Corruption in City of Chicago Hiring Process
Alan W. Reiner, Special Agent for the FBI has filed an affidavit made in support of a criminal complaint charging Patrick Slattery together with City of Chicago officials, devised, intended to devise and participated in a scheme and artifice to defraud the Chicago of money, property, and the intangible right to the honest services of defendant Slattery and the aforementioned City employees.
In particular, Slattery participated in a scheme in which he and his co-schemers routinely manipulated the interview and selection process for certain Department of Streets & Sanitation employment positions by conducting sham interviews, falsely inflating interview scores,and otherwise guaranteeing that certain pre-selected candidates who were favored by top City officials would win the employment positions, often to the exclusion of equally or more qualified candidates. This pre-selected status was granted by City officials at times because of the prospective employee’s: association with particular political organizations or unions; contributions of labor to certain political organizations or candidates; or other influence. This fraudulent interview process, as set forth more fully below, violates federal and state laws as well as City ordinances.
You can read the complete affadavit at Newsalert.
Ex-Bridgeport Village couple building a case against City Hall
Jose and Sandra Ruiz what they thought was their dream retirement home in the Bridgeport Village development, in Mayor Richard Daley’s11th Ward, for $900,000.
And now, according to a federal lawsuit they’ve filed against the Daley administration and some of the mayor’s political clique, they lost their home and their life savings due to corruption and clout.
Read the rest of the article at the Chicago Tribune.
Tutorial: How To Find a Crooked Property Tax Lawyer Using Public Records
From “Watchdog Jenkins”:
Corruption does not exist in a vacuum; meaning that Illinois did not earn its reputation for being the US’ most corrupt state simply because of a mysterious culture of corruption that exists behind closed doors. Instead, all of Illinois’ illicit activities occur right out in the open; utilizing the inattentiveness of a State’s Attorney, Attorney General, and Illinois State Board of Elections.
But at least there’s some good news for the rest of us: we can query public records to find the leftover “crumbs” of that corruption that benefit us for a change. Of course, we’d be much better off without the corruption in the first place.
Download the PDF on how you can find corruption.
Illinois Taxpayers Pay for Madigan Goons
In the world of political warfare, Shaw Decremer is a lieutenant. His troops: an army of state workers commanded by house speaker Michael Madigan. Their enemies respectfully call them “the Madigoons.”
A FOX Chicago News investigation found scores of supposedly full-time state employees, like Decremer, jumping on and off the state payroll to practice politics for their boss.
Read the rest of the article at myfoxchicago.com
“Everybody Hates Todd” Spurs Preckwinkle Win
ANALYSIS & OPINION BY RUSS STEWART
Platitudes do not necessarily presage performance. In 2008, Barack Obama ran as a “reformer” who would bring “change.” Instead, he has governed as a typical tax-and-spend liberal Democrat.
But the proper platitudes do, however, presage victory, especially in a Cook County Democratic primary where minorities and liberals predominate. As proven by Toni Preckwinkle’s sizeable Feb. 2 victory for Cook County Board president, such buzz-words as “independent,” “reformer,” and “competent” have great impact, particularly when the incumbent, Todd Stroger, is perceived as the incompetent tax-hiking non-reformer.
In analyzing the outcome, here’s a few appropriate journalistic platitudes:
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Everybody hates Todd. Stroger’s demise eclipses mere defeat or rejection, even surpasses embarrassment or humiliation, and approaches abasement and sheer mortification. The incumbent board president got 13.6 percent of the vote. That’s an astounding personal repudiation, based on voter anger and abject loathing.
Stroger won four of 50 Chicago wards, and got a mere 41.3 percent in his home 8th Ward. Overall, he took 17.1 percent of the Chicago vote, and just 8.6 percent of the suburban vote. As for his 78,532 voters, rumors abound that there are counselors available to provide trauma therapy, either for their remorse in backing him, or for their shock in being so stupid.
The Toddler’s misguided, misgoverned four-year reign is proof positive that there is no DNA gene for political astuteness. And further proof that, in 2010, tax-hikers are doomed.
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Preckwinkle is another Obama. Preckwinkle, a 19-year black Chicago alderman who rarely dissented from the council’s Daley majority, and has no governing experience, rode a tide of anti-tax, anti-Stroger sentiment, and won countywide with 50 percent. She amassed 281,905 votes, to Terry O’Brien’s 131,896 (23 percent), Dorothy Brown’s 83,150 (14.4 percent), and Stroger’s 78,532 (13.6 percent). Total turnout was 575,483.
Derided by some as the “white liberal” candidate, and by others as the “Daley stealth” candidate, Preckwinkle, age 62, assembled an Obama-like coalition of blacks, Hispanics, and Lakefront and suburban white liberals, while running exceedingly well in white ethnic wards and townships.
According to official tallies, Preckwinkle won 34 of 50 wards, getting 47 percent of the Chicago ballots. She won 6 of 8 Hispanic-majority wards. She won 14 of 20 black-majority wards. She won all 6 Lakefront wards.
And she won 24 of 30 suburban townships, racking up 70 percent-plus in Barrington, Evanston, New Trier, Northfield and Oak Park townships. Preckwinkle also garnered over half the vote in white-majority Elk Grove, Hanover, Lyons, Maine, Niles, Palatine, Rich, River Forest, Riverside, Schaumburg and Wheeling townships.
In 2004, when Obama ran for the U.S. Senate, he got 301,199 votes (66.5 percent) in Chicago, and 163,718 (60.8 percent) in the suburbs. Obama ran exceedingly well in white liberal areas, and got 25-35 percent of the vote in white ethnic wards. The 2010 difference: Obama got near-unanimous black support, and Preckwinkle only 40 percent.
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Liberals love Toni. In Chicago’s Lakefront wards, which cast 43,187 votes, Preckwinkle got 29,944 votes (69.3 percent), to O’Brien’s 7,052 (16.3 percent) and Stroger’s 2,391 (5.5 percent). Preckwinkle also had huge margins in suburban liberal enclaves Evanston (77.9 percent) and Oak Park (73.8 percent).
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More blacks voted for the electable black than for the racially pandering black.
Stroger ran on the premise that the one-cent sales tax hike was “needed” to provide health services to minorities. That was a racist appeal. But many black voters intuitively understood that, with three blacks running, O’Brien would win if they did not coalesce behind a single opponent. In effect, a vote for Stroger or Brown, the Clerk of the Court, was a vote for O’Brien.
In the 20 black wards, turnout was 142,493. Preckwinkle got 57,892 votes (40.6 percent), carrying 12 of 14 South Side wards. Stroger got 43,430 votes (30.4 percent), winning the 8th, 21st, 24th and 34th wards. Brown got 33,645 votes (23.6 percent), winning the 29th and 37th wards.
In the suburbs, Preckwinkle won the black-majority townships of Bloom, Bremen, Calumet, Proviso and Rich, getting 53.4 percent of the total suburban vote, to Stroger’s 8.6 percent and Brown’s 11.7 percent.
Representing the south Lakefront Hyde Park area, where Obama resides, Preckwinkle is an intellectual, not a streetwise black activist. But her goal was to get 40 percent of the black vote, and at least half of that number came from black voters who wanted to keep a black in the board presidency.
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The Daley/Madigan/Burke/Lipinski/Hynes Machine did not fare thee well.
Or did it? O’Brien, the elected 14-year president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, is a longtime Daley ally with ties to the South Side. But he ran an insipid campaign, failing to establish himself as the principal alternative to Stroger. He promised to rescind the hated sales tax hike, but not cut additional taxes or spending.To win, O’Brien needed to be a demagogue. He needed to make a vote for him a vote against Stroger. He needed to make promises that appealed to white middle-class voters. He didn’t. And getting an anemic 23 percent of the countywide vote means his future political prospects are nil.
O’Brien did, however, carry ten city wards and six townships. He won the mayor’s 11th Ward (51.2 percent), Ed Burke’s 14th Ward (53.5 percent), Mike Madigan’s 13th Ward (42.1 percent), Bill Lipinski’s 23rd Ward (54.4 percent), and Tom Hynes’ 19th Ward (46.3 percent). But even in those wards, Preckwinkle ran well, getting 36.3 percent in the 11th, 27 in the 14th, 36.1 in the 13th, 36.4 in the 19th, and 31.8 in the 23rd Ward.
Pre-primary rumors abounded that Mayor Daley really wanted a black board president going into the 2011 mayoral election, so as to minimize black discontent. If so, he got his wish. If Daley wanted O’Brien to win, he would have gotten 70 percent in those wards.
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Adios, idiota. As in the 2008 Obama-McCain election, Chicago area Hispanics showed no hesitation in supporting a black (Preckwinkle) over Stroger. In the eight Hispanic-majority wards, which cast 30,826 votes, Preckwinkle got 13,795 votes (44.7 percent), to O’Brien’s 9,127 (29.6 percent) and Stroger’s 2,207 (7.1 percent). However, O’Brien won suburban Cicero (45.7 percent) and Stickney (56.7 percent) townships.
As with white ethnics, Hispanics clearly wanted to be rid of Stroger, and Preckwinkle was the best instrument.
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Whites will vote for the least objectionable black, especially if it means ousting the most objectionable black. On Chicago’s Northwest Side, where O’Brien, as the sole white candidate, was presumed to have appeal, only three wards carried for him: The 45th Ward, where O’Brien got 47.8 percent (3,827 votes), to Preckwinkle’s 43.5 percent; the 36th Ward, where O’Brien got 45.9 percent (3,341 votes), to Preckwinkle’s 38.6 percent; and the 41st Ward, where O’Brien got 51.9 percent (5,030 votes), to Preckwinkle’s 41.6 percent. Preckwinkle won the 32nd Ward (66.3 percent), 33rd Ward (55.5 percent), 38th Ward (49.4 percent), 39th Ward (49.8 percent), 40th Ward (56.9 percent), 47th Ward (67.5 percent), and 50th Ward (51.3 percent).
Why did Preckwinkle do so well? Four reasons: First, Stroger was deemed an abomination. He had to go. Second, O’Brien failed to click as a candidate. Third, Preckwinkle, by campaign’s end, loomed as the frontrunner. For voters determined to oust Stroger, a Preckwinkle vote did the deed, while an O’Brien vote was a waste.
And fourth, as demonstrated in the 2004 U.S. Senate primary (won by Obama) and the 2008 presidential primary (also won by Obama), there are substantial numbers of independents and liberals in the area who will vote for a non-white, non-conservative candidate.
“She (Preckwinkle) has never voted independently of (Mayor) Daley, has never implemented any reforms, and has not actually changed anything,” said Roger Keats, the former state senator who is the Republican candidate for board president. “I am change. She is business-as-usual.”
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Another platitude: You can’t beat somebody – however vacuous – with nobody. Preckwinkle is the midget-killer, the woman who purged Todd Stroger. To many, she’s the good Samaritan. Keats is unknown, and it will cost him $2 million to run a viable campaign.
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A final platitude: Perception defines reality. Preckwinkle is perceived by a plethora of adjectives: independent, competent, and a reformer. Like Obama, her platitudes may not presage her performance. But they are enough to enable her to win in November.
E-mail Russ@russstewart.com or visit his website at www.russstewart.com.
Culture of Corruption in Cook County Government
The Chicago Tribune released this video regarding the Better Government Association’s Anti-Corruption Report. The report lists the nearly 150 people who have been convicted of corruption, what they did and how they did it.
The serious crimes include bribery, ghost payrolling and a myriad of other scams. This corruption has cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and has cost the county government a loss of public trust.
In this election year, now is the time to get involved and fight for reform!
Melrose Park Police Commander Sentenced to 60 Days in Jail
From the Sun-Times Media Wire
Chicago - “I was afraid and I did the wrong thing.” That’s what former commander of the Melrose Park Police Department, Guy “Ric” Cervone, told the federal judge when he was allowed to speak. That statement was one of more than 100 requests for the judge’s leniency during the sentencing hearing Tuesday.
Cervone, 50, was given 60 days in jail, a $5,000 fine and 250 hours of community service. His sentence was far less than the maximum of five years in prison that his one count of obstruction charge carried and it was less than the 16 months in prison that federal prosecutors were asking for.
Cervone was indicted in July 2007 as part of ex-Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo’s operation to run a private security firm using public funds.
In July 2009, the day before Cervone was to stand federal trial, he changed his plea to guilty and admitted to corruptly influence and obstruct the administration of justice.
Between March 2003 and September 2005, Scavo directed Cervone to manipulate the police department’s time due records to make it appear that certain police officers earned more time due than they actually did, according to Cervone’s plea agreement.
Prosecutors said from 1999 to 2006 police officers were often paid twice: Performing their regular police duties and also working security or running errands for Scavo.
Cervone was commander from 2000 to 2005 and was in charge of creating and maintaining the police department’s time-due records — the accounting procedures for how officers were paid. He was the sole person at the police department during that time who created and maintained records on his computer at the police department, prosecutors said.
Cervone admitted to providing Melrose Park police officers Rocco Venute and Nello Barone with print-outs of falsified time-due records.
During the federal government’s investigation, Cervone asked Venute to lie to federal agents, according to testimony.
Cervone recited the mantra often used by other Melrose Park police officers about Scavo as to the reason for his actions: “You don’t say no to the chief.”
On Tuesday, Cervone pleaded with the judge for leniency, saying he has no children and takes care of his mother and his dogs and now is working to try to rebuild his life.
“I have lost everything,” he said, dressed in a black suit, white shirt and striped tie.
He said he is attending school to become an electrician and works as a janitor at Gottlieb Hospital in Melrose Park.
“I care for the community,” he said. “I would never do anything to hurt the community. I am doing everything to rebuild my life.”
He told the judge what he did was one mistake and it would never happen again.
“I promise this will be a one-time error,” he said.
Cervone’s plea along with about 100 letters of support from the community seemed to have an impact on the judge’s decision. About 15 people, made up of family and friends, were in the courtroom during the sentencing.
U.S. Judge Joan B. Gottschall, who presided over the case, said she believed Cervone would never commit a crime like this again, but believed some incarceration time was necessary.
She read excerpts from some of the letters she had received in court stating the positive impact he’s made in the community where he was a School District 89 board member.
“The community understands the severity of the offense,” Gottschall said. “As far as the community is concerned he has already been harshly punished.”
Cervone seemed somewhat satisfied and relieved with his sentence, but did not make a comment to the press. His federal staff attorney, Imani Chiphe, said he is satisfied with the judge’s decision.
“I think it was a fair and just sentencing,” he said. “She gave him the appropriate sentence.”
Cervone is scheduled to begin serving his sentence July 19.
Six years for Melrose Park police Chief Scavo
Former Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo was sentenced to six years in prison today for extorting business owners in town to hire his private security firm — a considerable break in sentencing from the maximum 25 years prosecutors had sought.
Scavo apologized at the hearing before U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall in Chicago, saying he knew he had embarrassed his family, friends and the village of Melrose Park.
You can read the entire article at the Sun-Times.
Cook County, Ill., Puts Local Government Checkbook Online
From fraud and bribery to blurred ethical lines in government circles, Illinois has a political history smeared with corruption. It’s a system that historically has been known more for trying to keep secrets than pushing for transparency.
But amid the cries from the public and the call from President Barack Obama, a Chicago native, for governments to be more open, local leaders have launched initiatives for citizens to see where exactly government money goes.
The latest effort comes from Cook County, Ill., which put its check register online at the county’s Web site, www.cookcounty.gov, a move that will not only allow the public to track local tax dollars, but could create a wave of similar transparency measures across the state.
Read the entire article at govtech.com.
Ed & Dan Burke play while taxpayers pay
When it comes to conflicts of interest at City Hall, one degree of separation is no separation at all, except in the make-believe world of State Representative Dan Burke and his brother Alderman Ed Burke.
Read the full article at the Sun-Times.
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