Newcomer is perfect for water district

Newcomer is perfect for water district

February 12, 2006

BY CAROL MARIN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST - Copyright byu the Chicago Sun Times

Some political candidates dream of being elected president. Some aspire to Congress. Still others yearn for the lofty status of alderman.

Not Debra Shore. Her dream? To become a commissioner of the little-known and mostly misunderstood Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD for short). The unofficial motto of the MWRD says it all: ''You flush. And we take care of it from there.''

Few of us want to dwell on the details of that promise. Sludge is not sexy, but I guess it is to Shore. At 53, she is many things: an environmentalist, the founder and editor of Chicago Wilderness magazine and a longtime activist in efforts to conserve and manage public land and water.

In the upcoming March 21 primary, Shore is one of nine candidates running for three open commissioner slots on the MWRD. It's a race that usually generates little interest and absolutely no excitement.

There are $1 billion reasons why it should. That's the 2006 budget of this little-known unit of government. And, this being Chicago, where there's money, there are contracts and jobs.

The last time I really focused on the MWRD was a decade ago. On Jan. 5, 1996, I was standing with a camera crew outside its main office at 100 E. Erie. On that ill-fated day, FBI agents and the U.S. Attorney's office descended on the place, hauling away boxes of records and striking fear in the hearts of at least two of its elected commissioners. One of them, Thomas Fuller, was ultimately convicted of public corruption in the government's Operation Silver Shovel probe. Another, Joseph Gardner, died before he could be indicted.

Even today, there are questions of whether the tentacles of the current Hired Truck corruption probe at City Hall have reached into the MWRD as well. Have the feds shown up with search warrants or subpoenas within the last two years?

''I can't disclose that,'' Jack Farnan, general superintendent of the MWRD, said by phone last week, citing the advice of the district's attorneys.

Beyond the usual Chicago questions of jobs, contracts and the possibilities for corruption, there are even more pressing matters for voters to consider in this race.

Water.

We've taken it for granted for so long, we don't think about it enough. But water wars are a story not only in other parts of the world, they are becoming a concern in the United States.

The source and supply of clean, fresh water is every day becoming a more pressing worry. And the MWRD's work becomes all the more important. It not only treats sewage but, in a region where the Great Lakes account for one-fifth of the world's (yes, the world's) fresh surface water, it has a leadership role in conservation policy.

"Water is going to be the issue," says Shore.

But before she can attack the issues, she's got to get herself elected. Remember, this is Chicago.

Shore, who looks a little like the actress/comedian Lily Tomlin, is making her first bid for public office. She has lined up lots of lakefront liberal support, including Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and former 43rd Ward Ald. Martin Oberman. She's gotten the backing of the Sierra Club, which hasn't made an endorsement in this race since it backed Joanne Alter in the mid-1980s.

But what's more interesting is the alliance she's forged with the distinctly-not-lakefront-liberal set.

There's a lot of competition for this part-time, $55,000-a-year post that comes with full health and pension benefits and three administrative assistants. Of the nine Democrats running in the primary, three of them have been anointed by the regular Democratic Party: Terrence O'Brien, James Harris and Barrett Pedersen.

Three others have picked up support from a variety of aldermen or township committeemen: Dean Maragos, Boguslaw Stefanski and Lewis Powell.

But Shore and two other candidates have formed a most interesting, some would say unlikely, alliance. She has joined forces with Frank Avila, who has the backing of 33rd Ward boss Dick Mell. And with Patricia Horton, who comes out of state Sen. Ricky Hendon's West Side political organization. Together, they have fashioned a 21st century rainbow coalition because Shore is Jewish and gay, Avila is Hispanic, and Horton is African American. Each is campaigning in the others' strongholds to broaden their base.

You could argue that this coalition looks more pragmatic than progressive for someone like Shore. And it is. Then again, I think back to when Alter was running in the 1980s. A feminist and a progressive, she nonetheless had to kiss the rings of party regulars from time to time to stay in office.

Debra Shore is, above all else, an environmentalist. She's a water policy wonk. She even has a water-y sounding name.

She's got my vote.