Cicero pays town board member $1,000 for 250 rubber chickens
BY STEVE WARMBIR Staff Reporter/swarmbir@suntimes.com October 7, 2011 1:15AM
Svengoolie (Rich Koz, left) poses with Town of Cicero spokeman Ray Hanania, who’s holding a rubber chicken, at Sunday’s Houby Day parade. | Courtesy Town of Cicero
Updated: November 16, 2011 9:39AM
If rubber chickens guaranteed a good time, Cicero would be the happiest place on Earth.
The Town of Cicero seemingly can’t hand out enough rubber chickens to its residents — or keep from buying them from a company owned by a woman who gets paid to sit on a town board and is also the daughter of a town trustee.
On Sunday, beloved television personality Svengoolie was the grand marshal for the Houby Day Parade in Cicero and Berwyn and threw out about 250 rubber chickens, a signature item of the horror show host.
The rubber chickens cost Cicero about $1,000 and were purchased from a west suburban company, You & Me. Its owner, Rosemary Walsh Konz, has sat on the Town of Cicero’s Housing and Real Estate Board — which pays her about $9,000 a year plus free health insurance for her and her husband. She is also the daughter of Cicero Town Trustee Lorraine Walsh.
Those rubber chickens are on top of the 250 rubber chickens Cicero bought from You & Me in 2008 for another Svengoolie event in town.
In July, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Cicero had spent nearly $600,000 on such promotional items from You & Me under the administration of Town President Larry Dominick.
Many of the items — more than 200,000 pens, pencils and highlighters, 5,000 mouse pads and 4,000 ice cream scoops for instance — have Dominick’s name printed on them. They are typically given away to residents and children at the town’s many events. Walsh has been a key political supporter of Dominick’s over the years, while You & Me has donated more than $6,000 in cash or merchandise to Dominick or his political allies.
Town spokesman Ray Hanania said the town made its latest rubber-chicken purchase from You & Me because every other vendor it contacted wanted to be paid upfront, while You & Me would wait for its money. Given the short time the town had to get the rubber chickens, it went with You & Me, Hanania said.
“It was my call,” Hanania said. “It was just a matter of convenience. We can order and pay them later.”
Hanania said this week he expects proceeds from either the Houby Day festival or a vendor will cover the town’s cost for the rubber chickens, as well as Svengoolie’s appearance fee of $2,000.
Svengoolie’s appearance was by many accounts a success, as were the rubber chickens. About 25,000 people attended the parade, which was started decades ago to commemorate the heritage of the Czech population in the area but is now attended by a wide variety of residents.
When asked about the town buying items from a town board member who also is the daughter of a town trustee, Hanania said, “I totally understand the interest in that. It is what it is. We’re not hiding it. We’re trying to be aboveboard.”
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