Thanks in large part to the support of environmentalists, the Democrats now control the Illinois House, Senate, and governor’s office — for the first time in decades! But our job isn’t done yet — we still need to hold our elected officials accountable for their decisions that affect our environment.
Some of the first decisions Governor Rod Blagojevich has made that will impact Illinois’s environment are his choices for the heads of various state agencies. Judging from these appointments, the governor is taking a page from the Clinton/Gore book of Democrats: steer a middle course between environment and industry, trying not to step on too many toes on either side.
Here’s the lowdown on four of Blagojevich’s key environmental appointees, including their backgrounds, plans for their offices, and reputations among the environmental community.
An Encore Performance Reappointed to Illinois’ EPA
Renee Cipriano is a holdover from former Governor Ryan’s administration which appointed her head of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (iepa) in 2001. A former partner and environmental law specialist at the Chicago firm of Schiff Hardin & Waite, Cipriano had been associate director and chief counsel of the iepa from 1995 to 1997. Since 1999, she had served as Ryan’s senior advisor for environment and natural resources, helping launch the Open Land Trust as well as chairing the governor’s Environment and Natural Resources Leadership Cabinet, the Balanced Growth Cabinet, and co-chairing the Energy Cabinet.
In January, Blagojevich announced he wanted to retain Cipriano as iepa Director. She said she looked forward to helping Blagojevich implement the environmental initiatives he announced during his campaign, including the use of clean coal technology, expanding the use of renewable energy sources, and reducing mercury pollution and bus emissions. "I am also encouraged by Governor Blagojevich’s strong commitment to cleaning up our rivers, lakes, and streams and his proposal for additional resources for that effort," she noted.
Cipriano’s reappointment has generated some mixed responses among the environmental community. For instance, Jonathan Goldman, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, told me he was "very pleased" with her reappointment, since his group has a good working relationship with her and "she has also been pretty good on issues we have cared about." Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center (elpc), agrees, saying his group "had a good working relationship with Cipriano in her former job as Environment and Natural Resources advisor for Governor Ryan as well as in her position as director of iepa; we look forward to working with her again now."
The praise stops there. The Illinois Audubon Society’s Executive Director, Marilyn Campbell, is dissatisfied with the agency under Cipriano’s leadership. Campbell says she "hasn’t looked at the iepa as particularly strong" and that she thought "the agency overall could be doing a lot more to protect the environment in Illinois." The Illinois Dunesland Preservation Society has an even more negative view of Cipriano. In its February newsletter, the group called Cipriano’s reappointment "disappointing," noting that "her record as director has been questioned because of her lack of enforcement of key environmental issues and violations with regard to the protection of state lands and the health and safety of our citizens...several well-qualified candidates were in front of the governor for consideration, but it appears that politics has won out over the environment."
The Natural Resources Man:
"Avid Hunter & Fisherman"
In early March, the governor appointed 11-term State Rep. Joel Brunsvold (D-Milan) to be the new director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (idnr).
Brunsvold is a committed outdoors man; he co-founded the Illinois Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus in 1992 and is its current chair. One of his fellow hunters described Brunsvold as "probably one of the best shooters I have seen with a .28-gauge [shotgun]...he could shoot the head off a pheasant at 30 yards." Brunsvold is so proud of his favored outdoor activities that he listed "Avid Hunter and Fisherman" under the "Professional and Community Involvement" section of his House Web site.
On that Web site, Brunsvold did not list conservation or the environment as being among his "primary concerns." However, one of the main focuses of the Sportsmen’s Caucus that Brunsvold chairs has been additional funding for conservation. The Caucus provided crucial support for an environmental license plate and the Conservation 2000 initiative, which helped channel significant funds to habitat protection, restoration, and acquisition. The Caucus also sponsors an annual fundraising event that supplements the idnr’s budget.
In a joint interview with the Peoria Journal-Star and the State Journal-Register in Springfield, Brunsvold said, "I think we have two responsibilities: serve the people of Illinois and protect the resources of Illinois. Those two items have to be the key."
He has listed a few of his priorities. Despite heavy cuts to idnr’s budget, Brunsvold wants to keep all the state parks open — with no admission fees — although he doesn’t rule out raising fees for camper hookups and possibly for hunting and fishing licenses. He also expected Blagojevich to set some environmental priorities for dnr, though he hasn’t yet. But Brunsvold also has his own agenda where Blagojevich is concerned: "I’ve not known Rod to be a hunter or fisherman. We’d like to get him there."
As with Cipriano’s reappointment to head the iepa, environmental groups have mixed opinions of Brunsvold’s nomination. Howard Learner co-chaired an advisory panel on Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources for Blagojevich’s transition team with Brunsvold. Learner said that he "was pleased to work with Brunsvold on the transition team" and "had a good working relationship with him." Jonathan Goldman of the Illinois Environmental Council referred to Brunsvold as "a reasonably balanced choice" who has "a long history on natural resource and recreation issues."
But the Illinois Audubon Society’s Marilyn Campbell is not a happy camper: "I would have hoped the governor would have chosen someone with a stronger natural areas background." The Illinois Dunesland Preservation Society echoed that, stating in their March newsletter: "idnr deserves a more qualified director. Shouldn’t the director be an experienced administrator who has worked with endangered species, the state nature preserves, and critical habitats of our state lands?"
Nonetheless, Brunsvold — in the House since 1983, has been an assistant majority leader, chaired the House Agriculture and Conservation Committee, and served on the Energy and Environment Committee.
On the Road Again: Daley Ally Tapped for IDOT
Blagojevich picked Timothy W. Martin to direct the Illinois Department of Transportation (idot). From 1992 to 1997, Martin was chief highway engineer at the Chicago dot. Then he became chief operating officer for the Chicago Public Schools, supervising a $3.2 billion school construction program.
As for critiques, the short of it is the environmental groups I spoke with are reserving their opinions about Martin. Referring to both Martin and Jack Hartman (see below), Jan Metzger of the Center for Neighborhood Technology told me, "it’s too soon to make any judgments about these candidates.... We’re all kind of waiting to find out what this means for the state transportation agencies."
If it’s any clue, Martin told the Chicago Tribune that his priorities include "making sure idot is professional, responsible to the people, and operates as cost-effectively as absolutely possible." Colleagues in the Chicago Public Schools have described Martin as "a Daley loyalist, policy enforcer, and problem-solver." As the Chicago Sun-Times put it, Martin’s appointment to idot "gave the mayor unprecedented influence in the state agency Chicago needs most." Meaning, if funds can be found, the O’Hare expansion now stands a very good chance of going ahead.
High Hopes for the New "Toll" Man:
Will He Be a Reformer?
Jack Hartman was appointed executive director of the troubled Illinois State Toll Highway Authority in late January after putting in his time at the city-level. He had been deputy commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Aviation from 1992 to 1996. Since 1997, he had been the executive vice president for construction, engineering, and facilities at the Chicago Transit Authority.
Howard Learner told me that he "looks forward to working with Hartman in his efforts to reform the Toll Highway Authority, which is in desperate need of a good fix, and in focusing its priorities on fixing existing roadways rather than building unaffordable and environmentally destructive new ones." Terry Pastika, executive director of the Citizen Advocacy Center praised Hartman for requiring his managers to take a turn in a tollbooth and for supporting a bill that would create an inspector general to help root out corruption at the authority. She said, "From what little I know about him, he’s someone that the reform community can work with to really bring about some change at the Toll Highway Authority."
Soooo...
It’s clear from their records that Cipriano for iepa and Brunsvold for idnr are both compromise choices — not egregious industry allies, but not environmental preservationists either.
However, coming down in the middle, as you’ll recall, didn’t work to get Gore into the White House, and it hasn’t worked terribly well to protect the U.S. environment, either. When are we environmentalists going to stop thinking, "it could have been worse" and start saying, "enough is enough"? With Democrats in near-total control of Illinois state government, this is the time and the place to press our agenda. We’ll never have a better chance.
Dave Aftandilian regularly writes about the environment and music with a special interest in the interface between nature and culture.