Fran Spielman is honored again by Chicago Clout by exposing Fraud

Chicago Clout is a website that attempts to get at a truth. After working for the City of Chicago for a long time, you see many things that are not right. Many of the people trying to change things are retaliated against, fired, and demoted. Many employees are unsung heroes that go out of their way to make life better for residents. Many employees get so jaded they become another person, stealing, lying and cheating. Chicago City Workers also suffer from many personal issues which include alcoholism, drug use, and gambling problems. I see it every day and I do pray for all those afflicted. Watching time after time connected people taking and abusing the system, does cause depression in some employees. I sometimes wonder how Fran Spielman keeps it all together when handed lie after lie from Mayor Daley and his staff. Make no mistake, Fran Spielman has many friends in the City, she gets the inside scoop and shares the stories unselfishly. I hope all City workers read Fran’s take on Mayor Daley and his family taking advantage of the taxpayers time and time again. A former boss like Conrad Black makes one understand the realities working under goony Mayor Daley is really like. Again, Fran Spielman is the best of the best. Enjoy her story below. Patrick McDonough]]>Daley's tale hard to take
ANALYSIS | Mayor says he was uninformed, ignored in Vanecko deal — that seems unlikely
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June 16, 2009
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com
Mayor Daley wants Chicagoans to believe he knew nothing about his nephew's risky real estate venture with $68 million worth of city employee pension funds until the Chicago Sun-Times blew the whistle nearly two years ago.
He wants us to believe that, the minute he did find out, he ordered his nephew Robert Vanecko to drop out of the deal with developer Allison Davis, only to be ignored.
Mayor Daley reads a statement on Thursday denying he knew about his nephew's pension fund deal.
If voters are having trouble swallowing the mayor's story, it's for good reason:
HISTORY: In 1991, then-City Treasurer Miriam Santos accused Daley's top political operatives of pressuring her to grease deals with politically-connected pension fund investors. Santos went public with her behind-the-scenes refusal to invest $5 million in pension funds in a South Loop hotel developed by Paul Stepan, Daley's chief fund-raiser.
The mayor tried to get even by persuading the Legislature to remove Santos from two pension fund boards, only to have then-Gov. Jim Edgar veto the bill. Santos later plead guilty to a mail fraud charge stemming from a 1998 race for attorney general. But that doesn't mean she was wrong about the games being played with pension funds.
FAMILY PENSION FUND TIES:If Daley had no interest in directing pension fund investments, why did he appoint John Briatta, John Daley's brother-in-law, as a trustee of the Municipal Employees Pension Fund during the 1990s? Briatta had no financial expertise. He later went to prison for taking bribes in the Hired Truck program, but not before voting for Vanecko's pension deal.
OTHER PENSION BOARD MEMBERS: How could Daley not have known about his nephew's pension fund deal when members of the mayor's Cabinet sit on the boards that made the risky investment? It's conceivable that then-Chief Financial Officer Dana Levenson, then-City Treasurer Judy Rice and current City Comptroller Steve Lux did not get their marching orders directly from the mayor, who insists on having "buffers." But wouldn't they have sought direction from the mayor's staff? And if Vanecko did ignore his uncle's directive to get out, why didn't Daley ask those same Cabinet members to nix the deal?
FAMILY FEEDING FRENZY:The mayor has allowed his brother Michael's law firm to corner the market on city zoning business. He's allowed his brother, John, to sell insurance to city contractors. William Daley Jr., another mayoral nephew, works for Morgan Stanley, the financial conglomerate whose infrastructure group leased Chicago's parking meters and downtown garages. If the mayor believes it's OK for some family members to cash in on city deals, why would he draw the line at Vanecko?
LEASE DEAL: If Daley truly believes that "perception is everything" — and that the perception was "rules were broken and preferential treatment was given" to Vanecko — why has the city paid nearly $500,000 in the last 15 months to lease space at a South Side industrial site owned by Vanecko and Davis, who bought the property with city pension money? Why was it a month-to-month arrangement that skirted the requirement for City Council approval of leases?
SAME NEPHEW: Robert Vanecko is the same Daley nephew who, along with the mayor's son Patrick, held a hidden ownership in a sewer cleaning company that won millions of dollars in no-bid contract extensions from City Hall. That deal is also under federal investigation. Vanecko and Patrick Daley have said they sold their investment in the company in late 2004.
After being embarrassed by the sewer deal, wouldn't the mayor have watched Vanecko's business dealings like a hawk?
SAME OLD SONG:Daley reads from the same script after every scandal — whether it's Hired Truck, city hiring, minority contracting, Patrick Daley's sewer deal or the $1.25 million bailout loan from perennial city trucking contractor Michael Tadin that triggered the resignation of Ald. Patrick Huels (11th). Daley condemns the wrongdoing, denies he knew about it and cuts the offender off at the knees. The script is getting old.