Public housing CEO makes $216,000 a year, and could qualify for an additional $32,400 annual bonus. How are he and two aides getting around a $155,500 pay ceiling imposed by the federal government?
Follow-Up
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation
Lansing Kills Public Pension Perk
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.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation
Cab-alier Spending?
Employees at small federal agency in Chicago rack up huge taxi bills, supposedly for official business. But the BGA and FOX found some rides were for just a few blocks, while one government worker expensed nearly $550 in cab fares during a trip to Miami. Prompted by our inquiries, the agency is conducting a “review.”
Posted inFollow-Up, Legal, Results & Reforms
BILL ELIMINATING LEGISLATIVE SCHOLARSHIPS ENACTED
After the BGA, the Chicago Sun-Times and others exposed repeated abuses in how Illinois legislators award college tuition waivers — and following an aggressive lobbying campaign by the BGA policy team — the General Assembly voted to end the decades-old program, which had been costing taxpayers more than $13 million a year. Gov. Pat Quinn signed the bill into law on July 11 and
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation, Newsroom
Cops to Review Teen’s Database Access
The Illinois State Police runs a law enforcement database with sensitive information about drivers and criminal suspects. After BGA inquiries, the agency now plans to “look into” whether the teenage son of DuPage County’s sheriff was misusing the system.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation
Public Housing’s Inside Man
Firm owned by Cook County’s former public housing chief, Elzie Higginbottom, wins a $3.2 million contract from a nonprofit created by the agency he once led. But that’s not the only conflict-of-interest question being raised by a BGA/NBC5 investigation.
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
Sheriff Gives Teenage Son Access To Police Database
DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba not only let his high school-aged son go on ride-alongs with deputies and participate in arrests, the teen was given access to a confidential police database containing information on all licensed drivers in Illinois. The BGA is suing to find out whose data was accessed.
Posted inFollow-Up, Investigation
When in Doubt, Remap Them Out
A year after running unsuccessfully for alderman, dozens of politically active Chicagoans find themselves remapped into different wards, a sign that political powerbrokers are looking after themselves instead of residents.
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?