Friday, June 26, 2009
News / Clout City When the going gets tough
Posted by Mick Dumke on 06.26.09 at 08:16 PM
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The city is facing a $300 million budget gap, more layoffs, pay reductions, and service cuts are on the way, and aldermen are acting funny.
Among the items on today’s meeting of the City Council finance committee was a measure that would require about 3,700 nonunionized city workers to take a total of 15 unpaid days off by the end of the year. City budget officials said that would save up to $14 million. They also said that if they can’t come to an agreement with labor leaders they’ll slash 1,500 unionized jobs in the next few weeks to save millions more.
The aldermen had been briefed about all this before, but they were exasperated all over again when they heard it anew.
Longtime administration loyalists Ray Suarez and Richard Mell suggested it might be time for a cutback in public safety staffing—something that's usually considered a political no-no. “I thought the pain was going to be shared by all city workers,” Suarez griped.
“If you want, you can introduce a resolution urging layoffs of police and fire,” snapped committee chairman Ed Burke.
“I know police and fire are sacrosanct, but these are dire times,” Mell said. “When I see cement mixers gone, when I see those people who are out in our communities daily and they’re going to be gone—the ramifications of what we’re doing are a lot more than what we’re seeing right now.”
The recently indicted Ike Carothers has long overseen a west-side patronage army, but no one’s feeling too safe these days. He wondered what the exact process was for determining which employees would be laid off. “How were they picked?”
“It’s all based on seniority,” said chief financial officer Gene Saffold.
Carothers appeared skeptical. “I’ve been hearing from people saying, ‘Why did I get laid off before he did when I’ve worked here longer?’” He asked for paperwork detailing the layoff process.
"We've already told you some of that in briefings," Saffold reminded him.
"I'd like copies, please."
Perhaps no one sounded as out-of-form as 47th Ward alderman Eugene Schulter, who’s generally adroit at keeping himself from being caught in anything resembling a public debate. This time he asked Saffold and the other budget officials for documents he’d requested showing how pension plans might be affected by the cuts. They didn’t have them but promised they’d get them to him soon.
Schulter’s face flushed with anger. “How do you expect us to vote on this today if we haven’t seen the stuff ahead of time?”
No one had a good answer, but the meeting went on. A little while later the committee voted unanimously to approve the furlough plan.
Comments (17)
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H.D.O member Homero Tristan who run the city personnel department,may be in trouble for violating the shakeman decree. Maybe even jail. Inspector General Hoffman has request his firing. I has stacked city department with unqualified HDO members.
dire times,take back that 6% raise bitches.they are getting mad that the patronage workers are losing jobs,who will ring doorbells for them?no job no doorbells.police and fire layoffs are they crazy this city is gonna burn!
Schulter has been expected to vote for everything including the Mayors parking meters and gave no sign he was worried. What is the difference with the latest news?
The City Council is like a abused spouse , they know the other half is cheating, but they like the security of the money.
When the going gets tough, the voters should get tougher. You cannot deny that Hoffman and Fitzgerald have their hands so full of DALEY FAMILY corruption that they need help. Voters need to be organized today so they can rid themselfs of this Daley corruption.
Wisdom from: http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/ "I had the pleasure of attending the 1968 Riot Cops Reunion last evening. The 012th District presence was there from start to finish. THANK YOU! Inside about 150 of us enjoyed a visit with our old comrades. My tact partner of 41 years ago came in from out of town and we reminisced not only at the FOP Hall but on the ride to and from. I looked around the hall in awe... where did all these old people come from? It was a great night of quiet visiting and table hopping and catching up with old friends. Outside, the rabble rousers beat their drums and chanted, but our brothers and sisters in blue kept them about a half block away. Most all of the demonstrators didn't have the slightest hint of what really happened in 1968. It was an early night for most of us... by 9 we were saying our goodbyes. As we walked back to our car a young officer bid us good night and told us to "take care" on the drive home. I sensed a bit of father/son role reversal in his voice... genuine concern. So be it. We are the old guard, God Bless the new guard. At our car, some distance from the FOP Hall we were accosted by three demonstrators on bikes with video cameras in hand. They were rude, verbally aggressive and peppered us with inappropriate questions. They were so very obviously attempting to create an incident we ignored them. Fomenting violence to promote their political agenda. Some things never change. Thanks to all who helped make this special evening happen. 6/27/2009 10:27:00 AM" Anyone not even born in 1968 want to chirp up and voice an uninformed opinion?
http://www.nogameschicago.com./ These guys have their history of corruption book on Daley on their website. http://nogames.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/book/
Let's start by cutting down the number of aldercreatures to 25. NY and LA both have larger populations than Chicago yet we have about the same number of aldermen. After that, they should give back the nice 6% raise they gave themselves and the 5% raise they gave to their staff. At the end of the day the city CANNOT lay off any emergency personnel until every other civilian worker has been layed off. Not to mention the fact that the CPD is currently dangerously low on manpower due to minimal hiring for the last 6yrs, approx. 3000 officers short, during a time when crime is steadily rising. Are you listening to all of this madness IOC? How about you Fitzpatrick? The leaders of this city are perfectly willing to endanger it's citizens in order to stuff a few more dollars into their pockets.
All these wasted comments from Daley's front line storm troopers.I wish they were 5000 short,so less petty enforcement of Daley's decrees. Filibustering the web site with roll call garbage,like somebody cares. Go stomp the shit out of some more women..... you morons.
“I thought the pain was going to be shared by all city workers,†Suarez griped. What about the 6% raise these characters gave themselves last year? What about the over 5% raise they gave their staff? Not bad for a part time job. Share the pain Ray, share the pain.
Has anyone went to the real boss and asked him what to do about Da Mayors short fall and the Olympic Promise? The Boss is Joyce as in... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xB4W8thG28&feature=related
June 29, 2009 BY TIM NOVAK AND CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporters Candy Basselen has run a steel fabricating company on the Southwest Side for many years. Last summer, she moved it a few blocks south, and City Hall told her she had to get a new business license. » Click to enlarge image Candy Basselen leased this warehouse from Mayor Daley's nephew, Robert Vanecko, but her business failed because she couldn't get a business license. The city cited various code violations. (Al Podgorski/Sun-Times) RELATED STORIES Contractors fined for women, minority hiring failures But they wouldn't give her one. The reason? The warehouse she moved into didn't have enough shrubs, trees and other landscaping. And there was no wrought-iron fence, one of the hallmarks of Mayor Daley's beautification efforts. Until these landscaping faux pas were corrected, city officials told Basselen she couldn't get a business license. None of this made sense to Basselen because she was just a tenant. She didn't understand why the city wasn't leaning on the warehouse owners to fix the landscaping violations. And, if shrubs, trees and fencing were such a big deal, how come the city was leasing space in the warehouse to park dozens of dump trucks. "If the city knew there were code violations, why was the city operating out of the building,'' Basselen says. "The city was utilizing a building they themselves said wasn't up to code.'' So who owns that building? The mayor's nephew Robert Vanecko and his partners. They bought it with some of the millions of dollars Vanecko manages for five city pension funds. Vanecko's pension investment company, DV Urban Realty Partners, is under investigation by a federal grand jury and the city's inspector general who want to know how the pension funds came to invest $68 million with Vanecko and his partner Allison S. Davis. The mayor has said he's unhappy with his nephew. So Vanecko says he's getting out of the deal by Wednesday. Vanecko and Davis used pension money to buy the warehouse on Nov. 27, 2007. DV Urban Realty owns 90 percent of the warehouse. The rest is owned by Sydney Partners LLC headed by Jeff Josephs and Anthony Burns. They have yet to correct the landscaping code violations that City Hall wanted Basselen, their tenant, to take care of. "As it relates to the building violation, it is very simple,'' Jeff Josephs, one of Vanecko's partners in the warehouse deal, wrote in an e-mail to the Sun-Times. "The city zoning department has advised us that we need to add a wrought-iron fence to the front of the building and add some shrubs, plus blacktop a small portion of rock in the back. Less than $75,000 of work. No different than what they are requiring numerous owners who own city industrial property to complete.'' Josephs says they have "hired a landscape architect to take care of the work. We received the alderman's approval on the plan that was to be submitted to the zoning department.'' There's still no landscaping at the warehouse at 3348 S. Pulaski. But city officials dropped their six-month spat with Basselen in April, agreeing to give her a business license. She says it's too late. Her business is out of business. Without a business license, Basselen says she couldn't renew her city certification as a woman-owned business enterprise. That WBE certification gave her business, Springfield Service Supply Company, an advantage in winning work on city contracts. Basselen, 61, had threatened to sue her landlords for failing to correct the code violations that had kept her from getting a city business license. They reached a settlement in April. The five-year lease has been torn up. And the landlords agreed to pay Basselen $35,000. "During this process Springfield Supply subsequently advised us that she would like to be let out of her lease as her business was not faring well,'' Josephs says. "We came to an agreement that included returning to Springfield the security deposit. We did this because it was the right and humane thing to do for a person whose business was not doing well due to the downturn in the economy.'' Basselen says that's not the case. "I could not bid work in September because I didn't have a business license,'' Basselen says. "From September to April, I couldn't bid any work. Ninety percent of the work I do is for the city of Chicago. Police stations. Fire stations. Libraries. Schools.''
I never heard of the lack of landscaping is a Building code violation. I have a code book,and I cannot find anything that pertains to Landscaping. Department of Buildings 120 n Racine Commissioner Richard Monocchio $133,608.00 per yr Managing Deputy Commissioner Marlean Hopkins $114,528.00 James Harney Deputy Commissioner $109,236.00 Daley's point man in DOB Brian McGinnis Assistant Commissioner:city hall room 1107 $111,132 Daley's nephew. Wife Judge. Sheila McGinnis DUI conviction. Irma Rodriguez Chief Inspector :West over 3348 Pulaski.$91,416.00 H.D.O South. Involved in Hiring Fruad never disciplined or prosecuted. Clout works Baby
