Better Government Association

Ald. Burke loses 10 blue-chip clients; replaces them

May 2, 2007
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) lost ten blue-chip clients, but replaced them with new ones and still has 37 law clients that did business with the city or other local government agencies, according to his annual ethics statement. In addition to his booming law business, the City Council’s Finance Committee chairman also had a banner year for investments in 2006.

Burke reported having stock in 34 companies that produced at least $5,000 in income last year. That’s twice as many such stocks as he held a year ago, when Burke unloaded his Wal-Mart stock just before the City Council approved the big box minimum wage ordinance later vetoed by Mayor Daley.

Burke’s 2006 client list includes: ABN Services/LaSalle Bank; Admiral Heating & Ventilating; American Airlines; American Trans Air; Ameritech; AT&T Communications; Blue Cross Blue Shield; Centerpoint Properties; Centrum Properties; Chicago Community Development; Cole Taylor Bank; Commonwealth Edison; Davis Group LLC; Dominicks, A Safeway Company; Fifth Third Bank; Fitzsimmons Surgical; and Friedman Properties.

Burke’s clients also include: Greater Southwest Development Corp.; The Habitat Co.; Harris Bank; Holsten Development; K-Five Construction; MB Real Estate; Northern Trust Co.; Northwestern Memorial Hospital; Palumbo Bros.; Pittsfield Building; Prairie Material Sales; Senior Lifestyle Corp. Southwest Airlines; Teng & Assoc.; The Standard Cos.; TMobile; U.S. Equities Realty, Inc.; Union League Club of Chicago; WBEZ Alliance and Wicklander Printing.

Burke, husband of Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, could not be reached for comment.

“It’s the annual Ed Burke story,” said Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association. “He’s one of the few aldermen who actually matter because he has power independent from the mayor. A lot of the companies he represents get payments from the city. He’s representing them on one hand and chairman of the very committee that approves these expenditures on the other hand.”

Stewart maintained that it’s still a conflict of interest even though Burke meticulously recuses himself whenever matters involving his law clients come up before the Finance Committee.

“Don’t you think other members of the Finance Committee are aware they’re voting on Chairman Burke’s clients, given the clubby, collegial atmosphere of the City Council?” he said.

Ten years ago, the Chicago Sun-Times ran a series of stories detailing the alleged conflicts between Burke’s position as Finance Committee chairman and his private role as a lawyer.

The newspaper disclosed how Burke used a rare parliamentary maneuver to change the record of four past council votes involving his airlines clients dating back as far as seven years.

Ever since then, Burke has abstained on a host of matters before his committee — and his annual ethics statement explains why.

Chicago’s 50 aldermen are paid $98,125 a year and have voted themselves a cost-of-living pay raise in each of the next four years. The salary was enough to satisfy 34 aldermen, who reported no other source of income in 2006.

Of the 16 who hold other jobs, eight aldermen are attorneys, but only Burke has local government clients. The other attorneys are: Leslie Hairston (5th); Freddrenna Lyle (6th); Howard Brookins (21st); William Banks (36th); Tom Allen (38th); Pat O’Connor (40th); and Burton F. Natarus (42nd).

Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) still owns Ann Sather Restaurants, which catered $1,073 in meals for the Chicago Police Department and Department of Human Services in 2006.

Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th) is a bank director. Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) is a paid professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ald. George Cardenas (12th) owns Quickdinero Inc. and his own consulting company.

Ald. Michael Zalewski (23rd) still moonlights as a consultant/lobbyist for his own company, Z Consulting Group, and as a political consultant for his 23rd Ward Regular Democratic Organization. Ald. Danny Solis (25th) reported income from the political action arm of his 25th Ward Regular Democratic Organization.

Ald. Frank Olivo (13th) still serves as a member of the Secretary of State’s Motor Vehicle Review Board. That’s a paid patronage job on a board that mediates disputes between car dealers and manufacturers.

The husband of Ald. Ginger Rugai (19th) still works as a legal consultant on contract to the Chicago Park District. The wife of Ald. Brian Doherty (41st) is a partner in an accounting firm that did work for the Fireman’s Annuity and Benefit Fund and Chicago’s Public Employee Deferred Compensation Plan.

With federal investigators swarming over City Hall, only one aldermen reported receiving gifts valued at more than $500 in 2006.

A die-hard Sox fan, Olivo reported receiving: 68 Sox tickets valued at $2,556 and 22 “package passes” worth $308; 13 Bulls tickets valued at $1,315; $420 worth of St. Louis Cardinals tickets; $114 worth of Milwaukee Brewers tickets and 26 Cubs tickets and four package passes valued at $1,751.