Ladies & Gentlemen:
I found yesterday's hearing on the proposed closure of Tamms Correctional Center to be a completely unprofessional and unruly experience. It was stunning and most disappointing that Illinois' Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability permitted the continued disrespectful, rude and unprofessional behavior from the opponents of Tamms’ closure, i.e., Tamms correctional officers, their family members and their supporters.
Despite the early reprimands and empty threats to remove these people from the hearing if they did not conduct themselves in a proper and civil manner, Sen. Schoenberg and Rep. Bellock sat in silence while union members and their supporters continued to shout, cheer, clap, give standing ovations, jeer and deliberately intimidate the supporters of Tamms' closure. After the initial gavel banging, which was completely ignored, Commission members saw fit to allow the unruly and raucous behavior to overtake the hearing. And in the ultimate display of complete disregard and disrespect to everyone who took the entire day off to attend the hearing, painstakingly prepared testimony, and traveled hundreds of miles to testify to them, the Commission had the audacity to walk out of the meeting still in progress at 3PM, handing the hearing over to two state representatives with an obvious bias towards the union members.
Under these circumstances, the Commission’s attendance was nothing more than lip service to a process that is supposed to provide a fair and unbiased opportunity for interested and affected parties to present their concerns to state government officials. Their behavior made a complete farce of this process and provided obvious evidence of how lightly they view the responsibilities of their appointment to this Commission.
Gayle Ayala
Chester, IL
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