MARC CHASE: Stop feathering nest of political cronyism
NWI Times
May 21, 2016
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/marc-chase/marc-chase-stop-feathering-nest-of-political-cronyism/article_d78ba5a2-ad34-569d-979a-00d48683f261.html
The feverish embarrassment perpetuated by Lake County cronyism burned just a little hotter on the faces of Lake County politicos earlier this week.
It's just the latest symptom of the political disease choking out the credibility of Region government leaders and providing a travesty of representation for residents and laborers who deserve better.
Let’s hope local government leaders, who can act most quickly and effectively to cure this recent sign of malady, aren’t too infected with the long-term illness to do the right thing.
Hammond police provided The Times with a video Tuesday of Region union official Randolph "Randy" Palmateer's alleged drunken driving arrest during a March police safety checkpoint. It’s an instructive documentary of what’s ailing the Region.
While being questioned at the checkpoint, Palmateer hit police officers with a barrage of name dropping — a clear sign he sought, and perhaps even expected, a break because of who he is and who he knows.
As the business manager for the Northwestern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council, Palmateer is the recognized public face of a number of labor unions under the council's umbrella. Over the years, he's ingratiated himself with a number of Region political leaders.
Some of the close government relationships and personal friendships include Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. and Lake County Commissioner Gerry Scheub.
It was McDermott's name bandied about by Palmateer at the Hammond roadside police checkpoint in March. Now it's Scheub who can take an important step toward doing the right thing.
The police video, taken from the body camera of a Hammond officer, shows Palmateer came right out of the gate with the name drop.
Early on in the video, Palmateer can be heard telling the officer that he only consumed one beer and was on his way to "Tom McDermott's house" after taking in a March Madness basketball game at the United Center in Chicago.
Palmateer even told the officer he knew about the OWI checkpoint because McDermott told him about it earlier in the evening.
After a series of roadside sobriety tests, and noting Palmateer appeared "borderline" intoxicated, the officer asks if Palmateer wants to blow into a portable Breathalyzer or just head downtown for an official alcohol breath test.
"I'd rather just leave and go back towards Tom's (presumably McDermott's) house," Palmateer can be heard telling the officer.
Ultimately, Palmateer blew a 0.15 on the portable blood-alcohol breath test. That's nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08.
"That's not too bad," he told the cop.
While police prepared to place a handcuffed Palmateer into a squad car, he asked, "Can you at least cuff me in front?"
The officer essentially notes that cuffing behind one's back is proper protocol and that Palmateer wouldn't be receiving any special treatment.
After noting the car he was driving — according to police, in an unsafe manner heading into the checkpoint — was a union vehicle, Palmateer told police he needed to speak with his girlfriend, who had been a passenger in his car at the time of the roadside stop.
"I want my phone so I can have her call Tom McDermott because I don't want this sh—. Don't send me to county," Palmateer said on the video.
Sheriff John Buncich would later hit the nail on the proverbial head, noting Palmateer no doubt didn't want to be taken to the county jail because his perceived friends and protectors aren't in charge there.
Now Palmateer's actual political friends ought to do some soul searching.
What kind of "friend" hauls the name of another "friend" into an embarrassing situation involving the police? McDermott told us earlier this week he was at a Boys II Men concert that night, not at the home Palmateer told police he was heading toward before being stopped at the checkpoint.
The Northwestern Indiana Building & Construction Trades Council should do some self evaluation as well.
Palmateer said he was driving a union car during this fiasco. This also is the second alleged drunken driving arrest for Palmateer since 2011, not to mention an unrelated 2011 incident during which a then-member of the Crown Point police force has alleged Palmateer pulled a gun on a cop.
Is this really who the trade unions want as their public face? Don't hardworking Northwest Indiana laborers deserve better?
Is Palmateer a union official the building and construction trades council wants to continue to elevate, giving Palmateer the foothold to sit on numerous local government and nonprofit boards and commissions?
Lake County Commissioner Scheub, another close political friend of Palmateer, has direct authority to do something about one of Palmateer's most powerful political appointments.
Palmateer represents county government — and therefore county taxpayers — on the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority Board, which funnels millions of dollars to community development projects throughout the Region.
Scheub is one of three commissioners who can — and should — put an end to some of embarrassment by voting later this year against reappointing Palmateer to a new RDA board term.
Some of the credibility damage already is done.
Earlier this month, Lake County prosecutors cut a deal with Palmateer, allowing him to plead guilty to the lesser misdemeanor charge of reckless driving rather than the initial charge of operating while intoxicated.
The plea deal was identical to one Palmateer received in the alleged 2011 drunken driving case, so history repeated itself.
Shortly after the most recent plea deal, the Lake County Council voted 5-2 to reappoint Palmateer to the RDA board, as if to show solidarity with their political friend. But that appointment won't stand without eventual approval by the Lake County commissioners.
We've all experienced the stain cronyism — spawned by machine-style politics — brings to our Region and its reputation.
Many people have seen the photos of Bob Cantrell, a political operative who recently completed a prison sentence for federal crimes against taxpayers, holding court at the Lake County Government Center during the candidate filing deadline in February.
We've written several recent articles and columns about Randall Artis, who served federal prison time after being convicted in East Chicago's concrete-for-votes scandal. Following his prison term, the East Chicago clerk's office hired Artis to the payroll of the same municipality he pleaded guilty to victimizing.
Our Region abounds with examples of unscrupulous cronies who have wronged or embarrassed local taxpayers and government institutions and then expected their political friends to either bail them out or feather their nests.
They expect this favorable treatment because it so often has been provided.
By statue, the Lake County commissioners have until Sept. 21 to confirm or kill Palmateer's reappointment to the RDA board. They may want to act sooner rather than later, ending Palmateer's time on the board and allowing time to find an able replacement.
It wouldn't cure the sickness of Region cronyism, but it certainly would be a measured dose toward convalescence.
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