patrick McDonough Archives — Page 3 of 17

June 29, 2017

Lawsuit Follows Shake-Up At Chicago Water Department DOWM

(CBS) — Seven employees of Chicago’s Water Department filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday morning, claiming they were denied promotions, subjected to racial claims and sexually harassed because of their race.

CBS 2’s Sandra Torres has details.

“I feel less than the man that I am when I’m talked to disrespectfully,” says 57-year-old Derrick Edmond.

He refers to the treatment he’s received while working at the south water purification plant. He’s among the Water Department employees in the suit who say, in part, “black employees are humiliated, harassed, and threatened daily by co-workers.”

“In 2017, many black people at the Water Department still cannot go to work and make a living without being subject to a hostile work environment,” Edmond says.

Edmond has been working as an operating engineer at the plant for over 30 years.

In the lawsuit, he claims:

-supervisors denied him promotion opportunities because of his race.

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-they called him the “N” word and referred to him as “you people.”

-he was disciplined in retaliation for speaking out against his treatment in the department.

“All of their stories are consistent from top to bottom,” attorney Vick Anderson says.

In May, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired Water Department Commissioner Barrett Murphy after an investigation uncovered racist and sexist emails.

Attorneys say employees now want justice.

“This lawsuit falls on the heels of our mayor of our city having to acknowledge that the culture of the Water Department is indeed hostile and abusive,” William C. Martin says. “This is the next step in this admission process.”

Two plaintiffs are women and five are men; attorneys say at least 30 others have reached out to them with similar claims.

A spokesperson for Emanuel issued this prepared statement in response to the lawsuit:

“The City of Chicago has no tolerance for discrimination of employees in any form, and while we cannot comment on this lawsuit specifically, the City does not take any allegations of this nature lightly. The Mayor recently appointed a new commissioner and is committed to providing the support and resources necessary to implement changes and address issues at the Department of Water Management.”

Patrick McDonough, a City of Chicago Department of Water Management employee has complained of discrimination to two decades. Frank Coconate joins the lawsuit.

June 29, 2017

Chicago Water Management Employees File Discrimination Lawsuit By Charlie Wojciechowski

Chicago Clout’s Archie High tells all.
Derrick Edmond has been an employee in the Chicago Department of Water for over 30 years, but he’s now part of a federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination against management of the agency.
Edmond, an employee at the Sawyer Water Purification Plant on the South Side, is one of eight employees filing suit against the agency.
“Personally, I feel like a little bit less than a man than I am when I have to be talked to disrespectfully, especially after 33 years and an impeccable work record,” Edmond said.
The lawsuit alleges a long-standing and wide-ranging pattern of racial discrimination inside Chicago’s Department of Water Management.
According to the suit, Edmond and others were assigned less desirable shifts and days off, given less desirable work assignments, denied promotions and transfers and were intimidated and harassed because of their race.
“They came to us and told us they had been living in a poisonous environment, literally living in the sewer,” attorney Victor Henderson told reporters.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of the resignation of former Chicago water commissioner Barrett Murphy, who left his office amid reporters of an inspector general’s investigation into racist and sexist emails by the department.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the case say that resignation was a good start, but more must be done to correct what they say has been decades of discrimination at the department.
“We have filed this lawsuit because in 2017, many black people at the water department still cannot go to work and make a living without being subjected to a hostile work environment,” Edmond said.
The plaintiffs in the case allege that the environment not only made it difficult to come into work on a daily basis, but also held them back in their careers with the department.
“All of their stories are consistent, from top to bottom,” Henderson said. “We are hoping the city responds favorably because they have already taken some action.”

June 29, 2017

Water Management employees file federal lawsuit

CHICAGO 06/29/2017, 12:02pm A bronze plaque hangs outside of Chicago’s City Hall
A group of employees have filed a class-action lawsuit over workplace conditions at the city’s Department of Water Management.
Fran Spielman

The pre-emptive strike didn’t work.

On Thursday, four current and two former Water Management employees filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the department at the center of the Hired Truck and city hiring scandals.

The lawsuit accuses the city and top Water Management officials of “deliberate and unlawful policies, patterns and employment practices to create and proliferate a hostile and abusive work environment based on race that includes violence, intimidation, retaliation, constructive discharge against the plaintiffs and the class of similarly situated former and current” employees.

It seeks “unpaid wages, liquidated damages, attorneys fees and declaratory and injunctive relief.”

Named plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit were identified as: current employees Derrick Edmond, Katherin Ealy, Craig Robinson, Eddie Cooper Jr. and Robert T. Laws Jr.; and former employees Vicki Hill and Adebola Fegbemi.

All six are African-American, and according to the lawsuit, all “have been subject to the ongoing and continuing violations of a hostile work environment and/or deliberate acts of discrimination during their employment based on their race.”

Indeed, the suit claims the on-the-job actions against the plaintiffs “weave a tapestry of hostility that dominates every aspect” of their job.

That tapestry includes getting less-desirable shifts and work assignments and being denied promotions, transfers, overtime and training opportunities.

Black women were routinely referred to as “bitches and whores,” the suit contends. Those who dared to complain about the discriminatory treatment of African-Americans were also punished with “unfair, arbitrary and capricious discipline, plaintiffs claim.

And in spite of a shake-up touched off by the offensive emails that has already swept out five high-level managers, the city has “done nothing to remedy” the toxic environment, the suit contends.

Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.

At his confirmation hearing earlier this week, newly-appointed Water Management Commissioner Randy Conner assured sympathetic aldermen that he would “change the culture” in a department with a history of intolerance and scandal.

Conner is named as one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. So are: former Commissioner Barrett Murphy; former Ald. John Pope (10th), who is now a deputy commissioner in the Department of Water Management and three other high-ranging department officials.

Last month, a housecleaning in the Department of Water Management at the center of the Hired Truck and city hiring scandals swept out Murphy, managing deputy William Bresnahan and district superintendent Paul Hansen.

Sources said Murphy — whose wife is a close friend of Emanuel’s wife, Amy Rule — was held responsible for the chain of racist and sexist emails sent by an underling whom the commissioner failed to discipline, even though Murphy was among those receiving the emails.

The Chicago Sun-Times was the first to report that Inspector General Joe Ferguson uncovered the racist, sexist and homo-phobic emails circulating in the Department of Water Management while investigating allegations that Hansen had used his city email account to sell guns.

Murphy’s ouster was a stunner, even in a city department with a history of corruption that’s notorious for its ugly, hate-filled culture.

That’s because it came at the risk of losing two close friends.

Lockwood once chaired a political fundraising committee for the mayor. She’s an Emanuel appointee to the Chicago Public Library board who helped organize the 2012 NATO Summit for the mayor and had a one-year, $160,000 consulting contract with the tourism agency known as Choose Chicago.

Last week, two more high-level supervisors were placed on administrative leave pending termination proceedings.

Thomas J. Durkin, a $106,599-a-year general foreman of plumbers, has been placed on administrative leave without pay while Water Management Commissioner Randy Conner decides whether to follow Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s recommendation that Durkin be fired. Conner who is African-American, has been given carte blanche in a department with an ugly history of corruption and intolerance.

Sources said Durkin was accused of “sending and receiving” the same kinds of racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamaphobic emails that have already triggered the ouster of three other Water Management bosses.

John J. Lee Jr., the $128,088-a-year superintendent of the Water Management’s south district, has also been placed on administrative leave tied to the email scandal.

Durkin and Lee have since resigned.

June 29, 2017

Black workers denied promotions, called racial slurs at Chicago water department: lawsuit

African-American employees of the Chicago water department routinely were denied promotions, subjected to racial slurs and sexually harassed because of their race, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday that could further roil a department that’s become a racially charged problem for Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, comes weeks after a leadership shakeup at the Department of Water Management as a months-long watchdog probe that ferreted out racist and sexist emails shared among department supervisors.
The suit was filed on behalf of seven current and former employees of the department, and it seeks class-action status, which if granted could expand its scope. The employees alleged they were denied promotions and transfers, given less-desirable work assignments, harassed and wrongly fired in some cases because of their race.
It further states that department workers routinely used racial slurs or racially charged phrases, including the n-word and “you people,” to refer to black employees, according to the lawsuit. “Black female employees are called bitches and whores on a regular basis,” the filing reads.

And when they filed complaints about a hostile work environment, they were “subjected to unfair, arbitrary and capricious discipline for speaking out,” the lawsuit alleges. Department officials “have done nothing to remedy the hostile work environment,” it adds.
The lawsuit asks for a judge to rule that department officials violated federal fair labor laws, bar further discriminatory contact, and provide lost wages and back pay to the allegedly harmed employees.
City officials did not have an immediate response to the lawsuit.

A day before it was filed, Emanuel and the City Council were singing the praises of newly appointed water department Commissioner Randy Conner, an African American man from the South Side who was promoted amid the shakeup and confirmed by aldermen Wednesday. Conner is named as a defendant in the lawsuit because of his new role, but there are no specific allegations in the 40-page filing that accuse him of any specific wrongdoing.

Conner was appointed by Emanuel to replace Barrett Murphy, a friend of the mayor’s who resigned his post as the result of a city inspector general’s investigation that turned up the racist and sexist emails. William Bresnahan, who was managing deputy commissioner, and Paul Hansen, who was a district superintendent, also resigned.
The Tribune earlier this month first reported that Hansen sent to Murphy and Bresnahan emails in early 2014 that included anti-Islamic and racially insensitive language.
Hansen also sent an email that included sexist language as he made fun of a colleague in response to a lengthy message that colleague sent to Hansen about a frozen water main.
In addition, Thomas J. Durkin, the general foreman of plumbers, and John “Jack” Lee Jr., another district superintendent, later were replaced on administrative leave pending disciplinary decisions as a result of the probe.

hdardick@chicagotribune.com

June 20, 2017

Two more managers targeted in Water Management email scandal

Chicago City Hall. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times
Fran Spielman
@fspielman | email
Two more high-level supervisors face disciplinary action in the continuing fall-out from the offensive emails that forced a shake-up in the city’s scandal-scarred Department of Water Management.

Sources said Durkin was accused of “sending and receiving” the same kinds of racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic emails that have already triggered the ouster of three other Water Management bosses.

John J. Lee Jr., the $128,088-a-year superintendent of the Water Management’s south district, has also been placed on administrative leave tied to the email scandal.

Ferguson’s investigation is ongoing and is almost certain to trigger more high-level firings, City Hall sources said.

Last month, a housecleaning in the Department of Water Management at the center of the Hired Truck and city hiring scandals swept out Commissioner Barrett Murphy, managing deputy William Bresnahan and district superintendent Paul Hansen.

Sources said Murphy — whose wife, Lynn Lockwood, is a close friend of Emanuel’s wife, Amy Rule — offered his resignation after being held responsible for the chain of offensive emails sent by an underling whom the commissioner failed to discipline; Murphy was among those receiving the emails.
The Chicago Sun-Times was the first to report that Ferguson uncovered the derogatory emails circulating in the Department of Water Management while investigating allegations that Hansen had used his city email account to sell guns.

Murphy’s ouster was a stunner, even in a city department with a history of corruption that’s notorious for its ugly, hate-filled culture.

That’s because it came at the risk of losing two close friends.

The offensive emails were released on June 2, the same day that the Emanuel administration moved to insulate itself from discrimination claims and lawsuits tied to the email scandal with additional training and an outside review of city policies.

In March 2014, Hansen sent an anti-Muslim chain email to Murphy and Bresnahan. The email — with the subject line “Muslims My Ass…” — decried a perceived lack of Muslim influence in American culture, concluding with a reminder that Muslims carried out the Sept. 11, 2011 and 2013 Boston Marathon terror attacks.

“Have you heard a Muslim orchestra? Have you seen a Muslim band march in a parade? Have you witnessed a Muslim charity?” the email read.

The email went on to rhetorically ask: “Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country? Not present. There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims walking side by side with Martin Luther King, Jr. or helping to advance the cause of Civil Rights.”

(The email does not note that Malcolm X, a leading voice in the civil rights era, was Muslim.)

Another one of those emails was sent in January 2014. It was a chain email Hansen sent to Murphy, and it included a series of caricature-like images of President Barack Obama holding signs, with some reading “Thank you for your support citizens peasants comerades! [sic]” “Don’t call your Senators, I and my trusty czars will handle everything!” and “If you’re a soldier, a Christian, or a hunter, you’re probably a TERRORIST!”

Like most chain emails, the messages encouraged recipients to forward them on to others.

March 25, 2017

Vocamotive Video Illinois Workers Comp Vicdeo with Kevin O’Driscoll Complaint

Kevin ODriscoll File.pdf

March 16, 2017

The Saint Patrick’s Day Chicago River Dye secret exposed Uranine

Many people want to know how the City of Chicago and Plumber’s Local 130 dye the Chicago River Green. The newspapers call the mixture “Irish Fairy Dust”. I suppose that is not good news reporting. The Chicago Saint Patrick’s Day parade is a great parade and I have marched in everyone my entire life until I got hurt. Many of the guys that place the powder in the water have ended up with awesome jobs with the city. The secret powder is Uranine. Please see the picture of this powder. Uranine is also called “Irish Fairy Dust”. Most versions of this powder is about as safe as the Lead water pipes serving most of Chicago safe drinking water. The City Water Department supplied the powder with taxpayer money since the beginning of the tradition. I do not want this powder placed in the water any longer. But that is me. Remember, St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago is to celebrate the accomplishments of the Irish. It should not be a day to shame his name with excessive drinking. Happy St Patrick’s Day and God Bless all my Chicago Friends.

November 12, 2016

James D’Amico massive presence felt at Chicago Voting Precinct November 8, 2016

John D’Amico was not happy when the cops were called as he was electioneering for the D’Amico and Laurino family and interests. The authorities were called because James was on the wrong side of the cones, or less than 100 feet from an entrance of a voting precinct. Last time James D’Amico was on Chicago Clout, he was smoking. Now he quit which is good, but he is very plump. Thanks to John C. Amico, big Jim keeps getting out of trouble.
Little work and big pay. The D’Amico way. No wonder why Hillary lost the election!!!!

April 5, 2016

Former State of Illinois Inspector ready to test Lead in your Chicago Drinking Water

Many folks are very concerned about the lead in the drinking water in Chicago. We at ChicagoClout will provide expert witnesses as to the ways the lead has purposely been put into the drinking water in Chicago. We will provide expert testimony and provide existing sworn testimony as to the way the Department of Water Management willfully violated laws that have adversely affected your family’s health.

We will provide testimony that will show the Department of Water Management retaliated against whistleblowers and stopped water from being properly inspected by Chicago Plumbing Inspectors. We will also show the way Chicago has been testing water to avoid giving an honest result which would have given results with a positive lead result.

We will also show how the promotions have been given to insiders not licensed or qualified to make decisions that affect your life and wellbeing. Please contact chicagoclout@gmail.com and we will provide a lead test that is Calibrated to the EPA standard for lead. Our test procedures document the correct way for an honest result. Every person making the test is a State of Illinois Certified Plumbing Inspector that has been a former employee of the Department of Water Management. There is no charge for those that can not afford the test!!!

March 29, 2016

Monica Somerville Workers’ Compensation Director Unsuccessfully Sued the City After She was Fired for Poor Job Performance

Worker’s Comp is another Hired Truck and Clout List Scandal Waiting to Happen

I predict current workers’ comp Director Monica Somerville will join the ranks of city managers Angelo Torres and Robert Sorich. Torres managed the infamous Hired Truck program. The city paid $60 million a year to contractors for trucks that mainly sat idle on side streets and parking lots. To secure their lucrative trucking contracts, city contractors used bribes, kickbacks, and political donations, including contributions to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s political committee that Emanuel set up when he ran for congress. Sorich maintained the “clout list” that FBI agents found on his computer when they raided his city hall office. Scorch kept the names of people that the city promoted or hired in exchange for their political work, a practice that the Shakman Decrees expressly prohibited. Not surprisingly, the names of workers comp Director Monica Somerville and three of her relatives appear on Sorich’s clout list (see Note 1).

As with Torres and Sorich, Monica Somerville’s political organization and political sponsors secured her workers’ comp job. As with Torres and Sorich, workers’ comp Director Somerville must obey orders from her political clout bosses regardless of whether her orders are moral or immoral or legal or illegal; otherwise, she will be out of her seventh public sector job.

Somerville’s job as workers’ comp director is her fourth city job. Somerville worked in the law department as an attorney and assistant corporation council from January 1991 until she resigned in September 1997. Somerville returned to the law department as a chief assistant corporation council in June 2000. Somerville’s return to city employment at double the salary is significant because it occurred after Sorich put her name on his clout list. Seventeen months later, the city fired Somerville for disciplinary reasons in November 2001. Somerville did not leave her city job quietly. She filed a sexual harassment and racial discrimination suit against her boss Melvin Brooks and the City of Chicago. The judge ruled the city fired Somerville for “poor performance.” The judge specifically noted Somerville made mistakes that led to a $50 million and $3 million verdict against the city. The judge said Somerville provided no evidence that she was sexually harassed or racially discriminated against.

Somerville Should Have Been on the City’s Do Not Hire List

The assistant commissioner for the human resources department maintains a “do not hire list” of employees whom the city will not rehire because of the actions that led to their termination. The do not hire list is divided into finite and infinite classifications. The city may rehire former employees after one year if city workers’ terminations are listed as “finite.” The city will never rehire former city employees whose terminations are classified as “infinite.”

At the very least Monica Somerville’s disciplinary termination would have put her on the do not hire finite list had there been one in 2001. Somerville falsely accusing her supervisor and city of sexual harassment and racial discrimination after she was fired probably would have earned her a do not hire infinite termination. It’s one thing to get fired for poor performance and disciplinary reasons, but making false accusations after termination against a supervisor and the city is far more serious. I pity Somerville’s boss who had to defend himself against her awful allegations.

Alderman Burke hired Somerville for political reasons, and he continues to employ her for political reasons. As with Somerville’s current workers’ comp position, her previous employment was also a Shakman exempt job. Prior to joining Alderman Ed Burke’s finance committee, Somerville worked nine years at the Illinois Department of Employment Services (IDES). She went from a $28.36 hourly hearing referee in 2003 to earning $7,917 a month for working as a public service administrator starting in 2009. Somerville has an eight month employment history gap from when she left IDES on Sept. 1, 2012 until she started working for Burke’s finance committee on May 16, 2013. Somerville’s pay dropped from $95,000 a year at IDES to the $75,000 a year that she is currently earning as a finance committee employee.

Alderman Ed Burke is solely responsible for hiring Monica Somerville. For the 31 years that Burke has served as finance committee chairman, he has handpicked all of his workers’ comp employees. Somerville did not make the city’s do not hire list because there was no such list when she was fired, but wouldn’t her termination for poor job performance, false allegations against her supervisor, and unsuccessful lawsuit against the city give Burke pause to hire her? Has Somerville accomplished anything remarkable that shows she is a far better employee today then the day the city fired her?

Burke has some explaining to do. Why did Burke hire Somerville after she was fired from the law department for poor performance? Why did Burke hire Somerville after she made false sexual harassment and racial discrimination claims in a lawsuit that she lost? Why did Burke hire Somerville who has an extensive political pedigree for a job that requires independence and impartiality?

Burke’s hiring of Somerville is a symptom of a much bigger problem, namely workers’ comp is under Burke’s finance committee’s control when it should be part of the executive branch. During Burke’s 31 year reign as finance chairman, I estimate that he has submitted $2 billion to $3 billion in workers’ compensation vouchers without a financial audit or oversight of his expenditures. Indeed aldermen have passed Burke’s workers’ comp budget for 31 years, but once the city council appropriated money to fund Burke’s committee, there has been no review to make sure Burke has properly spent the $2 to $3 billion of workers’ comp money.

Three 1913 municipal code ordinances give Burke the unchecked power to hire workers’ comp employees, sign vouchers for both duty disability pay and medical expenses without proper financial controls over his spending or oversight of his employees. Workers’ compensation employees like Somerville maintain power and control over city employees’ livelihood and their health since they must give their prior approval for medical procedures such as surgery. If you are a city employee or someone you care about is a city employee, you’ll want to know the answer to this question: How many other Monica Somervilles did Alderman Ed Burke hire to administer Chicago’s workers’ comp program?

Note
1.To view Monica Somerville and her relatives names on the clout list, click the following document. cloutlist2006(2)