The Chicago Board of Ethics tried Friday to make it tougher for aldermen who preside over all things Wrigley Field to take advantage of the Cubs’ lucrative offer to purchase playoff tickets at face value, but the squeeze play didn’t work with one of the City’s Council’s die-hard fans.
The ethics ordinance prohibits city employees and elected officials from accepting gifts worth more than $50. The difference between the face value of Cubs playoff tickets and the “commonly understood fair market value” exceeds that limit, the board has said. In a revised memorandum, the Board of Ethics said the mayor and aldermen can accept the offer only if their “personal attendance is to enable them to perform an official, appropriate, ceremonial duty or action, such as publicly welcoming the crowd or making a speech, throwing out the first pitch, marching with the color guard or standing with other elected officials on the field.”
There also must be a “clear and direct connection” between the official’s “attendance and performance of such ceremonial duty or action and the nature and location of the event itself,” the memorandum states.
But Alderman Nick Sposato said he’ll be at Wrigley for the Cubs playoff games no matter what the Board of Ethics says.
City giving fewer tickets, using Denver Boots
While city ticket writers are on pace to give out fewer parking tickets than last year, Chicago is giving the Denver Boot a workout. The city booted 10 percent more vehicles during the first seven months of 2016, applying 34,968 boots — or about 4,995 monthly. Chicago applied an average of 4,501 boots a month in 2015.
Bail set for law clerk in pretend-judge case
Rhonda Crawford — who is running for a Cook County judicial vacancy in next month’s election — made a brief, first court appearance at the George Leighton Criminal Courthouse before Cook County Circuit Judge LeRoy Martin Jr., who allowed her to remain free pending trial. Crawford was indicted Wednesday, accused of impersonating a Cook County judge, according to her attorney, Victor Henderson.
No new details about the case came out in court Friday because, just as the prosecutor, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Tom Simpson, was about to read a summary of the allegations Crawford faces, the judge halted the proceedings, saying Crawford’s attorney had waived the routine reading of those details. Crawford, who is running for the first judicial subcircuit vacancy, said last month she regretted the incident “the day it happened” but said she never proclaimed herself a judge.
Mastermind of contract scandal pleads guilty
The mastermind of a contract-steering scheme captured in brazen emails with the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools admitted his role Tuesday and could land in prison.
And with SUPES owner Gary Solomon’s admission, “I plead guilty, sir,” the stage is now set for former schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett to be sentenced for defrauding Chicago students.
The last of the three to plead guilty in the scandal that ousted Byrd-Bennett in April 2015, Solomon admitted that he and his business partner, Thomas Vranas, plied Byrd-Bennett — their former employee — with meals, sports tickets and the promise of a 10 percent kickback on any business she steered from the school system.
Charter school averts teachers strike
Chicago just dodged another teachers strike at UNO Charter School Network campuses, which student attendance of 8,000.
The 525 teachers and the administration reached a tentative contract hours after the Wednesday strike deadline.
Christine Geovanis, a spokeswoman for the United Educators at UNO, said the union returned to the bargaining table Thursday “to work out some small details” and plans to present the settlement to union membership for ratification.
• This report was assembled in collaboration with the Chicago Sun-Times.
