REDFLEX’S EXCELLENT CHICAGO ADVENTURE: THE STORY THAT KEEPS ON GIVING, PART ????

3/17/13

Regular readers know that I have been on the mysterious case of Redflex Traffic Systems, Inc., its Australian parent, Redflex Holdings, and Redflex’s very lucrative ($300 million and counting) red light camera contract with the city of Chicago.  (My first comments on this story, 10/28/12’s REDFLEX TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CHICAGO POLITICS:   TRUTH NEARLY AS INTRIGUING AS FICTION is appended to this post, but also see my latest post, 3/2/13’s REDFLEX’S EXCELLENT CHICAGO ADVENTURE:  THE STORY THAT KEEPS ON GIVING.)

The latest news is that the Feds are now interested in the case, having delivered a subpoena to Mr. John Bills, the city official nominally in charge of the red light camera contract, who at least one Redflex initiated probe has said was on the take from Redflex.   Both Mr. Bills and Mr. Marty O’Malley, a “consultant” who has been paid $570,000 in “commissions” by Redflex but whose main role, according to the aforementioned Redflex probe, was to serve as a conduit for bribes to Mr. Bills, are fixtures in Mike Madigan’s 13^th Ward Regular Democratic Organization.  Curiously, Messrs. Bills and O’Malley denied knowing each other when the Chicago Tribune initially brought up questions concerning Redflex but now admit they are friends.  If you’ve been reading my comments, you’ve suspected the latter all along, but I digress.

The federal probe will indeed be interesting and one wonders whether it will ultimately involve, one way or another, a Mr. Greg Goldner.   Mr. Goldner managed now Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2002 initial run for Congress and has remained close to Mr. Emanuel ever since.   The two men share an ability to generate brobdingnagian amounts of money for campaigns.   It also seems that they share a propensity to do business with Redflex.

Mr. Goldner heads, or at least at one time headed, something called the “Traffic Safety Coalition,” a Redflex funded organization that lobbies for, you guessed it, legalization of speed cameras, which Redflex also sells, in Illinois.   There is no, or at least little, doubt that Mr. Goldner is a talented guy, but one suspects that his closeness to Mr. Emanuel didn’t hurt his ability to get this plum of a “private sector” post.   Also working on legalization of speed cameras is Michael Kasper, a lobbyist and lawyer who represented Washington resident Rahm Emanuel when Mr. Emanuel, desirous of the big office on the 5^th Floor of City Hall, was trying to convince us he lived in Chicago.   Mr. Kasper, however, was clearly and definitively working as Mr. Emanuel’s agent in the speed camera efforts.   Mr. Goldner denies knowing that Mr. Emanuel was interested in legalizing speed cameras until that interest was made public.  Okay, and, this being St. Patrick’s Day, I also believe in pots of gold at the end of the rainbow, but again I digress.

Interestingly, Mr. Goldner hired Mr. Bills at the Traffic Safety Coalition just after Mr. Bills left his job, under at least some fire, as the city official in charge of the Redflex red light camera project.   Why was Mr. Bills hired at the Traffic Safety Coalition?   At the time, the extent of the financial hanky-panky between Redflex and Mr. Bills was not known; the belief then was that the only transgression involved was a night or two at a nice hotel in Arizona which Redflex inadvertently picked up for Mr. Bills.   Could it be that Mr. Bills was hired so that he had a financial interest in keeping quiet about the extent of the arrangement between him, Redflex, and Mr. O’Malley?  

To his credit, Mr. Emanuel has stated that Redflex’s red light contract will not be renewed when it expires in June of this year and that Redflex will not be allowed to be allowed to bid on the city’s speed camera contract when it becomes available.   This looks like another instance when Mr. Emanuel has moved quickly on damage control and at least ostensibly cast aside personal relationships in doing so. 

But this is also clearly a case in which damage control is definitely expedient on perhaps any number of levels.

See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics. 

PROMISED APPENDED POST:

REDFLEX TRAFFIC SYSTEMS AND CHICAGO POLITICS:   TRUTH NEARLY AS INTRIGUING AS FICTION

10/18/12

The City of Chicago has just scratched the surface in the malodorous dealings of Redflex Traffic Systems, Inc., which supplies the city with red light cameras.   Redflex has been barred from bidding on the city’s upcoming speed camera system after having paid a hotel bill for a city purchasing agent and covered up this indiscretion for two years. Redflex continues to be the vendor for red light cameras for at least the time being.  The background story of Redflex and its dealings with the powers that be in Chicago politics is, typically, murky but, er, interesting.

Redflex Traffic Systems was among several companies bidding for the red light camera contract in Chicago back in the early part of last decade; it won the contract in 2005.   The city official in charge of overseeing the contract was (Get this title; talk about bureaucracy!)  Managing Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Transportation John Bills.  John Bills was, and is, a substantial figure in Illinois House Speaker, Chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, and Ward Committeeman Mike Madigan’s 13^th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, serving as a registrar, or the guy in who supervises collection of signatures on candidate petitions, for Mr. Madigan.   One supposes that Mr. Bills is also a precinct captain for Mr. Madigan, but I can’t verify that.   Mr. Bills also lives in St. Bede Parish on the southwest side, which is also Mike Madigan’s parish.  

Redflex just happened to hire as its “consultant” on the red light camera project one Marty O’Malley, who also lives in St. Bede.   Mr. O’Malley claims no affiliation with Mike Madigan’s organization, but admits to contributing $1,000 in 2007, $1,500 in 2009. and another $1,500 in 2010 to Madigan’s political operations.   These contributions were made possible largely by the commissions Mr. O’Malley earned on the red light camera sales, but more on that later.   Mr. O’Malley denies having known Mr. Bills, or Mr. Madigan, before he and Mr. Bills started working together on the camera project.   Mr. O’Malley’s not having known Mr. Bills is plausible, given their ages; Mr. O’Malley is 72, Mr. Bills is 51.   But, for those of you unfamiliar with the mores of the southwest side, one’s parish is a big thing; it often is the center of many of one’s activities, spiritual and otherwise.

As it turns out, Redflex won the contract and Mr. O’Malley, who denies that he used political clout or geographical proximity to either Mr. Bills or Mr. Madigan when interviewing for the consultant job, got a commission of $1,500 per camera, more, according to Mr. O’Malley, than he was expecting.  His total payday came to $570,000.   Some of that, as we learned above, made its way into Mike Madigan’s political coffers.  Mr. Bills denies playing any role in getting Redflex the contract; Mr. Madigan, as far as I know, has not been asked if he had any role in this deal.

There was a small fly in the ointment.  It seems that, according to Mr. Bills, he was in Arizona for a Cubs pre-season game (That a guy from St. Bede would have any interest in a Cub game makes this story suspicious on its face; perhaps Mr. Bills was going to root for the opposition, thus adhering to a proud south side tradition, but I digress.) and didn’t have a hotel reservation.  He called a Redflex executive (Redflex has offices in Phoenix.) to see if he could help out.  Redflex booked him a room in a luxury hotel and the bill somehow never found its way onto Mr. Bills’ credit card, which he didn’t notice for quite some time.   For this minor transgression, and for two yeas of covering it up, Redflex is banned from bidding on the speed camera contract.   Mr. Bills also retired from his Managing Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Transportation job last summer after 32 years of working for the city.  No one has said Mr. Bills' retirement and the Redflex problems are related, but who’s kidding whom?

And it gets better…

Since these shenanigans have taken place, Mr. Bills has been appointed by “reform” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle to a position on the Cook County Employee Appeals Board.  This position is part time and pays part time ($35 grand a year), but includes health benefits.  The Appeals Board has long been known as a receptacle for hacks who have somehow run afoul of either the law or the vicissitudes of the voting booth.  Ms. Preckwinkle will not say whether Mike Madigan recommended Mr. Bills for the job.

So…

A minor figure in this drama loses his job for accepting $500 in accommodations from a city vendor.   The vendor keeps its current contract but can’t bid on a new one, though the city Inspector General is investigating the case. 

It looks like there is more to this story and that there are more important people involved than Messrs. Bills and O’Malley.   How likely is it that larger heads will role?   For a hint, take a look at my two novels of Chicago politics, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics.