Hired Truck whistleblower hurt on job
A city plumber who helped blow the whistle on the Hired Truck scandal was injured on the job this week, three months after a hearing officer reversed his firing.
When debris on either side of an eight-foot hole started falling in on him, Pat McDonough smelled a rat.
"I'm suspicious. I was put into a dangerous hole. . . . They might have set me up," said McDonough, 45.
"They're certainly not happy about having me back. I embarrassed the Water Department with Hired Truck stuff. . . . There was a lot of stuff that came out. Then, ironically, here I am in a cave-in. . . . Maybe they did it to shut me up. Mysterious things start happening to whistleblowers."
McDonough said the hole -- in an alley at 2625 W. 23rd Place -- was not shored up on either side, as safety regulations require. That's another embarrassing allegation that surfaced during sworn testimony at his Personnel Board hearing.
"During the hearing, under oath, we brought up how there's no shoring, no safety here in the Water Department," he said. "They keep working illegally in holes that are not shorn up. . . . I brought it to everybody's attention. Now, I'm the victim of what I've been complaining about.
"Either they set me up for a fall or they're just blatantly ignoring the laws of shoring and trench safety, recklessly endangering my life and everybody else's."
Water Management spokesman Tom LaPorte flatly denied McDonough was set up in retaliation for his whistleblowing.
"He was emerging from a hole at the work site when some debris appears to have crumbled at the edge of the hole. . . . Photographs suggest some loose debris, but nothing that can be described as a collapse," LaPorte said. "We have no indication this is anything other than a simple accident."
LaPorte acknowledged that the city's safety policy demands that trenches more than five feet deep be protected -- either by shoring, sloping of the ground or "equivalent means." They must also be examined by an employee formally trained and designated as "competent." At least one is assigned to each crew.
"In this case, we have a signed statement from the competent person indicating his professional judgment that the excavation was safe. We are investigating to see whether our policies were followed," LaPorte said.
The incident occurred about 11 a.m. Wednesday while McDonough was installing new pipes to restore water service to a house with a reported leak.
He was taken away in a Chicago Fire Department ambulance. On Thursday, he complained of back and head trauma, a wrist injury and hands he described as "all cut up."
The accident marks the latest chapter in McDonough's City Hall employment saga. He helped blow the whistle on the Hired Truck scandal, got fired last spring for allegedly violating the city's residency requirement and was hired back after a city hearing officer reversed his firing.
In between, there was explosive testimony at McDonough's Personnel Board hearing from a co-worker who claimed overtime was for sale in the Department of Water Management and that gambling was rampant on city time at city worksites.
In the ruling that gave McDonough his job back, hearing officer Carl McCormick described a work site "akin to a hellish nightmare" where bribery and bullying reigned supreme. He said it was "difficult to envision a work site more indecent."