While we were joined by several constituents in the hangout, we apologize for not being able to broadcast it live to Youtube. In the future we will continue to hold events like this to keep in touch with constituents from Springfield, and will work on preventing a quirk like this from happening again.

We will have a video message in this weeks update to provide a legislative update from Springfield.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Matthew Muir
Chief of Staff

This was our first virtual event of many to come, which will allow Kelly to keep in touch with constituents from Springfield.

There are two ways to participate:

- To simply view the town hall meeting, you can access the stream during the event from my Youtube channel by clicking on the Virtual Town Hall stream.

- If you would like to comment and ask questions during the stream, you need to have a Google account. We will send out the direct link to the Google hangout 30 minutes prior to the event.

While questions will be taken from the comment section during the event, you can submit questions here beforehand.

Editorial: How to dump incompetent county judges

Editorials February 10, 2013 4:40PM

http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/18103024-474/editorial-how-to-dump-incompetent-county-judges.html

It’s too hard to get rid of incompetent judges in Cook County, so they stay put, administering their own brand of injustice day after day, year after year.

Two constitutional amendments are in the works in Springfield to fix that. Neither is perfect, but legislators should fine-tune them until they have the best possible answer for our broken system.

Under current rules, judges run for retention every six years. In Cook County, that means voters are presented with what some people call the “bedsheet ballot” — page after page of names they never heard of. Not surprisingly, even judges deemed incompetent by the bar associations get the 60 percent of votes they need to keep their jobs.

In November, the bar associations found that several judicial candidates didn’t belong on the bench, but all of them won retention anyway. Most notorious was Cynthia Brim, who beat the rap last week on battery charges by pleading insanity. Bar associations had found Brim, a judge since 1994, not qualified in every retention election since then, to no avail.

On Feb. 1, state Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) introduced a constitutional amendment that would create special commissions in each judicial circuit. The commissions would determine which judges were doing their jobs properly, and those judges wouldn’t have to run for retention. The handful of judges found unqualified still would take their cases to the voters, who with far fewer names to contend with might make wiser decisions.

A separate amendment proposed by state Sen. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago) would raise the percentage of yes votes needed for retention from 60 percent to two-thirds. Also, to be elected or retained, judges would need the support of at least five members of the seven-member Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois. This amendment is more likely to imperil good judges.

Kelly says she wants to get a conversation going on fixing this problem. The rest of the Legislature should join in and get the job done.

PensionPresentation

NRI’s Youth Employment Program connects businesses and organizations with the next generation of talented and diverse young workers. NRI will provide job skills training to 1,800 Chicago-area young people ages 16 to 24. These youth will be available to work part-time at partnering local businesses and organizations for nine weeks in summer 2013.

• All wages are subsidized by the NRI state grant program without cost to employers.
• NRI manages all payroll and bookkeeping functions related to youth employment.
• NRI manages recruitment and screening and provides workforce development training prior to employment to make youth valued employees.

This program provides employers the opportunity not only to gain a valuable employee without cost, but help mold the next generation of community and business leaders.

Grow your business while providing a young person with valuable work experience!

APPLY HERE

If you have any questions, or wish to further express your opinion on a piece of legislation, please do not hesitate to contact my district office at 773-784-2002 or at repcassidy@gmail.com.