| What is the Illinois Energy Consortium? |
| The IEC is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation founded in 1999 to sell electricity and natural gas to school districts throughout Illinois. |
| What’s the controversy about? |
| The controversy is over the fact that many Illinois school districts signed contracts with the IEC using a no-bid business model.
Also, according to an article by education reporter Diane Rado in the March 5, 2007 Chicago Tribune, at least $4.5 million has been paid by the IEC to its three sponsoring organizations in referral fees. The sponsoring organizations (see FAQs below) are supposed to have the best interests of Illinois school districts at heart.
Taking $4.5 million from school districts to refer those school districts to the IEC and its no-bid business model shows that these taxpayer-funded lobbying organizations care more about lining their own pockets than about the financial health of Illinois school districts. |
| Why are no-bid energy contracts a problem? |
| When school districts do not obtain competitive bids, they don’t know whether they are getting commodities such as natural gas and electricity for the best possible price. We expect our school boards to be responsible by confirming they aren’t paying more than they need to for these essential supplies. |
| Is it illegal not to get bids? |
| A lawsuit has been filed against District 211, one of the many Illinois school districts that entered into a no-bid contract with the IEC. The lawsuit was filed by Bill Tarsitano. His claim is that when District 211 signed a contract with the IEC without considering bids from other natural gas and electricity vendors, it was violating Illinois law that requires school districts to obtain competitive bids whenever they are spending more than $10,000.
The judge is expected to rule in this case in May 2007.
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| What if the judge says it is okay not to get bids? |
| In that case, the only recourse citizens in districts that are buying energy from the IEC will be to put pressure on their school board members to do the right thing, and use a competitive bidding process to ensure that precious resources are not being wasted. |
| How can I find out if my district buys energy from the IEC or another energy consortium? |
| On this website, we have a list of Districts we believe buy energy from the IEC and other energy consortiums in Illinois. You can click on the list here.
If your school district is NOT on the list, we urge you to place a phone call to your District’s administrative office and ask who sells electricity and natural gas to your schools. (Schools can buy natural gas and electricity from two different companies so your District might get electricity from one company and natural gas from another. You may also have to ask if these utilities are purchased through a consortium. That information may not be volunteered.)
If you discover that your school district buys either electricity or natural gas from the IEC or other energy consortium and it is not on the list we have started to compile, please send an email to:
Please help by performing this small but important part of citizen journalism!!
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| Who started the IEC? |
The IEC was and is sponsored by the following three Illinois associations:
- Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB)
- Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA)
- Illinois Association of School Business Officials (IASBO)
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| What are those groups? |
| The IASB, IASA and IASBO are non-profit special-interest associations that lobby the state legislature in Springfield for a legislative agenda that conforms to the interests of their members (school administrators, school business officials, and superintendents) as well as providing some services.
For example, the IASA says:
“The Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA) is the premier advocacy organization for school administrators in the state.” |
| Are these Associations part of the government? |
| Illinois taxpayers fund these Associations through dues paid to each of the Associations from school districts. Even though the Associations support the special-interest legislative agendas of their members, their members—who set the legislative agendas of the Associations—do not pay for their own memberships. The membership dues are paid by the school districts-which means, by taxpayers.
The Associations are not part of the government, although they are indirectly supported by the taxpayer. They are private. They are not subject to open records laws, open meetings laws or any other oversight by the government.
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| That doesn’t sound right. How come I’ve never heard of this before? |
| We agree that it doesn't pass the smell test. The fact that these Associations are raking in literally millions of dollars in referral fees from the IEC using its no-bid business model is definitely a problem. |
| I feel betrayed. |
| So do many other citizens when they hear about this. |
| Why are my tax dollars supporting these groups? |
| We believe that your tax dollars are supporting these rogue Associations simply because they have been flying under-the-radar. We believe that most taxpayers do not believe that their money should be handed over to private, special-interest Associations that use that money to lobby for their own legislative agenda—one that the voters have no control over and that frequently works against our interests. |
| Now that I know about these Associations, what can I do? |
| We will be collecting reports and ideas from citizens around Illinois about how they’ve decided to confront this problem.
Asking your school board members to pledge to not sending tax dollars to these Associations seems like a great first step.
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| Is there more than 1 energy consortium in Illinois? |
| Yes, we know of at least 3 energy consortiums within Illinois. The others are the Intergovernment Utilities Purchasing Cooperative (IUPC) and NIMEC. We will be updating this page with more information about them as soon as we get it. |
| What else can I do? |
Here are some ideas:
- Find out if your school district buys its energy from the IEC.
- If it does, find out if it went through a competitive bid process first.
- Let us know what you find out.
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- Share the news about what you find out with others in your school district
- Start a blog
- Talk to or email the education reporters in your school district
- Get on our email list for updates and ideas
- If your school district is buying energy from the IEC or another energy consortium on a no-bid business model, contact the members of your school board to express your concern.
- Ask your school board to stop paying dues to the three organizations that sponsor the IEC.
- Believe you can make a difference.
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