Family ties bind city, Hired Trucks

Mark Gyrion, a cousin of Mayor Daley, helps run the city Water Department, while Gyrion's mother-in-law has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars renting dump trucks to the agency since 1998.

In all, Gyrion's mother-in-law has made about $1 million from the city's scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program, leasing trucks to the city's Water and Sewer departments since her company was created five years ago.

Gyrion is the superintendent of garages for the Water Department. His mother-in-law, Naomi Baker, 56, leases three dump trucks to the city through her firm, Jacz Transportation Co., which was created in 1998, 10 years after her daughter married Gyrion.

As a city employee, neither Gyrion nor his wife can own a firm that does "hired truck" business with the city. Jacz Transportation is listed as being run by his mother-in-law, which does not break city regulations.

Mark Gyrion, 39, is the grandson of the mayor's aunt, Rita Green. Rita Green was the sister of the mayor's mother.

Gyrion's wife said her husband would not talk to a reporter, referring all questions about the trucking firm to her mother. Naomi Baker did not respond to requests for comment.

Daley spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard said she could not respond to the Sun-Times findings. She added: "The mayor has made it very clear that this program will be run professionally, so that taxpayers will get value for their money. And where that is not happening, he has initiated actions to ensure that it does."

The ties between a top city employee and a trucking firm in the Hired Truck Program is the latest example of the network of inside connections and clout that permeate the program.

Last week, Mayor Daley vowed to clean up the $40 million Hired Truck Program after a Sun-Times series spotlighted corruption and waste in the program. The FBI is investigating the program and has opened a second public corruption unit in Chicago to examine the Hired Truck Program and other alleged corruption.

Daley's budget director, William Abolt, who had responsibility for the program, has resigned over the scandal. The city has suspended 12 trucking firms from the program. All 165 firms in the program last year will have to reapply under stricter rules by June 1 with no guarantee of getting back in, the city says.

The city last week fired the man running the Hired Truck Program, Angelo Torres, after he was charged with shaking down a trucking firm owner for cash. Torres helped get his father-in-law's trucking firm into the Hired Truck Program while Torres ran it. That firm has been suspended.

Daley's brother, John, a Cook County Board member and head of its finance committee, sold insurance to three of the largest firms in the Hired Truck Program and had two former clients when they were in the program.

Jacz Transportation was created on March 30, 1998. It got into the Hired Truck Program on June 4 that same year and is listed as being run out of Baker's Bridgeview home.

The company entered the program when the Daley administration was working to spread the work around in the Hired Truck Program to clean it up.

Since entering the program, the trucking firm has earned about $1million, working for the Water and Sewer departments, which were combined about a year ago. The firm owns three trucks, state records show.

Gyrion, who lives on the Southwest Side, has donated $1,750 to his cousin, John Daley, and his political organization since 2000.

Jacz Transportation has made $1,500 in political contributions, with $1,000 going to Will County State's Attorney Jeff Tomczak. His father, Donald, was a long-time top supervisor at the Water Department who decided which hired trucking firms would get business from the city. Donald Tomczak retired under pressure late last year as the Sun-Times was asking questions about the program. Jacz also gave $500 to Ald. Emma Mitts (37th).

On Tuesday, Jeff Tomczak took more than $20,000 he received from trucking firms in the Hired Truck Program and gave it to a charity, while saying he did nothing wrong. The money total includes the donation from Jacz.