Wednesday, June 30, 2010

LOCAL 21 AND LABOR RELATIONS

  • The union representing Chicago's 911 operators and dispatchers will face the Daley administration this week in another Illinois Labor Relations Board hearing, following claims by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 21 that the City "imposed" concessions that were from an agreement with another union.
  • The other union, however, is part of the same collective bargaining unit.
  • Certain public safety employees -- including crossing guards, aviation security officers, traffic control aids, animal control workers, parking enforcement aids and 911 operators -- fall under the same bargaining unit known as "Unit II," which is represented by both Service Employees International Union Local 73 and IBEW Local 21.
  • Local 21 represents only the phone operators at Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, which accounts for about 425 workers, while SEIU represents approximately 2,000 employees in Unit II.
  • Since SEIU dominates the unit in terms of membership, it can be difficult in certain situations for IBEW to muster enough votes and "have our voice heard," said Jerry Rankins, a Local 21 business representative.
  • That problem came into play recently when the City of Chicago negotiated a two-year amendment to the "COUPE Agreement" -– which included some concessions to prevent massive layoffs. Paid holidays, except for Labor Day, were eliminated and overtime payment switched to compensatory time for up to 80 hours for all members of Unit II.
  • IBEW rejected the offer and said it should not have applied to Local 21 members since they were not threatened with any layoffs.
  • The city "knew we had no backbone because we were outnumbered, so basically the COUPE Agreement was shoved down our throats," said one 911 operator who asked to remain anonymous.
  • But David Johnson, chief labor negotiator from Chicago's Law Department, said they look at the total vote count for the unit as a whole -– and SEIU voted to ratify the offer.
  • "We've always combined the votes, and that goes back to the first contract in 1986," he said. "The overwhelming majority of members accepted the deal."
  • According to Rankins, the effects of the agreement are especially substantial for the 911 Center employees since there was a two-year delay with no retro-activity pay -– and the operators in this office are known to work a lot of overtime.
  • Johnson said there are many different ways to look at pieces of the deal, but it also came with a 9.25 percent raise over three and half years.
  • "For a lesser wage increase, we might have done retro," he said.
  • But ultimately, all that mattered was that Unit II -- as a whole -- accepted the offer.
  • Local 21 has also filed a petition to sever from Unit II and create its own bargaining unit, but it was denied by the ILRB. The union is appealing the board's decision to the Illinois Appellate Court.
  • This is potentially worrisome for SEIU because it would offer outside unions the opportunity "to come in and pick them off individually," according to Matt Brandon, Local 73 secretary-treasurer.
  • But John Brosnan, ILRB executive director, said that is why the standard to sever is very high, since it's important "to keep bargaining units stable."
  • By Katie Drews, for ChicagoUnionNews.com
  • Contact: info@chicagounionnews.com
I'm tired of all these give backs. They take our OT pay and cut our hours, then they turn around and refuse to fund our pensions. Someone needs to stand up to the Mayor and his den of alderthieves. Now Daley is talking about a $500 million budget shortfall for next year. He better not ask for more givebacks. We've done more than our share already.

Monday, June 28, 2010

THE CHICAGO WAY

NEW YORK TIMES
Court Rules; Patronage May Benefit
By DAN MIHALOPOULOS
  • City Hall was literally abuzz most of the week with talk of dozens of new Wal-Mart stores across Chicago, with demonstrators blowing World Cup-style vuvuzela horns to express their desire for jobs.
  • On Thursday, as a City Council panel at last approved plans for Chicago’s second Wal-Mart, many city workers and politicians ignored the din and chatted about news from Washington, where the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that could have far-ranging political consequences in Chicago’s wards.
  • A few feet away from the chanting Wal-Mart supporters, a police officer asked a colleague if the court’s decision to severely limit the federal “honest services” law might revive the Hispanic Democratic Organization. The political group was the biggest of the patronage armies that Mayor Richard M. Daley’s aides cultivated by steering city jobs to loyal and effective campaign workers.
  • The practice thrived despite decades-old civil court agreements intended to ensure fairness in city hiring, and it was the lifeblood of a machine that helped Mr. Daley dominate local politics. It ended only when federal prosecutors charged some Daley aides, including Robert A. Sorich, his former patronage chief, with corrupting the hiring process in one of many honest-services cases that federal prosecutors here have pressed successfully.
  • Lawyers for Mr. Sorich and his co-defendants argued that they were not corrupt because they did not take a dime. The Supreme Court justices echoed that on Thursday, ruling that prosecutors have to prove that the alleged crimes involved bribes or kickbacks.
  • Since Mr. Sorich’s arrest and conviction, the political playing field has become more level. Mavericks no longer have to face huge pro-Daley patronage armies, a change that contributed heavily to the defeat of several mayoral loyalists in the 2007 City Council elections.
  • Kitty Kurth, a Democratic consultant who had been called St. Jude for her fervent backing of many long-shot candidates, found herself on the side of the successful, independent challengers in five council races in 2007.
  • “I guess Chicago and the rest of the country ain’t ready for reform,” Ms. Kurth said of the Supreme Court ruling. “I would think this would make it tempting for the machine to go back to its old ways.”
  • While the local political establishment had no qualms about violating a civil court decree, going to jail for patronage hiring did not seem possible until the Sorich case.
  • “The threat of criminal prosecution was a deterrent, and this ruling reduces the deterrent," said Michael L. Shakman, the lawyer who for four decades has fought a civil court battle for apolitical hiring at City Hall.
  • In the City Council chambers Thursday, as Steven Restivo, the Wal-Mart spokesman, talked to reporters about the Zoning Committee vote, a former Daley aide who recently got a job with Wal-Mart stood next to him. Mr. Restivo would not say whether anyone in local politics had recommended the former aide, Gyata Kimmons, to the company, saying instead that Mr. Kimmons was most likely hired the same way he and many other Wal-Mart employees had been.

 Does this mean we are going back to the old ways of doing business? I guess so. If they practiced patronage hiring and promoting when it was illegal, why wouldn't they do it after a ruling that makes it at least less illegal. I presume there are still laws against it but now it will be harder to press charges. The federal monitor is scheduled for a showdown with the city in August. The judge who mandated her presence is retiring. My guess is that as long as Daley keeps playing along he will get out from under federal scrutiny at that time. With Obama in the White House I can't see the Feds continuing to investigate him. Looks like if you want a city job or promotion in Chicago you better be ready to knock on doors and buy fundraising tickets again.


Friday, June 25, 2010

SUN-TIMES COMMENTS

This guy left a great comment about Chicago corruption in the Sun-Times. I had to reprint it. Fascinating reading.

wwmd wrote:

sure shortshanks - privatize it and keep it buried a little longer, this time supported by your crooked cronys. read on:
The Daley Administration never was interested in cleaning up the corruption in the Hired Truck Program. They were only interested in managing the cover up. Any money that was collected by Bob Benson was an additional irritation to the Daley insiders that wanted business as usual to be restored. The Hired Truck corruption was only a small portion of the overall Daley Administration Managed Corruption in Chicago. Yes, I said Daley Administration managed corruption. The managed corruption is everywhere. For decades the Daley family had little worry about detection of their family generated corruption. The appointment of Patrick Fitzgerald an outsider rocked the boat. There is substantially enough currently available and offered to Patrick Fitzgerald indict Daley and a score of his current and former high placed Aids. It is however baffling why he has been reluctant to proceed against Daley. Absolutely nothing of substance has transpired since the day that the Sorich Conviction was announced. I will write more on that later.
I personally witnessed the overt corruption in the Water Department. I reported it as an Assessor inside of Water Collection opening new accounts and dispatching Field Assessors and Plumbing Inspectors to investigate properties that were illegally not metered or those that were not paying a bill at all. The response was to threaten my life and job. I found millions of dollars that were not being collected in Water Collection from thousands of properties. Virtually none of it has ever been collected even though the Daley Administration has had a substantial portion of the corruption information since 1998. The Daley Administration was not interested in collecting lost revenue in the Water Department and investigating the fraud involved by Water Department employees that had been carefully placed by the Daley Administration in positions to actually protect the water thieves and those that were eliminating billing for friends, family and personal gain from being discovered.
When I came under attack for dispatching plumbing inspectors and field assessors to investigate properties that were not paying for water service or substantially underpaying I notified the Mayor of Chicago repeatedly in a series of letters sent VIA Certified Mail with a return receipt. The Mayor of Chicago was notified of the corruption in detail. The response was complete silence. I should relate that I have been told that these letters were among the documents that were seized by Federal Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. I can not substantiate that Fitzgerald has them, because I am waiting 7 years and 28 days for an FBI Agent that he sent to talk to me. He must have been from out of town or got mugged on the way to see me. Fitzgerald has had at least 45 pages of my corruption records sent to him VIA Fax on December 13, 2001. He politely responded that the FBI would contact me. Subsequent letters complaining about the non responsive FBI in Chicago sent VIA Certified Mail – Return Receipt have received no response. Telephone calls to the FBI received outrageous responses from those answering the telephone and in one case from a Chinese woman pretending to be an FBI Agent. Perhaps I got Daley’s Office of Governmental Affairs by mistake.
Daley’s former Inspector General Alexander Vroustouris and Corporation Council Maura Mutz AKA Georges and their offices actually participated in the cover up of the theft of municipal revenue and the fraud in the Water Department. The Chicago Inspector General’s Office under Vroustouris and the Corporation Counsel’s office along with other elements of the Daley Administration actually engaged in racketeering, obstruction of justice, fraud, and mail fraud to cover up the criminal activity occurring in the Water Department. Naturally Mutz AKA Georges and Vroustouris will both deny my accusation if they should be confronted. I challenge both of them to take a polygraph exam if they refute their activities. I wrote letters to Daley and all 50 Chicago Aldermen explaining why Vroustouris should be fired as Inspector General and then prosecuted. Naturally I got no response from the Mayor or any of the 50 Aldermen many of which I have known for decades. Not one was willing to rock the boat and ask for an investigation. Those that are attorneys should remember their responsibilities as officers of the court in regard to corruption.
When Vroustouris was finally replaced by Inspector General David Hoffmann I provide Hoffmann with several hundred pages of bound documentation on the corruption taking place in the Water Department. I also offered to provide more. To date the offer of more information on the corruption inside of the Water Department has not been answered. The cover up continues.
Unfortunately the cover up has even extended to the News Media in Chicago. While trucks that make noise and sound bites have been popularly featured, complex managed corruption inside of the Water Department and the “Hitler or Stalin” like tactics used by the Daley Administration to cover up the existence of the criminal activity has not garnered much attention. Perhaps it has looked like too much work for many of the media people that I have talked to. Since the Daley Administration has controlled everything from aldermanic appointments of more than 60% of the City Council, to judicial appointments and slating of candidates for most offices it would also be feasible that the fifth floor of city hall is also controlling editorial boards that do not allow most reporters to investigate and publish corruption articles. I should publish the list of reporters and media people that have ignored the most significant amount of Chicago corruption, theft of municipal revenue and fraud from an insider in a sensitive position.
My contention is that the corruption is massive. It is also continuing and growing instead of diminishing with the 46 plus convictions secured by the Federal Attorneys. There are not enough Federal Attorneys or FBI Agents in the entire United States to tackle all of the Daley Administration corruption. Unfortunately since President George Bush decided that he would travel to Chicago to have his birthday party here with Mayor Richard M. Daley, I have witnessed no indictments or serious investigations into the Daley Administration organized corruption. Is the Daley Administration now above the law?
When the President of Mexico was invited to Chicago, where was the Federal Attorney? Was Daley conspiring with the President of Mexico to block extradition of Marco Morales the federal witness that fled to Mexico to avoid testimony that might lead to an indictment of Daley? How could the United States Attorney General miss such an inappropriate meeting? Perhaps he was too busy trying to give Patrick Fitzgerald falsified performance rating. Still I can not believe that Daley got away with witness tampering.
While Patrick Fitzgerald has produced a significant number of indictments and convictions he has entirely ignored the Dirty Richard Daley Mob Institutionalized Corruption since the Bush Daley birthday party. Why????? Again I ask, is the Daley Administration above the law? If not I will publicly offer to give you a Chicago city corruption tour.
I will begin the tour for Fitzgerald and Grant on the south east corner of Broadway and Surf Streets. I will tell you to look at the building with 5 restaurants and a beauty salon that is 25 years old. It is a nice building. Then I will tell you that in the 25 years that the building is on this corner with 5 restaurants and a beauty salon that it has managed to not pay for even one glass of water. In 25 years of records I can not find any payment of property taxes on this building worth as much as $3 million dollars. What I do find are a long sequence of bankruptcy filings. Every time that a bankruptcy is filed the property is bought for taxes in another company name. The actual owner’s name, the man that collects the rent never has his name on the property record. The tax deeds issued are all sent to the same office of the man that collects the rent. He always collects the rent. He never pays for water and taxes on a $3 million dollar building.
Once this property actually had the water shut off for non payment of the bill. It had been posted for water service termination for non payment of $15,000.00 in water billing. The man that collects the rent went to the Water Department at 333 S. State Street in the same building where Bob Benson worked. The real owner issued a $2,000.00 check and was able to have the water service restored. Naturally the check bounced and no effort was ever made to collect the money for the bad check or prosecuted the man for issuing a bad check. Instead the clerk that had issued the shut off order was abruptly transferred to another undesirable job for offending a Daley Mob insider who has mastered the art of not paying for water or taxes. The real owner of this property probably has more than a thousand properties in Chicago during the last 25 years and I suspect that most of them had similar situations with non payment of water billing and elimination of taxes. How does he get away with defrauding the City of Chicago? Who are the cooperating conspirators that are allowing him to run up huge water bills without paying? Who is the Chicago city attorney that files Water Department liens against the property, but makes no effort to have the water shut off or the bill collected? This is the same Water Department attorney sent to talk to me by former Deputy Commissioner Viria Holland when I reported the billing irregularity to her in 1998. She was outraged that I thought that there was a problem with this account. I knew about the problems because I had been sent to read the meter prior to the water service termination. I did not know at the time that the attorney was involved in putting liens on the property. I have since learned that this attorney’s husband is on the Staff of Mayor Richard M. Daley. Who does this little man with such a successful plot pay inside the Daley Administration to continue the process? Federal Attorney Fitzgerald and FBI Agent in Charge Grant should meet me on the corner of Broadway and Surf and take my tour.
A second stop on the corruption tour could be the building at 1546 W. Cortez that is or was owned by Ernie Wish, Daley’s former head of the Department of Revenue and the Boot Meister that established the crooked Department of Revenue boot program to extort money from Chicagoans for phony violations. This program is just another version of the Greylord corruption. Meanwhile Ernie has a building that has no record of paying for water service. The only available record was a line on a 1948 map showing that there was an account at the address and the meter control number. In 1998 the water theft was discovered while he was Director of Revenue for the City of Chicago and Head of the DePaul University Alumni Association. Suddenly he changed jobs and became Illinois State Superintendent of Public Instruction for Governor George Ryan. Ernie was back billed $4,600.00 for the 4 flat based on a fixture count for 5 years. Nothing was however paid. He got another year of free water before any water was paid for.
I could take the Feds to Bridgeport Village and show them how it all sprung up without permits or metered water service and probably without property index numbers to pay taxes. I could show them the homes of the Daley insiders. I could take them to the north side and show them several thousand relatively new properties that were constructed by a company owned by an Alderman that have been granted plumbing permits that violate Municipal Code and show them the absence of water meters for many square blocks with many properties lacking property index numbers. There is no end to the Institutionalized Corruption. It has only escalated during the time that Fitzgerald has been in Chicago. For every Daley mobster that he indicts there are 100 more that he should be investigating.
If Fitzgerald and Grant do not want to go so far away from their offices I could even give them a tour of 333 S. State Street and show them what records to seize. I could take them to the Recorder of Deeds office and show them what documents that they need to obtain. I could show them the desk where the unmarked envelops full of cash were dropped for the Dirty Richard Daley Mob Bagman. I could take them to the Jardine Filtration Plant past the sleeping guards hired by Daley and show them where the records of corruption for many Water Department accounts are hidden. I could take them to the Building Department Conference Room and show them where more of the Water Department records of corruption are hidden. I could show them where the falsified performance ratings are stored that were dictated from the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to eliminate job holders for Victor Reyes to have positions to fill for his Hispanic Democratic Organization the name chosen for Daley’s new political friends in his attempt to circumvent the Shakman Accord. I can even give them the list of performance ratings for each of the Water Rate Takers and Assessors pre-determined and dictated to supervisors. I could take them for a stroll down Taylor Street and show them how the family of a Cook County Circuit Judge is allowed to have an interest in a property that has no property tax records or property index number. How do you own a 4 flat in Chicago and not pay any taxes? I could take them to the old Taylor Street office of Daley’s Alderman, Burt Natarus who operated his Taylor Street office along with Cook County States Attorney Richard Devine in a building that was illegally not metered for water service but also has a rear building that has not paid taxes in my lifetime, just like the building directly east of it. I could even take them down the street to Leona’s Taylor Street a restaurant with good pizza that had no ice water from opening day until 2000. There only water was “hot water” stolen by pretending to be a single family home with a senior citizen instead of a restaurant serving ice water and using a lot of water. The property has had a history of not paying for water. Back in 1974 this restaurant was Joe Prisco’s Coffee Shop which was the first Illinois Lottery Outlet. In 1974 the property was already stealing water. The Daley Administration has not only defended providing this restaurant with virtually free water for 3 decades, but have blatantly provided more free water and no back billing after discover of the 30 year water theft. After the property was discovered without a water meter operating under the most common name on Chicago Water Department records: Owner/Occupant a member of the owner’s family that ran Customer Service in the Water Department at 333 S. State suddenly changed jobs and was hidden away near Commissioner Judy Rice at the Jardine Water Treatment Facility handling Water Department Personnel Records. This business and the property owners received more than 20 years of virtually free water. Their Prodigal son was promoted up and finally hidden away at 333 S. State on the 4th floor with a high paying job that resulted in an enormous pension. He too is in the Daley family database from a family related to the D’Arco family. This is an example of theft of municipal revenue and fraud inside of the Water Department. It is not an isolated case. There are thousands more. The Daley Administration of father and son have created these water revenue thefts and Richard M. Daley and his Administration work more diligently to cover up the criminal activity than they do on anything else.
As for Bob Benson and Inspector General David Hoffmann, they were only intended to be “window dressing” to give the illusion that the Daley Administration was actually trying to clean up the corruption. Unfortunately some of us know the truth and have paid dearly from the Dirty Richard Daley Mob retaliation. It is Institutionalized Corruption controlled by the Mayor’s Office and his flock of genuflect and steal political hacks.
A perfect example of the overt abuse of a city employee is the case of Frank Coconate before the rigged Chicago Personnel Board. I have witnessed most of the Personnel Board Hearing. All of the Personnel Board Members were appointed by Richard M. Daley and the Hearing Officer’s serve at his whim. Coconate an exemplary employee was fired from his job in the Water Department with false charges. His attorney was barred from attending his preliminary Water Department hearing by the same Chicago Attorney that files the liens against the property at Broadway and Surf and then eliminates the water billing when the man buys his property at a tax sale in a different name. Coconate was fired and the Personnel Board sustained the complaint brought against him with falsified reports and testimony. He was fortunate to have two super attorneys represent him. Terry Brunner the former head of the Chicago Better Government Association came out of retirement in New Mexico and has been flying to Chicago to represent Coconate ‘pro bono” along with a terrific attorney named Frank Avila. The principal witness against him Jan Peska quit her city job and moved to Florida after she had been subpoenaed. The City of Chicago knew that she was quitting her job and moving out of state and did nothing to force her to testify in accordance with the subpoena. This was just another one of the Daley Administration’s “good people” as he calls them. For the Daley Administration this case is just another serious breach of the law. This Personnel Board head has a vested interest in doing Daley’s bidding. He is receiving several million dollars for funding programs in his church from the Daley Administration. The other Personnel Board members have similar conflicts as do the hearing officers. The entire Personnel Board should be eliminated at a substantial savings. Their proceedings are a farce. Federal Attorney Fitzgerald and FBI Agent in Charge Grant should be introduced to the Personnel Board also. The Personnel Board only rules the way that the Daley Administration wants them to rule. They are an administrative tool of the Pervasive Personnel Conspiracy that has cost the City of Chicago probably more than $20,000,000.00 in legal fees and settlement of the Shakman Accord law suit. Michael Shakman and friends saw the violations of the Shakman Accord law suit from the captured Sorich List, but they neglected to comprehend just how the Daley Administration was using the Inspector General’s Office under Alexander Vroustouris, the Personnel Board, and the Corporation Counsel’s Office under Maura Mutz AKA Georges, plus special employees in each department used to target city employees for elimination. This was the “dark side” of the Pervasive Personnel Conspiracy. The Sorich List was only a small snapshot of the operation that existed. The missing list could be reconstructed from the records of investigations that took place under Inspector General Alexander Vroustouris and the employees that were brought before the Personnel Board. There were not enough vacant city jobs to supply the minions of new friend of Richard M. Daley marching for Victor Reyes, and pretending to be precinct captains. Employees had to be eliminated to provide jobs for the Sorich Clout List and the various lists kept by Victor Reyes before Sorich replaced him. How many people were illegally eliminated from employment with the City of Chicago by the Dirty Richard Daley Gestapo operation and their complimentary kangaroo court called the Chicago Personnel Board? From my perspective most of these folks belong in an orange jump suit, and just not Robert Sorich. It is amazing that such an operation could exist in the United States without serious prosecution. Of course when you control every facet of life in Chicago like Daley does getting him prosecuted and convicted is absurdly difficult.
Meanwhile the City of Chicago is operated for friends family and personal gain. Friend of the Daley Administration often do not pay for water service, taxes or business license. They often do not obtain building permits or obtain permits to attach to municipal water lines. They routinely violate municipal codes. Recently thousands of new properties have been constructed city wide without having required water meters. Many of them do not even have Cook County Property Tax Index Numbers so they are not paying property taxes even several years after they have been built. Other properties have been built without paying for water service. Even after more than 50 convictions since Patrick Fitzgerald came to Chicago it has been business as usual in city that wants to have an Olympic Games. Chicago is so crooked that if an Olympic Games came to town the Daley Administration would hall away all of the Gold Medals just like they are preparing to do with Municipal Pension Funds. Where else could you appoint members of the Pension Boards and then have them vote to give your nephew control of $67 million in Municipal Pension Funds to invest and even give him $996,000.00 every year to make the investments. If most of us went out and tried to borrow $67 million to invest the first question that we would hear before the horrendous laugh would be what collateral do you have? In the case of the Daley nephew he got a $67 million dollar interest free loan and was paid nearly a million dollars a year to cart off Municipal Pension Funds without having any liability if he loses all of the money, steals it, or gets it stolen or loses it in the construction site at the old Chicago Defender building whose owner he has given $1 million in Municipal Pension Funds to purchase the building and renovate it into a restaurant. This is the same Daley insider that has the restaurant in Millennium Park that was not paying for gas, water, garbage removal or taxes. It is the same restaurant owner that was operating a restaurant out of a Chicago Fire Station without paying for water and probably pretending to be a fire station for tax purposes.
There is no question that Federal Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and FBI Agent in Charge Grant need a Chicago City Tour. I will also offer a tour to any legitimate industrious reporter or Chicago Newspaper Editorial Board member that is not on the Daley payroll.
Short of occupation by federal troops and invoking RICCO Statutes against the City of Chicago I see no solution to the Institutionalized Corruption of the Dirty Richard Daley Mob.
Poor Chicago deserves better government. The poor tax payers deserve a level playing field that does not reward Daley insiders free water and free taxes for decades requiring them to pay more.
After the troops and RICCO attorneys arrive Chicago should be thinking of eliminating 35 of the 50 Alderman positions plus their staffs and more than 30 of the Streets and Sanitation Ward Yards. Chicago should be eliminating most of the Assistant Commissioners and all of the phony titled positions of the State Representatives and State Senators that are double dipping at the public trough. There should be term limitations for all Chicago Aldermen and elimination of the Mayor’s office in favor of a paid city manager. The more than 29 people in the Mayor’s office receiving more than $100,000.00 a years should be eliminated. The entire Chicago Corporation Counsel should be replaced with a court jester and a dozen clowns. After what I have witnessed by attending Frank Coconate’s Personnel Board hearing the jester and clowns would be a better use of municipal funds. The Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and all Chicago offices outside of Chicago should be immediately eliminated. The “genuflect and steal” politicians of Chicago should be excommunicated. Daley should repay the City of Chicago the legal fees and damages awarded in his Pervasive Personnel Conspiracy. All of the phony charities should begin to pay for water and taxes. Allowing them to receive free water and tax exemptions forces all of the other Chicago Tax Payers to pay more. The TIFs should also be eliminated. Every contract issued by the Daley Administration should be carefully examined by Federal Attorneys. There have been very few contract, if any during the Daley Administration that were legitimate unless a mistake was made. The $137 million in minority set aside contracts awarded to James Duff and his mother were known to Daley. Patricia Green Duff’s mother, Alice Green was a Daley insider supervising the telephones in City Hall for Mayor Richard J. Daley who was put in office by the Old First Ward Organization of Bruno “The Bomber” Roti a Capone henchman. This was the same Alfonse Capone for whom Henry Guilfoyle the brother in law of Richard J. Daley worked. Heine Guilfoyle ran an area of the north side near Armitage and Pulaski for Capone plus he managed the Penthouse a super sized speak easy on north Pine Grove.
The connections between the Roti and D’Arco family of the Old First Ward and the Daley family was complicated with the marriage of Cook County Commissioner John Daley to Mary Lou Briatta the daughter of Old First Ward Outfit Gambling Boss. This marriage and a second Daley/Briatta marriage created some unusual circumstances for the family of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Would you believe that I have the Daley genealogy database and now it includes such Chicago luminaries as Al Capone, Frank Mariote, Bruno “The Bomber” Roti, John D’Arco, Joey “The Clown” Lombardo, Frank Nitti, Tony Accardo, Joe “The Builder” Andriacchi, Harry Aleman the famous Chicago hit man, Frank Carusso, 26th Street Outfit Crew Chief and labor leader, Dominic Senese a lieutenant in the Joey Lombardo family under Jackie Cerone and Joseph Aiuppa. Many of the allied families in this database are prominently represented on the Sorich List of the Pervasive Personnel Conspiracy. A major portion of the management of Chicago’s Institutionalized Corruption emulate from the Daley – Roti – D’Arco – Capone – Lombardo – Mariote – Accardo – Senese – Nitti – Andriacchi – and Allied Families Genealogy. I should note that there are many good people that are members of these families and other Allied Families. Linking the families through marriages helps to explain how corruption, job selections, and clout work in the City of Chicago. From Capone until today the only Chicago Outfit head that is not currently in the Daley Genealogy Database is Sam Giancanna, but I can even connect him with just a few more obituaries.
It has become rather obvious that Daley has been off limits to Patrick Fitzgerald since the Bush birthday party in Chicago on the very day that the Sorich conviction was announced.
Although President elect Obama and Senator Richard Durbin have both stated that they want to keep Fitzgerald in Chicago I do not see it happening. I anticipate that Richard Durbin will get a telephone call from Daley telling him the name of new Federal Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois who will naturally be a village idiot with a law degree that will naturally not see Dirty Richard Daley Mob corruption.
In conclusion: No, Bob Benson and Inspector General David Hoffmann you are not expected to collect the purposely lost revenue or investigate corruption. It all emulates from the fifth floor of City Hall and Dirty Richard Daley, son of Boss and it is protected. You are merely a stone in the Mayor’s shoe as Frank Coconate and I have been.

Best Wishes from a Dedicated Chicago Whistle Blower,

Jim Osborne

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

FROM THE COMMENTS

  • OEMC could be privatized with an out-sourced company!
  • The idea is being kicked around to eliminate costly OEMC positions and bring in a private company (like the parking meters) to run all communications for less money$
Is this possible?

Monday, June 21, 2010

CTA FIRE PROBLEMS

 
 


 
  • The operator of a Red Line train who reported a fire in the subway on Sunday was told by the CTA control center to proceed through the smoky tunnel after he told officials the fire had dissipated, the president of the rail workers union said today.
  • But while continuing around a curve toward the Clark Division station, the operator of the northbound train saw flames on the track and "decided it was better to go through the fire than have the train sit on top of it,'' said Robert Kelly, who talked to the eight-year veteran train operator. Kelly is president of Local 308 of the Amalgamated Transit Union.
  • But by passing over the fire, "the train dragged smoke all over the place,'' Kelly said.

They decided to drive a train into a smoky tunnel without checking for a fire? The CTA never seems to be able to handle these emergencies. Every year or so we have an emergency like this where people need to evacuate the stations and tunnels. Every time people have the same complaints about no communications and poor evacuation procedures. This system is a huge disaster waiting to happen. These last few incidents have been minor issues that turned into major emergencies due to poor evacuation preparedness. You never see this in New York or any of the other major cities in the U.S. If we have a major emergency, I'm afraid we will have many unnecessary casualties. How many times do they need to see these problems before they correct them? It's more than just a CTA issue. The OEMC is responsible for emergency management. We have all these people working here with emergency management shirts. What are they doing? Is it just another do-nothing clout job? I never hear anything about their plans or preparedness for emergencies. No one ever questions them about the CTA emergencies or their plans for the Taste of Chicago or any of the other events that bring huge crowds together. The Blackhawks parade was peaceful because the crowd was peaceful. If there was an incident it would have been a disaster. There was no emergency plan in place. They had an emergency drill last week. We were given no information about it. They needed to use a citywide for the CTA part of the drill. Problem was they never informed the ops floor. There was a zone using the citywide due to technical difficulties. Ten minutes before the exercise they are panicking because they need to get the zone off the citywide. I think people in this city need to start questioning the competence of our Emergency Management department. Before it's too late.

Friday, June 18, 2010

OPEN POST

Thursday, June 17, 2010

BRADY ADVISED TO FULLY FUND PENSIONS

SUN-TIMES
  • State Sen. Bill Brady, the Republican candidate for governor, says he’s found a role model in former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
  • The brother of former President George Bush appeared with Brady in Chicago on Thursday.
  • Jeb Bush said he likes Brady’s commitment to limited government and enthusiasm for free markets. He said he’s advised Brady to fully fund Illinois’ troubled public-pension system.
  • Bush also took a few jabs at Illinois politics. He said it’s hard not to keep up on what’s happening in the state because of national attention he figures is humiliating to “normal, everyday people.”
  • Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn had said Wednesday it was “insulting” to the people of Illinois for Brady to bring in a member of the Bush family to cheerlead for him and thati former President Bush ran the nation’s economy “into the ground."
This is great news if it holds up. It's the first time I've heard any politician in this country support the pensions. Since Brady is well ahead in the polls and the electorate is tired of the democrats, there's a good chance Brady will be governor. I just hope this is more than an empty campaign promise.

 

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

CITY PRIVATIZATION CONTINUES

  • Under fire to deliver suburban-style curbside recycling to all Chicagoans, the Daley administration is exploring the possibility of privatizing the service, City Hall sources said Tuesday.
  • Several aldermen, who asked to remain anonymous, said they've been told Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne is working on a plan to privatize recycling to shave as much as $40 million off the $60 million annual cost.
Daley continues his union busting privatization scheme. He used to need city workers to knock on doors. Today he prefers contractors to kick back money. They can legally donate to his campaign. He also strong-arms them to donate to his pet projects like Millennium Park. Some people may think it's better to let private companies do it for less money. Be careful. This scheme could be coming to job near you. Like your job. Contract employees don't get union wages. That makes the work less valuable. Meaning union jobs start to pay less. More money for the contractors. Less money for the workers. Unless you own the company you are on the short end of these deals. Also the contract employees do not have to live in the city. This means they don't have to pay the taxes. City employees will have to make up the difference. It's less money for the pensions. You can forget about them anyway. They're not being funded and schemes like this diminish them further. We'll be lucky to get the equivalent of Social Security. That's exactly what the politicians and business owners want. More for them. Less for us. City residents will be supportive of these schemes. But they are wrong to be. If this trend continues there will be no good middle class jobs left. If you go to college and do well, you will be OK. If not, the only jobs left will be low paying non-union positions. The contractors and business elite will be filthy rich and the workers will struggle. Not a good scenario if you plan to raise a family in this city. Your kids will have a bleak future without an excellent college education. With the continuation of privatization, few will be able to afford it. The rich get richer, and the rest fight for the crumbs.

Monday, June 14, 2010

LOBBYISTS CLEANING UP AT CITY HALL

  • Contractors, suppliers and other companies use clout-heavy lobbyists to do business with City Hall. Surprisingly, at times, so does Mayor Daley.
  • It's not exactly the same, says Langdon Neal, a Chicago lawyer with deep political ties whose Neal & Leroy law firm charged the mayor's Public Building Commission more than $400,000 last year to lobby City Hall for zoning changes and other land issues that needed to be dealt with to build schools, police stations, fire stations and libraries.
  • The money for lobbying was a fraction of the $3.5 million that the Public Building Commission paid Neal and his law firm last year for legal services, which also included real estate appraisals and title searches. Since 2005, the commission -- which Daley controls but which technically is a government entity separate from city government -- has paid Neal and his firm a total of $12.8 million, records show.
  • Neal is also a government official. He serves as chairman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners -- which, again, is a governmental body separate from the city -- at an annual salary of $91,223.
The rich get richer and we get to pay for it with taxes and fees. We take furlough days while the connected lobbyists take the money to the bank. The more you find out about city government the more you realize there are hundreds if not thousands of people like this getting filthy rich on the taxpayer dime. The troubling part about it is that people don't even see it as news anymore. We have come to expect it. The public is jaded by it and sees no avenue to change. With no one stepping up to run against Daley and the aldertheives, maybe they're right.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Friday, June 11, 2010

HUGE RALLY DOWNTOWN FOR THE STANLEY CUP CHAMPS


It's a great day for Chicago. What a great celebration. The Blackhawks have morphed into a world-class hockey team. And their fans have always been world-class. Congratulations to them both.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

LET'S GO HAWKS

FROM THE COMMENTS

Anonymous said...
Would someone please explain to me the logic behind the decisions made by our watch manager on 3rd watch. Who gets time due, who is allowed to switch days off, why is no one allowed to check book and see how many people are ahead of you, why are only some people's personal days accepted over comp time while others are given time over personal days, why are only a select few who are buddy buddy with her allowed to do all of the above and the rest have to follow whatever rule she feels like enforcing today? Basically I would like her to stick to one set of rules for everyone and not bend it for her friends. Clarence has to be aware of her shennanigans. How long is he going to let her run wild before she takes him down like R. S.?

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

INTERNATIONAL MURDER SUSPECT


He barely speaks Spanish. He'll be fluent in a few years. He'll be learning sentences like "Get off of me!" and "My ass hurts!". It'll be a long torturous jail sentence. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

1961 STANLEY CUP CHAMPION CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS





Some great old footage. Even the goalies didn't wear facemasks. It's been a long time. Let's get another one. Go Hawks!!!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

GANG MEMBER STEALS COP CAR

  • Bail was set a $100,000 today for a self-admitted gang member accused of stealing a squad car from the officer attempting to pull him over, the Cook County sheriff's department said today.
  • Hector Zuniga, 20, of the 7200 block of South Harding Avenue in Chicago, is charged with aggravated battery to a police officer, criminal damage to government property, aggravated unlawful possession of a stolen police vehicle, aggravated failure to obey an order to stop, possession of cannabis and multiple traffic citations.
  • About 5 p.m. Friday in an unincorporated area on the borders of Stickney and Chicago's Southwest Side, a Cook County sheriff's officer tried to stop Zuniga near 47th Street and Leamington Avenue after seeing Zuniga's 1990 Jeep Cherokee roll through an intersection without stopping at a stop sign there, the sheriff's department said.
  • Zuniga tried to elude arrest by turning down several side streets before he sharply turned to the right and hit a stop sign at 47th and Kenneth Avenue in Chicago, the sheriff's department said.
  • The sheriff's deputy pulled behind Zuniga, along with backup from a Chicago police officer, when Zuniga suddenly put his Jeep in reverse and slammed into the sheriff's squad car. Zuniga then jumped from his vehicle and the officers pursued him on foot, the sheriff's department said. During that pursuit, the department added, Zuniga jumped one fence, which collapsed under him, leaving him with cuts to his head. The pursuing sheriff's deputy suffered a knee injury while jumping over another fence.
  • "Zuniga ran several yards and looped back to the original scene, where he jumped into the idling sheriff's squad car and drove east on 47th Street," the sheriff's department said.
  • Meanwhile, the Chicago police officer returned to his vehicle and pursued Zuniga until he turned down an alley at Harding Avenue, the department added. About halfway down the block, Zuniga stopped the sheriff's squad car and tried again to flee on foot, the department added. He was stopped shortly thereafter by the pursuing Chicago police officer.
  • Authorities found six grams of marijuana in Zuniga's pocket, the sheriff's department said, adding that it took officers five minutes from their initial attempt to stop Zuniga to bring him into custody.
  • His next court date is set for June 24 in Cook County Criminal Court in Bridgeview.
It must have taken super human will power not to beat the snot out of this punk once they caught up to him. Hopes for a quick recovery to the injured officer. Must have been an adrenaline rush for the dispatcher. Good job by everyone involved in the chase.

Friday, June 4, 2010

HOW NOT TO FREAK OUT DURING AN EMERGENCY

How not to freak out during an emergency
By Jennifer Bixler
CNN Medical Executive Producer

  • On Wednesday, Utah officials released the 911 call from inside actor Gary Coleman's house. On it, according to People, Shannon Price tells the operator that Coleman hit his head while making her something to eat on the evening of May 26 downstairs in their Santaquin, Utah, home.
  • "He just just got home, I went downstairs. Blood everywhere," Price says. "I don't know if he's OK. I'm not down there right now because I have seizures. If I get stressed out I'm going to seize."
  • Price goes on to say to the operator, "I just can't be here with the blood," she says. "I'm sorry, I can't do it. I can't ... There's blood all over and I can't do anything."
  • The operator asks Price "to at least give him a towel" so Coleman can apply pressure to his wound. Price replies, "Yeah, I'm just panicked. I don't know what to do … I just don’t want him to die. I'm freaking out."
  • In a video interview released Thursday, Price said Coleman couldn't be saved and she didn't want him left in a vegetative state.
  • Price has been criticized for her lack of action, but it's not uncommon for people to panic during an emergency. If you don't handle emergency medical situations well, here's a quick checklist to keep yourself calm, cool and collected.
  • GET YOUR BEARINGS "If you don't understand what is going on, you are going to freak out," says Dr. Dave Beiser, an emergency room doctor at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Ask yourself the following questions, is the person breathing? Are they bleeding and if so where? Can they talk?
  • CALL 911 Even if you aren't sure how serious the situation is, it's always best to err on the side of caution. The moment something happens, you should call 911. "They are trained to deal with someone who doesn't have medical training," says Beiser.
  • PREPARE FOR EMERGENCY WORKERS TO ARRIVE Beiser says in a situation like what happened to Gary Coleman, you should make sure the person is lying on his or her side. Why? "In case they vomit, it protects the airway," says Beiser. Beiser also says if the operator suggests you do CPR, make it simple. Experts suggest brushing up on your CPR before an emergency. A simple way to do that is by checking out the "Hands-Only CPR" campaign The American Heart Association launched a few years ago.

If you are on a plane that is about to crash, you should put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

ANOTHER HOME INVADER SHOT

SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE

  • A man who crashed into an Austin neighborhood home and was shot by a resident following a foot chase with police early Thursday has been charged.

This is great. Too bad the intruder survived. Still. This is an excellent way to remove these scumbags from society. Just wait till the handgun ban is overturned. Everyone will want in on the action.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

ARE YOU READY FOR LEGALIZED HANDGUNS?

 National Review: Pulling Chicago's Gun Ban Trigger
John R. Lott Jr.
NPR

  • The Chicago gun debate finally shows signs of changing. With the Supreme Court's decision on the city's gun ban imminent, people might be beginning to understand that gun bans don't stop criminals from getting guns.  
  • At a press conference two weeks ago, Mick Dumke, a reporter from the liberal Chicago Reader, asked Mayor Richard Daley what should have been an obvious question: "Since guns are readily available in Chicago even with a ban in place, do you really think it's been effective?" Daley's response wasn't very helpful. Picking up a very old rifle with a bayonet that had been turned in during one of Chicago's numerous gun buybacks, Daley blustered: "Oh, it's been very effective. If I put this up your butt, you'll find out how effective it is. . . . This gun saved many lives — it could save your life."
  • Reporters greeted Daley's outburst with a moment of stunned silence. But it wasn't Daley's answer that was important. The novelty is that a reporter actually questioned Daley on whether the gun ban had failed.  
  • Even mainstream television news is questioning the gun ban. Take this report last week from Chicago's CBS-TV:
  • They are law-abiding citizens in Chicago, but they are so worried about their own safety, they say they might have to break the law. The last straw was the death of Chicago Police officer Thomas Wortham IV last week. That has some African-American families in Chicago considering doing something they never would have done before: carry a pistol. CBS 2's Jim Williams reports he grew up among those families and he's never [seen] anything like it. Many Chicagoans have been upset for some time about violence here, but Wortham's murder has touched a raw nerve in the black community. Now some want to do more than simply call 911 or march for peace in the streets. They want their own gun.
  • The very next day, many Chicago residents had found a new hero: an 80-year-old man, a Korean War veteran. The Chicago man found an armed robber, with a long criminal record, who had broken into his home at 5:22 A.M.:
  • The intruder, armed with a pistol, came in through a rear window and ran up a rear staircase, banging on his locked door before running downstairs and being shot in a confrontation with the older man. The intruder shot first before the veteran fired back and killed him, the son said and police confirmed. "Evidently, he missed," the son said of the intruder. "My father had no choice. It was him or the other guy."  
  • A next-door neighbor stated what seems to have been the consensus among the neighbors who talked to the Sun Times: "It's a good thing they had a gun, or they might be dead." Yet the 80-year-old, who was robbed in a separate incident just a couple of months ago, has been left twisting in the wind while Chicago officials decide whether to prosecute him. They have already taken away his gun.
  • Murder rates soared in D.C. and Chicago after their gun bans were put in place. As shown in the just released third edition of my book More Guns, Less Crime, before the late-1982 ban, Chicago's murder rate was falling relative to those in the nine other largest cities, the 50 largest cities, the five counties that border Cook County (in which the city is located), and the U.S. as a whole. After the ban, Chicago's murder rate rose relative to all these other places. Compared with the 50 most populous cities, Chicago's murder rate went from equaling the average for the other cities in 1982, to exceeding their average murder rate by 32 percent in 1992, to exceeding their average by 68 percent in 2002.  
  • Chicagoans might not know that every place in the world that has banned guns that we have crime data for has also experienced an increase in murder rates, but they do know that Chicago's ban hasn't worked.
The pendulum seems to have swung the other way. NPR is a very liberal news outlet. Yet they are admitting the failure of the handgun ban in Chicago. The Supreme Court is poised to strike down the law enforcing the ban. People are ready to take the protection of their homes and properties into their own hands. Criminals beware. The next time a robber breaks into a house he better be ready to face gunfire. Are you ready to buy a gun for the protection of your home? (If you don't already have one.)

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

BLACKHAWKS ARE GOOD FOR THE HOOD

    Blackhawks Give West Loop Neighborhood A Big Boost
    Roseanne Tellez
    CBS 2 News



  • Nowhere is the enthusiasm for the Blackhawks greater than in the West Loop, a community experiencing some success of its own. CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports business is red hot.
  •  At CrossRoads Bar & Grill on West Madison, just down the road from the United Center, they're prepping for one busy night. It's a haven for Blackhawks fans and they expect a packed house – again.
  • "This is probably the first time in my life where I'm at the right place at the right time," said Dave Neuhauser, who says business is doing "very good."
  • Neuhauser opened for business a year-and-a-half ago with a music theme. But with the Blackhawks on fire, he realized it was time to tweak the decor.
  • "That's why you'll see more TVs and more Blackhawks memorabilia up on the walls," he said.
  • "It's kind of like a community," said customer Nina Choi. "You want to be close to where they're winning, and you want to be where everybody else is."
  • "To be honest, I don't know where I'd be without the Blackhawks," said Neuhauser. "I'm very grateful and I'm very thankful, and I wish them the best of luck."
  • While fans have been coming to the West Loop for the hockey for years, now they're coming and staying; taking time to visit the many new pubs and restaurants in the shadow of the United Center.
  • Chase Kendall says business at Third Rail Tavern is up about 60 percent over a couple of years ago.
  • "We've all tried to put our best foot forward," Kendall said. "We know we're going to get a lot of traffic through here, and we want to show people what the West Loop has to offer."
  • Jeff Ingalls, who lives in the neighborhood, said, "Growing up here, you drove through and hoped your car didn't break down on the way to the stadium. Bad neighborhood."
  • And now?
  • "It's fantastic," he said.
  • Wife Amy confirms it's busier than ever.
  • "Oh, absolutely. People are coming to this neighborhood to live," she said. "They used to just come to stop, and now they're staying, and shopping and living. It's great."
  • Tonight, the Ingalls say they'll be rooting for the Blackhawks, and watching the procession of red jerseys march past their condo -- again.
  • You can bet the sports bars in the West Loop will be hopping tonight for Game 2 of the Blackhawks vs. Flyers.
  • Check out the game at one of these spots:
  • Third Rail Tavern: 1133 West Madison
  • The CrossRoads Bar & Grill: 1120 West Madison
  • WestEnd: 1326 West Madison
  • Allstar Sports Bar & Grill: 555 West Madison
  • Billy Goat Inn: 1535 West Madison
  • Market: 1113 West Randolph (upscale)

 A Blackhawk's championship would be a great thing for this town. Go Hawks!!