watchdogs
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THE WATCHDOGS: Ex-judge wants more from CHA settlement in 3-year-old’s death
THE WATCHDOGS : It’s been four years since an iron gate fell at a Chicago Housing Authority project, crushing 3-year-old Curtis Cooper as he pedaled his tricycle. His mother has settled her wrongful-death suit with the CHA and Urban Property Advisors. But the Illinois lawmaker and the former Cook County judge who initially handled the case are still fighting for a bigger slice of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, after being rejected by a judge who questioned their billings.
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Does grand jury have David Koschman surveillance video?
THE WATCHDOGS: No surveillance video has ever surfaced from the spring night in 2004 when a nephew of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley threw the punch that led to David Koschman’s death, but now a grand jury led by Special Prosecutor Dan K. Webb has subpoenaed Rush Street-area bars including Mother’s, Butch McGuire’s and The Lodge looking for video.
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City Hall’s outside lawyers’ conduct questioned by judges
They worked together for just over a year in the mid-1990s as attorneys at the Chicago law firm headed by Philip Rock, the former Illinois Senate president. But Mara S. Georges didn’t forget her former colleague Andrew M. Hale after leaving in 1997 to become …Read More
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THE WATCHDOGS: Another ‘Hollywood’ grant under scrutiny by feds
THE WATCHDOGS: Another state grant sponsored by former state Sen. Rickey “Hollywood” Hendon has come under scrutiny by federal authorities.
Chicago Fire Department tab for disability payments: $27 million
There are even more Chicago Fire Department personnel on disability leave than police officers, though the fire department has fewer than half the number of employees the police department has. That’s the latest finding of a Chicago Sun-Times investigation into police and fire disability. Among the 390 firefighters and paramedics on disability is Patrick J. Kehoe, a former district chief who gets $91,113 a year tax-free — and who did a campaign commerical for Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Rahm Emanuel: ‘Cheap trick’ to cite his ties to fire chief on disability
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday he isn’t embarrassed by the revelation that a former Chicago firefighter who starred in an Emanuel campaign commercial is collecting $91,113 a year in tax-free disability pay.
10 days in the police academy, 14 years on disability
A SUN-TIMES INVESTIGATION: Two Chicago police officers are collecting disability because of injuries sustained while still in the police academy, even though both were deemed fit for light-duty jobs with the Chicago Police Department. Both are working other jobs while on disability.
1 family, 3 Chicago cops on disability
One family. Three police officers on disability. And one rogue cop.
Lifetime pay for paramedic trainee hurt in academy
Pension officials rejected Barbara S. Lawson’s claim that she was hurt on the job and deserved lifetime disability payments for a leg injury suffered while she was in the Chicago Fire Department academy. They said the 40-year-old paramedic trainee had “an ongoing degenerative condition.” But she sued and won disability benefits.
City questions injuries, but cop wins top disability benefits
Despite questions by city doctors about the severity of her injuries, a Chicago cop won top disability benefits.
City paid $18 million in disability to cops, some with other jobs
A SUN-TIMES INVESTIGATION: It was nearly 20 years ago when a 37-year-old Chicago cop named Charles T. Siedlecki slipped and fell while chasing a group of teenagers in Beverly, injuring his left shoulder. Siedlecki went on disability and never returned to work for the Chicago Police Department. Since then, his disability payments have risen to $51,672 a year. In all, he has collected more than $715,000 in disability pay — all of it tax-free. It isn’t that Siedlecki can’t work. He can, and he has, though not as a cop. ( First in a three-part series.)
Type of disability determines benefit level
There are four levels of benefits for Chicago police officers who go on disability. Here’s a breakdown.
Seven disabled cops who live outside Chicago
These seven Chicago police officers on disability leave live outside Chicago and hold other jobs. If they ever were called back to work, they would have to move back to the city or be in violation of the city’s residency requirement. MICHAEL R. ANDERSON, 59, …
Shot in throat, cop fought to return to work
Chicago Police Officer Michael Lappe was shot in the throat and paralyzed while responding to a disturbance in Jefferson Park 24 years ago. “The bullet had struck my spine and turned me into a paraplegic,” says Lappe, who spent four months at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge and then was moved to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where he had to learn to walk all over again. He succeeded and returned to work. He says it bothers him that others have tried to “hoodwink” their way into getting police disability benefits.
Rahm Emanuel’s cabinet comes up short in diversity
THE WATCHDOGS: When Mayor Rahm Emanuel convenes meetings of his cabinet, the racial breakdown of those top aides hardly reflects the diversity of the city they serve. In a city in which no single racial group makes up more than a third of the population, almost two of every three City Hall department heads is white. Of 30 Emanuel appointees to the highest-ranking city government positions, only five are black, and three Hispanic, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis finds.
Illinois’ most-coveted license plate, No. 1, could be available again
THE WATCHDOGS: For the past decade, Illinois’ No. 1 license plate — the most-coveted of all the state’s nearly 7.8 million passenger-vehicle license plates — has quietly been kept out of circulation. Ever since the widow of former Gov. Richard Ogilvie relinquished the showpiece plate in 2002, few outside the domain of Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White knew the plate was out of circulation and, in theory, available — not even Gov. Pat Quinn, who learned that from a Chicago Sun-Times reporter. Now, Quinn has a plan to put passenger plate No. 1 back into circulation.
Top license plates go to those with clout
Just as they have for more than a century, political insiders have gobbled up most of Illinois’ low-digit and single-letter license plates.
Clout-heavy engineering firm fights ban on state business
A politically connected engineering giant is firing back for its three-year suspension from state work, accusing a procurement officer of a “calculated series of acts” to put the company out of business.
Emanuel on federal hiring monitor: She’s wrong
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Monday he’s not dissing a federal hiring monitor. He simply disagrees with her. Emanuel fired back one day after the Sun-Times reported that Noelle Brennan was blasting his administration for its “combative” response to her suggestions that the rookie mayor discipline …
Extras give firefighters big pay boost, cost city $84 million a year
THE WATCHDOGS: The city of Chicago is paying fire department employees more than $80 million a year for perks that boosted their salaries by an average of more than $15,000 apiece last year, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis finds. That wide, hidden gap between firefighters’ reported salaries and their actual take-home pay is heightening tensions as the firefighters’ union tries to negotiate a new contract with City Hall.
