Ald. Fred Roti (1st) and Ald. Bernie Stone (50th) had a heck of a hoot Tuesday morning at City Hall with a computer list of properties being sold by the county for unpaid back taxes. On the list: 121 N. LaSalle St. So? That`s City Hall. (As in, who says City Hall ain`t for sale?) So Roti and Stone made the rounds collecting money to buy it. ”But nobody was willing to reinvest,” Roti told INC. Since city property is exempt from taxes, how`d it end up on the list? Better yet, who pulled one over on Roti by giving him such a list?
Officials in County Treasurer Ed Rosewell`s and County Clerk Stan Kusper`s office say City Hall isn`t on their official lists.
POLITICAL SKINNY . . .
– Two-timing: INC. hears media consultant Raymond Strother, based in Washington, D.C., is romancing at least two Democratic presidential candidates at the same time: U.S. Sen. Paul Simon (D., Ill.) and U.S. Sen. Al Gore (D., Tenn.), and winning no friends in either camp in the process. Strother is best known locally for the dud television commercials he produced in 1983 for State`s Atty. Rich Daley`s ill-fated mayoral bid.
– But will they pay in Peoria? Thom Serafin, a top aide to U.S. Sen. Alan Dixon (D., Ill.), is being courted by local Dems in his Peoria hometown to challenge U.S. House Republican Leader Bob Michel. But are they willing to finance a campaign? The last Dem to run against Michel, who was first elected to the House in 1956, had no money compared with Michel`s hefty war chest, and it showed at the polls: Jim Dawson got 37 percent of the vote to Michel`s 63 percent.
FLEXING MUSCLES? . . .
The Chicago City Council`s new sergeant-at-arms, Ronald Robinson, is busy laying down the law to the media, Mayor Harold Washington`s department heads and aldermen and their staffs. Robinson just issued a two-page memo of rules- taking effect at the Sept. 9 city council session-which forbids people to walk here and there, or sit here and there, and destroys all sorts of freewheeling council floor traditions. The rules are being peddled as ”security measures,” but newsies-who must now wear press badges-and aldermanic secretaries and aides say they`re just being hassled. Robinson isn`t exactly Mr. Popularity: He lost potential pals when he shunned the coffee-making duties foisted on him by the vice mayor, Ald. David Orr (49th).
STAR TRACKS . . .
Sid Caesar and Dorothy Loudon will return to television in a CBS-TV midseason replacement series set in New York. . . . Charlie Sheen`s latest girlfriend (and he`s going through them at a remarkable rate): Charlotte Lewis of ”Golden Child.” . . . When Jessica Hahn was in town last week working with Playboy magazine on the story of her brief tryst with Jim (”I Love My Wife”) Bakker, she was spotted using her new American Express gold card at Victoria`s Secret in Water Tower Place, where she bought $600 worth of beautiful undies.
More Top Picks Beautural 1800 Watt
FUNNY BUSINESS . . .
Robin Williams showed up over the weekend at Milwaukee`s Funny Bone comedy club, where he did almost an hour of stand-up and introduced the woman with him only as ”my lady” and indicated that she was from Whitefish Bay, Wis. Representatives of the comic, who is separated from his wife, say they have no idea who his lady is and that Williams is ”on vacation.” . . . When he`s not on stage in ”Jeeves Takes Charge” (now at the Royal-George Theatre), Edward Duke is a less-than-stuffy practical joker. Case in point:
When he was leaving an L.A. restaurant with his pal Sherry Rivera and Bruce Willis a while back, Duke turned to his companions as they passed a bank of clicking photographers and suggested loudly, ”Why don`t we just go up on the roof and do some freebasing?”
TELE-VISIONS . . .
Former Chicagoan Nancy Becker, one of the country`s few disabled actresses who has been working on a pretty steady basis, was just signed to a 13-week stint as a ”General Hospital” character named Martha McKee, a disabled widow with two kids. . . . WLS-TV`s Janet Davies was just interviewed by a Japanese television show for a feature on ”Typical American Wives.”
CITY DITTY . . .
State Sen. Dawn Clark Netsch, an outspoken opponent of Commonwealth Edison`s rate increase proposal, is sure it`s just a shocking coincidence. Her two-month Edison bill totaled $6,700, and she and the utility now agree on something: They need to come out and read her meter.
INC.LINGS . . .
To promote the Sept. 13 National Basketball Players Association dinner, Charles Oakley of the Chicago Bulls and Doc Rivers of the Atlanta Hawks will be taking on all challengers in a free-throw competition Wednesday between noon and 1 p.m. at the Plaza of the Hyatt Regency Chicago. . . . Wednesday birthdays: John Derek, 61; Porter Wagoner, 60; Buck Owens, 58; terminally tan George Hamilton, 48. . . . Tickets go on sale Friday at the Royal- George Theatre box office for Steppenwolf Theatre`s four-week pre-Broadway production of ”Burn This,” starring John Malkovich and Joan Allen. The show opens Sept. 13. . . . Why do the lights on Clark Street go on hours before it gets dark and hours before other streets are lighted?