Mayor in dark: aide
SON'S SECRET DEAL | Says Daley had no role in sewer firm's pact with city
In 1975, Mayor Richard J. Daley quoted his mother as he unapologetically defended his decision to give $1 million in city insurance business to an Evanston firm that included his son.
"There's a mistletoe on my coattail," the late mayor said after that Heil & Heil insurance scandal involving his son John.
(Thomas Delany Jr./Sun-Times)
Thirty-two years later, Richard M. Daley is struggling to come to grips with a similar conflict involving his son and city business. Only this time, the mayor is not defending it and claims to have had no involvement in or prior knowledge of the deal.
And there's another complication: The mayor's son is a soldier about to go off to war. Daley is flying to Fort Bragg, N.C., today to spend a farewell weekend with Patrick, now headed for an overseas deployment that's expected to include Afghanistan.
"It's completely understandable that people draw a connection between the mayor's son and any business dealings he has with the city or in the city. The mayor understands that," Daley's press secretary, Jacquelyn Heard, said Friday.
"But the mayor loves his son. He is extraordinarily proud of him, and right now that supersedes all else. Right now, the mayor's focus is on his son about to go to war, and he and rest of the family are supporting him in every way possible."
Daley's emotional dilemma stems from Chicago Sun-Times disclosures Friday that Patrick Daley had a hidden interest in a sewer inspection company whose city business rose sharply while he was an owner.
The sewer deal also included the mayor's nephew Robert Vanecko. Sun-Times reporter Tim Novak previously had disclosed that Vanecko got $63 million in city pension funds to invest in a risky real estate venture that involves CHA redevelopment deals.
The mayor's son and nephew never publicly disclosed their ownership stake in Municipal Sewer Services, despite a city ordinance that required such disclosure.
In a Thursday memo to his employees, company Chairman Robert Bobb acknowledged that disclosure statements filled out by his predecessors "contain a number of mistakes or oversights. ... These errors, among others, are why we have new management. We will correct these filings if requested by the city."
Before flying to North Carolina, Daley attended a board of directors meeting for the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Cities Initiative in Racine, Wis. He refused to answer questions about his son.
That left Heard to insist that Daley knew nothing about his son's involvement in the sewer inspection deals until the Sun-Times started asking questions. The mayor's signature appears on city contracts with Municipal Sewer Services. But the mayor's name on all city contracts is actually signed by top mayoral aides who write their own initials next to Daley's name.
"The mayor doesn't sign contracts for this very reason. If someone is signing contracts, you assume they're aware of who's getting it. He doesn't want that. This is not some new practice. It's been that way since he's been mayor," Heard said.
"Readers of the [Sun-Times] story would believe the mayor willingly signed his name to a contract that had his son's name on it. That is not the case. The name was not disclosed. Company owners have acknowledged that mistake."
The front-page story about the mayor's son was the talk of the town among Chicago politicians Friday.
The mayor's brother John sells insurance to city contractors. Mayoral brother Michael Daley and his law partner Jack George have emerged as the city's pre-eminent zoning attorneys during the mayor's 19-year reign. But this is the first time that any of the mayor's children have been tied to city business.
"I think I'm going to avoid peeing on his family," said Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th).
"If this was one of his minions, I'd probably have some comment. But it's his kid, so I'll pass."