On Oct. 31, the city comptroller will issue fifty $1,500 checks to the members of the Chicago City Council to help cover the month`s costs of their ward offices-City Hall satellite posts where much of an alderman`s real work is done.
Ald. Mark Fary (12th) will spend his monthly allowance to rent an office at 4204 S. Archer Ave. Sharing the second-floor quarters are law and accounting firms run by the 12th Ward`s Democratic committeeman and party treasurer.
Ald. Anna Langford (16th) will pay $250 of her allowance in rent to the owner of the building housing both her ward and campaign office. The owner is Langford, who retired her mortgage on the building four years ago.
Ald. Thomas Cullerton (38th) will spend $1,000 on expenses, including rent to himself for the operation of his combination aldermanic and political office. He will keep the remaining $500.
Cullerton, a 14-year veteran of the city council, has done this for a year. Before that, he says, he pocketed the entire check.
Federal officials, Illinois state legislators and council members from other large cities are prohibited by law from most of these practices. But in Chicago, $900,000 of taxpayer money-$1,500 per month per alderman-will be awarded this year to council members for expenses with no questions asked, no strings attached.
Unencumbered by regulations, some Chicago aldermen use the money to pay rent to themselves or their political associates, to support their private businesses, to finance party and campaign offices and, in the case of at least six council members, to pad their $40,000 aldermanic salaries.
None of the aldermen said they return any of the $18,000 annual allowance to the city.
In addition, each alderman gets a similarly unregulated auto allowance of $440 per month, which totals $264,000 in tax funds for the year.
In a six-month Tribune investigation of city council operations, reporters examined the ownership records of all aldermanic ward offices, reviewed state and federal representatives` office expenditures and interviewed aldermen on how they use their allowances-the only sources of information available in Chicago on how taxpayers` money is spent for these government offices.
Members of Congress are governed by a strict code that prohibits the mixing of government and political or business offices and requires a detailed accounting of expenses.
”Renting of a district office must be done in an arms-length transaction,” said John Davison, an attorney for the U.S. House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.
In Chicago, Ald. Burton Natarus (42d) has been collecting city expense money as a council member for more than 16 years but said he has not found an affordable ward office in his high-rent Near North district. The alderman runs his official ward activities out of his law firm at 100 W. Grand Ave. and declines to disclose his rent expenditures. ”That is a private matter,” he said.
Members of the Illinois legislature cannot keep any of their expense funds, pay themselves rent or use their allowances for political purposes.
”We don`t just say, `Here, here`s some money, go spend it,”` said Judith Erwin, director of communications for the Illinois Senate President`s Office. ”There`s no cash up front. We have to have documentation.”
In Chicago, voters who go to the 14th Ward aldermanic office at 2650 W. 51st St. to see their council representative, Ald. Edward Burke, also encounter the headquarters of Democratic Committeeman Burke`s political organization and the law office he shares with his attorney wife, Anne.
Los Angeles city officials negotiate council members` district office leases and prohibit aldermen from owning the building, pocketing leftover expense money or running a business out of their government office.
”You just don`t do that here,” said William Ashdown, assistant city clerk.
In Chicago, Ald. Joseph Kotlarz (35th) uses city money to finance a ward office in a building he owns. Attached to that office is Future Realty Inc. Richard Bradley is a broker for Future Realty. He also is Kotlarz`s aldermanic secretary, drawing a city salary of $25,272.
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The practice of public and private commingling is so routine in Chicago that signs for government offices are prominently displayed alongside advertisements for aldermen`s political associations and businesses. Constituents in some wards must run a gantlet of political and commercial enterprises-law firms, accounting services, insurance companies and real estate firms-before getting an audience with their alderman.
At Ald. Anthony Laurino`s official ward office, there is a sign for the
”39th Ward Democratic Committee” and one advertising ”D`Amato & Laurino Inc. Insurance and Real Estate”-a nearby company owned by the alderman and the ward`s Streets and Sanitation superintendent.
”The name means something,” Laurino said of the small firm he and Mike D`Amato opened three years ago. People ”approve of you. They think, `At least Tony`s up there, we get a fair shake.` ”
That arrangement troubles some officials, including Ald. Jesus Garcia
(22d), whose predecessor conducted real estate and insurance business out of his ward office. In the absence of council regulations, Garcia said, the practice is at least ”very questionable and probably unethical.”
”I mean, my God, you`re going to see the man who makes zoning decisions and you`re a property owner, and this guy`s selling insurance? That`s a statement. That says a lot,” Garcia said.
”It tells constituents that you don`t do a real good job of separating your business from your government job, that you mingle everything. That should lead people to raise some serious ethical questions about how you`re dividing your time.”
When Ald. Luis Gutierrez (26th) was running for re-election this year, he moved his campaign headquarters out of his ward office because, he said, it is ”unethical” to carry out political work in a government setting. That same standard, he said, should apply to aldermen who own businesses.
”You trust me with your vote, now trust me with your life and home insurance,” Gutierrez said of the implicit pressure on constituents. ”That`s wrong. . . . You wouldn`t let the mayor do it, you wouldn`t let the governor do it, you wouldn`t let your congressman do it. But in Chicago, an alderman can.”
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The red brick storefront that is Ald. Danny Davis` 29th Ward office is sandwiched between the tiny St. Rome MB Church and another storefront housing a cooling and refrigeration company. Davis meets there daily with the constituents of his West Side ward, one of Chicago`s poorest communities.
Like 19 other members of the city council, Davis is also a Democratic ward committeemen. That status traditionally has enriched the political coffers of many of Chicago`s elected officials, giving them access to political funds to finance campaigns, pay for baseball teams, supply garbage cans and pay the costs of running ward and political offices.
But unlike his brethren in the city`s richer, mostly white wards, Davis`
fundraising abilities are undermined by the realities of life in his impoverished ward.
Since his election eight years ago, Davis estimates, he has drawn $4,000 from his campaign funds to subsidize his ward office expenses, which cost up to $2,300 each month. In the same period, Davis says, he has spent $10,000 out of pocket to meet expenses not covered by his city allowance.
Ald. Percy Giles (37th), whose ward borders Davis`, said that since his election in the spring of 1986, he has spent $3,000 of his money to make ends meet in his rundown Cicero Avenue ward office.
”We have occasionally used campaign money, but most often we don`t have campaign money to use,” Giles said. ”. . . I have not had one month where I have been able to pay (all) my bills.”
Times are not so tough in the 12th Ward, nor in the ward office that Ald. Fary opened when he was elected to the city council last April.
Along with the alderman`s office, constituents climbing the stairs to the second floor at 4204 S. Archer Ave. will find the ward`s Democratic political organization and committeeman, Robert Molaro; the committeeman`s law firm, Molaro and Solan; the accounting company of George Kwak, a former alderman and the ward organization`s treasurer; U.S. Rep. William Lipinski`s district office; and Intergovernmental Consultants, a campaign consulting firm operated by Gregory Swan, who ran Fary`s aldermanic campaign and is paid $25,272 by the city as an aldermanic secretary to Fary.
”It is convenient to have everyone together,” Swan explained. ”Instead of having to send someone all over the neighborhood, we can send them down the hall to the right person.”
For this convenience, Chicago taxpayers are paying $1,500 each month-Fary`s entire expense allowance-to finance the office, and an additional $500 of Lipinski`s congressional expense money.
The other tenants, four attorneys and an accountant, each pay $250. Swan said his company holds the lease for the offices and collects the rent from the other tenants.
Twelfth Ward constituents visiting the alderman with legal questions are directed to Molaro and Solan for ”free” legal advice, if not pro bono representation, Swan said.
”If they are in an auto accident and involved in a suit, of course, they are going to have to pay attorney fees,” Swan said.
According to Fary, his city expense checks, totaling $18,000 annually, are deposited into an account controlled by accountant Kwak.
Fary said he does not know how much of his money goes toward office rent. ”I pay no checks, I sign no checks. The $1,500 a month goes into the account,” Fary said. ”I think it`s a terrific deal. . . . I hope it lasts forever.”
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When Ald. Cullerton was elected to the council in 1973, he opened his ward headquarters in an office owned by his uncle, county Assessor P.J. Cullerton.
The uncle, a powerful Democratic Party committeeman, used party funds to pay expenses. The nephew banked his aldermanic expense money.
When Ald. Cullerton succeeded his uncle as committeeman in 1981, he bought a building at 5815 W. Irving Park Rd. with his campaign funds and, he said, continued to pocket his expense allowance.
Last year, inspired by council debate over a new ethics ordinance, Cullerton said, he began contributing $1,000 of his allowance money each month into an account to fund operations in the 38th Ward`s combination political and ward office.
From that account, Cullerton paid himself $9,700 for rent last year. In addition, he keeps $500 of his city expense money each month-$6,000 a year-and declares it as income on his tax returns.
”It costs money to go downtown, park, buy lunch,” explained Cullerton who, as an alderman, gets an additional $440 each month from the city for unaudited travel and auto expenses. ”It costs money to be a committeeman, too, and it`s getting harder to raise funds.”
He added: ”I have it all justified in my mind.”
Though ownership of some of Chicago`s aldermanic offices is hidden in land trusts, Cullerton is one of at least six aldermen who own their ward office buildings, county real estate records show.
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Ald. Langford, who pays herself $250 in rent from her city allowance, said she bought the building when she first considered running for alderman and has used the location as a campaign headquarters.
Cullerton is also one of at least six aldermen who, in interviews, said they pocket some of their expense allowances. Several other aldermen refused to disclose what they do with the city money. Because the council votes itself the funds without a requirement that aldermen account for their expenditures, there is no way for the public to determine with certainty how the $900,000 is spent.
And while almost all of the aldermen said in interviews that the money is designated to pay for ward office expenses, the city`s budget defines the account only as the ”alderman contingent expense allowance,” with no stipulations on how the money should be spent.
Corporation Counsel Judson Miner, the city`s chief lawyer, said he was unaware of any city law that dictates the use of these funds, but he said that converting the money to personal income ”certainly seems inconsistent with the spirit of the provision.”
When Ald. Bernard Stone is not in, callers to the 50th Ward office at 2705 W. Howard St. are greeted by a recorded message. ”This is Ald. Stone`s public service office,” the voice says. ”We are unable to serve you personally at this time. However, if you desire, you may call downtown . . . or leave your name and number and we shall be more than happy to return your call. Thank you.”
But Stone was less than happy to say how he spends the money designated for that public office, which is shared with the taxpayer-funded legislative offices of State Senators Arthur Berman and Howard Carroll, both Chicago Democrats, and the ward`s Regular Democratic Organization, of which Carroll is the committeeman. Though ownership of the building is hidden in two land trusts, Stone is shown in county records as the trusts` authorized agent.
”I have no intention of discussing it with you,” said Stone when asked how he spends his aldermanic allowance. ”You make your own conclusions. When you are an alderman and you have the expenses an alderman has, then you have the right to spend that money any way you want.”
Ald. John Madrzyk`s 13th Ward office is in the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture at 6500 S. Pulaski Rd. It is shared with powerful Democratic Committeeman and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D., Chicago) and the ward`s Regular Democratic Organization.
Madrzyk said he contributes some money to the operation of the office and keeps the rest of his allowance, though he said he does not know how much and was ”not going to spend the time looking for it.”
In order to make such information public, Ald. David Orr (49th) submitted an ordinance two years ago that would require aldermen to document their spending and record it with the city clerk-action required of congressmen and many state and local officials.
”If any other department in the city was spending $18,000 and we didn`t know how they spent it, there sure would be questions,” said Ald. Gutierrez, a co-sponsor of the ordinance. ”Here we have 50 people spending $18,000 a year, and it isn`t accounted for at all.”
But when the issue came up for a vote before the Committee on Finance, it was defeated by voice vote. Orr reintroduced the ordinance this year, but holds little hope for passage.
”There is no question that in discussions with my colleagues, I find there`s not a lot of support,” Orr said. ”I would be fooling you or anyone else if I told you this ordinance had much chance.”
WEDNESDAY: The shaping of an alderman.