While serving as vice chairman of the Illinois Office of the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor (ILSAAP) Board of Governors, Illinois Second District Appellate Court Justice Joe Birkett advocated two annual Agency contracts in 2007 and 2008 for his political "game changer" consultants who then provided him with extensive one-on-one tax-paid work.
ILSAAP contracted Reverse Spin of Wheaton from January 2008 through June 2009 for media consulting. Reverse Spin is co-owned by Dan Curry and John Pearman, self-dubbed as "game changers". Reverse Spin renamed itself Delos Communications, claiming it was after the Greek Isle; coincidentally, Delos is the middle name of one of the purveyors. From October through December 2007, the state agency had contracted with Reverse Spin's predecessor, Curry Public Strategies.
According to detailed Board minutes, these contracts were ushered in by the ILSAAP vice chairman. Activity reports submitted to ILSAAP with invoices show Reverse Spin devoted considerable one-on-one tax-paid time with their political clients -- DuPage County State's Attorney Birkett and McHenry County State's Attorney Louis Bianchi.
ILSAAP Board of Governors first discussed hiring the media consultants at a special board meeting held Aug. 30, 2007. The Board minutes read: "Board Member Haida cautioned that the client base of the media consultant should not include any entity or person who would be in conflict with the interests of prosecutors."
Yet, the political consultants' campaign work for Birkett was never brought up in the copious minutes as a potential conflict of interest in the initial 2007 contract or its renewal the following year.
