Results matching “vanecko”

After announcing that he's holding the line on property tax hikes and giving Chicagoans an "abatement" by raising the property tax below the full amount allowed, Mayor Daley expounded on the fundamental unfairness of excluding city teachers from the state pensions system. “We pay a double-tax. The pension is picked up by state government for all teachers outside Chicago. As a taxpayer in Chicago, you pay a tax there. Then, you pay another tax because the state excludes Chicago teachers. So, you’re paying two pension taxes: one for the state and one for the city,” Daley said Wednesday. “We’re the only, only local government doing that in the whole state. That puts a huge burden upon the school system. ... You’re paying two taxes. This is really unfair and we have to do something about it immediately.”

Robert Vanecko, the mayor's nephew who's use of city pension funds for real estate investments is now under federal investigation, is moving forward with a planned development in the South Loop. According to the Sun-Times, DV Urban Reality, the real estate investment firm run by Vanecko and Daley ally Allison Davis, are moving forward with plans to demolish the Chicago Letter Carrier's union building to construct a 220-unit apartment building. The letter carriers will move to a new building at 38th and Wabash.

City Hall is ending its month to month lease at a warehouse on South Pulaski that Mayor Daley's nephew, Robert Vanecko owned. Vanecko, you may remember, headed a real estate investment firm with Daley fundraiser Allison Davis. Davis and Vanecko got nearly $70 million in investment funding from five city pension funds. Both the city inspector general and federal prosecutors are investigating the deal, and Vanecko has since left the investment firm. Nevertheless, the city has determined that it no longer wants to be in the lease deal. But it's not because of the controversy. Certainly not.

Mayor Daley's beautification program has done wonders for downtown and tourism, but for Candy Basselen, who runs Springfield Supply, a steel fabrication company, Daley's love for wrought-iron fencing and fancy landscaping has cost her her business. That's because the city wouldn't grant her a new business license after she moved her business to a warehouse at 3348 S. Pulaski, the same warehouse owned by Daley's nephew, Robert Vanecko. And until the warehouse had sufficient amounts of wrought-iron fencing and pleasant landscaping, the city told her, the building wouldn't be up to code. And therefore she couldn't get a business license.

The ongoing city scandal over real estate and leases involving the mayor's nephew has drawn the ire of 31st Ward Alderman Ray Suarez. Reacting to the questionable month-to-month lease the Department of General Services established back in November of 2007, Suarez told the Sun-Times that he should have signed off on it. Suarez is chair of the City Council’s Committee on Housing and Real Estate.

As if the ongoing rift in the Daley family over mayoral nephew Robert Vanecko's connections weren't bad enough, the Bright One brings us more evidence of corruption in the mayor's family. According to records obtained by the Sun-Times, the city has been leasing property from clouted landlords, often at rental rates higher than market. Adding to the problems for the mayor is a warehouse at 3348 S. Pulaski that Vanecko and his business partners acquired, and which the city has paid more than $480,000 in rent over the past 15 months. The city uses that space to park dump trucks.

The political embarrassment of Mayor Daley has been brewing publicly for a few months now (not counting the earlier charges that his son and nephew had hidden ownership stakes in a company that did millions of dollars of business in contracts to clean city sewers). To wit, Daley's nephew, Robert Vanecko, has been at the center of an investigation by city Inspector General David Hoffman, and now federal prosecutors, over a real estate investment firm he ran with Daley fundraiser Allison Davis, DV Urban Realty. That company, which bought up South side properties which eventually lost money in the hosuing meltdown last year, was financed with nearly $70 million in city pension funds.

Far be it for us - of all sites - to pick on another site for a tech glitch. That's not what we're doing here, promise. We're routinely chasing the goats out of the tech closet where they've been chewing wires and causing general havoc for us. But when we just stumbled across this mix-up on the Sun-Times, juxtaposing the upcoming Sox-Cubs series with a brewing Daley family feud seemed almost...appropriate? A picture of Daley and nephew Robert Vanecko with text that talks about short-term memory issues...Are we way off or are we on to something here? Just wondering...

Mayor Daley's nephew Robert Vanecko announced his resignation Wednesday from DV Urban Realty, the real estate investment firm that is the subject of a federal investigation. DV Urban Realty, which is headed by Vanecko and City Hall insider Allison Davis, has come under scrutiny recently for nearly $70 million in investments it's obtained from five city pension funds, including police, teachers, laborers, municipal workers and CTA employees. Federal prosecutors, working with Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman, subpoenaed records related to those investments almost two weeks ago.

An update on our earlier post regarding Mayor Daley's nephew, Robert Vanecko, and the federal investigation into the dealings with his real estate company, DV Urban Reality. The company announced Vanecko's resignation earlier today. The Tribune reports that, per the company's announcement, "Vanecko no longer will be a general partner or investor in the real estate venture."

A federal grand jury subpoenaed files related to four city pension funds that are invested in DV Urban Reality in late May. DV Urban Reality is the real estate invest firm headed by the mayor's nephew, Robert Vanecko. The city's Inspector General, David Hoffman (himself a former federal prosecutor) has been trying to get those records for several months now; the pension funds, which include teachers, municipal employees, laborers and CTA workers, have refused, saying Hoffman lacked the authority to subpoena the records. Hoffman has been investigating how's DV Urban Reality, which is headed by Vanecko and mayoral buddy Allison Davis, got nearly $70 million in funding from municipal pension funds. Hoffman has said that his office is now jointly conducting an investigation into the pension fund investments with federal prosecutors.

One last, self-indulgent note before we bow out for the day. Chicagoist went live on May 10, 2004 featuring a design you can see above (via the Wayback Machine). Since then, we've had ups and downs but it's been one hell of a ride. Five years is an eternity in internet time, so thanks to Jen, Jake and all our benefactors in NYC, thanks to Rachelle and Margaret for getting the ball rolling here, thanks to every single writer who has posted - past and present - for your hard work, and last but most importantly, thanks to all of you readers who keep coming back every day. We hope to see you tomorrow night at our celebration, and we'll see you back here next week as we start the next five years. - M.G.

Dozens of Chicago police officers angrily confronted members of the police pension board yesterday for failing to comply with city Inspector General David Hoffman’s subpoena as part of his investigation into investments that city worker pension funds have made with DV Urban Realty, the real estate investment firm operated by Mayor Daley’s nephew Robert Vanecko and Daley fundraiser Allison Davis. The police pension fund’s attorney has said that the fund will not turn over recordings of the closed-door sessions where the decision was made. The police board voted to invest $15 million in DV Urban in 2006, one of five city pension funds that pumped nearly $70 million worth of local government pension funds into the firm.

If Al Sanchez's conviction for steering undeserving patronage workers into city jobs over a decade ago indicates anything about the nature of due process in this country, it's that the gears of justice turn slowly. That's why news that Mayor Daley's Patrick, and his nephew Robert Vanecko have hired a defense attorney shouldn't come as a surprise. You may remember Vanecko, whom the city Inspector General is investigating for his involvement in the management of millions of dollars of city pension funds. But Vanecko doesn't need an attorney for that investigation. At least not yet.

Mayor Daley's public troubles grew yesterday as news emerged that the mayor has taken some 46 trips abroad in the last two years, 19 of them at taxpayer expense. The Sun-Times is reporting that "seven of the trips were fully or partially bankrolled by the Daley campaign fund, seven by the Chicago 2016 Olympic organizing committee, four by the Sister Cities program, three by World Business Chicago and two by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce." Two trips - to Washington, D.C. and Kona, Hawaii - were aboard a private jet owned by Educap, a nonprofit organization under federal fraud investigation.

Inspector General David Hoffman, whom Mayor Daley recently, albeit tepidly, endorsed for another four year term, has subpoenaed records from DV Urban Realty Partners, a real estate investment firm run by Daley ally Allison Davis and Daley'S nephew Robert Vanecko. The city pension fund has paid the firm hundreds of thousands of dollars in management and consulting fees.

Patrick Daley may be shipping out, but not before he dabbles a little in the family business. No, not politics, silly: Patronage and scandal. Hotcha!