Chicago Tribune

June 13, 1999 Sunday,

                                                                                          
DALEY INC.;
PATRONAGE BLOOMS ON FAMILY TREE

BYLINE: By Bob Secter and William Gaines, Tribune Staff Writers.


 

When Richard J. Daley was elected Chicago mayor in 1955, one of his first acts was to hire a police officer who worked on his campaign to run the mayoral security detail.

His new security chief was James P. Daley, a cousin of the mayor’s.

Fast forward to the 1980 election of Richard M. Daley as Cook County state’s attorney and history appeared to repeat. One of his first acts was to hire James P. Daley’s son John as a top administrative aide.

Throughout his climb up the ladder of politics, from legislator to prosecutor to mayor, Richard M. Daley has worked overtime to airbrush away less flattering comparisons to his famous father, the last of the old-time big-city bosses, whose political machine thrived on clout and favoritism.

But when it comes to family, the son has inherited at least one aspect of his late father’s legacy. Despite reforms that have virtually outlawed political patronage, public payrolls in the Chicago area are seeded with dozens of relatives and in-laws of the mayor and his high-powered siblings, according to a Tribune review of public records.

At least 68 workers linked by blood or marriage to the Daley clan have drawn paychecks from the city, county and other public bodies since Richard M. Daley was first elected mayor and became the preeminent political force in Cook County. At least two dozen have been hired since Daley took office.

All but 15 of the 68 remain today. Last year, their combined salaries alone totaled more than $3 million.

If the current mayor strolled through the cubicles of his municipal empire, it could be like a trip across his family tree.

At the Transportation Department, Richard M. Daley might bump into first cousin G. Patrick Green, an $81,468-a-year special assistant. Over at General Services is Green’s wife, a $76,068-a-year projects administrator.

Also at General Services is Cosmo Briatta, paid $82,620 to oversee the politically sensitive sale of city-owned land. Briatta is an in-law of one of Daley’s brothers as well as the husband of one of the mayor’s cousins, who holds her own top-level government job. Mary Daley Briatta is the $82,000-a-year director of Cook County Traffic Court.

Over at the Department on Aging is Karen Zboril, another Daley first cousin added to the payroll as a staff assistant in February 1996 under terms that skirted civil service hiring rules.

At the Water Department, Daley could find enough kin to stage a family reunion. The group includes Richard M. Green–a Daley first cousin promoted during the mayor’s tenure from plumbing inspector to a superintendent in the agency’s largest wing–and Robert Green, another first cousin, who made the leap from caulker to assistant superintendent.

Daley’s muscle extends well beyond city government. He holds de facto control over the parks and schools, handpicked the current president of the Cook County Board and possesses the leverage to sway slatings for judgeships. So it’s hardly surprising that Daley would see familiar faces if he ventured through other public agencies as well.

First cousin Thomas Green can be found at the Park District, where he was recently promoted from area supervisor to special projects manager, a bump that came with a $17,000 raise.

John J. Daley, the cousin who served under Richard Daley at the prosecutor’s office, now is the $74,483-a-year deputy administrator at the county-run Oak Forest Hospital.

“It’s an honor being a Daley,” declared John J. Daley, one of the few members of the Daley family who agreed to talk about their government jobs or family connections.

More typical was the response from Karen Zboril. “I don’t discuss my family with anyone,” she said, slamming down the phone.

Mayor Daley did not respond to several requests for interviews about his relatives.

Since Daley became mayor, at least nine of his first cousins have drawn paychecks from the city or county, and many of them have children and spouses on public payrolls as well.

Many Daley relations began their government careers before he took over City Hall in 1989, but at least a dozen of that group have won promotions since. And at least 24 Daley kin have been hired for public work after he became mayor, 13 of them at City Hall.

The Daley relatives have taken various routes to the public payroll. Some had to pass tests in order to qualify for consideration, and others had to have professional degrees. As in any large family, ties between some relatives were undoubtedly close and others fleeting–if that.

Jobs held by Daley relations run a wide gamut from crossing guard and stenographer to Circuit Court judge. They include top posts in the Water and Transportation Departments, the Park District, the courts and the assessor’s office.

Daley kin are also sprinkled through the Police and Fire Departments, Aviation, Streets and Sanitation, Sewers, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, and the sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s offices.