The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Why did Ald. Edward M. Burke vote to approve Tony Rezko’s plans to develop the South Loop’s biggest piece of vacant land even as he was working for Rezko on that same deal?Ed Burke slates all the judges in Cook County,he controls the tax code in the City of Chicago.Ed Burke tied to Tony Rezko.We wonder if the U.S. Attorney's Office is looking into this?
Burke says: I forgot to abstain.
The much-conflicted alderman says he meant to sit out the vote. He’d even sent a letter to the Chicago Board of Ethics in August 2003 saying he would abstain from any Council votes on Rezko’s plan to put as many as 5,000 homes and stores on a 62-acre site along the Chicago River at Roosevelt Road.
But then Rezko’s project came before the City Council on March 31, 2004, and Burke cast his vote — in favor.
“An error occurred,” the alderman said in a written response to questions, “and Rule 14 was not invoked.”
That would be the Council rule under which aldermen are supposed to abstain from a vote when they have a conflict of interest.
Of course, it’s up to the alderman who has a conflict to invoke the rule.
Burke’s legal work for Rezko’s Rezmar Corp. is referenced in records on the 62-acre site Rezko wanted to develop with $140 million in city subsidies. The project fizzled, and Rezmar sold the land.
Rezko has since been indicted on federal corruption charges that accuse him of demanding kickbacks from companies seeking state contracts under Gov. Blagojevich.
When Burke voted for Rezko’s project, the alderman’s law firm was trying to get a 77 percent cut in the site’s real estate taxes, arguing that Cook County Assessor James Houlihan was wrong to have used the sale price to determine the property’s value.
