Crain's Chicago Business reports:
A high-ranking city of Chicago official with ties to the Daley family’s 11th Ward Regular Democratic Organization is being investigated for allegedly dispatching water crews to work on private sites, including a politically connected Bridgeport church.
The city’s inspector general’s office is trying to find out whether Deputy Commissioner Tommie Talley improperly ordered Chicago Water Management workers to fix or improve sewer and water pipes for private owners who should be paying for such work themselves, sources say.
Mr. Talley hung up on a reporter who called him Tuesday to discuss the investigation. A spokesman for the Water Management Department declined to comment.
A source says investigators are looking into a number of locations, including Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church, the Bridgeport parish in which Mayor Richard M. Daley was raised.
The pastor, the Rev. Daniel Brandt, says a sewer did clog in the spring, and city crews worked on the public right-of-way. But the church hired a contractor to handle repairs on parish property, costing “upwards of 10 grand.”
“I’d open up my books to them and open up my doors to them to let them know the work on the property was fully paid for,” Rev. Brandt said. “I’m sure there was a day and a time when the city would do things, but that’s just suicide now, especially in the high-profile parish that this is.”
“We go above and beyond to make sure we have all the permits. . . .Any improvements, we make sure we dot all our i’s and cross all the t’s.”
It's not any water department.It's
this one from February 11, 2004:
Mayor Daley's Water Department operated as a "racketeering enterprise," raking in more than $500,000 in bribes for at least a decade, a federal grand jury charged Thursday, greatly expanding the Hired Truck investigation.
The feds say the criminal conspiracy was headed by Daley's first deputy water commissioner, Donald S. Tomczak, who had previously been charged with taking bribes. He is now accused of racketeering, just like a mobster.
Tomczak demanded bribes from Hired Truck companies, the indictment says. Some of the cash went into his pocket, and some of it was used as campaign contributions to various politicians, none of whom were identified in the indictment. At least $20,000 went to Tomczak's son, Jeff, who lost re-election last month as Will County's top prosecutor.
This infamous church had a
fundraiser for some important convicted felons.How many church's do you know that have "made members" of the mob helping out?
