Chicago officials have kept a building inspector on the public payroll even though he lost his driver’s license–a basic requirement for the job–after a drunken-driving conviction more than four years ago.
Officials made an exception for Kelly L. O’Neill, whose brother-in-law was a top Buildings Department official at the time of the arrest and conviction. The department quickly gave O’Neill tasks that do not involve driving.
O’Neill’s brother-in-law, Ed Severns, retired as deputy buildings commissioner in 2002.
O’Neill receives an annual salary of $62,484. He continues to hold the title of building inspector.
In its description of that post, the city requires that inspectors hold a valid Illinois driver’s license and have access to a car. The duties consist almost entirely of visiting properties across the city to check for compliance with the building code.
O’Neill’s story also undermines recent claims by top city officials that political clout has no bearing on personnel decisions made by the Buildings Department.
Department officials have responded this week to a rash of allegations about politically connected inspectors and their qualifications.
Three building inspectors who allegedly embellished their resumes quit, and a fourth remained under suspicion of the same offense Wednesday.
After two sons of top Carpenters Union officials quit last week, city officials announced an investigation into the other 14 new hires in the department. As a result of that probe, another new inspector with ties to Carpenters Union Local 13 stepped down earlier this week.
Even as officials admit they failed to check the resumes of applicants, Buildings Commissioner Stan Kaderbek insists there is no reason to look into the qualifications of the other 165 inspectors in his department.
Yet, O’Neill, 45, could not meet what the city calls its “minimum qualifications” for the job of building inspector.
Department spokeswoman Breelyn Pete acknowledged the city requires that employees in O’Neill’s position be able to drive legally. But she said officials have worked around that prohibition.
“Mr. O’Neill did notify us of his DUIs,” Pete said. “We decided to work with him because he did come to us with some personal problems, and because he was straightforward and honest. We got him some counseling and immediately assigned him to tasks that don’t require him to drive.”
O’Neill currently works with a strategic task force of inspectors.
“They conduct team inspections with a van,” Pete said. “Mr. O’Neill never drives.
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“He’s really been an exemplary employee of the department for nine years. He continues to work hard.”
O’Neill has been with the department since June 16, 1995.
His license was revoked after a conviction for an April 2000 arrest on drunken-driving charges in Jo Daviess County, said Beth Kaufman, a spokeswoman for the Illinois secretary of state’s office.
He was caught driving on a revoked license later that year and has not gotten his license back since, Kaufman said.
O’Neill was also arrested for driving under the influence in Chicago in October 1999, records show. He was sentenced to supervision.
O’Neill received more than a half-dozen other tickets for traffic violations during the 1990s.
Neither O’Neill nor Severns returned calls seeking comment Wednesday.
Daley once again was critical of Kaderbek at an unrelated news conference Wednesday on the South Side.
Asked if he is going to retain Kaderbek, Daley replied, “I am not going to answer that.”
Daley promoted Kaderbek to the top Buildings Department post barely five months ago.
The mayor has blasted Kaderbek for failing to check the resumes of recent hires including Andrew Ryan, 19, and Kevin Sexton, 23.
Ryan and Sexton are the sons of high-ranking Carpenters Union officials. Another Local 13 member, David Marino, resigned Tuesday after city officials accused him of falsifying his credentials.
And the mayor once again absolved Personnel Commissioner Glenn Carr of any blame. Carr’s department processes “about a million” applications and sends candidates to various city departments, whose managers are supposed to check credentials, Daley said.
“Each department hires, not Glenn,” Daley said.
Kaderbek apologized to Daley and the public last week at a news conference, where he said officials would begin scrutinizing resumes of job applicants.