$181 473.73 to be exact.
As I scrolled through the really long (68 page) document in the Law and Government Committee agenda on March 31st, I found that the firstrequired affirmation resulted from a law I wrote after the Material Service bribery scheme:
“Bribery. Grantee certifies that it has not been convicted of bribery or attempting to bribe an officer or employee of the State of Illinois, nor made an admission of guilt of such conduct which is a matter of record.”
When Jim Thompson was U.S. Attorney he cut a sweetheart deal that may have never been replicated.
He granted “corporate immunity” for the company.
But there was no conviction.
There was however, an admission of guilt that Material Service had bribed state official(s).
Chicago Republican Ron Stearny introduced a bill that would prohibit companies from getting state contracts if it had been convicted of bribery.
I read the text, went up to him and asked why he had introduced the bill.
He told me it was because some of his friends had been convicted in the Material Service trial ere Lester Crown, the firms President admitted he had bribed legislators to increase the wright limit on concrete trucks.
He gave $8,000 of his personal funds to a $50,000 industry political slush fund, intended for a group of legislators in the Illinois General Assembly to smooth the passage of the bill, the New York Times reported.
I then suggested he add the “admission of guilt” language and became a co-sponsor.
My memory may fail me, but I think he was off the Floor when the bill was called for a final vote.
Hence, this codicil is in every Illinois governmental contract.
Image my surprise while driving along the Tri-State in 1982 when I was running for State Comptroller and saw a Material Service concrete truck at the reconstruction.
“How could that be?” I wondered.
When I did the research I found an Attorney General’s Opinion that said the delivery was not covered by my law based on a Mississippi opinion saying “material” delivery was exempted form some law down there.
This was rendered when Bill Scott was Attorney General and was the kinkiest thing I thought he did (even considering his bribery conviction when U.S. Attorney Jim Thompson was trying to get rid of his potential primary opponents for the GOP nomination for Governor).
As a add-on, when the Federal government used Lester Crown’s admission of guilt to deny him Top Secret clearance which he was President of General Dynamics, Mike Lawrence of Lee Newspapers discovered that Thompson gave Crown a glowing recommendation in that Secret Clearance attempt.
And my efforts in subsequent legislation (an amendment to the Transportation Department appropriation bill) led to a Mike Royko column.
It praised me for its content–requiring a weight station to be built on Route 62 in Barrington Hills.
Alexander McArthur was Village President and I knew it would make it happen.
The column also called me “an honest young politician,” a quote I used in my first tabloid mailing in 1992.
When an opponent challenged my accuracy, my campaign manager Gary Prindle called Royko’s office and told him the column date.
Royko replied, “Well, I guess I did.”
The Senate striped my amendment from the bill, however.
The $181,000 grant is for DUI Court.
= = = = =
There is a second DUI Court grant from IDOT’s Federal fund for $250,000.
I didn’t take the time to figure out why there are two grants.
