Not a bad life for a city employee

Last year, he sold his Lake Shore Drive condo for $840,000.

He also has owned other pieces of real estate, including a house in Chicago next door to mob bigwig Joey "The Clown" Lombardo--a man Spina once testified was "like a second father to me."

"He is more respected than the priest in the neighborhood," Spina said at Lombardo's sentencing hearing in the early 1980s. Lombardo has been linked to gangland slayings, porn and arson.

One of Spina's tenants has been Wallace Davis III, son of the former alderman and a recent failed challenger to state Sen. Rickey Hendon.

Not bad for a guy whose firing from the Streets and Sanitation Department was paraded on the front page of both Chicago newspapers nearly a decade ago, when Spina allegedly collected city overtime while doing personal work--driving "The Clown" around.

But Spina, like other men with alleged links to organized-crime figures, knows how to work the system.

In a little-noted move, Spina got his city job back after he was fired.

With back pay.

He's now a supervisor at the city Transportation Department, making sure street signs are hung properly and meet requirements.

For the last few months, he has been on unpaid sick leave and will retire in January, a department spokesman said. His illnesses, resulting from alleged job stress, include irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea and possible kidney stones, according to a Spina doctor, a source said.

More than a decade ago, the city's inspector general found Spina not only collected overtime on a Sunday while driving "The Clown" around. Spina also was accused of illegally selling city scrap metal and not notifying the city, as required, about his interest in a trucking firm receiving city business.

A city hearing officer found weaknesses in the city's case against Spina.

She determined, for instance, that even though Spina had his name on trucking company records as an officer of the company, his tax records weren't introduced at his hearing to prove he actually collected income from the business.

And even though the city's inspector general, Alexander Vroustouris, said Spina confessed to him about selling city scrap, Spina would not sign a statement. And a witness for the city had problems identifying Spina as the man she saw selling scrap.

As for driving the mobster around?

Spina was taking a break during his workday, he said.

The full hearing board, though, reversed the hearing officer's decision, saying Spina should be fired.

But after a long court battle, Spina eventually got reinstated.

City officials declined to say whether they have an active investigation of Spina but noted that an investigation of any city employee is difficult when he is protected by supervisors.

Spina has operated his own real estate company, which contributes to politicians. Topping the list of Spina contributions is the Coalition for a Better Government, which got $1,460 in contributions from him in recent years, records show. The coalition, run by felons, drew criticism recently when state Attorney General Jim Ryan blasted his rival for the governor's job, Rod Blagojevich, for receiving political support from the group. Also receiving Spina's contributions are Attorney General-elect Lisa Madigan and state lawmaker James DeLeo.