Family affair
May 22, 2006
Some of Chicago's biggest controversies have involved the Roti family:
Chicago's scandal-ridden Hired Truck Program provided work for 17 companies owned by Roti family members and their associates.
Frank Caruso Jr. -- a great-grandson of family patriarch Bruno Roti Sr., went to prison for the racially motivated 1997 beating of Lenard Clark, a 13-year-old black youth.
Anthony Barbara -- a son-in-law of Bruno Roti Sr. -- was investigated in 1966 over allegations he was operating unlicensed tow trucks -- trucks that towed vehicles for the Chicago Police Department. The outcome of that investigation is unclear.
Ald. Fred B. Roti -- resigned from the City Council after he was indicted in 1991 for taking kickbacks to fix a zoning case and a court case. He went to prison. Roti, a son of Bruno Roti Sr., spent more than two decades representing the 1st Ward, long a haven for organized crime. The FBI says Roti was a "made" member of the mob.
Fred Bruno Barbara -- a grandson of Bruno Roti Sr. -- made a fortune hauling the city's garbage to landfills and stood to make even more from Mayor Daley's Blue Bag recycling program, even though most Chicago homeowners shun the program.
Bruno F. Roti -- Ald. Fred Roti's only son -- admitted taking part in a scheme to rip off the Chicago Police Department motor pool in the late 1970s and spent six months in a work-release program. He's been back on the city payroll for years.
Anthony Barbara and Fred Bruno Barbara -- his son -- were among trucking-company owners investigated by the city over allegations of overcharging to remove mountains of snow that piled up in the 1979 snowstorm that buried Mayor Michael Bilandic's City Hall career. Even before the investigation was completed, a top city official ordered the city to pay the bills.
Streets and Sanitation 1st Ward Supt. Peter Caruso -- a nephew of Ald. Fred Roti and grandson of Bruno Roti Sr. -- was disciplined in 1991 in a street-sweeping scandal. He was supposed to make sure dozens of people spent eight hours a day sweeping streets with brooms and dustpans. But most of them worked just a couple of hours a day, a city investigation found. Some went to the track on city time. One was charged with robbing a jewelry salesman in Wisconsin -- on city time.
