Fran Spielman was back on top of her game today tying in Mayor Daley's friend and family program, Mike Tadin's goon enterprises, and the Building Department special inspectors for the 11TH Ward. What do I mean? Tadin an 11TH Ward Goon, is entering into the house building business. If you have money to launder, this is the business the IRS is too uninformed to watchdog. Fran Spielman also put together theft of water from the Chicago Fire Hydrants. Amazing. It seems to me the pieces are almost all together in the Tadin, Daley, Water Department pimps and players. The script; if Tadin is going to build home, all the city building inspectors on the project know to find nothing wrong. This project needs to be watched by the Office of the Inspector General with a close eye. Tadin made millions with his scab trucking company; expect unions to shy away from enforcing a 100% union worksite. The part of the story Fran nailed was related to ABC 7 News special with Plumbing Inspector/ Whistleblower John Swietczak exposing the stealing of water from Fire Hydrants. Chicago Clout also demands an investigation into the way the fines were imposed by the Department of Water Management against contractors caught pilfering water from Chicago taxpayers. Michael Tucker, son of retired Plumbers' local 130 enforcer Paul "RC" Tucker, had his plate full yesterday with an all day Building Department meeting at Chicago City hall. Michael Tucker got a nice ride up the promotion ladder, and needs his workload increased. Chicago Clout also demands a review of the websites he has visited the last few years. Chicago Department of Water Management brass has failed again enforcing rules and regulations. I say fire all the goons Daley sent from the Police Department to hush to dissention at the Water Department. Feel free to ask Michael Tucker how he got his job and promotion and make sure you call 1-312-744-3764 if you plan on taking water from a Chicago Fire Hydrant. See attached story below. Photo by Patrick McDonough.
Hired Truck giant ready to roll on Bridgeport homes
November 20, 2009
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com
Former Hired Truck kingpin Michael Tadin is spreading his development wings in his native Bridgeport neighborhood, even as the housing boom there and elsewhere is going bust.
"There's nothing booming anywhere. I guess we know something nobody else knows," Tadin said Thursday.
River Bend Real Estate Investment LLC, a company Tadin co-owns with his son, has requested a zoning change to build 28 single-family homes with detached, two-car garages in the 2800 block of South Hillock. The riverfront industrial site once housed Holsum Bread.
It's not their first foray into residential development in Bridgeport, where Tadin and his friend Mayor Daley were born and raised.
In 2005, Tadin and his son built and sold town houses in the 500 block of West 33rd Street. The following year, they put up 39 more in the 3700 block of South Sangamon, a site that once housed the Wexler Meat factory. Only half of those town homes have sold.
Development in Bridgeport, birthplace of Chicago mayors past and present, was booming for years because of demand for housing close to downtown jobs. Old industrial buildings were converted to lofts. Developers scoured side streets for lots suitable for new homes.
That has slowed to a crawl during the prolonged recession that has dried up financing, shrunk the pool of home buyers and prompted a wave of foreclosures.
But Tadin Sr. remains bullish on Bridgeport.
"It's gonna take a long time to accomplish the next phase, but we've already made the investment. We've owned the land for two years, and we're willing to go forward," he said.
"It's not like we're gonna start great guns. We'll start slow, build so many at a time, and take a chance. If it doesn't turn around, every one of us is in trouble," he said.
Tadin is the perennial city trucking magnate whose $1.25 million loan to a security company co-owned by Ald. Patrick Huels (11th) forced the 1997 resignation of Daley's former City Council floor leader. Tadin's trucking company had received a $1.1 million city subsidy with Huels' help.
Tadin was the undisputed king of Chicago's Hired Truck program, emerging from the pack, even after City Hall accused the company of overbilling and agreed to spread the wealth to other firms.
The program was disbanded in 2005 after the Chicago Sun-Times disclosed how politically connected companies -- some with ties to organized crime, others masquerading as minority- and women-owned businesses -- were paid to do little or no work. The Hired Truck scandal resulted in dozens of indictments and convictions and branched out into city hiring.
Two months ago, a company owned by Michael Tadin Jr. was accused of stealing water from a city fire hydrant -- without a permit and without a device to prevent construction debris from contaminating Chicago's water system.
The younger Tadin called it all a "misunderstanding." He said he was a "sub to a subcontractor" on the street resurfacing project in the 2100 block of North Clybourn and he "thought it was the general contractor's responsibility to get these permits."
The City of Chicago needs the convention business to not only promote our city, but to provide much needed income to support Mayor Daley and some of the leeches he employs. For over a decade money was flowing into Chicago and no one seemed to care about the waste. I complained about the top-heavy management and the lack of proper certifications to oversee Chicago's departments. Mayor Daley loaded departments up with political hacks, clowns, and incompetent freaks. To get a promotion, you just needed to understand the political games, understand common sense was secondary, and work extra around the political season. Many of Daley hires are still milking the workman's compensation claims despite the many inroads we have made for worker safety. The situation at the McCormick Place is paving the way to how Chicago is seen to the rest of the United States and the World, especially China. You cannot keep milking the convention business in Chicago anymore. Let's review the factors that are sending convention business to other states and cities. The major players in the convention business are high rollers, wealthy, smart, and are business savvy. When they roll into Chicago, they wanted Meigs Field to handle their private planes. These are high class people that are not going to put up with the herds at O'Hare Field. They need to get in and out. Why waste your time on the Kennedy Expressway? The Chicago convention business is run by political hacks that think they are special and above the law. It is run by amateurs and immature morons, period. When businesses go to other cities, they are treated with kid gloves, entertained, wined and dined. When convention executives are in Chicago, they notice the citizens are ticketed and circled like vultures. The red light cameras, the array of high taxes and fees other cities do not experience are a detriment. Taxes for rental cars, taxies, hotels, dining, parking and travel never seem to end in Chicago. Companies attending conventions see no reason to relocate to Chicago. Businesses are like herds, they will continue move in packs away from Chicago. We need to offer some strong incentives to keep conventions in Chicago, hiring Mayor Daley's friends and family is not the answer. Daley's has family employed at McCormick Place. Unions such as Journeyman's Plumbers Local 130 decide which workers work at the convention center instead of a proper application process which could provide better employees. Safeguard the conventioneers by giving management more power to enforce work rules. I think major conventions like the boat show and the car show will stay, but Daley needs to give them incentives like United Airlines tax breaks. I suggest all conventioneers threaten to boycott now for better contacts, Daley will cave in. As I said before and I will say again, keep your eyes open and expose corruption now, before it is too late. Switching subjects, I also hope the incident involving a laborer assaulted by a plumber yesterday at the Department of Water Management is not going to be covered up. I also hope the rise to power by Lemuel Austin from a Department of Water Management laborer to a superintendent's position at Transportation is just a rumor. I know Daley is an idiot, but does he need another black eye to learn his lesson? Keep in touch; I have another gem on Daley's son Patrick! Patrick McDonough.
