Patrick Daley serves in the U.S. Army after serving himself to Chicago Taxpayer loot. Look if you think Mayor Daley is not aware of the contracts and deals, you missed a movie that depicts the Daley Administration, it is called "The Godfather". Patrick McDonoughHidden in the sewers
tracking the daleys | Mayor's son, nephew had another government deal — for $200,000 with Water Reclamation District
February 14, 2008
BY TIM NOVAK
During the year that Mayor Daley's son had a hidden ownership stake in a sewer company, the business not only landed lucrative deals at City Hall, it also got work from another local government — the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.
Records show the Water Reclamation District paid the company, Municipal Sewer Services, more than $200,000 to inspect sewers under a contract awarded in 2004. At the time, the agency's top administrator was John Farnan, a longtime member of the 11th Ward Democratic organization run by the mayor's brother, Cook County Commissioner John Daley. Farnan, who has since retired, did not return calls seeking comment.
RELATED PDF
07/03: Patrick Daley signed a lease on behalf of Municipal Sewer Services
02/04: Company files ownership disclosure statement without P. Daley and R. Vanecko
03/04: Copmany fails to name owners to Water Reclamation District
Water Reclamation District officials say they didn't know the mayor's son, Patrick, and nephew, Robert Vanecko, owned 5 percent of the company, whose biggest customer was City Hall. Neither man's name was listed in contract documents obtained from the Water Reclamation District, the agency that treats sewage in Cook County. But the papers do contain the name MSS Investors LLC, a company the Sun-Times previously reported was owned by Patrick Daley and Robert Vanecko.
"I didn't see the Daley name on any of the disclosure statements,'' said Richard Lanyon, the district's general superintendent, who replaced Farnan. "That's the only thing we have, unless one of the commissioners knew he was involved with that company."
Two of the district's elected commissioners — President Terrence J. O'Brien and Finance Chairman Gloria Alitto Majewski — said they approved the contract but never knew the mayor's son was involved.
Mayor Daley had a similar reaction two months ago, when the Sun-Times exposed his son's hidden interest in the company and that it got millions of dollars in work from the city. That report prompted an investigation by the city's inspector general that is ongoing.
Under its contracts with the city and with the Water Reclamation District, Municipal Sewer Services was required to disclose the company's owners.
But what the company told the city about its ownership, in papers filed Feb. 24, 2004, was different from what it told the Water Reclamation District about a month later. And Patrick Daley and Vanecko's names are omitted from both documents, even though they were owners.
In a phone call, Anthony Duffy, who was president of Municipal Sewer Services at the time, declined to explain why he filed two different ownership forms, saying, "I understand there is an investigation being carried out." Duffy is no longer with Municipal Sewer Services.
A company spokesman said the Water Reclamation District filing was correct, adding: "That said, we are currently reviewing everything related to the company's work on behalf of the city of Chicago. Out of respect to that effort and the efforts of the city of Chicago's inspector general, it would not be appropriate to address any details regarding past contracts at this time."
Duffy and majority owners Robert Bobb and Joseph McInerney created Municipal Sewer Services in 2003, buying a bankrupt company and taking over its two expiring contracts to inspect city sewers with video equipment. The mayor's son and nephew were original investors, the Sun-Times has reported. Rather than seek new bids, City Hall extended the contracts for a year — extensions worth $3 million to Municipal Sewer Services.
The company got the Water Reclamation District contract a few months later.
Patrick Daley and Vanecko left the company after about a year, amid the federal investigation of the city's Hired Truck Program. One of the trucking companies hired by the city also was a subcontractor for the sewer company.
Municipal Sewer Services still does business with the city and the Water Reclamation District.
Shortly after cashing out, Patrick Daley enlisted in the Army. Still in the Army, he couldn't be reached for comment. A spokesman for Vanecko said he knew nothing about the water reclamation contract.
Mayoral press secretary Jacquelyn Heard said, "The mayor's response has not changed since he last told you that he wasn't aware of his son's investment, and he wishes his son had made wiser choices."
OMITTED
• *July 2003: Patrick Daley signed a lease on behalf of Municipal Sewer Services.
• *February 2004: The company filed an ownership disclosure statement with the city of Chicago that failed to include Patrick Daley and Robert Vanecko.
• *March 2004: The company told the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District that its owners included MSS Investors LLC without naming its owners — Patrick Daley and Robert Vanecko.
8 Replies to “Patrick Daley gets caught in the till again, thanks to Chicago Sun-Times”
Comments are closed.
WHERE ARE THE MOTHER F@#%&*u FEDS!someone needs to tape all these stories to a brick and whip it through the windows of that new fbi office on roosevelt and damen. i’m not violent so it can’t be me. it needs to be done though. i worked with the fbi on some cases and they seem much smarter than how they are handling daley. makes no sense to me.
(Response) I suggest a more subtle approach
bob vanecko has told the suntimes he knows nothing about the $200,000 contrct. i bet that $200,000 was a complete ghost scam. no work done for it.
This is the deal breaker.
hey dickie the boys from down the street might look into this.
Faceoff
NEW BOOK | Laski, Daley exchange verbal blows over what mayor knew
February 15, 2008
As a maverick alderman, then city clerk, Jim Laski was a constant thorn in Mayor Daley’s side. Now that Laski has been released from prison and written a tell-all book, the thorn has turned into a knife.
The war of words between political rivals escalated Thursday when Daley suggested that the convicted former city clerk has “a lot of personal problems” and that he’s making wild post-prison allegations in a desperate attempt to sell his self-published book.
Laski fired back that Daley was “blatantly lying” and lacks the “guts” to take responsibility for his actions.
The mayor got the whole thing started again when he made a thinly veiled reference to Laski’s well-publicized bout with drinking and drugs while responding for the first time to Laski’s claim that Daley has a “selective memory” and “knows more than he says he does” about the Hired Truck scandal.
Laski has acknowledged his drinking and substance-abuse problems, and he went cold turkey shortly before going off to a federal prison in West Virginia.
“Jim Laski’s had a lot of personal problems in his life, and challenges. I’m not gonna [respond] to his personal challenges. He should get on with his life,” Daley said.
The mayor was asked point-blank whether Laski was lying when he claimed to have worked through Daley’s top lieutenants to get Hired Truck business for the lifelong friend who betrayed him.
“He’ll say everything in a book about me. Nobody else. That’s how it is,” Daley said, claiming Laski is “definitely” trying to sell the book by making such allegations.
Daley appointed Laski to fill an aldermanic vacancy in the 23rd Ward, only to watch his political ally turn into an enemy. Laski led a 1992 City Council rebellion against successive property tax increases proposed by the mayor. Three years later, he blew the lid on millions of dollars in unpaid water bills and parking tickets owed by city employees.
That’s apparently why the mayor says it defies credibility for Laski to suggest that a whispering Daley had asked Laski during a private meeting whether he had “heard anything from the guys down the street,” meaning federal prosecutors, and suggested Laski get a “buffer” to shield himself from blame.
“When is he gonna have the guts to stand up and tell the truth? It’s typical Daley,” Laski said. “Somebody called him on something, and he doesn’t like it. He’s the mayor. He’s not God. Take responsibility.”
Laski, 54, pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting $48,000 in bribes in exchange for steering Hired Truck business to lifelong friend Mike Jones. He also admitted that he coached a witness to lie to a grand jury.
i still say throw the brick. maybe that will get someones attention.
THE $63 MILLION DOLLAR LOAN THAT VANECKO GOT FROM THE CITY PENSION FUNDS WAS TO SAVE HIS ASS ON THAT HIGH RISE HE IS BUILDING ON MICHIGAN AND ROOSEVELT. DALEY IS GOING TO SHORE UP PENSION FUNDS FROM THE SALE OF MIDWAY AIRPORT. THAT IS A GIMMICK TO MAKE THE PEOPLE OVERLOOK THE $63 MILLION THAT VANECKO IS FLUSHING DOWN THE TOILET.see atatched article;
Sales of new condos and townhomes in the downtown Chicago market plummeted 46% in the first quarter to 1,207 units, the lowest first-quarter total in four years. The number of new units proposed during the first quarter also fell sharply, but fears of an oversupply persist.
;HEY PATRICK FITZGERALD, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?
More in the family
Another deal in the works for Mayor Daley’s nephew
Recommended (21) Comments
October 13, 2008
City Hall has another multimillion-dollar deal in the works for Mayor Daley’s nephew and his business partners.
It’s the latest in a string of city deals involving Daley nephew Robert Vanecko.
» Click to enlarge image Mayor Daley’s nephew, Robert Vanecko, is a hidden investor in a company that’s seeking a $2 million loan from the city. He has been involved in a series of multimillion-dollar city deals since 2003.
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)
RELATED STORIESDemocratic committeemen with Cook County jobs More in Watchdogs
City deals for Mayor’s nephew Mayor Daley’s nephew Robert Vanecko has been involved in a series of multimillion-dollar city deals since 2003:
* With the mayor’s son Patrick Daley, he held a hidden ownership stake in Municipal Sewer Services, which took over two city sewer-inspection contracts in June 2003. City Hall extended both contracts for nearly a year, giving the company an additional $4 million in work.
* With Allison S. Davis, a friend of the mayor, he operated a real estate investment fund that got $68 million in April 2006 from five municipal pension funds. They could make as much as $8.4 million by the time the deal ends in 2014.
* With Davis, he was listed as a principal in Neighborhood Rejuvenation Partners on documents the company filed with City Hall in a deal paying the business as much as $5 million to build a high-rise for low-income seniors — a project that’s been stalled for years. Vanecko and the mayor said Vanecko was only a consultant.
* With Davis, he’s part of a company that has been chosen to build homes for the Chicago Housing Authority on the south lakefront. The city has given a preliminary OK to pay them $2 million for the project.
They began five years ago, when Vanecko and the mayor’s son, Patrick Daley, became hidden investors in a company that took over the city’s sewer-inspection contracts — a deal now under federal investigation.
Records show that Vanecko is a hidden investor in a company owned by Allison S. Davis, a friend of the mayor who’s seeking a $2 million loan from the city along with $838,369 in federal tax credits to build 54 apartments along the lakefront at 40th Street as part of the Chicago Housing Authority’s massive plan to replace the low-income high-rise projects that Daley has torn down.
City Hall has “set aside” money for the project, according to a letter the city sent Davis last fall. The city has yet to give final approval to the project, delayed now for more than a year in part because of the nationwide housing slump. And CHA officials have yet to sign a contract for the project.
But construction is expected to begin next summer, according to Lawrence Grisham, senior vice president of Habitat Co., which a federal judge has appointed to oversee the CHA construction projects.
Vanecko’s part in the project wasn’t mentioned in the application Davis and his son Jared Davis submitted to the CHA in May 2006, nor in the application they sent to city officials seeking money to build the apartments, according to city and CHA records.
But Vanecko himself revealed his involvement in the CHA project in an e-mail he sent Oct. 2, 2006, to the executive directors of five city pension funds that invested $68 million in a real estate venture created by Davis and Vanecko.
“We have been selected by the North Kenwood-Oakland Working Group, the Habitat Company and the CHA as the developer of the remainder of the Lakefront Properties site between 39th and 43rd Streets and Lake Park Ave.,” the mayoral nephew wrote in the e-mail obtained by the Sun-Times. “This project will create a mixed-income community on a former CHA site and consists of 269 units of housing, including CHA replacement, affordable and market-rate units.
“Please feel free to contact any of us if you have any questions regarding these properties or any other matters. Regards, Allison, Jared and Bob.”
Neither Vanecko nor Davis responded to requests for comment.
A Davis firm — Davis Associate Managers — submitted one of the two proposals the CHA got in May 2006 from developers seeking the deal to redevelop the lakefront property where four high-rise projects had stood until they were blown up in 1998. The proposals were evaluated by a “working group” that included represent-atives of the CHA, Habitat, the city housing and planning departments and Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th). They picked the proposal from Davis, a longtime friend of Habitat president Valerie Jarrett. Jarrett is also a longtime friend of the mayor and a top adviser to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
This would be the second CHA redevelopment project for Davis. His company is part of a team working on the $200 million redevelopment of the former Stateway Gardens public housing projects — the towering high-rises that stood for years across the Dan Ryan Expy. from Sox Park.
Habitat representatives and Preckwinkle said they were unaware the mayor’s nephew was involved in the Davis proposal for the Lakefront Properties project. “Habitat did not know the identity of any of the individual investors, nor did Habitat know that Robert Vanecko was involved with the fund,” Grisham wrote in response to Sun-Times questions.
After being picked to build the 269 homes, Davis went to city housing officials seeking money for the first phase of the project: 54 condos, including 13 that will be affordable housing, and 54 apartments, including 43 units for low-income tenants. The estimated cost is $16.1 million, according to the proposal Davis gave the city. Davis and his partners would put up half, which sources said they believe is the money Davis and Vanecko got from the city pension funds. Davis wants the city to give him a $2 million loan and $838,369 in federal low-income-housing tax credits that would be sold to investors.
What would Davis and his partners get from the deal? More than $1.2 million in development fees, according to city records.
Tim Novak