EXAMPLE: The Shakman Decree has been hovering over us for 40 years and allegedly monitors hiring practices for the city of Chicago, the Office of the President of Cook County, the County Sheriff and the Forrest Preserve District. We've spent millions on the Shakman administration process and millions awarded to people who were found to have been improperly passed over. But, amazingly, once a bad hire has been determined by this process, the bad hire STAYS in place. We loose three ways we pay for the admin, we pay off the aggrieved party AND we have to pay the improper hire. Great.
2. Hiring people who do not actually work at their jobs who are elsewhere including prison.
EXAMPLE: The City Inspector General issued a 2008 report on the City's Bureau of Sanitation based on investigating just ten of the fifty wards and found massive fraud where crews were being paid while not being on the job - calculating an annual loss to the city of $14 million.
EXAMPLE: The Hired Tuck Scandal where the city paid $40 million of year for nothing. 45 people were convicted, including 20 city workers County Commissioner John Daley's brother-in-law went to jail. John also sold insurance to three of the biggest Hired Truck firms. 25% of all the Hired Truck money went to companies from Daley's 11th Ward and Hired Truck companies contributed a total of $108,575 to the Mayor.
4. Sweetheart deals where the terms of the negotiations are secret and the specter of bad-faith bargaining hovers over the deal because the awardees are related to the government officials or have made campaign contributions to them.
EXAMPLE: The Mayor sold our parking meters for a song we've spent most of the cash we got from the deal parking rates have skyrocketed and Bloomberg News reports that while the taxpayers got a little over $1 billion from the deal, Morgan Stanley and their partners which includes the oil rich sheikdom of Abu Dhabi - will reap $11.6 billion. Mayor Daley's nephew, William Daley Jr, wa a Morgan Stanley executive when this deal went down.
5. Secretive taxing programs that divert property taxes from units of
government into hard to track slush funds that end up subsidizing private
sector projects with no oversight, evaluation or accountability. (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
EXAMPLE: In 2008 the Tax Increment
Finance Program siphoned
$875 million in property taxes away from the units of government that rely on
property taxes for their operation. There are 420 TIF districts across the
county. 161 of these districts are in Chicago and they sucked $496 million out
of the city's budget in an essentially off-the-books secret budget controlled
by the Mayor. Some worthy projects receive TIF funds but far too many go to
commercial developers with no debate, oversight, accountability or evaluation.
Grossinger Auto received $8.5 million to move about 10 blocks into the hottest retail area in the city right
across from the new Apple Store and virtually in the shadow of a glass high
rise where one bedroom units go for over $200,000. Willis Insurance, which made
over $950 million in the first quarter of 2009 got $3.8 million when they moved
into the Sears Tower.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange got $15 million for rehab costs this when they enjoyed 2009 revenues of $2.6 billion! The City had $1.2
billion in their combined TIF district funds at the end of 2009.
6. Large legal judgments resulting from recurring and systematic improper
official misconduct and attending legal fees from defending these corrupt
officials.
EXAMPLE: The most shameful and shocking incidence of official misconduct
recently in the news would have to be the case of Commander John Burge.
Although official investigations accused him of multiple instances of torturing
suspects and although many of his victims have been exonerated,
the statue of limitations ran out on his crimes and he was found guilt of
perjury and obstruction of justice. The city has spent $10 million to defend
him and another $21 million in settlement awards to his victims.
This is not over by a long shot as there are more civil law suits and dozens of
new trials on the horizon as prisoners come forward saying they suffered at his
hands.
7. And let's not forget old fashioned theft just making off with cash or
property.
EXAMPLE: There's old John "Quarters" Boyle who was convicted after stealing $4 million from the Illinois Toll Highway
Authority and then given a cushy city job and was a prominent player in the
Hired Truck scandal! He was charged and convicted and is now serving a seven
year prison sentence. I suppose when he gets out the City will hire him again
maybe to collect the cash from the new parking meters?
Are you getting numb yet? Don't. Here's a jolt that should keep you awake"
