For a moment, San Diego seemed like it was going to take over the corruption capital of the U.S. title from Chicago. But in the last couple of weeks, Chicago has lapped San Diego to re-affirm its moniker as the Big Spud on the Take.
Chicago Tribune | Millennium Park kickbacks charged
A former Chicago Park District official accepted cash, vacations to ski resorts, a pricey bicycle and even a manicure for steering millions of dollars in work at Millennium Park to a suburban landscaping company, federal authorities charged Thursday. Shirley McMayon, the Park District's former director of natural resources, pocketed more than $137,000 in financial benefits from two executives of James Michael Inc., the Mundelein-based landscaper, an indictment charged. In return for the payoffs, McMayon, 47, now of Park City, Utah, improperly used her influence to steer about $8 million in Park District work to the firm between 2000 and 2004, authorities charged. Michael Lowecki, the company owner, and Kevin Haas, its former chief operations officer, were also charged in the indictment. “They used the Park District coffers as sort of their personal playground,” U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said at a news conference announcing the charges. Fitzgerald said that “one of the kickers in this case” was that the contractors didn't pay for most of the bribes themselves, instead padding their invoices to pass the cost of about $60,000 in payoffs to taxpayers. Among the phony invoices was a bill for about $10,000 for a non-existent global positioning system, he said. “This is the $10,000 GPS that can't be found,” Fitzgerald quipped.
Even Barrack Obama is worried about being to close to the unfolding scandals...
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) hedged Thursday when asked if he would endorse Mayor Richard Daley in a re-election run, but Obama made it clear he is concerned about City Hall corruption.“I think taxpayers deserve a fair day's work for a day's pay,” Obama told reporters after appearing with Daley and other fellow Democrats at a downtown news conference on road construction. “They expect that people who are hired are hired because of their qualifications and not because of their contacts.
”I think the [federal] investigation will proceed, and my hope and expectation would be that across the board--not just in the city, but in the state and at the federal level--we create a culture where taxpayers can respect the work that politicians do, since I am one of them.“
Daley's administration has been rocked by a federal probe that has uncovered bribes in return for city trucking business and, most recently, a scheme in which senior city officials allegedly rigged evaluations to favor politically connected people for city jobs and promotions.
