By Steve Rhodes
1. It’s not reform when Illinois politicians pass it.
2. The Political Odds have now been recalculated.
3. “There is no indication that former city Comptroller Amer Ahmad, who faces public corruption charges in Ohio, engaged in any wrongdoing at City Hall, according to a legal review released Tuesday by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration,” the Tribune reports.
“The review did find that Ahmad failed to recuse himself from some pension fund votes involving a financial firm that had city business while he was actively seeking a job with the firm, but it concluded there was no harm to the city.”
Um, there may not have been harm to the city but I’d classify that as wrongdoing.
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“The report also addressed some of the questions raised by Tribune reports about Scott’s ties to Ahmad.
“The Tribune has reported that Ahmad signed off on a contract that led to $165,000 in bond fees for Scott’s former firm, Scott Balice Strategies, when he served as Ohio’s deputy treasurer and she was in the private sector. After Scott started as Emanuel’s CFO, she selected a firm that employed Ahmad’s onetime boss, former Ohio Treasurer Kevin Boyce, for hundreds of thousands of dollars in city bond work.
“Ahmad and Scott said the former comptroller was not involved in any decision-making related to bond deals, the review said, but Ahmad acknowledged he was copied on e-mails from Boyce to Scott.
“Those e-mails, and others related to the report, could not be reviewed Tuesday, because the Emanuel administration declined to make them available. Asked to provide recordings or transcripts of the interviews of Scott and others, Patton and a Drinker attorney said there were none – only lawyers’ notes they declined to provide.”
So, in other words, the Emanuel administration failed to provide the documentation it gathered to back up its claim that Lois Scott did nothing wrong. They have the documentation, but they don’t want anyone to see it. Which invalidates their claim.
Rewritten:
The Emanuel administration on Tuesday released a report clearing the mayor’s chief financial officer of wrongdoing in her dealings with the city’s indicted former comptroller, but refused to release the e-mails those two shared that they say backs up that claim.
The administration also said that interviews done for the internal investigation were not recorded and therefore no transcripts were available. Lawyers took notes during their interviews, but officials would not release those either.
In other words, an administration short on credibility is asking everyone to simply trust them when they say their review turned up no wrongdoing.
That claim, however, is at odds with the acknowledgement that the comptroller, Amer Ahmad, failed to recuse himself from some pension fund votes involving a financial firm that had city business while he was actively seeking a job with the firm.
After all, the refusal to release the e-mails is really the biggest part of this story, not the administration’s claim that no harm was done.
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The Tribune was able to obtain a previous set of e-mails from the Ohio treasurer’s office through a Freedom of Information Act request.
4. Twista Is Back, The Orwells Are Here & Chief Keef Is Gone.
In our Local Music Notebook.
5. Get Ball.
In Fantasy Fix.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Recalculating reform.
Posted on December 4, 2013