Calumet City taxpayers are on the hook for mounting legal costs related to a political feud between the mayor and an alderman.
Thaddeus Jones, longtime third ward alderman who also serves as a Democratic state representative, told me Friday he thinks taxpayer costs related to the litigation are a million dollars or more.
“The mayor and city attorney have spent a million dollars of taxpayer money to kick me off the ballot,” Jones said.
I also spoke Friday with Calumet City Mayor Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush, who cited City Attorney Burt Odelson’s estimate the dispute has cost taxpayers about $100,000 so far in legal expenses, not a million dollars.
“Maybe Alderman Jones is having a bad week,” and is confused or mistaken about the extent of legal costs, the mayor told me.
She’s correct that in the past week Jones has been roundly criticized for proposing legislation to bring back legislator-sponsored scholarships.
Newspaper editorials across Illinois have condemned the idea of reinstating the legislative scholarship program. The program was abolished in 2012 because of rampant abuse.
“What a joke,” the Effingham Daily News editorialized. “Legislative scholarships were a scam before and they would be again.”
Under the old program, state House and Senate members could each grant a couple tuition waivers every year to allow recipients to attend state universities for free. An investigation found that many legislators were awarding the perks to campaign donors, relatives and other politically connected friends.
But Jones said his legislation includes protections to prevent abuse if the program is reinstated.
“This was a great program that produced doctors, lawyers and engineers,” Jones said of the legislative scholarships. “The measures I propose are so strong, they will make this a better program.”
Jones has faced criticism before, most often for simultaneously serving as both a state legislator and an elected municipal official in Calumet City. This type of double dipping is legal, but critics raise ethical concerns.
In 2013, the Better Government Association criticized Jones for traveling to Florida multiple times to attend an annual film festival at taxpayer expense. The BGA found Jones at the time was paid $64,717 a year by the state and his total compensation was more than $56,000 for serving as alderman.
Jones has also faced repeated criticism for spending thousands of dollars in campaign funds over the years at a Hooters restaurant in Lansing. Last month, a Chicago election law attorney filed a formal complaint with the Illinois State Board of Elections, claiming Jones misused campaign funds.
“The spending as reported is severe and outrageous,” attorney Ross Secler told CBS2 Chicago in January. “This isn’t just bad reporting or bad bookkeeping.”
Jones told me the state dismissed the complaint on Wednesday.
“The State Board of Elections found me not guilty,” he said. “I was cleared of all that. There was no evidence.”
The state board could not be reached for comment Friday.
Jones is serving his fourth term as state legislator. Since 2011 he’s represented the 29th District, which is shaped like a backward “L.” The district stretches from near 119th Street in Dolton and runs south through parts of South Holland, Homewood, Chicago Heights and Steger before jogging west toward Crete and Monee.
He also runs a charity —the Jones Foundation — which has raised moneyto benefit local teens through scholarships and also provides counseling services, according to the organization’s website.
His biography on the foundation’s website says Jones formerly served as president of Thornton Township Young Democrats, as a student trustee of South Suburban College and as a board member of the Calumet City Library Board.
He’s been third ward alderman in Calumet City since 1997. The feud with Qualkinbush began heating up last summer. The legal dispute has centered on term limits and the number of referendum questions appearing on ballots.
In June, Steven Grant and Calumet City Concerned Citizens sought to add a question to the November ballot asking whether mayors should be limited to three terms. If approved, the incumbent Qualkinbush would have been ineligible to run for re-election this spring.
The Calumet City council, however, moved to place three other referendum questions on the November ballot. Back in August, the council also voted to place three referendum questions on the Feb. 28 primary ballot.
In September, Jones sued the mayor and five other aldermen, saying the questions clogging the ballots were a politically motivated attempt to prevent him from challenging Qualkinbush for mayor. A federal district court rejected his case.
Jones appealed, and in December, a panel of Seventh Circuit judges upheld dismissal of his claims.
“The city’s new ballot initiatives appeared to target specifically Thaddeus Jones, an alderman who had announced he was running for mayor,” the court said in its ruling. Nonetheless, it upheld the “Rule of Three” law that no more than three referendum questions may appear at one time on a municipal ballot.
Meanwhile, in November, Calumet City voters approved a referendum saying anyone who has served as mayor or alderman for four consecutive terms is ineligible to run for or serve as mayor.
Qualkinbush, a Democrat, began serving as mayor in 2003 and has won three elections to full terms. If she wins a fourth, full, consecutive term in April she’ll be ineligible to serve past 2021. She’s facing a ballot challenge from Larry Young of the Public Safety Party.
Grant, the petitioner who sought to place on ballots the term-limit referendum that led to a lawsuit, also is running a write-in campaign for mayor.
In January, Jones filed nominating petitions to run for mayor. He was challenged, and a Cook County electoral board ruled that because of the term-limit referendum voters approved in November he was ineligible to run for mayor. He was barred from both the February primary and April consolidated election ballots.
Because of his plans to run for mayor, Jones didn’t circulate petitions to run again for alderman. He is, however, running a write-in campaign for third ward alderman for the April 4 election.
Also in January, Jones again sued the city regarding documents he sought through the Freedom of Information Act related to the term-limit referendum dispute. He sought copies of legal bills, email correspondence and phone records between Qualkinbush and Odelson.
Odelson could not be reached for comment Friday.
“This fight is not over. This is like round two of a 10-round fight,” Jones told me. “I want to protect the taxpayers of Calumet City” from efforts to deny him the opportunity to run for mayor.
I asked Qualkinbush about Jones’ depiction that he’s fighting for taxpayers. She said Jones is the one responsible for the legal costs to taxpayers.
“He filed the action in court. He initiated all the litigation. This is all his doing and to suggest otherwise is irresponsible,” she said.
She also responded to Jones’ contention that voters are being denied the chance to elect him mayor. She said people indicated their wishes when they decided the term-limit referendum in November.
“That was the will of the voters,” she said. “The voters voted, and the state has ruled in our favor.”
Another referendum question Calumet City voters decided in November said no elected official shall be able to receive two pensions by participating in both the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund and the Illinois General Assembly Retirement System.
On Tuesday, they’ll decide three additional questions. One asks, “Shall any Calumet City elected official be permitted to hold more than one paid public office?”
I think Jones has a point that several referendum questions seem to target him specifically and his dual roles as alderman and state representative.
Voters in Calumet City’s third ward have a choice in April. They can write in Jones and re-elect him to a seat he’s held for 20 years, or they can decide he should give up one of the two elected offices he holds.
Twitter @tedslowik