City worker solicited 'prostitute' during work hours, police say
Department of Transportation supervisor approached undercover cop, police say
Tribune staff report
10:57 PM CDT, April 29, 2008
A Chicago Department of Transportation supervisor has been placed on leave with pay after being arrested while on the city clock Friday morning, accused of seeking the services of a prostitute who was really an undercover police officer.
Hugo Holmes, 56, of the 1700 block of East 55th Street was charged with soliciting a sex act, a misdemeanor, and released on his own recognizance, police said. The vehicle he was driving at the time of his arrest on the 4600 block of South Washtenaw Avenue was impounded.
Holmes, a field supervisor first hired in 1989, earns about $85,000 a year, according to city records. "Depending on the outcome [of his case], we will decide what kind of discipline is appropriate," said Maria Castaneda, spokeswoman for the department
The west side of Chicago is heating up to set record crime levels. Yesterday, a Central District Plumber was almost car-jacked. I strongly suggest all Chicago City Workers to pack heat and lots of it. Pack heat until the end of this summer. Many kids have no work and many stores are closing in the west side. Must be Daley's new round of taxes. The poor are hungry in Chicago and that spells trouble. The City of Chicago provided security guards in the schools, instead of real Chicago coppers, what a mistake. Patrick McDonough
Chicago has it rear-end in a trick bag again. Thanks to Fran Spielman and a "Chicago Clout Inspector General" this is exposed. Clout heavy employees have enjoyed a separate set of rules when punishment was dealt. Before this article, this clout heavy employee with other family on the City Payroll could have just got his job back as if nothing happened. This did not slip away because an entire group of City Workers are sick of the unfair treatment. As I see this, this employee might be allowed to return to work since he did not use a computer on city time. The crime did not happen on city time so they would allow his return. If he would be allowed back to work, that would allow every employee fired for behavior unbecoming and every residency case to be overturned. Any crime not on city time would not affect the job status. So mark your calendars as this will be watched. Read article below. Patrick McDonough
City worker admits trying to meet child
April 8, 2008Recommend
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
A city hoisting engineer must register as a sex offender, stay away from children and stay off the Internet for two years after pleading guilty to indecent solicitation of a child, officials said Monday.
Dominick Mancini -- a 13-year-veteran of the Department of Streets and Sanitation who makes $41.25 an hour -- was arrested Jan. 12 after arranging a meeting with a young girl with whom he had spent months chatting on the Internet.
In fact, Mancini had been corresponding with a detective for the Western Springs Police Department. When he showed up at their appointed meeting place at 55th and Brainerd in Countryside, he was arrested and charged with indecent solicitation of a child.
Last week, Mancini, 45, pleaded guilty to the Class 2 felony and was sentenced to two years probation. During that time, he must register as a sex offender, have no contact with children and stay off the Internet, according to a spokesman for the state's attorney's office.
Since July, 1994, Mancini has worked as a hoisting engineer in Streets and Sanitation's Bureau of Street Operations.
He has been placed on leave with pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation aimed at finding out whether any of the Internet chats occurred on city computers or on city time.
When city workers are arrested in Chicago, the department where they work is notified immediately. Since Mancini was arrested in the suburbs, Streets and San got no such notice. Officials were apparently unaware of Mancini's legal troubles until late last week, when Inspector General David Hoffman got wind of the arrest and guilty plea.
Daley has lost his mind
That's the only explanation for his sputtering attempts at rationalizing theft of Grant Park land for children's museum
April 4, 2008
BY NEIL STEINBERG Sun-Times Columnist
Thieves always have their reasons. The door was unlocked. The pension fund was just sitting there. The old lady wasn't using her car anyway.
Thieves always have their reasons. The door was unlocked. The pension fund was just sitting there. The old lady wasn't using her car anyway.
Whether these reasons make sense depends, naturally, upon whether you are the one stealing or the one being stolen from.
So of course Mayor Daley has a rationale for grabbing a chunk of Grant Park to build his children's museum. Several, in fact: It's for the kids! To show the kids we love them! To put the kids at the center of the city! Kids! Kids! Kids!
The cold-hearted might call these arguments cynical, an emotional pitch to justify doing exactly what he wants to do. Particularly since the unarguable facts are: a) Chicagoans don't want it there; b) kids being bused in to a children's museum scarcely care WHERE it's located, so long as they get a snack.
Being a more generous soul, I believe that the mayor is not being cynical, but rather has completely lost his mind, unhinged by 19 years in office, the way the pashas supposedly went insane behind their harem walls.
He is sincere, alas, and so really does not understand that the only reason there is open parkland for him to try to steal today is because the 53 mayors before him, some deeply corrupt, managed to keep their penny-pinching mitts off Grant Park and resisted the temptation to put up their concert halls, solariums, social pavilions, or whatever the fashionable public structure of the moment happened to be.
That our Mayor-for-Life is not following their example is a sign of his growing brazenness, and his sputtering attempts to rationalize his expropriation is a sign -- in my view -- of detachment from reality.
He feels completely justified. Whether we, the stolen from, accept the reasons offered is still an open question. Nice Job Neil, Patrick McDonough
A Federal Monitor, an overseer, Luci Pope, and Greg Ortiz, had a meeting at 7:00 a.m. this morning. When I waited for my orders from my foreman, a nervous employee was afraid I was going to have a conversation with the Monitor. That employee was very, very, nervous. A little advice to the lady, calm down, we have nothing to hide! It is not as if I do not know what is going on. Patrick McDonough
Last week the City of Chicago Department of Water Management received a truckload of new Shoring. It was delivered to the Water Management facility at 39th and Iron on Chicago's South Side. I have always demanded shoring and the city needs to make the rules in place enforced. If you are on a job and the shoring is not used please e-mail me. I also suggest the Department of Water Management train Operating Engineers on the proper procedures loading and unloading the shoring. Much of the shoring is in disrepair. I hope buying new shoring is not a half hearted attempt to pretend to be in compliance. We also need the people in charge of safety to quit wasting time picking up money for charity and do the job they are paid to do. Demand Shoring! Photo by Patrick McDonough
