Former City Red Light Camera Expert Holds County Job; Preckwinkle Demands Resignation
By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 18, 2012 8:30PM
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is demanding the resignation of former Chicago Department of Transportation employee John Bills from his part-time job on the County Employee Appeals Board after a report in the Tribune earlier this week that a 2010 hotel tab from Bills was paid by the company who holds the red light camera contract with the city.
Redflex Camera Systems didn't report the bill to the Chicago Board of Ethics until the Tribune let them know they were writing a story about it a few weeks back. Bills left CDOT last year and took a job as a consultant for the Traffic Safety Coalition, a lobbying firm funded by Redflex and run by Greg Goldner, a longtime Emanuel and Richard M. Daley ally who also founded the political action committee For a Better Chicago. Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration pulled Redflex's bid for installing speeding cameras after the Tribune report was published.
Bills was appointed to the County Employee Appeals Board earlier this year. The board hears appeals from county employees who have been fired or demoted from their jobs. For Bills, the job carried a salary of $35,000 a year and health benefits. (Not bad for a part time gig.)