The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
A collection of politically connected firms handpicked by Cook County President Todd Stroger's administration is set to reap the profits from fees associated with the sale of $364 million in bonds up for board consideration todayThe Chicago Way at work.
Mesirow Financial, whose chairman, James Tyree, is chairman of the City Colleges of Chicago, was selected as the lead financial adviser on the sale of $260 million in self-insurance bonds.
Those bonds will be managed by a group of companies with strong local political ties, including:
• • J.P. Morgan Chase, whose Midwest chairman is William Daley Sr., Mayor Daley's brother.
• • George K. Baumn, which employs Tony Fratto, brother of Stroger's chief of staff, Joseph Fratto.
Another co-manager of those bonds, Calvin Grigsby and Associates, is run by Calvin Grigsby, a politically connected San Francisco financier linked to municipal bond scandals in California and Florida in the 1990s. Grigsby was twice indicted on federal bribery charges in Florida. Grisby hired the late Johnny Cochran as his attorney and was acquitted.
