temper got him in more than a little trouble and in fact kept him from graduating high school. In his junior year at Boys Tech, Lombardo argued with a teacher who threw him out of the classroom where he fought with a hall monitor. The result: expulsion.
Undaunted, Lombardo years later earned his GED. But he already was developing a work ethic serving in the National Guard and working as a property appraiser. He eventually worked in facilities management for Milwaukee County.
Seeking his roots
While he was happy with his adoptive parents, he wondered about his orphanage background and birth name. He didn’t ask too many questions growing up, but after his adoptive mother died, he asked his father who helped him by sharing what he knew and showing him birth records. He eventually had enough facts to begin tracing living biological relatives through numerous phone calls and building a connection strong enough that he made connections and came close to actually meeting his real mom who had spent a number of years in a state facility for the mentally ill.
His life was on full track with work, marriage, adoption (see sidebar) and marriage again. Lombardo worked at various county public works and facilities and grounds positions and eventually wound up working at the county grounds close proximity to his orphan home.
In the mid-1990s, Lombardo was directed to take a team of workers to clear out old equipment in the former children’s home (since razed). There, he found cabinets full of files that also led hi to an index card with his name, birth date (July 29, 1940) and commitment date and number.
He argued with county officials about keeping the card but he now had more information that also led to him to parts of the city where he said he could very well have run into him real mother without ever knowing it. He even took out a newspaper ad asking anyone who knew his mother or other relatives’ names he had uncovered to contact him directly at his phone numbers.
All of his sleuthing, however, never led to a living Mary O’Neil. She died in 1997 in a local group home, right around the time her son was promoted to Milwaukee County facilities and grounds supervisor. Jim held that position until his retirement in 2004.
An aunt eventually helped Lombardo locate his mother’s burial site in a crypt at Pinelawn Cemetery on Milwaukee’s far West Side.
“I felt very bad about that,” he said, “but at least I was able to find where she was buried.” He ordered a flower urn that sits below the crypt. It reads “Mary C. O’Neil Mother of James L. O’Neil.”
Jim visits his mother’s resting place annually each spring or early summer.
Quest for dignity
Though he did not readily equate it directly with his own life, Lombardo said he has been drawn over the years to the resting places of thousands of others – many orphans from the same county institutions -- buried in various locations throughout the country grounds.
“I don’t know why, exactly, but it seemed like nothing was kept up – forgotten,” he said.
In particular, he saw from his vantage point as grounds supervisor the overgrown, neglected Potter’s Field where a sign explains that an estimated 4,000 of the 7,500 indigent children and adults are buried on county grounds from 1872 to 1974.
Figuring that cleaning up the field would not be met with support from his superiors, Lombardo deployed an off-the-books mission with a crew to clean up the field.
It wasn’t a popular mission, Lombardo said, but he smiles at the fact that Milwaukee County has seen fit to keep up the maintenance he first forged during his tenure.
The field’s chain link fence now has a locked gate, a fact that disturbs Lombardo, who said the flat stones that mark the burials – many of which are several deep – lie undetected from afar an inch or two below the surface.
“I don’t know why they locked it,” he said. “It’s just wrong.”
What’s next?
Lombardo is somewhat of s a grave-warrior pioneer. Others, including a local physician and scout, more recently have made it their mission to better recognize and dignify those who are buried in Asylum Cemetery north of Watertown Plank Road and others more anonymously buried in several areas under and near the Regional Medical Center.
This part of the story evolves; Tosa Connection will explore and present its findings in the Spring, 2019 issue.
Gazette Chicago article from early, 2019
Congressional elections include challenges to both incumbents in the 1st and 3rd Districts.
1st District
Incumbent Bobby Rush (D) has served the district since 1992 and ran unopposed in the spring primary, when he said he supported the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act (DACA and stringent gun controls.
Rush is a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce is the ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Power.
Regarding immigration, Rush presented the following statement through his office:
“I am a firm believer in immigration reform that addresses this very serious problem in a comprehensive, reasonable and humane fashion. I do not believe that is realistically feasible to deport the millions of undocumented workers currently residing in the United States. Therefore, I support immigration reform that no only includes strengthening our borders but also creating a pathway to citizenship, firmly and fairly enforcing the laws and restoring and ensuring due process.”
His office also offered his view on gun control:
“I am a firm believer in gun control. I think the biggest priority should be to close the gun show loophole and require background checks on all private sales of firearms. I also support a ban on assault rifles.”
His stance on President Trump: “I am mindful of Thomas Jefferson’s statement that ‘All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for good people of good conscience to remain silent.’ With that in mind, I have spoken out, and will continue to speak out, against the discriminatory and denigrative words and actions of the President and his administration.”
Rush also noted, “I plan to continue my focus on the issues that continue to plague my district. Specifically, violence, a lack of jobs and access to education. While these may seem like distinct issues, all three of these issues are interconnected. In fact, a lack of educational opportunities leads to a lack of jobs, which is a key factor in the rise of violence.”
He also said that while Republicans have controlled the House for most of his tenure, he has reached across the aisle to successfully advance legislative priories such as legislation to promote 21st Century energy and manufacturing workforce (H.R. 338).
He said that he intends to “continue on that path” of working with colleagues from both parties.
For more, go to www.rush.house.gov.
Jimmy Lee Tillman II (R), was unopposed in his spring primary. This is his fourth run for the seat. He last won the nomination in 2014. During his primary run, Tillman said he supports middle class tax cuts and an infrastructure program to create jobs and opportunities. He opposes any form of amnesty that would unfairly hurt the Black community that would hurt the Black community that “already has limited access to resources”
In a recent response to the immigration issue, Rush said “I believe that Congress should revisit the Immigration Act of 1990 and make some serious changes like not allowing illegal immigrants to enter the Lottery System and placing caps on the number of immigrants we allow in the county.”
The Immigration Act of 1990 was an amendment in U.S. Immigration law that increased the number of legal immigrants that entered the U.S. each year, introducing a lottery system that randomly assigned visas to immigrants. It was a change from not granting visas to those from certain countries. Lifted were restrictions based on homosexuality and being HIV-positive.
In gun control, Tillman said, “Being a Chicago resident with the nation’s strictest gun laws on the books and as many as 30 people shot each weekend, I believe more federal legislation is necessary. Not enough law-abiding citizens have the option to protect themselves. If they do not carry a firearm, they run the risk of being shot by law enforcement. It must be noted that most gun-related firearms are carried out using illegally owned firearms
“Citizens who legally own firearms use them for lawful purposes much more than they are used to commit crimes. Congress should focus on the complex societal problems at the root of gun violence instead of creating new laws that violate Americans’ constitutional rights.”
Beyond immigration and gun control, Tillman said the number one issue for him is the state of race relations because it hinders the kinds of issues that affect everyone including criminal justice reform, trade tariffs, infrastructure, affordable medicine, fresh water and a lead -free environment.
“Our district deserves to be represented by someone who can represent the diverse population that exists in the area,” Tillman said, noting that he intends to pay attention to both urban and rural needs.
Tillman noted that as an independent Republican, he supports some of President Trump’s approaches to the economy such as tax breaks and other measures that have shown growth while understanding the Republican Party is not always representative of Black causes.
For more information, go to www.facebook.com/Jimmy-Lee-TillmanII
Thomas Rudbeck, Independent, is a real estate developer who describes himself as a small businessman who has spent the last decade “working on incubating local businesses throughout our district.”
He said he has watched local homeowners and businesses “harassed by high taxes and aggressive city regulations.”
“I am a free-market liberal,” Rudbeck said. “I am running to bring back respect to our public discourse.”
Summarizing his full position on immigration, Rudbeck said, “Dreamers should be given a pathway to citizenship. They are already Americans in every way except for a piece of paper. We should overhaul our immigration system to allow for more skilled and unskilled workers to legally enter the United States. We should create a system to allow those undocumented immigrants who have been in the country more than 10 years and have not been convicted of any crime a pathway to residency.”
On gun control, Rudbeck said, “I favor a red flag law so friends and family of citizens can have the right to own a gun suspended by the courts due to mental instability or threat, ending the gun-show loophole where people can buy guns without a background check and ending bulk- gun sales. I do not support criminalizing gun owners as I have serious concerns on how these policies would be implemented.”
Rudbeck’s Web site, www.thomasforfirst.com, features an array of position statements. Among them:
He advocates for attention to climate change and the dangers of pollution, strengthening Medicare though cost containment measures, making marijuana legal toward ending the failed war on drugs, stop the practice of gerrymandering legislative districts, increase the minimum wage to $12, funding all public schools equitably through the legalization of marijuana and sports betting, ending government overregulation and corporate welfare and establishing a national gas tax increase of 2 per cent to support infrastructure.
Rudbeck said he could work on common issues with President Trump, tough he does not support him.
“It’s really about the tenor of the politics,” he said. “Social media drives a lot of that. We need to separate that and get together with no need to be hateful. I am a student of history and we have a history of this.”
3rd District
Incumbent Dan Lipinski (D) is vying for an eighth consecutive term. He is a member of the Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure and its subcommittees of Aviation, Highways & Transit and Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials. He also is a member of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology and its subcommittees of Energy, Space and Research & Technology, in which he is the ranking member.
Lipinski’s campaign office did not respond to repeated voice messages and attempts to reach the Congressman through a spokesperson also did not get a response.
From his website and from previous primary coverage, here are his positions on immigration, gun control and his relationship the President:
On immigration, he said, “Most immigrants come to the United States to work hard and make a better life for themselves and their families. It is in our national interest for Congress to act on comprehensive immigration reform. I will continue to push for legislation that allows immigrants to contribute to and become a part of our nation, while also stopping illegal immigration, defending our borders, and protecting American workers.
“We should start by passing the BRIDGE Act – which I have co-sponsored and built bipartisan support for – to protect from deportation those brought to our nation as children and who have qualified for DACA status. While we must always protect our nation from those who would do us harm, I have opposed President Trump’s ill-conceived travel ban which has been harmful to innocent individuals, including refugees fleeing persecution.
On gun control, he said, “One step we need to take is to do more to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and those suffering mental health challenges. He suggested the possibility that the National Rifle Assn’s influence could be curtailed by diminishing the role money plays in politics and by strengthening community-based action.
On the President, Lipinski said he has voted against the President’s budget plan as well as his effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), his tax cut for the wealthy “and many others.” Lipinski also characterized the President as “uninterested or incapable of proposing solutions to issues most important to Americans.”
He also supports raising the Federal minimum hourly wage to $15.
For more, go to www.lipinskiforcongress.com.
Arthur Jones (R) is a retired independent insurance broker who has won the GOP primary for the first time in seven attempts. If he doesn’t win election, Jones said he is not sure if he will run again.
A Holocaust denier who has been labeled a neo Nazi and linked with white supremacist, anti-Semitic groups, Jones said he has not been affiliated with any such organization or movement since 1980. His website quotes historical figures espousing white supremacy and features an elephant wearing a Confederate flag.
On immigration, he said, “I follow President Trump’s policy. I believe we should build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants from non-European countries. We have found prayer rugs at the border and an underground army pouring across the border, so I am very concerned that we are being invaded by an entire Third World.
“There was a survey done by Gallup that showed that we could have an illegal population here of half the size of China, for God’s sake. Most of these people don’t have marketable skills. We are already at a crisis stage. It’s horrendous and the Democrats are insane to want open borders.”
On gun control, he said, “I don’t belong to the NRA because, first of all, I had enough of all that in Vietnam. I am not a hunter-type of individual I am a fisherman. I am for bans on military style guns.
“I do realize we have a criminal element in this country. I am 100 percent behind the second amendment, but I do make exceptions. If you are a gang banger, a gang member, have a mental illness or you live in Section homes or public housing, then you give that up.
Jones is split on his support of President Trump.
“I support his domestic policy but I am disappointed in his foreign policy,” said Jones, noting the President’s relationship with Israel and moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
“If we got into war with Iran,” Jones said, “it will be a bigger bloodbath than Vietnam.”
On other issues, Jones said he is against raising the minimum hourly wage to $15 but wants to give a no-tax break to minimum wage workers, those who are in tip-heavy jobs and to full-time workers logging overtime hours at the request of their boss.
For more, go to www.artjonesforcongress.com.
Justin Hanson, write-in candidate, is an attorney in the commercial law field and a former policy advisor to Sen. Republican Roy Blunt of Missouri.
Hanson favors “a complete assessment and realignment” of current immigration laws.
“Too many of our federal immigration laws are inconsistent,” he said. “For example, we provide federal funding for sanctuary cities, yet also enforce zero tolerance policy at the border that separates small children from their parents, Further, the inconsistency with s which we apply our immigration policies are unfair to people who try to come to our country through the legal channels and complying with our laws.”
Hanson noted that elected official need to work on making laws and borders that respect the nation while giving equal respect to those who want to the United States.
On gun control, Hanson said it will take more than a single act of Congress to curb violence.
“I believe that responsible Americans have a protected right to bear arms under the Second Amendment and should be able to hunt and own a firearm for home defense, should they feel it is necessary. But there needs to be a balance.”
He favors strengthening background checks to prevent violators of domestic violence and misdemeanors from owning guns and requiring gun-seller licenses to lose gun show and private sale loopholes.
“Every gun starts as a legal gun,” Hanson said. “We need to know when guns are sold and who they are being sold to an keep them from the illegal market where they are a threat to our police officers and our children.”
As for President Trump, Hanson said he disapproves “how he carries out the duties of his office” but added that he can balance support for some policies, opposing others and criticizing when necessary.
For more, go to www.justinhansonforcongress.com.
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