Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) speaks to a group of invited guests at ribbon cutting for the new Target store at Wilson Yard. Photo/Lake Effect News

After 12 years of planning, stutter steps, community blowback and an attempt by residents to seek a temporary injunction to halt the construction of the TIF-financed Wilson Yard development, a beaming Helen Shiller threw open the doors to what may be the lasting legacy of her nearly 25-year reign as the 46^th Ward alderman.

Shiller was joined by Mayor Richard M. Daley, State Rep. Greg Harris (13^th District), Wilson Yard developer Peter Holsten and a host of other luminaries in cutting the ceremonial ribbon for the soft opening of the new Target store on Tuesday morning.

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On Thursday, Buena Park resident and attorney Molly Phelan announced her campaign to run against Ald. Helen Schiller (46th), Phelan is the fifth challenger to enter the race for alderman.

Phelan is hosting a free event for 46th ward residents on July 14 – Bastille Day – starting at 7:30 p.m. at Nick’s Uptown, 4015 N. Sheridan Road. A cash bar is included and all residents are invited to attend.

Molly Phelan Photo/Lake Effect News

“It will be the start of another successful revolution, one which will bring Liberty, Equality and Community to the people of the 46^th Ward,” Phelan noted of the date in her press release.

An Uptown resident since 2005, Phelan was drafted by residents to help them in challenging the opening of a day labor office in Uptown at a meeting before the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals in 2008. The labor company withdrew its plans to open an office in the community after residents took legal action against the ZBA which had approved the plans.

“What I kept seeing in the 46^th Ward was outraged citizens who had protested but no legal action had ever been taken,” Phelan said by phone on Thursday. “As an attorney, we hold our legal responsibilities and advocacy for the law very dear. My frustration was the lack of response that the alderman had given to the wishes of the community. I felt like somebody need to stand up and fight for them.”

Phelan also became a community spokeswoman for the need for TIF reform. As the head of the Fix Wilson Yard group, she engineered a lawsuit filed by residents gainst the city and developer of Wilson Yard, claiming that both parties had violated the state’s TIF laws when creating the Wilson Yard TIF District. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed by a judge on grounds that residents had waited too long to file it after the five-year statute of limitations ran out.  Litigation has since been put on hold with the option of renewing legal action before December 2010.

Phelan’s name has been long rumored to be considering a run for 46^th Ward alderman in 2011, her announcement came as no surprise to those who follow ward politics; including Ald. Helen Shiller, who in 2008 claimed that the Fix Wilson Yard lawsuit was “politically motivated” and Phelan’s campaign kick-off for alderman.

“Regardless of when I decided to run for alderman, Fix Wilson Yard was an issue that I was invited to participate in by other members of the community who saw me as a leader,” Phelan said.

Small business development and deference to police officers in solving ongoing criminal issues top her list of ward priorities.

“I believe that extreme attention needs to be paid to the lack of funding that’s being provided to our public schools right now,” she said.

Phelan serves on the boards of the Uptown Chicago Commission and Buena Park Neighbors. In addition to her pro-bono legal work for Stop Labor Ready and Fix Wilson Yard, she is a CAPS beat facilitator and has been involved with Uptown Business Partners and Girls On The Run.

“I have taken every opportunity I can to make the 46^th Ward a strong, safe and prosperous community,” Phelan said in a press statement. “The people in this Ward have been neglected for over 20 years. Our schools are failing, our businesses are suffering, [and] our streets are not safe. The 46^th Ward needs swift and inspired leadership to bring prosperity and safety to this community. Everyone deserves better.”

So far, Phelan is the only woman in a field of male challengers, including the 2007 challenger, social worker James Cappleman; Chicago police officer Michael Carroll; social worker and former Alan Keyes political consultant Gerald Farinas; and 46^th Ward Streets and Sanitation Superintendent Don Nowotny.

Shiller is said to be making an announcement of her re-election plans in early August.

Phelan plans to run a grassroots campaign. For now, her campaign is staffed by volunteers but she plans to hire a professional campaign manager soon. She also said she will soon be posting her campaign platform on her website, www.phelan46.com.

“I think the people involved in this community already know some of the candidates pretty well.” Phelan said, “but there is a large portion of the community that’s not involved and I will make sure that I hear their concerns and help them as well.”

More than 60 demonstrators from around Chicago gathered at Western Avenue and Addison Street in Lakeview on Sunday afternoon to protest the use of red light cameras at Chicago intersections. The demonstrators claim that the red light cameras are designed to entrap drivers and generate revenue for city coffers, not prevent collisions or enhance public safety.

Passing out fliers and waving signs, demonstrators were greeted by a cacophony of blaring car horns from passing motorists expressing their support for banning the red lights cameras in Chicago and in Illinois.

Red light camera protests were staged in 16 cities across the United States this weekend including Chicago, spearheaded by the Liberty Restoration Project, which spread the word about the nationwide demonstration on Facebook.  The Chicago event was attended by four Republican candidates running for state legislative and Cook County offices, including Scott Tucker, the Republican state rep candidate for the 11^th District, who organized the local red light camera protest.

In 2008, the City of Chicago’s red light cameras generated $44 million in fines, mainly by drivers who were unable to come to a complete stop at intersections when traffic signals changed from yellow to red, opponents claim.

“It’s just like leasing the Skyway and the parking meters, and trying to lease the water system,” Tucker said of the city’s alleged ulterior motives for installing red light cameras. “We’re going to put up the red light cameras and shorten the yellow light, and screw you out of a hundred dollars take-home pay.”

Carl Segvich, the elected 11th Ward Republican Committee and the GOP nominee for the Cook County Board’s 11th District seat, stood curbside on Western Avenue holding a sin that read “Stop the Daley Political Mafia.” His business card similarly stated, “Stop the Axelrod, Daley, Obama Communistic Mafia.”

“I don’t like them stealing my money and I don’t like them stealing yours even thought I don’t know you,” Segvich said. “As much as I hate the Daleys, the Clintons and the liberals, it’s really not their fault. It’s really frankly your fault and my fault and the people’s fault because time and time again we keep putting these political mobsters into office.”

The city of Chicago, said to have the highest number of red light cameras in the United States, installed its first ticketing cameras in 2006. The cameras are triggered by cars edging over sensors embedded in the asphalt when traffic signals change from yellow to red, or when vehicles fail to come to a complete stop when making right hand turns on red lights. The cameras do not photographic vehicles already stopped in the middle of intersections waiting to complete left hand turns after the traffic signals change from green to red, nor those that come to a complete stop before making a legal right hand turn on a red light.

Barnet Nagel, a researcher and traffic safety advocate for the National Motorists Association founded in 1982 to represent the interests of North American motorists, claims that the red light cameras create more rear end collisions at signaled intersections than prevent them.

“The cameras are no known safety benefit,” Nagel said. “Show me any statistical evidence that cameras have saved anybody’s life or made things better.”

According to Nagel, the leading causes of collisions at signaled intersections aren’t caused by drivers blatantly blowing red lights from a half block away, but by drug dealers fleeing cops and drunk drivers, first responders such as police, fire and paramedic, and distracted drivers chatting or texting on their cell phones.

He further charges that the City of Chicago has deliberately shortened yellow lights a half-second below the Federal Highway Administration’s mandated minimum of three seconds, according to FHWA guidelines, giving drivers less time to get through intersections.

Nagel said he has video-taped 13 intersections with red light cameras, mainly on Chicago’s North Side, for a NMA video documenting how the city’s yellow-light intervals fall under federally mandated guidelines spelled out in the FWHA’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. The maximum yellow-light interval mandated by the FWHA is six seconds.

He supports better traffic engineering at intersections based on speed limits and traffic flow, not red light cameras which he describes as “ATM machines.”

“If you do that according to accepted engineering practices, the intersection will become safer,” Nagel said. “Just because there is a three-second minimum doesn’t mean that intersections wouldn’t require more time for yellow lights … Some have three-street intersections, yet there are only three seconds for yellow lights. That’s not right. It’s a violation of the law of physics.”

A Lakeview woman, who would only give her first name, Susan, because she didn’t want any trouble from her alderman, said that she and her husband did not incur any moving traffic violations in over 20 years, that is, until red light cameras were installed at Addison and Western, and elsewhere through the neighborhood. Unlike other demonstrators who were drawn to the event via Facebook, Susan and her husband heard about the demonstration on the radio.

“We’re both very careful drivers … I find you can start when you have a green light and if the light turns to yellow you might be able to clear the intersection,” Susan said. “We’ve gotten two tickets there and it’s like you don’t have any chance. They (the city) will tell you that the camera says you have the ticket. If you try to fight it, they charge you more. It’s criminal. What can’t they do something about potholes and the school system?”

Republican candidates attending Sunday’s red light camera demonstration also claim that the more cameras are being placed in black neighborhoods on the city’s South and West Sides. Jackie Rivers, a Beverly-area resident said that the red light cameras are placed at two and three block intervals along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Stony Island Avenue.

“I’ve been fortunate and blessed, [the red light cameras] haven’t gotten me yet,” Rivers said. I take precautions when I’m driving. Sometimes I’m able to make an abrupt stop, other times I’m just going through.”

Chicago-area communites also appear to be conflicted on the safety benefits of red light cameras. Schaumburg recently removed all of its red light cameras, but not before racking up more than $1 million in 96 days at a signaled exit near the Woodfield Shopping Mall. A mjority of those violations were by drivers failing to come to a complete stop when making right hand turns on red lights.

On Feb. 22, Bufflao Grove’s Village Council is poised to vote on whether to install red light cameras in the village.

Three bills proposing stricter regulations on the red light cameras are also pending in the Illinois State Senate. The most ambitious of the three, SB2466, sponsored by Sen. Dan Duffy of Barrington’s 26th Senate District, propose an all-out elimination of the red light cameras statewide.

State senators in support of SB 2466, as well as the Republican legislative candidates attending Sunday’s protest, want Sen. John Cullerton to move the bill out of the state senate’s transporation committee to the floor for a vote this week.

“That’s all we’re asking,” said Adam Robinson, the GOP nominee for the Illinois 7th Senate District, “to have this thing come to a vote.”

It’s not often that elected county officials visit the West Ridge and Rogers Park backwater, but visit they did, arriving with an entourage of TV news cameras and a prominent TV newscaster to a Democratic candidates’ forum for the Cook County Board President’s seat.

Sunday’s forum was organized by a new neighborhood group called the Rogers Park Organization, whose mission is to support and elect candidates who will represent the interests of Rogers Park and West Ridge residents. One of the organization’s goals is to organize candidates forums so that voters can ask questions and get candidates’ opinions on issues directly affecting them.

More than 100 residents filled the pews at Temple Menorah, 7360 N. California Ave., on Sunday afternoon to watch incumbent Todd Stroger defend his beleaguered term as Cook County Board President against challengers Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4^th) and Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown.

West Ridge resident and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terry O’Brien, who is also challenging Stroger, arrived 45 minutes into the forum, apologizing profusely to his neighbors saying he had been held up at another campaign event.

Chicago Sun-Times political columnist, WTTW “Chicago Tonight” co-host and Channel 5 political editor Carol Marin moderated the forum, feeding audience questions to the candidates on topics ranging from property taxes, the county health care system, stabilizing the county budget, and patronage.

“People here in Rogers Park feel they don’t see too many Cook County elected officials in this part of their world,” Marin said. “What exactly does the county government do for them and how does it impact their lives in ways they may not see?”

Stroger, Preckwinkle and Brown each spoke of how county residents pay sales and property taxes, and use other services, including the county health care and criminal justice systems, and small business administration.

“Then there are many services like the Botanic Garden and Brookfield Zoo,” Brown said. “Even though they’re not here, you can go to them. The forest preserves are available as well. There are a lot of things that Cook County government can do for you and of course, you have to pay the various taxes in order to make those happen.”

Preckwinkle said the county government has two main missions, health care and the fair and equitable operation of the criminal justice system.

“About one-third of our felony resources and one-third of our budget goes to the health care system,” Preckwinkle said. “Our public health system is the safety net that provides for people who are uninsured or underinsured. The other big portion of the county’s budget and its focus is criminal justice. Likewise, it’s in all of our interest that the criminal justice system operates well and fairly to all who come in contact with it.”

Stroger spoke of the Cook County Sheriff’s Department’s interaction with Chicago police and other municipal police departments on drug, gang and bomb squad missions. He also mentioned the county’s vital records and highways departments, and help for small businesses.

“What people don’t think about is the highways,” Stroger said. “The county goes out and repairs the road and gives it back to the city and the city will take care of its maintenance … We’re planning a $200 million bond program where you’re giving money back to small businesses.”

Other audience questions were ripped right out of recent news headlines. Marin tossed a question to Stroger, asking how many of his relatives were on the county payroll and what jobs and salaries were they receiving.

“I believe my sister works for the chief judge. I never asked her what she makes and she doesn’t offer it up so I can’t really tell you,” Stroger said. “My brother-in-law works in facilities management. I suspect both have been there somewhere between 16 and 20 years. There you go.”

Preckwinkle was queried about the $40,000 in campaign contributions she received from convicted felon Tony Rezko in exchange for bringing business to the city’s 4^th Ward, where Preckwinkle has been alderman since 1991.

The alderman explained how her relationship with Rezko dissolved in the late 1990s, when she confronted him about affordable housing properties that he owned in the 4^th Ward after receiving complaints from the community and her staff about substandard conditions and criminal activity.

“Tony Rezko hasn’t given me a dime in decade since I called him,” Preckwinkle said.

Brown was asked how a supervisor could objectively receive cash gifts from employees or charge them to wear jeans to work. Brown said receiving and giving cash gifts to or from county employees was legally allowed, according to the Cook County ethics ordinance.

“The thing we do at the clerk of the court, we’re like a family. I give gifts and they give gifts. There’s been a lot of misreporting,” Brown said.

Regarding the infamous “jeans days,” in which circuit employees pay $2 to wear jeans to work on certain days which goes into coffers to be later given to charity or used for employee morale boosting events, Brown said the practice was started by her predecessor. She mentioned other county departments, such as the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, as well as various city agencies that had instituted “jeans days.”

“My employees wanted to continue because they wanted to be able to give to charitable causes …” Brown said. “The [Chicago] Department of Revenue just issued a memo they’re going to do jeans day every Thursday for Haiti. Some employees said to give $2 to wear jeans and have fun yet give to a good cause is a good thing for them.”

All of the candidates, including O’Brien, who by then had showed up to the forum, said they would lobby the Illinois General Assembly to extend the 7 percent property tax cap. Preckwinkle said the county needed to be more proactive on home foreclosures, adding that she would institute a mandatory foreclosure mediation process in the county’s circuit courts that would allow more homeowners to save their homes.

O’Brien supported seeking federal grants to reduce the county’s dependence on property taxes. Stroger said the county has not raised its portion of property taxes in 13 years, and that the county government saved 25,000 homes from foreclosure under his watch by helping homeowners readjust their mortgages.

Candidates were also asked whether they thought the county had a patronage or corruption problem. All of the candidates, with the exception of Stroger, agreed that county government had padded its payroll with patronage jobs.

Stroger said that unless patronage was going on “behind my back,” new hires made by the county during his term were made with a Shakman monitor in the room.

“I signed the Shakman decree before I came in … I talk to the Shakman monitor about every quarter,” Stroger added. “There is not one of us up here who doesn’t have a patronage employee. That’s the person you trust to look at your paperwork to make sure it gets done. That is part of being an elected official and I don’t think there is an office of any size that doesn’t have what they call patronage reports.”

Regarding budget cuts each candidate would make to stabilize the county budget, Brown said she would lobby the Illinois General Assembly for an early retirement program for county employees to bring in new hires at lower salaries.

Stroger supported a program that would allow retired county judges to review non-violent offenders eligible for electronic monitoring and home confinement to relieve the financial burden of housing prisoners in the county jail.

Preckwinkle said she would immediately take a 10-percent salary reduction.

O’Brien’s first order of business would be to eliminate one of the boards of elections.

“There’s two, the city and the county; it’s just duplication that’s not needed,” O’Brien said. “The second thing would be to consolidate all the purchasing aspects of the county. Why does every department need a purchasing department, when it should be just falling under one umbrella in which all the departments can feed from that one department.”

O’Brien added he was glad to hear the alderman’s offer of accepting a 10-percent salary cut if elected county board president, “considering that the alderman has voted four times to increase her own pay.”

“That’s true,” Preckwinkle replied.

Eapen is the former ward superintendent for the Chicago Streets and Sanitation Department; Ramos was a paid campaign worker for Stone in 2007. Stone has not been charged with any wrongdoing, but is said to be on the defense’s witness list. The men have opted for a bench trial, leaving their fate up to a judge.

Arguments for a directed verdict were to have taken place Jan. 6 before Cook County Judge Marcus Salone, but room 706 in the criminal courts building at 26^th and California was overbooked with a murder trial on Wednesday afternoon.

Salone interrupted his morning court call where the murder victim’s family had camped out in the first rows of the courtroom waiting for the trial of their loved one’s alleged killer to begin, to huddle with the defendants’ attorneys and Cook County assistant state’s attorneys.

Afterward, Eapen approached reporters and said, “Next month,” indicating that the trial had again been delayed.

Approaching the bench with their hands held behind their backs like any other defendant in the morning court call, Salone apologized to Eapen and Ramos, and anyone else who shelled out $13 for parking in the private lot across the street from the criminal courts building next to the Popeye’s Chicken restaurant.

“Let me apologize to all in this matter, but I overbooked my calendar for the day,” Salone said.

Eapen’s attorney, Tom Breen, could be overheard asking the judge for the opportunity to “formally supplement” his motion for a directed verdict based on prosecutors’ failure to provide evidence on charges that Eapen tampered with absentee ballots.

Ramos’s attorney, Rohit Sahgal, was not present in the courtroom.

Cook County prosecutors wrapped up their case on Dec. 8, when investigator Alexis Amezaga from the Chicago Inspector General’s office testified that challenger Salman Aftab, who finished last in a four-way race for 50^th Ward alderman in 2007, tipped off her office of alleged vote fraud occurring in West Ridge.

The trial has been beset by delays due mostly Salone’s busy court call schedule and the hundreds of cases that slog through the Cook County Criminal Courts on a daily basis.

One prosecutor told reporters after the trial had been rescheduled again, “I just want to get this over with.”

Said Eapen, who had to take Wednesday off from work where he was reassigned last fall as an office assistant to Chicago Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Thomas Byrne, “Another day, another dollar.”

The trial has been continued to Feb. 22.

See related stories on this case from Lake Effect News:

Aftab Triggered 50th Ward Vote Fraud Investigation

Cousin Says Ramos Filled Out Her Absentee Ballot

Witnesses Testify They Felt “Pressured” By Stone Campaign Workers

Stone’s Campaign Committee Paying for Ramos’s Attorney Fees

Witnesses Offer Chilling Testimony of Voting “Chicago Style”

Stone and Crown on Witness List In 50th Ward Vote Fraud Trial