By Kathy Bergen and Ray Long | The Illinois Senate today overwhelmingly booted aside the changes Gov.
Pat Quinn wanted in legislation to overhaul McPier, with Republicans
charging the governor tried to alter the bill to gain political support
in the November election.
The House quickly joined the Senate today in voting overwhelmingly to reject Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed changes to legislation aimed at overhauling McPier, putting a law in place aimed at luring back convention business fleeing Chicago because of high costs.
The House voted 93-19 to override the governor’s proposed alterations that came in an amendatory veto as he sought to retain some power that the legislature stripped away. The Senate acted earlier Thursday, voting 51-2, with one lawmaker casting a present vote. The House then adjourned at 12:24 p.m. as the Senate wrestled over how to get support for a key piece of the state budget package.
Senators voted 51-2, with one voting present, to override Quinn’s changes, which included a move to ensure he would have the ability to name an interim trustee who would be put in charge of righting the ship at McPier, where conventions were fleeing because of high costs. Quinn’s amendatory veto attempted to remove James Reilly, a former McPier chief, as the designated man in charge during the interim period.
Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine, charged the governor with “political grandstanding,” saying his veto’s proposed changes threatened the jobs of 65,000 workers relying on the convention industry.
“He put himself before the people of this state, and it was shameful,” Murphy said.
But Sen. David Koehler, D-Peoria, defended the governor, saying he attempted to strengthen the overall legislation to include tough purchasing reforms.
Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, agreed that overriding Quinn’s proposed changes in an amendatory veto is the best course to try to right the ship at McPier.
Cullerton thanked Quinn for taking action while lawmakers were in Springfield so that they would not have to make a special trip back to take action and contended most of the changes Quinn wants will be incorporated in follow-up legislation.
Radogno said she hoped the Senate action would immediately have an impact that would prompt conventioneers to start signing up for activities at McCormick Place and Navy Pier. She called the legislation, as passed, a bipartisan agreement that represented a “shining example of something that we have done right.”
In his revisions, Quinn had attempted to take greater control over the restructuring of the convention center. His action would have cut the legislative appointment of Jim Reilly, a former head of the agency that runs McCormick Place, as trustee to oversee an 18-month restructuring of convention center operations. Instead, the governor, with consent of the Senate, would have appointed the trustee.
Some union representatives have bristled at the selection of Reilly, both because he has done consulting work for the companies that employ union workers and because he locked horns with unions during past legislative attempts to restructure the convention hall. But a number of trade show organizers say they like the experience he would bring to the task.
Quinn also had expressed concerns that the original legislation lacked provisions for trustee removal or succession. Quinn’s proposal would have given him the power to remove the trustee, but now that authority may rest with the legislature. The House on Wednesday passed a follow-up bill sponsored by House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, with that provision.
Quinn had sought the power to name a replacement, with Senate approval, if the trustee was unable to fill out the 18-month term. And he would retain that authority in the Madigan bill.
The amendatory veto also sought to eliminate a hike in fees on airport taxi and bus rides that would have raised additional marketing funds. The fee on taxi rides, for instance, would have risen from $2 to $4.
The amendatory veto also had sought to revive an earlier proposal to reduce the number of union jurisdictions working the show-floor at McCormick Place. The more powerful unions at the convention center–the Teamsters and carpenters — likely would have absorbed the riggers and the decorators, sources said.
The governor touted this as a way to improve service to exhibitors, some of whom have complained about the hassle of having to deal with five different unions.
The writings own the wall Quinn, your the lamest of lame ducks there has ever been !!
What is it called when a business presents lies as fact, for the express propose to manipulate or otherwise injure another business or government entity?
What do you call legislation, based on these lies?
What do you call a Governor that refuses to sign this type of legislation?
What do you call the benefactors of these lies?
What do you call people that have knowledge of this information, yet are silent?
What do you call newspaper reporters, that have received this information months ago, but do not have the time to verify the information?
Has the Tribune investigated ANY of these claims?
Has the Tribune investigated the claim of the mystery HiMSS booth?
Has the Tribune investigated the SPI-NPE Plastic Show Savings Summary?
Has the Tribune investigated any of the claims that were presented at the legislative hearings?
Has anyone at the Tribune editorial board researched anything?
Last year McCormick Place lost 2 shows.
Last year Orlando lost 114.
Last year Las Vegas lost 402 shows.
All of this started because Freeman and GES wanted a piece of the $22,000,000 in profits that McPier was making from Focus One and their catering businesses.
All of the rest is just a sideshow, Freeman and GES got what they wanted and now the politicians are readjusting things for their benefit, not the exhibitors.
The legislation was supposed to be centered on exhibitor’s rights, yet 90% of their complaints were ignored.
Now it is every man for themselves, and what can you do for me?
Meanwhile the exhibitors are still being abused, and it is not going to change.
Everyone needs to go back and start over.
This time, focus on the exhibitors, enact legislation that ensures exhibitor transparency, ensure all McPier pricing is competitive with other convention centers, and fund McPier accordingly.
With the proper legislation, and with true exhibitor transparency.
Given a choice, the vast majority of exhibitors would choose a convention center that meets all of these goals, and shun away from these abuses that are allowed to occur at many of these trade shows.
If the State would adopt legislation, that would protect exhibitors from these abuses, McCormick Place would have a definite advantage over every other convention center in the country.
Instead of trying to fix 10% of the problem, why not fix all of it, once and for all.
Is it that hard to do what is right?
Why has the Chicago Tribune failed us by not investigating any of these claims?
Finally the bi partisan Legislature got Mc pier reform right. They also got right the reform of the crooked Health Facilities Planning Board [ playground of Rezko and Levine, both currently in prison].
Hey guys, time now to legislatively reform Metra and dump the entire corrupt and/or stupid Metra Board.
Thank God! Now maybe you can plug in and set up your own booth at McPlace. Chicago20 is insane if he thinks this is a bad law. Quinn is very clearly in the unions’ pockets.
Jeff, you are worried about plugging something in?
What about Lorrie Baumann, editorial director for Oser Communications Group, a Tucson, Ariz.-based restaurant trade magazine publisher, said she paid $10,000 last year just to get materials moved from the loading docks to her booth, and back out afterward.
Lorrie Baumann paid GES and the NRA $10,000 last year for what cost GES and the NRA less than $100.
With this new legislation, labor savings must be passed on to the exhibitor.
So now if the new labor cost is $80, Lorrie Baumann could be charged $9,980.
Now that IS insane.
Why does GES and the NRA charge so much for material handling (drayage)?
The NRA is charging $28.50 per square foot for this show, plus drayage.
Pack-Expo will be here in November, they are charging $24.50 per square foot and drayage is included.
Lorrie Baumann would be paying $4.00 less per square foot at the Pack-Expo Show and NOT pay $10,000 for drayage.
It is the same labor, the same work rules, the same convention center, yet this one small booth is charged over $10,000 more at the NRA Show.
Multiply that $10,000 by the hundreds of booths at the NRA Show.
Where are all those profits going?
How can Mary Pat Heftman explain this to her exhibitors?
Does this explain why the Pack-Expo Show is growing in size and attendance while the NRA Show is in decline?
This legislation completely ignores Lorrie Baumann and the other exhibitors.
Lorrie Baumann is the customer, NOT GES and The National Restaurant Show.
This is a bad bill, and the legislators need to go back and get it right.
None of these proposals addresses 90% of exhibitor’s complaints.
Here is an exhibitor survey from Trade Show Week magazine.
http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6708531.html?q=McCormick
Let see how these proposals match up to address the exhibitor’s complaints.
In your opinion, what is the single most inflated tradeshow cost?
Materials handling (drayage) – No change, Freeman and GES retain control and profits.
50%
Exhibit space – No change, Freeman and GES retain control and profits.
30%
Furniture rental – No change, Freeman and GES retain control and profits.
7%
Electricity – Focus One is no longer the exclusive electrical contractor, the prices are reduced to cost.
4%
Telecommunications – Focus One is no longer the exclusive electrical contractor,the prices are reduced to cost.
4%
Exhibit transportation – No change, Freeman and GES retain control and profits.
2%
Installation and dismantle – The bill allows exhibitors to set up their own booths, regardless of size.
2%
Booth decor – No change, Freeman and GES retain control and profits.
2%
Catering – Trade shows to bring in their own food and beverages.
0%
The failure to address these problems will not solve any of the exhibitor’s concerns.
The exhibitor’s are the customer, NOT Freeman and GES, and this legislation completely ignores the exhibitor’s concerns.
You sound very union. Are you sure Freeman and GES remain in charge? A lot of this will change, as McCormick’s management gets overhauled. The fact that an experienced person will be taking the reins is a significant step. The previous political hack was clueless.
I would have preferred some form of privatization with a level of income guaranteed to pay back the debt and generate some income. But there was action, and it wasn’t a Band-Aid. Plus this bunch actually pushed back on the usual political suspects that have been strangling this state.
It’s really not that complicated. The unions are against Reilly. That lets me know I should be for him.
The Trade Show Associations select their own general service contractors.
Freeman and GES have a monopoly on this, they control 90% of the shows.
When privitization comes in 18 months, Freeman and GES will be the contractors running McCormick Place, just as they do in Orlando, Las Vegas and San Francisco.
Privitization means exhibitors prices will go up, along with State subsidies.
Remember this 5 years from now.
Exhibitor transparency is not a union’s idea.
Here is the article;
http://www.tradeshowlogistics.com/images/ConveneSept08_CSTrans.pdf
Read how exhibitors are being abused all across the country.
The writers for the Chicago Tribune should go to work for High School newspaper’s where there are no real issues and little research is done or needed. What an embarrassment for the Tribune not to figure out what just happened and merely report surface information. The people of the State of Illinois lose again. If Quinn’s attempts to position himself for the next election is chastised, what can be said about the politicians that overturned this and fixed nothing all in the name of posturing in the same way. As if they are protecting us from something. Radogno couldnt make a decision about staying home or going out to eat if her life depended on it. Thats comforting.Where do the people who research and write for the Tribune come from? This state needs a grass roots movement and throw out every single one of the politicians coming up for election destroying the strategies they are following while futher destroying the State of Illinois and Chicago.
Chicago 20 I have no idea where you get the idea moving in 10,000 lbs of freight costs $100.00. You must be a 727 teamster to say something so uninformed. Unloading 10,000 lbs would require the following: (3) man teamster crew (one on the forklift, one doing a cross word puzzle, and one talking to his wife while outside on the dock). I almost forgot the steward, dock and traffic guy (to sit in his car on Moe Drive to make sure trailers get in line)that start 2 hours before the 8am guys start working. Also throw in the forklift since pre-madonas at M.Place will not move a thing without the use of a forklift and it will still take 3 hours to unload. So realistically, Freeman or GES has(6) teamsters on their payroll to unload 10,000 lbs of freight.
Hey don’t forget that they have to pay for the use of the Mc Cormick dock, the marshalling yard and I may be wrong but the teamsters don’t own rent or drive the forklifts to work right? There is the cost of rental for the lift, the truck to bring the gas for the fork the scooters for the lead guys to drive the floor lots more involved in that $100 right