Your Recommended Daley Allowance of Corruption
By Margaret Lyons in News on Dec 14, 2007 6:09PM
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!
Young Daley and his cousin Robert Vanecko invested in Municipal Sewer Services, a company the City contracted for millions of dollars of work, and they both cashed out with a profit. The Daley Administration keeping it in the family is unsavory if not exactly earth shattering, but this gets even more shady:
The mayor’s son and nephew never publicly disclosed their ownership stake in Municipal Sewer Services, despite a city ordinance that appears to require such disclosure.The company also appears to have violated the same city ordinance by not identifying the mayor’s son and nephew as investors in the economic-disclosure statements it filed with the city amid the Hired Truck scandal.
The story is long and rife with denials about any wrong-doing. Our favorite part, though, is the indignation. Robert Bobb is another key investor in Municipal Sewer Services; he's the chairman of Cardinal Growth, an investment company, and he owns about 40 percent of MSS. (Oh, and "Cardinal Growth is among the investors in Chicago Concourse Development, a company that landed a 10-year city contract to provide wireless Internet service at O’Hare and Midway airports.") He's the only person involved with MSS who'd talk to the Sun Times, and he would only respond to written questions:
Q: Did Patrick Daley or Robert Vanecko lobby city officials on behalf of Municipal Sewer Services? If so, whom did they lobby?A....The question is absolutely absurd. The answer is a resounding no. Further, the implication in the question is insulting.
Yes, how dare you insinuate that questionable dealings went down within the Daley administration or that anyone sought or received favorable treatment to personal contacts? I said good day!
Scuzzy Patrick Daley photo from NBC 5. It's hard to find a picture of this guy.