Full Text of HR0821 102nd General Assembly
HR0821 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | 3 | | Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of former | 4 | | State Representative, gubernatorial Chief of Staff, | 5 | | Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority CEO, and Regional | 6 | | Transportation Authority Chair Jim Reilly, who passed away on | 7 | | Monday, April 4, 2022; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, Jim Reilly was born on January 31, 1945 in | 9 | | Springfield, a native of Illinois and a graduate of the | 10 | | Springfield public school system; he graduated from | 11 | | Springfield High School in 1962; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, Jim Reilly's college years were spent at Illinois | 13 | | College in Jacksonville, and his law school years were spent | 14 | | at the University of Chicago in Chicago; he received his law | 15 | | degree in 1972; and | 16 | | WHEREAS, During his time in law school, Jim Reilly also | 17 | | spent two gap years teaching language arts to eighth-graders | 18 | | in Winchester; and | 19 | | WHEREAS, During his time in Winchester and inspired by his | 20 | | father, who had been a Springfield lawyer in general practice | 21 | | as well as a staunch Republican, Jim Reilly did district |
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| 1 | | office work for a local state representative, Thomas C. Rose; | 2 | | during this time, he made many friends and local connections | 3 | | throughout the Jacksonville area; and | 4 | | WHEREAS, After graduating from law school in 1972 and | 5 | | passing the bar, Jim Reilly was invited to work with a practice | 6 | | in Jacksonville and served as a lawyer in Morgan County, | 7 | | moving laterally to become the first full-time city attorney | 8 | | of Jacksonville; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, When Tom Rose decided not to run for re-election | 10 | | as state representative in 1976, Jim Reilly ran to be one of | 11 | | the three representatives of the Jacksonville-centered 49th | 12 | | District, one of the former multi-member districts that the | 13 | | Illinois House used to have, and he was elected; and | 14 | | WHEREAS, Jim Reilly joined a large class of freshmen | 15 | | Republicans in the 80th General Assembly in January 1977, | 16 | | headed by future Governor Jim Edgar; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, When Jim Edgar became the legislative liaison for | 18 | | Governor Jim Thompson in 1979, Thompson and Edgar began | 19 | | working closely with Jim Reilly as a gubernatorial ally and | 20 | | lawmaker in the Illinois House of Representatives; and | 21 | | WHEREAS, Jim Reilly then became Governor Thompson's chief |
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| 1 | | counsel in 1983; after the Governor's then-Chief of Staff Art | 2 | | Quern left a few months later, Gov. Thompson promoted Jim | 3 | | Reilly to be his chief of staff; and | 4 | | WHEREAS, In 1985, one of the major events in public policy | 5 | | of that year was a major cost overrun in a construction project | 6 | | in Chicago, the structure that became the McCormick Place | 7 | | North Building with 705,500 square feet of exhibit space; | 8 | | built to maintain what was then McCormick Place's identity as | 9 | | the world's largest convention center, the construction | 10 | | project developed a major cost overrun that required a State | 11 | | bailout; and | 12 | | WHEREAS, Jim Reilly's chief-of-staff leadership helped | 13 | | develop bipartisan support for the bailout; the governmental | 14 | | structure of McCormick Place was reorganized, and the new law | 15 | | achieved a record of cooperation between the State of | 16 | | Illinois, the City of Chicago, and the Chicago area on | 17 | | infrastructure issues; and | 18 | | WHEREAS, In his fourth campaign for the Governor's chair | 19 | | in 1986, Jim Thompson made "Build Illinois" infrastructure a | 20 | | key plank in his election effort and was re-elected; and | 21 | | WHEREAS, Jim Reilly left Springfield in 1989 to become the | 22 | | chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Pier and |
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| 1 | | Exposition Authority, the governing authority over McCormick | 2 | | Place; under his leadership, State and Chicago-area | 3 | | infrastructure issues had a common point of intersection; and | 4 | | WHEREAS, In 1993, Governor Jim Edgar asked Jim Reilly to | 5 | | return to the gubernatorial chief of staff office; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, In his second term as chief of staff, Jim Reilly | 7 | | helped lead negotiations and put together the first Hospital | 8 | | Assessment Program to close the growing gap in Medicaid | 9 | | funding between State general revenues and medical care costs; | 10 | | and | 11 | | WHEREAS, After working in 1994 through Governor Edgar's | 12 | | successful re-election that year, Jim Reilly returned to the | 13 | | Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA); from | 14 | | 1995-1999, the MPEA oversaw construction and completion of the | 15 | | McCormick Place South Building and the renovation of Chicago's | 16 | | Navy Pier; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, In 1999, Jim Reilly joined the private sector, | 18 | | becoming the CEO of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, | 19 | | continuing until 2004 in his role as a coordinator of what has | 20 | | become one of northeastern Illinois's largest industries; and | 21 | | WHEREAS, Cutting back from full-time service, Jim Reilly |
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| 1 | | became the non-executive chairperson of the Regional | 2 | | Transportation Authority (RTA) in 2005, continuing his record | 3 | | of prioritizing infrastructure and bringing people from all | 4 | | regions and political parties together; he helped lead the | 5 | | financial and governmental restructuring of the RTA and served | 6 | | in this role for five years until 2010; and | 7 | | WHEREAS, When the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition | 8 | | Authority ran into a new funding crisis similar to that of | 9 | | 1985, Jim Reilly was there; returning to the MPEA as CEO once | 10 | | again in 2012 and serving until 2015; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, Continuing his lifelong interest in | 12 | | infrastructure, Jim Reilly also chaired the Capital | 13 | | Development Board, the senior panel overseeing State-financed | 14 | | non-transportation capital projects; and | 15 | | WHEREAS, Although his final decades were spent in Chicago, | 16 | | Jim Reilly remained a downstater in his heart; to his last day, | 17 | | he maintained his lifelong loyalty to the St. Louis Cardinals; | 18 | | and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, A tower of strength to Jim Reilly in his final | 20 | | decades, as he worked to bring people together, was his wife | 21 | | Veronica Lynch, who has her own ties and history with the | 22 | | highest levels of Illinois politics; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, On the opposite side of Lake Michigan from | 2 | | McCormick Place and Navy Pier, Jim Reilly and Veronica Lynch | 3 | | owned the Sandpiper Inn in Union Pier, Michigan, which they | 4 | | operated as a bed and breakfast inn for guests during their | 5 | | ownership; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, During their ownership, guests could go to the | 7 | | Sandpiper Inn and, on weekends, eat downstate Illinois-style | 8 | | pancake breakfasts cooked personally by the former two-time | 9 | | gubernatorial chief of staff; therefore, be it
| 10 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 11 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 12 | | we mourn the death of Jim Reilly, a major figure in the history | 13 | | of Chicago and in the history of the entire State of Illinois; | 14 | | and be it further | 15 | | RESOLVED, That we recognize the heritage that Jim Reilly | 16 | | and other men and women like him leave behind them as forgers | 17 | | of consensus and agreement on challenging issues of public | 18 | | policy; instead of tearing things apart, he put things | 19 | | together like sections of track in the model train sets that he | 20 | | loved; and be it further
| 21 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be |
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| 1 | | presented to Jim Reilly's wife, Veronica Lynch, as a token of | 2 | | our esteem and gratitude for the life of Jim Reilly of | 3 | | Illinois.
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