Scavo Indictment a Sign of Things to Come in Melrose/Proviso?
Cook County taxpayers supporting reform should be ecstatic at the news of the conviction of former Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo.
Melrose Park has long been a cesspool of corruption, with the tentacles of fraud and abuse stretching throughout Proviso Township and other Cook County western suburbs.
As you can see from the below, Scavo was running a pretty big enterprise out of the Melrose Park police station. Who else in Melrose (and Proviso Township) knew of these goings-on — or were complicit in the operations? Is the Scavo conviction only the first shoe to drop in Melrose (and Provis0)?
The Pioneer Press reports on this conviction:
Jurors deliberated for five and half hours Monday before finding former Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo guilty of all 22 counts in his federal corruption trial that lasted seven weeks.
Scavo was accused of shaking down local businesses to hire his private security companies. These firms were run out of the Melrose Park Police Station using on-duty cops and squad cars.
Proviso Township Residents Sue School Board President Over Legal Fees
The Forest Park Review reports:
A group of township residents alleging that District 209 has inappropriately spent taxpayer money is mounting a legal challenge, said one of the participants, arguing the right of school board President Chris Welch to be reimbursed for attorneys fees.
Westchester resident Kevin McDermott said he is one of the plaintiffs in the potential lawsuit, which is yet to be filed. Likely, said McDermott, there would be several plaintiffs in the case.
“Certainly, I was pretty outraged by this,” McDermott said.
Dating back to June 2008, school board members at the Proviso Township high schools have approved paying more than $57,880 to Travis Richardson and Myron Mackoff, two Chicago attorneys representing Welch in a defamation suit. The claim against Welch was filed in Cook County Circuit Court in 2007. Neither the school board nor the school district are defendants.
Each time that school board members have been asked to pay these bills, Welch has voted in favor of doing so, but his vote has not been a tie-breaker. Two board members, Theresa Kelly and Sue Henry, have consistently voted against the appropriation. A third board member, Brian Cross, has abstained.
Melrose Park Named One of “Worst Small Towns to Own a Home”
Filed under: Budget, Corruption, Reform, Spending, Taxes
In a distinction that current Mayor Ron Serpico probably will not use in his re-election campaign mailers this April, Cook County’s very own Village of Melrose Park this week was named by Forbes magazine as one of “the Worst Small Towns to Own a Home.”
According to Forbes, 69% of mortgage holders in Melrose Park have housing costs that, on average, eat up more than 35% of their incomes. Not surprisingly, a big chunk of those housing costs go to property taxes. And in a town like Melrose Park, which sits within Proviso Township, the school board (209) of which is known for its spendthrift ways, high property taxes are not surprising.
It hasn’t been a good month for Mayor Serpico. This latest news comes on the heels of Melrose Park insider/consultant/disbarred attorney Anthony Bruno being charged with federal tax fraud.
There are still several months before the April elections, but it looks like Serpico has his work cut out for him.
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