HR0821 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0821 LRB102 27187 MST 38761 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of former State Representative, gubernatorial Chief of Staff, Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority CEO, and Regional Transportation Authority Chair Jim Reilly, who passed away on Monday, April 4, 2022; and

WHEREAS, Jim Reilly was born on January 31, 1945 in Springfield, a native of Illinois and a graduate of the Springfield public school system; he graduated from Springfield High School in 1962; and

WHEREAS, Jim Reilly's college years were spent at Illinois College in Jacksonville, and his law school years were spent at the University of Chicago in Chicago; he received his law degree in 1972; and

WHEREAS, During his time in law school, Jim Reilly also spent two gap years teaching language arts to eighth-graders in Winchester; and

WHEREAS, During his time in Winchester and inspired by his father, who had been a Springfield lawyer in general practice as well as a staunch Republican, Jim Reilly did district office work for a local state representative, Thomas C. Rose; during this time, he made many friends and local connections throughout the Jacksonville area; and

WHEREAS, After graduating from law school in 1972 and passing the bar, Jim Reilly was invited to work with a practice in Jacksonville and served as a lawyer in Morgan County, moving laterally to become the first full-time city attorney of Jacksonville; and

WHEREAS, When Tom Rose decided not to run for re-election as state representative in 1976, Jim Reilly ran to be one of the three representatives of the Jacksonville-centered 49th District, one of the former multi-member districts that the Illinois House used to have, and he was elected; and

WHEREAS, Jim Reilly joined a large class of freshmen Republicans in the 80th General Assembly in January 1977, headed by future Governor Jim Edgar; and

WHEREAS, When Jim Edgar became the legislative liaison for Governor Jim Thompson in 1979, Thompson and Edgar began working closely with Jim Reilly as a gubernatorial ally and lawmaker in the Illinois House of Representatives; and

WHEREAS, Jim Reilly then became Governor Thompson's chief counsel in 1983; after the Governor's then-Chief of Staff Art Quern left a few months later, Gov. Thompson promoted Jim Reilly to be his chief of staff; and

WHEREAS, In 1985, one of the major events in public policy of that year was a major cost overrun in a construction project in Chicago, the structure that became the McCormick Place North Building with 705,500 square feet of exhibit space; built to maintain what was then McCormick Place's identity as the world's largest convention center, the construction project developed a major cost overrun that required a State bailout; and

WHEREAS, Jim Reilly's chief-of-staff leadership helped develop bipartisan support for the bailout; the governmental structure of McCormick Place was reorganized, and the new law achieved a record of cooperation between the State of Illinois, the City of Chicago, and the Chicago area on infrastructure issues; and

WHEREAS, In his fourth campaign for the Governor's chair in 1986, Jim Thompson made "Build Illinois" infrastructure a key plank in his election effort and was re-elected; and

WHEREAS, Jim Reilly left Springfield in 1989 to become the chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the governing authority over McCormick Place; under his leadership, State and Chicago-area infrastructure issues had a common point of intersection; and

WHEREAS, In 1993, Governor Jim Edgar asked Jim Reilly to return to the gubernatorial chief of staff office; and

WHEREAS, In his second term as chief of staff, Jim Reilly helped lead negotiations and put together the first Hospital Assessment Program to close the growing gap in Medicaid funding between State general revenues and medical care costs; and

WHEREAS, After working in 1994 through Governor Edgar's successful re-election that year, Jim Reilly returned to the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA); from 1995-1999, the MPEA oversaw construction and completion of the McCormick Place South Building and the renovation of Chicago's Navy Pier; and

WHEREAS, In 1999, Jim Reilly joined the private sector, becoming the CEO of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, continuing until 2004 in his role as a coordinator of what has become one of northeastern Illinois's largest industries; and

WHEREAS, Cutting back from full-time service, Jim Reilly became the non-executive chairperson of the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) in 2005, continuing his record of prioritizing infrastructure and bringing people from all regions and political parties together; he helped lead the financial and governmental restructuring of the RTA and served in this role for five years until 2010; and

WHEREAS, When the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority ran into a new funding crisis similar to that of 1985, Jim Reilly was there; returning to the MPEA as CEO once again in 2012 and serving until 2015; and

WHEREAS, Continuing his lifelong interest in infrastructure, Jim Reilly also chaired the Capital Development Board, the senior panel overseeing State-financed non-transportation capital projects; and

WHEREAS, Although his final decades were spent in Chicago, Jim Reilly remained a downstater in his heart; to his last day, he maintained his lifelong loyalty to the St. Louis Cardinals; and

WHEREAS, A tower of strength to Jim Reilly in his final decades, as he worked to bring people together, was his wife Veronica Lynch, who has her own ties and history with the highest levels of Illinois politics; and

WHEREAS, On the opposite side of Lake Michigan from McCormick Place and Navy Pier, Jim Reilly and Veronica Lynch owned the Sandpiper Inn in Union Pier, Michigan, which they operated as a bed and breakfast inn for guests during their ownership; and

WHEREAS, During their ownership, guests could go to the Sandpiper Inn and, on weekends, eat downstate Illinois-style pancake breakfasts cooked personally by the former two-time gubernatorial chief of staff; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the death of Jim Reilly, a major figure in the history of Chicago and in the history of the entire State of Illinois; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we recognize the heritage that Jim Reilly and other men and women like him leave behind them as forgers of consensus and agreement on challenging issues of public policy; instead of tearing things apart, he put things together like sections of track in the model train sets that he loved; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Jim Reilly's wife, Veronica Lynch, as a token of our esteem and gratitude for the life of Jim Reilly of Illinois.