Scavo convicted; where's it gonna lead?

Vito Scavo, the former Melrose Park chief of police, was convicted of 22 of 22 counts of corruption today. Also convicted were Gary Montino, Scavo's deputy chief, and Michael Wynn. Scavo faces up to 20 years in prison. See Proviso Herald (Jolie Lee), Chicago Tribune (Mike Robinson, AP), ABC7 (Chuck Goudie) or CBS2 (STNG).

What can I add?

Some people involved in Proviso politics like Jesse Martinez and Mike Manzo (both of whom have run against Ron Serpico for village president of Melrose Park) see Ron Serpico as being the central figure in bad (if not corrupt) government in in Proviso Township.

In the indictment against Scavo some of the malfeasance goes back to 1996. August Taddeo was village president until at least 1998.

So, it seems possible that Scavo was "the big fish" and Serpico was Scavo's guy. The Melrose Park police force provided the base of power in the Village of Melrose Park. Scavo picked Serpico to be his candidate for village president because he knew Serpico wouldn't interfere with the criminal schemes Scavo was running in the police department.

Serpico didn't have an intention of reforming things, but the corruption was there before he arrived.

What are the pieces of the puzzle?

Scavo was convicted and will now be looking to cut a deal. With whom did Scavo have interactions with?

Serpico
District 209 (Scavo's security company was paid to guard the PMSA building)
Who else?

Anthony Bruno has been charged with tax evasion. With whom did Bruno have interactions?

Ric Cervone, a former board member at District 89 (Maywood and Melrose Park elementary schools), was charged in the same indictment that convicted Scavo. With whom did Cervone interact?

Who else is in the mix?

Giglio & Del Galdo getting rich in Cicero

Giglio & Del Galdo are in the news for the law firms exorbitant bills in the village of Cicero. See Sun-Times (Leonard N. Fleming, Carol Marin and Don Moseley). h/t to a Proviso Probe contributor for bringing the Sun-Times article to my attention.

Giglio & Del Galdo is the law firm that has given extensively to political committees controlled by Melrose Park Village President Ron Serpico.

The firm has also been expanding its clients in Proviso Township. Mayor Anthony Calderone attempted to bring the firm to Forest Park to condemn residents homes to turn them into parking lots.

Also, Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) dumped Odelson & Sterk in favor of Giglio & Del Galdo.

Law firms serve as money laundering operations in local politics. The law firms run-up big bills. The politicians don't challenge the bills. The politicians don't object to the bills because they know they will derive some benefit from the money down the road. The politicians are "banking favors".

The system is very because legal work is not required to be bid out. And the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission doesn't see this behavior as violating the rules against attorneys mixing their financial interests with their clients.

Allegations of this kind of corruption are hard to investigate because the conspirators can claim attorney-client privilege, as the Village of Cicero has done in the Sun-Times article.

the big news?

[UPDATE: Cook County Recorder of Deeds Eugene Moore was neither arrested nor indicted today. He was served with a subpoena for information connected with his insurance brokerage business.

[There are two main areas it would make sense for investigators are scrutinizing: Proviso Township High Schools (see Forest Park Review (Josh Adams)) and the Maywood Police Pension fund. Last I check EMM, Moore's front company, is not properly registered as a business in Illinois, but this seems too small an issue for a subpoena.]

I have been told be two sources who have talked with members of the State's Attorney's office that Eugene Moore will be arrested or indicted today for misconduct connected to Proviso Township High Schools (District 209).

I've also been told (yesterday) be a source that, “If it was going to happen tomorrow I think I would have heard about it.”

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Burt Odelson of Odelson & Sterk is closely linked to County Board President Todd Stroger. District 209 fired Odelson & Sterk in May, 2007. Subsequently the president of the D209 board of education, Emanuel Chris Welch, was let go by his former law firm, James J. Roche & Associates. Roche & Associates and Odelson & Sterk feed each other business.

It may be that personal issues caused the friction between Welch and Odelson. But it's also easy to paint a scenario where the grand jury testimony made it clear that the noose was tighening for some people connected to District 209.

Maybe Welch asked Odelson to make some phone calls to the State's Attorney to take the pressue off. Odelson could have told Welch, I can't help you.

Maybe Odelson saw the D209 house of cards was about to come crashing down. And Odelson encouraged Welch to fire his firm to minimize the damage and involvement of Odelson & Sterk.

Also, last night District 209 cut its relationship with Anthony Scariano's law firm. Scariano may be politically connected, but his firm is actually respected within the field of school law. Most of the law firms that get used in Proviso politics have minimal expertise beyond cashing checks and making political contributions.

One theory holds that both Melrose Park village president Ron Serpico and perhaps others are trying to bank favors with Giglio & Del Galdo in preparation for criminal litigation.

Cutting the relationship with Scariano's firm would be consistent with giving Giglio & Del Galdo more hours.

GOV, District 209 changes law firms and insurance brokers [D209]

I missed tonight's District 209 (Proviso Township High Schools) board meeting.

Apparently the board fired Odelson & Sterk as the district's law firm. Giglio & Del Galdo has been hired to replace Odelson & Sterk. [UPDATE2: See this entry for Burt Odelson's critique of Giglio & Del Galdo.]

Odelson & Sterk is closely connected to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. Cook County Recorder of Deeds Eugene Moore is an ally of the Stroger family.

Giglio & Del Galdo are allied with Melrose Park Village President Ron Serpico.

So, Serpico has outfoxed or out-muscled Moore for the lucrative legal business of the district.

Also, Moore lost the insurance business for the district. Moore had been getting $18,000 per month through his business EMM & Associates for being the district's broker of record. See Forest Park Review (Josh Adams).

A rumor from a normally reliable source says board president Emanuel "Chris" Welch has been fired by his law firm James Roche & Associates. Roche & Associates and Odelson & Sterk share many of the same clients.

Anybody have any comments or insights about tonight's board meeting?

[UPDATE: I received information that says Odelson & Sterk was terminated, but Giglio & Del Galdo was not hired last night. I'm going to confirm what happened with Giglio & Del Galdo.]

A07, what happened in District 89? [D89]

Going into last Tuesday's election all District 89 (Maywood & Melrose Park elementary schools) school board members were allied with either Melrose Park village President Ron Serpico or Cook County Recorder of Deeds Eugene Moore. None of the school board members were aligned with State Representative (and Democratic Committeeman) Karen Yarbrough or Charles Flowers, EdD. Flowers was elected Cook County Regional Superintendent of Education in November and will begin his term in July.

Yarbrough and Flowers ran a slate against a slate backed by Serpico and Moore. Five seats were up for election: four four-year terms and one two-year term created by the death of Jose Montoya.

The slate backed by Serpico and Moore won all five seats.

The Yarbrough-Flowers slate ceded Melrose Park. Of the slate's five candidates none were from Melrose Park. The slate hardly campaigned in Melrose Park. And Yarbrough failed to use her power as committeeman to replace polling place judges loyal to Melrose Park village president Ron Serpico.

Yarbrough's team probably saw the low Melrose Park turnout in 2006 and assumed Serpico had lost the fire in the belly or was pre-occupied with the federal investigation of the village. In 2006 Serpico was trying to pass a tax increase referendum and may have wanted low turnout. In 2007 Serpico's trustee candidates were being challenged by a slate backed by Jesse Martinez, a trustee in both Proviso Township and Stone Park. Serpico flexed the muscle of the Melrose Park machine. The large turnout in Melrose Park overwhelmed Yarbrough's advantage in Maywood where her husband Henderson Yarbrough is the village president.

This entry has a macro analysis of the election.

A07, election analysis

Congratulations to all the candidates elected and re-elected yesterday. And congratulations to those who ran and contributed to the public discourse.

What does it all mean?

The dominant trend was consolidation of power. However, my perspective may be skewed by having more personal contact with the races in Forest Park, District 88, District 209 and Maywood.

Forest Park went from a 3-2 divide on the village council to a presumed 4-1 split. District 88 (Bellwood & Stone Park elementary schools) went from a 4-3 divide to a 6-1 divide. District 209 (Proviso Township High Schools) went from a 4-3 split to a 5-2 split with one of the minority board members scheduled to leave the board in July (he will be replaced by the majority). In Maywood the allies of the mayor won all three seats up for election.

However, there were some countervailing examples. In Westchester the Progressive Party swept all three trustee seats. This means that Village President Paul Gattuso and his allies will be in the minority. Also the Broadview TEA Party swept all three seats to create a significant opposition block to Village President Henry Vicenik. In both communities political opposition was probably energized by Chicago Joe's Tea Room applying to open a strip club.

In Melrose Park the trustee candidates supported by Village President Ron Serpico handily defeated challengers backed by Proviso Township Trustee Jesse Martinez. Martinez has his political roots in Stone Park. He's a friend Beniamino Mazzulla, the village president of Stone Park. Martinez sees his political future as being in jumping to Melrose Park, a significantly larger community with a large and growing Latino population.

In Bellwood the referendum to build a new library was defeated for the second time. Evidence has now emerged that an anonymous mailing attacking the library referendum was paid for by a political ally of village president Frank Pasquale. By defeating the referendum and helping to dump the opposition on the elementary school board Pasquale showed that he remains the head-politician-in-charge in Bellwood, an overwhelmingly African-American suburb.

Voters re-elected two of three trustees to Triton College. Irene Moskal Del Giudice, identified as the lone independent voice on the board by the Wednesday Journal, narrowly defeated Stephen Kubiczky. The leading vote getter was Thomas Gary of Oak Park.

Gary had the support of the political organization aligned with board president Mark Stephens. He also had the support of the media outlet doing the best journalism on Triton, the Wednesday Journal. And he had the support of the Proviso Township Democratic Organization. Proviso is the largest township in the district. Gary's candidacy was initially pushed by Oak Park Democratic Committeeman Don Harmon. Harmon once again showed himself to be a master deal maker on the behalf of strong candidates. Harmon was first elected to a newly created Senate seat without facing opposition in either the primary or general elections.

Gary will be the first African-American to serve on the Triton board of trustees. And in Forest Park, Rory Hoskins will be the first African-American to serve as commissioner. Like Gary, Hoskins posted dominating numbers. Hoskins was the leading vote getter, exceeding the mayor's vote total by 300 votes.

To evaluate the individual “mayors” (most of them are really village presidents) in Proviso.

Power waxing

• Frank Pasquale, Bellwood—won in schools and library, unopposed in village races
• Ron Serpico, Melrose Park—won in village and schools
• Henderson Yarbrough, Maywood—won in village
• Anthony Calderone, Forest Park—won in village

Power waning

• Paul Gattuso, Westchester—lost in village
• Henry Vicenik, Broadview—lost in village

Yesterday was also a defeat for Proviso Democratic Committeeman Karen Yarbrough, wife of Henderson. She put her political capital into three races, District 88, District 89 and District 209. Her allies were swept in D88, D89 (Maywood and Melrose Park elementary schools) and lost significant ground in D209.

Arnie Bryant, the president of the Bellwood library board and a strong proponent of the new library, is a contributor to Proviso Probe.

A07, Freedom Party on ballot in Melrose Park [MP]

Chicago Tribune (Steve Brosinski):

Without debate, a Melrose Park election panel Thursday dropped challenges that could have kept an upstart party [Freedom Party] off the ballot next month.

Mayor Ronald Serpico and Village Clerk Mary Ann Paolantonio Salemi voted to dismiss charges filed by residents Roger Bastin and Elizabeth Battaglia.

KLEPT, did Serpico campaign give candidate $10,000?

In September, 2006 Citizens to Elect Ron Serpico, Sr. Inc wrote two checks to Ronald M. Serpico, Sr. totaling $10,000 for "loan repayments". The first check was for $2,500 on September 15, 2006 and the second check was for $7,500 on September 26, 2006.

Candidates sometimes loan their campaigns money.

But according to Serpico's disclosure forms none of the campaigns $32,018.54 debt was held by Serpico.

Serpico's campaign owes:

• $9,500+ Anthony Bruno and Illinois Development Services Corp.
• $4,500 Josesp Giglio
• $4,500 Alfred Ronan
• $4,500 Swinford Partnership, Ltd
• $4,500 Louis P. Vitullo
• $4,500 ziolkowski porter damato + associates llc

Serpico's campaign had the same debt before and after the reporting period.

Did Serpico just give himself $10,000 from his campaign committee?

The Illinois State Board of Elections does little to enforce election law, except hassling campaigns about submitting their forms on-time. So if a candidate skimmed money from a campaign the board probably wouldn't look into it unless someone filed a complaint.

[UPDATE: Serpico also gave his campaign money during the same reporting period, but did not report it as a loan.

[On July 30, 2006 Serpico gave the campaign $10,000. On August 30, 2006 Serpico gave the campaign $7,500. So Serpico gave $17,500 before taking $10,000 as a loan repayment.

[But later Serpico gave to the campaign claiming he was repaying a loan from the campaign to the candidate. On October 19, 2006 the candidate paid back a $7,500 loan. And on December 1, 2006 Serpico paid $2,500 back to the campaign that had been loaned to him.

[Serpico also made a $7,500 contribution to the campaign on October 8, 2006.]

A07, Italian mayor says Yarbrough trying to take over the world [D88, D89, D209]

Proviso Insider is trying to portray Democratic Committeeman Karen Yarbrough's involvement in school district races (District 88, District 89 and District 209) in a negative light. Proviso Insider quotes one of the Italian mayors as accusing Yarbrough of trying to "take over the world".

First, claiming that fielding candidates for three school district races is an attempt to take over the world shows how parochial the speaker is. If three school districts is the entirety of your world you need to take a ride on the "L" and visit a couple museums, Mr. Mayor.

But the statement also conveys a sense of entitlement. A few Italian-American mayors and other politicians have been pulling the political strings for years. They have allowed a few Blacks and Latinos to hold office but the decisions about how the big money was spent have largely been left to the Italians.

And Black and Latino children have gotten poor quality educations in District 88 (Bellwood and Stone Park), District 89 (Maywood and Melrose Park) and District 209 (Proviso Township High Schools). A reasonable inference is that political bosses concerned about making themselves and their cronies rich have neglected the education of the students. It's not like Black and Latino students should be expected to amount to much anyways, right?

The mayors and other Italian politicians kept their power by being organized and exploiting interpersonal differences and feuds in the community.

And now the communities are getting organized. Mayors Ron Serpico, Frank Pasquale and Bennie Mazzulla are getting nervous. They want to divide the Black community as much as possible by exploiting whatever negative feelings there are about Yarbrough.

But the education reform movement isn't about Karen Yarbrough. It's a bunch of people that want to improve education and they've rallied around Yarbrough.

This happened largely because Chris Welch, the president of the District 209 school board, antagonized so many people and then challenged Yarbrough for state rep in 2006. Welch motivated many people to change the system because he's so arrogant, obnoxious and really pretty cruel, vindictive and sadistic in how he practices politics.

When Welch challenged Yarbrough the reformers networked through Yarbrough's campaign, but they aren't "her people". They are involved because they want to improve our communities and Yarbrough is savvy enough to work with these citizen activists.