No work, full pay for alderman's pal

Stone's handpicked precinct captain keeps $84,000 salary for almost 2 years while awaiting trial for ballot fraud

Chicago is so strapped for cash that it's cutting services and draining reserves. So why was a 50th Ward superintendent allowed to do nothing for nearly two years while awaiting trial for absentee-ballot fraud, all the while collecting his $83,940-a-year salary?

That's a question floating around the city Streets and Sanitation Department, where Commissioner Tom Byrne has been cracking down on rampant absenteeism that sidelines nearly a third of all laborers every day.

Anish Eapen ended up getting paid to be absent for nearly two years.

Former city Inspector General David Hoffman had recommended that he be fired amid allegations he manipulated absentee ballots to benefit Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) in the hotly contested 2007 aldermanic election. Eapen is a 50th Ward Democratic precinct captain picked by Stone.

Eapen was placed on administrative leave, with pay, on Jan. 28, 2008.

Byrne finally called a halt to Eapen's extended paid vacation on Oct. 8, finding a new job for him.

"We recently identified an opportunity to bring him back to work . . . helping with the tracking of our equipment," Streets and San spokesman Matt Smith said.

Why did it take so long to find him something to do?

Smith would only say that Eapen's return to work was part of the new Streets and Sanitation commissioner's top-to-bottom review "to make our work force more productive and accountable."

"Normally, an employee might remain on administrative leave until the issues that led to [it] are resolved," Smith said. "But because there did not appear to be any imminent resolution, the decision was made to bring Eapen back into a productive role but in a non-sensitive position and under appropriate supervision."

Stone said he can't understand why a productive employee was allowed to sit idle in a department that's fallen way behind in providing municipal housekeeping services. He blamed Byrne's demoted predecessor.

"Mike Picardi has no cojones," Stone said. "There was no reason to keep him out of work. He was going crazy doing nothing. He was the happiest guy in the world when they called and put him back on."

Picardi could not be reached for comment. He has returned to his old job as fleet management commissioner.

Eapen is set to go on trial in November on charges of engineering an alleged scheme to improperly steer voters, most of them Indian and Pakistani, toward absentee ballots to benefit Stone. He was accused of using his Streets and Sanitation badge to influence people to vote absentee and give their ballots to him -- even if they didn't qualify. He allegedly visited voters in their homes and offered garbage carts and tree-trimming services to those who agreed to vote absentee.

Stone said he views the investigation as an "illegal witch hunt." The inspector general is prohibited from investigating aldermen and their staffers.

"He's gonna be found innocent," Stone said. "He is innocent. He never did anything wrong."

Last year, Stone tried to persuade his colleagues to eliminate the inspector general's $5.8 million budget in retaliation for the investigation. His motion was tabled by a vote of 12-to-2.