Results tagged “davidhoffman”

David Hoffman, the city's Inspector General who has tussled with Mayor Daley many times in the past, is stepping down from his position to make a run at the U.S. Senate. The Sun-Times has a list of some of Hoffman's biggest battles with Daley, the most recent being the parking meter deal that Hoffman claims cost the city almost a billion dollars.

It's hard out there for a Mayor, as our own Honorable Richard M. Daley is learning these days. Already facing a mountain of criticism at home for things such as the parking meter fiasco and the 2016 Olympic agreement putting taxpayers on the hook for $500 million (let's not even mention that pesky nephew), now he's having to defend himself even more.

The woes of Mayor Daley continue. With the parking meter deal and the Olympic bid coming under extreme scrutiny, and his nephew's wheelings and dealings, the last thing he needs is another accusation of shady hiring practices, especially in the wake of this year's Hired Trucks trial. But that's what he's getting. Yesterday afternoon, Human Resources Commissioner Homero Tristan, the man Daley brought in to help the city avoid such scandals, resigned in the wake of accusations of lying by city Inspector General David Hoffman; Hoffman had called for Tristan's firing two weeks ago. In spite of the resignation, Tristan maintains his innocence, claiming it's now impossible for him to defend himself while also trying to serve the city. Tristan said (via the Sun-Times):

In a rare moment of aldermanic clarity, it seems some members of the city council don't believe what they're being told about the city's Olympic bid. Led by 1st Ward Alderman Manny Flores, a group of aldermen are asking for an independent third-party auditor to look through the city's bid book for potential cost overruns. "It is critically important that we pursue the bid in a financially responsible manner and also in a manner where we provide full transparency for the city of Chicago, and fully vetting and evaluating the merits of the Games," Flores told CBS2. "That's what the residents of the city want," Flores said. "They want the assurance they're not going to be put on the hook long term."

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.

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.

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.

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.

The audit of a Chicago Health Department warehouse revealed that nearly $1 million's worth of drugs had either expired or disappeared, due to shoddy record-keeping and/or lax security. The warehouse on the Near North Side stored medicines, vaccines, birth control, antibiotics, condoms and baby formula, but nothing harder than that. The city lost its license to handle harder drugs last year for the same reason: poor record-keeping.

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who's in desperate need of a nickname, said there's "every reason to think there are more charges to come in the future," following the arrest of 15 people, including several city employees, charged with giving and receiving bribes in the zoning department. The investigation is called "Operation Crooked Code," which is amazing.

"'Everything was the exact opposite of the way it should be,'" says David Hoffman, the city's inspector general, describing the bribery and corruption in Chicago's zoning and building departments. Sayeth the Trib: "The alleged bribes helped developers avoid seeking necessary variances, receive certificates of occupancy that they were not entitled to and pass inspections that they should have failed, authorities said." [Trib]