Maybe da Mayor?
Nah, he ain’t corrupt...
From:
http://nalert.blogspot.com/2008/03/chicago-democrats-and-chicago-mob.html
Most of America thinks Mayor Daley runs Chicago.Those on the inside know that’s not the case.The man who runs Chicago from behind the scenes,since the early 1990’s, is Alderman Ed Burke,Chairman of Chicago’s Finance Committee.Burke went from being an errand boy for Alderman Roti to the most powerful elected figure in the state of Illinois.In a corrupt state like Illinois,the guy with the most money in his campaign fund is the man at the top.In Illinois,it’s not Chicago’s Mayor Daley or Governor Blagojevich but Alderman Burke.
...The much-conflicted alderman says he meant to sit out the vote. He’d even sent a letter to the Chicago Board of Ethics in August 2003 saying he would abstain from any Council votes on Rezko’s plan to put as many as 5,000 homes and stores on a 62-acre site along the Chicago River at Roosevelt Road.
But then Rezko’s project came before the City Council on March 31, 2004, and Burke cast his vote — in favor.
“An error occurred,” the alderman said in a written response to questions, “and Rule 14 was not invoked.”
That would be the Council rule under which aldermen are supposed to abstain from a vote when they have a conflict of interest.
Of course, it’s up to the alderman who has a conflict to invoke the rule.
Burke’s legal work for Rezko’s Rezmar Corp. is referenced in records on the 62-acre site Rezko wanted to develop with $140 million in city subsidies. The project fizzled, and Rezmar sold the land...
October 21, 2006
BY TIM NOVAK Staff Reporter
With the Daley administration pointing the finger at Ald. Edward M. Burke for the extraordinary rate of injury claims filed by patronage workers, Burke fired back Friday, saying his staff has “done the best that it can” to prevent abuse and fraud.
“There is no excuse for anyone who is trying to abuse the system,” said Burke, chairman of the City Council Finance Committee, which processes and pays all workers compensation claims filed by city employees.
“I have confidence that the staff of the Committee on Finance has done the best that it can in an admittedly very difficult system,” he said. “If somebody has a better way to do this, then I welcome that information.”
Burke’s comments came amid a Chicago Sun-Times investigation that has found:
• • One in five patronage workers named on a secret clout list kept by Mayor Daley’s then-patronage director filed workers compensation claims, an injury rate far greater than any occupation tracked by the federal Labor Department. Those claims have cost taxpayers more than $38 million.
• • Half of those patronage workers filed at least two injury claims, with a few filing a dozen or more.
• • An estimated 91 workers have been cleared to return to work but are sitting at home, collecting disability checks — sometimes more than $40,000 a year — waiting for the city to find them a less physically demanding job. Many have political connections
GOT a DOZEN or so more , if you are interested.