Feds Seize Data on 29 City of Chicago Employees

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Federal agents have taken the personnel records of 29 current Streets and Sanitation employees -- ranging from laborers to top managers -- who owe their jobs and promotions to the Daley-created Hispanic Democratic Organization, City Hall sources said.

The retrieval of the records, top mayoral aides said they think, could be a prelude to more job-related indictments and took place last week with "almost no advance warning," sources said.

Virtually all of the employees involved have ties to former Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez, a longtime HDO lieutenant and 10th Ward coordinator, the sources said.

Federal prosecutors suggested at a city hiring corruption trial that Sanchez and HDO chief Victor Reyes were part of the scheme to reward political volunteers with city jobs or promotions. Four men, including the mayor's patronage chief, Robert Sorich, were convicted in the trial. Sanchez and Reyes have not been charged, but their names came up repeatedly at trial.

Patrick Fitzgerald's day job.