Can Illinois Government Ever Become Efficient?

Wednesday, June 2, 2010 | 0

By Eugene Keefe
Keefe, Campbell & Associates

Synopsis: On the eve of the Blagojevich trial, two different inquiries into inefficiencies among Cook County judiciary hit the headlines. What does it all mean for the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission?

Editor’s comment: First, unless the U.S. Supreme Court reverses Federal District Court Judge Zagel and grants a continuance of the criminal trial, the second-to-last chapter of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s career may begin this Thursday, June 3. When you heard him pleading his innocence to every goofy talk show host who would listen, we will always remind our readers he allegedly and unsuccessfully tried to use his office and position to extort monies from a children’s hospital. If he is convicted, we truly feel there should be a special punishment for any government official who sleazes low enough to attempt such a crime.

Whatever the outcome may be, we are confident justice will prevail. As part of the media coverage, we start this week’s KC&A Update with Blago Trivia:

What member of the “secret-powers-that-be” that run the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission was listed on Blagojevich’s Excel spreadsheet “clout list” as a sponsor for a Commission job?

Who got the Commission job that is listed on that spreadsheet?

What lawyer from one of Illinois biggest workers’ compensation defense firms was appointed as a commissioner by Blago and quit almost as fast as the ink dried on her appointment when the jobs-for-campaign-cash stories hit the media? For extra credit, what was the firm name?

Blago was treated with the same derision as all defense attorneys in Illinois workers’ compensation when he defended what government organization’s Illinois workers’ compensation claims?

Why are circuit court judges and sun-tan lotion in the news?

Returning to concerns of our current decade, we were asked by several readers to let you know if we become aware of “hidden waste” in Illinois government. We assure you there is no need to look under the covers for it—government waste in the worst-run state of the 50 states is all around you. You just need to know how to look for it. It has come to light that since April 2007, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office has conducted a secret (aaah, we love secrecy in Illinois government) study of courtroom efficiency in the Cook County judicial system. One has to wonder if their findings would ever have come to light without digging by the Better Government Association. To understand the math on Cook County courtrooms, we have 420 sitting circuit court judges. Their starting salary is a tidy $160,000 a year. If they were all paid the starting salary, the cost of salary alone is $67 million dollars. That does not include the added cost of full health insurance, a lucrative pension and other benefits.

What this study and hubbub has caused is a small number of judges are now going to be reassigned, pilloried and paraded in front of the public—they were caught leaving early and one judge was caught sun-bathing during working hours. When asked about what she was doing taking in rays rather than working at her courtroom in the afternoon, the judge replied to assert she's so efficient she quickly finishes her 2 p.m. court call and there isn't anything else for her to do at the courthouse. The obvious problem is she is clearly correct. We also point out she obviously isn’t given enough work to have a 3 p.m. court call!!! Do you think we might be able to get by with 320 busy and untanned circuit court judges who might then be forced to have another afternoon court call? Do you think we might be able to get by with 220???

The Illinois Supreme Court has entered the fray in what some feel is too-little and too-late to formally advise Chief Judge Timothy Evans of their deep and abiding concern about this situation. We challenge our highest court to go a step further and create case-handling and efficiency guidelines for circuit and appellate court judges/justices across the state.

Can the worst-run state of the United States ever run efficiently?

That said, we don’t feel it is possible for Illinois government to “reform” itself, as if a fairy pixie could wave a magic wand and do so. We also don’t feel reassigning; firing or disciplining four unfortunate judges is going to make the slightest bit of difference. We are confident Chief Judge Evans or someone in a position of authority at every judicial and appellate circuit/district across Illinois is going to quietly order all judges and appellate court justices to start doing crossword puzzles, Sudoku or browse the web but stay at their desks and away from sun block until the end of the working day.

So what? What we have in this state is way too much government at every level. State government has bills outstanding and unpaid since 2009. Illinois is figuratively bankrupt. For years, before, after and during Blago’s administration, the state has spent beyond its means and ignored its unpaid bills and obligations. Illinois state government is like credit card junkies on crack Illinois faces a spiraling budget deficit of $14-15 billion and total debt of around $140 billion.

Most of the debt, or about $130 billion, is related to public-sector retirement programs. The spring legislative sessions did not result in a real “budget” as the legislature basically made a few decisions, borrowed a couple of billion to pay needed pension payments and left the rest of it up to the governor. Trust us, what supposed-reformer Gov. Quinn, Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton are doing is waiting until the day after the elections to then start to actually make the only decision that is painfully apparent from their current actions. Our state income and other taxes and fees are going to have to be raised dramatically because the governor, legislative leaders and state unions simply won’t make or allow deep cuts that efficiency demands to bring rising costs into line before the election.

How does it affect the folks at the IWCC?

What does all this mean to the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission? We have advised our readers on numerous occasions there is obvious waste present. Claims are down, but Commission costs are skyrocketing. We currently have 27 attorneys who comprise the administrative appeal level at the Commission. If you look on their website, the home page lists nine commissioners—they are each provided not one but two lawyer assistants. If those 27 lawyers would issue one contested decision per lawyer each week, this group of administrators would be almost out of any real work and have to start doing crossword puzzles, Sudoku or browse the web all day to wait for new work to come in. To our knowledge there has never been an efficiency study on why we added three new commissioners and concomitant staff during 2005. We are sure there has never been a study to see if those additions were at all necessary or more functional. We assert anyone tracking efficiency could produce the same results at the same pace with fewer commissioners at a significant savings.

At the arbitration level, during the Blagojevich regime, Blago appointed a chairman who some observers felt was enthusiastic about spending Illinois business dollars. In our view, he did a personal arbitration efficiency study that we have always called “Taking-over-Arbitrator-Virginia-Long’s-call.” What happened was Arbitrator Long suddenly quit. The powers-that-be that secretly run the Commission fought for months over who would take her place and couldn’t decide. Cases backed up. Please note the position was and remains a civil service position and you would think they would simply have posted the job, given the civil service test and someone would have taken that status call. Well, if you believe that, we have some Golden Gate bridge stock that you are clearly entitled to if you will give us several hundred thousand dollars. The in-fighting went on for months and our former chairman got the secret nod to take that arbitration call. When he got there, he developed the impression all Illinois arbitration calls were wildly behind and nothing was being tried, settled or dismissed anywhere in the state. Very few Commission observers agreed but none of them got the job as chairman.

So, borrowing from Missouri’s workers' comp system, when he became chairman, he was able to quietly create a levy solely on Illinois business to more than double the budget of the Commission. As fast as the money came in, he almost tripled the number of arbitrators in this state and we have about 32 of them at present. In comparison, please note our sister state of Indiana has a mere five arbitrators. While we are certain our arbitrators show up and diligently work on a regular basis, things at the hearing level at the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission do not truly move any faster than when we had about a dozen arbitrators; everyone adjusts and cases move, for the most part, when claimants’ counsels and the arbitrators allow them to move. We also are certain some arbitrators in this state hear cases for two weeks each month and are supposed to write decisions the other half of their time—well, some arbitrator still don’t hear many claims and instead, do a solid job efficiently pushing claims to settlements that are acceptable to both sides. Doesn’t that also mean those arbitrators are in the same position as the “sun-tan judge” who efficiently closed her day’s docket to then go home to soak up some rays?

We are certain no one has ever actually studied how many arbitrators are needed or what the optimal number of Arbitrators might be. We have had some arbitrators complain they are not being given enough work and could get along with double or triple the number of claims. We have also had any number of arbitrators note the furloughs of last year did provide some savings but it also might mean we don’t need the same number of arbitrators who all get full benefits and pensions regardless of the furloughs. As we indicate above, we recommend an efficiency study be conducted.

Eugene Keefe is a partner with Keefe, Campbell & Associates, a Chicago workers' compensation defense firm. This column was reprinted with his permission from the firm's client newsletter.