Why Illinois Should Care About The ComEd Scandal – WBEZ

Political scandals make for great TV.

And the unfolding corruption scheme involving utility giant Commonwealth Edison seems ready-made for a dramatically scored Netflix documentary. Theres the all-knowing political boss, wiretaps, bribes and a massive, faceless corporation reaping the benefits at the cost of the regular Joe.

But actual legal cases can be pretty boring.

The indictment unveiled last week against four former top ComEd executives and lobbyists is a slog for even the most earnest citizen. Weighing in at 50 pages, the charging document is leaden with legalese and less-than-clever nicknames for its cast of anonymous players. (Try not to confuse Individual 13W-3 with Individual 23W-1 or Individual BM-1.)

TLDR: The feds say the four defendants orchestrated a scheme to influence the man who has long been Springfields most powerful politician House Speaker and state Democratic Party Chair Michael Madigan. He has not been charged and vehemently denies wrongdoing. The four defendants also say theyve done nothing wrong.

But ComEd has already admitted to hiring Madigans political allies and paying them to do little or no work. Whats more, the company admits it did that all to please the speaker, so hed back lucrative Springfield legislation benefiting ComEd, including electricity rate hikes.

Alas, this isnt fiction, and it has real-world consequences. Heres how this larger-than-life scandal has directly touched your lives and your pocketbooks.

ComEd is a state-regulated utility, which means lawmakers and bureaucrats decide how much the power company is allowed to charge for delivering your electricity. Thanks to ComEds state-granted near-monopoly, more than 4 million homes and businesses 70% of Illinois population largely dont have a choice when it comes to paying a monthly bill to the company.

ComEd has long employed an army of influential lobbyists to advance its interests in Springfield many of them with ties to Madigan. The feds say the utilitys agents arranged the bribery scheme to influence Madigan from 2011 until 2019, when agents raided the homes and offices of several people with ties to the speaker.

During that stretch, ComEd also had some big legislative wins in the statehouse. They were wins that increased the utilitys profits and your monthly costs. Now federal prosecutors are highlighting those measures in their corruption cases against ComEd, its former executives and its lobbyists.

If you want to see how all of this can impact you, just take a look at your ComEd bill.

In 2011, state lawmakers approved so-called Smart Grid legislation. ComEd says that has increased reliability and service, and expanded energy efficiency programs. It also baked in rate increases for customers, which affects the customer charge line item on page 2 of your ComEd bill, circled above in green.

Not coincidentally, the state-approved revenue that ComEd gets from providing electricity to you has risen dramatically in the past decade. The feds said as much in the new indictment, noting that the law helped improve ComEds financial stability.

Then in 2016, ComEd won approval for another piece of lucrative Springfield legislation called the Future Energy Jobs Act, or FEJA. According to the power companys July 17 agreement with the feds and Wednesdays indictment, FEJA represented a renewal of the regulatory process that was beneficial to ComEd.

It also let ComEds parent company, Exelon, take in another $235 million a year from customers to bail out its financially ailing nuclear power plants in downstate Illinois. The subsidy from rate-payers is supposed to last for a decade and will provide more than $2 billion to Exelon.

You can find that line-item on your monthly bill, labeled Zero Emission Standard, circled above in red.

In this weeks indictment, prosecutors allege ComEds point-person on ushering FEJA through the legislature also was told to help ensure the utility renewed its contract with a law firm run by a Madigan political ally.

Both bills were passed at the same time ComEds long-running bribery scheme was going on a scheme ComEd itself has admitted was an effort to influence and reward [Madigans] efforts, as Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, to assist ComEd with respect to legislation concerning ComEd and its business.

So how exactly are you, a normal Illinoisan, paying for this scheme?

In a few ways.

First off, public officials get paid with your tax dollars. House Speaker Michael Madigan who, it bears repeating, has not been charged, denies wrongdoing and says he knew nothing about ComEds scheme to influence him makes nearly $97,000 a year for being a state representative and legislative leader, according to the state comptrollers office. The base salary for Illinois state lawmakers is a little less than $70,000 a year.

Secondly, ComEd has admitted to paying big money to politically-connected subcontractors with ties to Madigan, even though they performed little or no work for ComEd. While its illegal to use ratepayer money for political expenses, such as lobbying, its not illegal to use ratepayer money to hire contractors.

To cover up the scheme and make it look like these payments were for legit contracts (not political bribery), the feds allege that ComEd funneled the money to Madigans allies through a consultancy run by a prominent Chicagoan former City Club President Jay Doherty sometimes to the tune of nearly $70,000 a month. Last weeks indictment alleges some of that money was allotted to two unnamed former Chicago aldermen, whom WBEZ has identified as Frank Olivo and Michael R. Zalewski. Neither have been charged; Doherty denies wrongdoing.

Finally, political corruption schemes like the one ComEd copped to come with a third, invaluable cost: your trust. Thats supposed to be the foundation of government in America. Sure, that sounds sappy, but think about it: Once enough people stop trusting in our system of government, theyll stop abiding by it. And a government ignored is no government at all.

Its hard to overstate the mythology thats grown around Madigan in Illinois political circles.

As speaker of the Illinois House, Madigan has the tremendous power to decide what bills do or do not get voted on. And as the chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois, hes wielded authority over who can or cant get elected in our deeply blue state.

Hes been able to work both of those levers in concert to exert extraordinary (but not total) control over the government of Americas sixth-most-populous state.

And so, warranted or not, Madigan has attained an Oz-like status in Springfield. With nearly four decades gripping the gavel, hes the longest-serving speaker of any House state or federal in American history. Love him or hate him, hes someone youve had to do business with.

Think of the towering milestones Illinois has passed while Madigan has been in power, some of which he helped construct. The abolition of the death penalty. The advent of casino gambling. The gargantuan pension crisis. The legalization of marijuana. The impeachment and conviction of corrupt ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. These are all things that have touched the lives or wallets of every Illinoisan.

So consider: How might your life be different if such an influential figure as Michael J. Madigan had not been in power at such pivotal moments? What might have happened differently?

Or perhaps, as Madigan faces the very real prospect of losing the speakership hes held for decades, the question may be: What happens next?

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that it was an Exelon company that received benefits from the 2016 FEJA legislation to bolster its nuclear power plants.

Alex Keefe is an editor on WBEZs Government & Politics Team. Follow him @akeefe. Investigative reporter Dan Mihalopoulos contributed.

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Why Illinois Should Care About The ComEd Scandal - WBEZ