Northwest Indiana Comical Politics

Lake County Democrats Like Dying Automakers

Democrats suffering from what ails top automaker

May 19, 2005

By Maurice Eisenstein
Post-Tribune guest columnist

A lawyer friend was annoyed concerning my recent criticism of former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick and Sen. Evan Bayh for their performances in the selection of Rudy Clay as Lake County Democratic Party chairman. Not only challenging the accuracy of my statements, he also believed that the negative characterization of these politicians “went beyond the pale.”

Could it be that I had been too abrasive in my criticism? Was I unappreciative of the good works that politicians had done? Was I not giving them enough credit for effort?

After much reflection, my conclusion is that people are hiding behind what I call the General Motors Syndrome. This syndrome is characterized by the old-boy (girl) network protecting and excusing well-paid and powerful individuals for lack of goal performance. The old-boy network’s central characteristic is people who know each other as everyday people and, therefore, to protect their own self-images and, in some cases, positions, find excuses why these old boys fail to perform.

The old-boy network has driven GM into junk-bond status and has cost Lake County the destruction of its northern part. GM, and Ford, cannot compete with foreign automakers, although not for lack of resources or competitive advantage. GM is in the world’s largest automaker and has unlimited cash, but it suffers from the old-boy network syndrome, where who you know is rewarded, not results.

Heads should roll at GM for their destruction, through incompetence, of an American way of life. Collecting a huge paycheck should result in one putting his life and reputation on the line because 20 percent of the American workers, who depend on the auto industry for their livelihood, are risking their lives on these executives’ performance.

But no! Since the 1970s, we hear that it is someone else’s fault: Congress, unions, the unappreciative American public, unfair competition and management. It is never the old boys’ fault.

Yes, they once created great cars. Yes, they once could manage. Yes, they once fulfilled Americans’ dreams. But now, they are incompetent losers — losing market share every year since 1970, endangering us all.

The GM Syndrome is true of Lake County politics. Yes, 30 years ago, Pastrick did appoint the first African-Americans to high management positions. Yes, he did promote regionalism years before it was discovered by the Legislature. And, to the best of my knowledge, he is friendly and a religious family man.

But results are the only factors that count. Pastrick destroyed East Chicago, just as the executives of GM destroyed the American automobile industry. He and his associates are incompetent buffoons.

Now that he has been removed by the electorate and his associates are on extended vacation in Wisconsin or Greece, only the old-boy network keeps him on the state Democratic Committee. The old-boy network allowed Pastrick to nominate and support Clay, the carney flim-flam man, to become the Democratic chairman.

Bayh also failed, except for the support of the old-boy network. Bayh really did not actively support Clay, but refused to take a risk by taking sides. This is even worse.

A senator and the leading Indiana Democrat refusing to take a risk by doing the right thing for NWI is a sign of vacuous leadership.

These are not characteristics of one who contemplates being president in these risky times.

Maurice Eisenstein is a professor at Purdue University Calumet. E-mail him at [email protected]. His comments do not represent Purdue University.

NWI Officials Mastadons

Our elected officials should actually be characterized as mastodons, pre-historic animals, for their understanding of the Twenty-First Century.  Being mastodons, they belong to another era and are incapable of surviving in the current one by coming up with any policies that will achieve positive results.   Elected officials are taking the citizens of NWI for a big ride back to the Twentieth Century. 

This is fine in science fiction; but, in the real world it will result in higher property and income taxes and minimal improvements in jobs and future earnings.

Our State Legislators and mayors began this legislative term with the promise of getting some new State money for NWI to develop projects that “might” result in economic development for the region.  They ended up trying to protect funds received for the past ten years.  Now there is a group of people that take two steps backward for every step forward.  The reason for this is that these are mastodon projects.

The projects suggested were fitting for pre-1980s, at best for part of the 1990s, but not for 2005.  The major projects are focused on building transportation infrastructure to help economic development: airport, commuter trains, and bus lines.  These were great projects beginning in the 1950s but not today.  In the Twenty-First Century, no company or individuals will transfer to NWI because of these; nor have any been lost because these were not available. 

Now instead of getting money from the rest of the State, NWI will have to use over $11 million of its own gambling money with the people of NWI being taxed at restaurants.  Without forgetting the possibility of a local income tax, is there any wonder the Governor is supporting the spending of our own money?

These elected officials are like the generals who are always fighting the last war.  They are incapable of seeing where the future is going.  The problem for NWI is not the lack of transportation or lake front; the problem is an incompetent work force with no capability and effort invested in NWI to turn that around. 

Data released last week by the Census Bureau shows that people are not interested in moving to NWI.  The second fastest growing county in the Country between 2000 and 2004 was

Kankakee

,

Illinois

; over fifty miles from downtown

Chicago

.  After that were the counties in northwest

Illinois

bordering

Wisconsin

.  With no trains, planes, or buses (or lake front) in these counties, they by far outpaced NWI where

Lake

and Porter had no growth and La Port actually declined in population. 

NWI’s lack of growth is because of the lack of quality of life for creative Twenty-First Century individuals. The change in NWI with these new transportation projects is we will be poorer.  Public transportation is a financial albatross. Professional, educated workers are not going to move into an area in which the K-12 system produces functional illiterates and its higher-education network is being financially down graded in the 2005-2007 budgets.  If you have children and want to pay instate college tuition close to home were would you move to: northern

Illinois

or NWI?

Neither remediation of the lake front nor new modes of transportation is going to change the corruption in the

East Chicago

foundations, the McDermott political extortion machine, nor the continuing saga of jail sentences in

Gary

.  Who are these mastodons kidding?  What high-tech business would come here with their employees because of a super sporting goods store? 

When the voters realize that this is a new century and kick all these mastodons out of office; there may be a chance for NWI.

Originally published in my "Post-Tribune" column.

Money Wasted by NWI Mayors

NWI can’t make a case for keeping all casino cash

April 7, 2005

By Maurice M. Eisenstein
Post-Tribune guest columnist

Thirteen years ago, our mayors and state legislators promised the state of Indiana that, in exchange for gambling rights, they would turn Northwest Indiana into an economic miracle, benefitting the citizens of the area and generating new income and sales-tax revenues for the state.

The state agreed.

NWI receivednew tax revenues, jobs and contracts.

After more than $1.5 billion in casino-tax revenues over 10 years, what is our record?

Gary Mayor Scott King is incapable of managing a city that size. Evidence for this again surfaced recently when it became public that the leadership of the Gary Urban Enterprise Association spent more than $250,000 on personal items and bought property owned by directors outside of the GUEA zone.

King knew nothing of this. He was too busy giving out contracts to the trucking company owned by his campaign manager and making sure friends and family members were properly employed. On top of all that, he awards his “former” law firm a $600,000 contract with the city, and it was not the first.

In East Chicago, to help NWI with its gambling revenue utilization and East Chicago’s economic revitalization, we have the combined charlatans of Tom Cappas and Mike Pannos — one the midnight mayor and the other the former head of Indiana’s Democratic Party.

They first hijacked the East Chicago casino for themselves, then walked off with millions of dollars that rightly should have gone to the citizens by selling their shares in Showboat to Harrah’s.

They continued their abuse of East Chicago’s gambling privilege by setting themselves and their friends in casino-funded foundations with no reasonable oversight. In the end, with the help of the Robert Pastrick family’s complete lack of scruples, East Chicago is no better off than it was 10 years ago.

Now that Pastrick has moved on, Bobby Cantrell and Bob Stiglich have had to find a new family that fits the bill of immoral, incompetent and unscrupulous. They have found it in the McDermotts — the father and son of Hammond fame.

The father went from mayor of Hammond to president of the NWI Forum, and his only achievement was to get gambling into NWI. During this time, he also rose from newspaper vendor to making multi-million dollar deals on radio stations — go figure. We now find junior and senior are playing a flim-flam game with the people of NWI. Unbeknownst to anyone, senior is getting paid by a company that wants Woodmar Country Club.

Junior, acting innocently, with only a pure heart, threatens the club if they don’t sell. This is true gangsterism of the loan-shark variety.

None of this is for the sake of economic development (except the McDermotts’).

Anywhere else in the United States, it is a normal practice that public officials, if they are not to be thought of as crooks, thieves and charlatans, must ensure that any business relationship that could benefit them is kept at arm’s length.

The reality is that even after all the scrutiny by the governmental authorities, all the jail sentences and forced Greek vacations, all the forced economizing resulting from the property-tax restructuring, Democratic Party Chairman Stiglich and his minions continue to show that NWI cannot make a sustainable argument for continuing to have the gambling funds.

All that NWI has established over 10 years and $1.5 billion is the certainty that most of its political leaders are immoral, incompetent, incapable and occasionally criminal.

Maurice M. Eisenstein is a professor at Purdue University Calumet. Contact him at [email protected]