DADDY DALEY AND HIS ALDERCHILDREN'S ALLOWANCE

Have you ever wondered what the taxpayer bill is for the 50 members of the our City Council? Well, the Chicago Tribune decided to look into this very issue:

The yearly city tab to keep all 50 aldermen in business tops $25 million. More than $15 million covers payroll for workers employed by aldermen and the committees they head.

Aldermanic salaries are $110,556, although eight opted not to take the most recent raise of about $6,400, for an annual total of $5.5 million. That's all before the expense allotment of up to $73,280 each, which boosts city costs by as much as $3.7 million. Every alderman also has discretion over how to spend $1.32 million on ward improvements under Mayor Richard Daley's 2009 budget.

This is one way Daley controls the City Council. He lays off city employees and forces many others to take pay cuts, but then he gives the aldermen millions of dollars to control, increases their expense allotments, and sits compliantly while they vote to give themselves and their staffs a pay raise.

Daddy Daley gives his 50 little alderchildren a $75,000 allowance. Wanna know how they spend all that money?:

Chicago aldermen have used their newly expanded, taxpayer-funded expense accounts to hire relatives, lease expensive vehicles and pay for downtown parking, according to a Tribune analysis.

See for yourself how each alderman spends this money here.

And then, maybe you will want to ask these aldermen some questions. Like, maybe they can explain why taxpayers need to lease cars for their part-time job. Everyone in this city is driving around in taxpayer-funded cars - City Council, CTA, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. Seems pretty ridiculous to me. As Mick Dumke said, it's A Perk That Needs to Die. Pay for your own cars like everyone else, you bums! It sure must be easy to sell off our parking meters and parking garages and raise fees on both when many of you park your cars on the taxpayers' dime.

Seriously. WHY THE HELL DO WE HAVE 50 ALDERMEN?!

New York has 51 city council members.
But NYC also has almost 3 times as many people as Chicago!
NYC population: 8,363,710, Chicago population: 2,853,114

Los Angeles has 15 city council members.
And LA is bigger than Chicago by 1 million people!
LA population: 3,833,995, Chicago population: 2,853,114

Houston has 14 city council members.
And Houston is nearly the same size as Chicago.
Houston population: 2,242,193, Chicago population: 2,853,114

DICK DALEY HAS WORDS

And now, some words from everyone's favorite mayor, Richard "Dick" Daley.

Dick Hearts Rick - Daley defends 22nd Ward Alderman Ricardo "Rick" Munoz, who used clout to get his daughter into an elite Chicago public high school:

“As a parent, he is speaking for not only his family, but his own constitutents,” Daley said. “They don’t have to accept the child. They can refuse the child because [aldermen] have no power over the Board of Education. They don’t fund them. They don’t review their budgets or anything else.”

Sure, no one felt pressure to admit the alderman's daughter simply because the City Council doesn't control the CPS budget. Riiiiiight.

And that isn't even true anyway:

What Daley neglected to mention is that the City Council approves the Board of Education's property tax levy and ratifies the mayor's appointment of School Board members.

Daley should have just taken a cue from his father, King Daley the First, and told the reporters to kiss his ass:

The Mayor's father, Richard J. Daley, once famously sputtered that if reporters have a problem with a father helping his own kids -- think, for starters, son John and the insurance business -- they could kiss his ass. The late mayor's exact words: "If they don't like it, they can kiss my ass."

Dick Defends His Pick - Daley stands up for crony Michael Scott's deal to profit from the Olympics:

Dick Thinks He's Slick - Daley speaks about his call to shake up oversight of the city's scandalous minority business program:

"We want to make it much more transparent and much more effective for those that are applying," Daley said. "The Office of Compliance has become an expert in analyzing, tracking and monitoring processes and making them more effective."

Asked about the cases of fraud that have plagued the program, Daley said fraud also exists in the private sector, not just in government.

Well the private sector does it too! What is this, kindergarten? That still doesn't make it alright. Got it, Dick?

Meanwhile, some aldermen are still waiting for Daley & Co. to fulfill their promise to provide documents relating to the sale of Chicago's parking meters. How's that for transparency.

Sounds like a case for Reformer Man.

DICK DALEY AND HIS CORRUPT CRONIES

So on Tuesday, the Chicago 2016 people didn't have a problem with Olympic Committee Member/developer/Chicago Board of Education President Michael Scott and his real estate deal near proposed Olympic venues. But then, on Wednesday, they changed their minds:

Michael Scott’s role in helping West Side ministers develop city-owned land near a proposed Douglas Park Olympic venue raised the perception of a conflict of interest and should have been disclosed up-front, Chicago 2016 acknowledged Wednesday.

“In hindsight, given Mr. Scott’s role as agent for the group, it is understandable that a third party, without knowledge of the facts, might perceive a conflict of interest,” Chicago 2016 said in a prepared statement.

"Without knowledge of the facts" huh? Well, why don't you enlighten us. Because from what I've read, I'm definitely "perceiving" a conflict of interest. And you can keep telling us that he has no financial interest in the project, but I'm just not buying it. This is Chicago, people just don't do this kinda stuff unless there is money coming their way. It's the Daley way.

Of course, you can take Daley's word for it. Here he is again defending Scott:

Wednesday's statement was a bit of an about-face. It happened as Mayor Daley once again defended Scott, a trusted mayoral lieutenant with a 30-year history with Daley.

“He’s been on the West Side of Chicago …We have more vacant lots. ... There’s thousands of ‘em. People are trying to do something with all these vacant lots. He tried to get ministers or anybody to do something with them — not to benefit himself,” Daley said.

“No financial interest, no professional interest. Nothing whatsoever. He told everybody that. [He said], ‘I have no interest. I was trying to help the West Side of the city of Chicago.’ He hails from there. He has lived there for many, many years.”

Listen Daley, I'm not buying this "he's doing it out of the goodness of his heart" crap. This guy's got 30 years of history with you. Do I need to say more?

Also, I had totally forgotten about Michael Scott's earlier appearance in the headlines. Check it out. From Chicago Breaking News on May 2, 2009 - CPS President Urges Principals to Push 2016 Bid:

The president of the Chicago Public Schools board, who is also a member of the Chicago 2016 Olympic committee, has asked all of the city's school principals to get on board with the push to bring the Summer Games to Chicago.

In an e-mail sent April 22 to principals, Board President Michael Scott said: "I am requesting that you register your school for Olympic Week in America. Please take a few minutes to identify a staff person who can register your school. ... You must sign up by Monday, April 27."

Olympic Week in America is a promotional effort to raise the profile of Chicago's bid starting Monday.

Peterson's e-mail stated that each school's participation would be graded as "gold, silver or bronze," with the lowest level including developing an "Olympic week proclamation," raising the Chicago 2016 flag at the school, and including Olympic-themed activities in the classrooms. The e-mail also said that a person from Scott's office would be following up by phone with the principals.

Although teachers union officials said Scott's e-mail was a heavy-handed attempt to force school employees to support the bid, the board president said that's not what he intended.

...

Still, the move smacked of coercion for some, including the Chicago Teachers Union, whose officials said several schools located near proposed Olympic venues have been slated for closing.

"The language in the memo didn't seem to leave participants much choice," said Rosemaria Genova, press secretary for the Chicago Teachers Union. "Many people favor the idea of the Olympics coming to Chicago, but it is difficult for principals, teachers and staff to participate in Olympic-themed activities when schools are closing in areas near Olympic venues."

See, this is how it works. Daley's cronies force the Olympic cause upon all us regular citizens and then Daley repays their loyalty with sweet real estate deals and contracts. Yeah, that sounds more like it.

Speaking of forcing the Olympics down our throats, what about an update from the ongoing Chicago 2016 Community Meetings? Well here we go.

These Chicago 2016 people think they are so clever with their non-binding Memo of Understanding on minority contracts, affordable housing, and local employment. Fortunately, Chicago citizens are calling them on their bullshit - Bronzeville Not Buying the Olympic Guarantee:

Apparently, Chicago 2016 thought that they had outfoxed the coalition -- and the public -- by handing them the MOU and walking away with some favorable headlines. Indeed, while appearing at one of the bid committee's community meetings in Bronzeville last night, chairman Pat Ryan attempted to trot out the document as "legally-binding" evidence that the South Side is in line for big gains. Luckily, the residents in attendance -- invited from the 3rd, 4th, and 20th Wards -- knew better.

"You're selling it like it's going to protect us," Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization's Jitu Travis told Ryan. "It's not. Where's the legally-binding document?"

...

If last night's meeting is any indication, South Siders are catching on. When Ryan attempted to prove his confidence in the Chicago 2016 plan by offering to bet each audience member $1,000 that they won't pay for any of the Olympics, he was virtually laughed off the stage.

Now we just need to laugh Daley and his goons out of town. I'm going to start laughing now. Tell me when they are gone.

DALEY RANT: DICTATOR DALEY STRIKES AGAIN

I came across this amusing blog post about our very own Dictator Dick Daley.

A Little Fascist, Doncha Say, Mayor?:

As if the mayor hasn’t saved enough money on campaign signs over the years, he’s found a new method: engrave his name into the ground. My girlfriend and I were walking around California and Fullerton a couple months ago. City workers had shut down the sidewalk for some sort of project, and now everything was clear and back to normal. They had redone the alley, except now it read “Chicago Green Alley. Richard M. Daley, Mayor.” No green campaign slogan necessary – instead it’s all around the city.

It’s downright fascist to live in a place where aldermen, local governments, and other governments pander to the mayor with signs above every festival stage...

At a meeting a month ago, in Chicago, I learned that the Seattle City Council has a 40-person office to pore over all details of the city’s budget. Chicago, with six times as many people and six times as many councilpeople and six-hundred times the legacy of corruption, has no such office.

Hahaha! Why would we want to pore over the city budget when we have Mayor Daley to take care of it for us? Apparently you didn't hear - Daley's government is leading by example when it comes to transparent government. And he is more of a reformer than anyone!

MANNY! SAY IT AIN'T SO!

Well, the anti-Daley/anti-Olympics movement just took a big hit. Ben Joravsky reports that First Ward Alderman Manny Flores is not following through with his plan to cap Chicago taxpayers' liability for the Olympics at $500 million. Who'll Be the Bad Guy Now?:

With Mayor Daley essentially asking for a blank check to pay for the Olympics, the taxpayers of Chicago could use a little boldness from their City Council. But Manny Flores, one of the few aldermen occasionally willing to stand up for good government, seems to be retreating from his vow to fight for a $500 million cap on public spending for the games.
...

It's clear that Flores originally underestimated the repercussions of what he put forward. Had the council adopted it, it would have torpedoed Chicago's chances...But even if it had no chance of passing, a public debate on the cap would have damaged Daley's Olympic efforts, shining a spotlight on the city's fiscal troubles—the soft underbelly of the Chicago bid—and providing a forum that could energize the opposition. Given all that, it's remarkable Flores found 11 aldermen to sign on in the first place.

...

In other words, Flores asked the bid committee to do the kinds of things that the city already claims to do but really doesn't. If the past is any predictor of future—and it usually is—the 2016 folks will say sure, no problem, we were going to do this stuff anyway. And then they won't do it, just like they haven't done it in the past, as the City Council stands haplessly by.

Be sure to check out the entire article here.

Then commence with the heavy sighing.

I will join you.

Of course this news is even worse when we see the status of all those private donations that are supposed to pay for Chicago's Olympic games:

The sum was raised from 3,600 supporters, or more than 1,000 more than attended last year's fundraiser. They paid at least $500 per ticket to attend the 2009 U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame induction ceremony at McCormick Place.

The first major fundraiser, in March 2007, raised $9.4 million, and the second, in July 2008, raised more than $12 million. This fundraiser comes at a time of deep recession and at a point when the bid has met its main targets.

Chicago's final fundraiser for its 2016 Olympic bid drew the biggest crowd yet, but raised only about $5 million Wednesday evening, the lowest tally of three major events aimed at luring private cash.

Remember, Chicago taxpayers aren't going to be on the hook for the cost of the Olympics. Mayor Daley said so. And we all know what that promise is worth.

DALEY. TAXES. DALEY. TAXES. DALEY. TAXES. DALEY. TAXES. DALEY. TAXES.

Surprise Surprise, there's another budget doomsday in Chicago and your property taxes are going up! Even though Mayor Daley asked them not to and said tax increases would be a last resort, Chicago Public Schools are raising our taxes:

Faced with a “tsunami” of teacher pension costs, Chicago public school officials want to raise city property taxes by $43 million, or 1.5 percent, a new budget released today indicates.

...

And, [Chicago Schools CEO Ron Huberman] warned, even worse news is ahead. The next budget deficit, in fiscal year 2011, could top $900 million — a hole so big the system would have to increase class sizes and eliminate teachers unless “cost containment on the pension and wage fronts’’ is achieved, Huberman said.

...

The proposed property tax hike would be the 13th time in 14 years that CPS has raised property taxes for schools since Daley’s 1995 school takeover. Last year was the only time no such increase was levied, with Daley saying at the time, “Chicago taxpayers deserve a break. People are hurting.’’

This year, residents are suffering even more, with layoffs and furlough days mounting, houses locked in foreclosure, nest eggs shrinking and anger off the charts about the steep increases in parking meter rates.

And here's Mayor Daley defending this tax hike:

“They’re not raising property taxes. We’re abating 50 percent of the property tax. ... Instead of going up to $83 [million] or $100 million, we’re abating about fifty-some million,” Daley said.

“We’re abating almost 50 percent [of what the tax increase could be]. That’s what we’re doing. Any other questions?”

Uh, I got a lot of questions. Like ARE YOU SERIOUS? And, please go away. Wait, that wasn't a question.

Mayor Daley thinks because the tax hike is only half of what it could be, that it is somehow defensible. Defending the indefensible. Only in Daleyland.

And who is he to talk?:

Over the last two years alone, Daley has raised taxes, fines and fees by a whopping $329 million, including an $83.4 million property tax increase, the largest property tax increase in Chicago history.

The City Council also approved a 40 percent increase in the city's real estate transfer tax to bail out the CTA.

The mayor’s preliminary 2010 budget has a $520 million gap that can only be closed by cutting services, raising taxes or a combination of the two.

But wait! It looks like our compliant little aldermen are not pleased with the possibility of another tax hike:

“People are despondent. They’re frustrated. They’re sitting on the sidelines waiting for this elusive recovery to appear on the horizon,” Northwest Side Ald. Tom Allen (38th) said Tuesday.

“It’s a little less … politically radioactive when you’re talking about educating our kids. ... It’s not like handing out money to developers. But, part of it goes back to all the money we have tied up in [tax-increment- financing]. If that money wasn’t siphoned off to all the TIF districts, it would be available to education.”

Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) predicted that the $43 million school property tax increase would bring long-simmering anger among his constituents to a boil.

“This is clearly another step that’s gonna force more people out of the city. People are gonna say, ‘What’s the value of our education system? Where are we going with it?’” Fioretti said.

Speaking of budgets and taxes and Mayor Daley in our pockets, check out this tremendous post at Progress Illinois - Daley's House of Cards:

It means Daley has, for years now, been building a house of cards. Rather than facing the problem head-on and developing new sources of revenue, the mayor has chased short-term fixes. He has leased valuable public assets despite evidence that the deals represent a long-term loss to taxpayers. Meanwhile, he has watched hundreds of millions in public dollars flow towards his tax increment financing (TIF) fiefdom. Apparently, he is just crossing his fingers that the Olympic bid or a rejuvenated economy will save him from this downward spiral. In the midst of all this, the mayor has asked city workers to sacrifice again and again, despite the fact that the resulting savings are negligible.

Summary: Taxes for schools are going up for the 13th time since 1995...and things look even worse for next year...and Mayor Daley's still got over $1 billion in TIF funds...and he's handing it out to corporations and developers...and people are losing their jobs and homes...and mayor Dick's got a great idea - let's get the Olympics! One house of cards, coming right up.

Enough! Let's get rid of this bum Daley! DTMFA!

ANOTHER OLYMPICS POST

A great idea from Tribune columnist David Greising via Progress Illinois - Subject Olympic Committee to FOIA:

If Chicago's taxpayers are to offer an indispensable guarantee, they should get more than the world's biggest swim and track meet. They should get, in fact, a tool that will provide a close-up view into the wheeling, the dealing, the high jinks and palm greasing that will make the 2016 Games uniquely Chicago [...]

In other words, the City Council should insist -- and Chicago 2016 should agree -- that the organizing committee become subject to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act [...]

Chicago 2016's demand that it needs an unlimited financial guarantee, not to mention $500 million from the city and $250 million from the state, makes organizing a Chicago Olympics a very public matter [...]

Openness should be the price of putting taxpayers on the hook for the 2016 Games.

That whole FOIA thing might work out great when deals like this pop up. Speaking of Michael Scott, get a load of this:

Mayor Daley’s Chicago 2016 panel has no problem with committee member Michael Scott’s role developing a for-profit real estate project near a planned Olympic venue, according to a statement the organization released Tuesday night.

So Mayor Daley's panel has no problem with Mayor Daley's crony profiting from Mayor Daley's Olympics. Sounds about right.

And one last thing - check out two great posts by Community Media Workshop on the potential effects of the 2016 Olympic Games on Chicago's parks and architecture.

Part One - Olympic Legacies: Give or Take:

In selling the games to Chicago's residents, meanwhile, promises of park enhancements and sports programs for kids, as well as affordable housing, have been featured alongside visions of jobs and boom times.

But current plans put great burdens on parks, and they involve the imminent demolition of a major responsitory of the city's historic architecture (see part two).

In many cases promised "legacy" facilities seem designed not to meet actual needs of current park users but to accommodate the requirements of Olympic planners. In many cases they involve taking away existing resources while promising residual benefits sometime in the future.

In some cases they involve taking away facilities that have been only recently built.

And I thought this was very interesting:

Chicago 2016 did not respond to repeated requests for information regarding the source of funding for restoring Washington Park, relocating pools from the aquatic center to other parks, restoring Jackson Park's $500,000 track, or converting the open-air velodrome in Douglas Park into a year-round recreation center. Those costs don't seem to be included in projected construction costs; $400 million for the stadium is obviously a low-ball figure.

I haven't heard too much about this subject, but I am definitely curous about these costs and who is going to pay them. Anyone heard anything?

Be sure to take a look at part two of the series - Architectural Legacy Threatened.

And, for more on these topics, check out Olympics 2016: Cementing Chicago's Future or Steamrolling its History? and A Promise Made to Be Broken.

D'OH-LYMPICS

photo by Johnye West

More questions about the Olympics. Because when Daley is involved, you can never ask enough questions.

At Reform Cook County, Tony Peraica wonders what the major cost overruns on the Beijing, Vancouver, and London Olympics will mean for Chicago 2016 - All Signs Point to Olympic-Size Bum Deal for Taxpayers:

The experience of other major Olympic host cities, combined with the City of Chicago’s track record of botched budgets and deadlines for other projects, doesn’t bode well for any taxpayers hoping to avoid footing the bill for the 2016 Olympic Games.

All the more troubling given today's news about the City of Chicago's budget woes.

Despite Mayor Daley’s and Pat Ryan’s cheerleading for the 2016 Games … all signs point to a bum deal for the Chicago (and Cook County and Illinois) taxpayers.

Huge project, billions of dollars, Mayor Daley...Yeah, I'd say bum deal for the taxpayers is spot on.

A post from No Games Chicago draws parallels between the Olympic efforts in Vancouver and Chicago. Civil Liberties Nightmare and Worse - Learn from Vancouver:

I look back to 2003 and what is happening with Chicago’s Olympic bid is eerily reminiscent of Vancouver’s successful bid six years ago. Then, as now, bid boosters were promising local citizens the world: fame, wealth, and the host of goodies that would flow from a nod from the IOC. Vancouver’s then mayor promised that the 2010 Games wouldn’t cost the citizens ‘one penny”, that provincial and federal funds would be leveraged for local needs, and that the entire process would be completely transparent and accountable. Bid organizers promised a host of goodies including “the greenest Games ever”, an arts legacy, and “social inclusivity” (short hand for social housing). It was a lovely dream and many Vancouverites bought into it...

Six years later, a majority of Vancouverites who supported Vancouver’s bid are having serious second thoughts as the early predictions of the “nay sayers” and “party poopers” are turning out to be frighteningly accurate. Those who opposed bringing the Games to Vancouver, and I was one of them, noted that cost estimates for staging the Games were vastly underestimated while at the same time as the benefits were grotesquely overestimated. We were right, and in spades.
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Civil liberties? Forget them. The security services have now concluded that the potential for domestic protests against the Games is a greater threat than Al Qaeda and legislation at all levels of government is aimed at suppressing legitimate dissent. Since those opposed to the 2010 Games don’t plan to simply give up and lie down, we now face the prospects of preventative arrests and the widespread suppression of civil liberties. If the current trends continue, February 2010 will see massive clashes between protesters and police.

So if this is Vancouver’s past, present, and future experience with the Olympics, what should Chicagoans think and do?

Others have also hit on questions about the Olympics, expanded police powers, and civil liberties:

Chicago and the Olympics: Civil Rights Violations Ahead:

London's security budget is enormous, but it isn't out of step with recent Olympics. Athens spent $1.5 billion on security for the 2004 Summer Olympics, and Turin spent $1.4 billion on security for the 2006 Winter Games. Perhaps sticker shock is the reason why Chicago has yet to release any real information regarding the potential cost and size of security for the Olympics. It's hard to imagine that the cost of security for a Chicago Olympics wouldn't match match or far exceed the security budget for London in 2012.

In this atmosphere, Chicago residents should be certain that the cost of "security" won't be limited to monetary concerns. If past Games are any indication, residents of Chicago will find their civil rights on the chopping block.

Police Powers for 2012 Olympics Alarm Critics:

The government was accused tonight of giving itself draconian powers to clamp down on protests at the 2012 Olympics. Critics said the powers were so broad they would potentially give private contractors the right to forcibly enter people's homes and seize materials.

Opposition parties and civil liberties groups criticised the powers as top security officials announced plans concerned with keeping the games, to be held mostly in London, safe from terrorist attack and from "domestic extremists" and public order problems like disruptive protests.

Thought Police Working Overtime in Whistler:

Over the past few months, law abiding citizens along with dissenters of the 2010 Olympic Games have been visited in some form or another at home, at work, or by phone by the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU).

When you have a billion dollars security budget to play with, the sky's the limit.

Police Given Powers to Enter Homes and Tear Down Anti-Olympics Posters During 2012 Games:

Police have been handed 'Chinese-style' powers to enter private homes and seize political posters during the London 2012 Olympics.

Little-noticed measures passed by the Government will allow officers and Olympics officials to enter homes and shops near official venues to confiscate any protest material.

Breaking the rules could land offenders with a fine of up to £20,000.

Civil liberties groups compared the powers to those used by the Communist Chinese government to stop political protest during the 2008 Beijing Games.

There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. you had to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized. - 1984

OH, VANECKO!

Mayor Daley's nephew Robert Vanecko just won't go away.

The Sun-Times has more on the ongoing saga involving Vanecko and city pension funds. Daley's Nephew Gets Break from City Pension Funds:

Vanecko's negotiations with the pension fund officials are outlined in e-mails and other documents that a federal grand jury recently subpoenaed. Authorities are looking into how the pension funds decided to invest with the mayor's nephew, even though his new company had no track record; acknowledged that, despite potentially big payouts, its investment strategy was high-risk, and had been turned down by six other government pension funds.

Two weeks after the grand jury subpoenas were issued, Vanecko announced in June he would leave DV Urban by July 1. Neither the company nor pension officials would say if Vanecko has indeed left the company he started with Allison Davis, a longtime Daley ally in the city's African-American communities.

The Sun-Times also reports that Vanecko's company plans to build a high rise in the South Loop using city pension funds:

Next up for DV Urban Realty, the investment company Mayor Daley's nephew created to manage city pension money: building a $120 million high-rise in the South Loop.

Robert Vanecko and his company have a contract to buy what's now the South Loop headquarters of the National Association of Letter Carriers at 1411 S. Michigan, which they plan to knock down and replace with a 220-unit apartment building.

DV Urban -- which Vanecko owns with partners Allison S. Davis and Davis' son Jared Davis -- has spent more than $4.7 million from city pension funds on the deal, records show.

Vanecko must be banking on the Olympics. After all, it was Mayor Daley that said this economy isn't getting better any time soon and that the Olympics will be our economic savior. I mean, why else would Vanecko's company be spending pension funds to build a high-rise in the over-condoed South Loop? For the sake of the city workers whose pensions are on the line, I hope he knows what he's doing.

CHICAGO OLYMPICS BROUGHT TO YOU BY MAYOR CRAZY FACE

photo by Johnye West

As long as this Chicago Olympic nonsense is going on, there will be great(!) news coming out of City Hall.

First, as expected we have TIFs for the Olympics! City Creating TIF to Draw $100 Million to Transform Hospital into Olympic Village:

Chicago taxpayers must spend $100 million to transform the old Michael Reese Hospital site on the Near South Side into an Olympic Village.

On Wednesday, Mayor Daley's Olympic bid team confirmed the $100 million price tag to install roads, sewers and utilities, raising questions about how the Chicago 2016 committee and Daley can continually say the Games won't cost taxpayers a dime -- especially when the city is dealing with a fiscal crisis.

While Chicago won't know until October if it will win the 2016 Summer Games, the city has agreed to create a TIF district surrounding Michael Reese to generate the $100 million.

Ben Joravsky has some words about TIFs for the Olympic Village at Michael Reese Hospital. Check out his post More Magic Beans:

Look, people, if you truly believe these games are worth the fortune they will obviously cost us, or if you don't care about the public cost but think your business might somehow or other get a crumb or two from the Olympic pie, than go ahead, join the mayor's parade.

But for your own self respect, please don't be dumb enough to believe the bull.

Also in the news lately is a Daley ally - Olympic supporter, real estate developer, and Chicago Board of Education President Michael Scott. He has been subpoenaed in the ongoing federal grand jury investigation of the admissions process at elite Chicago public schools. Scott has also been exposed for his part in a deal to develop land near proposed Olympic venues:

A member of Mayor Richard Daley's team working to bring the Olympics to Chicago has quietly arranged to develop city-owned land near a park that would be transformed for the 2016 Summer Games, potentially positioning himself to cash in if the Games come here, a Tribune investigation has found.

Developer Michael Scott Sr., an early member of the mayor's Olympic committee, leads a group planning a residential and commercial project on lots kitty-corner from the proposed Douglas Park sporting venues, a location where land values could jump if the city gets the Olympics.
...

Scott owns Michael Scott & Associates, a real estate development and investment firm. He also serves as president of the Chicago Board of Education, and was in the news earlier this week when he said he was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury looking into admissions to the city's elite public schools.

Scott's designs on the public land are sure to reinforce concerns of residents that it's the mayor's friends who would benefit from Daley bringing the 2016 Olympics to the city. The story is a familiar one in Daley's administration, where City Hall insiders have personally profited from even the most civic-minded of projects, from recycling garbage to building Millennium Park.

Of course, Daley initially refused to answer questions about another one of his friends caught with his hand in the city cookie jar:

I'm sorry I can't answer questions every day. Every day, I do it enough," Daley said.

Asked by a Tribune reporter when he would be available to talk about Scott's project, Daley said the question insulted him.

"Oh, I do it everyday, you've been with me every day. Never insult me with that question," Daley said. "You're insulting me because every day I'm here, you're never here. And don't print that, so I know you'll print it."

But later, Daley gave in and offered up this wonderful explanation:

Mayor Daley denied Saturday that Michael Scott, a member of the Chicago 2016 committee, would financially benefit from a proposed West Side development near the site of a potential Olympic venue.

"He's not involved," Daley said after the Bud Billiken Parade, where he spent the morning riding a float blasting out the music of Beyonce. "He's supporting the Olympics. Everybody is supporting the Olympics."

...

"The facts are wrong. The conclusions are wrong," Daley said, later adding, "He never had any interest -- none whatsoever."

However, the Tribune's Clout Street blog calls Daley's claims into question:

Scott...is listed as the project's developer. Letters of support from Ald. Sharon Denise Dixon (24th) refer to the project as Scott's development and made no mention of the ministers. Scott said she was mistaken in both letters, though he never asked her to change the wording. Also, in state incorporation papers, only Scott is listed as the only officer of the firm, WMC-I.

Daley attempted to dismiss that. "It doesn't matter, he had no interest," he said.

The mayor also accused reporters of trying to hurt Scott and the city's bid for the 2016 Games.

Naturally, John Kass was there to comment on our beloved Mayor Chucky - Queries Unleash a Terrifying Alter Ego:

Many of you probably don't know this, but the mayor's office insists that reporters stay "on topic" at most of his public events.

"On topic" means that he'll talk about the stunt of the moment, so reporters can give oodles of coverage to the news managed out of the mayor's press office. Many days, the mayor's schedulers inform reporters he'll only accept questions "on topic." And then you see the stunt on TV, the ribbon cutting or the meet-and-greet with the children or the seniors, and you think you're actually watching the news.

But a few local reporters on Friday, including a young Tribune reporter named Dan Blake, figured they should act like reporters, not press agents. So they dared ask "off topic" questions about Michael Scott. That's when the Mayor Chucky came out.

"No," he said. "this is just gonna be on this."

Translation: Shut up and stay on topic.

"When do you think you'll be available next to talk about the deal reported about Michael Scott?"

"Oh, I do it every day," Mayor Chucky insisted. "You've been with me every day. NEVER insult me with that question! You're insulting me because every day I'm here, you're never here. And don't print that! So I know, you'll print it."

Huh? What? All Blake asked was a legitimate question about when the mayor would answer a legitimate question.

On Saturday, the mayor finally talked about Scott, but only long enough to deny, deny, deny and say reporters were making it all up just to hurt his feelings and ruin everything. "You come to conclusions, you're trying to hurt 2016. I don't know why. ...You come to conclusions!"

Oh what would we do in Chicago without a mayor who breaks into a sweaty, angry, "I'm the victim" persona whenever we dare to question his crooked ways?
























photo

TIFS. AGAIN.

photo by Chicago Reader

Progress Illinois is asking questions about Central Loop TIF expenditures with their post Corporate Welfare in Chicago's Loop:

While we're on the subject of the collective $10 million directed to MillerCoors and Willis Holdings, it's worth asking who else in the so-called Central Loop TIF district stands to receive taxpayer dollars this year?

According to the 2008 annual report recently posted by the city, an additional $29 million is scheduled to be spent on four other redevelopment projects, including $5 million to NAVTEQ, a subsidiary of cellular giant Nokia. In 2007, the Tribune reported on Daley's defense of this particular giveaway:

Daley, at a press conference Tuesday, said "there's nothing wrong with TIF assistance" for corporate relocations. Without them, companies like Navteq would leave Chicago, he said. "They'd go to Naperville or New York. New York is offering huge bonuses."

Then when a firm flees, Daley added, "there'd be a big headline, 'Why does Mayor Daley let those companies move?' "

photo via Chicago Journal

And Ben Joravsky continues his crusade against Mayor Daley and his TIF slush fund with an appropriately titled piece - Mr. Big Spender:

The Central Loop Tax Increment Financing district—the oldest and largest TIF of them all—came in with a boom and went out with a binge.

It was created more than two decades ago, to great fanfare, to try to lift what was then a struggling downtown, and it quickly amassed millions of dollars for Mayor Daley and other elected officials to play with. In 2008, at the legally mandated end of its 24-year life, the city spent about $365.5 million from the Central Loop TIF's coffers—more than the city has ever spent in a single year from any TIF fund, and more than the total expenditures from the TIF over the previous three years combined. For a little perspective, that's the equivalent of about 70 percent of the city's predicted budget shortfall for 2010.

The process for phasing out a TIF is fairly straightforward, at least according to state law. The city can either spend all the money before it's closed or hand over what it didn't spend to the schools, parks, county, and other taxing bodies.

Well, in early July, when the city finally got around to releasing the 2008 reports on its 160 TIF districts, we found out which option the mayor went with. I'll give you a hint: the schoolkids didn't win. Instead the Daley administration went on a spending spree Paris Hilton could only dream about. In fact, the city burned through so much money that it drained the Central Loop TIF account and then had to borrow a little money from neighboring TIF districts ($1.45 million each from the LaSalle Central and River South TIFs) to pay the Central Loop TIF's final bills. That's perfectly legal, by the way, since our state TIF laws are conveniently pockmarked with loopholes.

Damn. All this TIF money for Daley to throw around but he insists on crying poor, laying off city workers, slashing services, selling our assets, and pronouncing the Olympics as the city's only hope for the future. I call bullshit.

















I figured out what Daley's doing with all of our money.

MAYOR DALEY RANT: RED LIGHT CAMERAS

The Parking Ticket Geek has a great post on his superb blog The Expired Meter. If you love all of King Daley's Cameras as much as I do, give it a read - Oops! Chicago Forgets It's National Stop on Red Week:

You would have thought, a leader like Mayor Daley, who is so concerned about red light safety, would have earmarked some of the millions and millions of dollars in red light camera fines, to promote red light safety education programs like National Stop On Red Week here in Chicago.

This had to be a grievous mistake. It would be a major embarrassment. Right?

I figured, I just might not be paying attention. Perhaps I had just missed it.

So I started calling around to see what some city department were planning to promote National Stop On Red Week.

I checked with the Chicago Department of Transportation. Nope! Nada! Nothing!

I checked with the Chicago Police Department. Zip! Zero! Zilch!

Not even Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, which runs one of the largest red light camera programs in the nation, had anything planned.

What?!?

I just know this was some sort of teensy-weensy oversight of the Daley Administration. Maybe they just forgot.

Because everyone knows, red light cameras are NOT about revenue. No! Of course not!

Red light cameras are ONLY about improving safety at intersections and decreasing vehicle collisions.

Anyone who thinks different, is itching for a fight.

I’m 100% absolutely, positively, convinced, that the City of Chicago, which is so committed to the safety of its motorists, will actively participate in next year’s National Stop On Red Week.

Right Mayor?

Read the full post here. Read more of Parking Ticket Geek's posts on Red Light Cameras in Chicago here. Be sure to check out Red Light Cameras 101: Know Your Enemy.



























photo via The Expired Meter

You can see a map of Chicago red light camera locations here.

MAKE A DALEY

Make your own Mayor Daley! New and improved Olympics Version.

OlympicDaley

HISTORY LESSON: MAYOR DALEY - OLYMPIC ASPIRATIONS, POLICE TORTURE IGNORE-ATIONS

There are many reasons I hate Mayor Daley. One of these reasons is that when Daley was Cook County States Attorney, he ignored Chicago Police torture under Officer Jon Burge. He could have done something to stop the torture, but he didn't.

Jon Burge, the Olympics, and Torture in Chicago:

Cmdr. Burge and his midnight crew at the city's Area 2 police station tortured more than 137 African American men over a two-decade span. In many cases, Burge and his medieval sect of detectives tortured the old-fashioned way, using nightsticks, flashlights, black jacks and telephone books. At other times they went above and beyond the call of cruelty by hand cranking a telephone box that generated an electrical current, then putting it to the genitals and rectums of the black suspects they were interrogating. Other cruel and unusual practices by Burge's "A Team" included cattle prods to the bodies and plastic bags placed over the heads.
...

Accusations that Lt. Burge and officers under him were torturing prisoners into confessions have been an open secret for nearly three decades throughout much of the city and county's criminal justice system. The rumors ran rampant in the early 1980s when Mayor Daley was the Cook County state's attorney.

Police Torture and Mayor Daley:

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald finally has done what Richard M. Daley should have done 26 years ago: He has indicted retired Chicago Police Detective Jon Burge for leading a band of brutal white cops who tortured hundreds of African-American suspects in criminal cases.

It was 1982, when Daley was the state's attorney of Cook County, that he was first reliably informed -- by Chicago Police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek -- what Burge and company were doing.

What went on -- plastic bags over heads, shackling to hot radiators, gun barrels in mouths, electrical shocks to ears, nostrils and genitals, cigarette burns to arms, legs and chests -- is now well known, having been cited repeatedly in court opinions. (Even Daley, belatedly, branded the torture "a shameful episode in our history.")

A "shameful episode" but sorry, as usual, Mayor Daley doesn't know anything about it.

However, if Daley were to know something, the Chicago Reader's John Conroy posed Twenty Questions about Jon Burge and Chicago police torture that the mayor should (but won't) answer. Maybe one day, Daley will finally be forced to testify under oath about this shameful period in Chicago history. After all, he said he didn't have a problem with it:

“If they require me to be deposed, I have no problems with that,” Daley said at a news conference. But that was before the February 27 election, when one of his challengers was urging voters to “say no to the Daley/Burge team.” After the election the city’s lawyers appealed Brown’s ruling to federal judge Marvin Aspen. They argued that questioning Daley under oath was “premature and may be unnecessary”—on the grounds that busy public officials like the mayor shouldn’t be compelled to testify until all other avenues of getting the desired information have been exhausted.

...

The mayor would have the public believe that he’s already been grilled on the subject. “I answered all those questions,” Daley said in February, referring to his interview with special prosecutors Edward Egan and Robert Boyle, who were appointed in 2002 by the chief judge of the criminal court to investigate the torture

...

The 49-page transcript has the special prosecutors asking Daley 81 questions and the mayor answering with variations on “I don’t recall” 20 times. Magistrate Brown described the transcript as containing “little useful information.” For some perspective, consider that when state’s attorney Richard Devine, who served as Daley’s first assistant, was questioned by lawyers for Burge victims last year, the transcript ran 574 pages without exhibits.

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DALEY'S TIF TRAINWRECK

Progress Illinois has two great posts about Mayor Daley's TIF scheme and Chicago's estimated $520 million budget hole for next year. Check 'em out.

A Few Questions for Gene Saffold:

Since rolling out the bad-news budget for next year, there have been a lot of questions pointed at Chicago Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold. These include whether he's exaggerated the size of the hole in the budget (pegged at $520 million) and how money from the leases of several valuable city assets -- including the $1.15 billion parking meter deal, which was supposed to help balance the budget through 2012 -- could have possibly dried up so quickly.
...

If other municipalities in Illinois can release surplus TIF funds back to local taxing bodies, why can't Chicago?

Getting Creative with Daley's TIF Network

...The property tax revenue being siphoned away from local taxing bodies through TIF has more than doubled over the past six years — from $216 million in 2002 to $570 million in 2008.

It seems ridiculous to be redirecting so much money away from the general tax base at the same time that revenues are sharply declining. Indeed, with a little creative thinking and flexibility on the part of city officials, there are several adjustments to the TIF system that could provide some relief for cash-starved taxing bodies in Chicago. In this post, we’ll examine three potential modifications: redistributing surplus funds, terminating "elderly" TIF districts, and adjusting the TIF tax base for inflation.

photo via Joe Fournier at Zanimation - check the site out for some Chicago and Mayor Daley themed cartoons

WTD PRESENTS: MAYOR DALEY RANT - DONE WITH DALEY

I've never been a fan of Mayor Daley...I run into so many native people...and they are: "That's the way government is, all government is corrupt, you just gotta get over it..he gets stuff done."...I just don't believe that is how all government is. And I don't beelive that you just have to settle for it...And how much better would our city be if it all wasn't corrupt and a bunch of money wasn't wasted.
...

Hopefully he's hit a wall. Hopefully he's screwed enough people over in the last year that people will remember and maybe not re-elect the guy.
...

That's one thing that's always bothered me about the guy. He's a little dictator. He does what he wants in Chicago. And the aldermen rubberstamp his stuff or he literally just does stuff and never has to be held to account for it.
...

Get rid of the King. This is not good democracy in any way, shape, or form. Because this is not democracy. That's really the truth.

There you have it, another Mayor Daley Rant from a Stranger.

Do you have a Mayor Daley Rant? Are you a Stranger? If you have something to say about Mayor Daley or Chicago politics in general, email me your thoughts. I will be happy to publish your rant here at Welcome to Daleyland.

VIOLENCE IN DALEYTOPIA

There's trouble in Daleytopia!

In the month of July, more than 200 people were shot in Chicago. 42 of these people died. And, as Second City Cop points out:

31 shootings happened within a mile of Washington Park - Daley's choice for the Opening and Closing ceremonies.

Lost suburbanites can't make it home without being injured or killed when gangbangers ram their car.

Men can't walk home alone in Lincoln Park/Lakeview without being jumped, beaten, and mugged.

People's little dogs are being killed by burglars.

And we pay Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis $300,000 per year to run the Chicago Police Department into the ground.

When Weis was hired last November to clean up the Police Department, Daley justified his top salary by saying the former FBI agent would be wearing two hats: those of top cop and chief emergency officer.

"This man could go anyplace within the FBI," Daley said at the time. "He could go outside. I'm very responsible paying him that much money -- both for being [police superintendent] and for homeland security [chief]. . . . Yes, it's worth it."

But in July, Weis' authority to supervise response to disasters was diluted when Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco was named to head the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Daley said Orozco, not Weis, will be calling the shots at disaster scenes.

So I was wondering, Mayor Daley, are the Olympics going to fix all this violence too (Jody Weis obviously hasn't)? Because if they're not, I really wish we could focus Chicago's efforts on the important issues - like making our city safe. And I'm talking about the entire city - North, South, and West.

Until something is done, I know where I'll be - at Mayor Daley's house. With its round-the-clock police protection, it's the safest place in Chicago. So, citizens of Chicago, if you don't feel safe in your neighborhood, head on down to Daley's house! If you're lucky, maybe the King will let you camp on the lawn of his castle.

DALEY DOESN'T KNOW. DALEY NEVER KNOWS.

So the Feds are snooping around in Mayor Daley's business again. This time, it's Chicago Public Schools. From the Chicago Tribune:

Federal authorities have launched an investigation into the admissions practices at Chicago's selective enrollment schools, the Chicago Tribune has learned.

Federal officials recently served a grand jury subpoena on Chicago Public Schools seeking information about the admissions process, sources said. Chicago Board of Education President Michael Scott confirmed Saturday that the district recently received a federal subpoena, but declined to elaborate because of the investigation.

And here's Mayor Daley with his usual response:

Daley chafed today when asked if he thought clout had not played a role in admissions, saying the question was akin to asking, "Do you think anyone has sinned today?"

"I mean, I'm the mayor -- I wouldn't know whether or not," he said.

The mayor frequently likes to recall his decision to take control of the public school system in 1995 as an example of his decisive leadership.

Mayor Daley's playing his favorite game. Anything good coming out of City Hall is all because of his efforts. But when scandal after scandal pops up, it's the same line, time and time again: "I'm just the mayor, I wouldn't know about that."

Yes Dick, of course. What would you know about the management of the city? You're only the mayor.

Here's something else I bet Mayor Daley knows nothing about - more city contracts for Daley friends and campaign contributors. Laid-Off City Drivers Protest Chicago's Shift to Private Firms:

About 60 recently laid-off Chicago truck drivers picketed Friday at a city facility on the South Side, protesting that politically connected private companies are now doing work public employees performed for Mayor Richard Daley's administration.

The protesters were among 141 drivers fired last month in a cost-cutting move after their union refused to accept unpaid furlough days and a reduction in overtime pay.

Under a deal that went into effect July 1, the city hired private contractors to haul construction debris from city work sites for the Water Management Department. Among the companies chosen was Reliable Asphalt Corp., which received a $158 million, three-year contract.

Reliable owner Michael Vondra has donated tens of thousands of dollars to local politicians, including Daley, the Democratic organization in the mayor's 11th Ward power base and the pro-Daley Hispanic Democratic Organization. City records show Reliable's lobbyists on the deal are Victor Reyes, a former Hispanic Democratic Organization chairman and top mayoral aide, and David Bonoma, son of Daley's longtime secretary.

"This is the second phase of Hired Truck," said laid-off driver Alex Kantrowitz, referring to the City Hall program that was disbanded amid federal bribery charges.