JUDD SAYS ST. ELIZABETH HOSPITAL WILL REMAIN OPEN
by Peter von Buol
Special to Inside
Speaking before a Wicker Park community organization's monthly meeting on Wednesday, Edwin Eisendrath, a candidate for governor in the Democratic primary on March 21, explained a couple of his reasons for running against an incumbent governor from his own political party.
"This governor uses a system of 'pay-to-play.' He rewards contractors who contribute to his campaign with state contracts," Eisendrath told the approximately 50 members of the Wicker Park Committee, a non-profit neighborhood organization. "I won't take money from contractors who do business with the state."
Addressing the organization at the Wicker Park Lutheran Church, the former Chicago alderman also spoke about how he believes Illinois must shift its school funding away from local property taxes to an alternate system of taxation—but did not provide specifics.
"We are 50 out of 50 states in state funding of schools. We are second to last in funding college tuition. We now use property taxes to fund schools and it is hurting our
economic future."
Eisendrath also said Illinois lags behind neighboring states in economic growth due to, in part, what he calls an inadequate method of funding education.
"This is anti-business and anti-property owners, and the current system is causing us to lose jobs to Indiana and Iowa, not to Beijing!" Eisendrath said.
Eisendrath's speech to the group previewed charges he would make at a Chicago press conference on Friday in which he blasted the governor for receiving five contributions of $25,000 each from a post office box in Florida. Those contributions have been linked to Wellcare, a Tampa-based health maintenance company that specializes in Medicare and Medicaid insurance. Eisendrath says Wellcare has already paid John Wyma, a former chief of staff of Blagojevich, to lobby the governor as well as other Illinois officials.
According to the Web site of the company's Illinois subsidiary, Harmony Health Plan, "[We] are a licensed Illinois health maintenance organization—committed to providing our members with quality health care coverage. Our local operations serve individuals and families who are eligible for Medicaid."
According to a news story by WLS-TV's Andy Shaw, Harmony Health has received $75 million in state business and would be eligible for more under the governor's state-funded Kid Care health insurance plan.
Eisendrath told Inside he believes it is very important for him to attend neighborhood meetings such as those of the Wicker Park Committee. "The [Wicker Park] neighborhood is very important to me," said Eisendrath, who for more than five years was a school teacher at what today is known as the Pritzker Elementary School.
"On a personal basis, I believe it is very important to attend community meetings. I like meeting and talking to the people who are doing the important things in the neighborhoods," said Eisendrath. "Professionally, I believe it is very important to those who aspire to higher office to attend these neighborhood meetings, so they know what the issues are and don't get out of touch. Politically, I don't know if I really can change enough votes to alter an election, but that is not why I attend them."
In addition to Eisendrath, speakers who addressed the neighborhood organization included Martin Judd, a vice president at Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center.
Judd said the St. Elizabeth facility of the medical center will continue to remain an integral part of the medical center and won't be closing. He said it will continue to serve its nearby communities, including Bucktown and Wicker Park.
Hospital update
"I am here to squelch the rumors that St. Elizabeth's is closing. It is not closing!" said Judd. "We have been here for more than 100 years and we plan on being here for a long time. We need both the St. Mary and St. Elizabeth properties to do what we want to do and that is to have a fully integrated medical center."
The two Catholic hospitals, now owned by Resurrection Health Care, were legally merged in 2003 to form one medical center.
Replacing officers
Also at the meeting, the Wicker Park Committee moved ahead without incident to seek a replacement of the group's vice president and its secretary as well as its chairperson of a preservation and development subcommittee. The positions had become vacant due to an internal power struggle over a controversial letter that had been signed and sent by the group's president and numerous members of its preservation and development subcommittee to the City of Chicago's Landmarks Commission.
In the facsimile sent to the landmarks commission, Gordon Ziegenhagen, now the group's former president, joined the now-former members of the sub-committee in contradicting the WPC's official position of opposing the planned development of the site of a 100-year-old playground that had once belonged to the Association House, a non-profit social services agency. |
