Burke corruption charge a challenge: Elect a better council
Ald. Edward Burke has been charged in federal court with shaking down a restaurant company. Whether the powerful 14th Ward alderman is proved guilty or not, his arrest highlights our need for a Chicago City Council without conflicts of interest or corruption.
In a federal complaint unsealed Thursday, Burke was charged with attempted extortion of the owners of a Burger King franchise in his ward. Until he is cleared of the charge, he should be relieved of his leadership positions. He stepped down Friday as City Council Finance Committee chairman. He also should be stripped of his role as chairman of the Democratic Party’s judicial nominating committee.
This is certainly not the first instance of aldermanic corruption. By the Tribune’s count, since 1972, 33 serving or former aldermen have been convicted on corruption charges. Added to them, Ald. Willie Cochran, 20th, has his own ongoing corruption case. If convicted, Cochran and Burke would bring the number to 35.
The 2019 elections are our opportunity to end the Chicago City Council’s status as the center of political corruption. The problem for voters is telling genuine reform candidates from frauds. Don’t forget that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich ran as a reformer, only to create a criminal conspiracy of interlinked corruption schemes.
This criminal charge against Burke adds to Chicagoans’ perception that you have to “pay to play” — that you have to bribe aldermen to get honest government services. Burke is charged with using his power as alderman to extort the restaurant company in order to give his law firm its property tax business and to squeeze a donation to another unnamed politician — identified by sources to the Tribune as Cook County Board President and Chicago mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle.
Aldermen such as Burke have the clout to promote projects or stop them dead. But an overriding principle of American democracy is that you may not use your public office for private gain. And it is a crime to do so.
Aldermen have many creative ways to make a dishonest buck. Many crooked aldermen have gone to federal prison for taking $500 or less to fix zoning or building permits. However, some aldermanic corruption schemes have been more imaginative. Longtime Ald. Tom Keane, 31st, Mayor Richard J. Daley’s floor leader, was convicted in 1974 of taking legal fees not only to obtain zoning changes but even to sell off the city street that allowed the Sears Tower to be built.
Former Burke ally Ald. Ed “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak, 10th, pleaded guilty in 2008 to a real estate fraud scheme. After serving prison time, he is now on trial for tax evasion related to a tobacco lawsuit settlement for which he did little or no work.
Thus, aldermanic corruption can be petty, but sometimes creative and grander. Ald. Burke’s alleged misdeeds seem decidedly on the petty shakedown side.
Why can’t Chicago have a clean City Council free from fraud?
The biggest reason is that the City Council is part of the machine politics of our city. When a single political party holds all, or nearly all, of the seats; when aldermen give out City Council and aldermanic staff positions as patronage jobs; and when aldermen are merely rubber stamps to the mayor, and not the representatives of their communities, then using clout to line their own pockets is the result. So it was when I was elected alderman in 1971 and so it still is.
Incumbents have a lot of advantages in the upcoming citywide elections. One is raising money for the ever-more-expensive aldermanic election campaigns. Burke leads the pack with more than $12 million in his campaign coffers. While we desperately need to instigate public funding of aldermanic and mayoral campaigns, that won’t level the playing field in 2019.
Incumbency also brings local fame, name recognition and gratitude for favors the current aldermen have rendered to at least some constituents.
However, there also are a lot of really good candidates running for mayor and alderman. So it is time for voters to clean house. Creating a better Chicago can begin through the election of a new mayor and a better City Council.
If this latest revelation proves anything, it is that it’s time to get out the broom.