Mayor Daley’s official gift logs don’t include trips, free meals

The Chicago Sun-Times reports on the free gifts Mayor Daley gets:

It's impossible to say how much the freebies are worth. On the yearly "statements of financial interest" Daley files with the Chicago Board of Ethics, he only has to check off that they're worth at least a total of more than $500. That figure triggers another requirement: Daley is supposed to disclose every gift he gets from anyone other than his wife and family.

Instead of providing the Board of Ethics with a list of gifts, though, Daley tells the board a "mayoral gift log is maintained in the mayor's office and is available for public inspection.''

But those logs are far from complete, a Chicago Sun-Times review has found, failing to disclose all of the gifts Daley gets.

They don't, for instance, include any of the trips Daley has gotten from various organizations. Or any of the free meals he has eaten. Nor do the gift logs even list the birthday and Christmas presents he has gotten from his staff since 2005.

"The staff? We almost view that as a family gift to him," Daley press secretary Jacquelyn Heard said.

"He has to record everything that's considered a gift," Heard said. "What you consider a gift and what we consider a gift are two different things."

No word yet from the IRS on this one.Mayor Daley sure is special.