« Jan Pestka's former Water Management Wheeler Dealer's son skips the noose | Main | Happy Memorial 2007 »

More Fun at Mayor Daley's mismanaged Chicago Building Department

Make darn sure you read this article ducked in the business section of the Chicago Sun-Times. It was written by Fran Spielman, click here: http://www.suntimes.com/business/399667,CST-FIN-merge24.article Than read this future tidbit about Father Phleger of St. Sabina's helping city workers get promoted. Divine Intervention!

Irma Jasso-Rodriguez began her career with the Building Department as a building inspector in March 1993 and worked as an inspector until December 1997. She was then promoted to Supervisor of Central District where she worked from December 1997 until June 2003 when she was promoted to Chief of the Central and West District. Irma is the first woman to be promoted to Chief in the Department of Buildings and the only Chief in charge of two districts, Also in the year she has held the position she has developed an inspectors guide that is used by all City of Chicago Building Inspectors. We salute Irma for raising the bar! Gooooo... Irma.
KEVIN BUSH
In the offices of the technical bureaus at Ogden, Kevin Bush has been promoted to Deputy Commissioner of Technical Bureau, who recently served as the Chief Plumbing Inspector. Away from work, Kevin serves as an assistant coach for the Hales Franciscan High School basketball team Making Coach Bush very proud, the Hales Franciscan Spartans brought home the 2003 State Class A Championship, the first Chicago area team to win a Class A title since 1985 against Mount Carroll. In addition to coaching the Hales Franciscan Spartans, he also heads up a summer program for disadvantaged teens at St Sabina Church called Fermri Basketball, Kevin is still basking in the glory of winning not only the 2003 State Championship but also bringing home the 2004 Nike National Invitational
Championship for the Ferrari basketball team, held in : Orlando, Florida Way to go Coach Bush!
Please get to know these superstars Chicago Employees!!! Patrick McDonough

Comments

NEW ADDITIONS TO THE DOB TEAM!
THERESA RAFFIN • liz Alvarez, Project Administrator
PROJECT MANAGER • Dennis Mondero, Director of Code Enforcement
• Sharon Lightwood, Staff Assistant
• Jacinto Wong, Voluntary Compliance Coordinator
• Toni Condon, Director of Fast Track
• Lisa Helene, Project Manager/Architect
• Georgia Borovflos, Project Manager
• Came Wagener, Structural Engineer 3
EMPLOYEE OF THc MONTH • Scolt Loeff, Assistant Commissioner of Labor Relations

IRMA WAS PROMOTED ILLEGALLY TO SUPERVISOR AND CHIEF. ALSO CHECK OUT HER REAL CLAIM TO FAME. IF YOU CHECK THE TIME LINE ON HER CAREER AT D.O.B SHE WAS PROMOTED AFTER ONLY 3 YEARS. ALSO SHE ONLY SPENT 1 YEAR WORKING IN THE FIELD. TO BE PROMOTED THE SUPERVISOR ,AN INSPECTOR MUST HAVE A MINIMUM OF 6 YEARS IN THE FIELD..IRMA REAL CLAIM TO FAME WAS HER ROLE AS CO-CONSPIRATOR IN THE HIRING FRAUD INVOLVING ANDY RYAN WITH CHRISTOPHER KOZICKI.

Teen building inspector quits post
Chicago Sun-Times, Sep 16, 2004 by Fran Spielman
The 19-year-old son of a carpenters union honcho resigned Wednesday from the $49,548-a-year building inspector's job he held for just one week after City Hall accused him of falsifying his work history.
Andy Ryan, whose father, Tom Ryan, is the secretary-treasurer of Carpenters Local 13, grossly exaggerated claims he made on a job application filled out in February, said Buildings Commissioner Stan Kaderbek.
At least two of the companies where the younger Ryan claims to have worked for as long as a year told the city the 19-year-old had worked there for just "a few days," sources said.
Armed with the damaging evidence, Kaderbek called the union and threatened to fire Andy Ryan unless Local 13 could verify the disputed work history by 5 p.m. Wednesday. Shortly before the close of business, the union called back to say Andy Ryan would resign.
"I went and checked the references and there was a sufficient amount of discrepancy that caused me concern," Kaderbek said. "I called the union and said, 'What's going on here?' And I said, 'Unless you can give me some answers with respect to the gaps between what we were told he did and what I'm finding he did, he needs to either resign or be terminated.'
"I got a call back from the union saying he's going to resign."
Kaderbek blamed the union for the embarrassing mistake. "The information was presented to us by him and the union. We relied on that for the basis of our initial screening and our decision. Personnel did not know he was 19. That was not a question we asked. He looked young but so what? Being young in and of itself was not a problem. But there was this discrepancy of information. When did he become a journeyman? Everything just doesn't start hanging together.
"People didn't level with us."
'It's been a bizarre day'
While Kaderbek said the union bears the brunt of the blame, he acknowledged he is also looking at the city's internal screening and hiring procedures. "I can't say what's going to change. Clearly it points to a problem, and I'm not happy about it. It's been a bizarre day."
Andy Ryan could not be reached. His father came to the door of his south suburban home and told a reporter he had no comment.
The resignation is a major embarrassment to both the Daley administration and the union.

Last year back-to-back disasters that killed 34 young people -- the E2 nightclub stampede and the Lincoln Park porch collapse -- unmasked a shortage of building inspectors and underscored the importance of having ones who are supremely qualified.
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin reported Wednesday that Andy Ryan landed a building inspector's job last week, even though the claims he made didn't seem to add up.
The younger Ryan claimed to have completed his union apprenticeship in 2002, when he was only 17. But you have to be 17 to even begin a program that takes four years to complete, and you're supposed to be working full time in the construction trades during the apprenticeship period.
By those standards, Andy Ryan would have started his apprenticeship program at the age of 13 and somehow managed to juggle a full-time carpenter's job with his studies at Lincoln-Way High School.
On Wednesday, before the city started calling around to the companies on Andy Ryan's resume, Mayor Daley put Kaderbek on the spot to answer questions about the controversial hiring. "He can answer it. That's his job. . .. He's the man," the mayor said, turning to Kaderbek, who was on a similar hot seat during the controversy over falling concrete at Wrigley Field.
Kaderbek insisted that nepotism, politics and clout played no role in the city's decision to hire Andy Ryan, nor did the fact that the union, its members and affiliates pumped more than $84,000 into Daley's campaign fund just weeks before the 2003 mayoral election.
'A straight-up process'
"I don't play favoritism. I never have. Nobody tells me who to hire," Kaderbek said. "He went through a straight-up process and I'm confident in that process."
Although he personally signed off on Andy Ryan's hiring and accepts "full responsibility" for it, Kaderbek said the selection was made by a screening panel composed of two trusted underlings: Managing Deputy Commissioner Christopher J. Kozicky and Irma Rodriguez, chief of the central and west districts.
"I've talked to them and there was no pressure," the commissioner said. "I didn't get a call -- nor did they get a call -- from Tom Ryan or the union or anybody else.
"I don't know if he brought it up in his interview. I guess, if it was me, I would have. However, Ryan is a fairly common name."
Kozicky and Rodriguez both said they had no idea how old Andy Ryan was or who his powerful father was when they chose him and 15 other candidates from among 55 interviewed for the job of building inspector.
Asked what impressed them about the young man, Kozicky said: "He had a lot of energy. He was very excited. He really embraced technology. He knows we have to use technology to make our jobs better. He was familiar with general building concepts. He had very good oral and written communications skills."