First Mike Frerichs - Candidate for Illinois State Treasurer - 'ducks' a debate by not showing up.
Now, he has his cronies in the Illinois State Senate (where he serves) putting 'a brick' on the release of any information about his time there. Yeah...that's right: his team in the State Senate is unwilling to release information about how Mike Frerichs was involved with Governor Pat Quinn's notorious Neighborhood Recovery Initiative and hiring practices.
So...what's Mike Frerichs hiding? What's he afraid of? Why shouldn't taxpayers know what his involvement was with this mess of a program? Why shouldn't we know who he hired?
From the State Journal-Register:
The Senate president's office, asked by a consultant to the Cross campaign for information about Frerichs' seven years in the Senate, so far has asked that the request be narrowed, but has not released the information.
Much, but not all, of the information sought is similar.
In a follow-up request from the Cross consultant, KEVIN WRIGHT, he asked the Senate for any electronic or paper correspondence from Frerichs related to a couple of controversies. One is the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative pushed by Gov. PAT QUINN and now under investigation by authorities including the Legislative Audit Commission; the other is “hiring practices and/or recommendations” involving the Illinois Department of Transportation.
The NRI, an anti-violence program in which more than $50 million was pledged toward fighting violence in Chicago, was announced shortly before the 2010 gubernatorial election. It has been the subject of a highly critical state audit citing lax spending controls. And some IDOT hiring over recent years has been criticized as improper patronage.
In a June 6 letter to Wright, of Old Dominion Research Group, Alexandria, Virginia, ERIC MADIAR, the freedom of information officer for the Senate and chief legal counsel to Senate President JOHN CULLERTON, D-Chicago, called the request for information “unduly burdensome,” as it would involve years of emails and other records.
