NW Illinois News

Dixon Mayor Liandro “Li” Arellano frets over the way he still sees Springfield handcuffing itself in the fight against COVID-19.

“One thing I’ve long been pushing for is the need for government to give itself the ability to do something as a body electronically,” Arellano told the DeKalb Times. “Remote meetings are now happening everywhere allowing people to watch and making the process transparent. I don’t understand why our government won’t pass a law to allow this for Springfield.”

Arellano argues Illinois taxpayers are paying the price for the misstep, as evidenced by Illinois legislative leaders recently moving to cancel this month’s fall Veto Session out of concern over rising infection rates. In an email from the office of House Speaker Mike Madigan, associates stressed the move has the backing of a “strong majority” of House Democrats who support the move in light of the circumstances.

Arellano argues none of it has to be.

“We’ve now had 10 months of the pandemic, but we still haven’t addressed or given ourselves the means to do things the way the rest of the world is right now when it comes to meeting,” he said. "There are important things lawmakers needs to be dealing with."

Given all the controversy now swirling in Springfield, Arellano isn’t convinced some lawmakers’ apprehension about returning to session is totally based on COVID-19 concerns.

“I think they’re dodging taking responsibility for everything that’s gone wrong,” he said. “If this were really just about COVID, they would pass legislation allowing for remote meetings. They are a do-nothing legislature in the middle of pandemic.”

The state’s longest-serving lawmaker, Madigan now finds himself at the center of an ongoing federal corruption probe involving ComEd and a pay-for-play scheme where all the perks are alleged to have been steered to him in exchange for favorable legislation.