TICKET BLASTER
County Commissioner Luis Arroyo Jr. admits he is unnamed pol who IG reports used clout to help get pal’s parking ticket thrown out
After his pal tried to clout his way out of a parking ticket by uttering that classic Chicago question, “Do you know who I am?” Cook County Commissioner Luis Arroyo Jr. didn’t hesitate to intervene and use his political weight to get the ticket tossed out.
It doesn’t hurt that that friend whose ticket Arroyo helped to get voided was Luis Pena, who Arroyo said is the 36th Ward superintendent for Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) — who is also Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s City Council floor leader.
But Arroyo on Friday insisted he wasn’t just protecting his buddy, but all Latinos. He said he stepped in to make sure “[Latinos] are being treated fairly by our officers. That goes for all Latinos in Cook County, not just someone I know.”
Though Arroyo admitted to the Chicago Sun-Times that he was the unnamed commissioner at the center of the 2018 ticket episode, the political fallout may not be over.
The latest chapter in the saga of Chicago clout began with the release of a Cook County inspector general’s report on Monday and saw the resignation a day later of the Cook County Forest Preserve police chief.
In that report, Inspector General Patrick Blanchard found that Pena used his political connections to make a $250 parking ticket disappear.
According to the ticket, which was obtained by the Sun-Times through a Freedom of Information Act request, Pena was ticketed for parking in a handicapped spot Sept. 8, 2018, and was fined $250.
When he was handed the ticket, Pena allegedly asked the officer and an accompanying trainee “Do you know who I am?”
Pena then called Arroyo about the ticket, who contacted a “high-ranking [Forest Preserve police] official” about voiding the citation, according to the report. The commissioner said the officer “displayed a poor attitude” and asked for the cop to be sent to his office for questioning, the report said.
The ticket was later dismissed, but the officer was sent to Arroyo’s office to be “personally subjected to criticism,” the inspector general’s report said.
In an interview with the inspector general’s office, Arroyo acknowledged reaching out to the top cop to “challenge the issuance of the ticket” and to “address problems between minority and law enforcement communities” and to go over the procedure for challenging the ticket.
That explanation “strained credulity,” according to Blanchard’s report, because the commissioner also acknowledged none of the “historical problems” of community-police relations were at play, and the ticket-challenging procedure was listed on the ticket.
Forest Preserves Police Chief Kelvin Pope stepped down Tuesday in light of Blanchard’s report. Forest Preserves General Supt. Arnold Randall thanked Pope for his service even though he “intervened in the matter” described in the report.
Arroyo said he got involved in Pena’s ticketing after seeing a man yell at a woman for wearing a shirt with the Puerto Rican flag while a Forest Preserves police officer looked on in July 2018.
That incident, which was captured on video, went viral and sparked controversy.
The officer in that episode eventually stepped down, but for Arroyo, to “have that incident happen months before — I wanted to make sure that Mr. Pena was not being targeted” and that others are not being targeted, as well.
“I wanted to make sure our Latino community was not being attacked in the Forest Preserves by members of law enforcement,” Arroyo said. “I was one of two Latinos on the board at that time and at this time. I wanted to make sure we’re being treated fairly and make sure we’re being treated fairly by our officers.”
Arroyo said he supports law enforcement and has no intention of stepping down. “This is nothing more and nothing less than trying to make sure we’re being treated fairly,” Arroyo said. “And that goes for all Latinos in Cook County, not just someone I know.”
The inspector general’s report noted that Arroyo admitted the historical problems he used as an excuse to talk to the officer who ticketed Pena were not present. Asked about that Friday, Arroyo said “that’s how [Blanchard] phrased it. He’s doing a fine job. It is what it is.”
Villegas said he didn’t want to comment until he reads the inspector general’s report and sees what Blanchard recommended.
But the inspector general told the Sun-Times he has no power to make recommendations regarding Pena since he is not a county employee.
According to the city’s data portal, Pena makes $90,828 in his role as ward superintendent.