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At one point this afternoon, as Cook County board members argued bitterly over spending plans and revenue projections and a proposal to defer a budget amendment, Todd Stroger sat in a chair away from the fray, laughing uncontrollably.
It wasn’t clear to this observer what amused him so much, but the board president had plenty of funny stuff to choose from. The board is required by law to pass a budget this week, which is a big problem. And it’s a big problem for the same reasons Cook County budgets are always a big problem: the money coming in doesn’t cover both the services that have been promised and the salaries of the thousands of people employed to provide them.
Where exactly it all went wrong for Cook County is a matter for great debate, some of which occurred in the meeting this afternoon led by finance committee chairman John Daley. Some commissioners and county officials chalked it up to the waste and poor judgment of other commissioners and county officials. Budget staff blamed Chicago’s professional sports teams, whose recent mediocre performances have led to diminished amusement tax revenues. Commissioner Mike Quigley, meanwhile, intimated that a few of his colleagues had wasted taxpayer money and everyone’s time by attending the “wild weekend in Washington” that is the annual convention of the National Association of Counties. Commissioner Jerry “Iceman” Butler, a soul music legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, challenged Quigley to “find me another song to sing.” When Joseph Moreno called for order, someone demanded to know what he wanted. “I’ll have two tacos and some rice and beans,” he said.
Somewhere in there was a very serious and thoroughly Orwellian conversation about the dismal state of the county’s public health care system. Last year’s budget slashed millions from health programs, and ever since health workers, analysts, and politicians have said the county’s indigent face long, dangerous waits for care from a greatly reduced and demoralized staff. Self-declared reformers on the board have blamed Stroger and his allies for not saving health funding by cutting fat. The Stroger group has cited the health care system in arguing for additional spending and tax hikes.
But today Stroger’s allies and top county officials, including Dr. Robert Simon, chief of the bureau of health services, offered a different take. They didn’t talk as much about the need to spend more to reduce waits and improve care. They said the board needs to spend more to get additional customers and bring in cash.
“Let’s put it this way: if you have 100 physicians and go down to 50 physicians—because of resignations, and partly because of layoffs—those 50 doctors, all of those people they would see obviously can’t be billed,” Simon said. “It’s all easily explained. It’s all logical and simple.”
Commissioner Forrest Claypool said he agreed, though as usual he reframed the point to place the blame directly on his chief foe, Stroger. “The problem we have here is that the board here cannot make this administration manage,” he said. Stroger had failed to put competent people in charge of the health system’s billing and collections, Claypool argued, and his last budget had protected patronage employees instead of needy residents. “There were bad decisions about where we cut last year as opposed to how much we cut, and we’re going to have to change all that this year.”
Simon didn’t respond directly; he just continued the blame game. “The resignations really started [last fall] when the doctors started seeing the stories in the papers about the lack of support for getting dollars this next year,” he said. He didn’t have to point out that Claypool was one of those unsupportive.
From a clinical perspective, "uncontrollably" isn't necessarily indicative of "hysteria" even though they are commonly manifested in tandem. For the latter, a diagnosis on extended observation and testing is warranted. We currently have a ward on this blog however who might shed light on alternative treatments, but presently, a larger study cohort is needed and referrals for trial inclusion are currently being solicited.
".....a larger study cohort is needed and referrals for trial inclusion are currently being solicited."
Wats da gig pay an' wats da percen on da kickback?
The clinical body of knowledge includes cleraly defined and clinically validated evaluation metrics as follows: 1)Cretin, 2)Imbecile, 3)Idiot and 4) Moron.
It is critically important that the differentiating attributes between Idiot and Moron undergo rigorous peer review and concurrence due to the high incidence (+/- f=>24%) of misdiagnosed Cretenism presenting as Moronic or Moronic imitative factors. Further study is indicated and as noted, referrals for ongoing established trials are encouraged.
Every two months Chicago building owners with water meters are sent bills base on reading of the water meter for their building, home or business property. There are two basic types of meters that record water usage. One meter registers the numbers in cubic feet. The other type of meter registers the usage in gallons. Chicago measures water usage in cubic feet. All meters that are ordered, inventoried, supplied to plumbers and plumbing contractors by the City of Chicago to measure their water usage should be registering in cubic feet.
Unfortunately for many Chicago homeowners and building owners the City of Chicago has provided them with water meters that register in gallons. There is a difference. Registration on a gallon meter is 7.14 times as great as the registration on a cubic feet meter. As a result Chicagoans have been routinely charged 7.14 times their actual water usage for at least 12 years. These water meters have been ordered and received by the City of Chicago. They were placed in the inventory of the Meter Shop. They were given to Chicago Area Plumber's and Plumbing Contractors and sent to the street for installation as replacement water meters by City of Chicago Plumbers and Machinists.
This is a typical break down on over charging with the gallon meters:
$1.00 in water usage with a gallon meter is billed $7.14 in cubic feet.
$100.00 in water usage with a gallon meter is billed at $714.00
$1000.00 in water usage with a gallon meter is billed at $7,140.00
$10,000.00 in water usage with a gallon meter is billed at $71,400.00
Not once did the Chicago Water Department Meter Shop take the time to check what they received from the water meter manufacturers that also supply gallon meters to other municipalities. These meters were received without being checked. They were inventoried without being checked. They were dispatched to Plumbers, Plumbing Contractors, and Machinists without being checked. They were installed on new and existing services without being checked. They were sealed with a City of Chicago seal without being checked by the Plumber or Machinist that sealed them. In many cases they were read by Water Meter Readers without suspecting that there were multiple layers of incompetence that would allow gallon meters to be installed on cubic feet services. It should not have been possible for a gallon meter to be installed on a Chicago water service registering water bills at a rate of 7.14 times what they should be. It happened in 1996 and perhaps before. It continues to happen. This is the same Water Department that wants to fire Frank Coconate for sloppy paperwork.
I first became aware of the problem in the 3500 block of north Lincoln Avenue in 1997. I found a water meter in a vault in front of a property. I immediately called my office in the DePaul Center and ask why gallon meters were being installed in meter vaults on my route. The response that I received was: You're crazy. "Nobody would install a gallon meter in Chicago." Although I was not believed the person in the office that would not believe that the word gallon was printed on the top of this meter immediately came to investigate for himself. I was correct. It was the first of many gallon meters found on Chicago Water service lines. Those found were discretely removed and replaced without any Chicago water customer ever receiving a corrected bill to the best of my knowledge. I only know of one property a Laundromat that had a large meter with a 2 inch wide pipe connection that might have received a reimbursement for fraudulent billing. There are hundreds of these meters if not thousands that have been installed either in error or on purpose to bill selected individuals at a higher rate. In either case the City of Chicago has decided to commit fraud and extort money from Chicago Water customers rather than to make reimbursements. Every water meter in the City of Chicago should be checked for the word gallon inside the dial on the face of the water meter and the City of Chicago should do the honorable thing for a change and refund the money over-billed by installing gallon meters plus interest in the case of those that they have already cheated.
Everyone in Chicago that has a water meter should immediately open the cover and look under the glass or in many cases now the plastic to see if the word gallon appears under the numbers. If you find the word gallon take a picture of the meter head and contact me immediately or even better call the Federal Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and the FBI, because you are a victim of the Dirty Dick Daley Mob and one of their planned extortion rackets.
You can not expect the most Corrupt Municipal Government in American History to give you an honest water bill. Remember that these are the same "Good People" that are giving you phony parking tickets, bogus tickets for running red lights that have short amber signals, and the highest sales and gasoline taxes in the country. This is the same Municipal Government that collected money for decades on the Chicago Skyway without the benefit of registration. This is the same Municipal Government that tells restaurant owners how many trees and what kind of trees and how old they have to be before they will provide a building permit to work inside of the restaurant. This is the same administration that purposely flooded the city in the Freight Tunnel Flood and then pretended not to have known about the leak to allow them to commit the greatest case of Insurance Fraud in American History. This is the same Municipal Government that gave you the Hired Truck Scandal, Pervasive Personnel Conspiracy, Minority Contract Fraud, sold a 14 million dollar CTA property for $1 million to a Daley friend, and gave $67 million in Municipal Pension Funds to a Daley nephew to invest paying him $8 million dollars to play with the Pension Funds. Dirty Dick Daley was quick to point out that he did not give his nephew $67 million, that it was the Pension Boards. The people on those boards doing the voting are his insiders or appointments. No this administration can not be expected to be honest and correct the mistakes in their water bills for the common man. Water bill adjustments are made, but they are usually only to reward Daley insiders or for friends, family or personal gain. Alexander Vroustouris the former Inspector General and the Corporation Council’s Office have been aware of this fraud for an entire decade. At the same time that they were aggressively working to cover up criminal activity inside of the administration, including fraud and theft of Municipal funds, the Daley Administration Inspector General Alexander Vroustouris and Corporation Council Marna Mutz, AKA Maura Georges, were also ignoring the fraud taking place to steal additional water revenue from homeowner with gallon meters.
While many people have been paying 7.14 times their water usage other’s such as the Mall on the east side of South Kedzie Avenue in the 5800 block had no water meter or bill for nearly a decade and still might not be paying for water for the stores and restaurants in the north end of the shopping mall. Ask Alexander Vroustouris and Marna Mutz AKA Marua Georges why they covered up this decade long water steal and while allowing manipulation of accounts with the installation of gallon meters with no money refunded to victims of Municipal Fraud.
Best Wishes,
Whistle Blower Jim Osborne
A) The property at 1419 W. Taylor Street was stealing water revenue for more than 30 years and even received more free water after discovery. It should be noted that this property was the first Illinois State Lottery Outlet in 1974 and was already a restaurant stealing water revenue. The food is good, but they have no ice water. They have had only “hot” water for decades.
B) The property at 1446 W. Taylor Street which included the office of 42nd Ward Alderman Burt Natarus and Cook County States Attorney Richard Devine has two buildings and a total of 5 apartments plus the office without a metered water service for decades. Just imagine Burt Natarus washing his hands with stolen water ever day.
C) The Building next door at 1442 W. Taylor Street housing China Nights Restaurant is a similar construction without a metered water service decades.
D) The property at 1546 W. Cortez owned by former Director of Revenue Ernest Wish has no record of a water bill being paid for at least 52 years. Ernie Wish was also State Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Illinois, a principal in the Near North Insurance Agency, Head of the DePaul University Alumni Association and a Chicago City Clerk. The only record found for this property was a line on a 1948 Platt Map when the property was a bread board factory. It is time to pay up Ernie Wish.
E) The restaurant operating out of a former fire station at 1400 S. Wabash received free water for years. It is noted that the restaurant receiving free water in Grant Park is currently run by the same people and friends of the same Daley appointed Commissioner of the Water Department, now Deputy Chief of Staff in the Mayor's Office that participated in targeting you for elimination.
F) The building at 2831-45 N. Broadway has 5 restaurants and a beauty salon and has evaded paying for water service for the entire 25 years since it was built with fraud inside of the Water Department to help them keep from paying the bills. This property oddly enough has the name of Irene Caminer sprinkled throughout the documents eliminating water bills. This is the same attorney Irene Caminer that wanted to exclude your attorney Terry Brunner from attending your hearing. Caminer should have to explain why she has allowed this property to pay no water bills for the last decade that she has been a city attorney. Irene Caminer et. Al. should have to explain why the man that collects the rent, Lou Wolf does not pay for water for this property with 5 restaurants and a beauty salon. Perhaps it is time to take a good look at the other building where Lou Wolf collects the rent and the Chicago Water Department does not collect any money.
G) Chicago Circle Cleaners, the laundry at 1423-31 W. Roosevelt had the property removed from Water Department records from 1986 until 1998. They received free water for 12 years until they were caught. Documents were manipulated inside of water collection to eliminate the account. The owner even filed paperwork to have money returned stipulating that his building had been raised. Of course it is a big building and is still on site. All of the records should be examined by the Federal Attorney for this building.
Chicago citizens deserve a better more honest government than they have. Richard Daley has received numerous Certified Letters informing him of the Theft of Municipal Revenue, Fraud, Racketeering, Obstruction of Justice, and Mail Fraud in his administration. He has ignored his fiduciary duty. These letters are believed to be part of the boxes of documents seized by the Federal Attorney of the Northern District of Illinois from Daley's Office. Unfortunately, little action has occurred except for the firing of Alexander Vroustouris the former Inspector General, Richard Rice the former Commissioner of the Water Department and the resignation of Judith Rice the musical chair playing former Commissioner of the Water Department and appointed City Treasurer that voted to give $67 million in Municipal Pension Funds to Daley's nephew for investing and pay him a million dollars a year to do it. Vroustouris who was dictating falsification of reports to Inspector General Underlings has re-surfaced as a top prosecutor at 26th and California in the office of Cook County States Attorney Richard Devine.
the sun rises in the west
Todd Stroger is a reformer
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
"Sandy
March 7th - 6:51 p.m.
It is 7.48 not 7.14 that you refer to in the article. Check a conversion chart."
And you took the time to post a comment, yet had nothing better to say than this and this is the only point you got out of the posted comment?
Why so brief?
Cat got your tongue?
I posted the article about the Water Department rip off of Chicago Water users originally on Frank Coconate.com
Thanks for picking up the posting on the Reader Blog. I apologize for the error in gallon to metric feet conversion. I took the information on conversion form official Chicago Water Department documents given to me in 1983 for my own personal use. I never checked the accuracy of the documents and as you can see the Chicago Water Department that doesn't know the difference between gallon meters and those measuring in cubic feet also doesn't know the correct measurements. Thank you for proving that The Chicago Water Department is actually stealing more money from water users that I had imagined.
I still have not seen a response from anyone that is being potentially ripped off. I have also not received any response from anyone in the news-media. Please, someone pass it along to Ben Jaworski at the Reader and have him contact me.
Best Wishes,
Jim Osborne
A Dedicated Chicago Whistle Blower