A current breaking news story in Chicago describes how Mayor Rahm Emanuel used city funds to pay off nonprofits, faith leaders, community activist, and social justice workers “as if those funds were his special personal slush fund.” In the wake of the Laquan McDonald shooting fallout- Rahm Emanuel's effort was coordinated to quiet any opposition that directly resulted with Emanuel trying to turn around all negativity and harm done to his looming political image in the wake of the McDonald shooting and also growing public disapproval ratings—In addition to growing citizen mistrust in the Chicago police stands out amongst other major problems that Rahm tried to quell-which ignited his misuse of public funds.
The activist investigating the issue, seriously question if the local community is aware of the selfish and disturbing use of diverted City of Chicago funds by the Chicago Mayor. The funds in question under normal circumstances should have been used for awarding independent non-profits and civic organizations primarily to better the city through scholarships and city programs.
Issues regarding the mayors “alleged” slush fund were initially brought to limited attention as early 2014 as a study from the taxpayer watchdog group-Good Jobs First found in the last 25 years, $5.5 billion of taxpayer money has gone into TIF accounts, and “much of the city’s TIF revenue was spent on subsidizing corporations, nonprofits and developers.” The amount of money diverted into TIFs has exploded in the last decade, and transparency advocates say under Emanuel, TIF projects have been shrouded in more secrecy than ever. This may potentially be where some of the diverted funds came from. The Chicago City Council’s progressive caucus has estimated that over $200 million in uncommitted funds are sitting in TIF accounts.
In its annual budget, the Emanuel Administration defends using the TIF spreading programs, saying their goal is “promoting business, industrial and residential development in areas of the city that struggled to attract or retain housing, jobs or commercial activity.” The administration further argues the money is needed “for community projects, public improvements and incentives to attract private investment to the area.”
The latter argument has been used by Emanuel to spend hundreds of millions of TIF dollars on whatever the mayor deemed necessary with little to no oversight. Though Emanuel has publicly proclaimed his commitment to transparency, on most occasions audit request or FOIA request obtained from the administration are rejected on grounds that they would require too much staff time to compile and was, therefore, “unduly burdensome.”
“Since the Mayor is being totally transparent about reforming the community, then he needs to be just as transparent about his misuse of community funds," said, Tio Hardiman, President of Violence Interrupters.
Many who understand that the established culture at Chicago City Hall- under Emanuel has long been able to avoid real accountability — and also we should mention Emanuel’s avoidance of sworn depositions — because City Hall bureaucrats, like those in the Chicago Police Department, continue to operate under the unwritten policies protection of policies, practices and legal standards aimed to shield the Mayor from potential harm.
For the record-a consistent pattern and culture of dishonesty has plagued other divisions of the Rahm Emmanuel's administration as well. When in 2012- Then hand-picked by Emanuel, Then CPS Superintendent Byrd-Bennett took a leave of absence in April 2015 after a federal investigation was launched which resulted on Bennett's indictment October 8, 2015, the U.S. Attorney handling the case announced that Byrd-Bennett plead guilty to charges that she set up kickback scheme in which she steered no-bid CPS contracts worth more than $23 million to her former employer.
Emanuel recently made a public admission that his administration went along with a policy to keep facts about police-involved shootings from the public because that has existed for 40 years. Mayor Emanuel then said, “If you want trust … you have to have accountability.”
“I believe our investigation will show, a truly disturbing pattern of abuse and lack of accountability by the Mayor and his associates but this is just the tip of the iceberg.” said, Gregg L Greer, President of Freedom First International, (SCLC).
“All of us will be judged by our actions, and I call on all of us to look inside ourselves and see this moment as a potential to do something that we have talked about and discussed, but for reasons have not actually endeavored to journey on," Emanuel said at the bizarre news conference called before the Laquan McDonald video was made public.
The activist on the ground, plan to hold a press conference Monday October 24,2016 at 9:00 am on the second floor of City Hall which they plan to begin layout their case against the mayor.
Gregg L. Greer a Public Speaker, Minister, Social Activist, and the Editor of the One World internet journal. Greer is the Founder of Freedom First International-if you are interested in interviews from his and others of the brightest minds today, you can email him at oneworldtoday@gmail.com His website is www.gregglgreer.com