Mayor Harold Washington said Tuesday that Clarence McClain, the controversial former aide who has boasted about his ties to the mayor, is no longer a close friend or adviser.
”He has no infuence on this administration,” Washington said. ”He has been severed from this administration, hook, line and sinker.
”Mr. McClain, shut up. Don`t throw my name around,” the mayor said.
Washington said he believes the news media and McClain himself have exaggerated McClain`s closeness to the administration.
The mayor`s relationship to McClain has become an issue again because of disclosures that McClain may have associated with an FBI informant who tried to buy city contracts.
The informant, Michael Raymond, posed as a corrupt businessman willing to give money to city officials who could help him win contracts.
McClain quit his $69,000 job as a top mayoral aide in late 1983 after disclosures that he did not pay property taxes and had three misdemeanor vice convictions dating back to 1965.
Washington`s opponents, however, have charged that McClain continues to have influence in City Hall, a claim denied by administration officials. Nevertheless, as recently as last Tuesday, Aldermen David Orr (49th) and Lawrence Bloom (5th), two strong Washington supporters, urged the mayor to publicly renounce McClain.
The mayor also responded Tuesday to questions about why he fired Deputy Revenue Commissioner John E. Adams last week. The Tribune reported that according to sources Adams had received $10,000 from Raymond, reportedly describing it as a ”business loan.”
Corporation Counsel James Montgomery said earlier this week that he and other top administration officials knew last September that Adams may have taken a questionable payment from Systematic Recovery Service Inc. of New York, a firm that at the time held a city contract and employed Raymond.
Systematic Recovery Service had been hired to collect overdue water bills, but its city contract has now been canceled by the mayor. Alton Miller, the mayor`s press secretary, said Washington acted because ”there was concern that there was improper receiving of money or other goods in connection with the contract.”
The mayor described Adams` behavior as ”a conflict, an unethical conflict, but not necessarily criminal.” Washington said that, in September, there was no indication to him that the money came from a city contractor.
He said that Adams` story at the time was he had received a business loan from McClain, not Systematic Recovery.
Miller said Tuesday that he was not certain whether Adams had received money directly from Systematic Recovery, or indirectly, through McClain.
Of this transaction, Washington said, ”The information we got at that time (in September) was a straight loan to Mr. Adams from Mr. McClain. That was the totality of it.”
Montgomery has said that Adams was told in September that he would be fired but was given four months to find a new job. Washington said Tuesday that he did not recall of any document that would verify that Adams was terminated in September.
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He also said that as far as he knew, no one in the administration contacted the FBI in September about Adams` business transactions.
Washington said it was not unusual to discharge a top city official without announcing it. ”You don`t publicize every discharge of a person,”
the mayor said.
He added that ”perceptions, suspicions or feelings” on the part of other top officials concerning the transaction were not communicated to him.
Washington stopped short of charging that the federal investigation was an attempt to ”get” him, but responded to a question on the topic by saying, ”You have to be mindful of that possibility or should we say probability.”
On Monday, Washington named an interim chief of the city`s revenue department to replace Charles E. Sawyer, who has been placed on leave as a result of the investigation.
Sawyer reportedly admitted accepting a campaign contribution for his brother, Ald. Eugene Sawyer (6th), from an FBI undercover operative. Carmine Aielllo, deputy water commissioner, also has been fired, allegedly for refusing to answer questions related to the investigation.
Miller said that Charles Sawyer will be replaced by Joanne Malinowski, deputy city comptroller, Malinowski, a Chicago native, joined the finance department as deputy comptroller for financial policy last September, after serving as deputy comptroller in New Haven, Conn.
Miller said Sawyer was not ”suspected of any crime” and is not believed to have been engaged in illegal activity, but he was put on administrative leave with pay pending further investigation by the mayor`s Office of Municipal Investigation.