Sagas: The Infrastructure Guard
Short illustrated video stories from GOTB that explain how public decisions about power, water, technology and city services reach your neighborhood. Each episode runs about a minute and links to the public sources behind it.
Now showing
0:55Four Rings
The White House accord on super intelligence asks for four layers of checks. No fines, no deadlines, and companies pick their own auditors. Meet the four heroes who ask who checks the checkers.
EP 155 sec
Watch Episode 1 →All episodes
0:55Four Rings
The White House AI accord, its four layers of checks, and why power and water stay local.
0:44Baseload: Who Gets the Megawatts First?
A fictional plant finds 890 more megawatts. One dry question: who gets them first?
0:50Pay for the Pipe, or Pay for the Flood
A fictional catch basin truck, a real Chicago drain program, and the numbers behind it.
Meet the cast
I’m Declan Shea, retired bridge-tender and your narrator. These are the folks who explain how the city actually works.
Meet the whole cast →
Three questions in every story
Who builds it?
Every wire, pipe and data hall has someone who put it there and someone who approved it.
Who pays?
New capacity has a bill. The question is who ends up holding it: ratepayers, neighbors or the builder.
Who checks?
Rules only matter if someone independent looks at the work and says so out loud.
Fictional characters. The Infrastructure Guard and all of its characters, places and events are original GOTB creations. Any resemblance to real persons, companies or facilities is coincidental. Real-world facts in each episode link to public sources.
About
Meet Michael E. Brown
President and Managing Partner, GOTB Consulting, LLC · Chicago
Michael E. Brown has 20+ years of governmental and municipal consulting and lobbying experience. He was lead contract negotiator on the $8.5B O’Hare 21 program and the $800M O’Hare rail extension, and lead lobbyist and contract negotiator on the $400M Chicago Department of Water Management lateral redevelopment. (Dollar figures are program sizes, not GOTB fees.)
He has worked with the Illinois legislature and public officials on public-private partnership (P3) policy, and has consulted to the Cook County Commission on reducing duplicative administrative offices. He is a frequent speaker at governmental and municipal functions, focuses on good government and healthier social and economic solutions for safe, successful neighborhoods, lives in Chicago, and serves on the Board of the March of Dimes.
- M.S., Psychology (1997), University of Iowa
- B.S., Psychology (1995), University of Iowa
About
Meet Richard Butler
Partner, GOTB Consulting, LLC · Chicago
Richard (Rich) Butler is a partner at GOTB Consulting and a 38-year veteran of Chicago city government. From August 2019 to February 2020 he served as First Deputy Commissioner and Chief Administrative Officer of the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA), responsible for day-to-day administration and operations of O’Hare and Midway, including finance, contracts, operations, legal, human resources, workforce development, concessions, real estate and vehicle services. CDA manages the two airports with a federally funded budget of $8.5 billion. (Dollar figures are budget and program sizes, not GOTB fees.)
Before that, Rich was First Deputy Procurement Officer at the City’s Department of Procurement Services and Chief Administrative Officer of the Chicago Park District, where he oversaw procurement, audit, finance, warehousing and general administrative services on an estimated annual budget of $385 million and established district-wide policies and procedures. His City career began at the Department of Aviation as Director of Contracts Administration, and he also served as General Superintendent of the Department of Streets and Sanitation.
He completed the Chicago Accounting and Purchasing System Training Program and the City of Chicago Executive Management Program, was a key team member on the design and implementation plan for the City’s new eProcurement system, and is a member of the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing and the Purchasing Management Association of Chicago. He has served on the board of the Chicago Municipal Employees Credit Union and on the US Communities board, representing the City of Chicago, and traveled to South Korea to represent Chicago in the Kotra Alliance to bridge contracting opportunities. A native of Englewood, he attended De La Salle High School.
- B.S., Northern Illinois University
Fictional characters from GOTB’s original stories. Real-world facts always link to public sources.