Tuesday, April 15, 2008
News / Clout City Power bases
Posted by Mick Dumke on Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 8:32 PM
Robert Sorich and three other former Daley administration workers were convicted of fraud or perjury charges in 2006 after a federal investigation into illegal patronage hiring at City Hall. Today their appeals were denied [PDF] by a federal appellate court that reiterated how for years they helped politics trump policy:
"Sorich was the mayor’s so-called 'patronage chief,' and held the title Assistant to the Director of IGA. Defendant Timothy McCarthy was Sorich’s deputy from 2001 to 2005 and often stepped into his shoes. Campaign coordinators would pass Sorich lists of campaign workers and volunteers, whose names he would then send to the heads of various city departments—Aviation, Streets and Sanitation, Sewers, Water, etc.—for jobs. Defendants Patrick Slattery and John Sullivan held high positions in the Department of Streets and Sanitation.
"During both individual and mass-hiring sequences, departmental managers like Slattery and Sullivan would hold sham interviews and then falsify interview forms in favor of the pre-selected 'winners.' The interview forms were often filled out weeks after the interviews, with one pile for blessed applicants (to be given high scores), and another for everybody else (to be given low scores). Some positions, such as tree trimmer, required merit tests but the results were frequently ignored. Evidence showed that Sorich even pressured departmental managers to hire applicants with drinking problems for positions that involved overseeing workplace safety."
The Trib reminds us that Sorich, Slattery, and McCarthy have connections to the 11th Ward; Sorich was once John Daley's driver.
It turns out, though, that within the current city workforce, Sullivan comes from the true power base: Beverly.
According to city records, two of the six zip code areas with the most city workers are located on the far south/southwest corner of the city that includes Beverly, Mount Greenwood, and Morgan Park. Together the 60655 and 60643 zips are home to more than 5,000 of the city's 38,542 employees.
The three zips that make up most of the 11th Ward are way down the list at Nos. 15, 16, and 30.
Some of this is due to the Copland effect; since the biggest city department by far is police, the neighborhoods favored by officers are going to have the most city workers. But Beverly and other southwest-side neighborhoods are still the leaders when you only count traditionally patronage-heavy departments like Streets and San, Transportation, Water, and Aviation.
Here's the list of employee numbers in the top 20 worker-populated zip codes:
| ZIP | WORKERS | SIDE OF TOWN |
| 60655 | 3,422 | south |
| 60638 | 2,873 | southwest |
| 60631 | 2,140 | northwest |
| 60652 | 1,853 | southwest |
| 60634 | 1,742 | northwest |
| 60643 | 1,660 | south |
| 60617 | 1,503 | southeast |
| 60628 | 1,289 | south |
| 60630 | 1,282 | northwest |
| 60620 | 1,248 | south |
| 60619 | 1,210 | south |
| 60656 | 1,199 | northwest |
| 60646 | 1,183 | northwest |
| 60629 | 1,050 | southwest |
| 60609 | 786 | south |
| 60616 | 786 | south |
| 60618 | 722 | north/northwest |
| 60641 | 691 | northwest |
| 60608 | 616 | south/southwest |
| 60639 | 586 | west/northwest |
Showing 1-10 of 10
To Frank Coconate, you will achieve another milestone in your life. The milestone is getting your ass kicked by a senior citizen,if you don't stop direspecting me. I handled punks like you blind folded, so you better start showing me some respect.
The late Pat Botterman had a list of people that helped Lipinski for Congress. The list included someone that reported to me with a Job list. . The new Sorich replacements are Brian Murphy,Brian McGinnis and Rich Guidice. Check Please!
I remember when Robert Sorich drove John Daley/Tim Degnan around town on City Time. If Sorich was truely the hiring boss , they should have been driving him.
Why did it take so long for the appeals judges to uphold Sorich's conviction? The punk committed Mail fraud,and it was very obvious.Brian Mcginnis Daley's nephew has a do nothling job in the Building Department. One of his titles was the director of accountability. He can be observed on the 11th floor of city hall in rm 1107. Daley's 19th ward relatives have taken many of the better paying jobs at city hall. Mcginnis makes $107,000 per year for doing basic clerical work.
The amount of time taken by the federal appeals process to come to come to a decision is not all that unusual. The fact that the appellants were allowed to remain free on bond during this time is the unusual aspect of these cases. Rarely are appellants granted the pleasure of remaining free while their appeal is being considered. Most appeals are considered while the appellant is serving their sentence, many having served their entire sentence prior to being granted their appeal. Soruch and company should be receiving, very shortly, their letters from the federal marshall's office, advising them of the date upon which they each shall be expected to report to the BOP facility designated as the place in which they will begin serving their terms of imprisonment. Anyone wishing to communicate with any of these individuals will be able to do so, via the US Postal Service, each individual's address being available on the BOP Inmate Locator portion of the BOP web site. This reader wishes those sentenced to terms of imprisonment an enlightening experience during their taxpayer financed 'vacations'. Five words of advice: Always wear your shower shoes.
To all Daley's Minions. Kozicki ,Reyes, Mcginnis,Orion,Huberman, Daley cannot protect you creeps. Free advice to 'ROBERT SORICH--- DON'T DROP THE SOAP"
Do they use lube in jail? Hired Truck Scandal made this all happen. We should be grateful to Mr. McDonough.
Hubreman likes to drop the soap. the 19th and 11th ward (even if some of the people move out) get too many jobs and that is why people got pissed off Daley brought down patronage by lying on not sharing
I'd be intrigued to know why John Daley, or any other member of the Cook County Board, needs a driver. BTW, Inthe Know is correct - almost no one who's convicted of a federal (or for that matter, state) criminal offense gets to stay out of prison pending appeal. There's at least one case I recall where someone convicted of a federal offense had served her entire sentence and been paroled by the time the Court of Appeals ruled on her appeal - and reversed her conviction.
"There's at least one case I recall where someone convicted of a federal offense had served her entire sentence and been paroled by the time the Court of Appeals ruled on her appeal - and reversed her conviction." This happens all the time, it's common beyond the publics' realization. Many of these appeals are based on the sentence imposed being more severe then the inmate believes the offense warrants. Others are based on either actual innocence or relative innocence to the crime(s) charged. The Appeals process is always a long one, and hardly EVER are the appellants allowed to be out on bond during it. And, yes, we remember that case, Miriam got screwed. But that's what these miscreants do, screw people. Like someone once said, many, many years ago, "First, kill all the lawyers".
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