Ex-Chicago City Clerk Pleads Guilty in Trucking Kickback Scheme

James J. Laski Jr., the former city clerk and Chicago’s second-highest public official, pleaded guilty Friday to a federal bribery charge and admitted that he had taken cash payoffs in exchange for city trucking contracts.

According to the plea agreement, Laski took $48,000 in kickbacks from 1998 to 2003 from trucking companies eager to participate in 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 means of helping to cut costs.

But federal investigators found that many of the trucking companies were being paid millions of dollars to do no work, and city workers were seeking bribes in exchange for securing the contracts.

Of the 44 people charged in the investigation, about half are city workers. To date, 34 people have been convicted.

The Hired Truck scandal -- though arguably among the widest reaching in City Hall -- is only one of a series of corruption woes plaguing Mayor Richard M. Daley, who has said he was completely unaware of such doings.

Among other things, federal investigators have been digging for evidence of alleged fraud in politically based promotions and hiring practices.

Though Daley has had a public approval rating of 56%, according to a Chicago Tribune poll conducted last month, 70% of respondents didn’t believe the mayor’s claims of ignorance.

Among those convicted in the Hired Truck scandal was a trucking company head who contributed money to political groups to stay in the program organizers’ good graces.

The donations included funds sent to the 11th Ward Democratic organization -- headed by Cook County Commissioner John Daley, the mayor’s brother -- and the Committee to Elect John Daley.

“The corruption is just so blatant, and it’s very much a growing pain for the mayor,” said Paul Green, director of policy studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

“It’s a constant pinprick in him, and no one knows where the pin’s going next.”

Laski, 52, resigned his position as city clerk Feb. 6.

On Friday, Laski admitted that the owner of Get Plowed Inc. trucking company had given him monthly installments of cash to get business from various city departments.

An unnamed person “handed [Laski] an envelope containing $500 to $1,000” each month as payoff for getting and staying with the Hired Truck Program, according to the plea agreement.

The bribes stopped in 2003, after federal investigators began to look into the program.

Laski, who has repaid $15,400, faces as much as three years in prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 25.

The Get Plowed company was run by Laski’s friend Michael Jones, 48, who also was an employee at the city clerk’s office.

On Thursday, Jones pleaded guilty to one count of bribery.