The Illinois Pension Disaster: What Went Wrong?

Peter Chan, Eric Madiar, Dave McKinney, and Sheila Weinberg

Thursday, Sep 24, 2015

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Speakers

Peter K.M. Chan

Peter K.M. Chan brings two decades of experience at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to his litigation and counseling work. He represents public companies, financial services firms, and other organizations in litigation, investigations, and regulatory actions by federal agencies. Peter also advises clients on compliance and regulatory matters impacting the municipal securities markets and investments by public pensions and other institutions. His tenure at the SEC, as well as a stint as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, have given Peter experience with civil and criminal matters. At the SEC, Peter served as assistant regional director in the Chicago Regional Office, where he led investigations and litigations of high-profile enforcement cases. In the course of his SEC career, he handled corporate issuer disclosure and reporting violations, financial fraud, auditor independence violations, insider trading, broker-dealer misconduct and failure to supervise cases, hedge fund and investment company fraud, and Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley violations. As the head of the Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit at the SEC’s Chicago Regional Office, he oversaw cases involving municipalities and public pensions throughout the Midwest, including disclosure failures by states, cities, and underwriters in municipal bond offerings; pay-to-play and public corruption; and securities fraud victimizing municipalities and public pensions. Peter’s experience in criminal securities fraud cases includes serving as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois in a criminal investigation into market abuse by a Chicago broker-dealer, resulting in guilty pleas by several senior executives at the firm. Peter frequently speaks on securities law and white collar enforcement topics, including as a guest lecturer for Professor David Ruder’s advanced securities regulation seminar at Northwestern University School of Law.

Eric Madiar

Eric Madiar is a Springfield-based lobbyist and attorney with over 15 years of experience in the legislative, litigation, and regulatory arenas, and he has significant relationships with decision-makers in both the Illinois House and Senate. He launched Madiar Government Relations LLC in December 2014. Most recently, Eric served as the Chief Legal Counsel to Illinois Senate President John J. Cullerton and acted as Senate Parliamentarian since January 2009. During that time, Eric was President Cullerton's point person on, among other things, public pension reform legislation as well as drafted the rules for the Senate's historic 2009 impeachment trial of then-Governor Rod Blagojevich and the 2010 legislation reforming McCormick Place’s “Union Work Rules.” On the pension issue, Eric wrote the first comprehensive article analyzing the history and scope of the Illinois Constitution’s Public Pension Clause (Article XIII, Section 5), and several notable Illinois attorneys have referred to that article as the new standard text for understanding the Pension Clause. Mr. Madiar has extensive experience drafting, negotiating, and shepherding legislation affecting public utilities and telecommunications, gaming, property tax exemptions, economic development, the election code, the procurement code, municipal home rule authority, venture capital, and executive agency reorganizations. Born and raised in Chicago, Eric received his J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law and his B.A. in History from Truman State University. In 2012, he was named one of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin's 40 Under 40, and in February 2015 he was featured in the Law Bulletin with news of launching Madiar Government Relations LLC. Mr. Madiar is an active member of Blessed Sacrament Parish, and he is also a member of the Young Philanthropists and the Advisory Committee of the Institute of Government and Policy Affairs at the University of Illinois. Springfield residents since 2005, Eric and his wife Jennifer have three young children.

Dave McKinney

Dave McKinney is Thomson Reuters’ Chicago-based political and government finance reporter for Illinois and the city and has covered state politics for 20 years. Before joining Thomson Reuters, he was the long-time Springfield bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times, and last year he was listed among the best statehouse reporters in the country by the Washington Post. Since leaving the Sun-Times last fall, McKinney has had work published in the New York Times, Chicago Magazine, Crain’s Chicago Business, and Illinois Issues, and he has been a repeat guest on WTTW-TV’s “Chicago Tonight.” Last November, he provided election-night analysis on WMAQ-TV. McKinney has won the Chicago Headline Club’s Lisagor Award for political and government reporting, Capitolbeat’s award for beat reporting, the Chicago Bar Association’s Herman Kogan Award for Meritorious Achievement, and the Chicago Journalists Association’s Sarah Brown Boyden Award. McKinney also was named Journalist of the Year by Eastern Illinois University in 2009 and inducted into the EIU Journalism Hall of Fame. A lifelong Illinoisan with family roots downstate, McKinney is married to Ann Liston and has two children, Matt and Laura.

Sheila A. Weinberg

Sheila A. Weinberg, CPA, is the founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting, whose mission is to compel governments to produce financial reports that are understandable, reliable, transparent, and correct. Since 2002, Ms. Weinberg has led Truth in Accounting's research initiatives, which include "The Truth about Balanced Budgets: a Fifty State Study," the "Financial State of the States," and the "Financial State of the Union." Because of her expertise in governmental budgeting and accounting, Ms. Weinberg has testified before the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB), the Government Accounting Standards Board, and numerous state legislative hearings on matters of proper government accounting. Ms. Weinberg earned her Bachelor of Accounting degree from the University of Denver, which she attended on an academic scholarship. She received her certified public accountant (CPA) credential in 1981. Ms. Weinberg was active in the Concord Coalition from its inception in 1992, and was honored in 1998 with their Outstanding Volunteer Award. Ms. Weinberg is a member of the Association of Government Accountants' Financial Management Standards Board, the University of Denver's School of Accountancy Advisory Board, and the Union League Club of Chicago. She has served as an independent legislative adviser to members of Congress on federal budgeting and accounting issues. She served as a member of the Comeback America Initiative Advisory Council, the Academy of Government Accountability Advisory Council, and two FASAB Task Forces. Her commentary on the federal budget, Social Security, Medicare, and other national issues has appeared repeatedly in numerous publications, including USA Today, Chicago Tribune, and Chicago Sun-Times. She has been a guest on local and national television and radio shows, and is often engaged to speak on federal and state budget and accounting issues.