-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
A construction company whose records have been subpoenaed as part of an investigation that also includes Ald. Carrie Austin and a Chicago building inspector has gotten no-bid increases worth $2 million on two city deals to put in noise insulation for homes near O’Hare Airport.
Oakk Construction Co. offered City Hall the lowest price to win two city contracts in 2012 to soundproof 350 homes, according to city records that show the deals were supposed to cost the city a total of about $3.8 million.
Oakk has made millions of dollars under a city program to repair porches and roofs for low-income homeowners. The company and its president, Alex Nitchoff, were named in a grand jury subpoena seeking a wide range of information about them, about other businesses owned by or affiliated with the clout-heavy Nitchoff family and about Austin’s purchase of a new, $236,000 home on the Far South Side with a $231,000 loan guaranteed by the federal government, the Sun-Times has reported.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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