After a Better Government Association investigation found the Village of Lansing giving retiring police and firefighters raises on their last day of work, the board voted to repeal the pension sweetener.
Patrick Rehkamp
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation, Newsroom
Salaries Rise at PBC While Image Falls
Public Building Commission – a public agency tasked with helping the city and county with construction – doles out big raises to employees, as other embarrassments surface.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation
Thieves Target City Equipment
While municipal facilities are plundered in Chicago – with crooks making off with everything from truck wheels to tools and rolls of costly copper wire – bureaucrats struggle to answer: Why is security so bad?
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation, Newsroom
Lansing’s Last-Day Raises Last a Lifetime
Taxpayers are left holding the bag as Lansing leaders give pay hikes to cops and firefighters as they retire – prompting pensions to soar.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation, Newsroom
Local Government Has Obesity Problem
Public agencies need a crash diet, with unnecessary units of government eliminated and duplicative functions consolidated.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation
Summertime Clout in the Southwest Suburbs
How did the teenaged sons of a Cook County commissioner from Orland Park end up with good-paying summer jobs with the local fire department? The agency’s former human resources director says political favoritism played a part.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation, Newsroom
County Bodyguard Puts Car in Body Shop
The top bodyguard for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is in the news again, this time for crashing an unmarked squad car while preparing for the next morning’s politician pick-up.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation
County Watchdog Slams Hospital for Doc’s Double-Dipping Ways
A BGA/NBC investigation prompts Cook County’s inspector general to call for three Stroger Hospital employees to face discipline after doctor received $90,000 in improper payments. But another casualty could be the whistleblower who brought this case to light.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation
Flurry of Questions Over Snow-Removal Contracts
Chicago firefighter’s side business has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax money to plow in special taxing districts, despite a ban on city workers securing municipal contracts.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation, Newsroom
Tragedy Tests Hospital Cops, Results Aren’t Great
The police force assigned to patrol Cook County’s hospital system doesn’t have the best reputation in town.