Chicago Workers asked to back fund-raiser

Employees in the Water Management Department at the center of the Hired Truck and city hiring scandals are being pressured to sell and purchase $50 tickets to the Nov. 19 benefit reception Mayor Daley is hosting on behalf of the United Negro College Fund.

The solicitation is being made on city stationery with employees referred to a city telephone number to purchase tickets to the event at the South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. Shore Drive.

"Commissioner [John] Spatz has asked each deputy commissioner to sell tickets to this commendable event. I am asking the Bureau of Engineering Services employees to support this worthwhile event," acting deputy commissioner Michael Sturtevant wrote in a memo obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Law Department spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyle conferred with Board of Ethics and the Law Department's Labor Division, but took no position on whether Sturtevant's Nov. 2 memo "violated any personnel rules or ethical restrictions."

"There are a number of factors that would come into play, including whether or not this is a city-sponsored [event] and the specific language that was used in the memo. Therefore, we've concluded that we will have to review the memo before we reach any conclusions," she wrote in an e-mail response to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Andy Shaw, executive director of the Better Government Association, called the memo the "charitable equivalent of pay-to-play."

"There's an implied threat that, if you don't give, you may not get the promotion, the overtime when it's available and other perks that you might have earned while doing your job well," Shaw said.

"The scholarship fund is much more commendable than a political campaign. But, the tactics are similar to what Donald Tomczak did and went to jail for. It's very hard to say 'no' to a request like that on office stationery from the boss. Refusing to give almost amounts to insubordination. People should give to charities freely without an implied threat or promise."

Tomczak is the former first deputy water commissioner who was one of the biggest players -- and most significant cooperators -- in the massive Hired Truck scandal that branched out into city hiring.

In November, 2006, he was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to forfeit $175,000 after admitting to pocketing $400,000 in bribes.

A parade of truckers accused Tomczak of implementing a "pay-to-play" system where contractors who wanted Hired Truck work had to make payoffs and campaign contributions. The criminal acts spanned two decades.

Tomczak also admitted that he commanded a 250-strong army of Water Department employees who did political work for Daley, Al Gore, Rahm Emanuel and others in exchange for promotions, pay raises and overtime. Underlings who acted as Tomczak's bagmen also admitted shaking down truck companies for campaign contributions to Daley, mayoral brother John Daley's 11th Ward Regular Democratic Organization and for Tomczak's son, former Will County State's Attorney Jeff Tomczak.

During the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan said Tomczak's bribe-taking gave a "new definition and meaning to the term 'charitable contribution.'"

State Cracks Down on Job Training Program
Your Tax Dollars Being Used For Political Work?

Updated: Wednesday, 28 Oct 2009, 11:13 PM CDT
Published : Tuesday, 27 Oct 2009, 9:49 PM CDT

By Dane Placko, FOX Chicago News

Chicago - Workers enrolled in a state-funded program to provide job training tell Fox Chicago News they instead spent their time gathering signatures on petitions for political candidates.

A Fox Chicago News investigation found several Earnfare workers who said they were told to pass petitions for Cook County Board President candidate Dorothy Brown, among other candidates.

“That’s our job description for every day, go out and do petitions,” said one worker who wished to remain unidentified.

The workers said they were assigned to do clerical work and maintenance for the Mother’s House social service organization at 49th and Ashland on Chicago’s south side. When Fox Chicago News visited the agency on Tuesday, we found stacks of blank political petitions on a table in the office.

We also found Hassan Muhammad, a political field director for Brown’s campaign. He denied the Earnfare workers were being used for political work, and then pushed a Fox Chicago cameraman out of the office.

A spokesman for the Illinois Department of Human Services, which administers the Earnfare program, said the agency has launched an investigation into the workers’ allegations. Earnfare is designed to provide clerical, maintenance and social service work to people on public aid to help them hone their job skills.

The workers said they have been collecting between ten and fifteen pages of signatures per day for the past several weeks. There are 20 lines for signatures on each petition. “They gave us a brochure of Dorothy Brown and told us to sign it then put our names at the bottom for signatures because we’re the circulators,” said one worker. “And (then) come in the following day and turn the sheets in.”

In a statement Brown denied the allegations. “This is clearly a political hit job,” said Brown. “I have no knowledge of any kind of inappropriate activity taking place, and would never condone it.”

The Earnfare program members said they were frustrated to be sent out to gather signatures when they thought the program would be teaching them needed job skills. “You know, better myself,” said one worker. “Petitions ain’t putting food on my table.”

The workers also said they knew they shouldn’t be doing political work on state time, but were afraid they would lose their welfare benefits if they said no.

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/your_tax_dollars_being_used_for_political_work%3F

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