Anatomy of a scumbag -OR- Small Town Charm

I present a case study. How pay to play works. How being the one who makes the rules often allows wide latitude when it comes to actually following said rules and, well, the seedy side of seedy pols.

I've mentioned before that I live in a small town. An inner ring suburb of Chicago. (pop. 15,000) Crook County, Illinois. Living here, having eyes, ears and rudimentary thinking skills gives you a pretty clear understanding of right and wrong. It's also a PhD level education in the litany of abuses that can be promulgated by connecting to power. There are a million stories of corruption, dirty-dealing, arrogance, favoritism, nepotism, licentiousness, graft, greed and ignorance in and around the Windy City. This is one suitable for COPS, Comedy Central or the Twilight Zone. It's petty, it's sordid, it's one hand washing the other.

The names have been changed... because that's the only thing that ever changes, so it matters little.

We have a local government. (Of the sort which spawned Sarah Palin and likely eerily similar to the one at your local town hall.) A mayor and four commissioners set policy, public services and spending. They approve business licenses, attend ground breakings and civic events. Their real function is to meet twice monthly to pay the bills. The rest is largely ceremonial. The current majority is a 4-1 affair. The outcome of the last mayoral election would have been reversed if 50 people had opted for the other guy instead of the incumbent whose reign has now reached 10 years.

Being a small town, the players, movers, shakers and troublemakers are known to many. Being a bedroom suburb of Chicago also means we have a preponderance of people who live here because (shrug)everybody has to live somewhere. Not exactly a renowned destination community, although prior to the recent housing downturn, we were cited as an up and coming place enjoying a renaissance. Trendy shoppes and eateries, good buzz, tear downs, New, vintage looking, upscale homes replacing tiny bungalows...
Boomtown.

That's probably more than you need to know for the purposes of this case. It's provided as context for this and likely other missives involving small town charm smarm.

Synopsis:
An elected official, lets call him unindicted public official Q, buys a house. It's a solid home on a quiet street, next to a church, close to the main drag. The house is vintage which means it was built approx. 100 years ago and over the years had routine improvements, repair and adequate maintenance. By today's standards, it's a small house so before Q moves in he decides to do a little expanding. Being an elected official, he knows the rules. He knows who to call. He knows stuff...

Exhibits A-C






Local property taxes support operations of 17 entities. Property values are determined and adjusted based on selling price and subsequent improvements. Taxes are determined by the spending habits of the various entities. Property taxes are a funny thing in Crook County. Lacking rhyme or reason. Capricious and sometimes flawed. The flaws are so vast as to be uncorrectable without starting over from scratch. One of the ways to lessen one's tax burden is to fudge the cost of improvements. If you add a wing to your home, but fill out paperwork that indicates only minor repairs... you probably won't get caught the same tax increase as someone who plays by the rules and discloses everything. Life is not fair. Sometimes, with a little wiggling, it can be not fair in your favor.

One would think that an elected official would have to avoid any appearance of playing in the margins, let alone outside of the rules, but that too isn't always the case. When it's you who ultimately decides what is and isn't kosher, you can approve of yourself. If you're in the majority... wrong can be right, up can be down, yours can be mine and I can rain multitudes of crap down on anyone who dares speak agin me. Regardless...

The permit approves a new roof, new siding, new windows and repair of the existing dormers. Cost of improvements $24,500. Total cost of permit: $120. The application clearly states that plans and a plat of survey must accompany the application. The current majority have been very adamant that these rules are firm except when they aren't. For certain people and developers, fast-tracking, short-cuts and finagles have been allowed.

Here is the submitted "plan". Though there is some confusion as to when these scrawls were appended to the application.


No survey, no copies of contracts, no measured drawings. No big deal. After all it's just windows, siding and roof. Only $25K worth of work which anyone who's had work done knows is peanuts.

Down the street from this house lives one of those community organizers. They founded a citizens' group 9 years ago in response to a perceived lack of input and oversight on behalf of the taxpayers. (i.e. a spending spree that drained reserves and amassed a sizable deficit along with greatly enlarged debt.) The neighbors notice the work underway, notices and reads the permit and wonders what the deal is.
They takes pictures of the project and forward them to the proper authorities as well as posting them on a local public computer forum to ask if perhaps the work exceeds the stated project.

The official response? Q signs a trespassing complaint against the do-gooder buttinski and posts, after the fact, NO TRESSPASSING signs on the house and lot.



Surely, having been caught, Q would be forced to own up to his poor choices. Nay! Because he's a good guy, the building department scurries to fill the gaps and approve the work that was done without permission. But it gets better. A special meeting is scheduled of the recently created zoning administrator hearings process wherein the Department Head can adjudicate transgressions, settle issues and right wrongs done by scofflaws and violators. Except that in this case, the only item on the agenda is lack of adequate side yard setback of the existing structure which is summarily approved due to its pre-existing status. Total time: 12 minutes.

Questions about exceeding the scope of work and fudged paperwork are ruled out of order since the ONLY germane topic is the sideyard setback. Done and DONE!

In response to outrage by certain vocal citizens, Q speaks out about the whole mess. Q claims to be the victim. While he was out of town, unbeknownst to him, his contractor (who happened to be one of the more active developers in town who'd gotten favorable rulings from the majority) went FAR beyond the plan and did an extreme makeover. And as soon as he realized it he hied himself to the proper people to get his paperwork in order.

Because of the housing downturn, it seems the contractor/developer has skipped town. and his company is in bankruptcy. Q has filed a claim against them for $15,000 after saying that it was the contractor who took it upon himself to GIVE the house a whole new interior.

Local reactions have ranged from outrage to amusement to knowing nods and winks. He got away with it... again. Some suggest that the proper channel for dealing with Q is to vote him out of office in 2011. After all, he won the last election fair and square. That gives him immunity to do as he thinks best. Where is the legal system sworn to uphold and protect the citizenry? They're all tied up with Blago and Burris and unknown, unindicted co-conspirators A-P. Maybe they'll get around to the littler blowholes eventually or more likely will get tied up with bigger fish well into the next millenium.

Ooooh-ooooh that SMELL. Taint ain't what it used to be. The bad guy in this little scene is NOT the arrogant asswipe. It's the whistle-blower! The nosy buttinski who called BULLSHIT is public enemy #1 and should, in the future, just mind his own business! (Which by the way he has been very careful in doing since his EVERY MOVE IS BEING WATCHED)

OY!