Stone Rocks the Boat

Chicago Reader

Published May 20, 2004

By Ben Joravsky

Pubic access TV's running out of money, and Mayor Daley's against the proposal that would save it. But public access backers have turned to a surprising source for help: 50th Ward alderman Bernard Stone, who's not exactly known for his independence. Stone's faithfully followed every mayor-except for Harold Washington-since he came to the council back in 1973.

So why the current rebellion? Could it be that the alderman is finally listening to his reform-minded son Jay Stone, who co-hosts a public access talk show?

Under the terms of an agreement with the city, cable service providers such as Comcast and RCN are obligated to turn over a portion of their service fees to Chicago Access Network Television, or CAN TV, which uses the money to run its noncommercial, community-generated programming.

The problem, according to Berny Stone, is that there's no backup financing when one of the cable companies falls behind on its payments, as has happened with RCN twice in the last four years. At the moment RCN owes CAN TV about $600,000. If the station doesn't get it, CAN TV will have to lay off staff and cut back programming.

And so far the city's efforts to get the company to pay up have been unsuccessful-RCN is headed toward Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Mayor Daley says he supports CAN TV But he doesn't support it enough to fund it directly out of the city's corporate budget. So CAN TV and its backers turned to Stone.

"Public access does a tremendous job for the people of Chicago-I call it the voice of the people," Stone says. "It's the only place where anybody can get on and talk, and talk uncensored. You can say anything, and that's the beauty of it. Sometimes it gets aldermen like me get in all kinds of trouble. People say, 'How dare they use the language they do!' Well, it's 'cause they talk like people on the street. People from churches get on there, and people from the street get on there."

Currently CAN TV makes do with a $2.2 million budget. "This is a pittance for that industry," says Stone. "Two million means what? A half a minute on Friends! A half a minute on the Super Bowl? We have to have some perspective."

In April, Stone came up with a solution for CAN TV's budget woes: fund it directly out of the city's $5 billion corporate budget. "That way there's no uncertainty year to year if the cable providers don't pay," he says.

Stone bounced his idea off one of Daley s aides. But Daley keeps a tight rein on the corporate budget-it's the only one he controls directly. If he limits expenses he can tell voters he's keeping taxes low, even as all the other municipal entities-parks and schools, for example-raise them.

"I told [the aide] what I was going to do and he said, 'Don't introduce it,'" says Stone. "I said, 'Look, it's only $2 million out of $5 billion-its peanuts.' He said, 'Yeah, but we don't want to take it out of the city budget.' Well, of course Mayor Daley doesn't ever want stuff to come out of the city budget."

Despite the aides admonition, Stone introduced the measure at the City Council's meeting on May 5. It was sent to the finance committee, chaired by 14th Ward alderman Edward Burke. "Ed Burkes a friend of mine, and I don't think it will be buried," Stone says.

His newfound independence has caught his fellow aldermen off guard. Stone's been known to blow his stack (one of his most memorable City Council eruptions came in 1986, when he angrily called Congressman Luis Gutierrez, then an alderman, a "little pip-squeak"). But he's not known for introducing legislation against Daley's wishes.

Alderman Stone says he felt compelled to act because he "loves" public access TV ("I watch it all the time") and would hate to see it wither. "I don't want to make a big deal about this," says Stone. "I wouldn't say I'm defying the mayor. Why do you have to use that word? Let's say we disagree."

In any regard, Stone's independence on cable puts him more in line with Jay, who typically finds himself at odds with his father on local matters. A 45-year-old therapist specializing in hypnosis, Jay Stone advocates election-code reforms that would erase the advantages that have made Daley loyalists like Berny virtually impossible to unseat.

Against his fathers wishes Jay ran a long-shot campaign against 32nd Ward alderman Ted Matlak last year. Not only did the elder Stone support Matlak-he lambasted his son for running, calling him an "embarrassment" who "doesn't know what he's doing" and saying that he had "absolutely no understanding of politics."

From Berny's perspective the proper way for a rookie to run for alderman is the way he did: join a ward organization, put in your time, then seek the organization's backing when a vacancy opens. Plus, Matlak's mentor, committeeman Terry Gabinski, is one of Berny's oldest political friends.

"I told Jay, 'Terry's a good friend,' and Jay ran anyway," says Berny. "He feels Matlak's a do-nothing alderman, and to a certain extent Jay may be right. I don't know. I don't live in the 32nd Ward."

According to Berny, Jay allowed himself to be talked into running by allies of 1st Ward alderman Manny Flores, who was challenging incumbent Jesse Granato.

"Jays problem that he believes this stuff-he thinks its for real. Some guys told him, 'We'll support you.' Yeah, sure. They just wanted him to run so that Terry (Gabinski) would have to use all his troops to help Matlak. Jay was a tool. They used him to defeat Granato."

Jay Stone got only 26 percent of the vote against Matlak. But Matlak outspent him by a margin of four to one.

The father and son remain close, regularly debating issues over dinner.

"It's true, my father never wanted me to run-he let me know that from the start," Jay says. "A funny story about that. On the first Saturday after I announced my candidacy my dad and I went to a Chinese restaurant.

After dinner I pulled out a fortune cookie that said 'You are independent politically.' I showed him the fortune and said, 'Dad, there is a god.' And my dad said to me, 'Yes,, but God doesn't work in Chinese restaurants.'"

Jay Stone says he feels no grudges against his father.

"I take his criticism as that of one politician criticizing another not as a father criticizing his son. He said I was an embarrassment and that I didn't know what I was doing. I took that to mean that I didn't know what I was doing could hurt him, Berny, through political retribution. In politics you want as many friends as possible. My dad really was against me running, I think, because he didn't want Gabinski and Matlak to blame him."

Did Jay convince Berny to break from Daley on cable funding? Both Jay and Berny say no. "We don't even talk about it," says Berny.

So what does Jay think of Berny's sudden streak of independence on public access funding? He's not impressed. "I think it could be a ploy," he says. "You know how it goes. Aldermen front ideas for the mayor all the time. So Daley has my dad introduce the idea and he sees the response. If the response is favorable--if they get letters pouring in saying, 'Please save CAN TV'-it passes. If they don't get a favorable response it quietly dies. So really all the pressure's still on public access supporters to show their support. This stuff happens all the time. Aldermen take the heat and Daley's protected. Then Daley repays the alderman for their loyalty at a later point with some favor or another. I've actually learned a lot about Chicago politics from watching my dad."

back to top