Scott Fitzgerald: “there have also been a number of problems involving Illinois leases that go back a number of years. I turn my attention…”

“there have also been a number of problems involving Illinois leases that go back a number of years. I turn my attention to an examination of State leasing practices. We have, thus far, been dealing with the State procurement code, how it bids out projects for construction, but also part of that code governs how the State handles its leases and whether it competitively bids leases for office space or other space that the State of Illinois may give. In an examination of this overall context of insider deals that have happened and swirled around and been going on in Springfield for a very long time, I want to focus on a couple of articles that go back a little bit further to December 29, 1992. There was at that time a series that was run in the Chicago Tribune that was called ``Between Friends. In the new era of patronage, the politically connected get something better than jobs--lucrative government leases.'' This article I am going to read is the third in a series. The headline is ``Helping Their Cronies Is The Lease Politicians Can Do.'' The byline is by Ray Gibson and Hanke Gratteau: Before Paul Butera decided to shut down and sell his grocery at 3518 W. Division St., his telephone started ringing. The interest in his property, an enormous parking lot backstopped by a single-story brick structure of 30,000 square feet, astonished him. Located in a working-class area, the grocery had served Butera's family well for four years.…”