The Frog March matter was bumped off the front page of the Trib by more tendrils of corruption in Pete Fitzerald's other big case. Do they lead to Daley yet? Will they? Will the Mayor run for re-election?
Chicago Tribune- Corruption seen at City Hall's door Less than two months after top aides to Mayor Richard Daley expressed surprise at uncovering “specific instances” of clout in city hiring, the federal government on Monday laid out in rich detail a long-standing, widespread and well-established system of alleged corruption in awarding jobs and promotions that allegedly stretched to the mayor's office itself.
In case after case, the fix was in for the politically connected at the expense of job applicants who had no political sponsorship, with the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (IGA) playing a key role in determining who prospered, according to federal investigators.
City officials who are responsible for screening job applicants told investigators that hiring decisions were made before interviews were conducted and that ratings from those interviews were manipulated to favor candidates on the IGA's “winners list.” Supervisors said they were simply “going through the motions” of interviewing and rating the candidates, the complaint said.
In one case, a politically connected city employee who was on active military duty in Iraq at the time was given a promotionafter documents were doctored to show he had won a top grade in an interview that never occurred, prosecutors charged.
In others, people advanced despite drinking problems and without regard for performance. And, in one instance, the system was greased for a worker who died before clout could promote him, the government charged.
Named in separate criminal complaints detailing the allegations were Robert Sorich, a senior official in IGA with longtime ties to Daley's family, and Patrick Slattery, director of staff services in the Department of Streets and Sanitation.
John Kass weighs in:
Chicago Tribune's John Kass
But these days Canaryville is also a state of mind at City Hall, as top former mayoral cabinet members sing to the FBI, cooperating with U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald in the investigation of rampant patronage abuse. And while his former underlings talk to FBI agents and federal grand juries, Daley has apparently run out of fall guys. He's a political one-way street, who has demanded so many people fall on their swords for him that all he's got left are swords. The wounded are probably calling the FBI right now. “The dam has broken in terms of a number of people coming forward and cooperating,” Fitzgerald said Monday in announcing federal charges against city officials Robert Sorich and Patrick Slattery of Daley's Bridgeport neighborhood. “More than 30 cooperating witnesses are cited, more than five former commissioners, four former personnel directors and two current personnel directors,” hesaid.
Yowsa. For sure, Jesse Jackson, Jr. is going to make a run for Mayor now.
and then there is the somewhat related story regarding the mob, Rosemont, and the casino:
Days after lawmakers authorized the Emerald Casino's move to Rosemont in 1999, the suburb's longtime mayor, Donald Stephens, met with five high-ranking organized crime figures to discuss what control the mob would have over contracts at the casino, an FBI agent testified Monday.Sitting with Stephens at Armand's restaurant in Elmwood Park were reputed mob leader Joey “The Clown” Lombardo, who is being sought by U.S. officials; John “No Nose” DiFronzo; his brother Peter; Joe “The Builder” Andriacchi; and Rudy Fratto, among others, said John Mallul, head of the FBI's organized crime unit in Chicago.
Testifying at a state hearing about whether to strip Emerald of its casino license, Mallul said agents learned of the May 29, 1999, meeting just days after it occurred from a longtime FBI informant who also was there.
“One topic of discussion,” Mallul read from an FBI report based on the confidential source's information, “concerned a casino in Rosemont, Ill., and [organized crime] control of various contracts regarding its construction and operation.”
Gotta love some of those names, and the timeliness of relying upon anonymous informants. Seems to be a meme of the month. Who says politics isn't fun?
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