Chicago Clout demands documents from the Department of Water Managment
March 9, 2017
Patrick McDonough
Office of the Attorney General
State of Illinois
Lisa Madigan, Attorney General
500 South Second Street
Springfield, Illinois 62706
Attention: Laura Harter, Assistant Attorney General
Re: Request for Review- 2017 PAC 46448
Thank you for your letter dated today. I have attached all documents for your reference
to save you time.
My response:
I am a member· of the press, registered with the Chicago Police Department. I have for
years attempted to obtain records from the Department of Water Management
(DOWM). The DOWM uses stalling tactics. The DOWM has been in the crosshairs of
several Federal investigations and several employees have been sent to jail. It is my
opinion; the same conduct and behavior is continuing. FOIA is to expose the secret
dealings and politics that control the DOWM.
If you go to my website, \V\V\v.chicagoclout.com you will see I am involved in several
stories that are of public interest. One is the death of an DOWM employee involved in a
cave-in. For almost two decades, I have reported official complaints to the Illinois
Department of Labor. A man is dead, his family will never see him again due to the
inactions of the DOWM and the IDOL, to make shoring a reality. I was also the victim of
safety violations at the DOWM. Nothing has changed.
Chicago taxpayers pay millions of dollars to injured city workers that cannot show up to
work due to negligence at the DOWM. Some injured workers are also subject to
retaliation depending on their politics or lack of politics. The DOWM has a “job search”
program with no clear-cut policies. My original request was for one month of these
searches so I can determine if the taxpayers are receiving a good “bang for the buck”. I
also want to make sure all injured workers are subject to the same rules and regulations.
I broke down the prior request to one week while I am waiting for your original ruling.
The weekly document total of that request is 24 pages submitted by injured workers.
Only six employees were required to submit weekly job searches per his FOIA response.
Mr. Litherland’s (FOIA officer of DOWM) document preparation math does not add up.
His time request is unsubstantiated. In this day and age, a public department with an
almost billion-dollar budget still using primitive paper management practices, seems
unlikely. The paperwork should always be made into a PDF, not faxed and stapled.
I was accused by Gary Litherland on “being on a fishing expedition”. Mr. Litherland also
wanted to release all 750 pages if I was willing to forego all supporting documents. I
want to have all documents to make a clear and concise report to the public. Gary
Litherland does not release documents in a timely manner. His department does not
have enough workers or his department is side stepping FOIA.
My requests will hopefully enlighten folks that have had unfavorable experiences in
workers’ compensation system run by Alderman Burke, the Chicago Committee on
Finance, and. the Department of Water Management. Thanking you in advance, I remain
Chicago Clout
Vocamotive Illinois Workers’ Compensation Fraud denial of Equal Protection
Vocamotive Vocational Training you do not need or want
I hope this video is an introduction to how the City of Chicago, Alderman Burke, his Committee on Finance, The City of Chicago Departments, The Illinois Workers Compensation Commission, The Illinois Workers Compensation Lawyers, The Illinois Board of Higher Education, Vocational Rehabilitation, Vocamotive works.
The graphics are simple, but powerful. Please wait through the entire video so you can see them all. Then you can put two and two together for yourself. I have much more information on the way, but too much gets people bogged down. So, this is a five +minute presentation and I hope it helps anyone hurt at work in Illinois.
If you are hurt at work while at the city of Chicago, I suggest you make sure you take an ambulance to the hospital. I hope you take every test you can to figure out what is wrong with you. I also suggest you take pictures when you get hurt, when you enter the ambulance, when you are at the hospital. Ask a friend to take pictures of everything. Pictures are your best friend and they will refresh your memory later.
Most things after this are on cruise control. The city will ask you to go to Mercy Works for a doctor’s visit, the city will drug test you, the Mercy works doctors will make some recommendations for medical care. Many times, they will tell you take some pills and go back to work. Sometimes they recommend more tests and will give you some time off.
If you do not cooperate with Mercy Works, they might say you have “conduct unbecoming a city worker.”
As soon as you can, hire your own doctor to get the care you need. Many doctors do not want to deal with Chicago Workers Compensation cases because they wait years for their money.
I strongly suggest you listen to your doctor and do what he says. Your health is important for the rest of your life. The City of Chicago does not give “light duty” unless you have Clout. Many Chicago City Workers go back to work hurt and end up addicted to pain killers and opiates.
After that get a good lawyer. Again, most worker’s compensation lawyers in Chicago talk a great game when you first meet them. They want to lock up and tie up your claim. Most Chicago Workers compensation lawyers do not want to deal with the city because the city withholds workers’ disability pay and medical care. The Chicago Committee on Finance has been a clout dumping ground for patronage workers. Could you imagine a hair dresser or a dog walkers handling your case? The COF is also a place where Alderman Ed Burke shakes down health care providers for his campaigns and the democrat party.
There is no place to make complaints because the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission only takes complains against private Insurance companies. Chicago is left free to run a clout patronage empire that enriches all the insiders.
Most Chicago City Workers return to work after a nice winter on Workers Compensation. The clog up the system from folks that have a legitimate claim.
Some workers are left on duty disability for the rest of their lives and some are sent to Vocational training.
Vocational Training is the City’s way of removing employees with serious health problems. More on that later.
Vocational Training is a way the City of Chicago has private contractor to do their dirty work. This shields companies from FOIA and accountability. Chicago never uses Reasonable accommodations unless the Mayor’s Office tells them, so the city can keep patronage workers on the payroll.
Vocational training consists of an assessment and recommendations that allow the City to remove workers and reduce their liabilities. The companies like Vocamotive take the City employee far away from the city and teaches basic typing and Microsoft classes. Many old trade and construction workers have had problems with this new technology. The Committee on Finance does their part to ensure failure by withholding duty disability payments. The checks are printed on time, sent for postage, and then sent back to the claims adjuster. The Claims adjuster sits on the checks until they are ordered by Monica Somerville to release them. This allows the city to provide more hardships to already injured workers. The U.S. Postal Service has done nothing to stop this practice.
Please remember, The City Law Department, the workers’ compensation lawyers, the Illinois Workers Compensation Board, the Committee on Finance, The Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors, the City medical providers, the city consultants, deal with each other year after year. They do not care about you. They make piles of money, reward and enrich each other.
You must do everything to protect you, your family and your heath. Document, Document, Document. Talk to you soon.
I hope I can help, contact me at chicagoclout@gmail.com . Special Thanks to Jay Stone, The smartest man in the room.
Chicago Committee on Finance with Alderman Burke Video 2
Please make sure you watch this video so you learn about Alderman Burke and the way the Chicago Police harass Chicago City Workers injured on the job. Vocamotive, Vocational training.
Alderman Ed Burke’s Workers’ Comp Aide is Committing Fraud
Burke’s Legislative Aide Falsely Claims She is the Workers’ Comp Director
Monica Somerville is a legislative aide who is fraudulently claiming she is the Director of the Workers Compensation Division. I discovered Somerville’s fraud when a friend showed me a letter that Somerville sent him (See note 1 to view two Somerville letters). At the top of the letter was “City of Chicago,” “Committee on Finance,” and “Alderman Ed Burke, Chairman.” In the body of the letter, Somerville gave a one-word explanation of “Non-Compliant” as the reason why the city was terminating my friend’s duty disability and medical payments. My friend was on duty when his ankle was hit with a fork lift truck. The driver of the fork lift tested positive for cocaine and was fired.
Two months after Somerville’s letter, my friend is still trying to find out what he did that was non-compliant. For Somerville to give a one word explanation for the termination of duty disability pay and medical expenses is incompetence, not fraud. My friend has a wife and five children that rely on his duty disability pay check. The workers’ comp division owes my friend due process and an explanation of more than one word for the stoppage of his income and medical payments related to his on duty injury.
Somerville’s fraud occurred after she signed her letter. Underneath her signature, she typed, Monica Somerville, Director. In the next line Somerville typed, “Workers’ Compensation Division.” Somerville is not the director of the workers compensation division. The real director of workers’ comp is Robert Serafin. Somerville has no legal right or authority to call herself the director of workers’ comp when she is not. The city pays $119,556 to Robert Serafin to serve as the director of workers’ compensation. The city pays Monica Somerville $75,408 for her work as Alderman Burke’s legislative aide. Because of the seriousness of accusing Somerville of fraud, my friend submitted a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) to verify Somerville’s legislative aide job title with the city’s human resources department. Indeed, the human resources’ FOIA response confirmed Monica Somerville’s job title is a “legislative aide,” not the director as she types on her letters.
I know of at least one other Somerville letter in which she fraudulently claimed she is the director of workers’ comp. I’m confident that Somerville sent many more letters with her fake job title to injured city employees. The Chicago Defender wrote an article about how Reginald Williams Sr. was injured when he was a passenger in a city truck that was involved in a major accident. Williams Sr. and his doctor want surgery to repair the injuries he sustained on duty; Somerville’s letter ordered Williams Sr. to return to work. This is exactly what Chicago Defender reporter KaiElz wrote, “In a letter dated January 14, 2015, Monica Somerville, Director of the Workers’ Compensation Division, stated that Williams was to complete the paper work to be reinstated to ‘full duty’ work in an ‘unrestricted capacity.'” To read KaiElz’s complete Chicago Defender article, click here.
Monica Somerville also listed herself on the Linkedin professional networking site as the “Director of Workers’ Compensation, and Police and Fire Claims” (see note 2 for a screen shot of Somerville’s false claims). Here are five of the 11 duties that Somerville claims she does for her legislative aide job.
*Manage the Committee on Finance workers’ compensation program
*Recruit, train, manage 17+ claims examiners for timely investigations and bill payments
*Analyze and review complaints and assist in resolving all complaints
*Advise counsels on parameters of settlement negotiating and grant authority
*Provide assistance to the executive director and prepare and present staff reports and other correspondence as appropriate
Somerville can’t arbitrarily assign job titles to herself and others because the Shakman settlement specified the job titles for all city council employees, including those in Burke’s finance committee. The exempt job list has only one Director of Workers’ Comp. Somerville can’t claim she is the director because Robert Serafin is the one and only director. Somerville can’t claim she assists the executive director because no such executive director job title or person exists. Somerville falsely boasts she recruits, trains, and manages 17+ claims examiners though no such job title for claims examiner exists in the Chicago budget or Shakman exempt list. It seems that the duties and responsibilities that Somerville posted to the Linkedin website are as fraudulent as sending letters with her job title as the director of workers’ compensation.
Somerville should have known better to falsely claim that she is the director of workers’ compensation. Not only is Somerville a lawyer, but she also served more than five years on the Illinois Supreme Court’s Committee on Character and Fitness. Alderman Ed Burke’s wife Anne was one of the Illinois Supreme Court justices who appointed Somerville to the Committee on Character and Fitness in 2011 and then reappointed her for a second term in 2014. Illinois Supreme Court justices bestowed Somerville with the duty to “evaluate the moral character and general fitness of applicants to practice law.” Since Somerville evaluated future lawyers’ moral character for over five years, one would think that Somerville would have known it was immoral to falsify her job title and responsibilities.
The question is did Monica Somerville take it upon herself to fraudulently claim she is the director of workers’ compensation or was Somerville following orders from Alderman Ed Burke or the real workers’ comp director Robert Serafin? If someone in a position above Somerville ordered Somerville to sign her letters with the workers’ comp director’s job title, then that person should be held equally accountable as Somerville.
Notes
1.Click the following document to see the letter in which Monica Somerville fraudulently claimed that she is the workers’ comp director. Patrick McDonough Committee on Finance Stop Payment letters
2.For a screen Shot of Somerville’s false Linkedin job title and duties claims, see following document. Monica Somerville’s False Linkedin Claims