Secret Taping of Meeting With Chicago Mayor Will Be Probed

A prosecutor ordered a grand jury Wednesday to investigate the secret recording of a conversation in which Mayor Harold Washington reportedly offered a candidate for alderman a better city job if he would drop out of the race.

Dave Devane, a spokesman for Cook County State’s Atty. Richard M. Daley, refused to comment on whether Washington’s reported statements also will be investigated.

Daley said he ordered a grand jury inquiry into “allegations of illegal taping” by James (Skip) Burrell, one of eight candidates opposing Alderman Dorothy Tillman, whom Washington is backing, in a special election next Tuesday.

Burrell, who acknowledged Tuesday night that he had recorded his meeting with Washington at the mayor’s apartment Jan. 30, apologized in a statement for any embarrassment that he might have caused the mayor or Tillman.

Taping a conversation without permission of all the parties is a felony under Illinois law, punishable by one to three years in prison.

Burrell, 44, a city sewer worker, said the mayor offered to promote him and help him pay off his campaign debts if he withdrew from the race in the South Side ward. He said he taped the meeting with a recorder in his jacket pocket to protect himself from possible recriminations.

Mayoral spokesman Chris Chandler defended Washington, saying: “There is nothing improper.”

But Alderman Edward Vrdolyak, one of the mayor’s chief rivals, said: “Offering inducements to get out of a race is wrong.”

The Chicago Tribune, which said it obtained a copy of the tape, reported that Vrdolyak’s allies got hold of the recorded conversation. The alderman said he knew nothing about the tape.

Tillman said the taping was a ploy by members of the anti-Washington majority in City Council to embarrass her and the mayor.

The taping was disclosed Tuesday night when James Montgomery, corporation counsel, called a news conference and condemned the action as a “shocking invasion of the mayor’s right to privacy.”

The Tribune reported that, on the tape, Washington belittled Tillman and said she was “abrasive and crude and insincere.”

But Tillman said the mayor “assured me he supports me 100%.”