ChicagoClout

Residency Rule

The following information pertains to job applicants and City of Chicago employees.

Residency in the City of Chicago is required of all employees. Proof of residency will be required at the time of employment, per Section 2-152-340 of the Municipal Code of Chicago.

City replaces sewer inspection firm linked to mayor's family
$2.8 MILLION DEAL | Patrick Daley and his cousin had ownership stakes

September 5, 2008

BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND TIM NOVAK Staff Reporters
City Hall has found a new sewer inspection company to take over the work that had been done by a business in which Mayor Daley's son and nephew had hidden ownership stakes, a violation still under investigation by the FBI and the city's inspector general.

Two weeks ago, the city gave National Power Rodding a $2.8 million contract to inspect and clean sewers on the North Side. National Power Rodding is the same company that already is doing the job on the South Side under a $3 million contract it won by outbidding Municipal Sewer Services, the company that the mayor's son, Patrick Daley, and nephew Robert Vanecko helped create.

This new contract replaces the temporary deal city officials gave National Power Rodding after Municipal Sewer Services suddenly shut down earlier this year, walking away from a $4.5 million contract amid the investigation that began last December after the Sun-Times disclosed that Daley's son and nephew had failed to disclose their 5 percent ownership stake in the company, as required by city ordinance.

Along with one of the mayor's friends, Daley and Vanecko created Municipal Sewer Services in 2003 to take over two city contracts. City Hall extended the contracts for months, and it later awarded the company new multimillion-dollar deals. The mayor's son and nephew reportedly cashed out their original $65,000 investment with a profit in late 2005, when the mayor's son enlisted in the Army.

Investigators have been trying to determine whether Municipal Sewer Services filed fraudulent documents with the city to hide the ownership stake held by Daley's son and nephew and whether the company used clout to get more than $7.9 million in work from the city. Investigators also are trying to determine if all of the work was done.

National Power Rodding -- which did sewer inspections for the city during the 1990s -- has hired Hamilton Construction as its minority subcontractor. Hamilton is owned by the son of Marco A. Morales Sr., a former city contractor who fled to Mexico in 1997 rather than serve a 59-year prison sentence for bribing a city official to win sewer contracts. National Power Rodding expects to pay Hamilton about $1 million under the two city contracts, records show.

Morales' son legally changed his name to Marc Morale and created Hamilton Construction, which has gotten more than $38 million in contracts from City Hall while his father has been on the lam. Federal officials have been attempting to extradite Morales on cocaine charges.

Pat, this company is not doing a city job (however they probably do) the trees they are cutting are near com ed wires and com ed pays then to keep their wires clear of tree limbs oh and FYI i am 100% in favor of residency requirements for city employees, however if a city employee is required ? to live in Chicago, all businesses that do business with the city as well as ALL of their employees that work on city contracted jobs should live here also, a simple way to look at it is would it be ok for the president of the USA to live in the Bahamas? or for Chicago elected officials to live in the suburbs or another state? even though some do,they should not though,
(Response) Chicago Taxpayers pay com ed, twice, is that what you are writing?

It's clearly evident that Daley knows he is a mere mortal and he fully understands his days are drawing to a conclusion via the "John Stroger stroke way". It comes time for a man to pull back the reins, because the aging body cannot run at full speed anymore. Strokes come from high blood pressure which is what "tomatoe face" excudes quite often now. Bill daley is his replacement in some form. Jessie "loser" jackson jr. needs to step up to the plate now. There is something b ig that jr. wants from Obama bin laden after this election is over, and it's gonna be an endorsement for mayor I think.A lot is surely to come in politics 2010. And I pray it's the last of this crooked mayors term. I have given up hope with patrick fitzgerald indicting him. This is a real sorry estate of affairs here. This crooked shellander who runs the republican party is payed off by the dems to keep under the radar and to shut out the republican party in this state. Such crooks. I can't believe no-one has the guts to step up to the plate and change this crap. it's pitiful. Please vote for Peraica states attorney and see if he is the one. There is no-one else I can think of. such shame.

I read most of the comments and have come to the conclusion that you can't stereotype a city employee by what you hear or see on the news. Most city employees are hard working and get the job done who live in the city. Some with clout and some without. Although one snag that the Mayor has overlooked that I didn't come across in my reading is that the city has consultants making great big salaries working for the city being paid with city tax payer money that DON'T LIVE IN THE CITY like the city employees that are bound by a residency clause. City departments can run fine without consultants. Get rid of them and that will save you more . On top of that there are cars,trucks,big construction equipment and alike that are leased or purchased outside the city. Why the double standard?

Why complain when people working for the government make enough to support their families? Would you rather that bureaucratic turnover increase, and Public service suffer?

In general (and it varies dramatically, depending on the job), working for the Public is extremely demanding and extremely tiring. Paying people a reasonable amount of money is the only way to keep them from quitting, and from government "customer service" from declining to even lower depths than it already operates at.

That said, for every hard-working City Worker, there is another in Zoning, Buildings, or Streets & San that was a patronage hire and who does, literally, nothing but sit on their hands all day.

It's important that the City reward people who do their jobs well, and punish those who don't. Unfortunately, right now in my experience that doesn't happen at all.

And no, not everyone on that list is retirement eligible. I know several personally who are under 30 years of age. They were people who were going to quit anyway (their jobs were terrible day to day); the pay-out just galvanized them into action.

Why the crazy post. City workers should trim the trees. We are losing our homes!

Lets see pay a city worker time and a half or double time to trim a tree after a storm or pay a private contractor who will pay their employee prevailing rate plus a mark up. Even with the mark up it willbe less. Thats one way to reduce the $400 Million deficit. Pat you cant have it both ways. Either we reduce cost or their will be layoffs

Pat these guys are union and are not stealing your city workers work. In cook county they are IBEW Local 9. So Just calm down buddy!
(Response) They should live in the city! What do you think?

Asplundh does tree work for Com-Ed Right-of-Way vegetation issues. Clearly, they are trimming trees next to powerlines. City of Chicago Forestry only has jurisdiction on street trees, while Chicago Park District has jurisdiction on park trees.

Back to the picture, the crew is trimming the trees back from the power lines...they can trim any public or private tree in the way of a utility. So, no city workers are losing jobs to this, because they have nothing to do with public utilities.