Workers asked to back fund-raiser

WATER DEPT. | 'Charitable equivalent of pay-to play': watchdog

Employees in the Water Management Department at the center of the Hired Truck and city hiring scandals are being pressured to sell and purchase $50 tickets to the Nov. 19 benefit reception Mayor Daley is hosting on behalf of the United Negro College Fund.

Although the cause is laudable, the tactic is questionable.

The solicitation is being made on city stationery with employees referred to a city telephone number to purchase tickets to the event at the South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. Shore Drive.

"Commissioner [John] Spatz has asked each deputy commissioner to sell tickets to this commendable event. I am asking the Bureau of Engineering Services employees to support this worthwhile event," acting deputy commissioner Michael Sturtevant wrote in a memo obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Neither Spatz nor Sturtevant could be reached for comment.

Law Department spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyle conferred with Board of Ethics and the Law Department's Labor Division, but took no position on whether Sturtevant's Nov. 2 memo "violated any personnel rules or ethical restrictions."

"There are a number of factors that would come into play, including whether or not this is a city-sponsored [event] and the specific language that was used in the memo. Therefore, we've concluded that we will have to review the memo before we reach any conclusions," she wrote in an e-mail response to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Andy Shaw, executive director of the Better Government Association, called the memo the "charitable equivalent of pay-to-play."

"There's an implied threat that, if you don't give, you may not get the promotion, the overtime when it's available and other perks that you might have earned while doing your job well," Shaw said.

"The scholarship fund is much more commendable than a political campaign. But, the tactics are similar to what Donald Tomczak did and went to jail for. It's very hard to say 'no' to a request like that on office stationery from the boss. Refusing to give almost amounts to insubordination. People should give to charities freely without an implied threat or promise."

Tomczak is the former first deputy water commissioner who was one of the biggest players -- and most significant cooperators -- in the massive Hired Truck scandal that branched out into city hiring.

In November, 2006, he was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to forfeit $175,000 after admitting to pocketing $400,000 in bribes.

A parade of truckers accused Tomczak of implementing a "pay-to-play" system where contractors who wanted Hired Truck work had to make payoffs and campaign contributions. The criminal acts spanned two decades.

Tomczak also admitted that he commanded a 250-strong army of Water Department employees who did political work for Daley, Al Gore, Rahm Emanuel and others in exchange for promotions, pay raises and overtime. Underlings who acted as Tomczak's bagmen also admitted shaking down truck companies for campaign contributions to Daley, mayoral brother John Daley's 11th Ward Regular Democratic Organization and for Tomczak's son, former Will County State's Attorney Jeff Tomczak.

During the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan said Tomczak's bribe-taking gave a "new definition and meaning to the term 'charitable contribution.'"