Better Government Association

City Hall to audit records of employees named in court papers

Associated Press
April 11, 2006

The city will audit the personnel records of more employees to make sure they were hired for their job qualifications rather than political clout, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's chief of staff said Tuesday.

It is too early to say how many people will be audited, but some of them were named in court papers filed Monday by federal investigators looking into corruption at City Hall, Ron Huberman said at a news conference.

"We received the proffer at the same time you (reporters) received it late last night, and so we've been reviewing it to determine what the scope should be," Huberman said.

Huberman also said that effective immediately, the mayor's office won't permit any non-routine deletion of records from the city's mainframe or any city database.

Investigators said in Monday's 91-page filing that Daley's former patronage chief, Robert Sorich, ordered files shredded and computer data deleted to keep the government from finding them.

Sorich, 43, and three others are charged in an eight-count indictment with rigging job interviews and faking scores to camouflage the use of political clout, rather than job qualifications, as the basis for city hiring.

Prosecutors say the alleged fraud was designed to get around the so-called Shakman Decree -- a 30-year-old court order that bars using patronage as the basis for filling most city jobs.

Sorich and the three other men, Patrick Slattery, 42, Timothy McCarthy, 35, and John Sullivan, 38, have pleaded not guilty. A fifth defendant, Daniel Katalinic, 54, a former deputy commissioner of streets and sanitation, has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with prosecutors.