If this does not get a Federal Indictment Chicago Clout fans, I suggest you get into Chicago’s contracting system and start robbing the Chicago Taxpayers blind, just the Daley family. My fellow Chicagoans, you want a big fancy townhouse, you want a Michigan Summerhouse, you want limos and bodyguards, just get in there and steal em blind. Why suffer any longer living check to check? Why live a moral life? Chicago is the right kid of town to make millions, just give your cut to the Daley family. Excellent article by Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun-Times. Photo edited by Patrick McDonough]]>Daley says son's deal with city a 'lapse in judgment'
December 18, 2007
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
An emotional Mayor Daley acknowledged today that it was a “lapse of judgement” for his son to have a hidden interest in a sewer inspection company that did business with the city, adding, “I wish he hadn’t done it.”
Reading from a prepared statement, but refusing to answer questions, Daley insisted that he first learned about his son Patrick’s 2003 investment in Municipal Sewer Services when the Chicago Sun-Times began asking questions about the deal.
Reading from a prepared statement, but refusing to answer questions, Daley insisted that he first learned about his son Patrick’s 2003 investment in Municipal Sewer Services when the Chicago Sun-Times began asking questions about the deal.
“I did not know about his involvement in this company. As an adult, he made that decision. It was a lapse of judgement for him to get involved with this company. I wish he hadn’t done it,” Daley said.
“I did not know about his involvement in this company. As an adult, he made that decision. It was a lapse of judgement for him to get involved with this company. I wish he hadn’t done it,” Daley said.
“I know the expectations for elected officials and their families are very high. Rightfully so. Especially for me, as I know on a daily basis.”
At that point, Chicago’s always emotional mayor choked back tears — and struggled to get the words out.
“I hope those people understand that Patrick is a very good son. I love him. And Maggie and I are very proud of him. I hope you will respect that I will have nothing more to say on this,” the mayor said.
With that, Daley quickly changed the subject to the CTA’s financial crisis. Asked a few minutes later if he knew whether his son or nephew were involved in any other city contracts, the mayor said, “I don’t know.”
Daley is always a bundle of emotions around Christmas. He remembers his father and mother and sister and son and nephew and sister-in-law, all of whom died around this time of year. He makes a series of Christmas visits to children’s hospitals, which reminds him even more of his son Kevin, who died of spina bifida at the age of 2.
But the farewell weekend the mayor spent with Patrick at Fort Bragg, N.C., prior to his son’s overseas Army deployment added even more emotion than normal to Daley’s Christmas season.
Hanging over the weekend was the Chicago Sun-Times front page story about Patrick Daley’s involvement in city business. It was not known whether father and son discussed the matter.
The Chicago Sun-Times disclosed last week that Daley’s soldier son Patrick had a hidden interest in a sewer inspection company whose city business rose sharply while he was an owner.
The sewer deal also included the mayor’s nephew Robert Vanecko. The newspaper had previously disclosed that Vanecko got $63 million in city pension funds to invest in a risky real estate venture that involves CHA redevelopment deals.
Daley’s son and nephew never publicly disclosed their ownership stake in Municipal Sewer Services, despite a city ordinance that required such disclosure.
The mayor’s emotional tone after a police graduation ceremony at Navy Pier contrasted sharply to the defiant remarks he made to the graduates.
In fact, Daley’s anti-media tirade was reminiscent of Vice President Spiro Agnew’s infamous “nattering nabobs of negativism” speech.
“If you look to the right, my left, that’s called the media. It’s always negative — because negative news, of course, sells. A positive thing doesn’t sell. A headline about a Chicago police officer saving five children from a burning fire, solving a murder or a rape or an armed robbery—that doesn’t sell. I’m not blaming the media. I’m saying it’s always negative,” Daley said.
“We hear negative things constantly about one another. We hear negative things in our profession all the time. Americans get sick and tired of it. We get tired of negative things constantly thrown upon us 24 hours, [a-day ] seven days a week.”
Daley urged the police rookies not to let the media’s preoccupation with the negative — whether it’s political or police corruption — overshadow the “great success stories,” like the steady reduction in homicides and violent crime in Chicago.
“Very few politicians or news media will ever go out in in a police car and stop someone on the street and look for a gun. Very few individuals will ever take your place at 2 o’clock in the morning in a gun battle. Very few will ever interview a family who lost a loved one. Very few will ever talk to a rape victim or a child or a victim of crime,” he said.
18 Replies to “Mayor Daley cries like a baby when caught, Patrick Daley skips town”
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Daley says his son made mistake with sewer company Tuesday, December 18, 2007 | 10:07 PM CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Richard Daley said today his son made a mistake when he acquired a stake in a sewer-inspection company that did business with the city.
Daley says he did not know about his son’s involvement with Municipal Sewer Services. He calls it a “lapse of judgment” by Patrick Daley.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that Patrick Daley and his cousin formed a company that invested $65,000 in Municipal Sewer Services in June 2003.
It’s unclear how much money the cousins made when they cashed out more than a year after investing.
Daley became emotional when he said that he and his wife are proud of Patrick, calling him “a very good son.”
Patrick Daley is now in the Army and is to be deployed this week to an undisclosed location.
Patrick Daley should return the money. Patrick Daley should give all the money to the Catholic Church. Patrick Daley should give the money to advance all Chicago Gay and Lesbian causes.
Give the boy credit, it didn’t take long to catch on. Kudos to Politics at Play.
We got BIGGER fish to catch, i.e. Governor & CMS continue to award their cronies BIGGER $$ contracts that include state employees. Complaints were filed with Lisa Madigan, but these contractors are also her friends.
By Laurie Cohen and Todd Lighty | Tribune staff reporters
December 19, 2007
A court-appointed monitor charged Tuesday that Mayor Richard Daley’s administration has slipped backward in its efforts to clean up patronage even as City Hall seeks to convince a federal judge that it has eliminated politics from hiring.
The report by Noelle Brennan, who has monitored city hiring since August 2005, alleged that several high-ranking aides to Daley skirted hiring rules to give jobs to favored candidates. In other instances, preferred job-seekers were put on the payrolls of outside contractors to get around restrictions at City Hall, Brennan said.
Many city employees who violated hiring rules have not been punished, the report said. Brennan also alleged that city lawyers repeatedly provided false or misleading information about hiring problems, hampering her investigation.
Brennan’s report, which was filed in federal court, provides fresh evidence of a nagging scandal that has long plagued the Daley administration, leading to court-ordered reforms and criminal convictions of aides to the mayor.
The report comes as U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen is considering whether to approve a controversial new plan by the city to keep hiring free from politics. The plan is part of an agreement designed to end decades-long court oversight of city hiring practices by early 2009.
The city contends it has made strides in reforming its hiring practices. On Tuesday, Jenny Hoyle, a spokeswoman for the Law Department, said the city continues to cooperate with Brennan and has never intentionally misled her.
Brennan declined to elaborate on her report.
“In my view, they’re getting an F from the monitor,” said Michael Shakman, whose 1969 lawsuit against patronage led to court orders banning politics from playing a role in most city hiring and firing decisions. “This is not a city that wants to set things straight.”
Andersen appointed Brennan after federal prosecutors uncovered a hiring fraud scheme centered in the mayor’s office that rewarded Daley’s political allies with jobs and promotions. Daley’s former patronage chief and four others were convicted in 2005 and 2006 for their roles in the scheme.
Tuesday’s report was Brennan’s annual assessment of her activities and of City Hall’s efforts to clean up hiring. Brennan and her lawyers and staff have been paid more than $2 million by the city since her appointment, Hoyle said.
In her 2006 annual report, Brennan cited “pockets of resistance” to reform but found that the city’s compliance with court orders had substantially increased.
“The same cannot be said for the city’s compliance in 2007,” Brennan said in her latest report.
Brennan said one issue requiring immediate action was the city’s failure to discipline current employees who were not charged criminally but were implicated in the federal investigation into hiring abuses. She said the city needs to punish employees to send a message and deter future misconduct in hiring.
Early this year, the city turned down a recommendation by Inspector General David Hoffman to fire Christopher Kozicki for allegedly rigging an interview score to clear the way for hiring the 19-year-old son of a top union official as a building inspector. Daley contended at the time that firing Kozicki, a senior official with ties to the Daley family, would send the wrong signal because Kozicki testified in a federal hiring fraud trial.
Brennan disclosed that in an Oct. 9 letter, the U.S. attorney’s office told the city that it could take disciplinary action against employees as long as it first notifies federal prosecutors. Brennan said the city was now free to take action and added that “it is imperative that the city do so as promptly as possible.”
Hoyle declined to comment about Kozicki but said the city is considering disciplinary action against “a number of people, not just one person. We will certainly contact the U.S. attorney before taking any action.”
Brennan also disclosed that the inspector general is conducting separate investigations into alleged hiring abuses by two high-ranking aides to Daley, including an unidentified deputy director in the Mayor’s Office of Special Events.
According to the report, the deputy director’s favored candidate for the position of special events coordinator was an intern who was unqualified for the job. The unqualified intern allegedly was placed on the payroll of an outside contractor while city officials waited for a change in hiring rules that would allow her to get a permanent city job.
In another case, the city decided to retest candidates for police lieutenant after Brennan’s office received complaints about the exam in January. Brennan said she was concerned about the new test because of reports that officers with political connections might have been given the answers.
The monitor said she took her concerns to both the Law Department and the mayor’s office, but the city proceeded to give the exam using the compromised questions.
Brennan was particularly critical of the city’s alleged refusal to carry out a new policy on so-called “acting” positions. The city had traditionally used such positions — which are meant to be temporary — to reward favored workers with better-paying jobs without going through competitive hiring procedures required for permanent jobs.
Under prodding from the monitor, the city created a new policy that was supposed to limit to 90 days the time any employee could spend in an acting position. But Brennan said she had found numerous examples of workers who had been in those positions far longer.
In the Fleet Management Department, one employee had been in an acting position from 1995 to March 2007. Brennan said the worker was removed from the post, only to be returned two months later.
The personnel director for one unidentified department stated to the monitor in April that her department had no employees in acting positions. Brennan said she found the department has had more than 50 employees in such positions, many of whom were in those jobs when the statement was made.
By Gary Washburn | Tribune staff reporter
December 19, 2007
His voice cracking, Mayor Richard Daley said Tuesday that he loves his son but acknowledged Patrick Daley was guilty of a “lapse in judgment” when he participated in a city contract.
Leaving many questions, however, the mayor also said he didn’t know if there are other city contracts involving the younger Daley, refusing to discuss the controversial and personally painful subject any further.
“I can’t say anything,” he replied when asked about his view of recent media coverage of the matter, abruptly ending a news conference at Navy Pier.
Daley: ‘Patrick is a very good son’ Video
Minutes earlier, Daley gave a forceful and at times almost angry speech at a Chicago police recruit graduation where he seemed to draw a parallel between his son, now an Army paratrooper being deployed overseas, and police officers on the street who sometimes are targets of criticism.
“I am very proud of men and women who wear uniforms in this country,” Daley declared. “Many times people have turned their backs on men and women in uniform, but they can wear that uniform in pride wherever they are because of the dedication they have to their job.”
Jabbing at reporters at another point in the unscripted speech, Daley got applause when he told the new officers and their families, “If you look to the right, to my left, that’s called media. It’s always negative because negative news, of course, sells, right? A positive thing doesn’t sell. … You get tired of negative things constantly … upon us, 24 hours, seven days a week.”
Before enlisting in the Army, Patrick Daley quietly joined his cousin, Robert Vanecko, in acquiring a 4 percent interest in Municipal Sewer Services, a firm that took over two city contracts from a bankrupt vendor and then got one-year extensions on each pact during Richard Daley’s mayoral tenure. But when Municipal Sewer filed its required economic disclosure statements with the city in February 2004, it listed three officers as owning 100 percent of the company, omitting the Daley-Vanecko interest.
Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said Daley should order an audit of all existing contracts “and clarify that there aren’t any family investors” in any other pacts.
“It’s appropriate that there was an acknowledgment an error in judgment was made,” she said. “We don’t have anything that indicates that, because Patrick and his cousin were investors, that’s why the contract with this firm was bumped up [for another year]. But, of course, we have the appearance of that.”
After his graduation speech, Daley read a prepared statement to reporters.
“I did not know about [Patrick’s] involvement in this company,” he said. “As an adult, he made that decision. It was a lapse in judgment for him to get involved with this company. I wish he hadn’t done it. I know the expectations for elected officials, their families, are very high — rightfully so — especially for me.”
Fighting off tears, Daley said he hoped people understand “that Patrick is a very good son. I love him. Maggie [the mayor’s wife] and I are very proud of him. I hope you respect I have nothing more to say on this.”
Unanswered are whether Daley talked to his son or Vanecko about the Municipal Sewer ownership since news of their involvement surfaced last week and whether he is considering an executive order that would bar members of the mayor’s family from doing business with the city.
Daley visited Patrick at Ft. Bragg, N.C., over the weekend as the younger Daley prepared to depart for an overseas military assignment that has not been made public.
Jacquelyn Heard, Daley’s press secretary, said later that “a preliminary review” has found no other contracts involving the younger Daley. The check essentially is “asking departments, ‘Are you aware of anything that has his name on it?'” Heard said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a long, involved process. … I don’t want to lead you to believe it is some sort of dragnet search. It’s not. I don’t think it is required here.”
The accuracy of the review obviously relies on the filing of accurate economic disclosure statements by companies that do business with the city — something that didn’t take place with Municipal Sewer’s deal.
A city contractor can be assessed financial penalties only if a false statement were to result in a monetary loss to the city, officials said. But action against a contract or a company’s status as a vendor can be taken if its economic disclosure statement is found to be false. Officials will study if any discipline should be taken in the Municipal Sewer case, said Jennifer Hoyle, a spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department.
Listing the names of all owners of non-publicly traded companies getting city contracts was required before December 2004. Since then, the requirement has applied only to any individual owning more than 7.5 percent of the firm. That means that the names of Patrick Daley and Vanecko would not have been required had Municipal Sewer gotten its contracts a year later than it did.
The revelation about Patrick Daley’s city contract came at the time the Police Department is under fire for alleged corruption in the ranks and charges of brutality, including two cases of off-duty officers caught on videotape beating civilians in barroom confrontations.
“We cannot allow [the problems of a few] to overshadow the great success story” of quality police work on the street every day, Daley told the new officers in his speech.
And in a closing remark that could have applied to his son as well as the rookie officers, he said, “God bless you, and come home safe to your families.”
‘I wish he hadn’t done it’
HIDDEN DEAL | Mayor cites son’s ‘lapse in judgment,’ but won’t take questions
December 19, 2007
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com
An emotional Mayor Daley said Tuesday it was a “lapse in judgment” for his son to have held a hidden interest in a sewer inspection company that did business with the city — a deal that Daley’s corruption-fighting inspector general has begun investigating.
Inspector General David Hoffman’s decision to look into Municipal Sewer Services’ city deals is sure to widen the rift between Daley and Hoffman, the fiercely independent former federal prosecutor the mayor hired to root out City Hall corruption from within.
» Click to enlarge image
Mayor Daley fought back tears Tuesday as he acknowledged a “lapse in judgement” by his son Patrick (left).
(Tom Cruze/John H. White/Sun-Times)
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WHAT DALEY WOULDN’T ANSWER On Dec. 3, the Sun-Times gave questions in writing to the mayor’s press secretary, Jacquelyn Heard, regarding never-disclosed investments by the mayor’s son Patrick Daley and the mayor’s nephew Robert Vanecko in a company with city contracts. Heard responded, in part: “The mayor is a very busy man and he does not make a practice of knowing the details of other people’s investments, including those of his son and/or his nephew.”
Among questions not answered:
1. How did Mayor Daley’s son and nephew come to be investors in Municipal Sewer Services in 2003?
2. Did they lobby any city officials or employees to give work to Municipal Sewer Services?
3. Why weren’t their names included on the disclosure statement Municipal Sewer Services filed?
4. Did Patrick Daley and Robert Vanecko have any role in the daily operations of the company?
5. Has Patrick Daley had any other business dealings with the city of Chicago and/or vendors doing business with the city?
Investigation launched
The inspector general’s investigation reportedly aims to determine whether the company had inside help at City Hall — either in getting its city contracts or in looking the other way when the names of Patrick Daley, the mayor’s son, and Robert Vanecko, a nephew of the mayor, were omitted from a City Hall filing that should have disclosed them, along with three other men, as owners.
The internal probe also is expected to focus on how City Hall allowed Municipal Sewer Services to take over a pair of sewer inspection contracts after the company that previously did the work went bankrupt and also extended and enriched the contracts during the time the mayor’s son and nephew were shareholders.
While Hoffman’s investigators were scooping up documents at City Hall, the mayor was denying prior knowledge of Patrick Daley’s investment but acknowledging his son’s involvement was wrong.
‘I did not know’
“I did not know about his involvement in this company,” Daley said, reading from a statement. “As an adult, he made that decision. It was a lapse in judgment for him to get involved with this company. I wish he hadn’t done it.
“I know the expectations for elected officials and their families are very high. Rightfully so. Especially for me, as I know on a daily basis.”
‘I don’t know’
At that point, the always-emotional mayor choked back tears as he struggled to continue. “I hope those people understand that Patrick is a very good son,” Daley said. “I love him. And Maggie and I are very proud of him. I hope you will respect that I will have nothing more to say on this.”
With that, Daley changed the subject to the CTA’s financial crisis. Asked a few minutes later if he knew whether his son or nephew were involved in any other city contracts, the mayor said, “I don’t know.”
His press secretary, Jacquelyn Heard, said later that calls to contract officials in various city departments yielded no evidence that the mayor’s son, who is now in the Army, and nephew are involved in any other city business.
A front-page story in the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday broke the news about Patrick Daley’s involvement in city business. The story disclosed that Daley’s son had a hidden interest in a sewer inspection company whose city business rose sharply while he was an owner.
We are looking into the matter. Patrick Daley does not belong in the Armed Services with all his baggage. The U.S. Army will prosecute Patrick Daley for crimes against the U.S.
Ald. Stone’s son: Even I can’t get a fair shake
CITY HIRING | Files claim for piece of $12 mil. settlement
December 20, 2007
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com
More than 1,500 people are trying to get a piece of the $12 million pie created to compensate victims of City Hall’s rigged hiring system. One of the more unusual claims was filed by the son of a Chicago alderman.
Dr. Jay Stone is arguing that his 2003 campaign against then-incumbent Ald. Ted Matlak (32nd) was doomed because of the formidable help Matlak received from convicted former First Deputy Water Commissioner Donald Tomczak.
Jay Stone, right, claims he lost his race for alderman in 2003 because of Donald Tomczak’s political clout.
(Sun-Times files)
Stone ran for alderman without the blessing of his father, Ald. Bernard Stone (50th). But that’s not what did him in, according to the 70-page complaint filed with federal hiring monitor Noelle Brennan.
It was the “insurmountable political army” — comprised of 250 city workers rewarded with jobs, promotions, overtime and transfers — that Tomczak commanded from his office at the Jardine water filtration plant, Jay Stone said.
“If you look at the hiring scandal, the purpose of all of these … violations was to reward political workers for campaigning for favored candidates. I was an unfavored candidate. I didn’t have the blessing from City Hall,” Jay Stone said.
“I don’t have to prove that I would have won. All I have to prove is that I was discriminated against for political reasons. That was absolutely the case. Matlak had an insurmountable political army. Some precincts had up to seven workers” for Matlak.
Brennan refused to comment on Stone’s claim, except to say that she received it. Another source said it would be difficult to determine monetary damages.
“It’s not as simple as saying, ‘I applied for a laborers job and some other guy got it because he was connected,’ ” the source said.
To support his claim, Stone included Tomczak’s testimony under oath at the federal corruption trial that culminated last year in the conviction of Mayor Daley’s former patronage chief Robert Sorich. In it, Tomczak acknowledged that his political army was dispatched to the 32nd Ward to help Matlak.
Individual claims are capped at $100,000, and the deadline for resolving them is Dec. 27. Brennan plans to seek a 90-day extension.
“If I got $500 or $5,000, it would legitimize my claim that Chicago politicians limit political competition,” Stone said.
“In every industry in this country except politics, competition is sacred. There’s less political competition in Chicago than in any other city in the country.”
The essential problem is one that has only a single solution.
The problem being a substantial lack of honesty in our government employees, be they elected, appointed, hired or contracted.
No ‘system’ of rules, however carefully crafted and vigorously enforced, can ensure honesty.
Those who, by nature, are dishonest, will always find ways to engage in their dishonesties and remain one or more steps ahead of all oversight and enforcement efforts.
The few dishonest individuals who ‘get caught’ will, by their example, only teach the remaining thieves how to avoid the particular errors made and, thus, improve their thieving ways.
All that has happened here, according to the ‘rules’ is that Municipal Sewer Services violated a rule, and whatever punishment they receive will, in no way, discourage others from continuing to do what they do.
If the punishment were to be the terminating of this company’s city contract(s), we can expect this company to be dissolved, a ‘new’ company created, said ‘new’ company ‘bidding’ on city contracted work, perhaps even the very same contracted work in question, being granted the contract, and continuing to do ‘business’ with the city.
And there’s always the county and/or state to grant contracted work to these guys, should the ‘city’ deem it inadvisable to act so blatantly in opposition to doing things honestly.
If all that is needed to appear to comply with the rules is 1 degree of separation, 1 degree of separation is all that these thieves will implement.
If 2 degrees of separation is needed, then 2 degrees of separation will be the ‘reality’.
Should 3 degrees of separation be most prudent, 3 degrees it will be.
And so on, and so on, and so on…..
However intricate and complex the web needs to be, that’s how the web’s of deception will be woven.
A few ‘errors in judgment’, now and then, will never dissuade the dishonest from being dishonest, thinking dishonestly and acting dishonestly.
Cheating is a long standing tradition in politics.
We, the tax-paying citizens, are the ones being cheated.
“You can’t cheat an honest man” rings so very true.
If we, the tax-paying citizens, were actually honest, we’d refuse to be cheated.
Our refusal being in the form of:
REGISTER TO VOTE
VOTE IN EVERY ELECTION
HAVE NO DOUBT, VOTE INCUMBENTS OUT
We must remove the KNOWN weavers of dishonest webs, before we will ever have the chance of electing honest human beings to public offices, be they Executive branch, Legislative branch or Judicial branch offices.
It’s up to us to refuse to continue to elect, or allow to be elected, these thieving Mister Potter’s, weaving their webs of corruption.
(No disrespect intended to the noble and industrious insect species commonly known as ‘spiders’, as said species provides the valuable service of eating other insects, like mosquitoes, flies, roaches, etc.)
(Response) Thank you for that post!!!
In all fairness and in all due respect to your readers, don’t forget the sneakiest Daley of the LIBERAL Daley Mafia: John Daley. John Daley is the Daley that set up the entire massive fraud for 20+ years for which Sorich is going to prison for, and the criminal enterprise of which everyone–especially the sissy media–refuses to talk openly about….only out of the sides of their mouths to let others know that they are “in the know.”
(http://www.southtownstar.com/news/opinion/letters/705787,122007ForumEdit.article)
December 20, 2007
Ask the tough questions
Fourteen months ago, my opponent John Daley and I met with your editorial board so you could make an endorsement.
Incumbent commissioner Daley won your endorsement and won the election. This isn’t sour grapes but just a reminder so we as a society lessen the chances of repeating our mistakes: I told you I had taken a no-tax-hike pledge. I told you without mincing words Daley is an unethical man who leads a power-drunk fiefdom in our county with our money.
Your editorial, “Tough questions about Cook County budget would be a lovely idea,” makes me feel some vindication. Anyway, obviously this is not about me, but rather 5.5 million folks getting ripped off by the Daley-(Todd) Stroger political mob. It appears, by your observations and analysis of Daley’s specious “love-fest” statements, you are committed to being a responsible watchdog for all of us in the future.
Keep up the good work and allow me to make one strong suggestion for upcoming editorials: Kindly remind readers of the simple-sounding but truly profound adage, “We get the government we deserve.” Let’s face it: We voters need education. We voters inexplicably hired and rehired these political pigs, assuming the vote-counting isn’t fixed.
At any rate, we must end the vulgar love-fest where pin-striped elitists run around patting each other on the back and, with unmitigated gall, pretend to be public servants. We must kill the dumbed-down mentality with tough questions.
Carl Segvich – 11th Ward
Chicago
P.S.
If R.Kelly and Whoopie Goldberg ran Cook County and Chicago, we MIGHT be better of, because at the very least, they video tape their crimes and speak out loud about how they really feel.
Donate to a Daley campaign.
Giv’em some money for this tough time of the year.
And donate liberally.
Carlos
(Response) Funny as hell!
Ask the tough questions
Fourteen months ago, my opponent John Daley and I met with your editorial board so you could make an endorsement.
Incumbent commissioner Daley won your endorsement and won the election. This isn’t sour grapes but just a reminder so we as a society lessen the chances of repeating our mistakes: I told you I had taken a no-tax-hike pledge. I told you without mincing words Daley is an unethical man who leads a power-drunk fiefdom in our county with our money.
Your editorial, “Tough questions about Cook County budget would be a lovely idea,” makes me feel some vindication. Anyway, obviously this is not about me, but rather 5.5 million folks getting ripped off by the Daley-(Todd) Stroger political mob. It appears, by your observations and analysis of Daley’s specious “love-fest” statements, you are committed to being a responsible watchdog for all of us in the future.
Keep up the good work and allow me to make one strong suggestion for upcoming editorials: Kindly remind readers of the simple-sounding but truly profound adage, “We get the government we deserve.” Let’s face it: We voters need education. We voters inexplicably hired and rehired these political pigs, assuming the vote-counting isn’t fixed.
At any rate, we must end the vulgar love-fest where pin-striped elitists run around patting each other on the back and, with unmitigated gall, pretend to be public servants. We must kill the dumbed-down mentality with tough questions.
Carl Segvich
Chicago
Editorial
This one fails the smell test
December 20, 2007
Patrick Daley’s curiously timed investment in a sewer inspection company has turned into a stinker of a problem for his dad, the mayor.
It’s not just because the younger Daley and his cousin, Robert Vanecko, ponied up $65,000 to become part owners of Municipal Sewer Services in June 2003. It’s not just because they cashed out the next year, right about the time the Hired Truck scandal broke. There’s nothing illegal about any of that. But the company appears to have broken the law by leaving the cousins’ names off of a required economic disclosure statement. Oh, and its city business shot up around the time the cousins got in the game.
While Vanecko and Daley were on board, Municipal Sewer Services took over two city contracts held by a bankrupt vendor and got one-year extensions on both. The city didn’t seek competitive bids for those contracts. The company — formed by officers of the investment firm where Patrick Daley, who holds a graduate business degree from the University of Chicago, was an unpaid intern — got $2 million from those contracts in 2004.
In a written statement last week, Vanecko said he and his cousin were “small, passive investors” who were not involved in running the company. So what exactly did they bring to the table? You don’t need an MBA to figure it out.
But there are plenty of other questions: Who omitted the names of the clout cousins when Municipal Sewer Services filed its disclosure statements? Who at City Hall tapped the company for no-bid work? Were the cousins involved in any other ventures doing business with the city? Inspector General David Hoffman is investigating, and that’s a good thing.
Patrick Daley, now an Army paratrooper being deployed overseas, isn’t around to answer questions, and his father can’t or won’t.
Asked Tuesday if his son or nephew were involved in any other city contracts, the mayor said, “I don’t know.” Later in the day, his press secretary said the mayor’s staff was trying to find out, asking departments, “Are you aware of anything that has his name on it?” Of course, that level of inquiry wouldn’t have turned up the Daley/Vanecko role in Municipal Sewer Services, since the cousins’ names didn’t appear on the paperwork. And thanks to a new rule, they wouldn’t have to be listed unless they held an interest of 7.5 percent or more. It’s not clear why that rule was changed, but there’s an excellent argument to be made for changing it back.
An emotional Daley allowed that his son had suffered “a lapse in judgment” and added, “I wish he hadn’t done it. I know the expectations for elected officials and their families are very high, rightfully so.” Still, he cut off reporters’ questions, seeming to think this is an appropriate time to cut his son, the soldier, a little slack.
That’s understandable.
The mayor says he knew nothing about the dealing at Municipal Sewer Services. If he didn’t, he ought to be the loudest voice around demanding answers.
It’s his son. His city. His clout.
And his reputation.
Patrick Daley will return to Chicago when either he is subpoenaed or indicted, OR his father is indicted.
Wait for it.
Mayor ‘not mad,’ not commenting on son
By Gary Washburn | Tribune staff reporter
December 21, 2007
Mayor Richard Daley turned away all questions Thursday relating to his son’s involvement in a city sewer contract, refusing to say whether he would consider an order to bar such activity in the future and declining to disclose his reaction to an investigation of the deal by the city’s inspector general.
After several terse “no comments,” Daley said he wanted to make it clear he’s “not mad” at reporters’ questions about Patrick Daley’s ownership stake in Municipal Sewer Services, a company that won city contract extensions after Patrick Daley and his cousin Robert Vanecko purchased a 4 percent interest in the company.
“So don’t write that headline, a big headline, ‘Mayor Daley is mad.’
“I know you want to write it,” the mayor asserted at a news conference on an unrelated topic. “I know you are having challenging times there,” he said, apparently referring to the need for media companies to boost readership. “But please don’t do it to me.”
Inspector General David Hoffman launched an investigation earlier this week after reports surfaced of Patrick Daley’s business activities.
“I have no comment on that,” Mayor Daley said, when he was asked how he feels about the probe.
Does the mayor have a problem with the investigation?
“Any other questions?” he responded.
Asked whether he might consider an executive order prohibiting relatives of the mayor from doing business with the city, Daley shot back, “No comment. I have answered all that. Any other questions?”
Daley, however, has not said whether he will issue an order banning his relatives from getting city contracts.
In a required economic disclosure statement filed with the city, Municipal Sewer failed to reveal the ownership interests of Patrick Daley and Vanecko.
Patrick Daley and his cousin sold their stake in the company in late 2004. Now an Army paratrooper, Patrick Daley is being deployed to an overseas assignment. His destination has not been revealed.
Earlier this week, an emotional mayor acknowledged a “lapse in judgment” by his son but expressed his love and called him “a very good son.”
Mayor Daley also addressed another controversial issue Thursday, contending that city officials are trying to comply with rules designed to eliminate patronage from hiring and promotions but are finding the rules complicated and burdensome.
His administration is not seeking to circumvent procedures laid out by Noelle Brennan, a court-appointed monitor who is seeking to end long-standing preferences to politically-connected job seekers and employees, he insisted.
“We have worked very closely with the monitor, on a continuing basis,” Daley said. “It is very complex. We have a hundred steps to make to hire one employee. That’s one thing they are trying to work out — too complex to hire anyone.”
In a report to U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen earlier this week, Brennan said Daley’s administration had slipped backward in its attempts to clean up personnel practices.
Among alleged problems noted by Brennan, several high-ranking city officials have skirted hiring rules to give jobs to favored candidates, and preferred job seekers have won positions with city contractors to get around restrictions at City Hall.
Also on Thursday, Daley scoffed at a lawsuit that challenges the city’s ban on hand-held cell phones by motorists by contending that the city is violating state law because no warning signs are posted.”So, if I pass a city ordinance I have to go and put up signs all over the city informing people,” the mayor said.
“Do you think I have to do that? You wouldn’t even get down the street.”
Taxpayers need Daley’s answers
December 19, 2007
BY CAROL MARIN cmarin@suntimes.com
The wounded mayor of the mighty city thundered Tuesday.
In the domed Grand Hall of Navy Pier that juts out into the jagged ice of Lake Michigan, Chicago’s Zeus stood on a high stage before beaming families and proud graduating police cadets and roared.
Mayor Daley’s outrage was directed at the enemy within, the demon media. The late Vice President Spiro Agnew, father of the now-famous “nattering nabobs of negativism” attack on the press, was smiling somewhere.
“If you look to your right, to my left,” jabbed the mayor at a cluster of reporters and cameras, “that is called the media. It’s always negative, ’cause negative news, of course, sells, right? A positive thing doesn’t sell,” Daley seethed.
While the mayor arguably is angry about the continuing news coverage of scandals in Chicago’s embattled Police Department, his wrath Tuesday was not about that. It was really about his son Patrick and the recent story by Sun-Times’ investigative reporter Tim Novak about Patrick’s hidden business deal with the city that abruptly ended in 2004 when the Hired Truck scandal broke, another story reported by Novak.
In 2003, Patrick Daley and his cousin, Robert Vanecko, quietly invested with three others in a municipal sewer inspection company that had city contracts. Shortly after their investment, the company’s city business seemed to skyrocket. The partnership also included an African-American minority firm, the Brunt Brothers.
Though the law at the time required it, Daley and Vanecko’s ownership interest was never disclosed.
In 2004, right after Novak uncovered the city’s Hired Truck scandal, in which companies got paid for no work and phony minority firms were used as fronts, Patrick Daley and his cousin quickly cashed out of their hidden investment. The Brunt Brothers were tossed out of the Hired Truck program. And Patrick, who had just finished an MBA at the University of Chicago, left for the military.
Novak’s story last week about Patrick Daley’s undisclosed business deal ended up coinciding with young Daley’s combat deployment to Afghanistan.
It’s easy to understand why the mayor is distraught. A child going off to war is heart-rending. That child’s city business dealing hitting the headlines is harrowing.
On Tuesday, the roller coaster of paternal emotion was evident. First the mayor railed about reporters, then met with reporters but refused to discuss the question at hand, instead reading a statement about Patrick while choking back tears:
“First, I did not know about his involvement in this company. . . . It was a lapse in judgment for him. . . . I wish he hadn’t done it. . . . But also I hope those people understand that Patrick is a very good son, I love him. Maggie and I are very proud of him. . . . I have nothing more to say on this.”
Daley has no choice but to say more.
The same mayor who can lecture new police officers about “trust,” “mutual respect,” “responsibility,” and “common sense” displayed none of the above.
Daley doesn’t have to respect the press, but he does have to respect taxpayers, who had no clue they were subsidizing his son and nephew’s business. And he has to respect those city employees who found out, thanks again to Novak, that $63 million of their pension funds are being handled by the nephew in what even he described as a risky real estate investment.
Today’s paper outlines five questions the mayor has yet to answer. That could be five going on 50 before we’re done. So let’s start with this one:
How does a mayor, who prides himself on knowing how many bolts belong in a beam of one of his many bridges, not know every single detail about his kid and nephew’s investments with a city he’s run with an iron hand for 18 years?
This isn’t the media being negative, mayor. This is the media doing its job.
I would love to know if the feds are investigating this, has Patrick Daily’s cars, property, or bank accounts been frozen because I know so many hard working americans who have had this done to them for no reason, but I guess when you are high up there you can do anything you want.
GOP hits Daley over rebates
January 29, 2008
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
The Republican National Committee fired back at Mayor Daley today for condemning as a meaningless “handout” plans to give Americans a tax rebate to stimulate the faltering U.S. economy.
“It’s no secret Mayor Daley would rather raise taxes than support tax rebates. On the bright side, Chicagoans will be able to use these tax rebates to pay for some of Daley’s tax hikes,” said RNC spokesman Chris Taylor, apparently referring to the $276.5 million in taxes, fines and fees that balanced Daley’s 2008 budget.
“President Bush was able to put aside politics and work with Democrats in Congress to reach an agreement. Now is the time Mayor Daley should do the same and support this economic stimulus package.”
The RNC blast comes one day after Daley argued that a modern-day version of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal would be a far better economic stimulus than a $600 “handout.”
Daley has long contended that, when the private sector economy slows down, it’s time for the public sector to speed up — by initiating massive public works programs that generate jobs and contracts.
“People want a job. They don’t want a handout. They don’t want welfare and they don’t want a handout of $500. It doesn’t answer anything. So you take the $500. So you spend it within two weeks. Then what happens after that?” Daley said.
“The answer has to be how do you get federal money out of Washington immediately into the construction industry…There has to be a longterm commitment [by] Democrats and Depublicans of putting people to work. If Franklin Delano Roosevelt put people to work, why can’t we as a great nation decide to put more and more people to work…There’s nothing wrong with a publc works project…We could rebuild our schools, parks, libraries [and] infrastructure.”
With the stock market plummeting, the Bush administration and U.S. House leaders last week put aside their election-year differences to stimulate the faltering U.S. economy.
They agreed to send more than $100 billion in rebates to indivuals and provide $50 billion in tax incentives to businesses that invest in new plants and equipment.
On Monday night, Bush used his final State of the Union message to urge quickie approval of the pacakge. It would mean $600 for individuals, $1,200 for married couples and $300 for every child, no matter how large the family.
Individuals earning less than $75,000 a year would get the full rebate. Those earning more than that amount — and more than $150,000 for couples — would get less.
Even those who paid no income taxes last year would qualify for $300 rebates — and $300 more for each child — so long as they earned at least $3,000. That was a major concession to Democrats, who subsequently agreed to drop their demand to expand the food stamp program and extend unemployment compensation past the current 26-week limit.