The Chicago Way

Every day it's something.

Today there's two stories shining light on the Chicago way. The first is by Greg Hinz at Crain's. He writes about Rahm Emanuel's city council floor leader, Ald. Pat O'Connor and a woman who's "volunteered" to be the bookkeeper of his political campaign fund, even writing checks for him.

That would be Mary Ann Roti-Walz, the daughter of the late 1st Ward Ald. Fred Roti and — you knew this was coming — a $65,676-a-year aide to Mr. O'Connor's Committee on Workforce Development. 

O'Connor is also Rahm's education guy in the council. I don't see any contradiction there. Do you?

As old man Daley used to say, when asked about giving his nephew the city's insurance business, "If a man can't reach out and help his own family, what kind of society are we living in?"

BGA chief Andy Shaw says:

 "This is how things work in Chicago. People in government jobs think you have to thank the boss by doing political work."

Rahm at SXSW

WHERE'S RAHM? ...The second is by S-T's Dan Mihalopolous, who lays bare the connection between younger, Richie Daley and the C3 boys down in Texas (all my vexes live in TX) who have made a killing here in Chicago with Lollapalooza. What's wrong with that, you ask? Nothing except for an obvious error of omission. While DM ties all the right threads together connecting Daley and his nephew Mark Vanecko to the Austin Lollapalooza cabal, there's not a mention of Rahm in the whole full-page story.

As I (here and here) and others have pointed out on several occasions, it's Rahm, much more than Daley, who is benefiting directly from the Lollapalooza deal. Remember Rahm's trip to SXSW last February? Believe me, he wasn't there two-steppin'.  He was stuffing his election war chest at an Austin fundraising party put on by a group of "heavy hitters" who do bazillions in business up in Chicago.

Who are the heavy hitters? None other than the 3 Charlies, two of whom, Charles Attal and Charlie Walker, were listed as hosts. Their concert promotions company has run Lollapalooza since 2005. They signed a contract with the Chicago Park District in 2012, during Emanuel's term, to continue operating it until at least 2021, giving them a 16-year, virtually un-taxed run. Who get's that?

C'mon Dan, get out of that office once in a while. I'm no fan of the Daley's as everyone knows. But Rahm's statute of limitations of blaming Daley for all his own failures, has run out.