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legislature.
    Like Bill Holland and Vicki Thomas, Brown was a consummate bureaucrat. He studiously addressed the problems that the PPB had encountered with CMS and the discrepancies in procurement procedures. His testimony was short but specific. He discussed Executive Order No. 2003-10, which consolidated all decision-making and administration for real estate under CMS. While promoted by Blagojevich as a cost-cutting move, the executive order had resulted in all decisions on contracts being under one agency, where they could easily be directed by the governor’s office. The PPB had repeatedly requested operating rules to accompany the administrative change but had been ignored.
    Brown also told the committee of the lack of transparency and justification of sole source procurement awards. The PPB had requested justificationfor “hundreds of [sole source] awards every year” (601). In many cases CMS simply canceled the awards rather than submit justification. The awarding of contracts was slipshod at best, but to many it reeked of corruption. 25 Brown told the committee what most already knew. He reviewed the number of holdover leases, noting the increase since Blagojevich took office, and described the problems for the state. He said that the PPB had requested the adoption of rule revisions that would identify which improvements for leased facilities were permanent and which were temporary. The purpose of the rules would be to prevent lessors from making permanent improvements on their properties with state money. No rules were ever adopted. The PPB suspected that the refusal to negotiate new leases and to adopt rules, along with allowing wide latitude to lessors, was a conscious effort designed to reward lessors for campaign contributions. While Brown’s testimony was intriguing, raised speculation, and highlighted areas for future investigations, it provided no specific evidence of wrongdoing.
    Ed Bedore was called to add detail to Brown’s remarks. A former aide to Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley, grandfatherly in appearance, and with a reputation for financial acumen, he had the respect and confidence of both Republican and Democratic members of the committee. Bedore proceeded to give facts and figures and pointed out specific instances related to millions of dollars’ worth of potential waste that the PPB found at CMS because of incompetent or intentional mismanagement. Referring to past Chicago Tribune articles that mentioned the price of influence to the Blagojevich administration, Bedore told the committee that everyone had heard about the $25,000 club, but the owner of one of the properties he cited in his testimony was a member of the $50,000 club. Emphatically, he stated that the examples he presented to the committee “have cost or would have costs to the people of the State of Illinois approximately $6 million in additional costs,” and then cited Sam Adam Jr., one of the governor’s attorneys, who said, “If the people of Illinois suffer, the governor will step aside.” Bedore started to elaborate on Adam’s remark when Genson interrupted. “This is inappropriate. This whole topic is inappropriate and this gentleman’s statements are inappropriate,” he said. Currie agreed that the remarks were “a bit over the top.” Trying to emphasize the connection between campaign contributions and CMS procurement, Bedore concluded that the PPB review had gone back just a few years and had saved $6 million by not approving leases because “the rates were too high or the space [rented] was too much” (612–13).
    The committee needed more than emotion and Chicago Tribune stories, however. It needed specifics, tangible evidence of quid pro quo, of pay to play. Lou Lang, a designated committee monitor, probed the witnesses. He set the tone of his questions by first explaining that he needed to review the testimony and distinguish between gross