Metra’s ‘business as usual’ is not fine

Arlene “no ill-intent” Mulder will leave the Metra board when her term expires next June. That’s accountability for you.

The Daily Herald has done the job of informing its readership of all the cronyism, patronage and “Chicago Way” Metra has been run with Mulder being part of the board. I assume the Daily Herald is hard pressed to connect the dots with the Clifford severance package and Mulder’s complicity in voting to cover up the whole reason for the generous financial package afforded Mr. Clifford.

Mulder in her statement announcing her decision to serve out her term said, “I’ve done nothing wrong and I’m very proud of my service.” Nothing wrong? Did she not vote to approve the severance package for Alex Clifford with the provision of confidentiality on both Metra and Clifford as the cornerstone of the overall agreement?

We now know why that confidentiality clause was written into Clifford’s generous departure package. In criminal law if you abet a perpetrator of a crime you are considered as guilty as the person committing the crime. In Illinois and certainly Metra politics, abetting a “political cover-up” that may cost well over $1 million when attorney and public relation fees are added in is considered “business as usual.”

And “business as usual” seems to be fine with the Daily Herald.

Steve Sarich

Grayslake