Flashback 1997: Alderman Burke's Two Worlds Face Collision Course

Flashback 1997 to Crain's Chicago Business:

The thin line separating the public duties and private business opportunities of Chicago Alderman Edward M. Burke is becoming blurred.

A review of the powerful Finance Committee chairman's small but lucrative law firm, Klafter & Burke, has found that:

- Mr. Burke is co-counsel on a federal case with Jenner & Block-the same Chicago law firm that's receiving millions of dollars from the Finance Committee for representing aldermen in a ward-remap dispute.

- The 14th Ward alderman has helped line up millions of dollars in public subsidies to companies that later hired his firm for property tax appeals. While not illegal under the few ethics rules that guide the activities of council members, the maneuvers "create all sorts of innuendos and appearances of impropriety," observes 49th Ward Alderman Joseph Moore. "It looks bad."

- Mr. Burke has a convicted felon on his firm's payroll: Stephen T. Gorny, who was found guilty of accepting bribes in 1983 while working for the Cook County Board of (Tax) Appeals.

Another associate of Mr. Burke's, Joseph Martinez, recently left the firm after pleading guilty to federal ghost-payroll charges.

That's the Chicago Way.