Editor's note: This Shark requests Gen. Ferguson and Mayor Emanuel to look into corruption in the Probate Court of Cook County. All you need is one rat to tell tales and the entire house of cards will collapse. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
City contractor corruption measure advances
The Chicago City Council on Wednesday is expected to pass an ordinance requiring city contractors to self-report corruption. (Posted on: February 4, 2014)
The Chicago City Council on Wednesday is expected to pass an ordinance requiring city contractors to self-report corruption, a proposal Mayor Rahm Emanuel has lauded as a “key reform.”
Under the measure, which the City Council’s budget committee endorsed Tuesday, a contractor’s “knowing failure to report corrupt activity” could result in the city terminating the company’s contract.
But it’s unclear just how effective such a tool would be in helping to curtail such corruption, since contractors who are breaking the law are unlikely to tattle on themselves given the potential legal and financial ramifications.
Aldermen who voted for the measure in committee Tuesday, though, said the proposal would be a start. Current city ordinance only requires city officials to report corruption to the city’s inspector general and makes no mention of contractors.
“If somebody is taking a bribe, or taking money — ‘Well, I saw ‘em but I didn’t want to say nothin’ ’’— yeah, we need to stop that,” said Ald. Carrie Austin, 34th, who chairs the budget committee. “We need to start reporting that kind of activity that goes on, because that rips the city up.”
The measure first was recommended by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson. Emanuel and Ferguson have not always seen eye to eye, most notably when the mayor defeated the inspector general’s legal effort to secure unfettered access to City Hall documents.
Ferguson's office has said the corruption provision would have applied to the city's red light camera contract with Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., a company that has been under federal investigation following Tribune reports that detailed an alleged $2 million bribery scandal between company officials and a former city transportation official.
The Emanuel administration, however, managed to disqualify Redflex from city work without a corruption-reporting provision for contractors. In that case, city officials cited state laws and court precedents as reasons to dump Redflex as the city's red light camera vendor and ban it from bidding to operate its new speed camera program.
In an October 2012 letter rejecting Redflex as a potential operator for the city's speed camera program, Chief Procurement Officer Jamie Rhee cited Redflex's failure to report complaints of corruption for covering an Arizona hotel stay for the transportation official.
“I find that Redflex's failure to timely report this incident to the city is unacceptable behavior and is a failure by Redflex to act in the city's best interest,” Rhee wrote.
On Tuesday, Rhee told aldermen that contractors caught violating the new ordinance by not reporting corruption would be considered in default of their deals with the city even if they dealt with the situation in an appropriate fashion privately. But Rhee said the city will not go looking for violations by contractors, instead relying on authorities to uncover them.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd. “We have to rely on the inspector general to catch folks who aren’t complying with this, but that’s the best tool we have today.”
Emanuel introduced the ordinance after Ferguson wrote him a letter in September pointing to a case in which his office found that a worker for a city subcontractor twice illegally solicited fees from city customers.
Instead of reporting the matter to the city, the unnamed subcontractor fired the employee, paid back the fees and reached an agreement with one victim not to pursue any wrongdoing, Ferguson wrote. The lack of reporting and cooperation from victims, Ferguson said, made it difficult for him to investigate further or pursue criminal charges.
If such a reporting requirement had been in place, the office might have had more success, Ferguson said.
The lack of such a requirement also made it more difficult for the city to determine if it needed to make changes to prevent such corruption, Rhee told aldermen.
“There was no duty for that vendor to report that,” Rhee said of the case. “Once they discovered it, they did take the right action, they fired the person. But they denied the city the ability to look and see if indeed this is a widespread problem. Do we need to put some other safeguards into our departments or user controls over contracting?”
Tribune reporter Bill Ruthhart contributed.
hdardick@tribune.com
jebyrne@tribune.com
Under the measure, which the City Council’s budget committee endorsed Tuesday, a contractor’s “knowing failure to report corrupt activity” could result in the city terminating the company’s contract.
But it’s unclear just how effective such a tool would be in helping to curtail such corruption, since contractors who are breaking the law are unlikely to tattle on themselves given the potential legal and financial ramifications.
Aldermen who voted for the measure in committee Tuesday, though, said the proposal would be a start. Current city ordinance only requires city officials to report corruption to the city’s inspector general and makes no mention of contractors.
“If somebody is taking a bribe, or taking money — ‘Well, I saw ‘em but I didn’t want to say nothin’ ’’— yeah, we need to stop that,” said Ald. Carrie Austin, 34th, who chairs the budget committee. “We need to start reporting that kind of activity that goes on, because that rips the city up.”
The measure first was recommended by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson. Emanuel and Ferguson have not always seen eye to eye, most notably when the mayor defeated the inspector general’s legal effort to secure unfettered access to City Hall documents.
Ferguson's office has said the corruption provision would have applied to the city's red light camera contract with Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., a company that has been under federal investigation following Tribune reports that detailed an alleged $2 million bribery scandal between company officials and a former city transportation official.
The Emanuel administration, however, managed to disqualify Redflex from city work without a corruption-reporting provision for contractors. In that case, city officials cited state laws and court precedents as reasons to dump Redflex as the city's red light camera vendor and ban it from bidding to operate its new speed camera program.
In an October 2012 letter rejecting Redflex as a potential operator for the city's speed camera program, Chief Procurement Officer Jamie Rhee cited Redflex's failure to report complaints of corruption for covering an Arizona hotel stay for the transportation official.
“I find that Redflex's failure to timely report this incident to the city is unacceptable behavior and is a failure by Redflex to act in the city's best interest,” Rhee wrote.
On Tuesday, Rhee told aldermen that contractors caught violating the new ordinance by not reporting corruption would be considered in default of their deals with the city even if they dealt with the situation in an appropriate fashion privately. But Rhee said the city will not go looking for violations by contractors, instead relying on authorities to uncover them.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd. “We have to rely on the inspector general to catch folks who aren’t complying with this, but that’s the best tool we have today.”
Emanuel introduced the ordinance after Ferguson wrote him a letter in September pointing to a case in which his office found that a worker for a city subcontractor twice illegally solicited fees from city customers.
Instead of reporting the matter to the city, the unnamed subcontractor fired the employee, paid back the fees and reached an agreement with one victim not to pursue any wrongdoing, Ferguson wrote. The lack of reporting and cooperation from victims, Ferguson said, made it difficult for him to investigate further or pursue criminal charges.
If such a reporting requirement had been in place, the office might have had more success, Ferguson said.
The lack of such a requirement also made it more difficult for the city to determine if it needed to make changes to prevent such corruption, Rhee told aldermen.
“There was no duty for that vendor to report that,” Rhee said of the case. “Once they discovered it, they did take the right action, they fired the person. But they denied the city the ability to look and see if indeed this is a widespread problem. Do we need to put some other safeguards into our departments or user controls over contracting?”
Tribune reporter Bill Ruthhart contributed.
hdardick@tribune.com
jebyrne@tribune.com
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