http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandr.../#29e6d46032a2
Moral Bankruptcy Of Chicago's Elites
As the city approaches financial bankruptcy, Chicago’s elite’s line-their-pockets with taxpayer money.
There is real pain in Chicago. In the last four years, 10,000 shootings have left the city scarred. Nearly 21,000 students are trapped in failing schools. Homeowners face rising property taxes – monthly property tax payments now rival mortgage payments. One million residents have fled the city since 1950 for prosperity elsewhere.
Rumors of financial insolvency are not exaggerated. There is a staggering $19,000 public pension liability per each city resident.
As a mayoral candidate in 2010-11, Rahm Emanuel gave regular people hope with his repeated assertion that he would “stop pay-to-play in City Hall” and “end the historical culture of corruption.” Emanuel was right. Public sector corruption was forestalling private sector production. Ending “pay to play” seemed like the only way back for the city.
In the months following his election, Emanuel seemed to execute on his promise by signing an executive order preventing city contractors from giving campaign cash to the mayor’s funds. It was a nice soundbite, but the measure was weakly designed. It lacked an enforcement mechanism and was riddled with loopholes.
Last week, our organization American Transparency – with the data at OpenTheBooks.com – fact checked Emanuel’s ethics policy for the John Stossel Special, Chicago Corruption: Is Pay-to-Play in Chicago Still Legal? Click here to watch segment
Here’s what we found: 600 city vendors gave Emanuel $7 million in campaign cash during the past four years and received $2 billion in city payments since 2002. And here’s how we found that data: We looked at a universe of 1,500 companies or their affiliated employees funding Rahm Emmanuel’s campaign since 2010. We then matched those company names with payments from the City of Chicago vendor checkbook. It’s a confluence of campaign cash and contractor payments or benefits.
Even United and American airlines, who have current city contracts, bundled campaign cash for the current election cycle. Ten American executives in two states and Washington D.C. all contributed the same $5,300 campaign donation on the same day in March 2014. Last fall, United executives bundled $73,000 from 42 executives on the same day in November 2014. View source documents here.
Even “new money” entrepreneurs are gaming the system. For example, Eric Lefkofsky is CEO of Groupon, President of Blue Media LLC, and co-founder of Lightbank. In the fall of 2010, when Groupon was valued at $6 billion, IL Governor Pat Quinn announced a $3.5 million package of job growth incentives. Two days later, Blue Media LLC gave a $100,000 campaign donation to Rahm Emanuel. Over the next few years, Lefkofsky became CEO of Groupon and took prestigious board appointments from Emanuel. Since 2014, Lefkofsky has given Mayor Emanuel’s fund another $250,000 for his 2015 re-election campaign. View all source documents here.
Overall, our findings led to two conclusions: pay-to-play is still legal in Chicago and Rahm Emanuel has complete control of the entire corrupt Daley political machine. In all the examples identified above, the individual transactions are probably completely legal at arm’s length, but the patterns are troubling.
But there’s a deeper problem. Our so-called leaders are funding a decadent and corrupt machine that exists to serve themselves rather than the city. The players are extracting extreme and undue profits as the city careens into financial insolvency. Residents face bleak futures while the players enjoy bright futures. The fact that Chicago is famous for this “machine” is disgraceful.
The hard truth is our elites – business and civic leaders – have sold the city out. While they strip the city of needed funds with their no-bid, non-competitive contracts for millions of dollars, they recycle a portion back into politics by funding the political machine that is designed to protect their own positions.
Let’s look at another example – the lawyers. Since Emanuel’s executive order on May 15, 2011 banning pay-to-play, Schiff Hardin LLP attorneys have given $31,850 in campaign cash to Emanuel and received $370,000 in city legal work. Over the past four years they’ve received $1.2 million. Jenner and Block attorneys have donated $37,200 since the executive order and have been paid more than $4 million for city legal work since 2010 with much of it coming recently.
How does this happen? The legal work is no-bid and circumvents a competitive procurement process. According to the city transparency website, these firms are paid for city legal work without a contract. They submit payment vouchers that are paid via a direct payment scheme. City of Chicago direct payments don’t disclose work product or purpose on their “transparency” website.
We also examined the investment firms handing the pension funds. Since Emanuel’s executive order, one of the world’s largest private investment firms Grosvenor Capital Management’s affiliated employees have given over $90,000 in campaign cash and $444,500 to Mayor Emanuel since 2010. Yet, the firm indirectly manages city teacher pension funds.
How? A middle-man firm has the pension investment contract and then delivers the pension funds to Grosvenor to manage a portion of the money. Hard questions remain as to whether or not Emanuel’s executive order or SEC rules have been violated.
Most of this is legal and shouldn’t be.
The elites of Chicago are lining their pockets with public money while regular homeowners struggle with ever increasing property taxes, kids attend broken schools, and emergency rooms are flooded with the causalities of a wounded community. Citizens are suffering but the elites of Chicago have never had a better return-on-investment.
We can blame Mayor Emanuel, but he’s just a reflection of today’s broken culture of public service.
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Originally Posted by simpdog
