Results tagged “marageorges”

During yesterday's City Council budget hearing with the Law Department, department head Mara Georges said the City plans to ask for an end to the Shakman decree early next year. Georges claimed the city is in "substantial compliance" in regards to laws forbidding political hirings and firings and that the city is no longer involved in such corrupt practices. It would also mean the end of the road for the city's hiring monitor, Noelle Brennan, with whom the city has long feuded. As recently as this summer, Brennan suggested that there could still be as many as 50 city employees that need to be disciplined or counseled for political hiring abuses. According to the Trib:

When Mayor Daley first appointed a former federal prosecutor to the Inspector General office five years ago in the wake of scandals such as Hired Trucks, he probably thought of it more as a gesture than anything that might bring about real problems for him. Boy, was he wrong. Since then, there's been a lot of tension between the City and the IGO as the IGO has done their job and kept after the city. In the latest development of this ongoing battle, the Inspector General's Office is taking the City of Chicago to court in an effort to get access to documents and records pertaining to a 2006 no-bid contract award. Our media crush Carol Marin has the details at the Sun-Times:

Today, aldermen learned that the time-frame for suing Republic Windows & Doors to recoup $9.3 million in TIF funds that was issued to the company has expired. The money was given to Republic on the condition "that the company create 549 jobs and retain them for eight years." Unfortunately for the city, that agreement was signed in June 1998, meaning it expired two-and-a-half years ago. Corporation Counsel Mara Georges told the City Council today that even if the city did have legal standing to sue Republic, their chances of succeeding were slim: "It's a bankruptcy with very few assets. They don't even own the building anymore. It's a market dependent on the construction industry. And with the economy being what it is, they don't have a lot of prospects." Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) was among many aldermen who called for amending future TIF deals to prevent a similar occurrence, saying, "Republic Windows clearly knew that something was wrong as their business declined. They didn't tell anybody. They basically just walked out of town on us."