POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

How Chicagoans Corrupt Their City Officials

It must be very hazardous to be a Chicago Alderman, as 30 of them have been "convicted of corruption or other crimes" in the past 36 years (handy chart here). Patrick Fitzgerald's office has apparently discovered the root of the problem: citizens are corrupting them.

Tom Bennett's post on the subject expresses a certain nagging doubt over Cal Boender's prosecutor's assertion that Alderman Isaac "Ike" Carothers, a Daley stalwart and once head of the Police and Fire Commission, was corrupted from a state of political innocence by the now-convicted developer, who is hoping to win the right to a retrial. Tom, himself a Chicago-area developer, noted that Carothers' father, long-ago Alderman William Carothers, was similarly convicted in 1984 for taking home improvements in exchange for favors. Here's what the Sun-Times has to say on the matter:

Boender is also accused of making third-party donations to Carothers' aunt, Cook County Circuit Judge Anita Rivkin-Carothers, when she made a run for Congress in 2004.

In the late 1990s, Rivkin-Carothers was attorney for Tina Olison, mother of Baby T -- the child who now lives with Ald. Edward Burke (14th) and his wife, Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke.

Carothers' father, former Ald. William Carothers (28th), went to prison in 1983 for extorting up to $32,500 in remodeling work for his ward office from the builders of Bethany Hospital.

Before the federal investigation of Isaac Carothers was made known last year, he was Daley's most outspoken African-American supporter in the City Council.

He coined the phrase "heavy lifters" to describe aldermen with the guts to support the $276.5 million tax package tied to Daley's 2008 budget and used the phrase to berate colleagues he saw as political cowards.

The speeches and Carothers' role in running a West Side army of city workers who delivered the vote for the mayor's handpicked candidates endeared Carothers to Daley.

Another Sun-Times article fleshes out the characterization:

Four years ago, Ike Carothers' name surfaced in connection with the Hired Truck scandal. During the trial that culminated in the 2006 conviction of Daley's former patronage chief, Carothers' name also appeared on an notorious "clout list" as the sponsor of nearly 100 city job seekers.

Ike Carothers is not likely to win any popularity contests among City Council colleagues, most of whom view him as a bully.

But, that's a label he's worn before.

In 1985, a federal judge ordered William Carothers to help pay $152,000 in damages for organizing from prison a campaign of physical violence and intimidation against a political opponent that involved Carothers' sons, who were both Cook County deputy sheriffs with access to guns.

At the time, U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras said Issac Carothers appeared to be the ringleader and "organized their acts of intimidation" by force while the other son used his deputy's position to verbally threaten the plaintiffs. Isaac Carothers was ordered to pay $25,000 of the damages.

So, we are to believe that this sort of man was corrupted by a real-estate developer with no prior record? No wonder Carothers was never brought to the stand. He'd already cut his own deal, a reduced sentence in exchange for wearing a wire.

Now, remember Tom's analysis. Only Mayor Daley was in the position to "brick," or place the most restrictive use designation on the property that Boender was trying to sell. This he did after Boender applied to rezone the property, which had been manufacturing, but abandoned as part of the exodus of such businesses from Chicago, accelerated by onerous property taxes. The prosecutor's office argued that by receiving an exemption later, through Carothers' influence, Mr. Boender was able to sell the property for millions more than he otherwise would have. That's true, but it's true from the baseline that Daley had personally imposed on the property by "bricking" it, or giving it the most restrictive designation---the one that local developers call the "death sentence."

Like many other people, I am sickened by the Kelo decision, that governments may take properties to have them converted to uses that will enhance the tax base. The idea stems from the theory of "eminent domain," which says that properties ought to be put to their "best and highest uses." So, for example, a government can take a portion of a farmer's field and duly compensate him if a train line that will benefit people generally would be best routed through. If estimated tax revenues can be used as an imputed basis for determining the best and highest use, certainly an actual realization on the open market of a higher price suggests the same thing. If municipalities have such a right, they presumably must also have an obligation to reasonably determine best and highest use, perhaps most particularly in a city such as Chicago, that is deep, deep in the red---so deep in the red that Richard Daley sold the franchise to parking meters in the City to a contractor for $1.6 billion, that was to comprise a rainy day fund, then used it in its entirety to plug the gaping holes in the 2010 budget. However, that is not what they did in the case of the property that Tom Bennett bid for, which they sold for $1.3 million less than he bid, to a better-connected buyer.

In other words, the culture of corruption that marks Chicago real-estate dealings is in part created by a policy that says that the Mayor may, apparently at whim, devalue a property, then re-establish its value, by bricking it and unbricking it, without having to provide a plausible reason. Let us say that Mr. Boender were saddled with the property, and had to settle for a sizable loss. Perhaps he would grow tired of paying taxes on a property that he could find no tenant for, and simply cede it to the City. There would be nothing to prevent the Mayor from changing the zoning designation after selling it, through the CHA, to whichever political patrons might in his estimation best benefit. This ought to amount to an illegal taking, if there were anyone willing to enforce it.

This policy was designed to invite bribery; bribery did not invent the policy.

I am not saying that Cal Boender should have offered a bribe to former Alderman Carothers, and I understand why Fitzgerald's office might be willing to cut him a deal in exchange for his wearing a wire, but this business of placing the onus for Carothers' behavior on Boender goes too far. It simply is not plausible. It is, in my view, libelous. It says, in effect, that elected and appointed officials in government are less responsible for their behavior than private citizens, and that is an idea that is poisonous to democracy.

And any prosecutor who would deliberately deprive someone of his reputation in order to enhance his own is frankly performing a transaction that is as disgusting as the other cashing in that's done in Chicago.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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