City's top lawyer rejects criticism

U.S. District Judge David Coar has dismissed as "incredible" Corporation Counsel Mara Georges' claim that she was unaware of hiring abuses until federal investigators raided the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs last year.

In documents unsealed on the day the mayor's former patronage chief and three others were convicted, Coar said he thought Georges "put on blinders" when it came to the scheme to reward pro-Daley armies of political workers with jobs.

"With respect to . . . the corporation counsel's office especially, there seems to be -- the attitude seems to be -- put on the blinders and don't look left or right," the judge said during a private discussion with attorneys.

On Tuesday, reacting publicly for the first time, Georges defended her integrity.

She insisted she was telling the truth when she said she was unaware that IGA, where convicted patronage chief Robert Sorich worked, controlled hiring.

'Whole story' will have to wait

"Everything I said on the stand was true. I don't believe any of the testimony has been fairly characterized. My testimony was limited, not of my own choosing. Prosecutors chose to limit it for the purpose of their case. I respect that. I don't think anybody had the benefit of the full story. I will live with the comments that have been made and I'm going to move on," she said.

"I'm certainly not going to dispute what a federal judge has to say. He had the benefit of limited testimony, as opposed to the whole story. He chose to make the comments he made and I will live with that. As tempting as it is to set the record straight and give my whole story, I'm just not going to do it at this time because I don't believe it is appropriate. I'm just not going to talk about the details of any of it because it is an ongoing federal investigation."

Last week, Daley defended Georges as "an excellent corporation counsel -- full of integrity, honesty and dedication." The mayor said he retained full confidence in Georges, adding, "I hope she stays."

Georges said she was incredibly gratified by the vote of confidence -- and she intends to remain in the $159,276-a-year job.

Her husband, Michael Mutz, is vice chancellor for development at the Daley-controlled Chicago City Colleges. They have two children, ages 5 and 2.

"It's been a stressful period. But, this job is fraught with stresses. There's really never a time that I'm not under stress. Luckily, I run, so I relieve a lot of stress -- even in the heat. I almost fell over Saturday, but I ran," Georges said, after thanking the Law Department's summer interns during a ceremony in the City Council chambers.

"Every time I'm under stress, it seems like the worst. And then, we move on. Then, there's another stress and it just replaces the last one."

The hits keep coming

For seven years, Georges has been on the City Hall hot seat on issues ranging from the E2 nightclub disaster, the Lincoln Park porch collapse and midnight destruction of Meigs Field to the hiring of teenaged building inspectors and Daley's ongoing effort to overturn the Shakman decree.

On New Year's Eve 1999, Georges concluded that men ran a maintenance company owned by the mob-connected Duff family and stripped Windy City Maintenance of its favored status as a woman-owned business. But Georges insisted there was no evidence of fraud because the ownership of the company evolved when Patricia Green gradually withdrew from the company because of illness.

James Duff later pleaded guilty to engineering a massive fraud that deprived legitimate minority businesses of $100 million in contracts.

Then last year the list of cooperating witnesses ended up in her hands, courtesy of an attorney representing Sorich, infuriating federal prosecutors who were afraid its premature release would have a chilling effect on their ability to persuade others to cooperate.

fspielman@suntimes.com