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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=rbdoeker@yahoo.com href="mailto:rbdoeker@yahoo.com">Randi Doeker -
Chicago</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=fpfriends@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:fpfriends@yahoogroups.com">fpfriends@yahoogroups.com</A> ; <A
title=bcnnet@ece.iit.edu
href="mailto:bcnnet@ece.iit.edu">bcnnet@ece.iit.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, April 02, 2008 7:19
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [BCNnet] Tribune Editorial on
Split Proposal</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Kudos to Benjamin, et
al, for the Tribune editorial supporting the
split.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H1>
<H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Randi
Doeker<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H1>
<H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Chicago<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H1>
<H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H1>
<H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H1>
<H1
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.1in; MARGIN-LEFT: 0in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-bottom: .6gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in"><B><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">chicagotribune.com<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H1>
<H2
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.1in; MARGIN-LEFT: 0in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-bottom: .6gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in"><B><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=5><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 18pt">Preserving
treasured land<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H2>
<P
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.1in; MARGIN-LEFT: 0in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; mso-para-margin-right: 0in; mso-para-margin-bottom: .6gd; mso-para-margin-left: 0in"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">April 2,
2008<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.1in; mso-para-margin-bottom: .6gd"><FONT face=Arial
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">You've encountered the notion on this
page and elsewhere: Other cities have renowned architecture, diverse
economies, good universities, world-class cultural institutions and so on.
Most do not, though, have such long histories of so aggressively protecting
their most treasured public lands. <BR><BR>High on the list: the 68,000 acres
owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. That emerald necklace
wouldn't exist if generations of conservationists—some of them public
officials, many of them ordinary but devoted citizens—hadn't fought to protect
it from influential people who had their own plans for the land.<BR><BR>But
the Forest Preserve District, a distinct unit of government that turns 95 this
year, often has had to survive abuse and neglect from members of the <A
title="Cook County Board"
href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/politics/local-authority/cook-county-board-ORGOV000084.topic">Cook
County Board</A>. Those 17 commissioners by law oversee the district in
addition to their (often equally abusive and neglectful) oversight of county
government.<BR><BR>Two respected civic groups, the Civic Federation and the
Friends of the Forest Preserves, now propose the creation—at no additional
cost—of a separate board with the sole responsibility of running the Forest
Preserve District. Good idea.<BR><BR>This is more than a snoozy exercise in
promoting good government. The two groups' 20-page proposal chronicles a
chilling litany of threats to the forest preserves—threats that trace to the
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType>
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Board</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>'s conflicts of
interests. It's unwise to have the same board members responsible for
protecting the preserves from developers <EM><I><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">and</SPAN></FONT></I></EM> promoting economic
development in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Cook</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. Since its creation, the Forest
Preserve District has had an intentionally narrow mission: to acquire,
preserve and protect natural lands. <BR><BR>As former county Commissioner Carl
Hansen famously (in conservation circles) argued during an attempted land grab
of "just a little" district property in the 1990s: Preservation of our
diminishing open lands can't be justified on grounds of economic benefit or
most-visitors-per-square-foot. If the goal were to exploit the dollar
potential of spaces our ancestors set aside permanently, then the district
would have to sell every acre it owns.<BR><BR><st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Board members</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> have, though, at times
treated the district as both a land bank and a piggy bank. One example of
each: In 1999 they explicitly violated the district's sacrosanct land policy
to sell a 2.4-acre parcel to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Village</st1:PlaceType> of <A title=Rosemont
href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/us/illinois/cook-county/rosemont-PLGEO1001005011220000.topic">Rosemont</A>
for a convention center expansion. And in 2007, they concocted a dead-wrong
revision of history to justify a $13 million rip-off. The same <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Board members</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> who supposedly protect the
Forest Preserve District's interests essentially stole district money to
balance the county budget. <BR><BR>The current proposal for changing
governance—that is, for preserving the forest preserves—isn't the first.
Financial scandals so plagued the district in 2002 that folding it into county
government seemed to make sense.<BR><BR>That idea foundered with the
realization that then-County Board President John Stronger saw a merger as
part of an elaborate plan to evade tax caps. One traditional and cynical scam:
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Board
members</st1:PlaceName> and presidents like to boast of not having raised
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Cook</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> property taxes in
recent years. What they don't admit is that, instead, they've raised revenue
by hiking Forest Preserve District property taxes. Once again, think Forest
Preserve District-as-piggy-bank.<BR><BR>Creating a separate board to oversee
the district makes better sense: That would eliminate the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Board</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>'s conflicts of interests. The
Civic Committee and Friends of the Forest Preserves suggest five unpaid
commissioners elected countywide. We'd prefer choosing commissioners from five
separate districts. The proposal notes that this wouldn't involve hiring any
employees; the Forest Preserve District, as a distinct government, already has
its own office staff.<BR><BR>A separate board paying closer attention to the
preserves might have avoided the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Board</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>'s mismanagement and also expanded
the district's holdings. Creating that new board is a job for state
legislators; their predecessors created the district in 1913. <BR><BR>The
sooner they do so, the better for the forest preserves and the citizens who
should be able to enjoy them in
perpetuity.<o:p></o:p></st1:place></SPAN></FONT></P>
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style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.1in; mso-para-margin-bottom: .6gd"><FONT face=Arial
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>_______________________________________________<BR>bcnnet mailing
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