Scandals Swirl Around Daley

Each morning, hungry for breakfast and gossip about the latest scandal, city workers sit crammed along the counter at Marova Grill in the South Side neighborhood of Bridgeport.

At one end is a trio of employees from the Chicago Park District, where a former director pleaded guilty last fall to steering millions of dollars in contracts in exchange for bribes.

At the other end is a pair of workers from the city’s Streets and Sanitation Department, where a lawsuit filed by a former truck driver alleges he was fired for refusing to make political donations and do campaign work.

Yet all anyone here could talk about last week was Mayor Richard M. Daley.

They murmured about how his former patronage chief and three other city officials were on trial, accused of securing municipal jobs for people with ties to local political organizations. And they wondered whether the federal investigation might reach all the way to top.

On the surface, the case is simply the latest in a series of federal probes that have resulted in the convictions of dozens of former and current state and city workers.

But here in the 11th Ward -- which has among the largest percentages of city workers and is the longtime home base of the Daley family political empire -- the investigations cut particularly close.

“Everyone knows everyone, everyone knows the people involved, and everyone knows the Daley family,” waitress Maureen Dunn said as she refilled coffee mugs. “The headlines are about our neighbors and friends.... People are worried.”

Federal prosecutors have charged Robert Sorich, who worked in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, with manipulating the hiring process. Prosecutors allege that Sorich, former department co-worker Tim McCarthy and two former staffers with Streets and Sanitation used the office to place clout-backed candidates into city jobs.

The candidates became building inspectors and truck drivers, gardeners and bricklayers -- despite being unqualified or never interviewed. One was serving in Iraq when hired. Another died before the interview process was completed.

Such hiring would violate the 1983 Shakman consent decree, put into place to help eradicate the patronage practices used by Daley’s father, former Mayor Richard J. Daley.

All four accused have pleaded not guilty.

Recent events show the glacial pace of trying to change a region where organized crime settled nearly a century ago.

A federal grand jury has been investigating the hiring practices of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration. More than two dozen former and current city workers have been convicted in an investigation into the city’s Hired Truck Program.

The program, which contracted vehicles from private businesses to assist with public works and construction projects, was promoted by City Hall as a way to cut costs. But federal investigators found that many trucking companies were being paid millions of dollars for no work, and city workers were seeking bribes in exchange for securing the contracts.

And last month, a federal jury found former Illinois Gov. George Ryan guilty of trading contracts and political favors for gifts and bribes. The investigation that led to Ryan’s conviction also brought about 75 other convictions -- including those of more than 30 current or former state employees.

Even the jury that found Ryan guilty sparked a scandal when local media reports revealed that several jurors had lied during jury selection about their own brushes with the law.

The news has fed into the public’s dark sense of humor, as evidenced by one quip recently overheard at the federal courthouse: “Did you hear that George Ryan got a fair trial? He was judged by a panel of his peers.”

Daley, who has had more than a dozen resignations from his Cabinet after this and other scandals, has not announced whether he will run for reelection in February.

Prosecutors have declined to comment on whether they believe Daley was involved in the hiring scheme. Though Daley has been questioned, federal officials have neither implicated nor charged him.

The five-time Democratic mayor has repeatedly said that he was innocent and had no knowledge of the scheme. “I don’t play any role in hiring,” he said at a recent news conference.

But Daley’s name has been repeatedly brought up in the Sorich trial, which began May 15 and is expected to last six to eight weeks.

Mary Jo Falcon, former personnel director for the sewers and water departments, testified that she had lied on applications and altered other forms to help political supporters get city jobs. She told the jury that she never worried about being fired “because that was my job and that was part of the culture.”

And last week, Assistant U.S. Atty. Patrick M. Collins said in court that he was troubled by the defense team making repeated references to Daley while cross-examining witnesses.

“The mayor is not on trial,” Collins complained to U.S. District Judge David Coar.

Defense attorney Thomas Anthony Durkin, however, insisted that raising questions about Daley was relevant because prosecutors were trying to establish an administration rife with bribes and corruption.

Referring to Collins and the rest of the prosecutors, Durkin told Coar, “They are trying the mayor’s office.”

“The political machine is different than it was under [Daley’s] father, but it’s still very much alive,” said former alderman Dick Simpson, a University of Illinois professor and author of “Rogues, Rebels and Rubberstamps: The Politics of the Chicago City Council From 1863 to the Present.”

“The difference is how the jobs are handed out,” Simpson said. “Hopefully, some of that will be revealed in the trial.”